I’m on a Boat

Trusting God’s Redeeming Judgment

If you have a Bible, you can go and grab it and turn to the book of Genesis. We are going to be looking at three chapters of Genesis this morning: chapter 6, chapter 7, and chapter 8. I am not going to read the whole thing in the beginning—I'm just going to read verses 5 through 8 of chapter 6, but we will be reading through this entire section of Scripture over the course of the sermon. Again, we'll be looking at Genesis chapter 6, verses 5–8, but we'll be looking at all three chapters for the sermon this morning.

If you don't have a Bible, you can use a pew Bible in front of you. If you don't own one, we would love for you to keep that Bible so you can have a copy of God's Word. Consider that our gift to you; we would love for you to be able to read God's Word for yourself. Genesis 6:5–8 says this:

When the Lord saw that human wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time, the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and he was deeply grieved. Then the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I created, off the face of the earth, together with the animals, creatures that crawl, and birds of the sky—for I regret that I made them.” Noah, however, found favor with the Lord.

— Genesis 6:5-8 (CSB)

Let's pray. Lord, even now as we come towards your Word, give us a sobermindedness about sin, a focus on what really matters, and a view of you and your glory. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

If you've grown up in church at all, I guarantee that you've heard this story about Noah in Sunday school, right? About the different pairs of animals that go into this boat, the storm, the doves that get sent out and being able to reestablish itself, and then the rainbow at the very end of the story. It's like a perfect children's Sunday school illustration. Often when we hear this story, it tends to play exactly like that—an interesting story about what God did in the world to reset and show the different animals and kind of create a new creation.

But this story is more than just a trip to the biblical zoo. It's actually about salvation, about redemption. You see, in this story of Noah, we get to see another small picture of God's plan to redeem all of creation. We've talked about this rhythm that's throughout the book of Genesis about life, death, and hope that repeats itself over and over again throughout the book. Here in the story of Noah, we see the exact same thing: life, death, and hope again.

We're going to break this story up into two parts. But for this sermon this morning, as we look at the primary chunk of narrative that happens, the Lord wants us to see that we need to trust in God's redeeming judgment. We need to trust in God's redeeming judgment. We're going to see it in light of three things that God reveals in this story:

1. God's regret
2. God's judgment
3. God's covenant

God’s Regret over Human Sin

Let's start with point number one: God's regret. Read with me from verses 1–4 of chapter 6:

When mankind began to multiply on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful, and they took any they chose as wives for themselves. And the Lord said, “My Spirit will not remain with mankind forever, because they are corrupt. Their days will be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth both in those days and afterward, when the sons of God came to the daughters of mankind, who bore children to them. They were the powerful men of old, the famous men.

— Genesis 6:1-4 (CSB)

In chapter 5, we get to see how God expands humanity as humanity has kids through generations and multiplies throughout the earth. Along with that expansion of humanity in Genesis 5, you also see an expansion of sin. Think of these first four verses in Genesis almost like a repetition of a bird's-eye view of what's going on in humanity as you approach the Noah story.

In fact, this section rhymes with the very first sin that you see in Genesis 3, except now, instead of one person, it's happening at a cosmic level. What happens with Eve in the garden? She sees that the fruit was desirable, and she takes it and she eats it. Now in Genesis 6, you have the "sons of God"—which I take to most likely mean the children of Seth, the seed of the woman—and they end up falling just like their ancestors, Adam and Eve, did. They saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful, and they took any of them that they chose as wives for themselves.

Now, it's not inherently wrong for men and women to get married. This is not some advocacy for chastity going on in this verse. What's going on is less like marriage and more like patriarchal oppression. This is a non-consensual taking—men looking out, seeing something that they want, and using their strength to obtain it.

The result of this sinful action, this debaucherous gaining for themselves, brings these people called the Nephilim—these powerful, famous men. Numbers 13 describes the Nephilim to be giant men of great size. The Israelites see them in the book of Numbers, and they're intimidated by them. Genesis 6 shows them to be of great strength and great fame. Humanity has grown in number, power, and fame. They're becoming well-known, reputable, able, capable people—and they've also grown in sin.

That's exactly why God gives this condemnation in verse 3. He condemns their behavior and says their days will be 120 years. There's a lot of speculation about what that might mean. I don't think that when God says their days will be 120 years that He's setting a cap on the age of human beings. I'm turning 30 next month—it doesn't mean that I'm a quarter of the way there. Most likely, I'm actually probably more like halfway there, if I'm being honest! He's not setting a cap on human ages. It's rare to find people who surpass 120 years of age, but there are exceptions. There are people today who claim to be over 120 years old, and actually, you see that in the Bible itself. Noah lives to be 950 years old, and Noah happens after this pronouncement. In fact, long after this pronouncement, Jacob in Genesis 47 dies, and verse 28 says his lifespan was 147 years. He was 130 years old when he moved to Egypt. So I don't think Jacob pulled a fast one on the Lord and snuck around His pronouncement of death at 120 years.

So what's going on here with this idea that their days will be 120 years? I don't think God is saying that each one of our lives is capped at 120 years. It says their days will be 120 years. In other words, God looks out at the calamity of corrupting sin throughout the entire earth, He hates it, and He sets a timer: "In 120 years, I will judge you. Your days are literally numbered." The timer sets, and the clock begins ticking.

In verses 5–8, God repeats this exact same story in this bird's-eye view of the earth. Look at verse 5 again:

When the Lord saw that human wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time, the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and he was deeply grieved. Then the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I created, off the face of the earth, together with the animals, creatures that crawl, and birds of the sky—for I regret that I made them.” Noah, however, found favor with the Lord.

— Genesis 6:5-8 (CSB)

God looks at this wickedness, this widespread sin happening throughout the earth, and all He sees is sin. The inclination of the human mind here is nothing but evil all the time. This sin isn't just happening with the sons of God; this is happening with everyone everywhere. It doesn't matter if you're from the seed of Seth or from the seed of Cain. Righteousness was not passed down from generation to generation. Rather, the sin of Adam and Eve has been passed on—it stains everyone. God looks at every single individual soul on the planet and sees that there is nothing but evil going on in their mind all the time.

So God regrets that He made man on the earth. He regrets it so much that the text says it twice in verses 6 and 8. What does it mean for God to regret making creation? What does it mean for Him to regret something that He did?

We want to interpret Scripture in light of everything else Scripture says. We know that the Bible teaches that God is an unchanging God. That's exactly what we sang today in the new hymn—that God is the Unchanging One. Numbers 23:19 says that God is not a man that He might lie, or a son of man that He might change His mind. Does He speak and not act, or promise and not fulfill? So the Bible is pretty clear: Does God change? No, He doesn't change at all. His plans do not change.

So why does God say that He regrets creating, or that He regrets something He did? The reason God uses this language is not because God has changed, but because He's grieved. It's not that God has changed; it's that you and I have changed. Notice the way God speaks in verse 7: He says that He will wipe mankind, the animals, the creatures that crawl on the earth, and the birds of the sky. He's listing the life created in the days of creation, working backwards from the order of creation. He wants to wipe out mankind, then the animals and creatures that crawl, then the birds of the sky—taking them off the face of the earth. In other words, God is rewinding the tape. He is de-creating. He is judging creation. He is pressing the reset button. And more importantly, He is judging evil.

God looks at the widespread evil that permeates all of creation, and it's so corrupt, so bad, that the language makes it look irredeemable. God's regret here is not a statement about His own plans; it's a statement trying to reveal God's heart—that God hates sin. God's not a neutral observer here. He's not some deist separated from creation. Whenever creation falls into corruption, whenever it gets worse and more evil, God hates it. He hates it so much that you can see the emotion in His tone and His response to sin—that He regrets creation itself.

Do you hate sin like that? Do you reflect the heart of God when He sees the calamity that sin has brought—the destruction, the wickedness? You and I all know that sin is bad. You know that we're supposed to fight sin. That's stuff that we can understand up here in our minds. But I want to ask you: Do you hate it in your heart? Do you hate sin? We don't want to wince when it comes to evil in the world; we want to condemn evil with all of our hearts. We want to see justice applied. And we ought to share that heart in our attitude toward sin in our own lives. Do you hate your own sin? Do you proactively put it to death?

If you were to plumb the depths of your heart, can you honestly say that when you think about your own sin, you are grieved by it? If not, we may be giving lip service to the realities of our rebellion. We might even sincerely feel bad about getting caught, but the heart of God is so much more than that. We need to regret the evil itself—to be so deeply grieved that true repentance begins to spring up in our hearts.

God, in describing His hatred of sin, uses human, anthropomorphic language to describe what He thinks about the sin of the world and the extent to which He hates it. He hates it so much that He is willing to wipe out every living land and sky creature from the face of the earth. When those 120 years finally come to an end and the alarm begins to ring, He does exactly that—except for one family. Noah finds favor with the Lord.

God’s Judgment and Noah’s Faithfulness

Which brings me to point number two: God's judgment. Read with me from verse 9:

These are the family records of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among his contemporaries; Noah walked with God. And Noah fathered three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with wickedness. God saw how corrupt the earth was, for every creature had corrupted its way on the earth. Then God said to Noah, “I have decided to put an end to every creature, for the earth is filled with wickedness because of them; therefore I am going to destroy them along with the earth. “Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it with pitch inside and outside. This is how you are to make it: The ark will be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. You are to make a roof, finishing the sides of the ark to within eighteen inches of the roof. You are to put a door in the side of the ark. Make it with lower, middle, and upper decks. “Understand that I am bringing a flood—floodwaters on the earth to destroy every creature under heaven with the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark with your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives. You are also to bring into the ark two of all the living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of everything—from the birds according to their kinds, from the livestock according to their kinds, and from the animals that crawl on the ground according to their kinds—will come to you so that you can keep them alive. Take with you every kind of food that is eaten; gather it as food for you and for them.” And Noah did this. He did everything that God had commanded him.

— Genesis 6:9-22 (CSB)

God tells Noah about His plan to build an ark, which is not a speedboat. It's basically a giant box, a chest, for them to fit all these animals in. All the details show that this ark is a gargantuan project—an absolute behemoth of a boat. By design, it is intended to be large in order to fit Noah's family and seven pairs of clean animals or two of every living creature.

Just think about all the work involved in building an ark of that size and scale and gathering that much food. Verse 22 simply says, "Noah did this. He did everything that God had commanded him." Have you ever thought about how insane that must have looked? Imagine building a carnival-sized yacht in the middle of Las Vegas! What body of water are you intending this thing for? What are you doing? Yet Noah does it. He does every single thing that God commanded him, which, to be frank, sounds crazy.

It was a long hundred years, by my best guess. At the end of chapter 5, Noah is 500 years old, and by the time the flood happens in chapter 7, it says Noah is 600 years old. Just imagine a hundred years of laying logs, constructing this sideways skyscraper. That is absolute madness—unless what God said is actually true. If what God says is true, then what Noah did is not insane; it's actually the only sane thing to do.

Friends, how do you determine reality? Is it based on what you see with your own eyes? Is it based on what other people think or what the majority does? Or is your view of obedience, hope, and discipline based on what God says? Noah makes a radical choice. You don't even see any inner turmoil here; it just says Noah hears it from God, and he does it. Every day of work that he gets out of bed and lays down another log, every day that he gets his sons to work on the frame of this building, he is trusting. He believes that what God says is absolutely true.

People will think the same of you. They will think that you are insane for dedicating your life to Christ, for doing things that don't make sense to anyone—sacrifices that will make people scratch their heads, promotions that you deny, discomforts that you deliberately choose, nations that need to hear the Word that you willingly uproot everything for. The Christian life is not dictated by what's most strategic or what makes the most sense. The very heart of Christianity is something that, through the lens of the world, looks insane. It's insane—unless it's true.

I want us to be a crazy church! To be an insane church that gets up and follows God's commands no matter how ridiculous they look, because we believe that we serve a God who is real and true. Let me say this: if Jesus doesn't actually come back, we ought to look really dumb, because obedience isn't meant for the approval of the masses, but for our Master.

I love the example of the faithfulness of so many of you here who chose to stay at this church week after week after week. Some of you have been here for decades through good times in the church's life, and if we're being honest, through times where the church didn't look like it was headed in a great direction. Many of you showed up anyway, week after week, putting your energy and commitment into something that looked like it was in steady decline. I just want to laud you for having the faith of Noah—believing in something that's greater than what you can see. You are an example to us as we continue to follow Christ.

Noah does exactly that. He lays down every log, binds every tree, and gathers every ounce of food, trusting in something that he couldn't see because he understood that to ignore God's judgment leads to destruction.

The Flood and Swift Divine Judgment

That is exactly what happens in chapter 7. Let me read the whole chapter for us:

Then the Lord said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation. You are to take with you seven pairs, a male and its female, of all the clean animals, and two of the animals that are not clean, a male and its female, and seven pairs, male and female, of the birds of the sky—in order to keep offspring alive throughout the earth. Seven days from now I will make it rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing I have made I will wipe off the face of the earth.” And Noah did everything that the Lord commanded him. Noah was six hundred years old when the flood came and water covered the earth. So Noah, his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives entered the ark because of the floodwaters. From the animals that are clean, and from the animals that are not clean, and from the birds and every creature that crawls on the ground, two of each, male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, just as God had commanded him. Seven days later the floodwaters came on the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the sources of the vast watery depths burst open, the floodgates of the sky were opened, and the rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. On that same day Noah and his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, entered the ark, along with Noah’s wife and his three sons’ wives. They entered it with all the wildlife according to their kinds, all livestock according to their kinds, all the creatures that crawl on the earth according to their kinds, every flying creature—all the birds and every winged creature—according to their kinds. Two of every creature that has the breath of life in it came to Noah and entered the ark. Those that entered, male and female of every creature, entered just as God had commanded him. Then the Lord shut him in. The flood continued for forty days on the earth; the water increased and lifted up the ark so that it rose above the earth. The water surged and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. Then the water surged even higher on the earth, and all the high mountains under the whole sky were covered. The mountains were covered as the water surged above them more than twenty feet. Every creature perished—those that crawl on the earth, birds, livestock, wildlife, and those that swarm on the earth, as well as all mankind. Everything with the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils—everything on dry land died. He wiped out every living thing that was on the face of the earth, from mankind to livestock, to creatures that crawl, to the birds of the sky, and they were wiped off the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark. And the water surged on the earth 150 days.

— Genesis 7:1-24 (CSB)

You can picture the scene: Noah, his family, and the animals enter the ark, and as they do, the floodwaters come. Jesus talks about this exact moment when the rain started to come. He observes in Luke 17:27 that in the days of Noah, people went on eating, drinking, marrying, and being given in marriage until the day Noah boarded the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Eating, drinking, marrying—because there's no judgment, it seems, in sinful days. At least it looks like it until God comes.

It is a swift judgment. You can see it in verses 17, 18, and 19: the waters increase in verse 17, then surge and increase in verse 18, and then surge in verse 19 until even the highest mountains are completely covered. This judgment is swift—it happens fast—and it is absolute. Everything with breath in its nostrils dies. You could climb to the very peak of Mount Everest, and you would still be submerged in water. Only Noah and his family were left.

If you're not a Christian, I wonder what hope you have if you were to lose everything. Do you realize that if what the Bible says is true, there is a judgment coming for you? You could live every day of your life focusing on other things, getting distracted by the rat race offered to you. You can eat, drink, get married, and focus on your kids, and at a moment's notice, the waters of judgment will come and overwhelm you. You will die in light of the judgment of our God. What will you do? What hope do you have?

For all of us, if this world is wasting away, I wonder what you and I are spending our time building. Would you say that your week's priorities accurately reflect this world's coming judgment? Are you building sandcastles that will get washed away when the rain comes? Judgment drowns out any semblance of hope in a fallen world. There is nothing that is guaranteed in this life except that it will go away. Everything with breath dies. It could be the waters of the flood; it could be the waters of death itself. It will go away—except for those who are inside the ark. They're the only ones who live.

God’s Covenant and the Ark of Christ

They live because God didn't just bring justice; He brought salvation through a covenant. You see that in chapter 8. Let me read the whole chapter for us:

God remembered Noah, as well as all the wildlife and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water began to subside. The sources of the watery depths and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the rain from the sky stopped. The water steadily receded from the earth, and by the end of 150 days the water had decreased significantly. The ark came to rest in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. The water continued to recede until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were visible. After forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made, and he sent out a raven. It went back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. Then he sent out a dove to see whether the water on the earth’s surface had gone down, but the dove found no resting place for its foot. It returned to him in the ark because water covered the surface of the whole earth. He reached out and brought it into the ark to himself. So Noah waited seven more days and sent out the dove from the ark again. When the dove came to him at evening, there was a plucked olive leaf in its beak. So Noah knew that the water on the earth’s surface had gone down. After he had waited another seven days, he sent out the dove, but it did not return to him again. In the six hundred first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the water that had covered the earth was dried up. Then Noah removed the ark’s cover and saw that the surface of the ground was drying. By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was dry. Then God spoke to Noah, “Come out of the ark, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. Bring out all the living creatures that are with you—birds, livestock, those that crawl on the earth—and they will spread over the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” So Noah, along with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, came out. All the animals, all the creatures that crawl, and all the flying creatures—everything that moves on the earth—came out of the ark by their families. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord. He took some of every kind of clean animal and every kind of clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. When the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, he said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of human beings, even though the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth onward. And I will never again strike down every living thing as I have done. As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.”

— Genesis 8:1-22 (CSB)

The waters cover the earth for 150 days and destroy everything. There's no way you could survive 150 days in the water. Then the waters recede. Noah sends out a raven and a dove to check the surface of the waters. Really, the waters covering the earth look just like Genesis 1 before God creates—His Spirit hovering over the watery depths, the chaos of the waters. After the earth is finally dry, God tells Noah to come out of the ark, and he steps onto safe land.

Noah's immediate response is to build an altar and offer burnt offerings—a sacrifice on the altar. The text says the aroma pleases the Lord; it satisfies Him. God's response to that pleasing aroma is a promise that He will not curse the ground again. Did you notice the details in God's promise in verse 21? He says He will never again curse the ground, even though the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth onward. There will still be seasons—seedtime, harvest, cold, heat, summer, winter, day, and night. Life goes on.

The reason why you and I are not currently wiped out by God's watery judgment is because the Lord has decided to give humanity what we call common grace: this universal kindness, this reliability of the seasons, this consistency of existence and harvest. Yet this pleasing aroma and this promise from the Lord doesn't fix the root problem. When God looks out at creation in Genesis 6, He says that mankind is corrupt. In Genesis 8, after the pleasing aroma, as God is pouring out His blessing on mankind, He still says that the inclination of the human heart is evil. Sin is still there. The Nephilim who were supposedly drowned show up again in the book of Numbers. In chapter 11, we see another worldwide attempt to defy God's commands. In chapter 9, you see one of Noah's sons already giving in to despicable sin. No amount of water can wash away the stain of sin in our hearts.

It's almost as though this entire plan with this giant ark and hundreds of years of work didn't work—it didn't really do anything, unless it's part of a bigger plan. Unless the way God speaks is indicative of His heart, and God, the uncreated One, has greater plans than you and I can possibly conceive.

Noah's story is yet another repetition of God's grace in a broader arc: life, death, and hope over and over and over again. But Noah's story introduces a new piece to the puzzle. It provides another drop of insight into God's plan: His covenant. Noah finds favor with God, receiving grace from God. God sets Noah apart. He says in chapter 6, verse 18, "I will establish my covenant with you." Noah is found righteous, blameless, and walking with God, just like Enoch did. Like Enoch, Noah is going to be spared from this death.

The reason Noah is selected is not because he is inherently righteous—you will find that out next week! The reason Noah is spared is not because of his inherent goodness. Chapter 6, verse 17 makes clear that every creature under heaven with the breath of life should perish. What saves Noah is that God establishes a covenant—a promise, an agreement that defines the relationship between God and Noah's family. This covenant comes from God's grace and initiative—a promise that God will spare Noah and his family.

In fact, the entire story is about all the things that God does. If you want to review this passage this afternoon, just open your Bible and note every single time God does something. When you read chapters 6, 7, and 8, every single part of the story involves God at work. In chapter 6:8, Noah found favor with the Lord. In verse 18, "I will establish my covenant." In chapter 7:16, "the Lord shut him in." In chapter 8:1, the action that triggers the end of these watery floods of judgment is that "God remembered Noah."

How does Noah reflect this saving work that God has done for him and his family? By offering a sacrifice with an aroma that's pleasing to God. God brings judgment on the earth, but He also brings salvation through His remembering, through His ark, and through His covenant.

Genesis 6 through 8 is not primarily a story about Noah's redemption arc; it is a story about God's redemption arc—that He constructs salvation for you and me in a way that spares us from the watery judgments of death. That same grace extends to us today. In a world with so much confusion and sin, in a life where we are repeatedly confronted with the reality of our fallenness, what hope do we have?

When you look at God's judgment on the world, it is an accurate indictment for all of us. The waters of judgment ought to come because we all deserve death; we all deserve judgment. Death is the inevitable punishment for the sin that you and I have committed. Noah teaches us that our hope is not found in our own montage of redemption as we lay down logs of our own works to be saved from these coming waters. It is not in our own ability. We can't save ourselves any more than we can change God's mind.

The good news for us in the gospel is that God has constructed an ark for us: His name is Jesus Christ. God made flesh came down to earth and was plunged into the waters of wrath on our behalf. On the cross, He died taking the punishment that you and I deserved, and He rose from the dead three days later, emerging victorious over sin and death.

The good news of the gospel is not that you and I get to eat, drink, and be merry until our inevitable end. That's the best news the world has to offer: "Be kind to one another because we're all going to die anyway." The gospel is so much better than that! The good news of the gospel doesn't ask you to ignore the fact that you are corrupt and deserve to be wiped off the face of this earth—the Bible is alarmingly clear-eyed about that. What the Bible offers is the good news of covenant hope: not something else you have to do, not something else you could possibly accomplish to make God satisfied with you again, but something that He has done and will do.

There is true covenant hope in Christ. If you place your trust in Him, if you hide yourself in Him, if you go to Christ and ask Him to cover and protect you, then just as Christ passed through death into everlasting life, you can hide in Christ and go through death too, trusting that you will find everlasting life on the other side. That is the good news of the gospel.

If you're not a Christian, would you place your faith in Him today? There are only two ways you can live your life: either you are in Him, or you will be destroyed by the waters of judgment. There is only one way you can be spared. As the author of Hebrews notes, by faith Noah condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. Following Christ is not insane. In fact, if Christ rose from the dead, it is the most sane, reasonable choice you can possibly make, because God is an unchanging God, and He has shown Himself to be remarkably consistent in everything He does. God hates evil, God will judge all evildoers, and God, the Unchanging One, saves evildoers like you and me through the unchanging, permanent, everlasting, effective hope and true grace that comes from the ark of Christ.

When the waters of death strike fear in your soul, when your sin discourages you from looking toward Christ, when you feel the waters rise and you're scared of where you will find your next breath, you can remember that salvation does not come from you. God, in the midst of our need, our sin, and our wretched hopelessness, remembers. The Lord saves. The Lord is the One who shuts the door and seals Noah and his family in—and if you are in Christ, the Lord has you, too. Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this good news that you are an effective, loving, unchanging Savior. We ask, Lord, that you would help us to trust you. I pray that if there's anyone here who doesn't know you, that they would give up on the things that are wasting away in this world and find true, everlasting hope in you. Pray that you would help all of us not to place our faith in things that do not last, but that we would hide ourselves in you. We thank you that Christ is a sure refuge for our souls. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.