As “in the days of Noah?”

 (Note: I received this while in the Prayer Room on 4-10-11 and felt impressed to write about it but I forgot and today it was confirmed when I received a phone call telling me of a drama that was done in a church in Alabama on yesterday about “the days of Noah.”)

“God-Jesus, the same yesterday, today, and forever?” Heb 13:8

 God-Jesus, “the Righteous Judge?”2 Tim 4:8; Rev 19:11

Mt. 24:37-39; 1 Pe 3:18-20

According to 1 Peter 3:20 only eight souls were saved by water.  It is by this same water that we are saved now…the water which is the WORD of God…Jesus declared that He was the Living Water. Just as Jesus went into the depths of the earth and preached the gospel to those in prison – 1 Pe 3:19…He is doing the same now through His anointed “preachers of righteousness” who preach the message of the CROSS. BUT, are we hearing? Are we yet so asleep, or have we become so dull by the preaching of the Bless me-give me – Santa Claus gospel until we are unable to receive TRUTH.  Have our ministers, preachers, men/women of God, priests, shepherds become like Eli, so FAT and BLIND from living off of the good things of God’s house that they are unable or rather refuse to deal with their sons and daughters for fear of losing their contributions when they know that their behavior does not bring glory to our Holy God. Have we watered down the gospel so much so and made it suitable for our taste that we are refusing to see the God of the BIBLE?  Don’t get me wrong…He is a very GOOD, KIND, and LOVING GOD. Yet, He says in His WORD that He is the same God and He changes not. Let’s reason together for a second. According to scripture the last days will be as “in the days of Noah,” well what does that mean? It means take a look around with your own eyes, listen or watch your local news, ride around your local city, look at that which is offered as entertainment…nothing is off limits now…it’s all or nothing. Does this not clearly speak of the same as “in the days of Noah?”

The Righteous Judge

First of all let me clarify something here, I believe that God’s judgment and wrath was poured out upon His son for the sin of mankind. I prefer to see this as a divine exchange, my wretchedness, darkness, iniquity, SIN, for His righteousness, glory, and more.  I am the redeemed of the Lord and I have received His mercy, grace, and forgiveness that came THROUGH HIS SON’S DEATH ON THE CROSS therefore, I do not stand in fear of His righteous judgment and neither should you if you have embraced the work of the CROSS, made the exchange… His life for your death.  His love for me causes me to love Him and this cycle of love from Him to me and me to Him produces obedience to His Will and His Word causing my faith to be anchored and strengthens my foundation…it is the rock upon which I stand. His love has not imprisoned me but given me freedom. Not freedom as a license to do whatever I want to do but a desire to live and be who He created me to be.  A child, a bride, a friend, and lover of God.  With that being said, it does not change the TRUTH that God is still a Righteous Judge and because He cannot be anything other than WHO He is. He has to judge wickedness. In the days of Noah it is written that “it grieved the heart of God that He had made man-(Gen 6:6).”  As then so now the wickedness of man does in fact grieve the heart of God.  If you don’t believe this then take a look at the scene of Jesus on the cross. The word states that Jesus cried out when feeling forsaken by God as He hung there bearing God’s wrath because of our sin….our-my sin upon His Son.  God, the Son, grieved. If we are permitted to continue in our liberties living as if there are no consequences for our behavior then God killed His Son for nothing.  God has to judge wickedness…WHY…because the price for it has been paid...and the price was God’s own LIFE.           

The Bible calls Noah a “preacher of righteousness.” The righteous message declared that something never seen nor heard of before was going to take place and that God was vying for their deliverance.  It stands to reason that God is gracious and longsuffering for we know that it took Noah at least 100 years to complete the building of the Ark. The same resistance to Noah’s message in the days of old exists today in what the Bible calls “the last days.”  God has begun to raises up  voices that are speaking of things that are in direct conflict with the Santa Claus, bless me-give me gospel and there will be resistance.

Noah, his family, and the animals (I believe that this speaks of every tribe, tongue, and nation-remember Peter on the roof of the tanner house) entered INto the Ark. The Ark represented a place of safety, protection, deliverance. The Ark spoke of God as a refuge, a shelter in a time of storm, a place where life is preserved.  The Ark was God’s righteous dwelling place that He prepared through Noah for His creation. The righteous message: Judgment upon the earth, because of “sin,” will take place BUT God has a place prepared for those who will enter in and find safety. Yet, unbelief and doubt caused the people to harden their hearts, close their eyes, and shut their ears up from hearing this and do business as usual. WHAT are the true preachers of righteousness crying out today? The message of repentance, the message of being a friend of the Bridegroom, the message of true holiness, the message of love which leads to obedience, the message of death to self and living unto a Holy God, the message of turning away from the things of this world and living for another day, the message of understanding that we are eternal beings and not merely here to live for our own self-gratification, the message that Jesus is going to return again.  BUT will we miss Him like His own (the Jews) who rejected Him because He did not come as they EXPECTED. The Jews were expecting a KING…but He came as a SERVANT, a LAMB…are we EXPECTING the humble man who rose from the grave and ascended into heaven? He is coming back, as the King of Kings and LORD of Lords, with eyes like a flame of fire. It is written…I did not make that up.

The message of RIGHTEOUSNESS today is “THE MESSAGE OF THE CROSS”…the ARK today is...JESUS.  He is our Ark of safety, protection, deliverance, salvation, redeemer, and the propitiation for our sin, our peace, our righteousness, our life.  We are told that our lives are “HIDDEN” IN HIM. To me this means that not only must I receive the Lamb of God as my Savior but I must also enter INto Him in order to have life. Better yet, in order for me to know who I am I must discover who I am IN Him. With that being said I find peace in that the message of the cross anchors my house, my dwelling place, which is “IN” Jesus, who is the rock, and rest assured the rains are coming and only the house that is built on the ROCK will remain standing…just as only those who were IN Noah’s Ark were able to survive the storm.

One of the saddest things to me is something I believe grieves the heart of God and that is this:

Upon providing a way of escape from death there are those who will refuse The WAY and yet BLAME God when He permits them to reap what they have sown.

Until He Returns......