As In The Days of Noah
“For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.”
Matthew 24:37-39
Every faithful Christian who boldly proclaims the gospel and seeks to honor the Lord in their life will attest to the combative unbelief and mockery they encounter. Those who are at enmity with God, spiritually dead, and ruled by their lusts laugh at the warnings of God’s impending judgment upon the world and the eternal torments of hell for all who reject His offer of salvation. They not only want nothing to do with the gospel, but they also want it eliminated from public discourse. This, of course, is not without precedence.
“Noah was a just man, perfect in his generation,” a man who “walked with God” (Gen. 6:9), “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Pet. 2:5); a man who, along with Enoch (who also “walked with God” [Gen. 5:21]), called sinners to repentance prior to the Flood. For 120 years they warned that God’s Spirit would not always be patient (Gen. 6:3). But the people in that ancient age—like the times in which we live—were not only characterized by unmitigated evil and rebellion against God, but also by a granite indifference and apathy concerning His judgment on sinners. Satanically empowered apostates of our day continue to deceive the world with false gospels—the Social Justice and Prosperity gospels being the most dominant. Predatory preachers promise spiritual life when in fact they are nothing more than empty “clouds without water . . . wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever” (Jude 14). But none of this should surprise us because Satan is “the god of this world (who) has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Cor. 4:4).
Jude describes false teachers as, “grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage” (v. 16). Even “Enoch . . . prophesied about these men also” (v. 14). Moreover, prior to the Flood, Enoch predicted Christ’s second coming judgment saying, “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him” (vv. 14-15).
Like those who mocked the warnings of Enoch and Noah, people today live in a fool’s paradise, enjoying the ordinary activities of life: “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage” (Matt. 24:38). Life’s seemingly endless cycles and rhythms eclipse any thought of God, judgment, or eternity. And like the antediluvian civilization that God destroyed through a worldwide flood because their “wickedness” was so great “that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5), God will execute judgment once again; “for the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah” (Matt. 24:37).
May we, like Noah and Enoch, walk obediently with God and be faithful preachers of righteousness, calling sinners to repent and avoid the certain flood of judgment that will come upon the ungodly when the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, returns in power and great glory.
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