Days of Noah

Although we are still moving through Genesis, my primary text for today is from Mark’s gospel. That text, which the Lord intended to be one of warning, is a segue from Noah’s Flood to where we sit in 2024. (Mark 13:33-37)  “Take heed, keep on the alert; for you do not know when the appointed time will come. It is like a man away on a journey, who upon leaving his house and putting his slaves in charge, assigning to each one his task, also commanded the doorkeeper to stay on the alert. Therefore, be on the alert—for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, whether in the evening, at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— in case he should come suddenly and find you asleep. What I say to you I say to all, ‘Be on the alert!’”

 

Did you know that 2,700 babies were murdered in cold blood yesterday? You didn’t hear about it, did you?  But it happened. Another 2,700 babies were murdered the day before that, as well. And you didn’t hear about those deaths, either. But it gets worse. Twenty-seven hundred babies were murdered in each of the 31 days of July. And they will continue to die every day between now and the end of the year. Some one million every year in American abortion clinics. More than 60 million since 1973 when the Supreme Court of the United States signed their death warrants.

 

That’s a big number. Too big for most of us to wrap our minds around, so let me try to put that number in perspective. If a foreign army invaded the United States today and murdered the entire populations of Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, and Missouri – they would have slaughtered sixty million men, women, and children.

 

And the Church has been essentially desensitized to that bloodletting. We’re callous to the demonic ocean of blood. How do I know that? Because with each election cycle in America, multitudes of those who stand in pulpits and who attend church services each week vote for politicians who support and promote that death.

 

And Satan, having successfully calloused the conscience of that huge swath of pew-sitters and pulpit-standers, has turned his attention to another evil – this one for which God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. I’m talking now about the sexual perversions identified by the Rainbow Flags known internationally to represent homosexuality, lesbianism, and (now also) transgenderism.

 

And the Church is being methodically desensitized to that satanic corruption of the crown of God's creation – men and women. How do I know the Church is being desensitized? Because with each election cycle, multitudes of those who stand in pulpits, and those who sit in pews each week vote for politicians who support and promote that perversion.

 

I won’t say much more about the evils that are overtaking us, but because I am your pastor, I DO want to say enough that those who still have eyes to see and ears to hear will themselves do – and CONTINUE TO DO – what is necessary to deliver themselves and their families from judgment. As your pastor, I am responsible to warn us, as St Paul warned the church at Ephesus: (Ephesians 5:11-13a) “Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light.” 

 

As your pastor, I am responsible before God to be a Watchman on the wall to warn every one of us about how we must live before God and before others.

 

What was a watchman on the wall? The reference from the prophet Ezekiel. Here is a portion of Ezekiel 33:3-6 “(If the Watchman) sees the sword coming upon the land and blows on the trumpet and warns the people, then he who hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, and a sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning; his blood will be on himself. But had he taken warning, he would have delivered his life. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require from the watchman’s hand.’”

 

Are Christians paying attention to the trumpet’s warning? You can decide.

 

At the height of the social and civil unrest that nearly ruptured America in the 60’s and early 70s, the singing group, Buffalo Springfield, wrote a song many of you may remember. Here are some of the lyrics: “There’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear . . . I think it’s time we stop, children, what’s that sound? Everybody look what’s going down.”

 

It’s hard – I think impossible – to pay attention to what’s happening in our culture and not sense that ‘something’s happening here.” And while it might not yet be exactly clear – alarm bells – even if they are muffled – alarms should be clanging for many people in the pews and the pulpits.

 

Did you know that last month a family in Maryland was embroiled in a legal battle to get their son back after the State of Maryland took the child from them? Do you know WHY the State took their 16-year-old son? Because the parents refused to allow him to transition to a girl.

 

Did you know that parents in several other states have also lost their children to Child Services because they objected to the surgical and medical ‘transitioning’ of their son or daughter to the opposite gender?

 

Did you know that on Easter Sunday this past March, U.S. President Joe Biden, with the concurrence of the Democrat Party, proclaimed Transgender Day of Visibility? And while it is true that Mr. Biden has declared every March 31 since 2021 as Transgender Day – he chose to do so this year, even as the day fell on the most holy of days in the Christian calendar. We should wonder if he would have done such a thing on a Muslim holy day.

 

Did you know that he and the Democrat party have also been silent – and by their silence – seem to have endorsed the Paris Olympics opening ceremony in which ‘Drag Queens” blasphemously reenacted the Last Supper? Did you know that First Lady Jill Biden publicly praised the opening ceremonies, even though that sexually perverse display directly attacked Christianity and promoted LGBQT ideology? Yet, can you imagine the First Lady doing such a thing if the Paris Olympics had blasphemed the Muslim prophet, Mohammed?

 

Christian! We’d better be asking ourselves how these things can be occurring with REGULARITY right under our noses. Yes, there’s something happening here, and we’d BETTER wake up because God is watching what we do in response. And oh, by the way, He is watching how we vote in response.

 

Listen to what He tells us in 2 John 1:10-11, “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching (e.g. the gospel message) do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; ¹¹ for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.”  

 

And you are all wise enough to make application to what we do on election days.

 

The Lord Jesus warned people of His day – and we also better pay attention – (Matthew 24:37-39) “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For 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.

 

As it was in the days of Noah. Sudden destruction. Sudden death. No more opportunity to change course. The door to the Ark of Christ’s safety will have been forever closed.

 

And then the Lord also warned: “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times?” (Matthew 16:2-3)

 

Are we recognizing the signs of the times? Yes, there’s something happening here, and we certainly have enough information about what is happening to make educated guesses as to where it is all headed.

 

Except for Noah and his family, the flood destroyed everything on earth that breathed. And we ought to remind ourselves of the REASON the God of Love executed His wrath on humanity. He tells us why in Genesis 6:5 - “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.”

 

And while it is true that God promised to never destroy humanity again with water, it is ALSO true that He promised that the next time He destroys the wicked and the ungodly, it will be with fire. Here is 2 Peter 3:7 –  “But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

 

As it was in the days of Noah, let’s also pay attention to the signs of the times in 2024. The Lord Jesus was serious when He warned what life will be like for the Christian in the days before His return. Matthew 10:21-22 “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. ²² You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.”

 

Signs of the times. And I hope you remember the prophecy in Revelation 13 about the antichrist who will control the ability of individuals to conduct any type of business transaction, such as for food, clothing, housing, utilities, medical care, and transportation. He will do so by what is known as the “Mark of the Beast” – which will be some kind of mark – probably a computer chip – in the hand or forehead.

 

Do you know that such information-laden microchips are already in use in Europe and in some places in America? People use them for the convenience of opening locked doors at their workplaces and at their homes. It’s only a matter of time before those chips also link to their credit cards and bank accounts, and the one who CONTROLS the information stored on those chips will control that person’s money. Every dime. Every penny.

 

Then there is the prophecy regarding the turn of all nations against Israel. Zechariah is only one prophet to tell those with ears to hear that in the days before Jesus returns, all nations – including (it is beginning to seem) America – all nations will turn against Israel. Listen to Zechariah 12:2-3 “Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples around . . . And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it.”

 

If you’ve been following the news even tangentially and sporadically, you ought to be SHOCKED at the virulent rise of antisemitism on college and university campuses across the nation. And then there are the ongoing demands of the UN and even some in our Congress that Israel cease what they call her ‘aggression’ against their Palestinian neighbors – the same neighbors who murdered and raped some 1200 Israeli civilians – including infants – in that sneak attack on October 7. And today those same terrorists hold some 100 hostages whom they continue to torture.

 

As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days when the Son of Man returns. And I bring us back again to our opening text: “Therefore, be on the alert—for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, whether in the evening, at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning—  in case he should come suddenly and find you asleep. What I say to you I say to all, ‘Be on the alert!’”

 

Christian, not only is it my intent in this message to help us properly DISCERN the signs of the times, but I want us to be able to successfully navigate through our times.

 

And so, how are we to live in such a way as to demonstrate day by day – and that includes election day – to demonstrate our citizenship is in HEAVEN, and not on this earth? As I said earlier – and to our deep, deep shame – many of us in the Church have become insensitive to the evil around us. We’ve become that way because we see the evil so often, and we hear the same from the cultural spokespeople in the media, in education, and politics who so openly and routinely try to normalize what the Christian should ALWAYS judge as abnormal.

God wants us to be sensitive to his Holy Spirit, and we become increasingly sensitive through consistent humble and confessional prayer – and by not only reading the Scriptures – but also by OBEYING His Scriptures.

 

St James tells us (James 1:22-24) “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.”

 

In other words – let God's mirror reveal to us those areas in which we need to mature in faith and obedience to Him. Prayerfully read it. Prayerfully memorize portions of God's word. Such processes of letting God's word mold us into the image of Christ is not likely to be accomplished by rushing through a chapter. It is accomplished by spending time reflecting on what God is trying to say to us. These are ways to take up the full armor of God St Paul writes about in Ephesians six.

 

As we do those things – prayer, reflective reading, and memorizing God's word, we become increasingly sensitive to what God calls sin and what He calls righteous, to what God calls normal and what He calls perversion.

 

Wherever we look, we see Satan’s fingerprints. And it is far past the time that Christians – of all people – be sensitive to what God calls us to do – that being, “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; But wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” (2 Timothy 4:2-4)

 

Remember – we are NOT citizens of this world. God requires us to be citizens of heaven who live in this world. And we ought to plant this truth deep into our souls: (Romans 12:2) – “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

 

I fear – and I am convinced – that we are living in a day similar to as it was in the time of Noah. And we need to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us where we have fallen into slumber. None of us wants to hear Jesus say to us what He said to the Christians in the church at Sardis (Revelation 3:1-3)

 

‘I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God. So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.