Like The Days Of Noah And Lot: Zac Poonen (Transcript)

VIEW FULL TRANSCRIPT

These are the two weapons of Satan, persecution and deception to prevent people from following Jesus.

Lovers of Self, Money, and Pleasure

So, when it says here in chapter 3 verse 1, that it is going to be difficult in the last days to be a Christian. Persecution is one of the things, he mentions it towards the end in verse 12, “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” But he is speaking more about deception. There is persecution mentioned in verse 12 and deception in verse 13, “Evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” They will deceive others and be deceived themselves.

So, persecution and deception, two things mentioned in verse 12 and 13, are going to be very prevalent in the last days facing Christians. So, when it says difficult times will come, it is not primarily referring to persecution. It is referring to deception. Then he says in verse 2 onwards, how men, and this is talking about believers, people who claim to be Christian believers, who claim to be Christians, sitting in the churches, will primarily be lovers of self.

Now, there are four types of lovers mentioned here. Lovers of self, lovers of money and verse 4, lovers of pleasure and lovers of God. Four types of lovers and only one of them is right. A true Christian must be a lover of God. But instead of being a lover of God, he is going to be a lover of himself, his own rights, his reputation, his honor. One of the proofs of that is we get so easily offended.

Taking Up the Cross and Dying to Self

Only one who loves himself gets offended. One who doesn’t love himself but loves God never gets offended with anything that another person says or doesn’t say, with anything that another person does or doesn’t do. We get offended because we get hurt. Our self-life gets hurt by the way somebody treated us, by what we heard somebody said about us behind our back.

We love ourselves so much and who are we talking about now? Unbelievers? No. So-called believers who have never understood what it is to take up the cross and put self to death. See, because in the last days there’s going to be very little preaching about the cross and death to self-life. It’s almost unheard of in most churches today and never heard of in Christian television.

And so, when there’s no preaching on death to self, self is going to flourish in the lives of many Christians. They won’t even know that you cannot follow Jesus if you love yourself. They’ll think you can love yourself and follow Jesus. And look at the multitudes of Christians who get offended and hurt and don’t even feel that that’s a terrible sin. They say, “Well, somebody did that to me. I have a right to be hurt.” Exactly, because you’re an unbeliever.

Being a True Disciple of Jesus

You’re not a disciple of Jesus. That’s why you’ve got a right to be hurt. If you’re a disciple of Jesus, you have no right to be hurt. Jesus was never hurt. When they called Him Prince of Devils, they spat on His face. They did all types of things. What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus? There are very, very few Christians who are going to take up the cross in the last days and follow Him.

And so, it’s going to be very difficult to be a true Christian because we are surrounded by people who claim to be Christians, who claim to be filled with the Spirit, who claim to speak in tongues, etc., and who get hurt and get offended or are disturbed because their name was dragged in the dust. Now, Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.” Forget about your own name.

But in the last days, Christians are going to be more concerned about their name. For example, I’ll tell you, do you know how much the name of Jesus is dishonored in India today? But that doesn’t disturb most people who call themselves Christians. But if their name was dragged in the mud by somebody once, boy, that would really disturb them.

Loving God Above All Else

Or if their little pretty daughter’s name was dragged in the dust, boy, that would disturb them. But let the name of Jesus be dishonored throughout the country… it doesn’t bother them. Do you think such people are disciples of Jesus? No. Far from it. But they sit in churches. They claim to be born again. They claim to love the Lord.

That is the amazing thing the devil has done, deceiving them that they love themselves from top to bottom, head to foot, and they think they are disciples of Jesus. So, we can only warn you. Nobody can change you from being a lover of self if you don’t want to be free from it yourself. But let me warn you. There are three types of lovers who are not lovers of God. One is a lover of self. The other is a lover of money.

The Dangers of Entertainment and Pleasure

Look at the multitudes of Christians who think they can love God and love money at the same time. Multitudes of believers. And it’s in this connection it says it’s going to be difficult to be a Christian in the last days because you’ll be surrounded by such people. And you will be infected by their sickness, the infection of love of self, the infection of love of money.

And it’ll be difficult to be a Christian because that infection will come to you unless you’re really strong and resisting it. And the third is lovers of pleasure. The great God that many Christians worship today is the God called Entertainment. They are more interested in entertainment. They say, “We got to relax. Life is so tense. We need entertainment.” And very often it leads to polluted, defiled, sexual, stimulated entertainment. Do you think such people are disciples of Jesus? The sad thing is some of them think they are. Because they go to a church. They sing the songs. They’re going to burn in hell.

The Decline of Standards Among Christians

There’s no doubt about it. One day they’ll wake up and discover that. But not many people preach about it. You can’t be a lover of pleasure and lover of God at the same time. That’s why Christians who, you know, I remember days — fifty years ago, no Christian ever watched movies. There was no television. It was disgraceful for a Christian to watch a movie. But today, almost all Christians watch movies.

And it’s gone down, the standard of movies they watch, down and down and down. It doesn’t even disturb them. You see the reason? In the last days it’s going to be very difficult to be a true Christian. Because you’ll find very few people who live up to the standards of God’s Word. The standards of discipleship. I’ll tell you this. If you don’t look at Jesus and the standards of God’s Word, you can be a part of this church, CFC, and you’ll find it very difficult to be a Christian.

Looking to Jesus and God’s Word

Because a lot of people around you don’t have those standards. We’re living in a day of decline. In the best churches, that decline is there. Among the young people particularly. Decline. The standards of God’s Word are no longer taken seriously. So if you’re a serious young person who wants to follow the Lord, my advice to you is don’t look at the other young people around you. Look at Jesus.

Look at the standards of God’s Word. Forget about the others around you as you follow the Lord. And that’s going to be difficult because you’ll be walking a very lonely path. There won’t be many people who want to go with you. Then it’ll be difficult to be a Christian. It says in verse 3, there’s going to be a lot of gossiping. Look at the number of Christians who gossip and don’t even think that that’s unchristian. You know, backbite against people, just spend their time talking evil about somebody else.

Holding to a Form of Godliness

If that person’s son or wife came along there, they’d immediately stop, which proves that you’re a gossip. So there are many things like that. The interesting thing is all these people who have these qualities mentioned here of lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, so on, a whole lot of them, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. All of them, verse 5, are still going to hold on to a form of godliness.

I mean, if these people were outright worldly, that would be okay. Because you say, “They’re worldly people.” No, but these people are going to hold a form of godliness, means they’re going to talk about holiness and they’re going to talk about righteousness. They’re going to talk about victory over sin, and you’ll be thoroughly deceived.

These guys are talking about victory over sin and holiness and righteousness, and they’re watching dirty movies on the side. Can you imagine greater deception than that? I mean, if they’re outright in the world, okay. But they’re going to hold on to a form of godliness, but have denied the power of godliness. They’ve taken up with other supernatural powers. You know, look at the multitudes of Christians who are just waiting to have some preacher lay hands on them and make them fall down. What’s the use of that? I want power to live a holy life, not to fall down.

Avoiding Those Who Deny the Power of Godliness

You can get drunk with whiskey and fall down. You don’t need the power of the Holy Spirit for that. But you want the power of the Holy Spirit? You need that. You want to be holy.

So here are people in the last days who are going to have a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. And it says here, “Avoid such men as these,” verse 5. I don’t want to fellowship with such people. I don’t care if some people say that you’re very exclusive, brother.

Well, I am exclusive from such people, because the Bible says, “Avoid such men as these who hold to a form of godliness and are more interested in talking about movies and entertainment.” And even their religious activity is centered around entertainment. They’re not interested in Bible study. They’re interested in music more than Bible study. Music has never made a man spiritual till today. Bible study has made people holy.

Entertainment as a God

Why is it Christians today are more interested in music than in Bible study? Because Bible study is not entertainment. And their god is entertainment. And so they come to a church, they go to a church which entertains them. You see, they feel guilty about going to the places of worldly rock music shows and all, but they want that entertainment, so there are churches that provide that. It never leads them to a holy life, never leads them to take up the cross and die to themselves and give up sin and overcome sin and follow Jesus, but entertainment.

So, I mention this, this is all part of that deception of the last days. See, what all Paul says about this is going to be in the last days. We’re living in those times. These things were written 2,000 years ago and we’re seeing it fulfilled in our time around us.

The Days of Noah

I want you to also see here what Jesus said about, go back to Matthew 24. It says here in verse 38, verse 37, “For the coming of the Son of,” Matthew 24, verse 37 and 38, “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.”

Now, before we go to the next verse, let’s turn to Genesis 6 and see something about the days of Noah. Because Jesus said, “The last days are going to be like the days of Noah.” Now, I want to read that and see what the days of Noah were like. Verse 1, you see a number of things happen in the days of Noah. You just look at them one by one.

First of all, men began to multiply. In chapter 6, Genesis 6, verse 1, there was a tremendous population boom in the days of Noah. Lots and lots of babies were born and the population of the earth increased at a very rapid rate.

Sons of God and Angels

Jesus said, “It’s going to be like that in the last days.” We see it happening in our country and everywhere. And then it speaks about the sons of God. Now, the sons of God, there were no born again sons of God those days. People could be born again sons of God only after the days of Jesus. But the sons of God is an expression that is used in Scripture to refer to angels. I’ll show you, Job chapter 1, verse 6, “There was a day…”

Job 1, verse 6: “There was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan also came among them.” Those were angels. The reason is the word ‘son’ speaks of a direct creation of God. All human beings are not direct creations of God. They are born into the world through the principle of reproduction that God put into Adam and Eve. God did not create each man and woman on this earth. They were born through the principle of reproduction, all the billions of people on earth.

Sons of God as Direct Creations

But the angels were not born through a principle of reproduction. There is no reproduction. Each angel was created individually by God, the millions of angels. And anything, any moral being created directly by God is called a son of God. And that’s why if you turn to Genesis 5, before you go to Genesis 5, let me show you a verse in Luke chapter 3 and you’ll understand it.

In Luke chapter 3, you see the genealogy of Mary. Luke chapter 3, you see the genealogy of Mary… and Jesus Himself (Luke 3:23,) “Jesus was about 30 years of age, being supposedly the son of Joseph who was the son-in-law,” should be son-in-law there, “of Eli.” This is Mary’s genealogy. Joseph’s genealogy is in Matthew chapter 1.

Whenever you see a word in italics in the NASB, it means it was not in the original Greek, but somebody put it in to try and make meaning to that sentence. What is written there is “supposedly the son of Joseph, the of Eli.” They put in son, it should have been son-in-law.

Being Born Again as Sons of God

And then, that means Eli was the father of Mary. And then his genealogy goes all the way, you see the last verse, “who was the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, who was the son of God.” In what way? Because he was a direct creation of God. So any direct creation of God is always called a son of God. And that’s why when we are born again, we are called sons of God, because we are a direct creation.

I mean, I didn’t become a child of God because my father was a child of God. No. God directly made him a son of God and made me separately a son of God. It’s a direct act. Those who were born, it says in John chapter 1 verse 12 and 13, “not of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but were born of God.” So that’s why we are called sons of God. It’s an expression for a direct creation of God.

It’s not just a question of saying, “I want to follow Jesus.” God does a work in me and does a work of creation, puts a new nature inside me, which I can never do. That’s what it means to be born again.

Angels Possessing Men to Satisfy Lust

A lot of people who call themselves Christians are not really born again like that. God has not done a creative work in their heart, because they have never seriously taken the matter of being a disciple of Jesus. They’ve never repented of their sins. They just come and sit in the church and sort of ooze into what they think is Christianity. But that’s not the son of God.

So when it speaks here in Genesis 6 about sons of God, it’s speaking about these angels. And these angels, they don’t have any sexual ability. The Bible says, Jesus said in Matthew 22, that in the resurrection we’ll be like angels in the sense that there won’t be any marriage. There won’t be any sexual function in heaven, in the resurrection body. There won’t be any marriage. The angels do not have any sexual ability.

But you know that angels can be tempted, because Lucifer, the head of the angels, we don’t know what’s his real name, but let’s call him Lucifer. He was tempted in his heart to be proud, to exalt himself. We read about unclean spirits, evil spirits who are filthy. So here were angels in heaven, good angels, who they didn’t learn a lesson from the fall of Lucifer years earlier. And they looked at these daughters of men.

They looked at some pretty women on earth and they lusted after them. They saw that they were beautiful. And it says they took themselves wives of themselves of what they choose. An angel can’t marry a woman. What it means is they possessed human beings in order to satisfy their lust, because they don’t have sexual ability. How to satisfy that lust? They possessed men and made those men filled with lust. And then they took them and these angels could satisfy their lust on pretty women.

The Dangers of Internet Pornography

It was like getting pleasure through somebody else having pleasure. You know, internet pornography is like this. The people who watch it don’t get any pleasure themselves, but they get the pleasure through seeing somebody else getting pleasure. The sons of God look at the daughters of men and want to lust after them and somehow have pleasure through somebody else, seeing somebody else having pleasure. It’s internet pornography.

There’s going to be plenty of it in the last days. So when I see it, I’m not surprised. I know there are evil spirits behind it. And that’s why people who watch pornography gradually, the more they watch it on CDs and DVDs and internet, the resistance, the natural resistance that we have wears thin. You yield and yield and yield to temptation. Gradually, that natural resistance, it doesn’t happen immediately, but over a period of time.

I mean, if you just watch it once, it’s still sin. But what happens when you watch it once, you’ve got an addiction. You want to watch it again. It wears thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin.

The Consequences of Yielding to Temptation

Finally, it snaps and an evil spirit gets in, a spirit of lust. And that person is possessed with an evil spirit. He’s addicted. It’s really serious. Well, you know the number of believers who just play the fool with this? That’s exactly what the devil wants them to think. Ah, this is not serious. Just enjoy yourself. You’ll be okay.

Look at all the other people in the world who are doing it. Their minds are destroyed and they have awful dreams at night. And later on in life, when they get married, their married life will be a havoc. They will never enjoy sex in married life. They’ll be forever lusting and they won’t be happy in their marriage. The devil’s got long-term plans. And he starts off with his pornography. Young people in their teens go into it because the devil never tells them where it’s going to end.

The Sin of Esau

Did the devil tell Eve where her little act of seeking some pleasure from a tree would finally end with her first son murdering her second son and all the subsequent problems that came? No, the devil never tells anybody the future. He just says, “Enjoy yourself now. Forget the future.” That’s the sin of Esau. The Bible says, “Make sure there’s nobody like Esau in your midst for a little morsel of meat, a bowl of soup, sacrificed his birthright.” Our birthright is to be like Jesus Christ.

That’s my birthright. To have a mind like the mind of Christ, pure, humble, loving. To have speech like the speech of Christ. That’s my birthright. To have an attitude towards women, money, everything exactly like Jesus had. That’s my birthright. But I can throw away that birthright for a bowl of soup. What’s a bowl of soup?

Sacrificing Our Birthright for Temporary Pleasure

Something that satisfies my bodily need now. Like Eve gave up her birthright to walk with God in paradise for the sake of a little thing that would satisfy her bodily need now. And pornography is like that. Something that will satisfy your bodily need now.

And what do I throw away? Fellowship with God, eternity in heaven. “I don’t want all that. That’s all in the future.” You don’t realize what a terrible price people are paying. Internet pornography is leading millions into the lake of fire. It’s written here. It’s the last days. Plenty of it. Look at what goes on in all the internet cafes in every country in the world. There never was such a thing. I mean, I’m sure people have read pornographic books 50 years ago, but it’s never so widespread.

God’s Spirit Will Not Strive with Man Forever

Sex. It’s going to be a big crazy thing in the last days, it says here. That’s what the days of Noah were like. And the Lord said when He saw all this, verse 3, Genesis 6:3, “My Spirit is not going to keep on striving with men forever.” In other words, God says My Holy Spirit will speak to men. Once, twice, thrice. They go to a church, they listen, they listen, they listen. But the Lord says, “I’m not going to speak to them forever.”

A day will come when I’ll say to them, “Go and do what you like. I’ve given up on you.” Because he’s flesh. I’m not going to strive. I’ll tell you some of you who may be playing the fool with some sin in your life, and nobody in the church can catch you because you do it all alone. That’s fine. But I want you to hear the word of the Lord. He says “My Holy Spirit will not strive with you forever.”

Saying “My Will Be Done” Leads to Hell

That’s it. A time will come when the Holy Spirit will say, “Finish, go and do what you like.” Like somebody said, “To those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done in my life,’ He opens heaven’s doors to them. And those who say, ‘My will be done,’ God says, ‘Okay, go where people go.'”

That’s how Satan, you know, the origin of Satan is, “I will, I will, I will, my will, my will, my will, my will.” That’s how the origin of Satan. And the person who says, “I don’t want Your will, I want my will,” is finally going to end up where Satan ends up. The great conflict is between my will and God’s will.

I want to show you that in Isaiah 14. Isaiah 14, we read of the fall of Satan. And we see here, this is how Satan, the perfect angel, became a devil. What did he say? I want you to listen to this in Isaiah 14 and verse 13. And notice this phrase that comes so often. Five times. Read carefully and see.

The Origin of Satan’s Fall

A little phrase that comes five times. “You have fallen,” verse 12, referring to Lucifer, “you’ve fallen down.” Why did you fall, Satan? Because you said in your heart, “I will, I will, I will.” Verse 4, “I will, I will.” That’s how he became the devil. “I will, I will, I will, my will, my will, my will, my will.” God says, “Okay, do your will, go to hell.” And that’s why it says in the next verse, he was cast out.

When Jesus came from heaven, you know what He said? John 6:38. There you see the difference between sin and holiness. John 6:38, Jesus said, “I’ve come from heaven, not to do My will, but the will of My heavenly Father.” That is holiness. I don’t do what pleases me. I do what pleases my Father.

Breaking the Stubborn Self-Will of Children

What did the devil say? “My will, my will. I want to do what I feel like doing.” You see, that’s why we got to teach children. That’s why I always say, if you don’t break that stubborn self-will of that two-year-old child you got before he becomes three, four years old, you’re training a child for hell. You know all these soft fathers and mothers, “Oh darling, don’t do like that.” There’s no place for darling over there. You got to break that stubborn self-will which he got from the devil.

Otherwise you’re grooming that child for hell. He’ll be a pain in the neck for you, that son or daughter when they’re teenagers, because you’ve been so soft on them, and one day they land up in hell when it’s too late. You may be in heaven, but your children will be in hell. I don’t want one of my children in hell.

That’s why I decided, my boys, I’m going to break that stubborn self-will of them when they’re young. That’s the thing that needs to, that’s why the first commandment for children is “Honor your father and mother. Children, obey your parents.” So, “My will, my will, my will” leads to hell, and “Lord, not my will, not my will, but Thy will be done,” leads to heaven.

Christ Never Pleased Himself

Jesus was tempted in all points, exactly like us. And it says in Romans 15 and verse 3, Romans 15 and verse 3, “Christ never pleased Himself.” He never sought His own pleasure. He sought the Father’s pleasure. This is what it means to be a disciple. So, the Lord says, come back to Genesis 6, “My Spirit will not always strive with man.” That means strive. Strive means, I believe the Holy Spirit strives with us when He’s speaking to us in a meeting.

You know you’re sinning, you’re living in sin, and the Holy Spirit speaks to you, warns you, urges you, exhorts you, encourages you to give up your sinful life, and you stubbornly say, “No, no, no, no, no.” Or in the meeting you’ll say yes, and then tomorrow you go and do the same old thing. And come back again, another meeting, the Lord speaks to you, “Come on, give it up, give it up, give it up,” and you don’t listen.

The Consequences of Ignoring the Holy Spirit

You know, one day the God will say, “My Spirit’s not going to strive always with this person. I’ll strive with some of the others, but I’m going to give up on this person.” It’s terrible. That’s when the devils take over. Demons take over that person. I don’t want that to happen to me or to any member of my family. That’s why I say, parents, pray for your children. Don’t take it lightly that they don’t have a fear of God. Don’t take it lightly that they’re not serious about being disciples of Jesus.

Pray for them. When was the last time you fasted for your unconverted children? Are you serious about their conversion? We’re living in the last days.

The Limited Time for Repentance

Anyway, the Lord said in those days, you know, men lived up to 900 years and all that, but He said, “Okay, I’ll give them 120 years more.” You see, 120 years was a very short time in those days. I mean, in terms of today’s time, it may be 10 years or so. That’s it. I’ll give them another 8 or 9 years.

And then, during those 120 years, He looked for a man who, you know, if He didn’t find a man, He would have destroyed all of humanity. So He saw sexual evil was one of the things in the last days. Lust, lust, lust after pretty women.

And then the other thing, it says in verse 5, the wickedness of man was great on the earth and every one of his thoughts of his heart was evil. That means man’s thoughts was absolutely filthy. All the thoughts that went on through his mind, unmarried people, married people, their thoughts were filthy, filthy, filthy, filthy, filthy.

Perhaps some of them were religious, just like Christians today. They go to church, they sing songs where their thoughts are filthy, filthy, filthy, filthy, filthy, filthy. The Lord saw that. Do you know that the Lord sees people’s thoughts? It says there, the Lord saw that every thought of man was filthy.

God’s Disappointment with Humanity

These are people who have a form of godliness. And imagine, it says in verse 6, the Lord was sorry. We are thinking of what Jesus said, the last days will be like the days of Noah. The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth. Imagine God saying, “Boy, I’m sorry that I ever created Adam.”

Now we must remember that this is written in language for us to understand. God knows the whole future. And in that sense, He doesn’t have regret about anything He did. But in human language for us to understand, it basically, what it means is God was terribly disappointed with the way these human beings were behaving, for whom He had done so much good. He had given them seasons, and sun, and rain, and health, and everything, just like He has given us. But He sees them so thoroughly ungrateful. Thoroughly ungrateful for all the blessings they got from Him.

Don’t you think Christians are like that? I think the vast majority of believers are thoroughly ungrateful to God for all the goodness that He has showered upon them. They come nominally to church and sing a few songs and put a little money in the offering box. But basically they live for themselves.

Being a Person Who Pleases God

It’s really sad. God is disappointed. I want to ask you, is God disappointed with you? Is God disappointed that He ever brought you to being born again? This person is not like the other people. This person claims to be a believer. “I brought him to the place of salvation. Once upon a time I even filled him with the Spirit.”

“But look at him today. Every thought of his mind is just worldly, and he doesn’t live by My standards.” The Lord was sorry. He grieved His heart. I believe that God is grieved with the behavior of many of His children on earth today. Terribly grieved. I don’t want to be in that number. I don’t want to be one of those who brings even the slightest grief to my Heavenly Father’s heart.

I don’t care if the world thinks I’m too super spiritual, or whatever name they give me, “Holy Joe,” or whatever they say. I don’t want to grieve my Heavenly Father’s heart. I don’t care if I’m different from all the other so-called Christians around me.

Noah Found Favor with God

I don’t want to grieve my Heavenly Father’s heart, because He’s done so much for me. He gave His Son to die for me. That’s why. And that means something to me. I don’t know whether it means that much to you, but it means a lot to me. I don’t want to grieve Him.

It says it grieved Him in His heart. And finally the Lord said, “I’ll just blot them all out,” verse 7. Everything. But there was one man. He says, “I’m sorry that I made them,” verse 7. But there was one man who found favor. One man whose thoughts were not filthy. One man who was not lusting after pretty women all the time. He was different.

Violence and Corruption in the Days of Noah

You know, this other thing it says here about the, in the King James Version, it says the earth was filled with violence. Violence. There was such a lot of violence. It says in Verse 11. Corrupt and filled with violence. Violence means there was terrorism. People were killing each other. For a small fight, they would take a dagger and kill them. Take stones and blow out their brains. And sex and terrorism and violence.

The days of Noah. Evil thoughts. How to hurt others. How to rape women and how to take advantage of pretty girls. These are the days of Noah. And Jesus said, I want to tell you 2000 years ago, the world was not like that.

Noah as a Preacher of Righteousness

When Jesus was speaking in Israel, there was such a sense of reserve and modesty and there was no pornography those days. And people would have listened to Him. “What are You talking, Lord?” I can’t imagine they’d have said a world where people are just, people are going, okay, I religious people, yes, but religious people are going to be filled with lust and pornography. “Oh no, Lord, it can’t happen.” I can quite imagine the disciples thinking, it can’t happen. I can’t imagine a world like that.

Can you imagine it today? Filled with violence, hatred. And the earth was corrupt, but God found one man. And I want to say to you, my brothers and sisters, if the last days are like the days of Noah, He’s also looking for one man and one family. It wasn’t just a man, it was his family. It was his wife.

We don’t know much about Noah’s wife, but I’m sure she was considered unsociable by all the other ladies of her time because she was not interested in the type of things they were interested in. She was not the stylish type like them. She was more interested in prayer and in bringing up her children at home in a godly way and not just going out and making money as a profession.

Noah’s Reverence and Concern for His Family

She was different. Noah was different. Here he was preaching. The Bible says in Hebrews 11, Noah is a preacher of righteousness. He was a preacher of righteousness. What did he preach? Holiness. Imagine in such a world. Let me show you that verse.

There are two verses concerning Noah that we need to see. Hebrews chapter 11. It says in verse 7, “By faith Noah being warned by God about things not yet seen in reverence.” Now the first thing you see about Noah is he had a tremendous reverence for God. I tell you there’s very little reverence in today’s Christianity. It’s all froth. Even a lot of these modern charismatic choruses, I find there’s very little reverence in a lot of them.

The old time hymns had a lot of reverence in them, but this frothy, superficial, singing the same line ten times, meaning nothing. There’s a tremendous lack of reverence in today’s singing, in today’s preaching. It’s all jokes and jesting. Noah had reverence.

Being Concerned for the Salvation of Our Families

There are going to be a few people like that in the last days who have a reverence for God. There are going to be very few. And with that reverence he prepared an ark for the salvation of his house. This man was desperate to save his family. That’s the other thing you see about him.

He wanted, “Oh God, I’ve got three sons. I want all of them to be saved. I don’t want them to get into this pornography and lusting after women like all the people around them. I don’t want to get them to get involved in violence.” I’m sure he was pretty strict with his three sons. He was a firm father. His word was law in that house. Shem, Ham and Japheth, they trembled when Noah spoke. They dared not disobey him. Boy, we need fathers like that who are concerned for the salvation of their entire household. And he condemned the world.

Not Living for This World

He made it clear to all the people in the world, “I have no interest in all the things you’re running after. I’m not going to live for that. It’s all going to perish.” He didn’t know it was going to be 120 years, but he knew it would. God had told him it’s all going to perish. God’s told us it’s all going to perish. Do you believe it? The world is passing away, the Bible says in 1 John 2:17, but he who does the will of God remains forever.

Who believes it? Noah believed it. And so he didn’t live for the rotten old world. He had to eat and drink and sleep and earn his living. He did all that, but he didn’t live for this world. He condemned the world. And thereby he became an heir of righteousness, which is according to faith. The other verse I want you to see is 2 Peter 2, where also it speaks about Noah.

Noah’s God-Fearing Family

2 Peter 2, it says here, Noah, 2 Peter 2:5, “Noah was a preacher of righteousness. He was saved along with seven others.” And who were the seven others? Mrs. Noah, Shem, Mrs. Shem, Japheth, Mrs. Japheth, Ham, and Mrs. Ham. That’s it. It’s just his family.

What a man he was. He made sure that his three sons married God-fearing women. And they were not easy to find in those days. They’re not easy to find today. But he made sure. He said, “Oh God, I don’t want these sons of mine to just marry some pretty stylish girl who will ruin their lives.”

God Honoring Those Who Honor Him

“I want them to marry God-fearing women.” And he looked around, prayed, and God gave in that wicked world. Maybe there were only three. I think there were only three God-fearing girls, and his sons got all three of them. That’s great.

Imagine if you have three sons, and in the world there are only three God-fearing girls, and your sons get all three. You’d call that lucky? Not lucky. Because God honors those who honor Him. There were only three God-fearing girls in that world, and Noah’s sons got all three of them. It’s because of the father. What an influence that father had.

Does that come as a challenge to you, my brother? You’re a father. A lot of things that your children watch on television, you sit back and say, “Ah, it’s okay. Yeah, yeah.”

The Consequences of Lax Parenting

Just wait and see what’s going to happen to those children in five or six years. There’ll be a pain in your neck, and they will bring disgrace to your family name, and to the name of the Lord, and to the church. Because you say, “Ah, it’s okay. They need some entertainment.”

Be careful, young people. The devil’s out to get you. To wear out, and wear out, and wear out that resistance in you till he can possess you. Be careful. Take the advice of God-fearing fathers like Noah. And it doesn’t say much about Mrs. Noah. I’m sure she was a God-fearing woman. I’m sure she wasn’t just yelling and fighting with Noah, and telling him, “Oh, why are you so strict with our boys?” No, no, no. Then there’d have been conflict, and those three boys wouldn’t have been saved. Look at these wicked mothers nowadays who stand against their fathers, when the fathers are trying to be strict with their children.

The Days of Noah: Eating, Drinking, and Marrying

Or vice versa. Yeah, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Those were the days of Noah. But thank God He found someone like Noah, who was upright. And I want to say something else about the days of Noah, which Jesus said in verse 38. Matthew 24 and verse 38. In those days, talking about the days of Noah, verse 37.

Verse 38, in those days, before the flood, what were they doing? In addition to all these other things I mentioned, they were living, there was plenty of eating, and drinking, and marrying, and giving in marriage. Now what’s wrong with that? There’s nothing wrong with eating and drinking. We do it every day. There’s nothing wrong with marrying and giving in marriage. Jesus Himself attended marriage. Marriage is ordained by God.

Earthly Things Crowding Out God

But the point here is, they got so taken up with these things, eating and drinking. Let’s see which are the best restaurants to go to, and we must try this, we’ll try this, and try this, try this. Guys who haven’t even read the Bible once, are more interested in eating, and drinking, and tasting various types of food, and marrying, and giving in marriage, and all the earthly things, which are normal. There’s nothing wrong in all of it.

It’s when these things fill our mind, that we don’t have time for the things of God. That’s the point. When the devil sees that he can’t drive you away with pornography, and violence, and hatred, and all these things. Okay, I can spoil some believers like that, but this one seems to be a different type. Let’s occupy his mind with eating, and drinking, which he’ll never even suspect that that’s going to crowd out God from his life. Eating, and drinking, and enjoying oneself with a lot of things in the world, which crowds out time for God. That’s the point. And suddenly one day, the flood came, and took them all away.

The Days of Lot: Buying, Selling, Planting, and Building

I also want you to see Luke chapter 17. About the last days, Jesus said one more thing in Luke 17. Luke 17 is also about the last days, and He said in verse 26, “As the days of Noah, so shall the days of the Son of Man be. They were eating, and drinking,” verse 27, Luke 17, 27. “Giving in marriage,” and then He took one more example.

In the same as happened in the days of Lot. Those days also, they were eating, and drinking, and buying, and selling, and planting, and building. Now what’s wrong in buying, and selling? We buy, and sell so many things. We plant, and build. It’s okay, but the point is, their mind was so occupied with these things. You know, their work, and their sorrows, the cares of this world, they fill their mind so much that they don’t have time for God.

Legitimate Things Crowding Out God

God is crowded out of their life. Have you noticed that, the devil doing that in these days, my brothers and sisters? Crowding God, and time for the scriptures, out of your life. Not with evil, but some people he does it with evil, with pornography, and violence, and all that.

But he knows he can’t succeed in that area with some of you older people anyway. So he crowds God out of your life by legitimate things. Your work, there’s nothing sinful in that. You’ve got to do more work. And then your relaxation, and then this, and that, and the other. And the end of the day comes, you haven’t even had five minutes to sit in quietly, and listen to God. Have you found that happening in your days? That’s the devil.

That’s the devil, crowding God out of your life, little by little by little by little by little, till finally your whole day is filled and occupied, not with sin, like some of those other believers, but with eating and drinking. And you can make that list very long, with a whole lot of legitimate things, till one day, fire and brimstone, verse 29, falls, and people are destroyed. It will be the same in the days of the Son of Man.

Sexual Perversion in the Last Days

You know, the primary sin in Sodom, in the time of Lot, if you read Genesis 19, was, again, sexual sin. There were two angels who came to Lot’s house, and they were really good looking, and the men of Sodom lusted after these men. And Lot said, “Listen, if you take my daughters, don’t take these men.” They said, “No, we don’t want your daughters, we want these men.” See how perversion has come in, in the last days.

And Jesus said, from that, there’ll be a lot of homosexuality, men lusting after men, in the last days. I mean, it’s probably, it’s been there from the time of Sodom, which is when? Four thousand years ago, there was homosexuality. It’s not new. But men lying with men, and men women with men, unnatural sex, that’s the point. There’s going to be a lot of it in the last days. Adultery, fornication, pornography, men with men, unnatural sex, women with women, just like Sodom. And it’ll go on and on.

The Law of Diminishing Returns in Pleasure

It’s interesting how Jesus spoke about Noah and Lot, that one of the predominant sins of Noah’s time and Lot’s time was sex and perverted sex. You see, after some time, when man, because you must remember that in every pleasure God has given man, there’s a thing which I would call the law of diminishing returns. That means the pleasure you get out of that thing becomes less and less and less and less and less each time. And so, you’re crazy after sex, each time you get less and less pleasure from it, you want more.

You want more to satisfy, to come to that original level of pleasure you got. And finally you can’t get it. And then you go for perversion, and then they go with men, and finally even men with animals. It’s perversion. Man gets so perverted. And with children, little small children. Oh, there’s a lot of that today. Perversion, because man’s mind has become so corrupt.

Noah vs. Lot: A Tale of Two Witnesses

Sex is going to be one of the big things in the last days, and violence and terrorism. And when these things happen, you know that the coming of the Lord is pretty near. And God wants to save us out of this. He wants us to be a witness.

How different was Noah’s witness compared to Lot’s? Noah was such an upright man who brought up his family in a godly way. But Lot, he also claimed to be a believer. He had a connection with the greatest man of God who was living in that time: Abraham.

But instead of valuing that connection with the greatest man of God in that country, he ignored it, and went after the world. Now, if he had not known the greatest man of God in that country, then at least we’d say, “Oh, he didn’t have a chance.” But imagine, he was related to and knew the greatest man of God in that country, and still went into sin. That was terrible.

It’s much worse when we have heard some of the most wonderful truths of Scripture, and then go into sin. And look at the way Lot brought up his family. His wife was not interested in the things of God. And his daughters, he had two daughters.

Lot’s Tragic Choices and Their Consequences

He wanted them to get married to some rich people who were influential businessmen in Sodom. And they all died there. He took his two daughters out. His two sons-in-law were destroyed. And you know, when he said to them, to these people, “Listen, we should get out of this place.” It says in Genesis chapter 19, when Lot went and spoke to his sons-in-law, Genesis 19 and verse 14. His sons-in-law means the ones who were going to marry his daughters. His daughters were not yet married. They were engaged.

Genesis 19:14. He went to his sons-in-law to marry his daughter and said, “Get out of this place. The Lord is going to destroy this place.” They laughed at him. Lot, yesterday you were drinking with us and playing the fool with us. Now you’re talking about hell and all. Come on, man.

The Testimony of a Worldly Christian

Don’t try to fool us. You know, that’s what happens to a worldly Christian. Everybody sees his testimony. He’s living for the world just like anybody else. Anyway, he grabbed his daughters and his wife and left. His sons-in-law wouldn’t listen. But his wife’s heart was back in Sodom and she turned around and he lost his wife. She became a pillar of salt. The fire and brimstone fell on her.

And then he took his daughters and went into a mountain. He thought he escaped with them, but he lost them too. Lost them not physically, but lost them to incest. Imagine a father committing adultery with his own daughters. And the daughters instigating that. Can you imagine how evil they became with all the living in Sodom? You know, they went to Sodom to make money.

The High Cost of Going After Money

Don’t forget. Lot went to Sodom. He left Abraham because he wanted to say, “I’ll go there.” Abraham said, where do you want to go?” He said, “I’ll go there. I’ll grab that. I’ll make money there.” And along with that money came all that wickedness on his children, his daughters.

I don’t know where Lot is today. But if he managed to repent in the last minute and go to heaven. How sad he’d be there. Lost his wife, lost his daughters because he went after money. Because he didn’t have standards for the type of husbands his daughters would marry. It’s far better if his daughters had not been married at all. Than to be engaged to such men. Dear brothers and sisters, I’m talking about the 21st century.

Protecting Ourselves and Our Families in the Last Days

We are pretty close to the coming of the Lord. And we see all these things that I’ve said to you. We see it happening in the world around us. And in the church, in this church, you hear warnings that will protect you and preserve you. So that you can be ready for the coming of the Lord. Not only you, but like Noah, your wife and your family. And if you have grown up sons and daughters, their husbands and wives too. Let’s pray that God will protect us. Let’s bow our heads before God.

Heavenly Father, we know we’re living in the last days. And we don’t want to play the fool with sin anymore. We want to be careful about our friendships. We want to be careful about who we spend our time with and how we spend our time. We don’t want to crowd You out of our life altogether with legitimate things. Help us to be men of wisdom. To put You first in everything.

We have heard so much in this church. Help us Lord, we pray. Preserve all these dear people sitting here. Many of these young people don’t realize that the devil is just waiting to get a hold of them. Please save them Lord from that deception of Satan. I pray that some people here will take a decision today that will turn their lives around completely. Towards God. And a reverence will come into the lives of many.

We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Related Posts

• The Triumphant Spirit of a True Christian: Zac Poonen (Transcript)
• Death of Compassion: David Wilkerson Sermon (Transcript)
• Zacchaeus Linked With Abraham And Melchizedek: Zac Poonen (Transcript)
• God Renews Us And We Enter His Rest: Zac Poonen (Transcript)
• Don’t Die in Your Wilderness: David Wilkerson (Transcript)