Tonight we continue our journey through the book of Genesis and pause to pitch our mental tabernacles for the sixth chapter and wonderful, gracious eighth verse, there to draw from the sweet waters of the grace of God. While it has been implied, foreshadowed, suggested, taught, and typified, this prominent theme of God's word, God's love for man through the medium of the grace of God, is first here for the first time in the word of God, verbalized. The golden word grace now appears, and all questions are removed. Man is confident that it is by the grace of God, by the all -sufficient, all -inclusive grace of God, the amazing grace of God, the marvelous grace of God, and alone through that vehicle, that God would shower his goodness on the human race. For by grace are ye saved through faith. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. Once I was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. It has been called the Baptist National Anthem. It should well be the anthem of all Christians, that of the redeeming grace of God. I love the amazing grace of God. I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene. I wonder how he could love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean. It is through the vehicle of his grace. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Somebody said to me, Where was Mrs. Noah when he found grace? A little humor there. Now, not much, only a little. Now, I submit to you that when he found grace, he found a good thing. He found a good thing. Someone asked me this afternoon, Preacher, does it look to you as though the construction of the sentence is that he was seeking grace? That he was looking for grace? And so I did a little bit of research. And it is true that he was not seeking grace. Grace is not something he was doing. Grace was literally seeking him. The object is not upon the grace. Noah is in the place of objectivity. He was the object of the grace. But grace was not the object of himself. Now, the Bible nowhere tells us that he found grace in the eyes of the Lord because of what he did. But because of what he was. There is a very prominent concept among us. That grace, while it is the means of salvation, is brought to us through the vehicle of our works. But the Bible says that grace, God's imputed righteousness, his imparted mercy through imputed righteousness, comes to us through the vehicle of faith. For without faith, it is impossible to please him. For by grace are you saved through faith, not of yourselves. It is the gift of our Lord. It is the song of the ages. It has been the theme of the sages and is indeed the theme of the word of God. Noah found a good thing when he found grace. Now, when I began preparing this sermon, it occurred to me to go back through all of Genesis and find out what I could about Noah as to why he found grace in the eyes of the Lord or why our Lord was gracious unto him. But it is not backward. That one looks to find the answer to this question. It is in the very next verse. There it is. The one explanation why Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Look, if you will. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. I suggest to you that Noah did not find grace in the eyes of the world. What this ordinary man did was a very unordinary thing. It was a wicked generation. And like Enoch, his forefather, who walked with God, of whom we spoke Wednesday night past, he too was the object of God's grace because of some things that he was that caused God to have grace upon him. Now the word grace, the theologians tell us, literally means unmerited favor. Some people define it as being able to get away with anything. But that's not what grace means. It is imparted mercy on imputed righteousness. Our God is a God of justice. He is a God of judgment. And he must judge sin. He must judge unrighteousness. But when God imputes unto us his own righteousness by faith in Jesus Christ, then it is that under the grace of God, that righteousness imputed to us causes God to impart mercy upon us. And he is merciful unto us for Jesus' sake, for Christ's sake, for what he sees in him, not for anything that I have done, when he sees me under the blood, when he sees me under his grace. By faith, he imputes the righteousness of Christ to me. And for Jesus' sake, for Jesus' righteousness, God has grace to me. It was grace imputed from God. Now, three things are suggested to us as to why the characteristics of the life of this man, Noah, were such that God's graciousness was imputed unto him. And he had mercy upon him in the midst of a world in which it was obvious that he did not have to live graciously. He was not walking the way of the world. It was a wicked day, a wicked society, a wicked generation. But this unordinary man did an unordinary thing in what he was, not in what he did. Now, there is no suggestion of doing in any of the characteristics, in any of the attributes that were applied to him by faith that caused God to impute his mercy, his grace unto him. I find many times that there is always the subtle hint of the goodness of man contributing to the finished work of Christ on the cross. The Philippian jailer serves what must I do to be saved. I know that this is a classic verse in which he is told to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. But I detect just the faintest scent of the jailer believing to the very last that there was something he could do. Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And there is the subtle hint that he found grace in the eyes of the Lord in a first reading that he was seeking for it, that he was searching for it, that he was working for it, that he was looking for grace. But such is not the case. I repeat, grace is not what he did. Grace was imputed to him because of what he was. Grace was not the process of doing, it was the result of being. He was something, therefore God did something to him. He imparted grace, graciousness, mercy, imputed righteousness, which was imparted in mercy because of what he was that God accepted and allowed him to go free and be saved from wrath in the midst of a wicked day. Now those three things that he was are recorded here in the ninth verse. Number one, the Bible says these are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man. He was a just man. He was a justified man. A justified man. Now, turn with me back quickly, if you will please, to Genesis chapter 3, verse 15. And you will recall there that in the curse of Satan upon the world, the Bible says, the Lord speaking, I will put enmity between thee, speaking to the serpent, and to the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It, it, the woman's seed. Who is that? Christ. This is the first promise of the Messiah to come, of the foreshadowing Savior. It shall bruise thy head. The vital organ. And thou shalt bruise his heel. The Lord Jesus Christ was to be on the cross damaged. He was to be bruised, but not destroyed. He was to be killed, but not to die forever, but to live again. But the blow that was delivered to Satan was an ultimate fatal one. It was irrevocable. His sentence was pronounced. His condemnation was made a reality. And now he is potentially, through Christ, an impotent, living, walking, powerless being in this world. We can overcome him through Christ. Christ was damaged. He went into the valley of the shadow of death. He struggled with the powers of sin, death, hell, and the grave. But he came victoriously with the battle scars, yes. Suffering loss, yes. But it was a victory through loss. It was life through death. It was resurrection through crucifixion. And so he is foreshadowing there that the righteousness that was going to be imputed to Noah was given because of the seed that was to come. And it was through this seed that this man was justified. Looking forward in faith, looking backward in faith. Men have always been justified through grace by faith in the promised Messiah. The death of the innocent for the guilty. Now, over in Hebrews chapter 7, verse number 11, 11 verse 7. By faith, Noah being warned of God of things not yet, not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. Because of what he was, obedient, he was justified through faith in the soon coming Messiah. He was an heir of righteousness. He found grace in the eyes of the Lord because he was justified through faith in the coming Savior, the sin offering for the world. And his righteousness was imputed unto him by faith. He never saw the Messiah. He never heard the Messiah in person. But by faith, he acted. By faith, he moved. By faith, he believed. By faith, by faith, he cast himself and his sins on the sin offering that was to come. And it was imputed unto him for righteousness. Then, also in the ninth verse, another reason for the graciousness of our God toward him. He was a just man, and he was a perfect man in his generations. Now, the word perfect, of course, simply means mature, full grown, completed, developed. He was a mature man. He was a completed man. How many of us can say that? How many of us? This man was a mature man. And a sign of maturity is that it is obedient and that it takes the long look. He looked ahead, believing God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Not only was he a mature man, but the Bible says he walked with God. I told the church in prayer meeting the other night that for a man to walk with God, you have to be going the same direction God's going. And you have to be going the same speed someone is going. And you have to be listening to that someone. You have to take time with that someone. Here was a man in the midst of a very busy generation whose daily life walked in consistency step by step with God. Now, there are so many of us these days to whom a little bit of persecution, a little bit of difficulty, a little bit of adversity in the school, in the home, will in a moment cause us to renounce our Christian faith. The Bible says, beware when all men speak well of you, and blessed are you when you're prosecuted, persecuted. Blessed are you when you're reviled for righteousness sake, and for my sake, and young people in your schools, mother and dad in this generation, let it be said of you that we walked to the beat of a different drummer, that we were justified by faith because we were walking with God, because we were looking to the soon coming Messiah who has come for us, and because in faith we have grown to full maturity. Here is a man, not for trying, not for doing, not because of what he did, but because of what he was, was justified by faith before God. Now the fourth word is this, it appears to me that God had made no shallow search, no small look in attempting to find righteousness on the earth. The justice in the judgment of God pronounced and coming is justified because the fact that he found one man and only one man righteous suggests to me that the vindication, that the judgment of God is vindicated because it indicates that God has been, had been doing a very scrutinizing close and careful look at the world. This was no accidental judgment. This was no off -the -cuff pronouncement of doom and judgment. God had carefully been looking and he found one man, one man who was righteous. This says to me by the same token that our God had looked very carefully and found while there was one man that there was only one man and that he knew the rest of the world to be unjust and unrighteous. God, never let it be said of him, is an unjust God. To be sure, God judges, but he judges fairly. He judges with warning and the only basis upon which he accepts men he accepts men in judgment is by grace through faith in the shed blood of the innocent for the guilty. Now, the last word is this. God seems to me always to be looking for people, for churches, for individuals, for a person or a group of persons through whom he can execute his righteousness and provide a way of escape for the world. Look down through history. Not only here, but as God was preparing to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, he was looking for a righteous man. Abraham was pleading with God, for 50 righteous will you spare the city, for 40 righteous God said yes, for 30, for 20, for 10. I submit to you that the only reason God did not spare that city is because Abraham left off praying too quickly. If we would have found one righteous man and surely there was that one, God through him would have been the vehicle of grace. God is only restraining his judgment upon this world and all of the history of the world because of one man and that one man is Jesus Christ. And had not Christ come to take our sin and our place on the cross, I believe that God would have destroyed this world long ago. All of the holy angels of God in judgment reserved on the world. And ladies and gentlemen, I believe as much as I believe anything in this world that there is still the church, the body of Christ, the salt of the earth that is today in a rotting and putrefying society, the last restraining force in the world that is keeping the judgment of God from falling. In fact, it is true that when Christ comes and the Bible says that awful day of tribulation shall come, it will then be only when the church shall have been caught out to meet the blessed Lord in the air. There are those who hate the church and reject the church and ignore the church and despise the church. Ah, but little do they know that if it were not through this agency of the church, the church through which the Holy Spirit of God, the sheriff of the skies has been doing his convicting work that there would be no restraint, that rape and anarchy and murder and death would be everywhere. It is only because the salt of the earth is still in the earth that it is not totally rotted. And when our Lord finds in that last analysis that there are no more righteous upon the earth, that there are none through which he can do his work, that there is no saving salt, no preserving agency in this world to restrain the grace of God. When the church is removed, then all of hell and havoc will break forth upon a rebellious world that knows not God. Now let me bring that down a little bit more closely and personalize it a little bit more for us as we try to get ready for revival. Are we important to God? Is the First Baptist Church of Houston, does it have any part in the great plan of God? Could it be that this church could be so right with God that God would find us under grace to such a sufficient degree that we could be the vehicle through which God would send revival? I do not know. I dare not speculate upon the sovereign plan of God, but I do know this. If it is within his plan to use us, how I pray that our lack of faith or lack of dedication or lack of faithfulness or consecration may in no way hinder God from doing what he wants to do. Oh, that it may never be said of us, church, what might have been, what might have been, what might have been. This week, Dr. Kenneth Chafin, Secretary of Evangelism for the entire Southern Baptist Convention, who has taught it in our seminaries, who has lived, breathed, and written, and literally existed on revival and evangelism all of his adult life, said the following, in my opinion, quote, in my opinion, Texas is the only one of the great ten states in America, the large ten states in America, which has a denomination that is totally dedicated to evangelism. I believe that. I believe with all of my heart that there is no force in all of America that has the power, the wealth, the method, the message, the determination, everything that the Baptist General Convention of Texas does for evangelism in the 70s. Now let's spread it down a little bit further. And I realize that when you get it all figured out, that God in his sovereignty usually does it just like you didn't plan to do it. But there's no question in most people's minds that Houston is the key city in all of Texas, the gateway to South America, the crossroads of the world, a tremendous metropolis, now over twice as large as the city of Dallas. I believe that Houston is a key and an important city. I believe that Baptists in this city and in this state, as nowhere in this world, are dedicated to the cause of revival and evangelism and winning people to Christ. But who will champion the cause? Where will the spark come? If there are four murders a night in this murder capital of the world, it is because our city has a rotten conscience. It is because there is no God consciousness. How can it start? Where will revival start? I believe with all of my heart that God may be saying to us that he wants to start a spark here on this corner, in this pulpit, in this church, in this strategic spot that can spearhead and champion the cause of revival in Houston, hence across Texas, and like a prairie conflagration around the world of ours. If I didn't believe that, if I believe there was a more important place, if I believe in the plan of God he had other plans, I should try to seek and find his will to see revival start. I believe it just could be that our God is still searching, still looking for one church, one man, one person, one denomination, one little city, one something somewhere that will still be the vehicle of his grace, the message, the vehicle of His message of salvation and mercy in a world before the judgment of God comes. He gave him 120 years to preach and to preach repentance, and so few did. But thank God this was a faithful man right to the very end. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. He did the will of God. Next Sunday, at a cost of multiplied thousands of dollars and prayer and effort, this church, I believe, may be doing the biggest thing in her 140 -year history, throwing all that she has for one concentrated period of time into revival. And I beg of you, in the name of our Lord, that you will cancel PTA and Masons and Moose and plays and football games and let it go. No, it is not important. It will not matter in eternity whether somebody beats somebody else 40 to nothing or 140 to nothing. Not at all. It is trivia. It is of absolute naught in the sight of God and what He may have in store for us. I plead with you, around your block, in your office, in your school, find people that need the Lord. Witness to them. Tell them of Christ and compel them to come and fill the house for God and church. I beg you, it is not hard to get a crowd, but oh, to get the crowd to come to Christ is only the result of agony and prayer and the moving power of the Spirit of God. How I plead with you to empty yourselves, your very being, into these days for revival and give and come and visit and confess your sins and fill the house and witness to this town and cancel engagements and pray, pray, pray, pray, pray the power of God until the Spirit of God shall walk up and down the halls of this church and convict men and go to that seat and to that one and all around the encircling auditorium and convict men until the altar is filled and the carpets are stained with the tears of the repentant and revival comes. Could that revival be the one that sparks revival in our city, in our denomination, in our state, in the land? I do not know, but I know this. It could be. It could be. Noah was God's man, his instrument of grace and his only instrument in a wicked society. Let us dedicate ourselves to being all that he wants to be in this day for revival in our time, in our land. Let us stand and pray together. Oh God, we thank thee for thy grace. Thank thee for that beautiful word, grace, grace, grace, grace so amazing, grace so divine, grace so inclusive, grace so sublime, grace, grace, grace, amazing grace. And thank you, Lord, that in one hand, while there is the lightning rod of God's judgment, there is also in his other hand the sweet showers of revival and mercy. You must find a preacher, a people, a church, a city, a body of deacons, a Sunday school class, a boy, a girl through whom you can send revival. Oh God, let us be an instrument of grace. God forbid that for our glory it should ever happen. May our very names and our reputations and our images and all of that that is of such vanity and empty -headed nothingness pass quickly from the lips of people. Let our names die into the dust of humility in this earth and let the name that is above every name, the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, ring redundantly again and again across this city. Ring the very bells of heaven until Houston shall know that God is on the throne, that righteousness exalted the nation and sin is a reproach to any people. Send revival, send multitudes, send power, send souls, send conversions. God, send revival. Let us be thy instruments of grace because of our righteousness, our faith in Christ, in the Messiah who has come and in that alone that just as we are with not one plea but that thy blood was shed for thee we can stand before thee. Ring the bastions of heaven and call down fire. Oh God, let the God that answers by fire, let him be God. Let him be God. Lord, send the power of the Spirit of God. Send a cleansing, purging revival of thy people. Send a revival of the end of littleness and prejudice and selfishness and faithlessness. And may the conquering army, the church of God, march into a place through which God can send revival. Oh God, do it, do it, we pray, in Jesus' name. That sweet name that is above every wonderful name, we pray, even Christ, our matchless Lord. And for his glorious sake, we pray, believe, thank thee for the answer to it all. Amen.