Before God destroyed the whole world with a flood, saving only 8 people (Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives), the great tension that existed was that the world was doing whatever it felt like doing with no regard for God or morality. But God, in His long-suffering, allowed the people to be preached to by Noah for 120 years while he prepared an ark that would only hold his family, animals, and provisions, but not another single human soul.
.
The world was allowed to continue on becoming more and more wicked, until sudden destruction came upon them. Noah’s world didn’t get better leading up to the flood, just as Lot’s city of Sodom didn’t get better, leading up to the fire and brimstone. Likewise, the world in the last days will not get better, but worse, leading up to the great tribulation, which, like Noah and family, and Lot and two daughters, were saved from sudden destruction, so will the Church be saved at the rapture.
.
The people of the world ignored, they mocked, they ridiculed Noah, and they continued to do life on their own wicked terms. And when God’s destruction came, it was so sudden that they had no time to repent. By the way, don’t be deceived! When Jesus warned in Revelation 22 that, “I come quickly…” in judgment, He was speaking of the same sort of unexpected suddenness that left no time for the people of Noah’s day to repent. So, Genesis 7:16 says that they went into the ark as God commanded, and the LORD shut them in.
.
I believe that one of the very reasons God, by His own power, shut Noah and his family up in the ark is because of our tendency to let our emotions get the best of us. Perhaps, someone in Noah’s family, possibly even Noah himself, might have been overcome by the peoples’ screams, and might have tried to let some of them in. And while there is nothing wrong with having compassion on people, there is everything wrong with trying to stand with, rather than preach the gospel to, those whom God is condemning.
.
One would think that by now, with all the understanding available to the church through the perfect word of God, we wouldn’t be so quick to take up the ever-shifting and conveniently utilized “hashtagged” causes of a world that is clearly under the judgment of the God who THEY REFUSE TO…

• honor as God (Rom. 1:21)…
• give thanks to (Rom. 1:21)…
• forsake themselves and their idols for (Rom. 1:23).

A cursory reading of Romans chapter 1 can give even a newborn babe in Christ enough wisdom to understand what the primary cause is of all of the rampant wickedness and chaos plaguing the world. Yet this is a chapter of the Bible that is rarely ever even approached in most pulpits.
.
One would think that by now, with all the understanding the Bible gives the saints, we wouldn’t be so ready to run to the aid of a world that continually only mentions God as a bye-word in its use of profanity. Are we forgetting that THIS IS THE WORLD THAT…

• exchanged God’s incorruptible glory for corruptible idols… (Rom. 1:23)?
• exchanged God’s truth for a lie… (Rom. 1:25)?
• exchanged the natural male/female affection for the unnatural, and burned in their desire, men with men, and women with women (Rom. 1:26-27)?

One would think that by now, the body of Christ would be aware of passages like James 4:4 which says…

You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

We most certainly should speak out against all sin, and seek to bring all people to the conclusion that Christ is the only true cure, but NOT FOR THIS WORLD, but for each individual person who trusts in Christ. That is our mission.
.
Yet we have been so swept up in the latest media cycle, that it seems we are more readily, boldly, and courageously talking about race than we are willingly and boldly declaring the real reason for racism and the real remedy for it in Christ. I submit to you that if we were even half as zealous for faithfully declaring the gospel of salvation, we would be amazed at how much better the problem of racism would be addressed. We would see more people being delivered from sin (racism included) and more and more TRUE CHRISTIANS living quiet peaceable lives in ALL GODLINESS and honesty.
.
And notice that I did not say that the problems of racism would be solved. I would never say that because the Bible makes it crystal clear that the problem of sin will not be solved until Christ returns to bring forth new heavens and a new earth. And yet, neither am I saying that we should give up on trying to show empathy and compassion for the hurts, pains, and injustices people suffer. But we must remember that we live in a world of people who…

• GOD GAVE OVER to the lusts of their hearts and to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them (Rom. 1:24).
• GOD GAVE OVER to degrading passions, because women and men exchanged the natural sexual function for that which is unnatural, and burned in their desire for men with men and women with women (Rom. 1:26-27).
• GOD GAVE OVER to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper (Rom. 1:28).

And as a result of the above exchanges, people the world over are filled with all unrighteousness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful. And although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them (Rom. 1:29-32). We see these truths played out in all of life as we know it today, even in our entertainments.
.
But I am afraid that so many of us who say we are Christians continue to make so much room for sin in our own lives that we feel too guilty to stand up and declare the only truth that can deliver anyone from this age of Noah-tension. Willful ignorance is no excuse for setting aside the gospel of Christ.
.
If you are in Christ, you are like Noah. I say this without reservation because the Bible says that he, even though he had faults, was RIGHTEOUS, because like every born-again believer, God declared him so. And certainly his life was not characterized by continual sin. So what do we need to do?
.
We need to take 1 John 1:9 seriously, and confess our sins, agreeing with God that we have sinned, and accept His cleansing from ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS. And then we need to let 1 John 3:1-10 (which I challenge you to read) continually show us if we have truly been born-again. If we are born-again, then we must keep telling a world that is under the judgment of God how to escape the great day of His wrath that will destroy the world and consign all the unrighteous to eternal torment in hell.
.
Why do I share this painful truth? It is because above all other persons on this earth, whether they are related to me or not, I love the eternal family of God. And I don’t want us to continue to be deceived. The signs of God’s judgment are everywhere!
.
Will you pay these words no attention? Or will you acknowledge that as Jesus said in Luke 17:26-27, we are living in a time of Noah-tension. Will you heed Christ’s warnings today? This world is the way it is because it is sick with sin. And salvation in Christ which puts Christ in the heart is humanity’s only cure.
.
God richly bless you, beloved!

Before God destroyed the whole world with a flood, saving only 8 people (Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives), the great tension that existed was that the world was doing whatever it felt like doing with no regard for God or morality. But God, in His long-suffering, allowed the people to be preached to by Noah for 120 years while he prepared an ark that would only hold his family, animals, and provisions, but not another single human soul.
.
The world was allowed to continue on becoming more and more wicked, until sudden destruction came upon them. Noah’s world didn’t get better leading up to the flood, just as Lot’s city of Sodom didn’t get better, leading up to the fire and brimstone. Likewise, the world in the last days will not get better, but worse, leading up to the great tribulation, which, like Noah and family, and Lot and two daughters, were saved from sudden destruction, so will the Church be saved at the rapture.
.
The people of the world ignored, they mocked, they ridiculed Noah, and they continued to do life on their own wicked terms. And when God’s destruction came, it was so sudden that they had no time to repent. By the way, don’t be deceived! When Jesus warned in Revelation 22 that, “I come quickly…” in judgment, He was speaking of the same sort of unexpected suddenness that left no time for the people of Noah’s day to repent. So, Genesis 7:16 says that they went into the ark as God commanded, and the LORD shut them in.
.
I believe that one of the very reasons God, by His own power, shut Noah and his family up in the ark is because of our tendency to let our emotions get the best of us. Perhaps, someone in Noah’s family, possibly even Noah himself, might have been overcome by the peoples’ screams, and might have tried to let some of them in. And while there is nothing wrong with having compassion on people, there is everything wrong with trying to stand with, rather than preach the gospel to, those whom God is condemning.
.
One would think that by now, with all the understanding available to the church through the perfect word of God, we wouldn’t be so quick to take up the ever-shifting and conveniently utilized “hashtagged” causes of a world that is clearly under the judgment of the God who THEY REFUSE TO…

• honor as God (Rom. 1:21)…
• give thanks to (Rom. 1:21)…
• forsake themselves and their idols for (Rom. 1:23).

A cursory reading of Romans chapter 1 can give even a newborn babe in Christ enough wisdom to understand what the primary cause is of all of the rampant wickedness and chaos plaguing the world. Yet this is a chapter of the Bible that is rarely ever even approached in most pulpits.
.
One would think that by now, with all the understanding the Bible gives the saints, we wouldn’t be so ready to run to the aid of a world that continually only mentions God as a bye-word in its use of profanity. Are we forgetting that THIS IS THE WORLD THAT…

• exchanged God’s incorruptible glory for corruptible idols… (Rom. 1:23)?
• exchanged God’s truth for a lie… (Rom. 1:25)?
• exchanged the natural male/female affection for the unnatural, and burned in their desire, men with men, and women with women (Rom. 1:26-27)?

One would think that by now, the body of Christ would be aware of passages like James 4:4 which says…

You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

We most certainly should speak out against all sin, and seek to bring all people to the conclusion that Christ is the only true cure, but NOT FOR THIS WORLD, but for each individual person who trusts in Christ. That is our mission.
.
Yet we have been so swept up in the latest media cycle, that it seems we are more readily, boldly, and courageously talking about race than we are willingly and boldly declaring the real reason for racism and the real remedy for it in Christ. I submit to you that if we were even half as zealous for faithfully declaring the gospel of salvation, we would be amazed at how much better the problem of racism would be addressed. We would see more people being delivered from sin (racism included) and more and more TRUE CHRISTIANS living quiet peaceable lives in ALL GODLINESS and honesty.
.
And notice that I did not say that the problems of racism would be solved. I would never say that because the Bible makes it crystal clear that the problem of sin will not be solved until Christ returns to bring forth new heavens and a new earth. And yet, neither am I saying that we should give up on trying to show empathy and compassion for the hurts, pains, and injustices people suffer. But we must remember that we live in a world of people who…

• GOD GAVE OVER to the lusts of their hearts and to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them (Rom. 1:24).
• GOD GAVE OVER to degrading passions, because women and men exchanged the natural sexual function for that which is unnatural, and burned in their desire for men with men and women with women (Rom. 1:26-27).
• GOD GAVE OVER to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper (Rom. 1:28).

And as a result of the above exchanges, people the world over are filled with all unrighteousness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful. And although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them (Rom. 1:29-32). We see these truths played out in all of life as we know it today, even in our entertainments.
.
But I am afraid that so many of us who say we are Christians continue to make so much room for sin in our own lives that we feel too guilty to stand up and declare the only truth that can deliver anyone from this age of Noah-tension. Willful ignorance is no excuse for setting aside the gospel of Christ.
.
If you are in Christ, you are like Noah. I say this without reservation because the Bible says that he, even though he had faults, was RIGHTEOUS, because like every born-again believer, God declared him so. And certainly his life was not characterized by continual sin. So what do we need to do?
.
We need to take 1 John 1:9 seriously, and confess our sins, agreeing with God that we have sinned, and accept His cleansing from ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS. And then we need to let 1 John 3:1-10 (which I challenge you to read) continually show us if we have truly been born-again. If we are born-again, then we must keep telling a world that is under the judgment of God how to escape the great day of His wrath that will destroy the world and consign all the unrighteous to eternal torment in hell.
.
Why do I share this painful truth? It is because above all other persons on this earth, whether they are related to me or not, I love the eternal family of God. And I don’t want us to continue to be deceived. The signs of God’s judgment are everywhere!
.
Will you pay these words no attention? Or will you acknowledge that as Jesus said in Luke 17:26-27, we are living in a time of Noah-tension. Will you heed Christ’s warnings today? This world is the way it is because it is sick with sin. And salvation in Christ which puts Christ in the heart is humanity’s only cure.
.
God richly bless you, beloved!

Before God destroyed the whole world with a flood, saving only 8 people (Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives), the great tension that existed was that the world was doing whatever it felt like doing with no regard for God or morality. But God, in His long-suffering, allowed the people to be preached to by Noah for 120 years while he prepared an ark that would only hold his family, animals, and provisions, but not another single human soul.
.
The world was allowed to continue on becoming more and more wicked, until sudden destruction came upon them. Noah’s world didn’t get better leading up to the flood, just as Lot’s city of Sodom didn’t get better, leading up to the fire and brimstone. Likewise, the world in the last days will not get better, but worse, leading up to the great tribulation, which, like Noah and family, and Lot and two daughters, were saved from sudden destruction, so will the Church be saved at the rapture.
.
The people of the world ignored, they mocked, they ridiculed Noah, and they continued to do life on their own wicked terms. And when God’s destruction came, it was so sudden that they had no time to repent. By the way, don’t be deceived! When Jesus warned in Revelation 22 that, “I come quickly…” in judgment, He was speaking of the same sort of unexpected suddenness that left no time for the people of Noah’s day to repent. So, Genesis 7:16 says that they went into the ark as God commanded, and the LORD shut them in.
.
I believe that one of the very reasons God, by His own power, shut Noah and his family up in the ark is because of our tendency to let our emotions get the best of us. Perhaps, someone in Noah’s family, possibly even Noah himself, might have been overcome by the peoples’ screams, and might have tried to let some of them in. And while there is nothing wrong with having compassion on people, there is everything wrong with trying to stand with, rather than preach the gospel to, those whom God is condemning.
.
One would think that by now, with all the understanding available to the church through the perfect word of God, we wouldn’t be so quick to take up the ever-shifting and conveniently utilized “hashtagged” causes of a world that is clearly under the judgment of the God who THEY REFUSE TO…

• honor as God (Rom. 1:21)…
• give thanks to (Rom. 1:21)…
• forsake themselves and their idols for (Rom. 1:23).

A cursory reading of Romans chapter 1 can give even a newborn babe in Christ enough wisdom to understand what the primary cause is of all of the rampant wickedness and chaos plaguing the world. Yet this is a chapter of the Bible that is rarely ever even approached in most pulpits.
.
One would think that by now, with all the understanding the Bible gives the saints, we wouldn’t be so ready to run to the aid of a world that continually only mentions God as a bye-word in its use of profanity. Are we forgetting that THIS IS THE WORLD THAT…

• exchanged God’s incorruptible glory for corruptible idols… (Rom. 1:23)?
• exchanged God’s truth for a lie… (Rom. 1:25)?
• exchanged the natural male/female affection for the unnatural, and burned in their desire, men with men, and women with women (Rom. 1:26-27)?

One would think that by now, the body of Christ would be aware of passages like James 4:4 which says…

You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

We most certainly should speak out against all sin, and seek to bring all people to the conclusion that Christ is the only true cure, but NOT FOR THIS WORLD, but for each individual person who trusts in Christ. That is our mission.
.
Yet we have been so swept up in the latest media cycle, that it seems we are more readily, boldly, and courageously talking about race than we are willingly and boldly declaring the real reason for racism and the real remedy for it in Christ. I submit to you that if we were even half as zealous for faithfully declaring the gospel of salvation, we would be amazed at how much better the problem of racism would be addressed. We would see more people being delivered from sin (racism included) and more and more TRUE CHRISTIANS living quiet peaceable lives in ALL GODLINESS and honesty.
.
And notice that I did not say that the problems of racism would be solved. I would never say that because the Bible makes it crystal clear that the problem of sin will not be solved until Christ returns to bring forth new heavens and a new earth. And yet, neither am I saying that we should give up on trying to show empathy and compassion for the hurts, pains, and injustices people suffer. But we must remember that we live in a world of people who…

• GOD GAVE OVER to the lusts of their hearts and to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them (Rom. 1:24).
• GOD GAVE OVER to degrading passions, because women and men exchanged the natural sexual function for that which is unnatural, and burned in their desire for men with men and women with women (Rom. 1:26-27).
• GOD GAVE OVER to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper (Rom. 1:28).

And as a result of the above exchanges, people the world over are filled with all unrighteousness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful. And although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them (Rom. 1:29-32). We see these truths played out in all of life as we know it today, even in our entertainments.
.
But I am afraid that so many of us who say we are Christians continue to make so much room for sin in our own lives that we feel too guilty to stand up and declare the only truth that can deliver anyone from this age of Noah-tension. Willful ignorance is no excuse for setting aside the gospel of Christ.
.
If you are in Christ, you are like Noah. I say this without reservation because the Bible says that he, even though he had faults, was RIGHTEOUS, because like every born-again believer, God declared him so. And certainly his life was not characterized by continual sin. So what do we need to do?
.
We need to take 1 John 1:9 seriously, and confess our sins, agreeing with God that we have sinned, and accept His cleansing from ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS. And then we need to let 1 John 3:1-10 (which I challenge you to read) continually show us if we have truly been born-again. If we are born-again, then we must keep telling a world that is under the judgment of God how to escape the great day of His wrath that will destroy the world and consign all the unrighteous to eternal torment in hell.
.
Why do I share this painful truth? It is because above all other persons on this earth, whether they are related to me or not, I love the eternal family of God. And I don’t want us to continue to be deceived. The signs of God’s judgment are everywhere!
.
Will you pay these words no attention? Or will you acknowledge that as Jesus said in Luke 17:26-27, we are living in a time of Noah-tension. Will you heed Christ’s warnings today? This world is the way it is because it is sick with sin. And salvation in Christ which puts Christ in the heart is humanity’s only cure.
.
God richly bless you, beloved!