The sermon, titled 'What the LORD Saw, Felt, Said, and Did,' examines Genesis 6:5-12, focusing on God's perception of humanity's wickedness, His emotional response, His declaration of judgment, and His provision of grace. It highlights the depth and universality of human corruption, emphasizing that every intent of man's heart was evil continually. The sermon draws parallels to other scriptural passages, underscoring that this condition is not confined to the past but remains a present reality. God's sorrow and grief over human sinfulness are highlighted alongside His righteous anger, portraying Him as a tender father grieved by His children's rebellion. The countdown to the flood is described as a manifestation of divine justice, yet the sermon underscores that God's grace, exemplified in Noah's story, is the ultimate solution to humanity's corrupt condition. Noah's righteousness is presented as a result of God's grace rather than his own merit, illustrating the biblical principle that salvation is by grace through faith. The sermon concludes with applications about God's omniscience regarding the human heart and the necessity of redemption through Jesus, who ultimately fixes the problem of sin.

The title of the message this morning is, What the Lord saw, felt, said, and did. That's just sort of a title that walks us through the text, the things that we see. In sequence, last week's text showed us the trajectory of mankind where good was diminishing to very little and evil was increasing to a dominant position. And so this is what the Lord said about that in last week's text. Look at verse 3.

And The Lord said, My spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh. Yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years. So, I said last week this is the start of the countdown clock to the global flood. We're continuing. The clock is ticking down now.

God has given 120 years until he's going to send almost comprehensive destruction upon the earth. Let's ask God to help us with today's text. God, we need your word, and it's good, and it helps us. It Trains our thinking, it corrects our thinking. Pray now that you would enter into this time of the preaching of your word.

Help it to be careful and accurate and faithful, but also very powerful. God, let your Spirit be here, making the preaching of Your Word come with power. So that we're moved. That more than just our thinking is stimulated, but that we're changed. Pray that that would be so today in Jesus name.

Amen. Well this week the message is structured a little differently. You know the drill. We normally just break a text into just subsections and take it off bite at a time. But today we're actually structuring the message around the themes in the text.

So the themes in the text are in the title. What the Lord saw, then what the Lord felt, then what the Lord said, then what the Lord did. It will be in the sequence of the themes as they occur into the text, but I'll be less rigidly tied to sort of a phrase by phrase sequence this week. We'll be taking them in themes, but don't worry, I'll stick really close to the text anyway. So let's take them in sequence.

One, what the Lord saw. Our text opens with these words. Verse five, then the Lord saw. As God looked out over humanity, the entire population of the world, so you can't do that, but he can. He can see it all at once.

He's looking out over all of humanity. What did he see? Look at verse 5. It tells us, then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. That's what God saw.

Now there's something in the text that it's important that we notice, and it's the links that the author goes in order to communicate the depth and universality of all the corruption of the corruption of all of mankind. This great wickedness of mankind. So You just have to notice that the author goes to great lengths to make you see, to force you to see the depth. It's not skin deep, it's all the way to the core and the universality, It's everywhere without exception. Where do I get that from?

In the text. Every intent of the thoughts of his heart. Not some of the intents of the heart, but every intent of the thoughts of his heart. All of them. Only evil.

Not Some good, some bad, some good days, some bad days. No, only evil. Not a mixture, but comprehensive corruption. This is what the author is saying. Continually.

Not on Continually. Not on again, off again. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. But evil intent going and going and going day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, continually. So it is deep, not shallow.

It goes right to the motivations of the heart. It's not one act. It's the motivations of the heart ongoing. It's deep, not shallow. And It's universal, not isolated.

This deep-seated corruption has infected everyone. You can't find someone that this deep-seated corruption hasn't infected. They're all infected, as God looks out on mankind. The author doesn't end there in his description of this. Skip down to verses 11 and 12.

We'll skip a chunk, we'll be back to it. Just look down to verses 11 and 12. The description continues. The earth also was corrupt before God and the earth was filled with violence. So God looked upon the earth and indeed it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth." So here again, the author just continues the labor to press this on it.

It's not surface, it's deep. It's not partial, It's universal. We have more of the same in verses 11 and 12, but the corruption of the heart, which we have from verse 5, has worked its way out to the hands. It's only a matter of time. There's corruption in the art.

We can hide it and put up a facade that keeps it from other people, but eventually it will work its way out to the hand. It was in the heart. Now, violence is...the earth is filled with violence. And again, it is all flesh. All flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

That is what God saw as he looked out over humanity. That is what God saw when he looks across the entire population of the world. Now, let's go to some other places in Scripture to help us understand what we're seeing here. First, to a time just after the flood. So just flip one page to chapter 8.

This helps us understand. Now the flood has come and gone, so we're sort of skipping to the end. The destruction has happened and now the ark has come to rest and the earth is dried up and they're coming off of the ark. This is what we read in Genesis 8 verses 20 and 21. Genesis 8 verses 20 and 21.

Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done." So the condition of the world before the flood is every intent of the heart being evil continually and almost the same words are used as they're getting off the ark. The people that were saved from the flood, God acknowledges that mankind hasn't fundamentally changed, that the flood isn't going to fix this condition. So they sacrifice to God, and God is pleased with that, and He says, I won't curse the ground again, even though the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.

There's going to be more children born from this one family that saved and what are they going to be like? They're going to be like the people before the flood in this sense. The imagination of their heart will be evil from their youth. Next stop, Isaiah 64 verse 6. You hear me quote this one a lot, but it's appropriate, so I'll quote it here now.

Isaiah 64 6, but we are all like an unclean thing. Here's more categorical language that won't allow us to wiggle away and say it's the other guy, it's the bad people. God through Isaiah says we are all like an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags. So most of you know what I'm going to say here. It's not the things that you're ashamed of, it's the things that you're proud of when you come and offer them to God.

God says, that's filthy. All of your righteousnesses are like filthy rags. Next stop, Jeremiah 17. Do turn to Jeremiah 17. It's long after Psalms.

Psalms is in the middle of your Bible for children. Psalms is in the middle of your Bible and then go several books past Psalms. You had Jeremiah, the prophets. Jeremiah 17. Look at Jeremiah 17.

Follow along as I read Jeremiah 17 verses 9 and 10. Here's what God says, The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart. I test the mind.

Even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. This is exactly what we're seeing in our text. This is exactly why the global flood, God is giving people what they deserve. Because he sees into the heart. He searches the heart.

He sees what's there. He tests the mind. He sees what's in the intents and thoughts of the heart, and then he renders. The heart is deceitful above all things. It makes you think, things aren't so bad.

I could turn over a new leaf. This is why these things seem so strange to us. And why we're so slow to embrace that this describes me. No, this describes bad people. Jeremiah comes and says, you are the bad people.

You are the bad person. Me? I mean well. Oh, your heart is deceitful above all things. It's tricked you into thinking things aren't so bad.

But you have a desperately wicked heart. You're born with a desperately wicked heart. Who can know it? The question means you don't know it. The fact that you think, this doesn't sound like me, proves that this is true.

That you have been deceived by your heart. The fact that you think it's the other guy proves that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Because you read this and say that's not me, that's him. Last stop. Romans 3.

Go to Romans 3 because this is actually a long section. So the structure of Romans is Paul laboring in the early chapters with us to convince us that this is true. He starts with the Gentiles and he talks about what they're like and he condemns them and then he graduates to the Jews and says what they're like and condemns them and puts us all in the same boat. So whether you were born a Jew, the people of God, or whether you were born a pagan in Ephesus, or Rome, or Philippi, or Thessalonica, Paul says we're all in the same boat. Paul, the Pharisee of Pharisees, says we're all in the same boat.

I'm in the same boat you are, you're in the same boat I am. Romans 3. This is really sort of the culmination of all this, making sure we understand we all stand condemned before God. Romans 3 verses 9 through 20. What then?

Are we Jews better than they, Gentiles? Not at all, for we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin, as it is written. Now, we're going to see all sorts of quotes here, and it's just Psalm, Psalm, Psalm, Isaiah, Ecclesiastes, and It's just a piling up of the descriptions from Scripture of what people are like, the problem with people. So that's what this is. There is none righteous, no not one.

There is none who understands. There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is none who does good, no not one.

Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have practiced deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." God gave us the law so we can see how sinful we are. Not do this and you'll be right in my eyes, when you break the law for the first time, that game is over. And now the law serves a different purpose to show you, you have deep problems with God. The relationship between you and God is fractured.

Listen to what David says in Psalm 14 verses 2 and 3. This is David in Psalm 14 verses 2 and 3. It really is more of the same. The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned aside.

They have together become corrupt. There is none who does good. No, not one." This is one of the places that Paul just quotes in Romans chapter 3. So this is just like our text. God's looking down from heaven upon the children of men, upon all of humanity, to see if there are any who understand and seek God.

And God looks and He says, no not a single one, not one. All that piling up, Genesis 8, Psalm 14, Isaiah 64, Jeremiah 17, Romans 3, believe me we could have done a lot more. To demonstrate that one, this isn't just an academic study of the past. Don't ever come to the flood narrative, the history of the flood, and say, wow, this is an academic study of times past. It's describing things that are as true today as they were then about the human art.

And two, Scripture teaches this everywhere. If you wiggle out of it in this text. There's 10, 20, 30 right behind it to push you back in. So this is what God saw, but more importantly for us, this is what God sees. See the flood didn't fix the problem.

Flood didn't fix the problem. 2. What the Lord felt. Verse 6. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth and He was grieved in His heart.

This is what the Lord felt. God was sorry for having made man. He regretted having made man. And God was grieved in his heart. Now, God didn't change his mind.

God isn't fickle, liking some things on some days, then changing his mind and not liking those things on other days. I liked it yesterday, I don't like it today. That's not what's happening here. God didn't change, humans changed. Chapter 131, Creation Week, comes to a close with the creation of man and then we have Genesis 131.

Then God saw everything that He had made and indeed it was very good. He designed it good, he made it good, he saw that it was good. Then sin, then rebellion, then disobedience, then universal corruption. Sin brought radical change into the fundamental core of human nature. Don't ask God to still say that this is good, let alone very good.

Not this God, Not God as He is revealing Himself in the Scripture. He was right when He said, very good. He designed it very good. He made it very good. It was very good, but it didn't stay very good.

He was right to be sorry that he made man. That's what we became because of sin. This radical fundamental change in his image bearers grieves his heart. Just think about that. That sentence really explains itself.

This radical fundamental change, sin coming in and corrupting us, this radical fundamental change in his image bearers grieves his heart. How could it not grieve his heart when the creatures that he gave this preeminent most precious privilege of bearing his image then becomes like this the description of Genesis chapter 6. Every intent is a heart. Only evil, continually. We often think about God's righteous anger against sin.

How many times have you heard that phrase used from this pulpit from either me or James or somebody else? God's righteous anger against sin, meaning it's right that God is furious over our rebellion and disobedience. It is right that he's furious over that, but God is not only angry, God is grieved in his heart. He is angry and he's right to be angry at rebellion against him and sin and disobedience, but he's not only angry, he's also grieved in his heart. Here's what Matthew Henry says, here is God's resentment of man's wickedness.

He did not see it as an unconcerned spectator, but as one injured and affronted by it. He saw it as a tender father sees the folly and stubbornness of a rebellious and disobedient child which not only angers him but grieves him. Think of a tender father considering the folly and stubbornness of a rebellious and disobedient child. Is he mad? Yes!

He's angry at that disposition of a child, but he's more than that. He's a tender-hearted father. It grieves him to see that in his child. He never wanted that from his child. So what does our text say is in the heart of man?

Evil, intent, continually. What about the heart of God? God's heart is grieved. It is a sorrow to God that His image bearers who were given the highest privilege have become corrupt. By corrupt meaning it's stained.

It's defiled. It's ruined. Listen to John Calvin. John Calvin says, as if God would say, this is not my workmanship. This is not that man who was formed in my image and whom I adorned with such excellent gifts.

I do not deign now to acknowledge this degenerate and defiled creature as mine. That really is a sense of our text. I designed something, and I made something, and it was very good, and it has become evil at heart continually. That's, I didn't do that. That's grieving to me.

Before we move on, I should issue a caution. Let me issue a caution to you. God is not like us, so we have to be careful how we think about this. We have to be careful not to read things about God that we recognize like being sorry, like being grieved. Oh, I've been sorry.

God must be sorry like that. I've been grieved. God must be grieved like that. We shouldn't think that these things are exactly like we experience them. We actually get in trouble if you impart your exact experience of being sorry and being grieved to God.

Our confession says that God is without passions. That's frequently misunderstood and easily misunderstood, but the confession is right. God is without passions. That doesn't mean that God is not passionate. God has deeper love than you'll ever love, and deeper hate than you'll ever hate.

So He is passionate. It doesn't mean that God doesn't have emotions. It means that nothing that God is ebbs and flows. When the confession says God is without passions it means All that he is is Constant in a beautiful way not not in a bad way in the best way his love is constant His mercy is constant It all that he Nothing that God is ebbs and flows. God doesn't have mood swings.

That's essentially what it means that God is without passions. He's not moody. He doesn't have mood swings. So God isn't responding. In Genesis 6, God isn't responding to human behavior with a mood swing.

Oh, I'm really miffed that mankind is like this. No, we get miffed. Three, What the Lord said. So God speaks in verse 3, that's last week's text, we'll look at it again. God speaks in verse 7.

And they're definitely connected, so let's look at them both. Genesis 6 verse 3, and the Lord said, my spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh. We're not peers, I'm not striving with you forever. That's my paraphrase. Yet his days shall be 120 years.

Now skipping to verse 7 where God speaks again. So the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them." So, the Spirit of God contended with corrupt mankind, He contended with us for centuries, But God announced that His Spirit would not strive with man forever, as if we were peers. And God started the countdown clock. 120 years, 119 years, 118 years, 100 years, 75 years, 50 years. The clock is ticking, meaning the countdown to the time when he would destroy man and beast and creeping thing and birds.

I'm not really spending any time on anything other than mankind in this message. That might be a mistake. All this to say though that the rest of creation is caught up in the corruption of mankind. In other translations, the Hebrew word that the new King James translates destroy, I will destroy man, is translated wipe out. That's the New American standard, wipe out instead of destroy or blot out.

ESV has it as blot out. I will blot out mankind or wipe from. That's the NIV, I'll wipe from the earth. Listen to 2 Kings 21 13. 2 Kings 21 13, God says through the prophets that as a result of the evils that happened during the reign of King Manasseh, so he was a wicked, wicked king, as a result of the evils that the people entered into.

They had a wicked, wicked king, but they were happy to be a wicked, wicked people right along with their king. As a result of this, here's what God says in 2 Kings 21.13, I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish. This is the same Hebrew word. I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. Wipe the filth away and get it out of your sight.

The idea is wiping away the filth. That's what God is saying He will do in our text. I'm going to take earth with this deep-seated, universal, there are no exceptions, I'm going to wipe away the filth. Listen to Matthew Henry. Those forfeit their lives that do not answer the end of their living.

That's not exactly how we talk. What is he saying? It means God made you for a purpose. He made you with an end in mind. It's to live for Him and love Him and worship Him and walk with Him and if you won't do it, your life is forfeit." Those forfeit their lives that do not answer the end of their living.

God made you for a purpose. If you won't live your purpose, your life is forfeit. The flood history teaches us that. Again, listen to Matthew Henry. God took up this resolution concerning man after his spirit had been long striving with him in vain." He's saying, this is a long time coming.

The Spirit of God contended with man for a long time before God made this resolution to do this. And then the countdown clock was 120 years even then. Listen to what he says now. So this is the payoff line of the message. If you haven't listened to anything and then you're going to go back to sleep, listen to this sentence.

Here's the payoff line. None are ruined by the justice of God, but those that hate to be reformed by the grace of God. Nobody is ruined by the justice of God except those that hate to be reformed by the grace of God. No one's going to stand before God, God I didn't have a chance. They're going to know in their heart of hearts that there was a hundred points, a thousand points in their lives where they rejected God's grace, when they would put their fingers in their ears and wouldn't hear His voice, and that they are ruined by the justice of God because they hated to be reformed by His grace.

And God will be proven on the day of judgment to be perfectly right in every instance and mankind thoroughly guilty. Every individual thoroughly guilty. Number four, what the Lord did. The Lord gave grace. At this point in the sermon, you should be thinking, How can that be?

If that's true of mankind, if these things are really true about mankind in general and every individual in particular, How can that be true? Now we come to Noah. I want to talk about inside the text and outside the text, but still inside the Bible. We're going to talk about Noah from our text and then also take things that are taught from outside the text. Inside the text we have one, multiple unqualified statements about the universal corruption of man and two the sequence of speaking about Noah beginning with the grace of God so the first thing that said about Noah is that he found grace in the eyes of God.

It's the first thing. So let's put it in sequence. What's first? The grace of God. So inside the text we have these multiple statements about what all of humanity is like.

There's no qualifications, like most of humanity is like this. No, no, no. It's categorical language. It's comprehensive language letting you know that no one is immune. Everybody's been infected by this tremendous spiritual disease.

No one's been spared. It's deep-seated and it's universal. And then when we start talking about this individual, the first thing that you come to is the grace of God. So all of that matters a lot. The text teaches that this deep-seated corruption of mankind includes all of mankind without exception.

Noah is not an exception. This is the condition of all human beings, But in spite of this universal condition, Noah received grace from God. That's how we should be reading this. And we have a warrant within this text to read it that way. Then and only then, then after Noah has received the grace of God, and only then, only after Noah has received the grace of God, is it said that Noah was a just man perfect in his generation.

So we are forced to make a cause and effect choice here. You don't have a choice, unless you just want to not think about it and just move on. But if you're going to bottom out on this and try to determine what is really being said here and what's not being said here. You're going to have to make a cause and effect choice. Is Noah's character The cause of God's favor?

God found a good guy. So that's the guy God used. I was looking out. It's a mess out there, but Noah, oh, oh, oh, oh, got a Ray of sunshine. Look at him.

There's one. There's a holdout. Thank heavens there's a holdout. Among all this mess there's a holdout and so he gets my favor and I'll use him because that's the good guy. That's the guy I ought to use, the good guy.

Or is God's grace the cause of Noah's character? Character. In this universal mass of corruption, God made undeserving Noah a trophy of grace. If I'm going to give everybody what they deserve, we won't have a boat at all. No boat, no ark, no survivors.

God says no. I'm going to take this undeserving man and make him a trophy of my grace. I'm going to show off a little and shape him into a man of faith and make him into a radically different kind of man than the whole rest of humanity. Just staying inside the text, I think that based on the multiple unqualified statements about the universal corruption of man in this text right here, the immediate context, and the sequence of speaking about Noah beginning with the grace of God, nothing else is said about him until we have the grace of God established, we should say it's the second option that God's grace caused Noah's character. Not the first option that Noah's character was the cause of God's favor.

It somehow attracted God's favor to him because he was such a good guy. It's such a wrong way to read this text. Now let's go outside the text to reinforce that this is actually the unified teaching of Scripture. I'm going to take us to two places. The first is so helpful because it goes right specifically to Noah and it's Hebrews 11 verse 7.

It's just one verse so you can just listen if you want to or you can go there but Hebrews 11 verse 7 says by faith Noah being divinely worn of things not yet seen no flood yet moved with godly fear prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith." So this tells you where Noah's righteousness came from. Genesis 6 says that he was righteous. Hebrews 11 verse 7 tells you why he was righteous. By faith, Noah became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. I took out some phrases in the middle, but it's legitimate to join those together.

By faith Noah became the heir, the recipient of an inheritance, became the heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. It's not self-righteousness. It's not works-righteousness. It's not law-keeping righteousness. It's righteousness accounted to you based on entrusting yourself to God.

Second is Ephesians 2. Turn to Ephesians 2. I think it's our last stop in terms of going to other places. Ephesians chapter 2. I know we spend a lot of time here also.

I'm not sorry. Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through 10. So I'm going to stop and comment as we work through. Ephesians 2. He's writing to people right out of paganism.

Ephesus was a mess. These people grew up in the middle of a mess. Two believers who hadn't been believers very long, they used to be pagans and worship false gods. And you, he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves." Here Paul's throwing his Jewish self in with the Gentiles again. We all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and we're by nature children of wrath, just as the others." So here, just like our text, we have this state of deep-seated corruption and everyone's infected.

Paul says we're all like this. Keep reading verses four and five. But God, just like our text, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, but God who is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Now look at this, verses 8 and 9. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast." This is salvation by grace alone. It's only ever a gift. If you've been saved, you've got a gift. Through faith alone, in Christ alone.

Faith is a gift to the spiritually dead. Say that again. Faith is a gift to the spiritually dead. Spiritually dead people don't believe in Jesus. Why not?

Because they're spiritually dead. Four by grace, I'm starting in 8 again, four by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." What's the gift of God? Faith. Not of works, lest anyone should boast. Now verse 10.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Did you get that? The good that follows is his workmanship. So what was the good that followed faith in Noah's life? God's workmanship.

Noah's life. God's workmanship. Noah walked with God. Noah is the hero? No, God's the hero.

It's God's workmanship. Noah was a just man. Noah is the hero. No, God is the hero. The just shall live by faith.

Noah was perfect in his generation. Noah is the hero. No, God is the hero. This is the workmanship of God in his life. The grace of God is the cause.

Noah's character is the effect. Please don't think Noah is the hero. God is the hero. The grace of God saves a corrupt man and preserves mankind and keeps this family line coming so that Jesus will come to actually save us. The flood didn't cure the problem, Jesus cures the problem, and Jesus comes through Noah.

That's how this all fits together. Yes, Noah walked with God. Noah had ongoing fellowship with this perfectly holy God. Yes, Noah was a just man. Yes, Noah was perfect in his generation.

Effect, effect, effect of the grace of God. Not the cause, the cause, the cause, somehow drawing the favor of this perfectly holy God. How would you even do that? The Apostle Paul says that the just live by faith. Listen to Romans 1.17.

Noah was a just man. Okay, the just live by faith. Here's what Paul says in Romans 1.17. For in the Gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written that just shall live by faith The righteousness of God is from faith from beginning to end What's the beginning of the righteousness of God? Faith.

What's the end of it? Faith. What's everything in between? Faith. There is no righteousness of God apart from faith.

Show me a just man, and I'll show you a man who has faith in Jesus." And that faith was the gift of God. That is what the Lord did. God gave grace. Two applications. Number one, Jim started us with this at the very beginning today.

God sees into your heart. God sees into your heart. He has seen every selfish thought. He has seen every proud thought, every self-exalting thought, every judgmental thought, every angry thought, judgmental thought, every angry thought, every ungrateful thought, every faceless thought, every cold thought, every doubting thought, every hateful thought, every unforgiving thought. He has seen them all.

He was present when you thought them. And God is utterly unable to act like it doesn't matter and overlook it. He can't. I act like it doesn't matter all the time. I overlook those thoughts all the time, but just know God is utterly unable to do that.

He knows too much and He's too good. So If you're going to have the God of Scripture, you can't...that God is not a God who can pretend like it doesn't matter. Like it's no big deal. It's no big deal to you and me because we're comfortable with sin. Just understand, God's never been comfortable with sin.

He's never getting comfortable with sin. He's never going to overlook those things. He's going to make the ledger balance. He's going to render judgment for every wrongdoing. So the only question is, now what for me?

How many selfish thoughts? How many proud thoughts, how many self-exalting thoughts, judgmental thoughts, angry thoughts, ungrateful thoughts, faithless thoughts, cold thoughts, doubting thoughts, hateful thoughts, unforgiving thoughts, I don't know the count. Account. There's going to have to be something to balance the accounts. You're to balance the accounts.

You're going to work it off. You're going to go for time served. That's not how this works. That brings us to two. Destroying bad people doesn't fix this corrupt condition.

You can punish the sins, but it doesn't fix it. You can wipe the earth like a dish, but it doesn't fix it. Only Redeeming bad people fixes it. You can render justice. And God, in a couple of weeks, the rain is going to start and God is going to render what is deserved to almost everyone.

But he's also done something to fix it in the objects of his grace, who will never be able to explain why them. Why? Why me? Why do I get to hear the sermons, have the friends? Why is my heart now inclined to these things?

I did not come with that explanation today. I don't know. It's His good pleasure. He's God. Jesus has come to redeem.

Every one of my sins will be made right. Justice will be rendered for every one of it, but is on Him. But is on Him. Let's pray. God, we're so slow to learn these very fundamental things and so quick to forget them.

I thank you that you brought us to just another place in Scripture which confronts us with what we're actually like. Just give it a few minutes we can shrink these problems down to practically Nothing. You could never overlook these things. You know too much, you're too good. Thank you for Jesus.

Thank you for preserving Noah by your grace so that Jesus could come from this line to redeem people. Thank you that you're just, that you hate sin. We're even more thankful that that's not the only thing that's true of you. You're a God of grace. Praise you God for your grace.

We pray in Jesus name, Amen.