[0:00] We're continuing our series in Genesis this morning and we have come to Genesis chapter 6 verse 9 and we are going to read all the way through the end of chapter 7.
[0:11] So some of you all were worried that we'd never make any progress in Genesis. Well, here we are. We're going to read a larger section of Genesis this morning. If you're physically able, when you found that in God's Word, would you stand in order of the reading of God's Word? Genesis 6 verse 9 through the end of chapter 7.
[0:30] These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
[0:48] Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
[1:00] And God said to Noah, I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
[1:11] Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you are to make it. The length of the ark, 300 cubits. Its breadth, 50 cubits. And its height, 30 cubits. Make a roof for the ark and finish it to a cubit above and set the door of the ark in its side.
[1:31] Make it with lower, second, and third decks. For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven.
[1:41] Everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you.
[1:55] And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sword into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female, of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, and of every creeping thing on the ground according to its kind. Two of every sword shall come into you to keep them alive.
[2:15] Also, take with you every sort of food that is eaten and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them. Noah did this. He did all that God commanded him.
[2:28] Then the Lord said to Noah, Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth.
[2:50] For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.
[3:01] And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him. Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth, and Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood.
[3:16] Of clean animals and of animals that are not clean, and of birds and of everything that creeps on the ground, two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah.
[3:27] And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heaven were opened, and rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
[3:48] On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark, They and every beast according to his kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to its kind, and every bird according to its kind, every winged creature.
[4:10] They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh, in which there was the breath of life. And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him, and the Lord shut him in.
[4:23] The flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters.
[4:37] And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep, and all flesh died that moved on the earth.
[4:53] Birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. Everything on the dry land, and whose nostrils was the breath of life, died.
[5:06] He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground. Man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, they were blotted out from the earth.
[5:17] Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred fifty days. Grass withers, flower fades, but the word of the Lord endures forever.
[5:33] Father, we thank you for this word. We pray that by it we would be both warned of judgment to come and driven to our knees in faith in the Messiah that you've provided for salvation.
[5:46] We love you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Several years ago, I was asked to give devotions at a local preschool in Myrtle Beach where we used to live, and so I asked the leadership, well, what text or what topic would you like me to talk about?
[6:05] And they said, we want you to talk to the children about Noah and the ark. And I said, okay, that'd be perfect. I'd be glad to do that, but I could already tell just in those initial conversations that we had different versions of that story in our mind.
[6:22] Somehow, as you probably are aware, Noah and the ark has become sort of a light and fun and colorful children's story. There's animals, there's rainbows, there's a boat, there's water, it's all nice and fun, but as we just read, I hope you heard the language from Scripture.
[6:42] This actual story of Noah and the ark is not quite so lighthearted, is it? Before I got up to talk, first about the bad news of sin and God's judgment against sin, and then ultimately the good news of God's grace, and God's grace provided in Christ, well, they sang a song that confirmed all my suspicions.
[7:02] He might know it. The Lord said to Noah, there's going to be a flood, floody. The Lord said to Noah, there's going to be a flood, floody.
[7:13] Get those children out of the muddy, muddy children of the Lord. I don't know what that means. I didn't read about any children getting in the boat here. The animals, the animals, they came in by twosies, twosies, animals, animals, animals, came in by twosies, twosies, elephants, and kangaroosies, roosies, children of the Lord.
[7:30] You get the idea. For whatever reason, and forgive my pun, there is a tendency to water down the story of the flood. We aren't comfortable talking about it as it really is.
[7:44] We have a hard time wrapping our minds around the truth of what's happening here, but we have to try and understand it as it is and not as we want it to be. This is a story of God's wrath against sin.
[8:00] It is not a pretty picture. This is a story of God's judgment on the wicked, but also, also, it's a story of God's preservation of the faithful.
[8:13] Yes, on one side, it's a terrifying picture of God's wrath against sin, but it's also at the very same time a glorious story of God's grace and mercy towards sinners like us.
[8:26] So let's look at the text this morning and we'll see it in two parts this morning. First, this is our outline if you're taking notes. First, we'll see God judges the wicked, but second, the Lord preserves the faithful.
[8:42] God judges the wicked, but preserves the faithful. That's the big idea here. And if that's true, then the question that needs to be on all of our mind this morning is, how do I make certain that I'm counted among the faithful?
[8:58] How do I make absolutely certain that I get on the boat? So let's look at it this morning. First, the Lord judges the wicked.
[9:08] You remember last week, the reason for the flood. You remember what we saw last week? All the earth has become corrupted by this dreadful disease called sin. And you can look back up to the verse, verse 5 of chapter 6 and see that the Lord saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth.
[9:28] Every intention of every thought of every heart of every man was only evil all the time. That was last week. Now this is not a pretty picture, is it?
[9:40] Verse 11, chapter 6, says the earth was corrupt in God's sight and the earth was filled with violence. Verse 12 says, all flesh has corrupted their way on the earth.
[9:50] This isn't just an isolated, small, minor issue, is it? This corruption of sin has spread and spread and spread. It has gotten worse and worse and worse and so now God has determined that He is going to undo His work of creation.
[10:10] Whereas in the beginning God created all things and He saw and He declared that it was good and now what happens? He sees and He declares that it is wicked.
[10:24] Whereas in the beginning God brought order out of chaos through the power of His word, now temporarily He's bringing all things back into a state of chaos by the power of His word.
[10:35] He is undoing His work of creation. He's scrubbing it absolutely clean. You know, when we first moved to the area a few years ago we had temporary housing for a few months and we didn't want to pay for storage.
[10:50] That's just kind of how we roll and so we threw everything in the basement, in the garage of this house that we were staying in and we didn't think anything of it until a few months went by and it was time to load up and move into our home and we started noticing these little black spots.
[11:06] Black spots on the couch. Black spots on the beds. Black spots on the picture frames. There was mold absolutely everywhere and the more you saw it the more you saw how much it had spread all over everything and what do you think we did when we saw that mold all over the stuff that we wanted to preserve?
[11:27] What do you think we did? We began to scrub it clean. The more we scrubbed the more we saw that it needed scrubbing. It was everywhere. God here is seeing the widespread black mold of sin that has come and completely corrupted all of his creation and so what does he do?
[11:48] He is preparing to scrub it completely clean. Look there to chapter 6 verse 13. God said to Noah I have determined to make an end of all flesh for the earth is filled with violence through them.
[12:03] Behold I will destroy them with the earth and how will he do it? Verse 17 he says behold I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven.
[12:18] Everything that is on the earth shall die. This isn't just a slap on the wrist is it? This isn't just a minor punishment he says in chapter 7 verse 4 he says I'm sending rain on the earth and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.
[12:40] And we see the impact of the storm in chapter 7 verse 21 it says all flesh died that moved on the earth. Birds livestock beasts all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth all mankind everything that is on the dry land and whose nostrils was the breath of life died.
[13:01] Just think about that image for a minute. And don't water it down. This is complete and total destruction of the wicked.
[13:13] It's the death penalty for every living thing. We can hardly imagine that. And the closest comparison that we have is probably some of the natural disasters that we've seen in our lifetime.
[13:25] You can think of some of the hurricanes that we've lived through and seen and just to be clear I'm not saying any of these are necessarily God's judgment. We can't say that. But just consider the power of what we've seen.
[13:37] I remember Hurricane Katrina coming through New Orleans. Just ravaging the devastation that that hurricane brought. 1,833 people died from that storm.
[13:49] It brought about $108 billion in damages to the area. It's just terrible. Or you might think of many of you were here during Hurricane Hugo. Came and made landfall right here in Allendor.
[14:02] Hugo would just devastate. You saw firsthand the destruction that Hugo brought. Or more recently you could think of the waters that ravaged through the upstate in the mountains just less than a year ago.
[14:15] Hurricane Helene came through and nobody was ready and some areas up there got over 30 inches of water in just three days time. It is absolutely devastating to that area.
[14:25] These storms were terrible. We've seen the power of what these waters can do, haven't we? But none of these storms was even a fraction of the devastation of this flood.
[14:40] This isn't just 30 inches of water. We're told in chapter 7, the fountains of the great deep burst forth, the windows of the heavens were open, the rain fell, the ark is floating up above the highest mountains, all of it is just covered up with water, not just for two or three days, but 40 days and 40 nights.
[15:00] It's not just one little area of the world, just a couple states, a couple countries on the coast. This is the whole world undone by the waters. And it's not just 1,800 people dead, as awful as that is.
[15:19] It says he blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, everything that is except for eight. we cannot begin to fathom the destruction of this flood, can we?
[15:34] It is absolutely horrible to imagine, but listen to this, we need to understand this, just like these hurricanes that we've seen are just a fraction of the power and the devastation of the flood, so this destructive global flood is just a small image of the greater judgment to come at the return of Christ.
[15:55] the New Testament looks back on this flood and sees it as a warning. We took us to 2 Peter last week, I want to read this again this morning, 2 Peter tells us this, it says the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God and by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished, that's the flood, listen to this, but by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and the destruction of the ungodly.
[16:44] You can't read this familiar story and miss the message. This passage is a warning to the wicked, not just the wicked of yesterday but the wicked of right now.
[17:00] There is even greater destruction and judgment yet to come on the wicked, greater even than this global destructive flood that wrecked everything but eight people out of all the world.
[17:13] You know, as we think about this judgment and the flood and then we think about the coming judgment and the return of Christ, this devastation, you might ask at this point, what kind of God would do something like this?
[17:29] Have you ever asked something like that? That's about the most natural question that you could ask at this point. Atheists and non-believers, if you get into conversation with them, they might ask you something like this, you actually believe in a God, you trust in a God, you worship a God that just completely destroyed the world that he made?
[17:49] what kind of God would do that? What kind of good God would completely wipe out all humanity? What we need to see is that at the root of that objection is a minimization of the seriousness of sin.
[18:08] One of the worst effects of sin is that it blinds us to the severity of sin. And it blinds us to just how sinful we are. we're deceived into thinking that we're mostly good, good natured people.
[18:24] Sin isn't that bad, it's not that bad, God doesn't need to react that way. We're just trying our best, we're wounded by sin but we're not dead in sin, we're all just good people, right? That's not how God sees it.
[18:38] Sin, even the slightest drop of sin poisons the whole well. And if we're shocked by the judgment of God against sin, that God would judge a sinful world is probably because we have too small a vision of our sin.
[18:54] But not only that, it's probably because we also have too small a vision of God. Think about it like this, a small sin, if there even was such a thing, a small sin against an infinitely glorious God is of eternal consequence.
[19:13] even the smallest sin against the highest being carries with it eternal consequence. Think about it, if you whack your brother on the head, and that doesn't happen in our house, okay, this is just hypothetically speaking, all right, out of nowhere, making this up, if you whack your brother on the head, you deserve time out, right?
[19:37] If you whack your mother on the head, oh, that punishment just got turned up a little bit, didn't it? Why? Because you have just sinned against an authority.
[19:50] You have sinned against somebody who's deserving and who expects and demands your utmost love and respect and honor and care. If you think you're going to go whack the president of the United States on the head with no consequence, guess what?
[20:04] You're a dead man. Why? Why? Because our punishment increases in direct proportion with our sinfulness as well as who we have sinned against.
[20:19] What we've seen, our sinfulness is total. We are totally corrupt. All the earth is totally corrupt and we have sinned against a good and glorious, eternally worthy God who is worthy of all honor and praise and glory and we have spat in his face.
[20:40] This is what sin is. So I ask you again, what kind of God would do something like this? And the answer, if we understand it, is a holy God.
[20:52] One who's grieved by our sin. And a just God. One who will allow no sin to go unpunished. And a glorious God. One who's worthy of all honor and praise and glory forever and ever.
[21:04] Amen. Those who see their sin rightly don't look at this flood and say, why would God do that? They look at God's patience.
[21:16] 120 years of delay and they say, why in the world would God do that? They look at God's preservation of Noah and his family and say, why would God do something like that?
[21:28] See, when you see your sin rightly and you see God's glory rightly, you will be more amazed by God's grace than God's wrath. You will be more amazed by his patience than with his judgment.
[21:44] Now you won't wonder why would God ever be against me. You would wonder why in the world would ever God be for me. You won't wonder why God judges anybody. You'll be wondering why God might preserve anybody.
[21:56] God's That's exactly what he does. Yes, the Lord judges the wicked, but look here, God preserves the faithful.
[22:10] So let's look second and we see this amazing truth. The Lord preserves the faithful. That was the bad news. But the good news, there's good news here.
[22:20] Noah is preserved. God shows mercy here to Noah and to his family. So I want to just look back and see.
[22:31] I want you to notice a few things about Noah here. Because Noah we're told is a model of faithfulness. What does it look like to be faithful to the Lord?
[22:43] What does it look like to be preserved from the wrath that we deserve? Noah shows us here. For one thing we're told that Noah out of all the people on the earth.
[22:53] Noah was uniquely righteous. Blameless it says. Chapter 6 verse 9 it tells us Noah was a righteous man. He's blameless in his generation.
[23:06] Of course that doesn't mean that he's sinless. We can look ahead a couple weeks in chapter 9. And we see very clearly that Noah is not perfect. He's not sinless. He's sinful just like you and I are sinful.
[23:19] But he is uniquely righteous. In a way that's distinct. It's unusual in a world of wickedness. Where wickedness is the defining characteristic of the world.
[23:30] Noah he says is blameless. Not only is he blameless. But verse 9 tells us Noah walked with God. Noah walked with the Lord.
[23:42] That's echoes of Enoch isn't it? And we saw the story of Enoch last week. Enoch walked with God. And he was not. He walked with God. And he escaped the curse of death.
[23:54] That's echoes of Enoch. It's echoes of the Garden of Eden isn't it? Adam and Eve walking with the Lord. And this close fellowship with God. This close personal intimate communion with the Lord.
[24:06] Where they walk with Him. And they speak with Him. And familial relationship with God. He is set apart here. Because he knows God. And we have to stop and ask don't we?
[24:18] Do you know the Lord? Do you walk with Him? And do you speak with Him? Do you have a close relationship with the Lord?
[24:32] Noah did. And not only this. But think about this. Noah, out of all the people of the world. Noah received the word of the Lord.
[24:47] God spoke to Noah. Noah. Chapter 6 verse 13. It says God said to Noah. He spoke to Noah. I have determined to make an end of all flesh.
[24:59] He warned him by His word. God spoke to Noah by His word. That same word that gave life to the universe. And that same word.
[25:10] That law giving word that gave instruction to Adam and Eve. On what they must do in order to live. That same word comes and instructs Noah. On what he must do in order to live.
[25:25] He didn't leave anything up to guesswork either, did he? You see there in chapter 6 verses 14 through 21. He lists out every measurement for the ark. Every instruction. Every little detail.
[25:37] All the animals that come in by twosies and twosies. All the necessary requirements for food. And sacrifice. All the things needed for repopulation of the new earth.
[25:49] Even down to the type of wood that Noah is supposed to use. Every little thing. Every detail is laid out here in God's word. You know, we don't have time to chase this trail.
[26:00] I wish we did. There's clear parallels here in this chapter. With the construction of the tabernacle later on. And you think about just how specific those instructions are.
[26:11] God by his word communicates to us everything that's needed for life and godliness. It's always been the case. Everything is laid out here clearly.
[26:24] No guesswork. Everything's given to Noah by the word of the Lord. Everything needed to escape the judgment of God. It's found here in the word of the Lord.
[26:35] What a unique gift of God's grace. That his word was given to Noah. And we might think, well, if only we had something like that. If only God would just speak to me and communicate to me exactly what I need to avoid judgment.
[26:53] If only God would lay out clearly instructions for how to be preserved from this wicked generation. If only God would give me his word. Then I would be fine, wouldn't I?
[27:06] If only. Church, we have it in our laps. The Lord has spoken to each and every one of us by his word.
[27:17] What a privilege of God's grace it is to have this day in and day out. To open it in the morning. To open it and read it with our families. To come into here in this place and have the word preached.
[27:31] We have heard the word of the Lord. And with it its warnings. With it its provisions for salvation. We have each heard the word of the Lord.
[27:41] Are we listening? You may not love what you hear from the word. You may not love what you've heard this morning about sin and judgment.
[27:56] Those aren't popular terms. This is heavy. I realize that. But church, consider yourself privileged to be warned. And then consider yourself sent and commissioned to go and warn others by the word of the Lord.
[28:11] The word came to Noah. But he didn't just hear it. He didn't just receive it. What did he do? Noah doesn't just hear it and continue on life as usual.
[28:22] What does Noah do? Noah obeys the word of the Lord. We see it in chapter 6 verse 22. And again in chapter 7 verse 5. It says Noah did all that God commanded him to do.
[28:37] All of it. Total obedience to the word of the Lord. We just studied in James in the Grow Class Hour. We just wrapped up a study in James. What does James say?
[28:48] Faith without what? Works is what? Any good? It's dead. The reformers had a little phrase that they would say. They'd say, yes we're saved by faith alone.
[28:59] But the faith that saves is never alone. In other words, saving faith, genuine faith is always accompanied by good works.
[29:13] True, genuine faith is always partnered with obedience to the word of the Lord. Noah here obeys all that God commanded.
[29:24] And not just for one minute. Look here. We see here that Noah persists in obedience. Now you've got to do a little bit of math here. And fill in some of the white space just a little bit.
[29:37] But based on the ages that were given for Noah. And when he had his three sons. And then when the flood waters eventually began. And the length of time. The warning that God gives before the floods began.
[29:48] We can assume that Noah took something like 100 to 120 years to build the ark. There is something like 100 to 120 years between the end of chapter 6 and the beginning of chapter 7.
[30:03] That is a century of persistent obedience to the word of the Lord. That is a century of looking foolish in the eyes of the world.
[30:16] That is a century of trusting and obeying the word of the Lord. That's a lifetime for most people now, isn't it? What in the world can sustain that sort of long term obedience to the word of God?
[30:30] The author of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 7. By faith. Noah being warned by God. Concerning events as yet unseen.
[30:43] In reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
[30:55] Noah was faithful to obey the word of the Lord because he had faith in the Lord. Faith in the Lord is the root of all faithfulness to the Lord.
[31:08] This is faith that persisted in faithfulness. Church, if you want to know what it looks like to be faithful in the midst of this wicked generation. Evidence that you are on the boat.
[31:22] Here's what it might look like. Ask yourself this. Are you walking in persistent, obedient, grace empowered, word centered faithfulness to the Lord?
[31:34] Are you blameless? Are you distinct in righteousness? Not perfect. But striving for holiness?
[31:47] Are you seeking to honor him with your life? Does your heart genuinely desire to live for him? Are you trusting and obeying the word of the Lord?
[31:57] Are you living by it? Are you clinging to it? Are you believing it? Are you holding on to it as your only hope? Are you persisting in faith?
[32:10] Genuine faith is often battle tested. It's proven. Are we prepared to persist by faith in the word of the Lord?
[32:21] I'll ask it again. Are you walking in persistent, obedient, grace empowered, word centered faithfulness to the Lord? These are good questions for us to ask.
[32:33] Good evaluating questions for us, aren't they? But listen to me here because I want to be clear. If we base our assurance only on our answers to these questions, we will never know where we stand.
[32:50] You want to know why? Because not a single one of us does any of those things perfectly. Our performance, our effort, our obedience.
[33:02] We will never sleep easy knowing that judgment is coming upon the wicked if we look inward at ourselves, at our performance. Which is why we must ultimately look to Christ Jesus in faith.
[33:20] Jesus Christ is the only one who can answer all of these questions with 100% yes. Only Christ Jesus is totally, truly righteous.
[33:36] Only Christ Jesus is totally blameless. Only Christ Jesus fully obeyed the word of the Lord. Only Christ himself is the very word of God. Christ himself is the object of our faith.
[33:49] Here the world is judged for their wickedness and God brings Noah by his grace into the ark and he's saved. And now we're warned again. Judgment is coming against the wicked.
[34:01] But now, church, the invitation is cast out to all who will listen. Come to Christ and live. Come to Christ and be saved from the wrath to come.
[34:13] The only way you can be certain that you're counted among the faithful is not by looking at yourself and what you've done. It's only by coming to Christ in faith. Don't miss the lesson here.
[34:27] Remember, this isn't just a fun, colorful children's story. There is life and death held out for us this morning. Jesus himself, as we read earlier, tells us that just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man.
[34:45] They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. This is the warning. But the gospel invitation is cast wide.
[35:02] Whoever believes in Christ shall not perish, but have eternal life. Will you come to Christ?
[35:14] Will you come to Christ and escape the judgment that we're owed for our sin? Will you come to Christ in faith and cling to him as our only hope?
[35:27] The unbelievable good news of the gospel is that in Christ, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Which means there's no more wrath of God against the sin of those who are in Christ.
[35:44] There is no judgment against those who are in Christ. There is no hell for those who are in Christ. There is no guilt in life, no fear in death. For those who are in Christ.
[35:58] How wise was Noah to get in the boat? Would you make certain that you're in Christ? Are you in him by faith?
[36:09] If not, I know any member of this church would love to talk to you more about what that means. To be in Christ by faith. And if you are in him by faith in church, praise God for the grace he's shown sinners like us.
[36:23] If you're in Christ by faith, we can read this account and rejoice in this flood of God's wrath against sin. Because we see here, Jesus Christ has washed away all of our sin.
[36:37] God is serious about ridding sin. God will wash away every stain of sin. He will preserve us by his grace. He will bring us safely home.
[36:49] We can be assured of our salvation now and the future. If we are in Christ, the day of his return, we no longer fear. We rejoice. Because by his grace for you, it's no longer a day of wrath, but of deliverance.
[37:05] Marvel at this truth, church. What kind of God would destroy the world with a flood? The same God who would crush his own son in the place of sinners. What kind of God would pour out his wrath on an innocent substitute in our place?
[37:23] What kind of God would step down into our mess, into our brokenness to seek and to save the lost? What kind of God would go down into the pit of death and rise up triumphant in order to save the wicked?
[37:40] Our God. Our God. A good God. A holy God. A gracious, loving, glorious God.
[37:51] Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, for the gospel. The bad news that all of us are deserving of judgment, but the good news that Christ has come to save sinners like us.
[38:08] We pray that we would rejoice in that provision of salvation, simply to be received by grace through faith. We love you. We pray this in Jesus' name.
[38:18] Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you.