Noah: Faith Filled Work, Part 1 (Hebrews 11:7) | Sunday Worship Service

And good morning. Welcome to Kootenai Church. We're glad that you're here on this frigid January morning

Would you please stand as we sing we're gonna open up this morning singing the doxology

He Prays father son and holy

Yes Engages our

May Jesus Christ be known wherever we are

We ask not for ourselves, but for your renown

The cross has saved us, so we pray, your kingdom come

Let your kingdom come, let your will be done

So that everyone might know your name

Let your song be heard everywhere on earth

Till your sovereign work on earth is done

Let your kingdom come

Give us your strength, O God, and courage to see

Perform your wondrous deeds for those who are weak

Lord, use us as you want, whatever the test

By grace we'll preach your gospel till our dying breath

Let your kingdom come, let your will be done

So that everyone might know your name

Let your song be heard everywhere on earth

Till your sovereign work on earth is done

Let your kingdom come, let your will be done

So that everyone might know your name

Let your song be heard everywhere on earth

Till your sovereign work on earth is done

Let your kingdom come I once was lost in darkest night

Yet thought I knew the way The sin that promised joy and light

Had led me to the grave I had no hope that you would hold

A rebel to your will And if you had had loved me first I would refuse you still

But as I ran my hell -bound race

Indifferent to the cost You looked upon my helpless state

And led me to the cross And I beheld

God's love displayed You suffered in my place

You bore the wrath reserved for me Now all

I know is grace Hallelujah, all

I have is Christ Hallelujah, Jesus is my life

Hallelujah, all I have is

Christ Hallelujah, Jesus is my life

Now Lord, I would be yours alone

And live so all might see The strength to follow your commands

Could never come from me Oh Father, use my ransomed life

In any way you choose And let my song forever be

My only ghost is you

Hallelujah, all

I have is Christ Hallelujah, Jesus is my life

Hallelujah, all I have is

Christ Hallelujah, Jesus is my life

Hallelujah, all I have is

Christ Hallelujah, Jesus is my life

We're going to end this first set this morning. We're going to sing Jesus, name above all names.

Jesus, name above all names

Beautiful Savior, glorious Lord Lord Emmanuel, God is with us

Blessed Redeemer, living

Word Jesus, name above all names

Beautiful Savior, glorious Lord Lord Emmanuel, God is with us

Blessed Redeemer, living

Word You may be seated.

Just two brief announcements for you. We have our conference with Justin Peters coming up this next Friday. We're going to start promptly at 6 p .m.

There will be snacks provided for the evening session as well as for Saturday. But it's not going to be a meal like we've typically had for the conferences in the past.

It's just going to be, we call it robust snacks, I guess. So if you are showing up expecting like a full meal, you will be disappointed.

If you show up and you're kind of hungry but you could do without a meal, then you'll be satisfied by the snacks.

Just want to temper your expectations a little bit for that and for Saturday morning as well. And there will be child care available if you are interested in it.

But you need to let us know because there are some mothers who are trying to put together sort of a rotating shift of child care in the nursery for that conference.

So if you'd like to participate in that, please let Kathy or Marcia or myself know. And we have our annual business meeting coming up on February 6th, and that's a potluck.

I just want to make you aware of that. You can set that on your calendar and plan to attend, be here with us for a potluck as well as a business meeting that is to follow.

And you do not have to be a member to come to the business meeting. We encourage anybody who considers Kootenai Community Church to be their home church to be here for that business meeting after the potluck on that day.

Please turn to the end of your New Testament to the book of 2 Peter for the

Scripture reading. 2 Peter 3. 2

Peter 3, and we're going to read together this entire chapter. 2

Peter 3. This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the

Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles. Know this, first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts and saying,

Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.

For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water.

But by His word, the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day.

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.

Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning and the elements will melt with intense heat?

But according to His promise, we are looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our

Lord as salvation, just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, and also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the

Scriptures, to their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard, so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our

Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity.

Amen. Will you stand with me as we pray? Let's bow our heads.

Our Father, we thank You that You have saved all of us who have trusted in Your Son from the fiery, cataclysmic judgment which is to come.

We know that it is not a destruction by fire and punishment in fire that awaits those who belong to You, but rather an eternity of joy and bliss and happiness and grace and glory at Your right hand.

And You have accomplished this and secured this salvation on our behalf through Your Son and His work, and we are grateful for that.

We thank You for it. We thank You that by Your grace we are among Your elect, that we have come to a saving knowledge of Christ by Your grace and the work of Your Holy Spirit.

And so we can give You honor and praise and glory for that salvation. And we pray that You would make us wise stewards and proclaimers of the mysteries of the

Gospel to the world around us, for this is the fiery destruction that awaits all the ungodly and this present creation.

We know that it is being held by Your Word as it is, waiting for the destruction and the burning, the fire and the judgment that is to come.

And just as there was a destruction of the entire world by water in the past, there will be a destruction of this entire world by fire in the future.

And so our hope and our confidence rests beyond that to a new heavens and a new earth as we've just read

Peter describe. And we pray that in the midst of this ungodly world, surrounded by false teachers, by mockers, by those who hate

You, by governments and government officials who wage war against Your truth and deny reality, we pray that You would make us faithful, bold, united and truthful proclaimers of Your truth, make us preachers of righteousness in our own generation, that You would be honored and glorified through us,

Your church, both now and forever we pray in Christ's name. The Savior's blood died

He for me, who caused His pain for me, who

Him to death pursued. Amazing love, how can it be that now my

God should die for me? Amazing love, how can it be that now my

God should die for me? He left

His Father's throne above so free, so infinite

His grace emptied Himself to show

His love and bled for Adam's helpless race.

Tis mercy all immense and free for O my

God, it found Thou me. Amazing love, how can it be that now my

God should die for me? Lo, my imprisoned spirit lay fast found in sin and nature's night.

Thine eye diffused a quickening ray. I woe the dungeon flamed with light.

My chains fell off, my heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed

Thee. Amazing love, how can it be that now my

God should die for me? No condemnation now

I dread. Jesus and all in Him is mine.

Alive in Him, my living Head, and clothed in righteousness divine.

Bold I approach the eternal throne and claim the crown through Christ my own.

Amazing love, how can it be that now my

God should die for me? In 1

Peter 1, verses 18 and 19, it says, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your futile conduct inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

Christ alone my hope is found. He is my life, my strength, my song.

His thorn or stone, His solid ground, firm through the fiercest drought and storm.

What heights of love, what depths of peace when spheres are still, when strivings cease.

My comforter, my all in all, here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone, who took on flesh for the suppliant helpless babe,

His gift of love and righteousness scored by the ones

He came to save. Till on that cross, as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied.

For every sin on Him was laid here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay, light of the world by darkness slain.

Then bursting forth in glorious pain, up from the grave

He rose again. And as He stands in victory, sin's curse has lost its grip on me.

For I am His and He is mine, bought with the precious blood of Christ.

Built in life, no fear in death, this is the power of Christ in me.

From wife's first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny.

No power of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck me from His hand.

Till He returns or calls me home, here in the power of Christ I'll stand.

You may be seated. And now please turn to the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews.

Hebrews chapter 11. We're going to read together just verse 7. Actually, we'll read beginning of verse 3.

We'll read 3 through verse 7. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the Word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.

By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous,

God testifying about his gifts. And through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.

By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death, and he was not found because God took him up.

For he obtained the witness that before his being taken up, he was pleasing to God. And without faith it is impossible to please

Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. By faith

Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

Let's pray together. Our Father, we do ask now Your blessing upon our study, our reading of Your Word, the preaching of Your Word, our contemplation and meditation on these holy things.

We pray that You would help us to learn the appropriate lessons from the life of Noah and to treat Your Word with the reverence that it is due.

And may everything that is said in our hearts and minds and everything that is said here from this pulpit today be honoring and glorifying to Your most holy name.

We pray in Christ's name. Amen. The next hero of the faith that we find in Hebrews chapter 11 is

Noah. Now personally Noah is probably one of my favorite Old Testament characters.

In fact of all of the people that are listed in Hebrews chapter 11 I find Noah to be personally one of the most intriguing characters out of them all.

If you were to ask a random garden variety pagan that you would encounter on the street to give you some detailed information about the lives of say

Abraham and Moses and Noah you would probably find that most people would know more about Noah than they would of any other

Old Testament character. Simply because his life was so unique in so many ways and there are so many features of his life that stand out to us.

He just captures our imagination. I don't know what people would say if you asked them just a random person give me some details about Abraham.

I don't even know if most of them would even be able to know anything other than yeah he's a character in the Bible I think. He was Jewish. That's probably it.

If you asked them about Moses they would probably think yeah he was I think he was on the boat that Noah built.

Right? And he parted the waters and two by two animals walked through on dry ground into the promised land.

It was something like that. Right? The Lord told him to cast your net out on the right hand side and he brought in nets full of fish that were too much and the nets were breaking and then

Noah got out and walked on the water to Jesus. Right? Was that it? That's sort of the confusion that exists in the minds of most people.

But with Noah most people understand who Noah was and they're familiar at least with the story of the ark and the animals coming in two by two and a worldwide flood.

They are probably most people familiar with Noah. He has a way of capturing our imagination. And honestly if you are going to write vacation

Bible school curriculum or youth group curriculum or Sunday school curriculum don't you have to include the story of Noah?

Isn't that just like this default? You know you put Noah in your five day curriculum for VBS. You're not sure who else you're gonna put in there but Noah has to get in there because it's very easy to use

Noah to capture the imagination and the attention of children. You have your Betty Lukens felt and you put the little people up on the board and the water is sort of over top and you drag the people off the bottom.

Ahhhh! Screaming in the waters. Come on people drown and every kid in the class is gonna sit there and rapt attention with their eyes wide open and you've got their attention and then you can give them the details that this is a judgment from God.

Most people know the story of Noah and as widely known as he is he is equally as widely mocked and scoffed at.

Because unbelievers though they would know many of the salient details of the story of Noah they also mock all of the major features of Noah's life and the account and the episode as recorded in scripture.

They mock the idea that there could have ever been a time in the history of the world where the waters surpassed the mountaintops.

Of course what they fail to understand is that the mountains as they exist now didn't exist in the days of Noah. The mountains that exist now are the result of tectonic plates crashing into one another at high speeds and pushing mountain ranges up out of the water.

None of the mountains around us in this present world existed in Noah's day. They fail to recognize that. The idea that God would judge all people for their sin they mock and they scoff at that.

The fact that God would command Noah to build an ark and that this boat could fit all of the various kinds of animals that we have on the face of the planet that's something that is worthy of your scoffing.

And then the idea that all of creation would be wiped out and all living creatures would be wiped out except just those ones on that boat and that this was a worldwide flood and that everything would be wiped out and that stepping off of that boat would just be

Noah and his immediate family those eight people and that the whole world has been populated from just those eight people that sounds quite ridiculous and mockers and scoffers scoff at that.

And these are all the things that make Noah unique. That God commanded him to build an ark that Noah in faith and in reverence built that ark that God brought animals of every kind to that boat and they went on to that ship and that God sent a worldwide flood that covered all of the globe and that everything was wiped out all living creatures all of those things make

Noah's story unique. And then that he stepped off of that boat and that the only people on the face of the whole planet were him and his immediate family

Noah and his wife his three sons and their wives only eight people on the entire globe.

Be honest with yourself haven't there been times in your life when you thought you know that wouldn't be such a bad gig? Just eight of us.

Until you realize that you can't have doctors and doctors and dentists and all the stuff that you rely upon and you think maybe more than just eight maybe 50 or 60 people.

Noah is a very singularly unique figure in all of the Old Testament. And do you know why scoffers mock at it?

Because scoffers do not want to admit that there are judgments like that against sin because if there are judgments like that against sin then that means that there was a judgment like that in the past and if there was a judgment like that in the past because there are judgments like that against sin in the present then there might be a judgment like that in the future.

And because they desire to deny that there can be any judgment to come they find it much easier to do that if they can deny that there has ever been a judgment like that in the past.

And so really as 2 Peter chapter 3 described we read here a few moments ago really they are seeking after their own lust and trying to satisfy their own lust driven by their own lust and their sin that is why scoffers scoff at the tale of Noah.

He is our third example in Hebrews and he follows along chronologically after the first two Abel and Enoch. Abel was an example of one who worshiped

God in faith. Enoch an example of one who walked with God in faith and now Noah an example of one who works for God in faith and it is his work of building that ark for the salvation of his family that is the focus of our writer here in Hebrews chapter 11.

In contrast to Abel and Enoch scripture gives us a lot more detail about Noah. Abel gets most of a chapter chapter 4 in the book of Genesis a lot of details about him and his brother and being killed by Cain and we get some details of that.

Enoch is relatively brief mentioned in Genesis chapter 5 but then we get to Noah and we get

Genesis 6 and 7, 8 and 9 and he is even mentioned in 10 and really the passage beginning in Genesis 5 all the way through Genesis 11 and 12 traces the lineage from Adam all the way through to Abraham that is the point of all those chapters and so it is really this godly lineage that is being traced through the book of Genesis particularly in Genesis chapter 5.

The next hero of our faith that we are introduced to later on in Hebrews 11 is Abraham and more attention is given to him more detail is given to him in Hebrews 11 and consequently the rest of the book of Genesis after chapter 12 from 12 through the end is really about Abraham and his immediate descendants his children and his grandchildren.

So before we jump back into Genesis to look at Noah I want you to see in verse 7 of Hebrews 11 briefly notice the significance that the author makes of Noah there

Hebrews 11 verse 7 By faith Noah being warned by God about things not yet seen in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household by which he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

There are two significant things that are written concerning Noah there two phrases that really describe him first he was warned about things not yet seen and later on when we come back to Hebrews chapter 11 we will see what the author is describing there he was warned about things not yet seen and then his act of building the ark was done in reverence this describes his attitude his demeanor the position of his heart he did this act of obedience in reverence and then there are three things that his faith accomplished there number one he prepared an ark for the salvation of his household and that's not spiritual salvation that is described there it is the preservation from the judgment that was taking place at the flood second he condemned the world in other words his act of faith in the building of the ark was itself a testimony of condemnation to the ungodly world around him and then third he became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith so his faith moved him to prepare an ark by which he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith those are the three things we are going to keep in mind just today as we go back to Genesis chapter 6 so turn your

Bibles back to the 6th chapter of Genesis Genesis chapter 6 and we are going to even though we could go through Genesis 6 7, 8 and 9 is really that's not the goal of this message and I said to you several weeks ago when we started

Hebrews chapter 11 that one of the challenges in preaching through this list of the heroes of the faith is how deep do we dive back into their original context without losing sight of Hebrews chapter 11 and I think the balance that I am going to try and strike is to basically describe in brief detail some of that historical context as we encounter the details in Hebrews 11 without really taking sort of a mini series on Noah from Genesis so we are just going to be looking today at Genesis 6 even though all of the details of Noah's life would encapsulate

Genesis 6 through 9 Genesis chapter 6 let me set a little bit of the historical context last time we were in Genesis was back in chapter 5 when we looked at Enoch and that of course was just a genealogy that traces the lineage of Adam all the way through to the time of Noah and we notice there that it is a chronological genealogy in other words he gives us names of people and how long they lived and when they bore a son and how long that son lived and then when that son bore a son etc.

the purpose of that seems to be that you and I would be able to date the events and the people's lives prior to the flood we can date the flood from Abraham we know when

Abraham lived we can date the flood from Abraham and then beginning in Genesis 5 we can go back and we can date creation if we take

Genesis seriously as history we can date creation from the time not precisely I'm not talking day of the week or anything but we are talking about a pretty precise date in terms of the years that creation has been around this puts

Noah in a historical context among other historical figures and he is in the line of Seth Seth was the godly descendant of Adam and Eve and not everybody in Seth's lineage would have been a believer we're not to assume that nor are we to assume that everybody who was born of Seth's line was a believer or that every single person mentioned in Genesis 5 was necessarily a believer but we can presume that most of them would have been believers and that this knowledge and understanding of who

God is and the worship of the one true God Yahweh would have been passed down from generation to generation and that would have been very easy to do because as we date the life spans of these peoples these patriarchs who lived in Genesis chapter 5 we see life spans that overlapped one another

I'll just give you a couple of significant things that I mentioned a few weeks ago when we were looking at Enoch Enoch is

Noah's great grandfather Enoch the one who was taken he is Noah's great grandfather he was a prophet

Enoch begat Methuselah Methuselah begat Lamech and Lamech begat Noah Methuselah lived to be 696 years old that is the longest recorded life span in the

Bible that is not to say that nobody lived longer than 969 years it is to say that the longest recorded life span in scripture was 969 years that is verse 27 of chapter 5

Noah was alive for approximately 100 years during the life span of Adam's grandson so remember you had

Adam and then Seth and then Enoch and his Enoch's life would have overlapped the life of Noah by 100 years

Enoch lived a long time and so Noah would have been alive at the time of his great great great great great grandfather

Enoch the one who was taken his life span would have been taken before Noah was born so he never would have known Enoch but he would have known his great great great great great grandfather or we should say he could have known his great great great great great grandfather

Enoch because their lives would have overlapped Methuselah lived up until the time the day sorry the year that the flood came

Methuselah lived up to the year of the flood Methuselah's son Lamech died four years prior to the flood and Methuselah would have outlived his son

Lamech by four years and he would have died the year that the flood came though all of these patriarchs in Genesis chapter 5 lived long lives it is important to remember that none of them except Noah and his three sons

Ham, Shem, Ham and Japheth were alive at the time that the flood came all in Genesis 5 had already died prior to the worldwide flood which means

Noah and Noah alone would have been a righteous and godly man amongst all those who lived at that time as you're listening to me preach on all this and remind you some of these things you're probably thinking to yourself

Jim it sounds like you're taking Genesis as literal history and I am taking Genesis as literal history because it is literal history there is nothing in Genesis from chapter 1 verse 1 all the way through the end of the book that would suggest that we should take it as another edition of Aesop's fables or a myth or an allegory or just a story told with a moral point or anything like that I take

Genesis as literal history there is no contextual reason to regard it otherwise and the

New Testament affirms the account of Noah and the account of a worldwide flood and the account of the ark

Jesus himself said in Luke chapter 17 just as it happened in the days of Noah so it will be also in the days of the son of man they that is those alive in the days of Noah they were eating they were drinking they were marrying they were being given in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all it is also in Matthew chapter 24 verses 37 to 38

Peter who was trained by Jesus also believed that Noah was a historical figure and that the flood was a worldwide flood and that it was a literal historical event just as recorded in Genesis Peter in 1

Peter 3 verse 20 refers to those who were disobedient when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah during the construction of the ark in which a few that is eight persons were brought safely through the water 2

Peter chapter 2 verse 5 said God did not spare the ancient world but preserved Noah a preacher of righteousness with seven others when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly and then the passage that we read earlier 2

Peter chapter 3 verse 6 describes the world that at that time was destroyed being flooded with water so Peter three times mentions

Noah and the construction of the ark and the worldwide flood Jesus mentioned it and said that the days of his coming will be just like the days prior to the great worldwide flood and this world if you look at it bears the marks of destruction we take

Genesis as history because you and I can look around it and we see everywhere the evidence of a global catastrophe the mountain ranges the fossil beds all of it is an evidence of a global catastrophe if there had been a worldwide flood do you know what we'd expect to see everywhere we look we'd expect to see billions of dead things laid down in rock layers covered by water all over the earth and you know what we find billions of dead things buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the earth fish fossils on top of mountain ranges how do you get that only by a worldwide flood how do you get massive oil deposits and natural gas deposits a worldwide flood how do you get coal beds worldwide flood how do you get fossils it's a worldwide flood so Jesus was right

Peter was right Moses was right Genesis is literal actual history now let's look at the cause of the flood all of that's just an introduction to the introduction of Genesis 6 we're going to go through Genesis 6 and see how some of these things that the author of Hebrews highlights in Hebrews chapter 11 where he draws them from out of the narrative here

Genesis 6 verse 1 now it came about when men began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful and they took wives for themselves whomever they chose now notice verse 1 talks about men beginning to multiply on the face of the land we're talking about a multiplication he's talking about people here and populations increasing and we have every reason to believe that populations increasing prior to the time of the flood that that population increase would have been substantial we're not talking about if your notion of the world before the flood is a few tribes sort of scattered around with a couple thousand people in each of these tribes that was covered by water by Noah's time you have a wrong idea of what life was like before the flood we have every reason to believe that there were millions possibly probably hundreds of millions of people who were wiped out by the world wide flood not a couple of tribes of people a few hundred at a time out in the plains of Shinar somewhere but millions upon millions of people you know how there could have been millions upon millions of people from creation all the way through to the flood a couple of different things number one you had expanded life spans remember you had people living to be 800, 900, 700 years old 600 years old that was relatively common prior to the flood it was common prior to the flood how many people do you think

Methuselah could have fathered if he lived to be 600 and 969 years old I mean

I'm I fathered four right and it wasn't intentional to stop at four I fathered four and I'm 50 years old it's possible that Methuselah could have fathered 50 children that would be

I think a conservative estimate what if all of Methuselah's and remember all the descendants of these men are also living long life spans so what if Methuselah's 50 kids each had 50 kids

Methuselah would have how many grandchildren 2500 grandchildren that's just that's just the next generation after him and if he lives to be 969 years old it's conceivable that some of these men that are mentioned in Genesis chapter 5 would have lived to see hundreds of thousands of their descendants more than they could probably name or remember it's an interesting

Christmas celebration Thanksgiving celebration not that they had Christmas and Thanksgiving back then but the family gatherings eventually there comes a point where you just stop buying presents for your grandkids for anything you don't recognize them you don't remember when they were born you're not sure their exact lineage right

I'm not sure who's great great great great grandson you are or how you come back to me but if you say that I'm your grandpa

I guess and many people had multiple wives at that time we know from Genesis chapter 4 that Cain's son

Lamech had two wives sexual immorality and promiscuity were widespread back then so it's entirely conceivable that one man could live to see hundreds of thousands of his own descendants the worldwide flood would have wiped out hundreds of millions of people which means that when

Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord and only 8 people were saved what do you think life was like in Noah's day when there were 8 righteous persons it's a different world than you and I can possibly conceive of isn't it you think it's wicked today

I do but I don't think today is I don't think how would

I say this without mentioning anybody in particular

I think that the sin of our day is at some point going to parallel that of Noah's day but I think you and I even in the wicked world in which we have in which there is so many so much restraining influence we have a hard time understanding just how wicked it would have been in Noah's day and it goes on to mention that in the text here first of all we have increasing population and then also one of the things there would have been established civilizations in Noah's day we know that Cain built a city and there was city there was metallurgy there was music there was flock keeping there was always kinds of industry and commerce prior to the flood millions of people engaging in commerce building cities establishing civilizations you see remnants of that type of pre -flood technology in the world today in the civilizations that sprung up right after the flood that knowledge from Noah and his sons was preserved even in the

Mayan Empire and in the Egyptian Empire and others that they built these massive buildings this is all pre -flood knowledge and technology that would have come through Noah and his sons and been preserved and then probably reestablished really quickly after the flood now there is this comment in verse 2 that I want to address and this is not the main point of the sermon but we have to address this because it's going to raise in people's minds a question who are the sons of God and the daughters of men in verse 2 who are these sons of God there seems to be an intermarrying or a mingling here and there are two predominant views on this passage and I'm only going to give you sorry there are more than two predominant sorry there are more than two views of this passage

I'm going to give you the two predominant ones and I'm going to tell you which one it is that I hold to the first one is that this refers to angels cohabiting with women that the sons of God were angelic beings who came down and in a physical manifestation had sexual relationship with the women of that day and that this created some sort of some people believe a mongrel breed of half human half angelic beings that were the

Nephilim the giants that were alive in those days and that because of this intermingling between angelic beings and human beings that this this polluted the entire line of Genesis chapter 5 so that Noah was the only one by that time that whose line whose lineage had not been polluted by this intermingling and intermarriage of angelic beings they base this upon the fact that in the book of Job chapter 38

I think it is talks about the sons of God and it's referring to angelic beings who shouted for joy and rejoiced at the creation of the world and it's true that some angelic beings are described as sons of God in the

Old Testament it's also true that human beings are described as the sons of God in the Old Testament so it is not my view that this refers to angelic beings who had intermarrying relationships with human beings and created a

Mongol race I don't believe that that's what's being described here it doesn't fit the context it's in the context

Moses is tracing the godly lineage of Seth from Adam all the way through to Abraham and his point in Genesis 6 seems to be that prior to the flood this godly lineage was being further and further diluted and polluted as these sons of God believers were marrying the daughters of men based only upon the beauty they saw that they were beauty and took wives from whomever they want without giving any thought to the spiritual or moral or religious qualifications of these women and that there was this intermingling that was going on to the point where at the time of Noah there were only eight godly people on the face of the planet

Seth's godly line had been so wiped out by the intermingling of these pagans with these believers that by the time you get to Noah there's only eight of them and further if you are a creationist and you believe that this refers to angelic beings intermingling and marrying with human beings

I want to challenge you with something I think that this underlines your creationist dogma that everything in creation was created to reproduce after its own kind angels do not have physical bodies and they do not have

DNA capable of reproducing with human DNA there's nothing in scripture that suggests that they can and over and over in scripture we are told that everything was created to reproduce after its own kind so even if angels could reproduce and I have no reason to believe that they do in fact

I believe that they don't even if they could reproduce creation would tell us the science of creation the doctrine of creation would tell us angels cannot reproduce with human beings because they are an entirely different created order there cannot be this cross speciation between these so I don't believe it's talking about angels cohabiting with women

I think it is describing the intermarriage of the godly and the ungodly prior to the flood verse 3 then the

Lord said my spirit shall not strive with man forever because he also is flesh nevertheless his days shall be 120 years the

Nephilim that is the giants were on the earth in those days and also afterward when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and they bore children to them those were the mighty men who were men of old men of renown notice that it says that the

Nephilim and the giants were on the earth in those days I think this just describes the fact that men back there were bigger than we are we are not evolving and becoming bigger and better we are devolving and becoming worse as time goes on because our genetic code is being more and more corrupted so I think if I don't know how tall

Adam was but my guess would be if I were standing right now next to Adam I would look like a dwarf in his presence that would be my guess that the people before creation were bigger stronger smarter mightier than we are and that is what is being described here these men of renown these mighty men were mighty in strength and ability in intellect and this probably resulted in the increasing violence that we read of in the following passage verse 5 then the

Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually that is as that is as clear of a statement of the doctrine of total depravity that you can hope to find in the

Old Testament that every thought of man's heart was only evil continually this is what it was before the fall are you better than they by the way?

in your natural state apart from the grace of God is fallen man today morally superior to those before the flood?

I would argue that we are not man in his natural state tends to invent ways of sinning all of our technology today just makes sinning more convenient it makes it easier it makes more readily available it makes it more secret that is all that our technology has done it has not done anything to change the human heart and out of the human heart

Jesus said flow evil thoughts and fornications thefts, murders, adulteries deeds of coveting and wickedness as well as deceit, sensuality envy, slander, pride and foolishness and since that is what comes out of the heart of man and God says that the wickedness of man was great and that the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually it is not difficult to see why the violence that is described below is so rampant

Genesis 6 verse 6 the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth and he was grieved in his heart the Lord said I will blot out man whom

I have created from the face of the land from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky for I am sorry that I have made them

I believe that that is an anthropomorphism it is a way of describing a sentiment or a feeling a sentiment in God in terms that a human being would understand them this is simply it is not describing that God had a change of plans or that he had a change of emotion or some wild mood swing it is not saying that God questioned his wisdom of making man or decreeing the fall and decreeing the redemption of man or anything like that it is simply describing how

God viewed sin God saw the sin of man and it was something that grieved him it doesn't mean that he questioned his own wisdom but it does mean that in the heart of God in the being of God there was a lamenting there was a sorrow and a mourning over this sin and the effects of it verse 8 but Noah found favor in the eyes of the

Lord that means that God graced Noah the word favor there means grace or graciousness Noah was saved by grace as grace was given to Noah was

Noah saved by his works? did he merit God's grace or favor? does it say that he earned

God's favor? no it doesn't it says that he found God's favor meaning that God graced Noah and as Hebrews 11 verse 7 says

Noah became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith Noah was no less a sinner than you and I are he wasn't flawless he wasn't perfect he didn't merit

God's grace he was saved in fact in the same way that you and I are saved we find favor in the eyes of the Lord as well we don't deserve it we don't merit it we don't earn it we can't do anything to do those things but instead we find

God's favor in that God graces us in the eyes of the Lord he pours out his grace he did it upon Noah and upon Noah's family verse 9 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 notice those three descriptions of Noah in verse 9 verse 9 he was a righteous man blameless in his time and he walked with God a righteous man blameless in his time and he walked with God That's our outline for this morning so that was the introduction before was the introduction to the introduction now we come to our three point outline

Noah was a righteous man blameless and he walked with God first Noah was a righteous man how was he righteous?

Did he merit God's righteousness? Did Noah have righteousness in himself? Since he came from such a godly lineage

Did Noah have this righteous seed within him that came from Adam, how is he righteous?

Doesn't Scripture say that there is none righteous, no not one, and then we read that Noah was a righteous man, and that Enoch was a righteous man, and that Abraham was a righteous man, and that Abel was a righteous man.

Where does this righteousness come from if there are none righteous? In Romans when it says that there are none righteous, no not one, it is describing the righteousness that you and I have in and of ourselves as we are before God in a fallen state.

We have no righteousness. Nothing to commend us before God if we were to stand before him. So when we read in Scripture that somebody was righteous or had righteousness, for instance

Noah, that he was a righteous man, the way that we are to understand that is that God gave to Noah a righteousness which he did not have, a righteousness which is his on the basis of faith.

That's why Hebrews says he became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. Not a righteousness that he inherited from his godly lineage, not a righteousness that he earned or merited, but a righteousness that is his on the basis of faith.

Therefore we could conclude that Noah was a righteous man because God graced him and Noah believed

God, and just as we find with Abraham, it was credited to him as righteousness. Noah's righteousness is the same righteousness that you and I have before God.

It describes our standing before God, that we are in the eyes of God not guilty of our sin or our transgressions, even though we are sinners and we are deserving of God's wrath.

Those sins are not imputed or credited to us and God does not deal with us according to our sins. Instead, for those of us who are in Jesus Christ, God deals with us according to the righteousness of his son which is credited to our account on the basis of faith.

So what was Noah's righteousness? It was the righteousness of Christ. You and I can understand that all the way through the

Old Testament, everyone who is said to have been righteous had imputed to them the perfect life and perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ.

How is it credited to them? On the same basis that it is credited to us, on the basis of faith.

Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Noah believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.

Enoch believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. He had the same righteousness that you and I enjoy because no sinner has any other kind of righteousness other than the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

God sees us as righteous. So in the text, when it says that Noah was righteous, it's describing his standing before God.

How did God deal with Noah? How did he view Noah and treat Noah? He treated him as righteous because in God's sight,

Noah was righteous on the basis of faith and the righteousness that he had was not Noah's righteousness, it was the righteousness of Christ.

That's his standing before God, he was righteous. Second, he was blameless. See, these three points are going by quicker than you thought.

He was blameless in his time. That's what the passage says in Genesis chapter six, verse nine,

Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time. The word blameless there would describe his, not his standing before God, that's righteous.

Blamelessness would be his standing before other men, how other men viewed him. He was blameless in his time. Look at the world around Noah and he stood out.

He was blameless. Compared to all the people around him, there was something that marked

Noah that marked him as blameless. Does this mean he was sinless? Does it mean he was perfect? Does it mean that in himself he was morally upright?

What does it mean to be blameless? Blamelessness does not mean sinlessness, nor does it mean perfection.

It could have that idea if that's the meaning that you wanted to sort of pack into that word, but somebody can be blameless without being morally perfect or without being sinless.

Job was described as a blameless man. There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless, upright, fearing

God and turning away from evil. That describes Job, upright, fearing God, turning away from evil. That's what blamelessness is. Is it moral and sinless perfection?

No, it's not. Is it being without sin, without guilt? No, it is not. It means that he was blameless.

Deuteronomy 18 .13, the Israelites were commanded to be blameless. You should be blameless before the Lord your God. Philippians 1 .10

says we are to do all things so that we may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ Jesus.

Philippians 2 .15, you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you appear as lights in the world.

That sounds almost like a description of Noah, doesn't it? A blameless man in the midst of a wicked, crooked and perverse generation among whom you appear as lights in the world.

We're commanded to be blameless. Psalm 119 verse one, how blessed are those whose way is blameless who walk in the law of the

Lord. What does blamelessness mean? Sinlessness? No, it means that your life is not marked by scandal or reproach.

That's the idea. It doesn't mean that you're sinlessly perfect, but it means in the eyes of people that you're not marked by a glaring sin.

Either privately or publicly, what characterizes your life is not a blameworthy quality or action that constantly marks you as an individual.

You're marked by a lack of scandal, a lack of reproach. You're blameless in the eyes of people. Yes, they would look at you and say, yeah, he's a sinner.

She's a sinner just like everybody else. But in terms of the world around us, this person is a very blameless person.

There's really nothing that I can point to in this person's, this man or woman's life that marks him as being reproachful or scandalous.

That's what it is. Blamelessness in this world, or sorry, perfection in this world is unattainable. Sinlessness in this world is unattainable, but blamelessness is not.

In fact, it's something we should strive for. It's something we should all strive for, to have our lives marked by a blamelessness.

And third, he walked with God, and this helps us understand how it is that he was blameless. He walked with God. We heard that description about someone else, didn't we?

In Genesis, who was it? Zenoch, he walked with God. Now, if you thought that the secret to being taken up out of this world was that you walked with God, Noah walked with God, and he went through a judgment.

So, God's purposes for Enoch in walking with him was that God took him. God had a different purpose for Noah.

So, walking with God is no guarantee that you will not suffer through, or go through some sort of a judgment in this world.

It doesn't mean that your soul is preserved, and it doesn't mean that God is pleased with you, but you see God's sovereign hand, his purposes for these two different men, accomplished in two different ways.

Now, you and I, I would contend, can have all of these three things characterize us. We can be righteous, imputed righteousness by faith in Christ, and Christ alone.

We can be blameless in the times in which we live, and we can walk with God. We can follow Noah's example.

In fact, the world in which Noah lived is described in verse 11. 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.

There's two things that stand out there, the word corrupt, and the word violence. The earth was filled with violence.

All flesh had corrupted itself. You can imagine living in Noah's day, and imagining everywhere you turn, there was a

Planned Parenthood abortion clinic on the corner. There was violence in the media, there was violence in commercials, there was violence in the entertainment, there was violence in the music.

There was violence out in the streets, there was violence in the pub, there was violence in the home. How were they capable of such violence?

Because these were mighty men of renown, strong men who could dominate others and force their will upon other people.

The earth was filled with violence. Those were the times in which Noah lived. Does it sound like the times in which you live?

Yeah, and you know what the story of Noah tells us? That we can never point to the world around us and use that as an excuse for not living righteous, blameless, and upright lives in which we walk with God.

We can never point to the world around us and say it's so difficult in today's world. Jim, it was easier back in the 1980s for you to walk with God.

I don't know if it was or wasn't. I wasn't walking with God in the 1980s. Life was different in the 1980s, it was.

Those of you who were born in the 1990s and since, you have seen a rapid decay in the moral fabric of our nation.

Yes, we've all seen that. We look at it and we lament it. My kids have never known what it was like to grow up in the 1980s or prior to that.

Some of you who are older than me know what the 60s and the 70s, the 50s, the 30s, and the 1800s were like.

You can appreciate all of that. The moral fabric of the nation was much different back then. But no matter how bad the world gets, no matter how corrupt the culture becomes in our day and in our lives, we can never look to the world around us and say because of that I cannot live a righteous and godly life.

Noah's world was different than ours. I think it was worse than ours. I think it had fewer of the restraining influences that we have even in our own world.

Even the worst governments in our world, though they are propagators and promoters of so much wickedness, so much violence, and so much sinfulness, those governments are better than no government.

We're the mighty rule everybody else. It was a wicked world. And like in our world, there would have been to Noah a hostility against the knowledge of the one true

God. Imagine that you were Noah and you were called to build a boat out in the middle of the plains.

This boat is big. We're gonna get to that here in just a second. And people come up to you and say, hey, what you building? And you say, it's a boat.

God's gonna destroy the entire world by water. And if you don't repent, you're gonna perish in the flood.

And that's your message to everybody. I mean, the building of the boat would have raised a lot of questions. It would have started quite a few conversations.

And every time you answer people's questions or get involved in those conversations, you have to tell them what? That God is a righteous and holy

God, that he's gonna judge sin. And if you don't turn to him, you're gonna perish. That would have been Noah's message, which is why

Peter describes him as a preacher of righteousness in 2 Peter 2, verse five. That's why Noah would have been like Enoch, a prophet who prophesied in his own day of what was to come, telling people what

God had revealed and calling them to repentance. And I can promise you that the ungodly world of Noah's day loved him as much as the ungodly world of today loves you if you stand for righteousness.

I can promise you that they loved him as much. So we can never look to the world around us and say, I can't do this.

I can't be morally righteous. I can't be upright. I can't walk with God because the world and the allures of it and the temptations of it and the pull of it is just too strong.

It was worse in Noah's day. There's only eight godly or righteous men. Genesis chapter six, verse 13.

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 am about to destroy them with the earth.

Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood and you shall make the ark with rooms and shall cover it inside and out with pitch.

This is how you shall make it, the length of the ark 300 cubits and its breadth 50 cubits and its height 30 cubits.

You shall make a window for the ark and finish it to a cubit from the top and set the door of the ark in the side of it.

You shall 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 in which is the breath of life from under heaven.

And everything that is on the earth shall perish. I just want you to notice that the cause of the flood was God himself. God himself delights in justice.

And there are times when God pours out his justice upon the wicked and that this is his will, it is his doing and we don't have to apologize for God when he judges the wicked.

We don't have to try and appear nicer than God and somehow make apologies that yes, this destruction has happened.

God would never do a thing like that. God wiped out hundreds of millions of people in a worldwide flood.

Sometimes God judges sin and that is the lesson of the worldwide flood. Verse 18, I'll establish my covenant with you and you shall 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 every creeping thing on 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 food for you and for them.

Notice the size of the ark as mentioned in verse 15. It was 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits tall.

A cubit was roughly 18 inches. There were different cultures that measured cubits in different ways, ranging between just under 18 inches to just over 20 inches.

But basically we could say it was 18 inches long, which means that the ship that Noah built was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet tall.

That's big. A football field, remember, is 360 feet long. So this is one and a half football fields long.

To put it in the context of this room, this room is 75 feet by 75 feet. So the ark would have been as wide as this room and roughly three and a half times as long as our building, which is 125 feet long.

And it would have been roughly the same height as this building is from the peak outside all the way down to the ground.

So that's some room, isn't it? In fact, one of the things that scoffers bring up is it would have been impossible for Noah ever to get all those animals on board the ark.

Well, it was that much room, three and a half times the length of our building, not the sanctuary, but the entire building, three and a half times that length, about as wide as this sanctuary and as tall as this building with three decks.

So you're talking about three times that square footage on board the ark. And in fact, Noah would not have had to take two of every species or every different breed of animal on the ark, but only two of every created kind, which means that he would not have had to take weimerizers and schnauzers and bulldogs and poodles and who would want to preserve poodles anyway.

He wouldn't have had to take all of that. He just had to take one, two of the dog kind and two of the cat kind and two of the horse kind.

In fact, Noah, by modern estimates, would have been able to house less than 7 ,000 animals on board the ark.

And that's more than enough room for all the animals, which averaged in size from a sheep or smaller on board the ark.

He could have done that. That's not unfeasible. Wouldn't have been impossible. And Noah wasn't the one responsible to go out into the wilderness and capture these animals.

God brought the animals to him and loaded them onto the ark because God was involved not just in the destruction of the world, but in the preservation of Noah and all those created kinds.

Another objection that people raise is that Noah could never have built a ship that big. It's too big, he couldn't have built that.

One guy? Wasn't one guy, it was three guys, or four guys. Noah and his three sons and their wives.

How do you know Noah wasn't a ship builder? By occupation. Do you know that? Now, the scoffer would say, you don't know that he was a ship builder.

That's right, but you don't know that he wasn't. In fact, he built this ship. How many ships do you have to build before you're a ship builder?

He built this ship. I have no reason to believe that God, having told Noah this instruction and given him this task, would not have provided all of the means, all of the skill, and all of the people necessary to build exactly what it is that God called him to build.

What Noah saw and what Noah did and what Noah lived through was absolutely unprecedented in the history of the world.

And yet, look at verse 22. Thus Noah did according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.

I love that phrase, so he did. His obedience to the command of God was the evidence of his faith. This is what we saw with Abel, right?

Abel came and brought the sacrifice, which was the evidence of his faith. Abel's faith was evident in the sacrifice that he brought because he was obedient to God.

That was the evidence of his faith. Noah's obedience to God itself was the evidence of his faith. His obedience is the proof of his faith.

And if he had not believed what God had said, Noah would never have built that boat. If he had said, ah, you know,

I don't really think God's that kind of a God. I think God's a loving God. He's not gonna judge the whole world. I mean, after all, we've never seen the fountains of the deep break up and water cover the entire planet and a total wiping out of hundreds of millions of people.

God wouldn't do something like that. I've never seen that before. It seems highly unlikely that this would actually happen. If Noah had reasoned in any of those ways and doubted what

God said to him, he would have been destroyed. But Noah believed God and he obeyed.

In reverence, he prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, Hebrews 11, seven says. He believed God regarding the salvation of a soul and he believed

God regarding the condemnation and the damnation of the entire world. And since he believed God for the salvation of his own soul, then when

God said, I'm gonna judge the world, Noah would say what? I believe what God has said he's going to do and I will act accordingly.

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. Remember, Noah, having been warned ahead of things not seen, he had not seen anything like what he was told was about to happen.

He was warned of it. And Noah, this is what faith is. It is the conviction of things not seen.

Noah was convinced that though he had never seen anything like this and nobody had ever seen anything like this, that if God says it was going to be so, then it must be so.

And so Noah, in faith, built an ark for the preserving of his family because he was convinced of what he had not yet seen.

That's what faith is. That's what biblical faith is. We are convinced of things we have not yet seen. I am convinced that Jesus Christ is coming back to judge this world and that the present world being kept reserved by the word of God is being kept for a fiery judgment.

I'm convinced of that. I am convinced likewise that by virtue of the bodily death and resurrection of the

Lord Jesus Christ, that I can have righteousness imputed to me. This is something that I have never seen, but I am convinced that it is true.

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things that we have never seen. You and I live in times that are very similar to Noah's times, a wicked world surrounded by unbelievers who mock and scoff the things of God.

It is a sinful world. It is not getting better. It is getting worse morally in every way. That is not likely to change anytime soon.

And you and I need to be prepared to live godly lives like Noah in the midst of a world that is very much increasing in just the same way that Noah's world was increasing in wickedness, violence, and ungodliness.

We must believe and take God at his word when he says that he will judge the world and that everything around us is not going to perish in some natural flooding because of global warming and carbon footprints.

I can tell you how all of this is gonna wrap up. I know how it's gonna end. Christ is gonna return, and when it is time for him to conclude his earthly kingdom and wrap up this entire creation, everything is going to be consumed and melted with a fervent heat.

It's all going to burn. And you and I have to be convinced that that is true. Have we ever seen anything like that happen before?

Nope. We're just like Noah. But we can be utterly convinced of things that we have never seen, that these things will happen.

And in the midst of that, in preparation for that, and I hope it's sooner rather than later, we can be preachers and representatives of righteousness.

We can be righteous by faith, blameless in our time, and walk with God. That is what God calls us to do.

Noah's a perfect example of that. Let's pray. Father, we do love you and thank you for your grace and the salvation that you have brought us in your son.

Again, we think of the fate that awaits this creation. And our hearts long to see others brought to a saving knowledge of Christ.

And so we pray that you would make us faithful and bold proclaimers of the truth, preachers of righteousness in our own day.

We pray that you would give to us blamelessness and a character that is above reproach. We pray that by your grace we may have that righteousness, which is according to faith, and a blamelessness in this world, and that we may walk with you.

Make us lights and a testimony to the watching world around us. And may we warn others faithfully and diligently of the judgment that is to come, so that they may escape that by faith in the death and burial and resurrection of the

Lord Jesus Christ. Unite these truths in scripture with our hearts, we pray, and may they impact our hearts as we view these events with faith and in obedience to your word.

We pray in Christ's name, amen. Please stand and let's end our service this morning by singing,

I love you, Lord. ♪

I love you, Lord, and I live to worship you ♪ ♪

Oh, my soul rejoiced to enjoy my

King ♪ ♪ And what you hear may be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear ♪ ♪

I love you, Lord, and I live to worship you ♪ ♪

Oh, my soul rejoiced to enjoy my

King ♪ ♪ And what you hear may be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear ♪ ♪

May it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear ♪

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.