Introduction & Text

These next few messages will be ‘awareness messages’ – and as such, they are about studying the days in which we’re serving the Lord in light of His prophetic timetable. My prayer is that they equip us for the work of the ministry, convict us as to the urgency of the current hour, and move us to serve Jesus with an unprecedented single-mindedness and an undistracted heart.

These sermons will consider the corruption of the world in which we live and set it against God’s promises – promises of deliverance to the believer, but promises of judgment for those who reject His Son.

Genesis 6:1-8:4:

The Wickedness and Judgment of Man

^6:1 Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, ² that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.

³ And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” ⁴ There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

⁵ Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. ⁶ And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. ⁷ So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” ⁸ But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

Noah Pleases God

⁹ This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. ¹⁰ And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

¹¹ The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. ¹² So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

The Ark Prepared

¹³ And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. ¹⁴ Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. ¹⁵ And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. ¹⁶ You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. ¹⁷ And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. ¹⁸ But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁹ 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. ²⁰ Of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. ²¹ And you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself; and it shall be food for you and for them.” ²² Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.

The Great Flood

^7:1 Then the Lord said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation. ² You shall take with you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female; two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female; ³ also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth. ⁴ For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made.” ⁵ And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him. ⁶ Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth.

⁷ So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood. ⁸ Of clean animals, of animals that are unclean, of birds, and of everything that creeps on the earth, ⁹ two by two they went into the ark to Noah, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. ¹⁰ And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth. ¹¹ In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. ¹² And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.

¹³ On the very same day Noah and Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark—¹⁴ they and every beast after its kind, all cattle after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort. ¹⁵ And they went into the ark to Noah, two by two, of all flesh in which is the breath of life. ¹⁶ So those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the Lord shut him in.

¹⁷ Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. ¹⁸ The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. ¹⁹ And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. ²⁰ The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered. ²¹ And all flesh died that moved on the earth: birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man. ²² All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died. ²³ So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive. ²⁴ And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days.

Noah’s Deliverance

^8:1 Then God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided. ² The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. ³ And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters decreased. ⁴ Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.

Luke 17:22-30, 32-33:

²² Then He [Jesus] said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. ²³ And they will say to you, ‘Look here!’ or ‘Look there!’ Do not go after them or follow them. ²⁴ For as the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in His day. ²⁵ But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. ²⁶ And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: ²⁷ They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. ²⁸ Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; ²⁹ but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. ³⁰ Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed …

³² Remember Lot’s wife. ³³ Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.

They Were Eating and Drinking

“And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage,” they were doing all of these things right up “until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:26-27).

The routines of life were in full operation – people were eating and drinking. The flood occurred during a time of prosperity. Life was normal. People were buying and selling, others were planting, and harvesting – normal business was being conducted.

The celebration of important miles stones in life were taking place as usual – people were marrying and being given in marriage. In fact, you might say that people were living as though they had a thousand tomorrows. But they didn’t.

Again, in Luke 17:27, 26, our Lord Jesus said, “They were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all . . . Just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man.”

From the Genesis 6 account of the flood, we learn about the ‘days of Noah’ – the days which immediately preceded the flood. So, what were the “days of Noah” like? Let’s see if there are any genuine and obvious parallels to our own days.

What Were The ‘Days of Noah’ Like? 

1) First of all, the “days of Noah” were days of heightened supernatural activity. Satan was working overtime and was very successful in his deceptions, leading angels and men in rebellion against God. “The sons of God [fallen angels] saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose” (Genesis 6:2).

Even as today Satan has “blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4). He, God’s great enemy, has anesthetized this generation into “following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air,” for he is “the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2).

The judgment of Noah’s flood came at a time of heightened supernatural activity.

2) Also, the Word of God tells us that at that time evil reigned in the hearts of all. “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5).

Evil is Satan’s policy whereby he opposes and seeks to undermine the will of God. Evil is not mere sin; it is the philosophy of a life lived for self rather than for God.

“Moral evil” includes both social offenses (ethical issues such as murder, theft, sexual immorality and lying) and cultic offenses (those offenses aimed directly against God, such as blasphemy and idolatry). In the mind of the OT Scriptures, these were one and the same.

Cultic offenses are addressed in the first four of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:3-11; Deuteronomy 5:7-15) and by the first of Jesus’ “Great Commandments” (Matthew 22:37-40, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27, cf. Deuteronomy 6:5). They deal with our moral obligation to God. 

Social offenses are considered in the last six of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:12-17, Deuteronomy 5:16-21) and by the second “Great Commandment” (Leviticus 19:18). They deal with our moral obligation to one another as defined by God. So, according to the Judeo-Christian mindset, what is morally ‘good’ is never what “human society decides is in its best interest, but what the revealed will of God declares.”[1]

Well, at the time of Noah’s flood, not only was evil present, but “the wickedness of man was great on the earth” and “every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” As today, virtually every moral evil that God has warned us to condemn and denounce has become normalized and is practiced without impunity or censure, as we shall see.

Other gods – whether the worshippers know it or not because of their Satan-sponsored spiritual blindness – have replaced the worship of the true and living God. Today ‘self’ is worshipped most frequently along with its old familiar partner, ‘the golden calf’ – gold, money, and all the fleeting pleasures that they promise to bring. And while money in and of itself is not evil, the love of it certainly is. In fact, 1 Timothy 6:10 says that “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”

Mark it down: in the days before God brought the universal flood, evil reigned in the hearts of men.

3) What else were the days of Noah like? Well, the days of Noah were days of corruption on every level. “The earth was corrupt in the sight of God …” (Genesis 6:11). The Hebrew word translated “corrupt” means blemished, corrupted, depraved, polluted, ruined, a waste, destroyed.” Of course, our news today is filled with reports of every imaginable act of wickedness and depravity.

a) Respect for God and all things sacred are all but completely gone – reverence has been corrupted. Even in PG movies the Lord’s name is used in vain so often, that it’s hardly even noticed! But I think God notices it, this blatant violation of the Third Commandment! Exodus 20:7: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.”

Genesis 6:11 says that, in the days of Noah, “The earth was corrupt in the sight of God…”

Jesus said, “Just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man.”

b) Furthermore, God’s intention for marriage and the family have both been corrupted. Marriage, as we all know, has received a liberal face-lift and now has a brand-new definition in our day. Never mind that God created and defined marriage and family as divine institutions meant to reflect Himself in His creation and to bless and perpetuate the Human race – all of whom bear the imago dei, the very image of God, though marred by sin.

Well, Jesus promised that when He returns people would be “marrying” and being “given in marriage,” but I’m sure that not a single person who heard Him say this could have imagined what marriage would look like in the last days!

And even within the bounds of tradition – by that I mean, God-defined – marriage, commitment itself is at an all-time low! More people live together before marrying and, in many cases, never marry at all. In fact, less and less people are actually marrying than ever before, although living as they’re married in what amounts to an outrage against the God who created marriage to reflect the very relationship that He has with His people!

And, if people do marry, many of them will divorce. Here are the most recent statistics as of 2018, combining more than 115 independent studies:[2] The current divorce rate among married women is nearly double that of 1960. Almost 50 percent of all marriages in the United States will end in divorce or separation. Researchers estimate that 41 percent of all first marriages end in divorce, 60 percent of second marriages end in divorce and 73 percent of third marriages end in divorce.

How often do divorces take place in America? Every 13 seconds another divorce is made final in our country. That equates to 277 divorces per hour, 6,646 divorces per day, seven days a week, and more than 2,400,000 divorces per year. The average first marriage which ends in divorce lasts about 8 years.[3]

Christians fare better here, but, if you’re an evangelical Christian adult who has been married, there’s still a 26 percent likelihood that you’ve been divorced (compared to a 38 percent chance for non-Christians).

And Satan is well aware of the virtually unacknowledged secret ‘marriage killer’: sexual immorality – and, so, he exploits it for all its worth. He encourages young people to experiment with multiple sexual partners before marriage. Why? Because in doing so, he’s actually setting land mines in their future marriages. Here are a few findings that free-sex secularists don’t particularly like.

Researchers have found that women who lose their virginity as teenagers are more than twice as likely to get divorced in the first 5 years of marriage than women who waited until age 18 or older. A 2011 study at the University of Iowa found that for both men and women, the loss of virginity before age 18 was correlated with a greater number of occurrences of divorce within the first 10 years of marriage. Women with 6 or more premarital sexual partners are almost 3 times less likely to be in a stable marriage.

God’s enemy is also apparently fond of using technology to assault God-created marriage. In 2011, Facebook was cited as a major contributor to 1/3 of divorce petitions examined by one U.K. study. Pornography addiction was cited as a factor in 56 percent of divorces according to another study.

Furthermore, stable, traditional marriages and families are routinely mocked in television sitcoms and in movies, this is also by design! Why? Because studies have found that if your parents are happily married, your risk of divorce decreases by 14 percent. If your parents remarried after divorcing, you’re 91 percent more likely to get divorced. According to Nicholas Wolfinger in Understanding the Divorce Cycle, the risk of divorce is 50 percent higher when one spouse comes from a divorced home and 200 percent higher when both partners do.

So, less people are committing to marriage than ever before, and among those who do, the instance of divorce in those who vow to love one another ‘until death do us part’ is astronomical, and if children are involved the split exposes them to serious trauma and substantially impacts their ability to thrive in a happy marriage and family in their future.

Now, divorce is complicated, and while the Lord’s heart is always for reconciliation, even Jesus Himself gave a reason when divorce is permissible because of the hardness of our hearts in Matthew 19:9: πορνεία, often translated adultery, but which gathers in a large array of sexual sin. And, in 1 Corinthians 7:15, the Apostle Paul added another: desertion.

But despite these exceptions, God’s heart toward divorce has never changed! It’s expressed in Malachi 2:15-16: “Take heed then to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of your youth. For I hate divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel …”

Even the exceptions which Jesus and Paul gave for divorcing one’s spouse were not given because they reflect the heart of God, but as a concession to the hardness of our own hearts! 

In Matthew 19:3ff., the “Pharisees came up to [Jesus] and tested Him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” ⁴ He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, ⁵ and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? ⁶ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” ⁷ They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” ⁸ He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.”

Even Paul’s exception in 1 Corinthians 7:15 must be read in the context of the dominical logion of verse 10: “To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband.”[4]

Now I say all of this to say that the issue of divorce is clearly a very big deal to God. And it was still a very big deal to us in this country just a generation ago, in our parents’ generation – but no longer. Divorce is so ubiquitous today that it barely causes us to blink.

In fact, another study showed that in the United States of America in 2019, there were an average of 9 divorces in the time it takes for a couple to recite their typical wedding vows (2 minutes).

Now, what’s my point, Church? Only this: marriage and family, two institutions which God Himself established and defined have been corrupted in our day to the point that they barely resemble His original intention.

And it has happened right before the eyes of this generation of Christians.

Genesis 6:11 says that, in the days of Noah, “The earth was corrupt in the sight of God …”

Jesus said, “Just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man.”

c) As I alluded to above, human sexuality has been corrupted – a further assault on the purity which God desires for His children. Corruption and sexual scandal have found their way into the highest offices of government and even, sadly, within the sanctity of the church.

Ungodliness and sexual immorality are not only present in our music, film, literature and the other arts, they’re celebrated. Homosexuality has become accepted as a legitimate lifestyle, even though God’s Word calls it “unnatural” and an “abomination” before God.

Transgender restrooms are popping up throughout the country despite the fact that Deuteronomy 22:5 says, “A woman shall not wear man’s clothing, nor shall a man put on a woman’s clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.

Genesis 13:13 tells us that “the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against the Lord.” The people of Lot’s day, like the people of our own day, had given themselves over to unrestrained sensuality. When God sent two angels in the appearance of men to destroy the city of Sodom, righteous Lot, Abraham’s nephew, invited them into his home for the evening.

But Genesis 19 tells us, “before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. ⁵ And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.” ⁶ Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, ⁷ and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly” (Genesis 19:4-7).

Now, what’s so wicked about getting to “know” someone? Well, in the Bible this phrase is a figure of speech used to indicate sexual activity. Many translations, therefore, choose to indicate it’s meaning, rather than what the words literally say.

The NIV and CSB have: They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”

The Berean Study Bible and the NASB have: “Send them out to us so we can have relations with them!”

The NKJV has: “Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally.”

But, the ESV, our base text, translates precisely what it says, “Bring them out to us, that we may know them” (Genesis 19:5).

But just in case you’re ambiguous as to what that really means, the same book, Genesis 4:1 says, “Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain”! So, how did people have babies in Old Testament times? They “knew” one another!

So, what did these wicked men, who were in the very process of bringing about the destruction of their entire city, say to righteous Lot?

“Bring them out to us, that we may know them.” And so Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him [in an attempt to protect the two divine visitors] and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly” (Genesis 19:5-7, brackets and emphasis mine).

Immediately after telling His hearers that the days of the return “of the Son of Man” will be just as “in the days of Noah” (Luke 17:26), Jesus said this:

“Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, ²⁹ but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all— so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed” (Luke 17:28-30).

The judgment of God came upon the people when His patience was exhausted – when the people had so dishonored Him that they corrupted His pure gift of human sexuality as the precious covenant sign within the institution of marriage into perversion and animalistic lust. We too, in America, have embraced a corrupted human sexuality.

In Jeremiah 2:24 (NASB), the prophet described the people of Israel as “a wild donkey accustomed to the wilderness.” He said they were like a donkey “that sniffs the wind in her passion. In the time of her heat who can turn her away? All who seek her will not become weary; In her month they will find her.” Could any less be said of our country as we find it in May of 2020? No.

The people of Sodom were lusting and neighing, corrupting and debouching, perverting that which God had given for a blessing into the very grounds for the visitation of divine wrath, ‘sniffing at the wind’ and bringing down upon itself the fury of the righteous and holy God.

But, as Jesus reminds us, they were eating and drinking, they were buying and selling, they were planting and building. But, “on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:28-30).

Genesis 6:11 says that, in the days of Noah, “The earth was corrupt in the sight of God …”

Jesus said, “Just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man.”

Genesis 13:13 tells us that “the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against the Lord.”

Jesus said, “Just as it was in the days of Lot … so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed.”

A Time For Grace …

1) Now, I have to stop here this morning, but we’re only getting started; we have a lot more to see about what the world was like in Noah’s day. In these messages I am going to endeavor to show you precisely where we are in God’s prophetic timetable, why we’re seeing the things we’re seeing in our nation, what we can expect in the very near future and why, and what our response as God’s children should be to these things.

God is patient with sinners, merciful and full of grace. But in Genesis 6:3, the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless, his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” This meant that God’s grace was going to abide with these wicked people for another 120 years before He brought the judgment of the flood.[5] During that time, Noah – God’s man – would be preaching and warning and building a boat (in fact, some scholars argue that that’s how long it took Noah to build it!).[6]

As a result of this space for grace, there was plenty of time for Noah’s neighbors and other curious individuals to question him about why he was doing all this ark building. They would have received from him the same answer over and over again. They would have heard Noah preaching about an imminent judgement, a coming flood.

2 Peter 2:5 calls Noah a “preacher” or “herald of righteousness.” He was a κῆρυξ, a word which referred to “an official [who was] entrusted with a proclamation.” And that’s what the Church is supposed to be to this generation.

But instead many seek out teachers who soothe their ears by telling them that God’s will for the life of every believer is to be wealthy and healthy – Golden Calf stuff.

The focus of the Church in this strategic moment must be to pray that God might open hearts. This is a small space for grace. This is the business the Lord instructed His followers to be occupied with until He returns.

Mark this and mark it well: whatever you may have been told, Jesus never spoke a word – not a single word – about reforming Rome, nor did He ever instruct His followers to do so. He told us to proclaim the truth, to warn the sinner, to point them to Him and His sacrifice. And to go out and make disciples throughout all the world – and to do it by going, and baptizing, and teaching them to observe all the things that He’s taught us to do.

The people of our generation are sailing toward the iceberg of an eternity without Jesus, and many of God’s people are content to rearrange the chairs on the weather deck.

But Noah had one message: ‘There’s a flood coming, people, be ready for it!’ But let’s be honest. As the world measures success, Noah had a fantastically unsuccessful ministry. Only a few people – eight in all – were saved from that flood. O, but God’s Word was true nonetheless!

You know those angels, those “sons of God” who “saw that the daughters of man were attractive” and “took as their wives any they chose” in Genesis 6:2?

The Apostle Peter tells us that “God did not spare” them “when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment” (2 Peter 2:4).

And you know all those people in Noah’s generation who disregarded the preacher’s message?

Well, the Apostle Peter tells us that God “did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly” (2 Peter 2:5).

And you remember the men of Sodom who so recklessly ignored God’s call to purity and righteousness?

Well, the Apostle Peter writes this:

“If by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; ⁷ and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked … ⁹ then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, ¹⁰ and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority” (2 Peter 2:6-7, 8-10).

For just “as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away, so will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matthew 24:38-39).

So, Church, this is a time when, as never before, this generation of believers need to be Noahs. These are ark-building days.

Because if there’s one thing that God truly despises when He finds it in His people it’s apathy, indifference.

Amos 6:1a, 4-6 (NASB) says …

1     Woe to those who are at ease in Zion …

4     Those who recline on beds of ivory

And sprawl on their couches,

And eat lambs from the flock

And calves from the midst of the stall,

     5     Who improvise to the sound of the harp,

And like David have composed songs for themselves,

     6     Who drink wine from sacrificial bowls

While they anoint themselves with the finest of oils,

Yet they have not grieved over the ruin of Joseph.

Do you know what I think?

I think the Lord is seeking people who will grieve over the ruin of this generation of sinners more than they grieve over any personal loss.

I think the Lord is seeking people who will grieve over the thousands of souls who have slipped into a Christ-less eternity, who miss the day of their visitation.

I think the Lord is seeking people who, filled with the Holy Spirit, recognize their time and the strategic moment in which God has sovereignly set them.

For just “as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away, so will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matthew 24:38-39).

We need to remember that we’re surrounded by people who won’t go up in the Ark when the hard rains of judgment begin to fall! Jesus is coming for His people soon. And shortly after He does, turmoil and tribulation will come upon the inhabitants of this planet that the earth has never seen. This current crisis is nothing, literally nothing, compared to the devastating terrors that will be visited upon the people.

Life continued as normal, until it was no longer normal.

[1] Elwell, Walter A., editor, Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1996) on ‘evil’.

[2] Compiled by Wilkinson & Finkbeiner, 2019.

[3] Also, the number one reason given for divorce? Lack of commitment, cited in 73% of divorces. Infidelity is cited in 55% of divorces (most respondents give more than one reason, which is why the percentages add up to more than 100. If a person has strong religious beliefs, the risk of divorce is 14 percent less and having no religious affiliation makes you 14 percent more likely to get divorced. Christians fare better here, but, if you’re an evangelical Christian adult who has been married, there’s still a 26 percent likelihood that you’ve been divorced (compared to a 38 percent chance for non-Christians). Again, these studies reflect the most recent statistics -within the past 18 months – and combine more than 115 independent studies. And a few other findings that secularists don’t particularly like! Researchers have found that … Women who lose their virginity as a teenager are more than twice as likely to get divorced in the first 5 years of marriage than women who waited until age 18 or older.

[4] Davide Sciarabba writes: “Paul confirmed God’s rejection of divorce as Mark and Matthew did … [But] if the unbelieving spouse pays no heed to the Lord’s command, he or she will only be under the marital civil law of the country. Believers are called to listen to the dominical logion for several reasons. The most obvious reasons are that God can operate in their marriage to solve existing problems. Believers, when they are patient, can save their partners and their children through the sanctified bonds of a marriage. Mixed marriages can also be an opportunity to aid in the sanctification of the spouse and children. Believers who have tried everything to maintain their marriages with an unbeliever are called to peace if the unbelieving spouse wants to divorce. In this case, they are free and no longer under bondage … [I]f they decide that remarriage is good for them, they are free, before God, to remarry.” (Sciarabba, David, ‘The Issue of Divorce and Remarriage in 1 Corinthians 7:15 in the Light of the Dominical Logion of 7:10,’ 2017, Papers, 11.)

[5] Hamilton, Victor P., The Book of Genesis, Chapters 1–17: The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1990) p.269.

[6] Walton, John H, Genesis: The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2001) p.296; cf. Douglas Mangum, Miles Custis, and Wendy Widder, Genesis 1–11: Lexham Research Commentaries (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012) on Genesis 6:1–22.