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6-26-2022 Weekly Message

Meditation of the Week: Psalm 91:1-16

Text: 2 Peter 2:4-8

Sermon Title: Are you living like Noah, who found grace in the eyes of God?

        About a thousand years had passed since Adam sinned and gave the whole earth into the hands of the devil, and God saw that the thoughts and imaginations of the hearts of all people in the world were continued to be only evil, apart from God. God said that He would judge all men with a flood, leaving no one behind. At that time, only Noah was a preacher of righteousness. Even in Sodom and Gomorrah, only one man, Lot, could barely be saved.

      Apostle Paul also testified of Noah:

“By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. ” (Hebrews 11:7). )

       Moses, the man of God, testified of Noah:

“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. 6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7 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. 8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. ” (Genesis 6:5-8).

       Finally, God spoke of his plan to Noah, a perfect man in his day with whom he was walking:

“The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. “ (Genesis 6:13).

        God told Noah in detail of building the ark. God said He would bring a flood and destroy from under heaven all flesh that has the breath of life. But he promised that his family would be saved. God had given the people of those days a period of one hundred and twenty years and foretold that He would judge them when the time was fulfilled (Genesis 6:3).

       Noah, a man of God, became a preacher of righteousness for 120 years while building the ark. In other words, he was preaching the word of God’s righteousness that judgment would come on wicked people who did not understand. At that time, all the people ignored the words of judgment preached by Noah and did not want to keep the word of God in their hearts, but continued to eat and drink, and  to marry, and give in marriage.

        Jesus spoke of what the world’s people would be like when He returns as the Son of Man to judge the world. He said, in a word, that they would be like in the days of Noah:

“But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 38 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, 39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” (Matthew 24:36-39).

       Towards Christians who find grace in the eyes of God, during the past two thousand years after the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross to take away the sin of the world and rose again from the dead, the Lord Jesus spoke to judge the wicked sinners who do not believe in Him. He would appear again at that time and foretold his disciples about the judgment of the world:

“Take heed that no man deceive you.

5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. 6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

8 All these are the beginning of sorrows. “(Matt. 24:4-8)

       The Lord also spoke of what will happen when the suffering begins when the Great Tribulation comes to pass:

“Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. 10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.

11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. 12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. 13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. (Matthew 24:9-14)

           As the Great Tribulation begins, and the Age of Grace comes to an end, the gospel of grace will no longer be preached, and the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached. The content of the gospel of kingdom to be delivered at this time is that the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, will come and establish his kingdom, and it will be a message to all people to repent and accept Him. At Jesus’ first coming, John the Baptist said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near at hand!” The kingdom did not come at that time because the Jews disobeyed the king and killed him. But when he returns, the kingdom of heaven will be coming.

         The Lord Jesus also spoke about the appearance of the Antichrist at the time of the Great Tribulation:

“When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)” (Matt. 24:15)

                         Apostle Paul testified of the Antichrist who would appear along with the rapture of Christians when the Church of God apostatized:

”  Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, means that God’s judgment will come upon the whole world. But when Noah heard the same message of judgment, what did h and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).

         God has given the same message both the days of Noah as well as the days of church of  the judgment of God.  What kind of life Noah had done  for 120 years? He preached the word of righteousness that God’s judgment would come in the future. By the way, what are Christians who say they belong to the Church of God doing these days doing? Most Christians, including the servants of the Lord including  pastors do not preach that the Lord Jesus Christ will return and judge the world with fire, but are only doing fleshly things like eating, drinking, marrying, and getting married like the people in the days of Noah.

       Only a very small group of people on the earth are preaching the gospel like Noah, preaching the judgment that the Lord Jesus Christ will come at the Second Coming. Are the hundreds of thousands of underground church members in North Korea eating, drinking, getting married and marry? They are preaching the gospel secretly, repenting of their sins of not loving the Lord more even in the midst of difficult times under communist government. What about the Chinese underground church members? They also make it their main job to preach the gospel every day. Not only that, but they are living like walking and evangelizing as worms heading to Jerusalem, looking forward to the day when the Lord Jesus Christ will come and establish the kingdom, living in hope.

       God, who delivered the message of judgment to Noah, has prophesied through his prophets and apostles has preached the message of vengeance of God towards the people in the world who are pursuing only the lust of the flesh like beasts following evil thoughts and imagination  like the people in the days of Noah. It was to convey the message of the judgment that would come.

”  I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment..4 For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.……. I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. 10 A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.….. I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. 14 And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” (Isaiah 63:3-4, Dan 7: 9-10, 13, 14)

        Prophets such as Jeremiah, Joel, Ezekiel, Hosea, Amos, Habakkuk Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi and so on also gave the message that the Lord Jesus Christ would return to judge the world: and through  Apostle John, the Great Tribulation that will come in the future. Although he testified of the severe judgment, the pastors and members of the churches of God who have already become blind are now eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage just like the people in Noah’s day, and just like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, building, demolishing, buying and selling houses, and living a lazy life. As Jesus wept  looking at the city of Jerusalem,  we feel like weeping  in tears towards the world thinking of the Lord who wept while looking at Jerusalem. Oh, alas!

Amen! Hallelujah