Luke chapter 17, and I want to
begin reading in verse 26. These are parallel passages. Luke chapter
17 and verse 26. As it was in the days of Noah,
so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man. They ate,
they drank, married wives that were given in marriage, until
the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came and
destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the
days of Lot, they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they
planted, they built. But the same day that Lot went
out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and
destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the
day when the Son of Man is revealed." Now, in Matthew chapter 24 and verse 37, as it was in the days
of Noah, but as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming
of the Son of Man be. For as in the days that were
before the flood they were eating and drinking and marrying and
giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the
ark, and you not until the flood came and took them all away,
so also the coming of the Son of Man shall be." In chapters 24 and 25 of Matthew,
our Lord is responding to a question a series of questions the disciples
had asked him. You'll see them there in Matthew
24 in verse 2 and 3. The disciples had pointed out the
beautiful building, the stones of the building of the temple. And the Lord said here in verse
2, Do you see all these things? Verily I said to you, there shall
not be left here one stone upon another. that shall not be thrown
down. And the disciples asked him three
questions in verse three. And as he sat upon the Mount
of Olives, his disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell
us, number one, when shall these things be? When shall this temple,
with all of its beautiful stones, be thrown down? When shall this
city be destroyed? That's the first question. And
they ask him the second question, and what shall be the sign of
thy coming? Either the coming to destroy
this temple, which he did in AD 70 through the armies of Rome. And they ask him the third question,
and of the end of the world. Three questions. I'm not concerned
with the first question. If you want to read the destruction
of Jerusalem, That sad account, you can find it in Josephus.
I've read it. It's very dreadful to read. Upwards
of a million people were in that city when Titus came in with
his soldiers and many of them were slaughtered. They were hauled
off to other countries and abused and used for slaves. I'm interested
mainly here in this last question, the end of the world. The judgment
and the end of the world. Here in verse 37, look in verse
37. He makes a statement here, as
in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the coming of the Son
of Man. The coming of the Son of Man.
And here in verse 31, compare what he said here. Then shall
appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then shall
all the tribes of the earth mourn, And they shall see the Son of
Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels
with the great sound of a trumpet. And they shall gather together
his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the
other." And here in the 25th chapter in verse 31, compare
that to this. Chapter 25 in verse 31. When
the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels
with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory, and
before Him shall be gathered all nations, and He shall divide
them one from the other, as the shepherd divided his sheep from
the goats." And you can compare that passage with 2 Thessalonians
chapter 1 and verse 7. where the Lord Jesus Christ shall
be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming
fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey
not the gospel." The reason I wanted to read these scriptures in comparison
of them was because when you read the commentators, all of
them are in agreement that Matthew chapter 24 answers these three
questions that I told you about at the beginning. When is this
city going to be destroyed? What's the sign of your coming
and the end of the world? The Lord answers all three of
these questions in these two chapters, but he mingles them
together. It's difficult to understand
his answers in specific detail. But I think as we look at this,
it's very easy to see that some of these passages is definitely
speaking Not of the destruction of the city of Jerusalem, but
of the end of time. Of the end of time. The judgment
at the end of time. And he says here, as the days
of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. And I read that first passage
in Luke 17. Likewise also, as it was in the
days of Lot, even thus Shall it be in the day of the coming
of the Son of Man when He is revealed? So there is a parallel. When we consider the last days
of this world, there is definitely a parallel between the last days
before the coming of Christ and the days of Noah and the days
of Lot. If we can find out when the judgment
came and why the judgment came upon those two societies, then
it can help us to better understand when and why the last judgment
is coming upon our society. Now, let's consider this terrible
judgment, these terrible judgments that came not upon the old world,
but upon Sodom and Gomorrah. First of all, when did it come? And why did it come? Let's see
if we can look in the scripture and answer that question. And
the answer, obviously, is this, and I'll quote some scripture
to prove that. The judgment came upon the old world just as it
came upon the society of Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of
the plains when those societies, when the world in general and
as a whole, gave itself over to open and profane sins, and
not until then. God would have been just and
destroyed the world when Adam and Eve sinned, but He didn't.
And for hundreds of years He could destroy the world and been
just and do it so, but He didn't. He did not destroy the old world
or Sodom and Gomorrah until they were given over to open and profane
sins. Listen to Genesis chapter 6.
I invite you over there sometime to read that at your leisure.
But it was said that God saw that the wickedness of men was
great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of
his heart was only evil continually. Now we find an element of that
in us. I realize that. There is a sense
in which you can apply that passage to every unregenerated man, because
he has no good thoughts. He has no good thoughts towards
God or towards himself. But this applies specifically
to the generation of Noah's family, because those wicked imaginations
that they had, they didn't subdue those imaginations. They turned them loose, and they
sought to fulfill in practice what they were imagining in their
hearts. Now listen to the very next verse.
And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt. For all flesh had corrupted his
way upon the earth. All flesh had decayed. Not just the heart, not just
the thoughts and the imagination. But the flesh, all flesh, there
was a general and really a thorough rot within that society. A rot morally and a rot spiritually. And God saw this. And verse 11
tells us this. We read of the general end, and
really the definite end, when sin is not checked. We think
sin is not a bad thing sometimes, don't we? But let it go unchecked. Let these evil imaginations be
given way to and seek to perform what men's hearts imagine. And you know what that leads
to? It leads to violence. Unchecked sin leads to violence. This is what he says in verse
11. The earth was not only corrupt before God, The earth was filled
with violence. We'll see more of that in just
a few minutes. When did the judgment come upon the old world? Not
until, not until sin in society had gone unchecked and the lusts
of their hearts were practiced in their lives. Now listen to
me about Sodom. Listen to what the Lord says
about Sodom. The Lord turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah
into ashes and condemned them with an overthrow, making them
an example to those who should live ungodly. It was not only the ungodliness
of their heart, they lived it out in their life. Somebody said,
well, thinking it is just as bad as doing it. I know why we
say that, but it's not. It's not. I've thought about killing people.
Have you ever thought about killing somebody? You didn't do it, did
you? Aren't you glad you didn't do
it? Before God, yes, he sees the wickedness of the heart.
Before the law of God, yes. But I'm telling you, brothers
and sisters, in all reality, it's much worse. And when a man
holds it in, it's bad enough. But to let it loose and not to
restrain it is worse than ever. And Jude tells us this, that
they gave themselves over to fornication and going after strange
flesh. And that's a reference to the
homosexuality, the sodomy of their day. And here's what Peter
tells us of Lot's day. He tells us about the filthy
conversation of the wicked. And that word, conversation,
means more than just words. It means lifestyle. Their lifestyles,
their talk, and what they did were filthy. And he talks about
their unlawful deeds. And it was said that the men
of Sodom were wicked sinners before the Lord exceedingly. And these weren't just thoughts.
These weren't just imaginations that they were holding in, but
this became open and profane. And they weren't ashamed of it
either. They weren't ashamed of it. They did it right in the
face of Lot, that righteous man. There was no restraint with these
people. The scripture says, Peter says,
the Lord delivered just Lot. That's with a filthy conversation
of the wicked. And listen to this. for that
righteous man dwelling among them in sin and hearing vexed
his righteous soul with their unlawful deeds." How could he
have saw this? They were open with it. How could
he have heard their blasphemies and speak it against the God
of heaven? Speak in vulgar things about the sins of the flesh.
They were not ashamed of it. They could not blush. Their sins
had reached the apex. Open. Open. Listen to what Ezekiel
16 says of them. Behold, this was the iniquity
of Sodom. Pride, fullness of bread, abundance
of idleness was in her. Neither did she strengthen the
hands of the poor. They were haughty. They were
arrogant. They committed abominations before
me, saith the Lord, therefore I took them away as I saw fit."
This mortal, this spiritual rot had so infested these societies,
and there was a general and a great falling away among all these
societies, that there was not even ten people left in Sodom
and Gomorrah and all the cities of the plain. The Lord Himself
could not find ten people in that whole society. And there
was only eight people that were saved in Noah's day and entered
that ark. See how widespread sin was? It
was open and it was profane. And until it reached that point,
God with strain in His long-suffering is wrath. If the last days before
Christ's coming are like these, then what should you and I look
for? We should look for a moral rot in society. Not only in our communities,
but across the nation and across the world. A falling away from
the truths of God's Word, a leaving of the faith, and sinning as
their heart and the devil suggests to sin. And they won't be able
to be ashamed of it. They'll be hearty about it. They'll
brag about their sins. That's what we're to look for.
And when you see that in a society, know this. Know this. That judgment is near. It's near. This know also the
Apostle Paul said, that in the last day, Perilous times shall
come. That word perilous, it means
lawless. Dangerous times. There will be
no law to rule. It will be lawless. Every man
will do what his heart dictates for him to do. There will be
no restraint. Men will be lovers of their own selves, covetous,
boasters, proud, blasphemy, disobedient to parents. Unthankful, unholy,
without natural affection, truth-breakers, false accusers, high-minded,
heady, traitors, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Can
you imagine when these things reign in society? And there's
no restraint to these things. Paul said that's where it's coming
to in the last days. Just before God brings His judgment. As it was. in the days of Solomon
and Gomorrah. Are you alive and living in that
time? I don't know. I don't know. I don't think we've reached it
yet. We obviously haven't reached it yet. There's more than eight
souls here this morning. No, we haven't reached that yet.
Thank God we haven't reached that yet. But this is what's
to watch for. What is the signs of your coming and of the end
of the world as it was in the days of Noah and in the days
of Lot? That day shall not come, Paul
said, except there coming a falling away first. A falling away from
what? From this book. From the teachings
of this book. Watch for that. Oh, Bruce, we've
got churches all over. Yes, we have. We're a very religious
nation. Yes, we are. But how many believe
the doctrines, believe the teachings, of this word, a falling away
of morals, of decency, of character, a falling away. Because iniquity shall abound. That's what we're to watch for.
The love of many, is what it's called. The judgment of God came
upon most societies only after sin had gone unchecked. And they
had become open and profane and could not even blush. And you
and I have reason to believe that this is the condition the
world will be in just before the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ in church. There's the first thing then.
There's the first thing. The open and profane sin. Secondly,
consider this. As it was in the days of Noah
and Lot, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son
of Man. There must come a time when the
testimony of the church is not received, and the church loses
her influence in this world. You say, Bruce, why do you say
that? Because we see that in the days of Noah, and we see
that in the days of Lot. Noah lost his influence, if he
ever had any, in the world. That was the church in ancient
days. Lot was the church down in Sodom
and Gomorrah, and they both lost their influence. The scripture
tells us that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. What does that
mean? It means that Noah believed God,
and it was counted to him for righteousness. He not only was
a man who lived right, but he was a man who believed in the
righteousness of God that it could be given to you. He believed
that and he preached that. He became heir of the righteousness
which is by faith. He had an imputed righteousness
just like Abraham did. If you're going to preach righteousness,
how in the world could you preach righteousness without preaching
a righteousness that's imputed to us by faith? And that's what
he preached. But nobody believed him. Nobody
believed him. He preached for 120 years, and
as far as we know, nobody believed him, unless it was some member
of his family. What happened? There was no influence
upon the Word. Even God strove with man for
120 days, but nobody heard and believed the preaching of this
man. It was even worse in Lot's day.
Not only were they indifferent to the word, not only did they
not believe it, but the scripture says they mocked it. You can find this in Genesis
19. Remember when the angels came down and spake to Lot? And they said, Do you have any
sons here? Do you have any sons in the house? If you do, get up and go warn
them. Because we're going to destroy this place. And Lot went
to his sons-in-laws and said, get up and get out of here. We've
got to run because the Lord's going to destroy this place.
And remember their response to his message. He seemed to them
as one who mocked. They mocked him. As it was in
the days of Lot, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of
Man. When the time comes that none
are coming to faith in Christ by the preaching of the gospel,
but rather there is a mocking of the gospel and a mocking of
the promises of the gospel, then look out, because judgment is
near. It may be in an individual that
does this, or it may be in a nation, or it may be the world, but when
that condition is reached, look out. God's judgment is near. The Apostle Peter tells us in
the last days there would be mockers. There would be scoffers. And here's what they would be
saying. Where is the promise of His coming? And they said
that in a mocking way. Not in a doubtful way. But in
a mocking way. We've heard you fellas tell us
this. for 2,000 years. Well, where
is the promise of His coming anyway? Everything just goes
on as they were. Where is the promise of His coming?
And they reproach God because of His long-suffering. Why hasn't
He come yet? Because He's long-suffering to
us. He's still calling His people
out, isn't He? Oh, but they use the long-suffering of God to
mock God. Did you imagine this happening in Noah's day? For
120 years he pounded nails in that ark and pitched it and built
the ark. Judgment is coming. It's going
to rain. And all the scoffers, all the
mockers coming by. We've heard this for 120 years. And it hasn't happened yet. And
we don't believe it. You old fool, you're wasting
your time. You're labored in vain. No, a lot were faithful men.
They faithfully declared the testimony of God's truth as it
was revealed to them. But nobody believed it. And not
only that, but they mocked it. And when you and I see that,
brothers and sisters, in our society, nobody's coming to Christ. Nobody's being brought to repentance
through the preaching of the Word of God. But rather, they're
indifferent to it and mocking it and despising it and rejecting
it. That's when we know that as it was in the days of Noah
and Lot, we've reached that day. That's something to watch, isn't
it? Something to watch. Third thing is this. Here's something
else. As it was in the days of Noah and Lot, so also shall it
be in the coming of the Son of Man. The Church in the last days
will spend most of her energy Well, I hope I'm wrong about
this. I hope I'm wrong about that last point. I hope I'm wrong
about this point. But if it was like it was in
the days of Noah and Lot, then those who are living in those
times that's yet to come better set themselves because they're
going to find themselves spending most of their energy and most
of their time fighting against and standing against the wicked
culture That's what's going to happen. Poor Locke's homosexuality
came to his front door. Did it not? These angels had
taken human form and they come down there to check out the city
of Sodom. They came into Locke's house to eat with him and spend
the night. And there they were resting at the kitchen table
and talking about the things of the Lord. And they hear a
knock on the front door and they look outside and there's a mob.
And they're old men and young men. And what do they want? They said, bring out those two
pretty men that we saw come into your house that we may know them. Old men? Young men, the scripture
says the city came out. And Lot was so lost as to what
to do and how to handle the situation. He was so weary and so weak with
it all. Here's what he said. Let me bring
my two daughters after you and do with them as you will. Why would he have said that?
Then he wore out. His strength was almost gone,
fighting against this wicked and open and profane culture. He addressed them as brethren.
And tell you what he said? Brethren, do not so wickedly.
I've often wondered why Noah, after the flood, got drunk. Did
you ever wonder why he would do that? He got dog drunk. He got so drunk when his son
uncovered him in his tent, he didn't even know anything about
it. You know what I think happened to Noah? I think he was so wore
out. I mean, I think he stood against
the open and profane sins of his day, working, and finally,
when he was all over the place, man, he was so wore out, he just
got him a bottle of wine and got drunk and passed out. And I tell you, let's not be
so quick to judge Lot, and let's not be so quick to judge Noah,
because we may find ourselves there someday. We don't know what it is, much
do we, to have to stand against such open wickedness and profanity.
But we may. We may spend all our days and
all our nights and all our energy just standing against that open
and profane society. You guys come with us. And there
goes the professing church. Do you realize how many churches
in the United States right now, how many different denominations
are ordained homosexuals for the priesthood and the ministry?
Do you realize that? Why don't they stand against
it? They're tired of fighting. They're tired of fighting, so
they just give in. Here's something encouraging.
Fourthly, let me hurry on to this. Here's something that's
encouraging. And Peter, in the second chapter
of Peter, chapter two, he speaks of this and it's very encouraging
to you and to me and to that generation that will be living
when all this is going on that I've been describing to you.
Listen to what Peter says. And he's speaking to poor old
Lot, how discouraged and how vexed his soul was. And here's
what Peter said, the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out
of temptation and reserve the unjust until the day of judgment
to be punished. Isn't this encouraging? It's
encouraging to us now. How much more so will it be when
the church is living in that sad day? The Lord knows how to
deliver the godly out of temptation. He knows how. There hath no temptation taken
you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who
will not suffer you to be tempted, above that you are able to bear,
but will also with a temptation make a way for your escape, that
you may be able to bear. I love Hebrews chapter 2 and
verse 18. Speaking of the Lord Jesus, For
in that he himself has suffered, been tempted, he is able to secure. He's able to aid. He's able to
strengthen and deliver them that are tempted. So Peter says he
knows how. The Hebrew writer says he's able,
and Paul says he will. You can't ask for any more than
that can you? open and profane sin sets itself
against his church to drag her down. I tell you, the Lord is
there to hold her up and deliver her. And greater is he that's
in you than he that's in this world. And that'll be said in
the very last days, brothers and sisters, when the church
has to go through such an hour that Noah and Lot went through.
Greater is He that's in you than he that is in this world. I'm sure Noah and his family
was pressed hard, and poor Lot was weak that the angels had
to finally drag him out of Sodom. But he was delivered. He was
delivered. The Lord knows how. And if he has to, he'll revert
to dragging his people. He drug us to himself to start
with, didn't he? And if he has to, if push comes
to shove, he'll drag us along. He'll drag us from this temptation
of deceit. He knows how. He knows how. But he doesn't stop there. Peter
said, not only does he know how to deliver the godly out of temptation,
but he also knows something else. He knows how to reserve the unjust
to the day of judgment to be punished. I've often thought,
I've got a weird imagination. I don't know if you're like this
or not, but I tell you, I get to imagine things that sometimes
I'll just, it gets a little wild. But I've often wondered and imagined
the plots and the conniving of some people in Noah's day, just
in case, they thought, just in case this old car just wrapped,
how could I escape if a flood came? And boy, they started imagining
the high hills they would climb. They started imagining the logs
they could ride on and the ways they could escape. But you know
what Peter said? The Lord's able to reserve them. In other words, they can't escape
it when judgment comes. I used to read that he was a
rich man in some foreign country and had a lot of power. He was
big in the government or something, but he sort of believed in the
resurrection of the dead, and it was bothering him. He didn't
love it, but he wanted to find some way to escape it. And he
bought this huge, huge mountain and they dug a hole way back
in the center of the mountain. And he gave instructions that
when he died, they were to take him back in the center of that
mountain and pour him, pour a vault and put him in it and cement
the entrance in. That's the way that he figured
out that he'd escaped the judgment. And you know what happened? Now
this didn't have to happen. But this is what happened. There
was an earthquake, and it turned the mountain inside out, and
they said they found him and his vault laying down in the
valley. God knows how to reserve the
unjust to the day of judgment. He that keeps and delivers the
righteous, keeps and reserves the unjust to the day of judgment. be punished. Fifthly and lastly, let's consider
the judgment itself. As it was in the days before
the flood, they were eating, drinking, marrying, and giving
in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark, and knew
not until the flood came. took them all away. So shall it be also in the days
of the coming of the Son of Man. The judgment came and took them
all away. The flood took them all away. God sent a flood and took everybody
away. What does that tell us? It tells
us the judgment of God, when it finally comes, is irresistible. You cannot resist the judgment
of God. When it comes, it accomplishes
its desire. It's effectual. It tucked Him
all away. When God said, I will destroy
all flesh, then all flesh shall be destroyed. When he said there
won't be anybody survives that has the breath of life, he meant
that anybody that had the breath of life would not survive. He
took them all away. There's two words that you often
see in Genesis when he's talking about the judgment that's come
in the flood. One of them is this, the waters increased. And the second one, they prevailed. The waters increased and they
prevailed. The Lord sent the rain and you
see the creeks and you see the rivers begin to rise because
the waters had increased. But He didn't stop there. The
waters increased to the point that the oceans began to rise
and it flooded the beaches. And all the lowland lands and
the towns was flooded and prevailed over those places. But it didn't
stop there. The waters increased. And those little hills and those cities that were built
in high places, the waters began to rise upon them. But it didn't stop there. There
were men climbing the skyscrapers and up on the top floors looking
out over the waters. There were people climbing in
the country on the mountains for refuge. And what happened? The waters increased. The waters
increased. God looked at those deep fountains
underneath this earth, and when he looked at them, they broke
up. And the plates shifted down deep within this earth, and the
tsunamis came and washed people off of those skyscrapers and
those mighty Himalayas and the Rockies and the Great Alps. Waters prevailed. And they increased and they prevailed. And there was a poor wretch hanging
on to the top of the great Himalayas. And he peers out through the
darkness and he sees the ark. But his conscience smacks him
because he knows it's too late. The door has been shut. And seeing
the ark in the distance only torments him and reminds him,
I saw the ark when the door was opened, but I'm awed. Oh, and
then he looks towards heaven, but there's no light there. There's
nothing but darkness there. And he cries, what kind of a
dreadful God have I sinned against? And God speaks to the windows
of heaven, and he reaches his Sovereign omnipotent hand and
he breaks those windows and the clouds open up and pour out not
mercy but wrath. And one giant tsunami comes through
and the mountains are covered and all men are gone and all
creatures are gone and the flood has prevailed and taken them
all away. There remains nothing but silence. There's not a voice cursing God.
There's not a voice mocking God. There's not a voice rejecting
the gospel. There's not a voice crying, leave
us alone. We desire not the knowledge of
your ways. There's not an arm, there's not a leg, there's not
a body seeking to fulfill its wealth. God's judgment has taken
them all away. And all that you see left is
that arm. floating atop of those waves. And all that's left of the breath
of life is those that's found in that ark. Oh, brothers and sisters, that's
the only place that's safe from the judgment of God. If we're
not in the Lord Jesus Christ, the judgment of God will take
us away. He has no mercy. He will not
spare. Someone says if he spurred humanity
in this day, then he must go back and apologize to Noah and
Mark and their generation. How shall we escape if we neglect
so great a salvation? And in Sodom's day, Gomorrah's
day in the city of the plains, the Bible tells us in Ezekiel
16 that he took them away suddenly. It was a day just like this.
The sun had risen up on Sodom. Oh, it had come up in a beautiful
sunrise, and man was getting out of his bed and ready to go
to a wedding ceremony, ready to go build a house. And then
suddenly, without any warning, the fire of God fell from heaven. and consume them all, and tuck
them all away. Tuck them all away. The only
safety from the waters of God's wrath, the only safety from the
fires of God's wrath, is to be felled in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. God bless these words. Let's
pray.