Ready Or Not 1

Matt. 24:1-3 "Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. 2 And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down. 3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

Now, after Jesus' prediction that the awesome temple they'd been admiring would be utterly destroyed, the disciples asked Jesus two questions:

"When will these things be? and "What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?"

Jesus answered accordingly, predicting things both near and far away.

The temple would be destroyed.

This prediction was fulfilled a few decades later when, in 70 A.D., Titus and the Roman legions laid siege to Jerusalem and utterly destroyed it, along with the temple.

But Jesus also addressed the question, "What will be the signs of your coming?"

Here, the disciples were referring to the 2nd coming of Christ predicted all throughout the Old and New Testaments.

Predictions like, "And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west. Thus The Lord my God will come, and all the saints with You"" (Zech.14: 4-5).

In the Book of Revelation, John writes "Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, even they who pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him" (Rev.1:7).

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Now, when Jesus answered the disciples questions, He didn't deny that He would return, but gave signs to watch for that would preclude His return.

Among many general signs--which He called "the beginning of sorrows" like, increased earthquakes, famines, pestilence, wars, betrayals, and so forth--He gave two other signs I want to look at in the next two weeks...

The sign of Noah and the sign of Lot.

Jesus said concerning Noah:

Matt. 24:37 "But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be."

And then concerning Lot:

Luke 17:28-29 “And the world will be as it was in the days of Lot. People went about their daily business—eating and drinking, buying and selling, farming and building— 29 until the morning Lot left Sodom. Then fire and burning sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all."

So Jesus lets us know that the days of Noah and Lot, and the time period in which He returns will have striking similarities.

So first, what were the days of Noah like?

We find a good description in Genesis 6.

So I'll first tell you what the sign is, then we'll read some verses from there.

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First, we see that the days of Noah were:

A time of apostasy

Apostasy is when people walk away from God and abandon the faith.

In Noah's time a great apostasy is described in Gen.6:1-2:

"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."

The key words here are "sons of God," and "daughters of men."

Who are the "sons of God?"

Well, some believe they were actually angels that rebelled against God and committed grave sin by having unnatural relations with human women.

Others believe the "sons of God" refers to the righteous lineage of Seth.

This is where I lean.

You may remember that Seth was the third son of Adam and Eve, who took the place of Abel after Cain murdered him.

The "sons of God" refers to those of Seth's lineage that produced righteous men--like Methuselah, Enoch, and Noah.

It was Seth's righteous lineage who, the Bible says, "Called on the name of The Lord."

Now watch this---It was this righteous lineage that began to defect from a solid walk with God and intermarry with worldly, godless women called, "the daughters of men."

Seth's lineage began to live according to the "lusts of the flesh."

The Bible says that "the sons of God (Seth's lineage) looked and lusted after the beauty of the daughters of men."

It says "they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose."

Now, the word "TOOK" here is from a Hebrew word that almost always means "to seize forcefully."

So there was no romance, no love involved, no courting, no seeking God over their decision, they just "looked and took."

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So we have here a righteous people who apostatized away from God and descended into a life of lust.

As a result, They became indistinguishable from the fallen world around them.

It was at this time in the very next verse that God says, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years."

It was here that God gave mankind 120 years before judgment.

One hundred twenty years from this time, Noah entered the Ark and the Great Flood came.

In the N.T. Paul the Apostle also wrote that there would be a great apostasy before the return of Christ.

1 Tim.4:1 "Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last days some will turn away from the true faith; they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons."

"As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days..."

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Secondly, we see in the days of Noah....

II. Totally Corrupted Character

Listen again to Genesis 6:

6:5 "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."

What a picture!

It had reached a place when not one thought that arose in the minds of men was righteous, clean, holy, or God-honoring.

Every underlying motivation behind each and every thought was ONLY EVIL CONTINUALLY!

A total corruption of character had occurred!

One commentator writes, "What an awful character does God give of the inhabitants of Noah's time. They were wholly sensual, the desires of the mind overwhelmed and lost in the desires of the flesh, their souls no longer discerning their high destiny, but ever minding earthly things, so that they were sensualized and brutalized, not retaining God in their knowledge, and they lived only to chase their own desires. They were all corrupt within, and all unrighteous without; religion no longer existed. Piety was gone, and every form of sound words had disappeared."

And the lineage of Cain and of Seth were now totally mixed together.

So there was a great apostasy, and great wickedness in the days of Noah.

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And Genesis 6 goes on to reveal that there was also:

III. Widespread violence

Gen. 6:11 "Now God saw that the earth had become corrupt and was filled with violence."

Here's a principle of life for you--Inward corruption always leads to outward violence.

The further a person or society gets away from God, the more likely they are to become violent.

Again, another commentator writes, "...the earth was filled with violence in Noah's time; with doing injury to the persons and properties of men; with oppression and cruelty, by tyrannical decrees and unrighteous judgments, with violent attacks and robberies and rapes..."

So a great apostasy, corruption of character, and widespread violence characterized the days of Noah.

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But there was one more sign that Jesus Himself talked about.

In Noah's day there was....

IV. Universal apathy toward God's Word and Warnings

This is what Jesus meant when He said,

In Noah's day, "They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the Ark, and knew not until the flood came."

We read this and say, "What's wrong with that?"

But here's the deal:

It shows that it was "business as usual" in Noah's day.

They were utterly unaware of approaching judgment.

They had totally ignored Noah's warnings of a coming flood.

You see, The Apostle Peter tells us:

"God did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others..." (2 Pet.2:5)

Every day for 120 years, Noah had not only built the ark, but had preached a message of repentance, and NOT ONE SOLITARY PERSON repented!

Universal apathy toward God's warnings characterized the days of Noah.

Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be..."

So what can we expect to see as the return of Jesus draws near?

Great apostasy--we are going to see (as we are already seeing) large swaths of the professing Christian church world defecting from the truths of Scripture.

Corrupted character--the character of our Christ-rejecting world can be expected to grow more depraved and godless. Paul the Apostle warned:

2 Tim. 3:1-5 "But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power."

We can also expect to see:

Widespread violence--We hear a lot about peace, but the Bible warns,

"While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape" (1 Thes. 5:3).

And we can expect to see an increasing:

A Growing Apathy toward God's warnings.

"Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, "What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created."

"The Lord isn't really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent" (2 Pet. 3: 3-4; 9).