I have a photograph, taken of my paternal grandfather. It was taken around 1910, when he was 28. I put that photograph next to a photo of me that was taken in 1977, when I was 30. The poses were just about the same.
Surprisingly, the only real different between the two photos is he was wearing a big handle-bar mustache. Other than that, we could be identical twins. That happens in families. And that also happens in society in general. Sometimes, we end up coming full circle to where we were before.
There have been many changes throughout the years. That is one thing history is good at; changing things. George Washington traveled from Virginia to Washington D.C. on horseback. It would take about 10-12 days to make that journey with an average speed of three miles per hour.
Today, our astronauts travel at speeds up to 25,000 miles per hour! It would be possible today to have breakfast in New York City, and eat an early lunch in Paris. Speaking about a history of change, one man said, “My great-grandfather rode a horse because he was afraid of trains, my grandfather rode on a train because he was afraid of a car, and my father rode in a car because he was afraid of planes. Now, I ride a horse because I am afraid of planes, cars, and trains.”
So, as much as things change in our world, sometimes, things resemble what they looked like years ago; like my photo resembling my grandfather’s, or how the man rode a horse now just like his great-grandfather did way back then.
Today, I would like to discuss how some things change dramatically as time goes by, and other things tend to repeat themselves without changing much at all. Let’s start by talking about Noah.
1. IT WAS BAD AND GETTING WORSE
GENESIS 6:5-6.
“And God saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and every thought of man’s heart was only evil, continually. And it sorrowed the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him in his heart.
Verse 7.
“And the Lord said, ‘I will destroy the man I have created from the face of the earth ….”
And in Verse 11, Scriptures read,
“The earth was totally corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.”
We have been given this picture of a society having gone very wrong! Every thought was only evil, and then so we wouldn’t miss the entirety of the situation, God adds the word, “continually.” Everyone was corrupt. Everyone was violent. It was as normal to them as watching TV is for us today. How very sad that nobody in the world, except for Noah and his family, even thought about God.
And so, after saving Noah and his family, God destroyed everyone else. Do you think those people expected anything to happen? What do you think people were doing in those days?
MATTHEW 24:38 gives us that answer.
“… They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark.”
They were just going about their daily routines, having not a care in the world, and then …. it began to rain. And it didn’t stop. And they drowned a few days later. Do you think they would have done anything differently if they had been given some kind of warning about what was going to happen? We would like to think they would, but in reality, they were given many warnings throughout the years, and they ignored all of them. And then they found out what the word “consequences” mean.
2. BEING AWARE HAS ITS ADVANTAGES
Yes, those people in Noah’s day had been given every possible warning, but they chose to ignore it, because they were more comfortable living like they wanted to live instead of living like God wanted them to live.
2 PETER 2:5 says,
“Noah was a preacher of righteousness.”
Noah was found righteous in God’s eyes, and he preached, but nobody would listen. There is always to be found a man whom God can trust. Noah was that man in his time. Now we don’t know if Noah ever gave an actual sermon, but he preached in other ways; like in his obedience to God.
How many of you know that all believers are called to preach, but only a few of them are called to do it with words? Whether we use words to preach or not; we are all mandated to preach. We preach through our daily actions and attitudes. Do people on your block know you are a Christian simply by seeing how you live your life? One man asked, “If being a Christian were against the law, would there be enough evidence in your life to convict you of the crime?”
2 PETER 1:21 tells us,
“… holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
HEBREWS 11:7 says,
“Noah’s faith condemned the world.”
Yes, there was Godly preaching back in Noah’s day, giving every possible warning to an evil and wicked nation who refused to repent of their sins. Yet, they made a decision to go against God. The flood was totally unexpected.
I recently wrote an article explaining how the unexpectedness of that floor must have been to the people there. Let me quote a couple of paragraphs from that article.
“Ba’hal, the head of his household, looked outside his tent to see it still raining for the third consecutive day. Where only puddles existed the day before, there now was a small stream flowing in front of his tent. This seemed an odd thing to happen, because up until that very time, it had not rained upon the earth. Everyone was concerned at this strange event of water falling from the skies.
His wife commented that if it did not stop raining soon, they would have to move to higher ground. He knew in the back of his mind that there was something unusual about to happen.
He went back in his thoughts to the week before when the heads of the tribal council met to discuss the crazy man named Noah who had just finished his monstrosity, called the ’Ark.’ After 120 years, Noah had earned the reputation of being the village idiot. Not only had he built this Ark, but he had preached about how sinful the world was and how people needed to repent and change or suffer the consequences. Yes, this man was truly crazy. Ba’hal could not wait for things to dry up so he could get on with his normal daily routines.
But within a few days, Ba’hal was dead. He had drowned in the unexpected flood, as did everyone else on earth, with the exception of one family; Noah’s family.
The Great Flood destroyed the corrupt society mankind had built apart from God. It was such an impacting event in history most cultures today have some kind of "legend" they still teach to their new generations about “the flood.”
That society had slowly backed away from God to the point where many denied His existence, and those who did not deny it, ridiculed Him. God had sent his warnings to them for over 120 years, telling them they needed to repent and get right with God or they would die. They continued to ignore those warnings. And then, without any further warnings, the flood came and they all died. No more people; no more sin.
And here we are today, sitting in our churches hearing about what happened then. And we find it easy now to see their folly; to see where they made mistakes; and we begin to ridicule them as being anything but bright. But we need to be aware of something, too.
3. THIRD TIME’S CHARMED (?)
As we look at what was happening then, can we see any similarities between that society and today’s society? Scripture says they were eating and drinking. Today, our restaurants and taverns are filled to the brim around the clock, while most churches struggle to have anyone show up for church at all.
Scripture says they were marrying. Today, we have wedding chapels spread across the country whose only agenda is to marry people for a big cash payment. And we also have many people on their 4th, 5th, and even 6th marriage! We are a nation who likes to marry.
The trouble with that is a full 50% of our marriages are ending in divorce. We marry for the enjoyment of being married, but we do not marry with any real commitment or devotion to the other in our hearts.
I read where one man had been married 12 times in his life. In the article, it described him as “living in a nursing home as a single and very lonely old man.” How can anyone be lonely with a dozen wives walking around at one time? One wife is good; anything more than that is more than any sane man can handle.
I saw a statistic the other day that reported 90% of all children over the age of 12 have had sex on repeated occasions; have done drugs; and has been drunk from alcohol on at least two occasions. 90%! Why haven’t their parents been parenting? Have they been too worried the children won’t like them? At that age … who cares if they like you or not? The only concern would be if they are obedient to you or not. But before they can even be that, you must first present them a proper and Godly household to them. And today’s parents are not doing that.
Recently, two British tourists were robbed and shot to death in Florida. They had made a wrong turn and ended up walking into a very bad area in the inner city. A 16-year old boy robbed them and then killed them, leaving them lay where they fell. This young boy had just been released from jail less than 12 hours before after serving time for an offense – with a gun! Our parents are wicked because they are not teaching their children, and our society is wicked because it condones that type of behavior. We are a wicked nation indeed.
The people in Noah’s day were caught with their hands in the cookie jar when the flood came. That was their ending. Do you see any similarities between our society and the society in Noah’s day? Both are wicked. Both are violent. Both are ungodly. And both refuse to listen to the righteous word of God as it is preached. We are just like them.
Everything is repeating itself. We live in a world that is also corrupt, sinful, and violent. We are doing the same thing they did in Noah’s day. We are denying the Lord a place in our society, and doing whatever we want to do without any thought as to what God wants us to do. We are being preached to over and over again about how we need to repent and turn towards God – or we will face a dire consequence. The people of Noah’s day were being preached, to also. We ignore the warnings and even ridicule them. They did too. And then they died.
Their end was the flood. Noah told them about it. They denied it would happen and they ridiculed Noah. “Mr. Crazy Boatbuilder,” they said. And they ignored him. And they died.
This whole scenario I have been talking about regarding a truly godless society was repeated in the days of Lot. Homosexuality was rampant and adultery was even considered to be a form of worship in some circles. And how did God put an end to that? He rained fire and brimstone down around them and killed them all.
If God destroyed sinful people by drowning them in Noah’s day, and again killed sinful people by burning them in Lot’s day, why do we insist that we can continue to do whatever we want and be safe?
Noah warned his people of a specific end because of their sin and they did not believe Him. Preachers today are telling us about a specific end, too, yet many do not believe them either. People called them crazy and have even made up their own stories as to how things will be. All of them are based upon a belief that makes that person feel comfortable, but none of them are based upon the truth.
We have been told that real believers will be saved, not by an ark this time, but by a calling up from the earth. We refer to this event as the Rapture. It comes from the Greek work, “Rapturo,” which means “a calling away from.” When the time of the end comes, Jesus will call us into the air to meet Him. It will be as unexpected and come upon us even faster than the flood did in Noah’s day.
1 THESSALONIANS 5:2-3 describes it this way:
“The Lord will come as a thief in the night. People will be saying, ‘peace’ and ‘safety’ and then sudden destruction will come …”
JOHN 14:1-3 tells us what Jesus Himself said:
“If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto me ….”
In JAMES 5:8, an angel said,
“… for the coming of the Lord draws near.”
The truth is, Jesus is going to come back and call all real believers up to be with Him. We do not know when it will happen, but we do feel it will be sooner than later. Most of the people today are hearing that message, just as they did in Noah’s day, and most people are reacting to that message just like those people did; they ridicule it and deny it, claiming it could never happen that way.
The people of today must realize the truth of God’s word. We must pay attention to the truth that the Bible teaches us. The problem is that we are not hearing that truth as often as we should. The reason is that many of our churches today have left God outside their church buildings because they would rather teach and preach what satisfied people’s itchy ears than the truth of what God’s desire is for them or the consequence of denying God in their lives.
These churches say they don’t want to alienate people from coming to the church by preaching “hard messages,” but if they aren’t being fed the true word of God, then why is it important if they even come to the church? If we do not turn back to true Bible teaching and preaching, we become nothing more a social club, complete with luncheons and singing entertainment.
There will be a day when Jesus does come back, just like He said He would. What a pity it would be for a person to be unprepared. I would hate to see you face that day without making sure that you will go with Him. Today can be your personal Day of Decision if you choose to make it. Will you?
* * * * * * * * * * * *
for more sermons on Revelation & the End Times, go to our website at -
http://www.bruceballministries.com/d_revelation_series.html
