It looks like we're at seven o'clock this evening. Let's begin our worship by singing of the name of our Savior, blessed be the name. If you came in, there are notes for tonight and there's a hymn, blessed be the name. For a song like this, we've just got to sing all the verses. So blessed be the name, all four verses. It's cold enough, let's go ahead and stand and sing. All praise to Him who reigns above in majesty supreme, who gave His Son for man to die that He might man redeem. So hymns are there in the back on the table with notes as well. So we're getting ready to get up. This Sunday is the second Sunday of the month, so we're looking forward to worshiping together. Let's be in prayer for that. Let's be praying for the outreach this Sunday as well. Hope you do this all day. And worship the Lord. Let's do it. Are you ready? All right. Blessed be the name on the count of three. One, two, three. ♪ Hail, hail, hail, hail, hail, hail, hail, hail, hail, hail, hail. ♪ Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. His name, our God, will be chosen, Blessing be the Name, Blessing be the Name, Blessing be the Name of the Lord. Blessing be the Name, Blessing be the Name, Blessing be the Name of the Lord. He lives in every heart, Blessing be thy salvation's plan. Love has died for all. Blessing be thy name. Blessing be thy name. Blessing be the name of the Lord. Blessing be thy name. Blessing be thy name. Blessed be the lamb of the Lord. His face shall be the countenance of the mighty Prince of Peace. All other kingdoms of the world the King shall never see. Blessing be the name, blessing be the name, blessing be the name of the Lord. Blessing be the name, blessing be the name, blessing be the name of the Lord. Okay, good singing. You may take your seats. This evening, please do check to see that you have notes for tonight's message. and go ahead and take out your Bibles, please. We're gonna start in the Old Testament. We'll be bouncing around here and there, but we'll start out in Ezekiel chapter 14. So major prophet, Ezekiel 14, the writer during the Babylonian exile. Ezekiel chapter 14, In this passage, we are reminded that we live in a wicked world. This world is indeed a wicked, wrong place. We live in a world that suffers from the curse of sin, where men and women glory in the shame of sinfulness. Our culture is no longer embarrassed by sin. It boasts of sin. This is not a new thing. The world of Ezekiel, Noah, Daniel, and Job was much like our own. Indeed, this is what the world will be like when Jesus Christ returns to find us all. Are you embarrassed to live righteously in a world that needs goodness? Do you fear to speak the name of Him who is our righteousness? Are you ashamed of the gospel, of God, of goodness in this dark world? Well, you've turned to Ezekiel 14, and as we read verses 12 through 23, we're going to see in tonight's text that God himself extols three righteous men who were lights in their dark generations. They suffered. They lost much. They shone in the darkness. Their lives were characterized by righteousness when everyone around them was rejecting the righteousness of God. They obeyed in days of disobedience. They trusted God when others were mocking God. Of all the history of the world, God names these three. here in 600 years before the Lord as premier examples of righteousness. God brought these men to mind as those who served him in righteousness. So these men shine forth And they're repeatedly held up by the almighty, omniscient God as grudges. So you're there in Ezekiel 14. I gave you enough time to get there. We're starting in verse 12. Pay attention. Look at the world these men lived in. Look at the world Ezekiel lived in. All right. Then the word of the Lord came to me. This is Ezekiel saying, son of man, If a country sins against me by committing unfaithfulness, and I stretch out my hand against it, destroy its supply of bread, send famine against it, and cut it off from both men and beast, even though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in its midst, By their own righteousness, they could only deliver themselves, says the Lord God. Verse 15. If I were to cause wild beasts to pass through the land, and they depopulated it, and it became desolate so that no one could pass through because of the beast. Though these three men, again the same three men, Noah, Daniel, and Joseph. Though these three men were in the midst As I live, declares the Lord God, they could not deliver either their sons or their daughters. They alone would be delivered, but the country would be desolate. Verse 17. Or if I should bring a sword on the country and say, let the sword pass through the country and cut off man and beast from it, even though these three men have given no up and no Even though these three men were in the midst, as I lived, declares the Lord God, they could not deliver either their sons or their daughters, but they are wrong. Verse 19, Hashitzah played against that country. and pour out my wrath in blood to cut off men and beasts from it." Verse 20, even though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in its midst, as I live, declares the Lord God, they could not deliver their son or their daughter. They would only deliver themselves by their righteousness. For thus says the Lord God, how much more. See in verse 13, it's a generic country. that has brought judgment upon us. Now we're talking about God's country in verse 21. For thus says the Lord, God, how much more would I sing my poor, severe judgments against Jerusalem? Sword, hammer, wild beast, and plague to cut off man and destroy him. Yet behold, survivors will be left in it, who will be brought out, both sons and daughters. Behold, they are going to come forth to you, and you will see their conduct and actions. Then you will be comforted for the calamity which I brought against Jerusalem, for everything which I brought upon it." Notice verse 23. Then they will comfort you when you see their conduct and actions, for you will know that I have not done in vain whatever I did to you in the past. Father, as we look at your Word today, we will see your righteous justice, the punishment of your children, the punishment of the wicked, But we will also see your grace. We will see your mercy. We will see how you favor those who trust and obey you, living righteous lives. Father, grant your grace to us, that we, by thy hand, might live holy, righteous lives. Lord, it won't be by might, it won't be by power, but by your Spirit that you will enable us to have victory over the flesh, over sin, be able to give others the world and save yourself. So Lord, give us the victory. Conform our minds and our hearts to the heart and mind of Christ. Do our work for your word this evening. Now, as we looked at this passage this evening, we saw a great contrast. We saw God's righteous judgment being poured out on the wicked. In verse 13, we saw that this wicked place was a place, a country, that had turned its back on God, a place in rebellion against God the maker. And as a result of their iniquity, their sin, God brings a fourfold judgment upon this nation. This nation goes through famine, verse 13, ferocious beasts, verse 15. It faces the sword of war in verse 17, or maybe just violence in the streets. the sword there in verse 17. We see the desolation of disease in verse 19. And God says, these three righteous men in this wicked country, this pagan, not mine place, would only save themselves by their righteousness, by God's righteousness. Not even their kids would be saved. And then God shifts the scene to His own chosen people, to Jerusalem, the city of peace, Salem. And this city of peace, which has a covenant through Abraham and through Moses that God will bless those who bless her, that God will curse those who curse her, that Israel, according to the Mosaic Covenant, would receive blessings from God for righteousness, but these were God's people. But if they left the terms of the Mosaic Covenant, they would get the same punishment as a wicked. They would face the sword. They would get the plagues. They would experience famine and wildebeest. just as those who were not his children, those who were not the descendants of Abraham, they would face God's righteous, in this case, chastisement as their God, as their Lord. But there would be a difference. Cain and Lance, only Noah, Job, But in Jerusalem, it's not just Noah, Job, and Daniel that murder themselves. We see that from Jerusalem, there is a remnant. There are children who receive mercy and who respond to that chastisement, who respond to the judgment. and come back to God. There is yet mercy in judgment for the children of God. And so what I want us to understand, as you look at the page there, page number two, as we're looking at these three men, we're going to have a view for each man, one for Noah, one for Daniel, one for Job. What we see here is that we, as God's people, need to be righteous in this wrong way of life. We need to be soft. We need to be nice. We need to be different. And that is not going to be easy. Noah and his family were the only survivors of their generation. Their family, their friends, their acquaintances, their enemies, all these other things were wiped out in the flood. Daniel was a prisoner of war. Job had his wife calling him to curse God and die. Job had his ten children slaughtered. As the building collapses, they die of natural causes. Job experiences where he had once been wealthy, he experiences poverty. And so all three of these men experienced a great deal. But notice that, number one, Noah's righteous example actually condemns his own generation. Now look at his corrupt generation. Turn back to Genesis 6, please. Look at the world Noah lived in. So you drop down in Genesis 6 to verses 5 through 7. In Genesis 6, verses 5 through 7, the Lord saw what? The wickedness of man was great on the earth. Every intent of the thought of his heart was only evil continually. And it was to the point, look at verse six, that the Lord was sorry. He repented, in other words, he says, that he had made man on the earth. He was what? In his heart. You drop down to verse 11, and you see that this is not a happy place. The earth was corrupt. Think of a banana gone bad. It was nasty. It was corrupt in the sight of God. The earth was filled with violence. So this is not a good place. And so God actually came to regret making people these ones that he had made in his very own image to reflect his likeness, to have dominion over his creation. And he looks at them, and they're nasty. They're defiled. They're corrupt. They're violent. Every thought, every intent, instead of reflecting God's creativity, His beauty, His holiness, is nasty. It's gross. And God says, oh, man. No, it was good. It sure is. And so this was a place of corruption, a place of violence. And it's not just one or two, it's everyone, everywhere, all over the... It's universal. This is a characteristic of the culture. Widespread. It's not one or two bad apples. The entire bushel, the entire basket is bad. It's rotten. It's nasty. It stinks. But this is a world that actually, to my mind, looks pretty wild. I mean, look at the hurricanes, look at the earthquakes, look at the fires in LA. I mean, there's violence, people being violent, natural disasters. And Jesus actually, I'm not gonna ask you, well, go ahead, turn to Matthew 24. Jesus actually says, you know what this you know, it was just normal When he comes back, it's going to be just like it was in the days of Noah and what Jesus says He doesn't talk about the corruption. He doesn't talk about the violence. Although I'm sure that's going through everyone's minds. But what Jesus says is, you know, when I come back, it's going to be like the days of Noah. And what is Jesus thinking about when he's thinking of this corrupt, vile place? Look at Matthew 24, 37 through 39. The coming of the Son of Man, of course that's Jesus Christ talking about his second coming. The coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. What's that like? The first 30 years. As in those days before the flood, they were eating. You didn't even think you'd eat before you came to church tonight. Have you eaten today? Once, twice, maybe more. No one asked how much or how often you've eaten. But, you know, that's normal, right? God made us to need food. Even in the Garden of Eden, before the fall, people were eaters. God gave all kinds of things of need for people to eat. They were eating. Nothing wrong with that. You know, unless it's gluttony or something, right? But, you know, they were eating. They were drinking. We need water to survive. Well, there might have been some other things. Noah did some drinking later and stuff, you know. But they were eating. They were drinking. They were married. That's a good thing. We have a problem when people don't get married and have kids, right? They were married. The right kind of marriage, a man and a woman, as long as they live, that's good. We can corrupt that too, but they were married. They were getting a marriage, getting engaged. You know, all this, that's normal. And this normalcy is going to go to the end of the age. People are going to have to sustain themselves, eating, drinking. They are going to fall in love. They're going to get married. They're going to... Oh, that's fine. But what's the problem? Until the day Noah got on the ark. Look, verse 35, they didn't understand. Their focus was on here and now. Now, most of us aren't this way. We find it easy to be this way. We pray for our daily bread, but if we don't go beyond the daily bread and realize that we are living for eternity, that eternal things are at stake, we can just live so much in the here and the now that we forget we are eternal souls. We're going to spend some place for you forever. And so they didn't understand. that they had to give an answer to God. The pleasures of the moment, time, the concerns of the moment, the drama of the moment, will we have enough to eat, will there be enough, flood, famine, whatever. That will take us to the end. But we have a place to live now. So these people were without discernment. They were concerned for the moment with no thought of eternity. Eating, drinking, a certain kind of love is going to be characterized all the way through to the end times when Jesus Christ returns. There's always, ever and always going to be a temptation to focus on the now and not the eternity. Where's your focus? Well, we do have to live in the present. We do have to work. Call an executive and address their needs. If you don't work, you don't eat. But that should not be our school focus. Even working, or even entering into God's work as you fellowship with others around the temple, or as you work in such a way that brings glory to God, What we are doing in time affects the time. But if we forget that, what are we going to do? Now notice, not only Noah's corrupt generation, but if you look there, that Noah's righteousness was not something of a self-improvement program. It wasn't something that came naturally. Turn in your Bibles to Hebrews 11, and we're going to read verses six and seven. Because we want to get not just the verse that has Noah's name in here, but get the entire context here. This, of course, is a faith chapter, the heroes of the faith, and here in Hebrews 11, verse six, we know that without faith, it's impossible to please God. Now we've already read in Ezekiel God's commendation of Noah's righteousness, but we see as we continue in Hebrews 11, it says, without faith it's impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe what? That he is God's creator. Believe in God. and that he is a rewarder. In other words, how you respond to God is because you believe that God is good, he is righteous, he's going to reward you for how you respond to him for what he says. Alright? He is a rewarder of those who seek him. So if that is true, then look at the next verse, verse 7. Verse 7 says, 5 faith. This same kind of thing that pleases God, that knows that God is real, that God rewards those who come to Him. This faith of Noah, who was warned by God about things not yet safe. This had never happened before. In reverence. Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fear is true wisdom, right? He reverenced God. He feared the Lord. He prepared him for the salvation of his household. And yet, it's not just known by himself. Not like it was in other areas, either. For the salvation of his household, and we continue on there, by which he knows his favor. by which he condemned the world and became an heir of righteousness, the same way Abraham did. Genesis 15 says, Abraham believed God and was counted to be righteous. So here is Noah, an heir, rewarded, an heir of righteousness, which he is appointed to pay. So, Noah was saved by faith, just as everyone else in Hebrews 11, as all true believers are. Right? It's the same method of salvation. Now, God gave Noah news that no one had ever heard before in the entire history of the human race. Now, before this time, God dealt with Adam. He dealt with Eve. He dealt with Abel, a king. accepting sacrifices, rejecting sacrifices, kicking out of Eden, right? But he dealt with individuals one-on-one, one-by-one, individually. But now when we come to Genesis 6, it's not individual, it's universal. It's affecting not just nations, it's affecting the entire world. This is unprecedented. This had never happened before. And so this was absolutely staggering. So you see there in verse 7, this is something that's never yet been seen, right? Not just rain, but just that kind of extensive judgment. Before, Cain had received mercy. I mean, Cain was afraid of being killed and God put a mark on Cain in mercy, allowing him to live so that people could not take revenge on Cain. But now the full judgment, the full justice is coming down on this world that is so cruel, so vile, and getting the full wages of their sin. So this was absolutely stunning. It was unprecedented. And so when God spoke, I mean, can you believe that God will wipe out everyone? Made in His own image? People, I mean, God had made us with His own hands. He made woman with the first surgery. And God had given Eve seed. And there had been sap, and there had been worship, and... Would He really wipe out the entire race? And so Noah, hearing this awful news, you know, you've seen those news. It was fake news until the morning start of the clock, right? The fact checks. People couldn't believe this. But Noah believed that God would do as he said. And that's what all of us must do. We must believe God, believe his word, believe his son. If we don't, we're in trouble. And so he believed God would do what he said. We see that he reverenced God. He feared God Almighty and believed God would do exactly, precisely what he said he would do. You don't spend decades building an ark if you have doubts that God's going to do what he said. You don't employ your kids. You don't face the mocking of the world. You don't go through that kind of thing if you're thinking, He was convinced God was going to do what he said, even if it was going to take him a while. And remember this, where someone says, the result is this, say, it was not only Noah who found grace in this family, but the Savior's family, his wife, his children, his children's wives. Eight people saved by one man's hand. Now, I expect they probably trusted God, too. Because just as Abraham would teach his children, I'm sure Noah would talk to his children. And we see Noah's sons, Japheth and Shem, acting righteously after him. So God was patient. The next paragraph there, God extends grace to Noah because he believed in him. We see that in Genesis 6. Noah found grace in that. God, we're told in Romans 8, 1, remembered Noah as he was there in the ark with the water all about him. For the flood in the midst of those 40 days, God remembers Noah, his servant, who trusted him. This servant who obeyed and built the ark and got on board the ark with the animals. So he provisioned the ark, he put the animals on, the animals came on, you know, he got on board. God was patient. Turn in your Bibles to 1 Peter 3. God was patient as Noah, holding, as Noah built the ark. I mean, if God had sent the flood the first time he saw it descend, Noah would have been on top of it. Right? God gave Noah time to build the ark. And that was not a one-day thing. This was not a one-day thing. This was decades. Perhaps 120 years. And so, what we see here, we're in 1 Peter 3, we drop down to verse 13. I won't give the entire context here. Because what we want to see is obedience is righteousness. Obedience brings with it suffering. And so, verse 13, 1 Peter 3, verse 13. What? Who is there to harm you if you criticize for what's good? Do you expect to suffer for doing right? Even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. Do not fear their intimidation. Do not be troubled, but sanctify Christ the Lord in your hearts. Always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to be able to help for the hope that is in you. Keep a good conscience. So then the thing in which you are slandered, these who revile your good behavior are sworn to shame. Verse 17, for it is better, if God should will so, that you should suffer, why, for doing right, not for doing what's wrong. Verse 18, Christ is now. Christ also died for sins and wrongs. For all, notice Christ died for the just, for the unjust. He suffered wrongly, in the sense that he didn't suffer for what he did. Right? The just for the unjust. so that he might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit, in which also he went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient." So here are people that had been wretched. They were disobedient. When the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, here's grace, here's mercy, a chance for those who saw no ability to figure out God's judgment is coming to deliver themselves. They didn't take a chance. They didn't understand. We saw that in what Jesus said. So during the construction thereof, in which a few, that is eight persons, were brought safely to the Lord. No one was hurt. Now notice, nowhere down comes a picture of our salvation. There's only a correspondence of it. Baptism now saves you. So when you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are baptized by the Holy Spirit. You are united with us. And because you have believed in God and trusted in Him, you respond with the believer's baptism, being baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It's not the baptism of water itself. It's the belief. And your obedience shows that you have been saved. Just as Noah was not saved by the ark, He was saved by believing God, and then, because he believed God, he dealt the odd with being in love. This is the kind of thing that saves the faith that works through his expression. All right, so, it's not the removal of dirt from the flesh, that, you know, getting wet, but an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection. All right? So God was patient with Noah, holding off the flood, giving people a chance to repent. Such mercy, such grace, that was formed by Noah's generation and brought complete destruction upon them. God's righteousness brought justice to wicked angels, to Sodom and Gomorrah, and to Noah's ungodly generation. 2 Peter 2, verses 4 through 8. I'm going to quickly read this and then I'm going to finish up. God did not spare angels. 2 Peter 2 verse 3. If God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them away and committed them to the pits of darkness for a certain judgment. Here's one judgment. Angels, powerful beings in God's own presence, judged. Second judgment, verse 5. He didn't spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah. Notice a feature of what just happened. with seven others when he brought a flood upon the world. And God's second act of judgment. And notice, they know, they get this message from Noah by his actions, by his words. God is going to judge. They work again. Verse six, a third act of judgment. If you condemn the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, have you made them an example? To those who would live ungodly lives thereafter, these three serve as examples for all time. We've got good examples of righteousness of Noah, Daniel, and Job. Examples of wickedness are Noah's generation, the angels, and Sodom and Gomorrah. Alright? But what we've seen is Noah's righteousness came up there. Noah's righteousness was seen or demonstrated by all humans. God spoke. Noah listened. Noah believed God would do what he said. God commanded. And we see, going back to Genesis, all the times Noah obeyed. Look at Genesis 6. We're starting from the first 22. a whole lot of time great faithfulness We drop down to chapter 7, verse 5. We've got all the animals coming in. The flood's just about to come, and, verse 5, Noah did according to all of the Lord's commandment. Animals got on board. Noah got on board. It's not enough to build the ark, you have to get on board, right? So, again, you drop down to verse 9. There went into the ark those animals, two by twos, male or female, as God commanded them. So the supplying of the ark, the getting on the ark, the passengers, all of this, God says it, He does it. God says it, He does it. God says it, He does it. Look at verse 16. Those that entered, male and female, of all flesh, entered as God commanded him. The Lord closed the door upon them. All right? All of these acts of obedience. I turn to the next chapter. They're in the water. The floods have come. They've been awash for 40 days and 40 nights. The water's still going. And in the second month, the earth was dry, verse 14. We drop down to verse 6. God spoke to Noah, verse 15, saying, God spoke to Noah, verse 16, go out of the ark. You know they can't make this their new home. They can't stay there forever. Get out of here. Get out of the ark. You and your wife, your sons, your wives, why it's with you. Bring out with you, don't leave the animals behind. Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you. Birds, animals, every creepy thing that creeps on the earth. that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be reformable to fly on the earth. Now verse 13, so no one went out. The sons is what? The sons of what is with them? Verse 19, every beast, every animal. They all went out. God said, get out. They went out. People, animals. All right? So the point here is that from building the ark, to loading the ark, to staying on the ark, to leaving the ark, God obeys, Noah obeys every command of God. He never said it was. You know, we may do one or two things that God tells us, but then we do that third thing, and we don't have the answer. You know, like Saul, you know, I did everything you told me to, you know, No, don't listen to other advice. Alright, so Noah's righteousness was seen in obedience. Fourthly there, 1.4, Noah's righteousness brought suffering and judgment. Suffering to himself and judgment to the world. Because you see, as he is there, the people are mocking him. That, you know, he's this preacher of righteousness. You don't think that people are looking at this guy building an ark out in the middle of nowhere, where it's never rained, where there's no oceans around, and they're just saying, oh, bless his heart. No! I mean, there's mocking. They're rejecting him. He is not Mr. Time Man of the Year, or whatever it was back then. All right, he's going to, we see in 1 Peter 3 that Christ suffered as a righteous for the unrighteous, I think that Jesus, like Noah, suffered reproach for his message. The message, he was a preacher of righteousness, and that kind of message is not accepted by the wicked, right? Darkness hates the light. So it brings suffering on Noah as a preacher, but it brings judgment on the world through the chest, the lips, and the tongue. Like Noah, these people could have turned and looked at each other, but they didn't. They determined. They were willful and ignorant until they reached for him. They received damnation because they rejected the means of salvation. Noah's deliverance through the ark became a picture of how those who are saved trespass and are saved. to obey. The Holy Spirit baptizes us in Christ, and we obey Christ by identifying with Him in that religious practice. All right, 1.5, we're just about there. Fourth, that was suffering and judgment, suffering for himself and judgment for the world. As we look at Genesis 8, verses 20 and following, The flood's over, the people are out, and so what happens? He goes out and he has a party? No. And he took them, every cloned animal and every cloned bird, and offered bird offerings on the altar. Now notice verse 21. The Lord smelled the soothing aroma, and the Lord said to himself, I'll never again curse the ground I come into. For the intent of man's heart, you know, reality check, deceitful punishment, I will never again destroy every living thing as I have done, while the earth remains, sea-tide rise, cold winter, summer winter, day and night, shall not cease." What I want us to understand is that Noah's righteousness is shown by his response to his salvation. He's not like those ten lepers where nine just get healed and say bye-bye Jesus. No! There's the one that comes back and says thank you. And it's the Samaritan. Noah is rescued by God and he says thank you. He offers those offerings. He worships the Lord. He offers every kind of offering he can. All the clean animals. From the birds to the beasts, everyone that he can, he offers. And God says, yes, I like this. And because of this, because he is worshiping me, because there are those who find grace in my sight, I'm never going to destroy the earth again. We're going to have seasons. I like this. And yes, I know people are still in there. They still have that bad habit. Falling. But that's okay. Not okay. I don't think any judge wants that. Now then, number two, all of this has been about, point one was all about how the corruption, the righteousness, seals corruptions. We saw the greatness of the righteousness, the characteristics. But I want you to see that, remember Hebrews 11 says, we believe that God is, right? The key is what? That we believe God is a rewarder. How does God remove them? Well, before the fight, He promises, I will give you power. After the fight, He gives you more power. Not just Him over, but to all the world, that He will never again destroy you or give you power. It's getting late, so I'm not going to read Genesis 9, verse 16. But I want you to understand that the reward of Noah's faith and righteousness is a covenant that is for not only all people, but for all human beings. And so every rainbow reminds our Almighty God of His own mercy. Every rainbow reminds him of his own loving kindness. Every reminder, every rainbow is a reminder to God himself of his own word that he can never and will never forget. God's word is forever, saddled with love. Completely, it's no way out. Just as God blessed Noah and keeps his word to Noah, God keeps his word with all who are his own. God will chastise his children, bring them back to himself. I wish we had time to read Isaiah 54. But in Isaiah 54, we've got a promise to restore labeled children, right? Isaiah in the 700s proclaims judgment on Israel and on Judah. But God promises, after the judgment, just like God, after the judgment of Noah's day, gave the covenant to Noah, even so, after God judges his own, he will restore, he will revive, he will bring them back to peace. No, God's blessing to Noah doesn't stop with the covenant, doesn't stop with this. No, God has given Noah a name. And he's included in that, in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. So that man, Noah, is a part of Jesus Christ. I'm going to do it for you, verse 26. It's right there. I'm going to go back to it. It's in verse 7. So as we finish up this evening, remember, Noah's name rings through time and eternity as an unrighteous servant of God. Do you trust in God? Amen. May God help each one of us to trust our God for salvation and sanctification, as Noah did to the salvation. So as we trust and may God save not only ourselves, but our families. As God said, he knows. May God use us to proclaim his word, to proclaim his gospel, his good news to a lost world around us. Let's obey our God. Let's worship him in spirit and in truth. And as we do so, you and I can rest assured, God is watching. God will reward his righteous children. Lord, thank you that you give the righteousness of Christ to your children. Thank you that you enable your children to imitate God their Father, to become righteous as you do. Not by it, but by Your grace, for Your glory, through Your Holy Spirit. Lord, make us righteous, not only by justification, but by sanctification, until we are found glorified and fully righteous in Your presence, in Jesus' name.