Nuggets - "The Days of Noah"

From time to time I will be posting with permission an email newsletter from a retired pastor friend of mine from Western New York. I have found his newsletter refreshing and insightful. I hope in the future to have him posting these articles on his own. Until that time I will be placing these post for him. I hope you enjoy his articles.
Wesley

Nuggets
…from Matthew 24
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"But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be."
Matt. 24:36-37

Current events in this volatile world have increased the frequency with which we hear remarks, especially among professing Christians, anticipating the return of the Lord and/or the second coming of Christ. Now, it is a good thing to look forward to His coming to rapture the church, if it keeps us alert, but it is important to balance that hope by noting that the scriptures indicate that He will not come on the crest of a wave of expectancy, "For in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh." (Cf. v.44 my italics)

However, if the precise time of the Savior's return is hidden from everyone but God Himself, our text makes evident the climate that will immediately precede His coming: "…as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." That statement, falling as it does from the lips of the Savior Himself, should send us back to Genesis to consider the characteristics of the days of Noah.

Let me suggest, briefly, some of the obvious trends of Noah's day. The first, and one of the most striking, we treated some time ago when our V.O.W. was taken from Genesis 6. It is the marriage of the "sons of God" with the "daughters of men." That is the wedding of the holy and the profane. The sons of God "saw the daughters of men that they were fair (attractive); and they took them wives of all which they chose." As the church becomes more worldly in its values and methods, without a proper separation from the world and regard for the precepts and principles of the word of God, the "days of Noah" are approaching.

A second characteristic emerges in Gen. 6:5 - "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." This suggests the saturation of "evil." Evil does not have to be something culturally unacceptable; in fact, it may be just the opposite. Essentially, that is evil which behaves contrary to the word of God. When a society outlaws the exhibition of God's principles in public places, that is evil. When a society legalizes divorce, abortion, homosexual "marriage" and other behavioral characteristics clearly condemned in scripture, that society is evil in the judgment of a holy God, however it may pride itself on its broadmindedness and tolerance. And when the church buys into these cultural trends, the wedding of the holy and the profane is accelerated.

A third major characteristic of the days of Noah: "The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence." (Genesis 6:11) It should need little emphasis on my part to convince most readers that we are living in a violent world. "Terrorism" is a buzzword in our day, and acts of terror, acts of violence, are on the increase throughout the world. And, let us not overlook the fact that, though called by other names, there are various acts of violence perpetrated with ever increasing frequency in the streets of cities and towns everywhere, at home and abroad. In addition, violence is a major part of our entertainment in this electronic era, as is other immoral and ungodly behavior. We "entertain" ourselves with evil.

There is, one may observe, a logical progression here. The restraints that ought to have been exercised by the "sons of God" were removed by the merger of the "church" and the world. This in turn led to a universal disregard for godly ethics, and that paved the way for the escalation of violence. So it was then, and so it will be at the end of the age.

There are two or three other points of interest regarding those "days of Noah," that our format will allow us only to mention briefly. It is to be noted that these evils had reached the saturation point, the "whole earth" being affected, before the judgment finally fell. In the end God could find only one man's family qualified for deliverance! Nevertheless, from the time God uttered His sentence against that universal corruption, there were still 120 years of grace while Noah's lonely warning was sounding the alarm to an indifferent world!

One does not have to be a theologian to recognize that we are a world moving relentlessly in the same direction as in "the days of Noah." But, given the universality of these characteristics in that awful day, we may not be there just yet. What is more important for believers now is to hear the Savior's warning to us. He had said, "Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." (Mt. 24:12) Now He issues the admonition, "watch," and "be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh." (See v.42-45)

Are you watching? Ready? One thing is certain: "Now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer that when we believed.' (Rom. 13:11)

For HIS glory,

"Pastor" Frasier