Signs of the Times
Signs of the times 2/4/07 p.m.
Mt.24:36 36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. 37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 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, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
LUKE 17:22 22 Then He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. 23 And they will say to you, ‘Look here!’ or ‘Look there!’ Do not go after them or follow them. 24 For as the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in His day. 25 But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. 26 And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: 27 They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. 28 Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; 29 but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.
Gen. 6:5–7 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. 6 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
GEN. 6:11 11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
13 And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth
GEN. 13:13 13 But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord.
GEN.18:20 20 And the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave,
GEN. 19:4 4 Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house. 5 And they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally.”
EZE. 16:49 49 Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. 50 And they were haughty and committed abomination before Me; therefore I took them away as I saw fit.
2 PETER 2:7 7 and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked 8 (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)
982 Noah’s Flood
Population statistics indicate that nearly 3 billion people may have lived on the earth at the time of Noah’s Flood. This means that 3 billion were killed by God’s judgment at the Flood. [1]
Both Noah and Lot lived in days of religious compromise and moral declension, not unlike our present time.
During “the days of Noah,”
Lawlessness was on the increase (Gen. 6:5),
And the earth was given over to violence (Gen. 6:11, 13).
In Lot’s day,
The unnatural lusts of Sodom and Gomorrah were so abhorrent to God that He completely destroyed the cities.
They were fat, lazy, and selfish
Busyness
Jesus compared the days of Noah and of Lot to the time when He would return in judgment with power and glory.
In those earlier days men went about their ordinary pursuits without thought of God.
It will be the same when Christ comes to set up the kingdom.
We are a busy society, always on the go; work, school, chores, hobbies, ballgames, holidays, special events, etc.
WITH LITTLE OR NO TIME FOR THE THINGS OF GOD –UNCONCERNED
LUKE 21:34 34 “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with 8carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. 35 For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 Watch therefore, and pray always that you may 9be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Ease & comfort forget God
Eze. 16:49 …She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
- We are a prideful society,
Without honor & w/o shame
—we boast in our shame
Arrogant
Self-righteous
Self-centered
Self-seeking
- We are a society of indulgence of food
# and variety of eating places
Frequency of dining out
All you can eat buffets
The amount of food wasted
The problem of child & adult obesity
- We are a society of pleasure, fun, games, vacations, cruises, international travel, hobbies, sports; Children spend hours on end in front of the TV and video game
- We are a society that places more emphasis on personal gain & gratification than the well being of others
LUKE 12:19 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.” ’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’
21 “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
DEU. 8:12 11 “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, 12 lest—when you have eaten and are 5full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; 13 and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied;
Lawlessness and violence
TV & newspapers are full of the reports of evil in our society;
Whether it’s political, corporate, educational, physical, emotional, spiritual,
We find it in the home, in the office, in the school, in the church, in the government
Our children are no longer safe at school
Our churches are vandalized & abused
Our work place can become the scene of mass murder in minutes
Our cities see robberies, beatings, muggings, and murders
Our police are in many cases out numbered & overpowered
Our courts are overloaded
Our prisons are overcrowded
The unnatural lusts
ROM. 1:28 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; 32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.
Given For our example
2PETER 2:4 4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; 6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; 7 and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked 8 (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)— 9 then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, 11 whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord.
1563 If Jesus Came To Your House
If Jesus came to your house to spend a day or two. …
If He came unexpectedly. I wonder what you’d do.
Oh, I know you’d give your nicest room to such an honored guest.
And all the food you’d serve to Him would be the very best,
And you would keep assuring Him you’re glad to have Him there. …
But. … when you saw Him coming, would you meet Him at the door.
With arms outstretched in welcome to our heav’nly visitor?
Or would you maybe change your clothes before you let Him in,
Or hide some magazines and put the Bible where they’d been?
Would you turn off the radio and hope He hadn’t heard,
And wish you hadn’t uttered that last, loud and hasty word?
Would you hide your worldly music and put some hymn books out?
Could you let Jesus walk right in, or would you rush about?
And I wonder. … If the Savior spent a day or two with you,
Would you go right on doing the things you always do?
Would you go right on saying the things you always say?
Would life for you continue as it does from day to day?
Would your family conversation keep up its usual pace?
And would you find it hard each meal to say a table grace?
Would you sing the songs you always sing and read the book you read?
And let Him know the things on which your mind and spirit feed
Would you take Jesus with you everywhere you’d planned to go,
Or would you, maybe, change your plans for just a day or so?
Would you be glad to have Him meet your very closest friends,
Or would you hope they’d stay away until His visit ends?
Would you be glad to have Him stay forever on and on,
Or would you sigh with great relief when He at last was gone?
It might be interesting to know the things that you would do,
If Jesus came in person to spend some time with you.
—Author Unkn
7235 What Would He Say?
If He should come to-day
And find my hands so full
Of future plans, however fair,
In which my Saviour has no share,
What would He say?
If He should come to-day
And find my love so cold,
My faith so very weak and dim
I had not even looked for Him.
What would He say?
If He should come to-day
And find that I had not told
One soul about my Heavenly Friend
Whose blessings all my way attend,
What would He say?
If He should come to-day
Would I be glad, quite glad?
Remembering that He died for all
And none through me had heard His call,
What would He say?
—Selected
4407 Trend In Children’s Heroes
In 1898 a schoolteacher polled 1,440 children, aged twelve to fourteen, to find out what sort of heroes and heroines the children had. In that era ninety percent of the children picked their heroes from history and letters. Washington and Lincoln led the list, followed by Whittier, Clara Barton, Julius Caesar, and Christopher Columbus. Very few of them gave first place to living notables, even such national characters as champion skater John S. Johnson or heavyweight boxer James J. Corbett.
Midway during the twentieth century a professor in the Massachussets State Teachers College took a similar poll and discovered a great change in modern youth. Only thirty-three percent picked their heroes and heroines from history. Franklin Roosevelt had passed Washington and Lincoln, though Clara Barton still led among girls. Thirty-seven percent of the votes went to the contemporary stars of screen, sports, radio, and the comics.
“It is rather significant commentary,” concluded the professor, “that four times as many boys chose Gene Autry as chose Jesus Christ; that as many chose Jack Benny as chose priests, ministers, and missionaries combined … and that, among the girls, twice as many wished to be like movie actresses as wished to be like all religious figures combined.”
—Donald Grey Barnhouse
7516 Typical American
A United Press survey found that the “typical American” is a twenty-seven-year-old who does not read one book a year. He is materialistic, satisfied with small pleasures, bored with theological disputations. Although he may attend church twenty- seven times a year, he is not interested in the supernatural. He is concerned with neither heaven nor hell. In fact, he has no interest whatever in immortality. His principal interests are football, hunting, fishing, and car-tinkering.
—Lon Woodreum
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[1]Tan, Paul Lee: Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations : A Treasury of Illustrations, Anecdotes, Facts and Quotations for Pastors, Teachers and Christian Workers. Garland TX : Bible Communications, 1996, c1979
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[2]Tan, Paul Lee: Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations : A Treasury of Illustrations, Anecdotes, Facts and Quotations for Pastors, Teachers and Christian Workers. Garland TX : Bible Communications, 1996, c1979