Faith that Receives God's Salvation

All right, the text from which the sermon is based tonight is Hebrews 11 verse 7, but in the light of that verse we'll also read from Genesis chapter 6 and we'll read verses 5 to 22.

Hebrews 11:7 Genesis 6 · chapter mention

So we'll read Genesis 6 first, that's in the Old Testament, and then in the New Testament from Hebrews 11, just one verse there, verse 7.

And there's, if you'd like to have a hard copy of the Bible at any time, there's a bunch on the back table, there's some upstairs, feel free to grab one.

We don't mind at all if you get up any time and grab a Bible, that's great.

If you're here tonight and you don't own a Bible, we'd love for you to take one as well.

We very much would like to have less Bibles tonight than we started with if you would like a Bible and you don't have one, so take one of those with you.

Let's read from God's Word together, Genesis 6 verses 5 to 22, and then Hebrews 11 verse 7.

Genesis 6:5–22 Hebrews 11:7

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him to his heart.

So the Lord said,

But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

These are the generations of Noah.

Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation.

Noah walked with God.

And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence.

And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

And God said to Noah,

I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them.

Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

Make yourself an ark of gopher wood.

Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.

This is how you are to make it.

The length of the ark, 300 cubits.

Its breadth, 50 cubits, and its height, 30 cubits.

Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side.

Make it with lower, second, and third decks.

For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh,

and which is the breath of life under heaven.

Everything that is on the earth shall die, but I will establish my covenant with you,

and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you.

And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark

to keep them alive with you.

They shall be male and female.

Of the birds, according to their kinds, and of the animals, according to their kinds.

Of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind,

two of every sort shall come into you to keep them alive.

Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up.

It shall serve as food for you and for them.

And Noah did this.

He did all that God commanded him.

Hebrews chapter 11, verse 7.

Hebrews 11:7

By faith, Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen,

in reverent fear, constructed an ark for the saving of his household.

By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

This is God's holy word.

By faith, Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen,

in reverent fear, constructed an ark for the saving of his household.

By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

Well, tonight in our journey through Hebrews 11,

we move from Genesis 5, the story of Enoch,

to Genesis 6 and the story of Noah.

Two men, really, who are said to have walked with God,

both examples of individuals who lived their lives by faith.

And the account of Noah's life of faith is to be found in Genesis chapter 6 through 9,

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

the backdrop to it being that famous flood that dominates Genesis 6, 7 and 8.

And in the Genesis story, the story of the flood is not presented to us as a kind of myth or a legend.

It is presented as history.

And we know that similar stories of a universal global flood are found in a whole host of different ancient cultures

and a lot of different forms.

I believe there are certainly maybe over 250 different accounts from all over the world.

And in the ancient Near East, there are references in the epics of Gilgamesh and Atrahasis.

And I suppose one of the difficulties that some of us have when we approach the figure of Noah

is we tend to associate his story as being a story really for children rather than adults.

After all, no self-respecting children's Bible would dare to admit the story of Noah and the ark.

And as a consequence, many see it as a kind of childish tale conjuring up images of cute little elephants

and kangaroos or whatever, bears all going into the ark.

But when one actually reads the text of Genesis,

one cannot help but be struck by the fact that this is no warm, cozy story of kind of cute animals and happy times.

It's a story about a world of irredeemable wickedness.

A world spiraling out of moral control.

A world that has placed itself under the wrath and judgment of a holy God.

And indeed, these verses of Genesis tell of a great act of divine decreation

as God returns the earth to a situation of primeval watery chaos.

Genesis 6 through 8 is an unsettling account of where sin ultimately takes us as human beings

and the judgment that inevitably ensues.

Here we read of God judging human wickedness while at the same time preserving a remnant of faith.

In our text tonight, Hebrews 11, 7, selects and highlights four things about Noah and his faith.

There's a lot more in Genesis 6 through 9.

We're not going to expound that.

We're simply going to look at that text through the lens of Hebrews 11, 7.

And I want to mention four things this evening.

The first is this.

Noah in faith received revelation from God.

By faith, Noah being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen.

So the story of Noah begins with God.

It begins with divine revelation.

God speaks and reveals to Noah what will come to pass.

And it's a revelation of divine judgment.

This is not, you know, some Noah having some vague intuition.

It's not his human speculation.

It's divine revelation, clear and unambiguous.

God speaks.

Noah listens.

Faith begins with revelation.

Faith begins with revelation.

With a word from God.

It is not a leap in the dark, as some would have us believe.

But really a step into the light of God's revealed truth.

And in fact, that is where the letter of Hebrews itself begins.

The very first verses of the book.

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.

But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son.

Apart from God's word, Noah had no evidence of a coming flood.

He didn't have a meteorologist's report.

He didn't have, he didn't see rising rivers.

There wasn't, he didn't have a flood warning system.

There were no storm clouds on the horizon.

These events were as yet unseen.

And yet for Noah, God's revelatory word was enough.

And we read about the content of that revelation in Genesis 6 from verse 11.

The earth was corrupt in God's sight, filled with violence.

God saw the earth.

Behold, it was corrupt.

For all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

And God said to Noah, I have determined to make an end of all flesh.

For the earth is filled with violence through them.

Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

Make yourself an ark of gopher wood.

Make rooms in the ark and cover it inside and out with pitch.

God looks on his creation and he sees a landscape dominated by violence and corruption.

The world of Noah's day had become rotten to the core.

Sin had worked its way into the lifeblood of humanity with devastating results.

Catastrophic moral and spiritual decline has ensued.

And the divine response to this is stated bluntly and categorically.

Genesis 6-7.

The Lord said, I will wipe mankind whom I have created from the face of the earth.

And then in verse 13 of Genesis 6, God said to Noah, I am going to put an end to all people.

God will erase humanity.

Universal wickedness results in universal judgment.

After all, the wages of sin is death.

And so this message, this revelation is one of bad news.

It's a message of impending judgment.

And that, of course, makes many people today somewhat embarrassed.

It's often as if judgment is a sort of some dark skeleton in God's cupboard that's best forgotten and not spoken about.

But, of course, friends, the only God the Bible knows and speaks of is a God of justice and holiness and judgment.

And, in fact, I would suggest to you that it's only that kind of God who makes any sense in a world like ours.

Those who promote the idea that God is some sort of kindly old geriatric who wouldn't hurt a fly do nothing but disservice to Christ and to the gospel.

Because those sentimental kind of cuddly notions of God are utterly discredited in the face of the evil and the suffering and the injustice of this world.

How can you believe in a God of love in the midst of all the suffering and injustice?

That's what people say, isn't it?

But the Bible doesn't ask us to believe in that kind of God.

He's a fantasy thing.

We don't admire people who smile benignly in the face of all kinds of misery and evil and injustice.

We consider such people to be, in some way, morally handicapped.

Because we know there are times when we should be angry.

There are things that happen and go on in our world that it's right and good that we're angry about.

We call it righteous anger.

There's much on our TV screens that's beamed into or on our phones and we read about these news reports and we see things that are terrible, horrendous.

And we feel angry.

We get a sense of injustice about these things.

And if we, who are imperfect, fallen creatures, have a sense of that, then what must that be like for a God who is morally perfect and holy and utterly righteous?

It's in the sense that the flood is used in the New Testament as a model of what will happen at the end of the world.

To Peter, chapter 3, from verse 5.

Christ will return as judge of the earth, Peter writes.

Long ago, by God's word, the heavens existed.

And the earth was formed out of water and by water.

By these waters also, the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.

By the same word, the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment.

And destruction.

It's a biblical pattern.

The soul that sins shall die.

And this is where the world of Noah's time found itself, under God's righteous judgment.

And actually, that's where our world finds itself.

Even today, we live in a world that is on the wrong side of God.

And one day, God's judgment will fall on all human sin and rebellion.

Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.

Hebrews 9.27.

And according to Scripture, God's judgment is an inescapable truth and an undeniable reality.

Many years ago, when I was a young minister in my first charge, and I had a lady come to me.

Maybe after a few months preaching in the church.

And she asked me, she said to me, David, you know, you talk about salvation and you talk about being saved.

She was a lovely lady.

And her question was this, well, what on earth do I, a very moral, respectable, church-going lady,

she said, what on earth do I need to be saved from?

A lot of people think like that.

This is what we need to be saved from.

It's from God's judgment.

That's our great need, if we could but see it.

And so, friends, we too have received the revelation from God.

But how are we responding to that?

We ignore it at our peril.

Noah's faith rested on God's revealed word.

Noah, in faith, received revelation from God.

Brings me to the second thing here.

Noah, in faith and holy fear, constructed an ark of salvation.

In reverent fear, he constructed an ark for the saving of his household.

So Noah received not just this revelation of coming judgment.

He also receives a revelation of salvation.

He is instructed to build an ark of salvation for himself and his family.

God tells Noah, Genesis 6, 17,

Behold, I will bring a flood of waters on the earth to destroy all flesh,

in which is the breath of life under heaven.

Everything that is on the earth shall die.

But I will establish my covenant with you,

and you shall come into the ark,

you, your sons, your wife, your sons' wives, with you.

So the writer of Hebrews tells us that Noah constructed this ark in reverent fear.

He responds, Noah responds to God's word with both faith and godly fear.

Those two are not mutually exclusive.

This reverent fear is not a sort of craven terror.

However, we might describe it as a kind of holy awe,

a deep respect for the God who speaks.

Noah knew that God was not to be trifled with.

And he knew that the one who created the heavens and earth

could unmake them with a word.

And so there's nothing shallow, nothing glib about Noah's response.

He's gripped with a sense of awe and wonder.

Here is a trembling trust, if I can put it that way,

that acknowledges God's holiness and power.

Here is the posture of a man or a woman of God

who knows that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

In reverent fear, he constructed an ark.

It's actually, again, one of the features of the letter to the Hebrews,

how it combines these two things,

this great confidence and assurance about being accepted by a holy God

and being able to draw near to the throne of grace

with a sense of awe and reverence

in worshipping the God who is a consuming fire.

There's intimacy and awe.

There's resting faith and reverent fear.

And you'll notice that Noah's faith

wasn't a kind of private feeling tucked away,

hidden away in his heart.

It actually issued in public work

that took decades of sweat and toil.

Here he was constructing this enormous boat,

hundreds of miles from the sea,

no water in sight.

He must have looked an absolute idiot to his contemporaries,

an utter fool, wasting his time, his talents,

his energies on a ludicrous project.

For friends, faith is not merely believing that God exists.

It means and involves acting on what God says.

James reminds us.

In James 2.26,

faith without works is dead.

Noah's faith was alive.

Pounding nails into wood, shaping beams,

sealing the ark with pitch.

You can picture him.

Hammer in hand,

building this massive vessel

vessel in the middle of dry land,

the neighbors around,

jeering,

the cynics scoffing,

the children laughing.

Noah, you old fool.

Where is this flood?

Where is this rain?

And yet all the time,

Noah keeps building,

his hammer keeps swinging

because his faith was anchored

in God's word of promise.

And of course,

this is exactly what the recipients of this letter

were being called to do.

They were being called to endure the shame,

the mockery of the world around,

to keep on in the way of faith.

They were struggling.

They were suffering.

Finding things hard.

And like Noah of old,

they needed to stand firm

and hold on to the promises of God's word.

And that may well be true of us today,

if you're a believer.

It can be hard to march,

march to the beat of a different drum.

It can be hard to live in a way

that seeks to honor God above all else.

Living for God in this fallen world

sometimes looks ridiculous,

looks ludicrous.

And it can feel very lonely.

Perhaps in a family where no one else believes.

Or in a place of work or study

where different values and standards pertain.

In company where Christianity

is routinely ridiculed and dismissed.

It can be difficult.

And yet we're called to stand on the promises of God

because they alone are solid ground,

as we were thinking this morning.

They are our firm place to stand.

Faith lives knowing there is nothing as solid as God's word.

Faith builds.

Faith perseveres.

Faith endures.

It doesn't shrink back.

There's an old story, I think,

from 19th century Canada.

I know we have some Canadians amongst us tonight,

so they'll no doubt correct me if I'm wrong.

But the story tells of a man

who got lost in the woods during the winter

and surrounded by snow and ice

and extreme temperatures.

It was a treacherous situation.

He had to make his way home.

He had to get home or he would die.

And as he stumbled through the snow,

he came to the banks of what he recognized

to be the St. Lawrence River.

He knew that his home lay on the other side,

but also that there was no bridge

or crossing for many miles.

What was he to do?

Well, the river was frozen.

And he realized that his only hope

was to try and make his way across the ice.

Seemed dangerous route to take,

but he had no option.

Would the ice be thick enough to carry his weight

or would it crack

and he'd be drowned in the freezing waters?

And so he resolved to make his way slowly,

tentatively across the river.

He decided to spread out his weight

as best he could

and crawl in a sort of spread eagle fashion,

inching his way across,

fearful and afraid,

all the time listening out

for that terrible sound of cracking ice

that would have spelt his certain death.

And he moved so slowly and deliberately,

hardly daring to breathe,

lest he sink through the ice

and into the dark waters of the river.

When he was about halfway across,

lying, spread-eagled on the ice,

he heard a strange sound.

He thought, I can hear the sound of bells ringing.

And they got closer and closer.

And as he looked around,

as he heard these bells getting louder and louder,

he saw what was to his eyes

a most surprising sight.

Two horses pulling a man on a sled,

careering across the ice.

And the horses and sled shot past him

towards the far bank of the river,

disappeared into the distance.

And it transpired that the ice on the river

was thick enough,

strong enough to bear the weight of horses and a sled.

What a fool the man felt.

He said to himself,

if only I'd known how thick the ice was,

I needn't have been so afraid.

I could have walked,

I could have run,

I could have jumped across the river

and been quite safe and secure.

And friends,

there are many Christians who live their lives

rather like that man,

inching his way across the ice

towards his destination.

They're fearful,

they're anxious,

they're uncertain

because they don't appreciate

their true position.

They think the foundation on which they live

is something frail and fragile

and thin and ready to break.

And in truth,

it's quite the reverse.

It's something immeasurably strong

and powerful and robust.

And friends,

the gospel of God

and the word of God

and the promises of God

can bear all your weight.

It can bear the weight of your joys

and your sorrows,

the weight of your fears and anxieties,

the weight of your sins

and your failures.

Indeed,

the weight of your whole existence.

So where are you building your life?

Are you building on the solid rock

of the gospel?

Are you constructing

an ark of obedience

in a world that

mocks and disdains?

Noah in faith received revelation from God.

Noah in faith and holy fear

constructed an ark of salvation.

Thirdly,

Noah in faith bore testimony

to the world.

You'll notice that

in these words,

by this,

says the writer to the Hebrews,

he condemned the world.

Now,

what is the writer driving at

when he includes this statement?

How did Noah condemn the world?

Was he a kind of horrible,

judgmental man

who went around

condemning everyone

and pointing out their sins?

No,

I don't think that's

what's being said here.

And that's certainly not

what we as Christians

are called to do.

The point,

I think,

that is being made here

is that Noah

left the world

without excuse.

He bore testimony

to God's judgment

and salvation

in both word

and deed.

In one sense,

Noah's obedience

was a kind of

silent sermon,

a living rebuke

to that generation

that had rejected God.

Every plank he laid,

every nail he hammered,

declared to the world

around him

that God's word is true,

judgment is coming.

The very construction

of the ark

proclaimed

that there was

a way of escape.

Peter,

for example,

in his first epistle

speaks of how

God's patience

waited in the days of Noah

when the ark

was being prepared.

1 Peter 3.20.

There was life preached,

so too with us.

When we live by faith,

when we trust God's word

over the world's wisdom,

we bear witness

to the truth.

We live for him,

not for ourselves.

When we love him

and seek to love

our neighbor as ourselves,

when we turn the other cheek,

when we go the extra mile,

it's then that our lives

commend the good news,

the gospel to others.

But if there's the testimony

of Noah's life

and obedience to God's word,

so there is also

the testimony of his words.

It stands to reason,

I think,

that Noah's conduct

and behavior

at least must have

attracted some questions.

What are you doing, Noah?

Why are you building this ark?

What on earth

are you playing at?

Peter,

in his second epistle,

2 Peter 2.5,

describes Noah

as a herald,

some translations,

a preacher of righteousness.

He made known to others

how they could be rightly

related to God

by faith.

He was a preacher

of good news,

warning others

of the judgment to come,

bearing witness

to the salvation

that God had provided.

His words and deeds

urged others

to prepare

for a new world.

And in many ways,

that is our calling

as Christians too.

Our lives should prompt

questions from others.

Why are you living like that?

Why do you do that?

I wonder if our lives

are preaching.

We're to be heralds

of righteousness

in a world

that hasn't seen

or heard

God's weather forecast.

We're to live

on the basis

of God's revelation

in Scripture.

We're to live

pointing to others

to Jesus,

the Savior.

I wonder,

are you doing that?

Or will people

be left

with an excuse?

I didn't know.

I've never heard that.

No one told me.

Friends,

God has called you

to speak of Jesus Christ

even amid a world

that demands

our silence.

Because the door

of the ark

is open still.

And final judgment

has not yet arrived.

And Christ is still

welcoming sinners.

Part of our calling

as individuals,

indeed as a congregation,

our lives

bear testimony

to God's grace,

pointing people

to Jesus.

The missiologist

Leslie Newbig

wrote,

how is it possible

that people

should come

to believe

that the power

which has the last

word in human affairs

is represented

by a man

hanging on a cross?

The only answer,

the only hermeneutic

of the gospel

is a congregation

of men and women

who believe it

and live

by it.

Noah,

in faith,

received revelation

from God.

Noah,

in faith,

and holy fear

constructed an ark

of salvation.

Noah,

in faith,

bore testimony

to the world

around.

And finally here,

Noah,

in faith,

became an heir

of righteousness

and became

an heir

of the righteousness

that comes

by faith.

Genesis,

Genesis 6:9

chapter 6,

verse 9,

tells us this.

Noah was a righteous man,

blameless among

the people of his time,

and he walked

with God.

And it would be easy

to conclude

that as God

looked upon the world,

saw that everyone

was corrupt and evil,

they were all a bunch

of wasters,

except this guy Noah.

Noah was a good guy.

He was the best

of a bad bunch

and so God chose him

and favoured him.

And indeed,

that's how many people

read that text.

But it is to seriously

misread it

and seriously

misunderstand it.

because in this reading

of the text,

Noah's deliverance

becomes a kind of reward

for a righteous

and good life.

And by this way

of thinking,

salvation is by good works,

something that we

contribute towards.

But the key verse here

is verse 8

of chapter 6.

Noah found favour

in the eyes

of the Lord.

And to find favour

or grace

is a formal expression.

It's used many times

in the Old Testament,

I think around 40 times.

And it refers either

to the request

of an inferior

to a superior

or when someone

in authority

helps someone

without status

or position.

It relates then

to someone being shown

favour,

grace.

Lord showed

grace

and favour

to Noah.

And the clear

pattern here

is that righteousness

and good works

follow grace.

They don't precede it.

The Old Testament

and New Testament

are not different

on this point.

They both sing

from the same hymn sheet.

It's simply

not the case.

Some people,

you know,

want to think

in the Old Testament

people were saved

by their good works.

In the New Testament

people are saved

by faith.

Many people

think like that.

Somehow our good works,

righteous lives

will commend us

to God.

You'll notice

in these verses

there's a little phrase

actually in the

Genesis account

that comes between

Noah finding

grace and favour,

Genesis 6-8,

and the statement

that he was a righteous

man who walked

with God,

Genesis 6-9.

And that phrase is

this is the account

of Noah.

That is again

another formula

used right throughout

the book of Genesis.

I think it's 11

or 12 times.

It's a major

internal division

of the book.

Maybe a bit like

a chapter heading.

I think in the AV

it's translated

this is the generation

of.

That word conveys

the sense of being

generated,

reflects the reality

that this has come

out of that,

refers to an ensuing

event or events.

And so when we read

this phrase

between the statement

that Noah found grace

and the statement

that he was a righteous

man who walked

with God,

what is being highlighted

for us,

is that Noah's

righteousness

was not the reason

for him finding grace

but a result

of him finding grace.

He was chosen

by grace alone.

What happened

to him

was because of

God's grace

and unmerited

favor towards him.

That is the

biblical pattern.

What the Lord does

precedes what

the Lord demands.

God does something

for us

before he asks

something of us.

Really important

to understand that.

I often,

you know,

hear people

or meet people

who think

and they say this,

I'm not good enough

to be a Christian.

I'm not moral enough.

I'm not righteous enough.

I'm not religious enough.

And, you know,

in one sense,

they're right.

But the mistake

is to think

that we can ever

be good enough.

We can ever

be righteous enough.

We can ever

be moral enough.

There's only one way

into the Christian life

and that is by grace

and through faith.

Through what God

does for us,

not what we do

or think we do

for him.

That righteous

and blameless life

of Noah's

flowed out of

God's grace

towards him.

That life of

fellowship with God,

walking with God,

was the result of

God breaking

into Noah's life.

That really is

at the heart

of the gospel message.

Noah was not

righteous because

he built an ark.

He built an ark

because he was

counted righteous

by faith.

Like Abraham

and indeed like

all the saints

in this chapter,

Noah's righteousness

was not his own.

It was a gift

of God

received through faith.

And friends,

that is the righteousness

that Jesus Christ

secured for us

at the cross

of Calvary

where he took

our sin

and gave us

his perfect obedience.

Noah looked forward

to the Savior.

We look back.

But the principle

is the same.

We are justified

and made right

with God,

not by our works,

but by trusting

in his promise.

many of you

will know

of the film

Schindler's List,

the Spielberg film,

Oscar-winning film,

harrowing story

of how

some Jews

were saved

from the Holocaust

by the actions

of one

Oscar Schindler.

But of course,

Schindler's List

wasn't the original,

wasn't the title

of Thomas Keneally's book.

They changed it

for the film.

Originally,

Keneally's book

was called

Schindler's Ark

because the Ark

is a biblical

symbol of salvation,

deliverance,

rescue.

And just as

Noah's Ark

was the place

of safety

and refuge

from the flood

of God's judgment,

just as Oscar Schindler

in a sense

was an ark

for those

he saved

from the gas chambers.

So Jesus Christ

is God's Ark

for a fallen,

sinful humanity.

He's the Ark

of our salvation.

He's big enough

for the world,

strong enough

to withstand

the winds

of adversity

and the rising

waters of death

and judgment.

There is safety

in the Son of God.

He's the shelter.

He's the Savior.

We all need.

He is our Ark

and safe passage

into the new world

that God has planned.

For from that Ark

his people will emerge

to inherit

a new heavens

and earth

because the end

of God's plan

and purpose

is not destruction

but renewal.

Our only hope

is in the grace

of God

and in the Ark

of deliverance

that he has provided

for us.

Our only hope

is in Jesus

who alone

saves us

from the coming wrath.

For on the cross

Jesus experienced

the flood

of God's wrath

and anger

against sin.

The fury

of God's wrath

was unleashed

upon him.

He was submerged

in all our sin

and guilt,

engulfed

in the cascading

waters

of God's wrath.

God's wrath

and the cross

is where we see

that his death

was for us,

for sinners like us.

It's where we see

that his love

is towards us,

his mercy

is towards us.

It's at the cross

that we're delivered

and saved

and rescued

from all

that we rightly deserve

which is God's judgment.

that's what this table

spread with bread

and wine

proclaims to us.

It proclaims

Jesus Christ

as our place

of safety

and our ark

of deliverance.

It's only

in him

that any of us

can become

an heir

of the righteousness

that is

by faith.

Let's pray together.

Amen.

Lord, we thank you

for your provision

of a great saviour

in Jesus Christ.

We recognise

that we

by nature

stand under

your just judgement

and yet by grace

by your mercy

you call us

to yourself

to trust

in Jesus Christ

and to know

forgiveness

and to know

righteousness

and to know

a new life

and indeed

an eternal life.

Lord, help us

tonight

whoever we are

whatever our situation

and circumstance

to rest our faith

not in ourselves

or our good works

or whatever it might be

but in Jesus Christ

and him crucified.

We pray these things

in his name.

Amen.