Study Lesson 14
Warnings For An End Time Church
Scripture To Consider:
“But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” Matthew 24.37-39
A Few Words Of Warning:
Are End Time Warnings For The Church
As in the days of Noah, his being taken safely away from God’s judgment and wrath against the sinful society of his day, was solely due to Noah’s true faith in God, and God’s estimation of Noah found in Genesis 7.1. God speaking of Noah, declared, “Because I [God] have seen that you [Noah] are righteous before Me in this generation.” And therefore, Noah heeded God’s words of warning and eternal promises.
At the future certain coming of Jesus Christ, being left to experience God’s wrath will be because of one’s not having true biblical faith, and not being seen by God as righteous in this generation, as well as not heeding the end time warnings of Jesus. Let that not be our end time result!
The end time climate for the church will be as the days of Noah, according to Jesus. In Noah’s day it was business as usual. People were going about their daily lives and routines as if nothing of eternal importance hung in the balance. The days of Noah were extremely evil as recorded in Genesis 6.5, “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” This description of Noah’s days sounds exactly like the sinful attitudes of the nations of our day, including and especially the extremely divided nation of America.
Something To Consider:
Will We Find Grace Or Wrath In The End
“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.” Evidently Noah’s lifestyle was different than the average evil individual. And in finding the grace of God, Noah found a way of escape from the coming storm and deluge of God’s just judgment and rightly deserved wrath upon the inhabitants of planet earth.
Let us make no mistake about it; God gave ample and continuous warning after warning to the people of Noah’s day. For Peter writing in 2 Peter 2.5, informs us that Noah was a preacher of righteousness, probably preaching as he faithfully worked on building the ark as prescribed by God.
Every generation has had its preachers of righteousness, faithfully warning of the danger of neglecting the gracious warnings found within the Word of God, and the words of warning spoken of by Jesus. Even today the truth of Jesus is being preached by some and He is equally being neglected by many. Even today the truth of the Word of God can be heard and heeded by those who have ears to hear what the Spirit of God is declaring to the true church. And yet, the false messages are attempting to drown out the voice of truth. How sad and how insidious!
Something Else To Consider:
Warned Of Things Not Yet Seen
Noah did not know when the judgment was coming, but he was moved to action by his faith in God’s Word. The writer of Hebrews 11.7, explained, “By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.”
And so, it takes biblical based faith to truly believe the end time warnings of God’s Word. It also takes a God initiated biblical faith to truly believe the end time warnings of Jesus as found in Matthew 24 and 25. So where does that leave us as end time occupants of planet earth during this great spiritual struggle between the behind-the-scenes spiritual forces of God who is good and Satan who is evil?
Will we rightfully heed the in advance warnings of things not yet seen, or will we be deceived by a much-repeated false message of a pre-tribulation rapture? If warned by the Word of God of false teachings, we should then prepare. If deceived by the many false prophets and their false messages, we will not nor cannot be prepared, but rather we will be totally taken by surprise and therefore, totally unprepared!
Something More To Consider:
Can We Believe Present End Time Teachings
Many within the church live lives that witness their unbelief in the end time warnings of Jesus, and of the New Testament writers. Many regularly attend church services like clockwork, as if taking part in a corporate or governmental provided insurance escape plan policy, with little or no regard for faithfully enduring unto the end, or faithfully abiding in Christ, or obeying His teachings.
It is shameful that many have and will continue to be deceived and or misled by those not willing to alter their denominational doctrines to fit Scripture, so as to maintain the status quo, even when the status quo is in opposition to Scripture. According to Jesus, we are not to be deceived!
Noah did not know the exact timing of the predicted by God flood, but he knew the voice of the Lord. For one day without any advance notice, a familiar voice from inside the ark called to Noah, “Then the LORD said to Noah, ‘Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation.’”
One day in the not so far future and without any advance notice, the faithful in Christ will, according to Jesus, hear the voice of a great sound of a trumpet, and then they will experience firsthand the great provided escape plan of our Almighty and gracious God. Until then, we must be reminded that all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution!
In the shortness of a moment and in the quickness of the twinkling of an eye, true end time faithful believers in Jesus will ultimately escape the coming upon the earth flood of God’s foretold and much deserving wrath and due punishment upon an evil, wicked, and adulterous generation just as in the days of Noah.
But does that mean an actual removal of the elect from the earth or protected upon the earth as was Noah, Lot, and the children of Israel. Let us be prepared as was Noah. Let us heed the many end time warnings of Jesus and of other biblical scribes.
But will God’s true end time elect tune out the greedy voices of religious pretenders in lieu of the true biblically proven message of the truth? I hope so, and I am praying for that to happen with God’s help and divine intervention of His Holy Spirit! What are you praying for?
A Few Final Words:
How Near Is The Impending End Time Judgment
For the elect’s sake, Jesus’ coming will shorten the tribulation and affliction forced upon His saints by the world and Satan’s political established earthly representative. The tribulation and affliction brought on by the world and Satan’s end time representative is different than the tribulation and affliction brought about by God’s final end time judgment and wrath.
We must remember what Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5.9. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul claimed, “For God did not appoint us [true present tense believing saints] to wrath [God’s wrath], but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” In other words, let us be prepared for the evil wrath of Satan, of mankind, and of Satan’s end time Antichrist representative, as well as of one-time so-called believers who will become deceived and who will betray true believers.
Jesus, in Matthew 24 and in Luke 17, mentioned the days of Noah being likened to the days of the end times. Jesus portrayed a broad-brush stroke picture, by proclaiming, “For as in the days before the flood, they [general unbelieving population] were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood [God’s warned of wrath] came and took them all away, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.”
The impending end time judgment of evil will take billions by complete surprise. These same billions will experience first-hand the full measure of God’s wrath and indignation. They have been warned! We all have been warned.
In Luke’s version of the same end time events, Luke adds an additional spiritual object lesson of great importance. Beginning in verse 28 of Luke 17, Luke records the words of Jesus, “Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: they [general unbelieving population] ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built [commercialism continued]; but on the day that Lot [declared righteous in 2 Peter 2.7] went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all [the unbelieving left behind within Sodom].”
Keep in mind who was taken away before the wrath of God was unleashed. Keep in mind who it was that was divinely protected without their being removed from the earth. Keep in mind who it was that was left within Sodom and Gomorrah to experience the judgment of God. Keep in mind who it was that was destroyed. We have all been warned!
Prayer: Our Father in heaven, thank You for Your many end time warnings. Help us to not be deceived by the many false messages being proclaimed falsely promising a pre-tribulation rapture of which the bible does not predict. Teach us the truth of Your Word, of which is Jesus come in the flesh. In Him Always, Amen!
According to Jesus 