Thursday, October 13, 2011
Ready or Not
“But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 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, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” —Matthew 24:37–39
Jesus said that at the time of His return, it would resemble the time of Noah. Genesis 6 records this as a very wicked time: “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” (verse 5). Sin was full to the brim, almost like an overflowing trash can. That is what the world was like morally.
So God told Noah to build a really big boat—an ark—and in this ark, Noah would house his family and the animals while God judged the world with a mighty flood of rain.
And what was the reaction of the people living in Noah’s time? It was mockery. It had never rained up to this point. A water canopy covered the Earth, creating a greenhouse effect. But that canopy basically would be pierced, and God’s judgment would come by rain. The people didn’t believe it would happen, and they laughed at Noah and his boat and his predictions.
That is how people will react to believers before Christ returns. The Bible tells us that a specific aspect of the end times is that people will mock Christians who believe that Jesus will come back again. As 2 Peter 3:3–4 says, “Scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. . . . ’ ”
Of course, we see this happening right now. People say things like, “Oh, Jesus promised to come back, did He? Well, where is He?”
They didn’t believe it the first time. And they won’t believe it the second time either.
Summary sentence: People will respond with mockery in the last days, just like they did in Noah’s day.
Tags: Last Days, Noah, Ark, Judgment
Copyright © 2011 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
For more relevant and biblical teaching from Pastor Greg Laurie, go to www.harvest.org
and
Listen to Greg Laurie's daily broadcast on OnePlace.com.
Watch Greg Laurie's weekly television broadcast on LightSource.com.
SPECIAL OFFER
“To God Be the Glory”
Lost Boy: The Next Chapter has not only won awards at film festivals around the world, but—more importantly—has won hearts and lives for Christ. To share this story with an even wider audience, it is being released as an audio edition, including the documentary film, as a special ministry package. Lost Boy: The Next Chapter – Audio Edition and DVD is our gift to listeners for their donation of any amount.
You may have read Lost Boy, the book, when it first came out, but I think you will be blessed in an even deeper way by the rest of the story.”
—Greg
