Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2962
“For this is as the waters of Noah unto Me; for as Ihave sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be angry with you, nor rebuke you.” Isaiah 54:9.
THERE are some people in the world who, the moment we begin to speak of a type, try to disparage that style of speech by calling it “spiritualizing.” They seem to be far too wise to be able to learn anything by that mode of teaching. Yet the Holy Spirit has given us, in the Old and New Testaments, abundant instances of spiritualizing and, though He could have used new metaphors and fresh phrases in His Infinite Wisdom, He preferred to use the old historical allusions and the old historical types for the instruction of God’s people. It is a pity that we should crave that which is new when it can truly be said, “the old is better.” In the case before us, the Holy Spirit uses Noah’s flood and the Lord’s Covenant— that it should no more return to destroy the earth—as symbolical of the Covenant of Grace which is made with the people of God in Christ Jesus. Surely He did this for our instruction! Oh, that He would shine upon the Word and make it to be both for our edification and our comfort! His Divine Treasure House is full of blessings, but He must give us the key or we shall not to able to enter. Open it, blessed Spirit, to all Your believing people!
There are two things in our text for us to consider. The first is that there are, in Noah and the Flood, and the Covenant, many symbols illustrating the Covenant of Grace. And the second is that there is one main symbol here which was certainly intended first and chiefly, whether the rest were intended or not. On that main point I hope to speak at some length.
I. But, first, IN NOAH, THE FLOOD AND THE COVENANT, THERE ARE MANY SYMBOLS ILLUSTRATING THE COVENANT OF GRACE.
First, Noah’s name signified, “rest.”We know where our rest is to be found and who is our Noah. Of our Lord Jesus Christ, we can truly say, “He is our peace.” It is through Him that “the peace of God, which passes all understanding,” keeps our heart and mind at rest evermore. We rest in Him and nowhere else. Did He not say, “Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”? And has He not fulfilled His promise?
Further, Noah, in a time of general corruption, was the only man who was found righteous before God. If you turn to the Book of Genesis, at your leisure, you will see that “the wickedness of man was great in the earth.” But you will also read that “Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.” It is also written that “Noah found grace (or favor) in the eyes of the Lord.” Noah was, in his day, the one man who was told to prepare a hiding place from the storm and a refuge from the tempest. Noah’s ark was the one place of refuge for our race in which eight persons wore preserved, or, otherwise, the whole race would have been destroyed!
Now, we know that Jesus Christ is pre-eminently the one lone Man of the human race whose perfect righteousness has given God infinite delight. When all the rest of mankind had gone astray like lost sheep, He walked with God. Here upon earth He was found, tempted, but never sinning. He was compassed with infirmity, but never transgressing—the one Man upon whom God could look with complacency as the type of what the race ought to have been. He could not look thus on the first Adam, for, when He looked upon him, He cursed the ground for his sake. The blessing came through the Second Adam, upon whom the Lord always looks with joy, and for whose sake He blesses all those who are in Him. If I might call Noah the second father of the human race—and I might properly do so—I might with still
greater propriety call Jesus the Second Father of the ever-living race—the race that is quickened into newness of life by the power of the Holy Spirit!
Again, Noah, thus standing out in solitary grandeur, as a type of the lone Redeemer, was a preacher of righteousness and therein, also, he was a type of our Lord Jesus, for never did any mere man preach righteousness as He did, for He not only preached it—He created it! We must not forget that Noah preached righteousness in vain, for no one except the members of his own family would believe his testimony. In this respect, also, he was a type and symbol of Him who was to come. The cry of Jesus and of His faithful servants in all ages has been, “Who has believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?”
But that wondrous man, Noah, was also a builder. Probably all that he had of worldly abundance and wealth went into that strange ark in which the survivors from the deluge were to be preserved. And you know how our blessed Master gave all that He had in order that He might build a spiritual Church out of which the new world should be peopled. He laid down His life that He might be the Redeemer of His chosen race, and He still lives to be the great Master-Builder of His Church.