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[0:00] But there's good, there's love, there's hope in this story. We're going to see it. Because in the backdrop before the flood, it represents a dark cloth in Genesis 6.

[0:30] Follow along in your Bibles with your eyes as I read God's Word, Genesis 6, verses 1 through 8. It says this, When man began to multiply on the face of the land, the daughters were born to them.

[0:41] The sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. They took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, My spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh.

[0:54] His days shall be 120 years. The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came into the daughters of man.

[1:05] They bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

[1:24] And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things, birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.

[1:41] But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. So here's the theme I'd like to propose to you this morning from this text, these simple verses, verses 1 through 8. It's this, In the rising tides of evil, hold fast to God's favor.

[1:55] The rising tides of evil, hold fast to God's favor. And we're going to look for the first two points. There's three points in our text here.

[2:08] I'd like to draw to your attention. But the first two points, we're going to look at some high water marks, the tides of evil. The tides are rising before the flood. The tides of the influence and the inevitability of sinfulness and evil in the world.

[2:23] Those tides rise. And along the way, we're going to see high water marks. We're going to see those marks starting with verses 1 through 4, that there were giants. There were giants.

[2:35] That's the first high water mark of the spread, of the contagion of evil in the world. First, this is quite a point to consider, that in Moses' telling of this account before the flood, Moses writing these words, he brings to mind the fact that there were giants in the land, actual giants.

[2:56] These are the kind that we don't have a context to understand exactly what these giants were like. Scripture gives us a sense of them at different points. We read of, obviously, the famous Goliath of Gath, right?

[3:08] Whom King David slew with a stone drawn from the river Jordan. You remember that story, a Goliath being nine cubits, or nine, about nine and a half feet tall. We are told.

[3:20] He was a giant. Now, whether these giants that Moses describes here in verses 1 through 8, whether these were of the same stature, we don't know. But we can tell you that they were evil.

[3:32] They were bringing about corruption in the world. And I certainly wouldn't want to mess around with them. And I'm glad I've not seen one in our parts. Right? Amen? Because you know things are getting bad when there are evil giants roaming the land.

[3:47] And these are actual beings. This is not a moral fable or some tale, some mythological thing that's being described. No, this is true.

[3:58] There's a reality that's being described by Moses here. And Numbers chapter 13 gives us an idea of these giants. And this is, if you remember the story in Numbers chapter 13, you read again of Caleb, his words to Joshua and to the Israelites, giving a report of what was going on in the land of Israel before they invaded it.

[4:18] In verses 33 of Numbers 13, we hear this description of these giants in the land. He says, And we seem to ourselves like grasshoppers. And so we seemed to them.

[4:32] So these wicked giants were making Caleb and the spies to feel like grasshoppers. Now, what's the point of all this?

[4:43] Well, I think it's important for us to situate Genesis 6, 1 through 8, in the context of what's going on. Genesis chapter 5, if you review, rewind tape a little bit here, Genesis 5 features a genealogy.

[4:57] Genealogies aren't generally the most exciting parts of Scripture, but they are absolutely critical. God is making a very clear point to us. And in Genesis chapter 5, it's the line of Seth.

[5:09] Seth being the son of Adam. And it is God's choice and decision. He decided, out of love and mercy to the world and to sinners, that through the line of Seth would be descended a Savior who would crush the serpent's head.

[5:25] But that Savior would not come for many thousands upon thousands upon thousands of years. So that's Genesis 5, is the line of Seth that's chronicled for us, where God shows us that the line that will lead to salvation has begun.

[5:42] The fuse of God's grace has been lit. And it's going to come one day, as we now know, that through the Lord Jesus Christ, was born by a virgin, right? Born to a virgin.

[5:54] Conceived by the Holy Spirit. That He would slay the giants. He would come to conquer the devil Himself. And He would bear our sin upon Him, upon His soul, for our sakes.

[6:09] That that would be the fruition of what Genesis 5, and all that God promised in Genesis 3, that there would be a Savior who would crush the head of the devil. But here, Genesis 5, flowing into Genesis 6, we are now introduced to the people outside of the line of Seth.

[6:26] It's almost like the question is natural. Well, what about the rest of the world? We see that God is flowing His grace through this line of descendants of Seth, all the way down to Noah.

[6:37] But what about the rest of the world outside of the line of Seth? And that's naturally the answer that's being provided for us in these opening verses, verses 1-8. It's we get to look outside.

[6:49] What's really going on? What's going on around the world? And the first thing we're noted here, the first thing we're noted, shown is that there were giants. These giants have filled the world all the more with wickedness.

[7:05] And these aren't the kind of giants that we might read or see in mythological things that have happy tones or maybe do good things. These are evil, wicked, corrupt creatures.

[7:16] Humans, likely, some supernatural breeding going on. We'll get to that in a few moments. But there's some serious problems as a result of these giants being in the world.

[7:28] And they're one of the high watermarks, again, of the evil, the contagion of sin in the world that Moses shows us. Things were getting really bad. How bad? There were giants. There were giants in the world.

[7:41] Verse 2, we're showing this clear picture of something sinister. I'm going to read verse 2 for you. It says, This brings up a question.

[7:59] Who are these sons of God? What's going on here? What is Moses describing? I don't know we can exactly nail down what's going on. I can say this for sure, that it was sinister.

[8:11] It's ominous. It's only adding to the contagion of sin in the world. It's like someone picked up a large fan, turned it on, and it's spreading the evil, the contagion, the virus of sin, even further and deeper in more profound ways, penetrating every layer of society.

[8:30] And here is one of those fans doing that work. It's that these sons of God were taking daughters of man to themselves and bearing children with the daughters of man.

[8:43] So there's a lot of questions we have about this moment. Why is this moment, what Moses is saying in verse 2, a moment of unspeakable evil? What makes this an evil moment?

[8:54] Well, I think there are ways to interpret this that could be clear. And there's ways to interpret this that certainly could go in many directions. And I want to be careful as I wade into, as I'm sure Lyndon, as he preached this text a year ago.

[9:07] We want to be careful to only stay within the bounds of what Scripture tells us. It doesn't give us a lot of information here, right? We need to take what is clear in the Bible to help us interpret what is unclear, right?

[9:19] We can't go out on a limb if the Bible doesn't provide a limb for us. We need to stay within the Scriptures. And that's important to note here because there are many obscure things that we'll find in the Bible that we might be tempted to go out on the limb and speculate and think, ooh, could this be?

[9:39] And you fill in the blank. Oh, this is not a moment I want to fill in a blank with you where the Bible doesn't provide us with that information. But I want to give you some, hopefully some guiding, guideposts here along the way of understanding better what it could be in a biblical way, in a way that reflects and honors the whole of Scripture.

[9:55] So two options I'm going to provide you for the sake of time. There are many options, but two primary options come to my mind. The first one, to understand the sons of God, simply that these were rulers in the world.

[10:07] These were kings. These were men of power in the world. So a son of God would have been a title that would have been employed in the ancient times for ancient kings. An ancient king would have believed himself to be a son of God.

[10:20] Certainly even David himself would have called himself, in Psalm 82, a son of God. And it's true that they representing the authority of God in the world, even as Paul would reflect in Romans 13, that these are agents of God.

[10:36] The government is bearing the sword of God, working on behalf of God in the world to maintain law and order, right? So they are considered to be sons of God.

[10:46] And that's one option, is to describe or to say that these sons of God were simply kings. But these kings were doing something nefarious. They were taking the daughters of men to themselves. In other words, they're basically taking over the institution of marriage, taking it over completely, where it's becoming this self-absorbed, really despicable activity of taking their human power and oppressing and seizing, and really in certain ways interrupting and further corrupting society by their influence and their power through marriage.

[11:20] So that's the first option. Again, that's a real quick, I don't have time to spend much on these options. The second option is that these sons of God in verse 2 and beyond in this chapter are spiritual beings, fallen angels, demons that have come to earth seeking to take up unlawful and wicked crossbreeding with human women.

[11:42] And this is a view, interestingly enough, that the church has held since very early times. The earliest of times, this has been one way in which the church has understood this text.

[11:53] It's this supernatural view of these sons of God that even though it seems fantastical, I think it does have merit, just as the first one has merit. And in fact, I would say if there's any sense of being fantastical, how many times in the Bible are we going to bump up against fantastical moments?

[12:12] I mean, the fact that Jesus Christ rose from the grave ought to give us pause, right? That God is able to do entirely mind-blowing things. And same with the demons and spiritual beings.

[12:24] They can do things that we do not yet understand. And I think Gordon Wenham in his commentary on Genesis has a helpful word for us. If the modern reader finds this story, talking about the sons of God being demons, if they find this story incredible, that reflects a materialism that tends to doubt the existence of spirits, good or ill.

[12:44] But those who believe that the creator could unite himself to human nature in the virgin's womb will not find this story intrinsically beyond belief. I think it's a helpful word for us in our temptation to dismiss supernatural realities because they do not accord with our way of sight, because they don't resonate with our thoughts of how the world ought to be or our scientific mind might conceive it to be.

[13:10] But I think this view does consider there are somehow demons or spiritual beings that are interfering with human reproductivity. They're bearing supernatural children.

[13:21] And in verse 4, we're also introduced to the Nephilim, which is a Hebrew word that's often translated for giants. So it seems that, according to Moses in this option, in this view on the sons of God, that the Nephilim are the offspring, likely, of these supernatural unions between spirit demons or spiritual beings with humans.

[13:44] These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown, Moses tells us about the Nephilim in verse 4. And that doesn't mean that these were like the ancient Hercules to be celebrated.

[13:55] No, again, remember, we're talking about what are the high watermarks of the contagion of sin and evil in the world. That these men of renown, these mighty men were on the earth doing evil, things, using their power, their influence for evil, for wicked, to counter all that is true and holy.

[14:13] So Moses is, again, telling us, showing us, quite simply, that the sons of God and the Nephilim, whatever their identity might have been, it's without, we don't know for sure, but whatever their identity might have been, there are exhibits A and exhibits B of this high mark of sin, of how bad things have become in the world.

[14:34] So human sinfulness and supernatural evils had greatly succeeded in increasing depravity to flooding status. The rising tides of evil in the ancient time.

[14:47] This is the evidence of it. So what is God's response to this? How does God respond in this moment to these realities in the ancient world?

[14:59] Well, we read it here in verse 3. Look with me. Verse 3, God decrees these words in verse 3. The Lord said, My spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh.

[15:10] His days shall be 120 years. So God, in response to this rising tide of evil, He says, He brings us into His inner thought here.

[15:22] It's quite a thought, quite a remarkable moment that God is giving us His thinking. What does He think about all this? He says, My spirit shall not abide, but I will remove the length of days from His experience.

[15:35] Because again, rewind tape back to Genesis 5. You'll read the line of Seth. They're living 900 years. In the case of Methuselah, he lived 969 years.

[15:47] And think about all the potential of human sinfulness and corruption if mankind, with these evils and corruptions going on, if they continue to live on for 900 some years, how much more damage?

[16:01] How much more would the world have imploded if mankind was permitted to live under these conditions using evil and sin as they were? So the Lord said, I will no longer allow mankind to live the length of days that He did.

[16:16] So God steps in. God removes this lifespan of mankind. And now we're limited to 120 years. And even further, Moses, the same Moses who writes these words in Genesis 6, we read in Psalm 90, the very famous words of Moses.

[16:35] This is the psalm, the one psalm, the one psalm that Moses wrote is Psalm 90. And this is what he has to say about the length of our days today. He says, the years of our life are 70, or even by reason of strength 80.

[16:49] Yet their span is but toil and trouble. They are soon gone, and we fly away. So Moses, even further noting here in Psalm 90 that God has done something.

[17:00] He's put a cap, a limiter, he's put a governor over the length of days to 70, if by strength 80. It's a church indeed that the death we need to look to that's ahead of us, that's inevitable.

[17:15] That death is an enemy of our body. It will end our mortal lives here on earth, but as the scriptures also show us, though death might take away our mortal body, it cannot touch the soul.

[17:32] It cannot touch your soul. Death cannot touch your soul. For those who are in Christ, the promise that God has for us is that we must be like our great Savior in every way, that we will be made into his likeness.

[17:46] Just as Jesus Christ died on the cross, faced a mortal death, being tortured and died. And then he rose again on the third day.

[17:57] So we as believers, those who are in Christ, who are born of the Holy Spirit, who have trusted in Jesus, have repented of their sin, who belong to God, body and soul, they will also go as Jesus went.

[18:11] They will die. We will die. Unless the Lord returns before our death, which I pray, by the way, would be very soon. Because wouldn't that be nice to skip the mortal enemy?

[18:25] Wouldn't that be nice that our lifetime, that today might be the day that Jesus Christ breaks open the skies, comes down, and calls us to his own that we bypass the grave.

[18:38] And that will be a gift to some blessed few who are living on the day that Jesus returns, who love him and long for his appearing.

[18:50] May it be. Come, Lord Jesus. That's why we should pray, come quickly, Lord. Come. Come quickly. Even so. Amen. So I pray that myself.

[19:02] And I ask you to do the same. But for the believer, we must follow Jesus into death and we also will rise. Our bodies have been promised. Though our bodies die, Jesus' body also died.

[19:14] And his rose again. And he promises that we also will see the resurrection. So instead of being afraid of dying, the believer must understand that our mortal death is but a dressing room for glory for the believer.

[19:31] For those who trust Christ, when I die, I am exchanging mortality for immortality. I am losing my sin nature. It goes into the grave with my dead body.

[19:43] and I become perfected by the grace and the power of Jesus Christ and my soul goes to be with the Lord and longs for the day where my body will be raised fresh and new and perfect in glory and reunited on that glorious day on the resurrection of the dead.

[20:00] We long for that day. So for the believer, we must not fear dying. But for the unbeliever, I would suggest that you should be very afraid of dying. that if you have not trusted in Jesus Christ, if you do not know the risen Savior in faith, if you have not repented of your sins before God, if you do not see that you need a Savior, you have much to fear in death because your death, it does result not only in the death of your mortal body, but your soul will enter into eternal death.

[20:33] You will die again and again in the hands of judgment. You will live on forever in death. So for the unbeliever, you must fear being afraid.

[20:44] Be afraid of death. So in the rising tides of evil, hold fast to God's favor. And I would call you if you do not know Christ, rush to Jesus.

[20:56] Run! Run like a child who heard of a lightning bolt strike nearby. Where do they go? They run to mom and to dad for safety. Would you run to Jesus?

[21:07] Call on his name. Repent of your sin. Receive him. So in the rising tides of evil, hold fast to God's favor. Let's move on to the second high water mark before the flood. So the first mark was there's giants, these sons of God, this Nephilim.

[21:22] Now in verses 5-7, we're going to see that the second water mark before the flood is there was widespread wickedness. It's here in verses 5-7 that we see humans in their sinfulness.

[21:33] We're in full and disgusting flower. Back in Genesis 3, we saw the very beginning, the bud, the very bud and the beginning of life as sinful people being infected.

[21:49] The young saplings of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3 were infected with sin. But here now, by Genesis 6, we see the full-blown harvest.

[22:02] maybe in Genesis 4, it's almost like in Genesis 3, you have the young saplings. In Genesis 4, you can see the first branches springing forth of the influence and the contagion of sin.

[22:13] But now, it's harvest time. The fruit is ripe and it's not a sweet fruit. It's a bitter, evil fruit. During this time, before the flood, the depraved nature of mankind was in full expression.

[22:28] Consider the darkness of these words of judgment. But verse 5, look with me. God says this, The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

[22:44] There's so much to be said about this verse, Genesis 6, verse 5. But just note the way that Moses describes just how bad our sin nature had become in that time before the flood.

[22:58] the wickedness was great. The wickedness of man was great. It was every intention of his heart. Not just some intentions, not just a smattering here or there.

[23:09] No, it's every intention. He shot through. Mankind, every intention is only evil continually. It's like a spring that keeps bubbling forth evil continually.

[23:24] continually. But it's not fresh water. It's raw sewage. And it just keeps pumping. It just keeps going. That is how the Lord looks upon mankind. The wickedness of man was great in the earth.

[23:37] That every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. So this is the deepest low that mankind had steeped ever before in Genesis 6.

[23:48] we see the depravity had become total. We see and realize that it had become fullest in its expression. Every thought, every intention only evil continually.

[24:02] Mankind in the world of evil was rotten to the core and it was irredeemable. At this point in history it was irredeemable except we'll see in the third point this morning in a few moments there was one man whom God protected.

[24:18] who preserved he and his family. So the question I have for you is this depth of depravity that's described here in Genesis 6. Does this apply to today? To you and me?

[24:28] To the world we live in today? Would God see the world and mankind as it is today and say that this man this mankind is only evil in every intention of his heart?

[24:40] Only evil continually? Is that the description? Well I think in one sense the answer is yes. Because I believe it's entirely biblical and this we would find in Romans chapter 3.

[24:53] You know these verses well. None is righteous. No, not one. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Right? All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless.

[25:04] No one does good. Not even one. That's not Moses talking. That's the apostle Paul talking. The New Testament. Right? Post flood. a long time after the flood.

[25:17] The time of the apostles. That's thousands of years before us. But yes, I think in one sense it is right and true to say that mankind is depraved in every possible way.

[25:31] That's the bad news that the Bible does not get squeamish about telling us. The Bible is not going to hold back words.

[25:41] It's not going to hold or mince words about just how evil is mankind. And yes, this is sobering news for us that we are depraved in every possible way.

[25:53] But I would say in a different sense, Genesis 6 was unique. Because today, think about it, here we are, God's people. And who dwells in the hearts of God's people?

[26:08] Jesus, by the faith, by the Holy Spirit that God has placed in our hearts, we have the Spirit. And what does Jesus say about the church? That we are both light and salt.

[26:21] Genesis 6, before the flood, there was no salt in the earth. It was like a rotting carcass in the full heat of day. There was no salt or preservative going on in those times.

[26:32] But today, by the grace and the sheer mercy and the patience of God, that He has you and me in the world, salt and light to bring about the very preservative of mercy to the world.

[26:45] That God's patience is in and through us being exhibited day after day, keeping the meat from rotting further still in one sense. Or give out to a certain limit.

[26:56] It's different. We're living in a different time than before the flood. But we remain depraved. We are depraved and fallen in every possible way. And this is the doctrine of total depravity.

[27:09] Right? It doesn't mean that we're as sinful as we could be. I think that was the case in Genesis 6, that mankind had literally hit the ceiling and broke and down came the rains of God's wrath.

[27:22] But today, today we are totally depraved. Absolutely. We are sinning in any possible way. And I don't necessarily mean just as believers. By the grace of God, again, we have the Holy Spirit who restrains us from evil and causes us, changes our spiritual DNA that we hunger and thirst for righteousness.

[27:43] For those who belong to Jesus, they love to do good works. They love to serve the Lord. They love God's word. They love to love God's people. They love to gather and worship.

[27:53] They love to give. They love to serve. They love to share Jesus Christ with their neighbors who are in darkness. You love God and you love to do what is right. So that is by the power and the grace of the Spirit dwelling inside of you, enabling you to say yes to righteousness and to say no to sin and to repent whenever you do fall into sin.

[28:17] So we're living a very different experience than what happened there in Genesis 6. For the Lord kept Noah and the Lord keeps us.

[28:28] And to God be the glory for that. And then further God's response brief there in verses 6 and 7 that God describes again his inner thoughts about mankind.

[28:39] That things have gotten so low, this high watermark of the depravity of mankind, it now grieved his heart to the very core of who God is. It says it grieved him to his heart the status of the world.

[28:58] How low we had slunk in our sin. God says, I am sorry that I have made them. Verse 7. And so he decides there and then.

[29:08] And we know that this is something God did not do lightly. And if there was a chance for a nation to have been saved or any number of people to have been saved simply because they were trusting the Lord, he would have spared them as well.

[29:23] But there were none, absolutely none, except Noah and his family. And that's this different story for a different day. So God regretted that he had made man and so he plans for the destruction of the world.

[29:38] So when the rising tides of evil hold fast to God's favor because we need favor right now. Oh Lord, give us favor. In the light of such bad news about the life we live in this world, about our own hearts being tempted only every moment by evil continually, the Lord help us to see favor.

[29:59] So that brings us to verse 8 and to our third point where there's now a turn in the story. We're now given the hope of the gospel in a very simple way in verse 8 where I'll read it for you.

[30:14] It says this, very simple words, but Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. We have surveyed the great darkness and the judgment that is coming to the pre-flood world in verses 1-7 and verse 8.

[30:31] Here we get to hold the gleaming jewel of God's favor, the grace that sinners do not deserve and the grace that God in his great love was pleased to give to Noah.

[30:45] And we see that in this very simple phrase, two words, but Noah. I praise God that those words were written by Moses, that that was the reality.

[30:58] Because if it was not for those two simple words, but Noah, the Bible would have ended. God would have closed the book at verse 7. Do you realize that?

[31:10] That God would have regretted what he had done in making mankind and that he would follow through on his promise for coming judgment and the end of the world, the end of mankind would have gone forward and there would have been no survivors and every human who perished in that flood would have fully deserved the full wrath of God in that flood.

[31:32] And there's the end of the book. Verse 7, God would have closed the record of his redemptive work. He said, enough is enough.

[31:42] I gave them enough. I gave them all the rope they could handle and they hung themselves with it. But praise the Lord. Verse 8 contains two simple words where we see the favor, the undeserved favor and grace of God through Jesus Christ.

[31:59] But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. God had different plans. God preserved one man and through that one man, you and I sit here in this very room on this very day because God preserved Noah.

[32:22] But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Now consider, this is not because Noah was some super special spiritual guru.

[32:35] No, he was not the Elon Musk of faith. No, he was not some ninja who had it all figured out. Noah. No, we will read further if you would go further in the book of Genesis.

[32:48] You will read of Noah becoming a drunkard, giving himself over to sin. After all that God did for Noah and his family, Noah's first response in all that is to get stone drunk and naked.

[33:03] that's the Noah we're talking about here in verse 8. But Noah. So, lest we begin to think for ourselves, wow, Noah had it all together.

[33:15] Noah was a special man. Wow, Noah is someone beyond the pale of who I am. Noah's cut from a different cloth. He has a different, I don't know, he's got something, the trutzpah, he's got the mojo, he's got something that I could not have.

[33:33] Right? Lest we think that. No, Noah was cut of the same cloth as we, and yet God poured out his favor and mercy upon him. And where does that favor come from? In Hebrews chapter 11 verse 7, very simply, three words answer why in two words in Genesis chapter 6 verse 8, why did God show favor to Noah but Noah?

[33:59] Well, the first three words of Hebrews 11 verse 7 says by faith. Noah. But Noah? By faith Noah. By faith.

[34:10] It's by faith that Noah was preserved. And that's the faith that God planted in his heart. It's not as though Noah figured it out, that the Lord is the one true God and that he should trust body and soul to the Lord.

[34:23] It's that God planted that faith deep in his heart. And God preserved and protected that faith much as he would protect a young sapling. Right? As he would water that tree. As he would water that and cause that faith to grow and flourish to a point where Noah would obey the Lord to the fullest in his faith.

[34:41] It's that faith that received the favor of God. It's faith. Only faith that elicits God's pure and perfected favor. Only faith receives it. So, I want to bring this to you.

[34:55] Simple response is that God calls us to faith. That means to have reverent fear of the Lord and to understand. I think it's important for us to understand in faith just who we really are.

[35:10] Of Genesis 1 through 7, this is our stature. It is that only evil, every thought continually, right?

[35:21] That's our stature. That's who we really are. The faith sees that. Faith appreciates that, understands that, takes that to heart. And in faith, we then recognize there's only one source of true favor and grace, and that is found, you know, through the Lord Jesus Christ.

[35:41] You know Him. If you belong to Him, you know Him. You have called on His name, and all who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

[35:51] That's Romans 10, right? Verse 10. All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. And so, God's favor is everything to the Christian.

[36:02] And let me challenge us in my closing word here this morning, that we can be tempted in whatever season of life, wherever you happen to be, you can be tempted to think you need something else.

[36:16] If only I had this, then life would be good. If only this would happen to me, then I would find peace.

[36:27] If only, if only, if only. How many if only's do we need to trip over before we get a clue? Right? How many times must I utter those words, if not out loud in my heart of hearts, that I believe and fix my hopes on if only, if only.

[36:50] Well, Noah got it right because God planted it in his heart by faith and that is this, favor with God is everything. Favor with God is everything.

[37:04] Undeserved favor through the Lord Jesus Christ is everything for those who know him, who trust him, who love him. It's everything. So, lest we think, if only I had more money, if only I had friends, if only I was married, if only my husband loved me more, if only we had more children, if only, if only, if only.

[37:24] No, repent of that. Turn away from such hopes. They're false, fake, plastic hopes to the reality and the truth of who Jesus is. The substance and the sum of God's favor is in him.

[37:38] Favor from God is everything. So, brothers and sisters in the gospel, let's be convinced of the same that Noah had in his heart. Hold fast.

[37:49] Oh, man, hold fast. Do you know those words? To hold fast. When there's a flood, what do you do? If you're swept up in a flood water, do we go about swimming the back stroke?

[38:03] No. We find something and we hold fast. Right? You cling with all your might. You do not let go because the minute you let go, you know that no human, not an Olympian swimmer, could survive.

[38:20] But you know that if you hold fast, you will be held up. You will be protected and such it is in Jesus Christ in the rising tides of evil.

[38:31] Hold fast to God's favor. Amen. Let me pray. Our heavenly father, we thank you for the grace that comes only through Jesus Christ.

[38:42] Christ. And we here this morning, your people here in Nassau, Kingdom Life Church, we confess Lord, that all our hope, all our joy, all our health, all our strength, all our peace, everything is found in the favor of Jesus Christ.

[39:04] And so Lord, we put it all aside, we lay aside the world, we say, you can take the world, but give us Jesus Lord. God, help our hearts to wrap around the truth of your word this morning, that wherever we are trusting or hoping in something else, wherever there's an if only, that you would put that to death and put Jesus in its place, the favor of God.

[39:31]  And we ask this blessing, I ask this blessing in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen.