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5-28-2023 Sunday Sermon Message

Meditations of the Week: Psalm 91:1-16

Text: 2 Peter 2:1-9

Sermon title: The Great Flood and the Judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah as a Foreshadowing of the Great Tribulation

       Throughout the Old Testament, God showed in advance what would happen in the future through figures. Also, the incarnated Lord Jesus Christ confirmed once again the things given as the types, and also confirmed how the things given as the types would happen in detail through the apostles.

      Among the figures and types, the very important events given to us today, we need to realize once again and receive the wisdom to prepare in advance guided by the Holy Spirit through the fact that the entire world was judged with a great flood in Noah’s days along with the judgment that brought down Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities with fire are examples of the Great Tribulation.

        First of all, we have to realize with God’s heart why God judged and killed with a flood without leaving a single person besides Noah and his family in the great flood. Also why he sent fire and brimstone unto Sodom and Gomorrah turning everyone into a pile of ash except for one righteous man, Lot.

        (Genesis 5:24) says after Enoch gave birth to Methuselah, he walked with God for 300 years, and then God took him to heaven and disappeared. Through the name of Methuselah, whom he gave birth to, God hinted that in the future among his descendants, in the days of Noah, God would judge a great thing with a great flood, and before that happened, God raptured Enoch and took him to heaven. God foretold that he would take his living bride to heaven before the great tribulation would arrive.

           God foretold how wicked many people would behave Before the Great Tribulation:

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. ¶ And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. ¶ But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. (Genesis 6:5-8 KJV)

       Also, before judging Sodom and Gomorrah by fire, God appeared with two angels in human form to show them how wicked their sins were:

¶ And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground; And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant’s house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night. And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat. ¶ But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them. And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him, And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. (Genesis 19:1-8 KJV)

        Jesus foretold the world would be like days of Noah and of Sodom and Gomorrah at the arrival of Great Tribulation when he judges the world:

But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. (Matthew 24:37-42 KJV)

      Jesus told his disciples about the sins of the Sodomites and that the Jews who did not believe in him would be judged harsher than Sodom:

Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. (Luke 17:28-30 KJV) And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city. (Matthew 10:14-15 KJV)

        Through the apostle Peter, The Holy Spirit, testified once again that the judgments of the Great flood and Sodom and Gomorrah were types of the final judgment of the coming Great Tribulation:

For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; ¶ And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: (2 Peter 2:4-9 KJV)

      The apostle Peter clearly prophesied that the coming judgment of God would be done by fire:

¶ Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after 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 the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. ¶ But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. ¶ The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. ¶ Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. (2 Peter 3:3-14 KJV)

        It is important to remember that there was only one righteous person in the days of Noah and Sodom. God is still looking for the bride of Christ, who finds grace only in God’s eyes, like Noah and Lot.

 Amen! Hallelujah!