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Mar 22 2017
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As The Days Of Noah

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

 

Jesus gave us a huge glimpse of what the last of the last days would be like, by telling us they will be like the days of Noah. All we need to do is go back to the book of Genesis and read about it for ourselves. I want to share eight points with you of some of the similarities that can be found between Noah’s generation and ours.

 

  1. “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD” (Genesis 6:8). Do we not live in the age of grace? We are a people that found grace in the eyes of the Lord. We are the body of Christ. Jesus, our Lord, is full of grace and truth. Acts chapter four says that great grace was upon all the believers. This is what we preach, “The gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24).
  2. Life will go on as usual. Jesus said there will be eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage up to the coming of the Lord. I know our world seems to be falling apart. America seems to be heading for disaster. I can sometimes picture the whole world living in terror and poverty, yet to paraphrase what Jesus said, things are going to be like they have been all along. I suppose there will be regions in this world that will suffer worse than others, but for the most part there will be the ongoing of life as usual for many.
  3. Noah knew the flood was coming but the wicked did not. “But ye brethren are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you as a thief” (I Thessalonians 5:5). We are children of light, and if we walk in that light, we will have a strong sense in our spirit as the day of the Lord approaches. I think it is the consensus of many Christians today that we are in the last of the last days. Noah was building a ship and every timber he put in place spoke to his generation that judgment was coming, but no one but his family heeded the warning. Saints, do not be surprised if this world will not see the signs of Christ’s return.
  4. Noah had a call. In the midst of such great wickedness, there came a call from God to Noah to prepare for the coming calamity. There came a call to warn his generation to flee from the coming wrath. Church, I believe the call is intensifying every day that we need to put away all that distracts us and preach to our society the gospel of Jesus Christ. In the midst of all the chaos, if you listen, you will hear His voice speaking to you. It’s a voice that does not fit in with this world.
  5. Noah was part of a great minority. There was Noah and his family and then there was the rest of the world. Today, it is the church of Jesus Christ and then the rest of the world. Noah was an outcast in his generation. You could say that he was kind of a strange man, consumed with preaching righteousness and building a huge ship which had absolutely no value to anyone’s eyes except Noah and his family. The church today must be a peculiar people consumed with our Lord Jesus. This minority, you and I belong to, is hated by this world and no government will be passing any laws that demand we be respected and given special rights.
  6. Building the ark was an act of faith. Saints, let this sink in. Noah was building the very thing that would save him. You could say he was working on his salvation with fear and trembling. I am not denying that we are saved by grace and not of works. Salvation is a free gift but Ephesians 2:8 also says we are saved “through faith.” Through means in one side and out the other. For Noah that meant putting the first timber in place and working on that ark until the last bit of pitch was pressed into the joints. For you and me, it means being determined to make it all the way to the end of this path we are walking.
  7. Noah built the ark in the presence of a sin gripped world. One of the signs of the last days is that iniquity shall abound. Babies today are murdered before they ever get out of the womb, not just here in America but all over this world. Sexual sin of every kind is being encouraged and promoted in our generation. Noah built the ark in a time when “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). Yet he built the ark to completion. He built something the world never understood. They couldn’t shut him down. Jesus said that the gates of hell will not prevail against His church. Saints, we may be amidst a wicked people but we cannot be shut down. Christ’s church will prevail. She must be a testimony in this generation.
  8. Noah was a preacher of righteousness. According to Peter’s second epistle, Noah was a preacher of righteousness. The word righteousness means equity. Equity means impartiality and fairness. By this definition, Noah didn’t necessarily go around telling everyone how sinful they were. Although I do believe man needs to know he is a lost sinner before he can get saved. What Noah was preaching is the same thing we preach today. He was preaching grace. He was telling his generation that judgment was coming, but they could escape. Come and help build the ark. Whosoever will, come on the ark and be saved from the coming judgment. This must be our cry. We are in the age of grace. God is not impartial. Let us call to all around us and say flee from the wrath to come.

 

One final thought about Noah and the ark. When Jesus walked this earth, there was one concern He had “…Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). Jesus didn’t ask if there would be holiness or righteousness or love; He asked if there would be faith. Of course, all these things are wrapped up in faith. When God looked down on men in Noah’s generation to see if He could find faith, He saw a huge ship with no large body of water around. Every time God saw that ark, it was a testimony of Noah’s faith. That ark shouted up to heaven, I BELIEVE IN YOU GOD, I OBEY YOU OH GOD, I LOVE YOU LORD. When Jesus comes will your life be a testimony and a monument of faith that declares I BELIEVE IN YOU GOD?

Feb 11 2017
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The Precious Blood of Christ

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“Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” ( I Peter 1:18-19).

 

I once heard it said that you never hear preaching on the blood and the cross anymore. I don’t know if that is true or not, for I know I preach both of them. I know that the Jimmy Swaggert Ministries has had a resurgence and he has put quite an emphasis on the “Message of the Cross.” One of my mentors taught me that the cross deals with the flesh and the blood deals with sin. I would have to say that I agree with that. However, they both work together, for it was on the cross that Jesus shed His blood.

I am sure most of us have heard it quoted many times, “For by grace are ye saved…” This verse which is Ephesians 2:8 is often not taken in context with the rest of the Word of God. Technically we are not saved by grace. Hang on now, let me finish. Grace does not save, the blood of Christ saves. Grace is the attitude of God; God’s love toward men that wants to redeem them to Himself, though they are not worthy of that redemption. Grace is what put the plan of God into action that brought forth the death, burial and resurrection of His Son. For the scriptures say:

 

“And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22).

 

The blood of Christ is a very powerful force. It can forgive the vilest of sins, the vilest sinner and millions upon millions of the vilest sinners. If confessed, there are no number of sins that can ever overpower the blood of Jesus. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. A million times a million sins can never neutralize even one drop of Jesus’ blood.

You can be sure that you and every born-again Christian has been reconciled to God through the blood of His Son.

 

“And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven” (Colossians 1:20).

 

The blood of Christ doesn’t just save us, but it also cleanses us. The blood doesn’t just cleanse us, but it keeps us clean. As long as you are abiding in the vine, you will have the protection of the blood.

 

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (I John 1:7).

 

Consider the story of the first Passover. Israel was told that on the fourteenth day of the first month each household had to kill a one year old male lamb that had no blemishes. This, of course, is a type of Christ for He was a male and He indeed had no blemishes. He was the perfect Lamb of God. John the Baptist later said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). Then Israel was to take the blood from those lambs and strike it onto the door posts and the mantle of the door. Then they were to stay in their houses until morning and eat the lamb. The Lord said, “And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt” (Exodus 12:13). So that night the death angel came through the camp and every house that had the blood around the door, the death angel passed by. That angel did not go walking into the houses to make sure all the children were behaving. He didn’t walk in and make sure mom and dad weren’t arguing, He didn’t check to make sure everyone was living righteous. He just passed over those houses. That is why it is called the Passover.

In the same way, the blood is your protection and security. If you want to talk about eternal security, this is it, being under the blood. If it wasn’t for the blood, every time you sin you would come out of your salvation. You would then have to renew it. You would live a life of going in and out of salvation. That would be insanity. Instead, we have the blood that keeps us in right standing with God.

Now, if any of the Israelite first born, would have decided to leave their house and go outside to observe what was going on, they would have been struck dead by the death angel. The angel’s only order was to kill the firstborn of every house in the land of Egypt unless there was blood around the door. So if the first born were to leave that place of safety, it was on them. They would have left that safe haven by their own doing. In the same way the blood works for us. If we abide in Christ, we willingly put ourselves under the protection of His blood. Even if we were to sin, His blood would keep us from being condemned. However, when the Spirit convicts us of our sin, we must repent. If we would harden ourselves against God and the conviction of the Spirit, we would eventually get to the place where we have quit abiding in Christ. Once we have done that we no longer get the protection of the blood and then there is no more redemption.

 

“For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins” (Hebrews 10:26).

 

When we stay in Christ, His blood works in us as a sanctifying agent. This means that it continues to work on us throughout our whole Christian life. The blood is what makes us positionally holy, while the Holy Spirit works in us to make us progressively holy.

 

Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate” (Hebrews 13:12).

 

Let me say one more thing about the blood of Christ. It is a powerful spiritual weapon against Satan. The blood gives us the ability to not just resist the devil, but to overcome him and all his evil temptations.

 

“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death” (Revelation 12:11).

 

So saint of God, thank the Lord for the blood. Abide in Christ and enjoy the peace and safety the blood supplies. Sing with me: “There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel’s veins. And sinners plunged beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains.”