At the turn of the twentieth century, there was a very popular book for sale called Seekers After God. It was written by Frederic Farrar, and it's still available today. But back in the days before a single copy could be printed on demand, there was a bookseller who had run out of copies because so many people were buying the book.

So the bookseller sent a telegraph to the publisher in New York, saying, "Would you please send us as many copies as you have?" A telegraph came back, and this is what it said: "No Seekers After God in New York. Try Philadelphia."

Well, in Noah's time, Noah could have telegraphed, "No seekers after God on Earth." Noah was the exception. Just think about that. There had been a population increase since creation (see Genesis 6:1). Some scientists estimate there were a billion people on the earth at the time of the flood. It's significant that Noah stood alone against everyone who wasn't following God.

Noah walked with God. And that's why Genesis 6:8 is so beautiful: "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." My English teacher told me it isn't proper to begin a sentence with the word but. It's a negative conjunction. But that's the best way to begin the sentence here. We've just read about all the wickedness and perversion—and then we read, "But."

It's a signal that there was someone who was different. In contrast to the wickedness, there was a person who walked with God and was upright and just. It's a welcome transition at this point.

Verse 8 says it simply: "Noah found grace." (And by the way, verse 8 is the first time the word grace is mentioned in Scripture.) "Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God" (v. 9).

The Hebrew word for perfect, tamim, means "filled with moral integrity." In other words, what you see is what you get. Noah was on the inside what people saw on the outside. He was true through and through. That's the idea of the word tamim. He was a just man. He was righteous, perfect, and complete. He had moral integrity.

One of my favorite Scriptures is 2 Chronicles 16:9, "For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal toward him." Noah was complete, loyal, "perfect in his generations" (Genesis 6:9), and he walked with God.

There's a difference between reputation and character. Reputation is what people think you are—how they perceive you from the outside. It's who you are in public. Your character is who you are when no one is looking.

Noah's reputation and character were the same. He was true all the way through. What saved Noah and his family from the flood is the same thing that saved Enoch from the judgment. Enoch was taken from the Earth because he "walked with God" (Genesis 5:24), just as Noah walked with God.

May you and I also be filled with moral integrity, the same inside as we are on the outside—complete, loyal, just, and "perfect in our generations."

And may we, like Noah, find grace in the eyes of the Lord.