This message was given at Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. At the end, we will give information about how to contact us to receive a copy of this or other messages. So take our Bibles and turn to Genesis chapter six. Genesis chapter six, this is God's holy and inspired word, starting at verse eight. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time. Noah walked with God. Noah became the father of three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. God looked on the earth and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. Then God said to Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence because of them, and behold, I'm about to destroy them with the earth. Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood. You shall make the ark with rooms, literally nests, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you shall make it, the length of the arc 300 cubits, it's breadth 50 cubits and height 30 cubits. She'll make a window for the arc and finish it to a cubit from the top and set the door of the arc in the side of it. She'll make it with lower second and third decks. Behold, I, even I, am bringing the flood of water upon the earth to destroy all flesh, and which is the breath of life from under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall perish. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark, you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every kind into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. Of the birds after their kind and of the animals after their kind, of the creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. As for you, take for yourself some of all food which is edible and gather it to yourself and it shall be for food for you and for them. Thus Noah did according to all that God had commanded him, so he did. This is the reading of God's holy word. One of my pet peeves is the way that we teach our children the Bible. I've complained about this many times over the years. And perhaps it's the story of Noah. It's one of the greatest examples of how we turn a incredibly significant event and person in redemptive history into just sort of a fun story. My pet peeve is that we take the Bible and we in a sense sort of diminish the message in favor of creating cute stories that translate well into flannel graphs or veggie tales. What we have with Noah oftentimes as we teach our children is a cute story about a floating petting zoo. We'd leave out the millions of dead bodies floating in the aftermath of the flood. I remember being a kid and can't remember if it was Shell or Chevron, but you'd go in and you had to buy the ark, but every time you filled up, they'd come and bring you an animal. You remember that? And I thought that was just, that was great. But to me, that was Noah's Ark. As we come to the story of Noah, we have to see that first of all, God is doing something that is so much bigger than just saving Noah and his family from a watery grave. What God is doing in the story of Noah is God is actually preserving the seed of the woman. There's a cosmic battle that's going on as we reach Noah and his generation. And what God is doing is not just showing mercy to eight people on the planet and drowning everybody else. What he's doing is he is preserving the seed of the woman, thus preserving redemptive history, and he's also saving creation. This passage is not ultimately about how to build big boats. This passage is about God's faithfulness. This passage is about God's faithfulness to one man of faith, who in turn, because of his faith, demonstrates faithfulness to God. The story is ultimately about God's faithfulness to his own purpose, to his own plan, and to his own people in the midst of a fallen, corrupt, depraved world that is slated for judgment. In a very real sense, Noah becomes a savior. You think about this from a human perspective, salvation history comes down to one man. It's really astonishing. Salvation history, the plan of salvation comes down to one man. So again, from a human perspective, if Noah does not act in faith, and if Noah does not build the ark, and if he does not maintain his righteousness in a wicked generation, and if God does not preserve his life in a violent world, then the serpent seed crushes the seat of the woman instead of the other way around. There's a drama here. And it's a drama that you're supposed to feel. You're supposed to have a sense that everything has come down to this one man. Actually, not just this one man and his family, but frankly, just this one man. There are a lot of interesting things that emerge in this section. I don't wanna belabor any of these, but I have to point them out to you. I find them absolutely fascinating. The word covenant is used for the first time in the Bible in this section, chapter six and verse 18. Then there are these amazing comparisons between Adam and Noah on the one hand, and God's acts in creation, and then his acts in recreation after the flood. And these aren't not original for me. But let me just go through some of these. Both worlds are created out of watery chaos. Both Adam and Noah walk with God. Both rule over the animal kingdom. Both receive the commission to be fruitful and to multiply and fill the earth. Both work and cultivate the ground. Both sin in similar ways. Adam by eating, Noah by drinking. The immediate result of their sin in both cases has to do with nakedness. Both are clothed by another. Adam is clothed by God himself, Noah by two of his sons. Both Adam and Noah have three named sons. Both have a son upon whom a curse falls. And finally, among their offspring, there ends up being a godly line and an ungodly line. In a real sense, what we see in Genesis six through nine is that Adam or Noah is the new Adam. Ken Matthews says, it's not surprising then that the narrative goes to great length to depict Noah as the new Adam. Noah is Adam revived. And so while the flood itself is as it were a great reversal, of the creation days one through three, there are also, as we saw way back in chapter one now, there are seven phases of creation. Well, there also then end up being seven phases of recreation after the flood. And those seven phases actually parallel the phases of the first creation. And all that's fascinating. But the point of the story ends up being God's faithfulness to one man who in turn ends up demonstrating great faithful obedience in a faithless world. I'd like to begin actually with the last verse from the previous section, which is verse 8, where it just says, but Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. We begin by identifying the very simple reality that Noah himself is an object of God's grace. Remember, there's this incredible contrast as we looked at verses five through eight over the last week or two. And that is that the wickedness of man was increasing, and the corruption on the earth was increasing. And in fact, man's depravity was intensifying and escalating at an alarming rate so that every thought of the imagination of his heart was only evil continually. And so here you have Noah's generation and that generation of humanity was as bad off as they could be. They were almost as wicked as they could be. I suppose you could always be a little more wicked. But here is a wicked generation. And in the midst of all of that darkness, then God shines a spotlight on this one man, Noah, and Noah finds grace in the eyes of the Lord. And it is that very context. that everything else flows out of. Everything else that's gonna be said about Noah has to be predicated upon this. That is, Noah received grace from the Lord. It will be that grace that shapes Noah's life. It will be that grace from which Noah's own righteousness and his own obedience and faithfulness will flow. And in fact, what God is doing with Noah He will turn around and do with Abram in chapter 12. And that is in order to preserve the seed of the woman, Genesis 3.15, God must act and he must act with sovereign grace and choose for himself an instrument of salvation through whom he will save all of his people. It's an interesting play on words. The Hebrew word grieve and the Hebrew word for Noah actually are related, they actually sound almost the same. The play on words seems to be that although God has grief over the sinfulness of the world, he finds comfort, the meaning of Noah's name, finds comfort in Noah as an object of his divine grace. In verse nine, gives us this, now these are the records of the generations of Noah. Does anybody remember the word that we have here when we see this expression? What's that? Toledote, yes, very good. Book of generations or the account of. And so now we get to Noah. Now what's interesting is that we don't have the typical just account of like we have the other accounts. Typically what happens is those accounts turn into genealogies. Here, we end up having the story of Noah and we don't get to the genealogy until much, much later, all right? And so this is one of the most extensive toledotes or generations or accounts of, and it focuses on the salvation of the woman's seed. Now, what's interesting is right after this is the generations of Noah, it now gives us a description of Noah himself. Noah's character is described for us with three things. First, he's righteous. Secondly, he's blameless in his generation. Thirdly, he walked with God. You have to understand that this is what marks Noah as utterly distinct in his generation. You have this incredibly black backdrop of depravity and wickedness, and this is what marks the entirety of the human race at this time, and yet here's one man. One man, and he's described first of all as righteous. This righteousness, I think clearly from Hebrews 11, is the righteousness that comes through faith and it expresses his standing with God. In other words, out of all of humanity alive on the planet at that time, there's one man who actually stood in right relationship to God. Things had gotten so bad, things had spiraled so deeply out of control with human sin and wickedness, that when God looked down and looked at humanity, there was one person that stood in right relationship with Him, and that was Noah. Secondly, he's described as being blameless in his generation. To be blameless doesn't mean to be sinless. we're gonna find out that Noah's a sinner just like everybody else. And Noah needs a savior just like everybody else. And I remind you of verse eight and just tell you that Noah needs grace like everybody else. But to be blameless meant that Noah lived his life in such a way that there was no reason for his generation to criticize his conduct. To be blameless means to conduct yourself in such a way that if there are any charges against you, they don't stick. In other words, for Noah to be blameless in his generation meant this, that Noah was on the outside what he was on the inside. He was a man of integrity. And this expression describes his standing before the world. Righteousness describes a standing before God, blameless describes a standing before the world, and then we have this third descriptive phrase that he walked with God, which actually does a number of things for us. One, who else walked with God? Enoch, Enoch walked with God, God took him, right? And so here we have Noah actually being identified with the godly line of Seth, And Enoch is in the godly line of Seth. And so we have that connection. But we also know Enoch was spared from death. Noah's gonna be spared from the flood. But the point of the expression walked with God is to indicate the fact that Noah's whole life revolved around his relationship and his communion with God. That's what it is to walk with God. It's actually to walk in a living, vibrant, vital relationship with the living God. To walk with God is not simply to give some sort of acknowledgement to God's existence and then show up on Sunday to a church service. and then live the rest of your life as if you're the only thing that matters. To walk with God is to live with God in relationship with God in such a way that your life has the very aroma of one who's been in the presence of God. I always remember J.I. Packer giving the description of going and sitting under the ministry and preaching of Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones. And Packer said this of Martin Lloyd-Jones, very simple, there was much of God about him. There was much of God about him. That's what it is to walk with God. You're a person of whom it can be said, there is much of God about you. And so his state before God, his state before man, and his relationship with God is actually described here. And in fact, Noah's piety would become absolutely famous throughout the remainder of human history. And later, much, much later, as Ezekiel is looking at the impending destruction of Jerusalem, you know what God says to Ezekiel? He says, Ezekiel, even if Noah Noah and Job and Daniel were here, I still wouldn't spare this city. They'd be spared because of their righteousness, but I wouldn't spare the city. And so generations and generations later, Noah's piety would be remembered. Ken Matthews makes this point. He says, Noah is a reproach to the believer who surrenders to the allurement of a sinful generation. He maintains his fidelity and purity when all others have followed the pack. But his singleness of heart though without apparent reward at the proper time is acclaimed by the only one whose opinion is counted for life. Make no mistake about this, Noah did not have an easy life walking with God. Noah lived in the most hostile environment you could possibly imagine. And it was in the midst of that opposition, that hostility, and indeed that violence, that Noah was a man of singleness of heart, set his mind and his heart upon the living God, and he walked with God. Verse 10 tells us of his sons. He became the father of three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. If you're having twins, two of those might be good. I'd avoid one of them. This ends up anticipating, we don't see anything about these three, but it anticipates the table of nations that's going to come later in Genesis chapter 10, because what's gonna happen is out of these three is gonna now in a sense be the resurrection of the human race. And so here we have these three identified, but what we also see is that out of these three, we see that the godly line is not a matter of race. It's not a matter of genetics. It's not a matter of DNA. It's not a matter of who your daddy is. It is a matter of grace. Because those two lines, the line of the seed of the woman and the line of the seed of the serpent will continue. And how are they gonna continue? They're gonna continue through the three sons of Noah. And we have a description of the world in verses 11 and 12. Now already seven times in Genesis it's told us that the earth had become corrupt. And in verses 11 and 12, as we see this description, the description is a repetition. We've already seen where God has actually identified the sin of humanity in verses five through seven, and you can't get any worse than that description. And so what happens is God gives the description again. He gives the reason for his impending judgment again. And so here's man created in the image of God and what was man supposed to do? Man was supposed to go out and he was supposed to fill the earth. As image bearers, he was supposed to fill the earth. He was supposed to be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth with what? With other image bearers who are reflecting the glory of God and exercising dominion over the planet. And yet what ends up happening is instead of filling the earth with image bearers, man is now filling the earth with violence. The word violence here, from the dictionary of Old Testament theology says it's the cold-blooded and unscrupulous infringement of the personal rights of others motivated by greed and hate and often making use of physical violence and brutality. That's what the earth was being filled with, was cold-blooded violence, unscrupulous infringement on the personal rights of others, motivated simply by greed or hatred, using violence and brutality to accomplish its ends. One of the things that's striking is that when you read through the Pentateuch and you read through especially Exodus and Numbers and then into Deuteronomy, you find that God repeatedly goes over rules and regulations established in his law that deal with murder. In fact, there are multiple laws in the Old Testament that actually describe who gets the death penalty, and actually the Mosaic Law makes a distinction between a person who defends himself and kills somebody, and somebody who wantonly takes human life. And these laws are repeated over and over again, but there's a very simple reason. And by the way, there are six cities of refuge that are established so that in the case of what we would call justified homicide, the person who actually is innocent can flee to a city of refuge and actually find protection under the law. And what we find is that the reason that God spends so much time delineating these laws with his people regarding the shedding of innocent blood is because, as we see, for instance, in Numbers 35, it is the shedding of innocent blood that corrupts the land. And God says, insofar as you are corrupting the land, I won't dwell with you. And the more that you corrupt the land, the more the land will need to be purged. And so here you end up having this sense of the increase of violence and brutality and murder, and the land is becoming more and more corrupt because of the brutality of man. One of the interesting things is immediately after the floodwaters recede, And God establishes His covenant with Noah and the rest of humanity. One of the things He establishes is this, whosoever sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, to preserve and to protect human life. In other words, it was God's way to, in a sense, curb rampant violence and the taking of innocent life. It's shedding innocent blood, by the way, that's one of the seven things that God hates in Proverbs chapter 6 and verses 17 to 19. So verse 12 underscores what's already been emphasized. And so God looked on the earth, behold, it was corrupt. All flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. This is just an emphasis that these unlawful marriages, the rampant sin, the disregard for God and the increase of violence and wickedness led to the corruption of the earth. And we have a tendency to think that somehow our generation is the worst. We've got the worst violence. We've got the worst immorality. We've got the worst, things have never been this bad. You're not thinking about the generation of the flood. I mean, I've been in Newark, New Jersey after dark. Yeah, it's scary, but I came out alive. Go to Newark during Noah's generation. You wouldn't have come out alive. Go to Gardnerville in Noah's generation. You wouldn't come out alive. The violence and the wickedness was absolutely rampant. And that brings up an observation. What is Noah according to second Peter chapter two and verse five? Noah is a preacher of righteousness. How many, just from what we know of the text, how many preachers of righteousness would have been in the Preachers of Righteousness Guild at the time of Noah? No one except Noah. Noah is the president. Noah is the only member. Noah is the only one who's ordained in the Preachers of Righteousness Association. And so here's Noah all by himself in his generation. And what did it mean that he was a preacher of righteousness? It meant that he was one who forewarned of the coming judgment. And he was one who called for his generation to repent. Now again, you got to remember the wanton violence, the unrestrained bloodshed, Noah demonstrates himself as a man of courage in the midst of opposition that must have been utterly remarkable. In fact, Noah stands as the antithesis to his generation. He was not moved. by the trends of culture. He was not moved by peer pressure. He was not moved by the mockery and the disgrace and the shame that would have been heaped upon him. Imagine the preacher of righteousness preaching to the most depraved generation that ever lived, and here he is, the antithesis of his entire generation. This is more remarkable and more striking than David Wilkerson going into New York City and preaching to the gangs, which is totally impressive, right? Luther points out In light of this reality, he says, more than one miracle was probably necessary to prevent the ungodly from surrounding Noah and killing him. Think about it, think about it. Verse 13, we get to the judgment and the salvation. So God says to Noah, verse 13, the end of all flesh has come before me for the earth is filled with violence because of them, behold, I'm going to destroy them with the earth. And so we see God's determination to judge, but what he does is he actually confides in Noah. And he doesn't have to confide in Noah, but Noah actually received special revelation from God and like Abram later proves to be the friend of God. And here's what God tells him, I'm going to destroy all flesh along with all of the earth. And here's Noah and he hears his message from God and it is a striking message and it is a message that he apprehends and lays hold of, Hebrews 11 tells us, by faith. Bruce Waltke reminds us that the people of God are the people of the ear, not the eye. The word destroy is the same word as corrupt. There's a sense of poetic justice going on. Man has corrupted all of the earth and now God is going to ultimately corrupt it in a sense. Derek Kidner notes that what God has decided to destroy has been virtually self-destroyed already. Here's the determination to save. Verses 14 to 16, Noah is actually the human instrument of salvation who's going to build the physical vessel of salvation, the ark. And I love this, God actually gives him the specs. Tells him exactly how it's to be built. which of course gets mirrored when we get to Moses building the tabernacle and God tells Moses exactly how it is to be built. In other words, God did not leave to Noah some creativity in making the ark. He didn't just say, no, I've got this concept. This concept is, is that you're gonna be inside of something that floats and now go build it. He does not entrust the vessel of salvation to human ingenuity. The thing that made me laugh about that is that we have so many engineers in our church So many of you that are good with numbers and figures and, and I could well imagine, I won't name which deacons would have done this, but I could well imagine if one of them had been Noah, let's just like say Noah Wetmore. And Lord, Lord, I get it. I see, I can do that. I can do that. I can build, don't even tell me. I want to figure it out myself. And then 140 years later, after the flood has come and gone, he would have maybe finally gotten it. God's not taking any chances. This is how you build it, this is how many decks, this is how, now think about this, this is 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, 45 feet high. Matthew says essentially what we have here is a floating barge that is designed to ride out the storm without direction. Noah trusts the hand of God as its rudder. And so here's Noah and has Noah ever seen a flood? Well, probably not. Some people argue Noah may have never even seen rain by that point. And here God says, what you need to do is you need to start building this ark that is one and a half football fields long. and you're gonna build it exactly the way that I tell you that you're going to build it, and it's gonna have these tiers and this window, and you're gonna put the door right here, and Noah begins to work, and then God says, and you're to actually build in nests, rooms in the ark. If Noah's not a man of faith, Noah's gonna laugh. It's such a project. But you know who else would have really laughed? Would have been all the mockers and the scoffers of his generation who would have come by to hear old man Noah preach his morning sermon and then start building that ridiculous whatever he's calling it. God says in verse 17, this is the reason you're gonna build it, this is the reason you're gonna build it exactly like I tell you you're gonna build it because everything is going to die. God actually says, this is the significance of verse 17, God is taking back the breath of life, which he had graciously granted at the creation. And in an act of anti-creation or an act of uncreation, if you will, he will destroy it before he begins to renew it. And so here, the entire world is slated for judgment, judgment through the flood, and it is God who is holy and just and righteous in that determination. And then he says, most remarkably, in verse 18, but I will establish my covenant with you. And you shall enter the ark, you and your sons, your wife and your sons' wives with you. And so here again, you see God's astonishing grace. God has slated all of creation for the judgment. And now God says, I'm gonna make a covenant with you. And that covenant is going to mean the salvation for you and for your family. Derek Kidner says he goes into the ark not as a mere survivor, but as a bearer of God's promise for the new age. God tells him what provisions to make verses 19 through 21. And there's lots of questions that the writer never like decides are important enough. to answer, okay? Like, how can you actually get that much food on the ark to last as long as it's going to need to last? Or, I mean, my question has always been the manure. No, seriously, think about it, right? These are some big animals. And whether God puts them into a hibernation or whatever, here's the reality is that the biblical author, ultimately God, doesn't deem that important enough for us to actually have an answer for. And so what we have is God's determination to judge. God turns around, makes a covenant with Noah, and now says, now what you're gonna do is you're gonna get two of every type and you're gonna bring them on. Why two of every type? Well, because what God is doing is he's not only saving Noah and his family, he's also saving creation. He actually is doing something that is utterly remarkable. So just as the Lord actually brought all the animals to Adam for him to name, he now causes all the animals to obey the second Adam, that is Noah, and brings them onto the ark for their preservation. Those animals that go on the ark are actually the foundation for the new creation that will emerge from the flood. And then we have, Verse 22, thus Noah did. according to all that God had commanded him, so he did. Now, I mean, verse 22 actually just sort of, just sort of just makes this statement about his obedience. And so just like Moses throughout Exodus, remember throughout Exodus is Moses is building the tabernacle and thus Moses did according to all that the Lord had commanded him. We have Noah here and it said, just as the Lord commanded him, Noah did everything. And what we have really is we have Noah living the life of faith. This is a huge project, and in a sense, it's kind of like summarized up in one verse, but it took decades and decades and decades for him to actually complete this, and here's Noah living by faith. Stop and just think about some of this for a minute. Think about the lumber that would have needed to be cut down in order to build the ark. Think about the effort that would have taken to actually make that lumber into usable wood in order to make the ark. Think about the incredible opposition and the mockery and the threat, not just for a little while, but day after day and decade after decade and century after, well, not century after century, but at least century and a fifth. Think of the years of work Think of the years of expense. Think about the years of just getting up and thinking to yourself, I guess I'm gonna have to cut down more trees. Watch my hands bleed. Try to talk those boys into helping me. That may have well been the most challenging part of the whole project. And so the writer to the Hebrews puts it like this. He says, by faith, Noah, being warned by God concerning events as of yet unseen, in reverent fear, constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this, the building of the ark, he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. What we have in this passage, first of all, is a demonstration of the constant reality that God is faithful to his promise and faithful to his plan. You have to remember that if God's going to be faithful to his plan, oftentimes that faithfulness will require special grace in the face of human sin and depravity. And the sin of man at this stage in history cannot be exaggerated, nor as an affront to a holy God could it be minimized. And judgment, the judgment that was to come was just and it was holy. And as we saw a couple of weeks ago, in the midst of God actually determining a just and holy judgment in which he would wipe out the entire human race, we see that God's grace at the end of the day trumps human sin. God's grace, not his wrath, ends up having the last word. He chooses Noah to be an object of grace and an instrument of redemption. And through one man, he preserves his plan and preserves his people. As that cosmic battle is raging between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, you have to understand that the seed of the woman is dwindling down and dwindling down and is on the threat of extinction. And what God does is in faithfulness to his plan, he intervenes in human history, demonstrates special grace to Noah and uses Noah to preserve his plan and his purpose and his people. The second thing we see in this text is that Noah is a type of Christ. Through Noah's obedience, his family is saved. Is that striking to you? Through Noah's obedience, his family is saved. There are other things that are interesting. I don't know how far to take it. For instance, when it says that the ark was covered with pitch inside and out, the word covered, kafar, is the word that is used in the book of Leviticus as atonement. It's absolutely fascinating to me. Absolutely fascinating. That ark is actually the very symbol of salvation, is it not? And yet all of it actually comes down to the fact that Noah's obedience is what saves his family. And I would remind all of us this morning that it's through the obedience of Jesus Christ that those who are in him are truly saved and counted righteous. We'll probably talk more about that later when we get to the end of the section. But thirdly, Noah's a model of faith. And from that faith flows a righteousness, obedience and a faithfulness. And he's an example to us because he lived in the most hostile environment ever imaginable. If you think you have it tough at work, think about Noah. If you think the people that you work with are kind of hard, think about the time of Noah. If you think that you have some pretty rough, gruff people that you need to deal with that are pretty worldly, think about the days of Noah. The culture around him had become so corrupt and the seed of the serpent had virtually overrun the whole world. The violence was unrestrained. And yet there's one man, one man who was faithful, one man who was different, one man who stood out because of the grace of God. And so I asked you this morning how Christians are supposed to be different. how we are supposed to be the very antithesis of the culture in which we live in, how we are to be the antithesis with our unbelieving peers and our unbelieving coworkers and even unbelieving family. And so I ask you this morning, professing Christian on the job, are you different? At school, are you different? Is your language different? Are your values different? Is your conduct different? One of the problems is that it's just easy to go with the current and it would have been so easy for Noah just to join into the current of his own culture. It's easy to go along with others. Young people, listen to me. It's easy to not take a stand. It's easy not to be different. What's hard is actually to stand up, in a sense, to stand up and to represent all that is right and is true and is good and all that reflects the living God. That's what's hard. and the pressure is there, but I will tell you that there was one who faced far more pressure than you will ever know. And it's easy to go with the current, but people who know God and people who walk with God and people who have true faith will in fact go against the current. They will in fact go against wind and tide and they will be faithful to God and faithful to his word in a faithless generation. One of the things that troubles me so much about the young generation, sometimes called young, restless, and reformed, people that are theologically astute in their 20s, 30s, is that there's an acceptance culture that in so many ways makes them look like everybody else in their culture for the sake of being accepted and cool. I have a sneaking suspicion, Noah never thought one time, I wonder what I can do to be accepted by my generation and considered to be cool. We are truly supposed to be a different people. We are truly supposed to stand out. And if we talk like everybody else and live like everybody else and behave like everybody else and then try to tell somebody how awesome the gospel is, they're gonna laugh. You have the kind of faith that actually makes you stand out or do you prefer to be like the chameleon in order to avoid reproach? Well, there was one. who stood against an entire generation and bore reproach, nor that salvation may come. And there was one greater than Noah who came and was more than willing to be different. And although he had every single right to require worship and adoration, he actually humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. And it's the Lord Jesus Christ who, because of his obedience, because of his difference, because of his faithfulness, that you and I can taste and see that the Lord is good. And it's in the midst of that that we are called to be different. We are called to be the antithesis to our generation. And so young people, learn. Learn. Old people. You know, I say young people, that's because we think young people have all the temptations to cave in to the peer pressure of their generation. Old people. The peer pressure is just the same, isn't it? It doesn't go away. God calls us to be a different people. May God give us the grace that it takes to be different. and to, in a real sense, placard the reality of the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, who still saves from a wicked and perverse generation. Let's pray. Father, we pray that you would renew our hearts. It's so easy for us just to, Go along with the crowd and be the same as everybody else. And we pray that you would remind us of the courage and the faith and faithfulness of Noah. And we pray that you would also remind us that because you are faithful and because you're a God of grace, we can actually do what you call us to do. We pray that we would rely upon you wholly and completely. Father, we thank you for that obedient servant who built that really big boat But we thank you most of all for the obedient servant of Yahweh who bore all of our sins. In Christ's name, Amen. We hope you've enjoyed this message from Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. To receive a copy of this or other messages, call us at area code 775-782-6516 or visit our website gracenevada.com.