That Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord does not mean that God showed grace to Noah exclusively. Yes, a flood eventually wiped out everyone else, but not before God gave them one hundred years to repent of their wickedness and receive salvation. Yes, the planet was deluged, but every man had opportunity to hear His message as they observed Noah building the huge barge. But the world refused to grab hold of the good news of salvation, and they drowned in their sin. It wasn’t that God looked at Noah with grace and everyone else with condemnation. God looked at everyone with eyes of grace and mercy. It’s just that Noah found the grace.

The question I want to ask you today is this: What have you found in the eyes of the Lord?

The story is told of the time a London traffic jam prevented C. S. Lewis from arriving at a certain religious symposium on time. The panel, comprised of the world’s most highly esteemed religious thinkers, began without him, their first question being: What is unique about Christianity? Although the Buddhist, Muslim, Jew, and Taoist discussed the question, they could arrive at no conclusive answer. In the midst of their debate, C. S. Lewis burst into the room.

“Dr. Lewis,” said the moderator, “tell us what is unique to Christianity.”

“That’s easy,” Lewis is said to have replied. “It’s grace.”

C. S. Lewis was right. No other religion or philosophy provides unmerited, undeserved, unearned favor. Every other religion, every other philosophy says there are things we must do - devotional exercises, good deeds, or righteous acts - to earn blessings from Allah or to gain favor from Buddha. Only biblical Christianity says, “It’s all grace, nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.”