“How To Have Spiritual Stability In The Last Days”
Luke 17:26-30; Genesis 6:1-9
Introduction:
a. We live in the last days, according to the Bible. They have been prophesied and have now arrived with all of its wickedness and discouragement.
1. Times of Great Wickedness
2. Times of Great Spiritual Attack
3. Times of Great Discouragement
b. There has never been a time like this, even in the days of Noah and Lot, when the Lord brought about the destruction of the wicked. (I heard a man this morning on radio say that “it is not as bad now as it was then.”)
1. No society has ever faced what we face today.
2. Noah saw eating, drinking, marrying, giving in marriage.
3. Lot saw eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building, and sodomy
4. BUT, we have TV, magazines, billboards, Wal-marts, etc.
a) This is the most wicked generation that has ever lived!
b) It is the most difficult time for God’s people to be right and stay right, c) BUT God has an answer for out times if we are willing to do what is right.
As in the Days of Noah…
a. Noah’s Day Was Characterized By Great Spiritual Compromise - Genesis 6:2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
b. Noah’s Day Was Characterized By Great Sin - Genesis 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
 | 2 Timothy 3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. |
| 2 Timothy 3:13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. |
c. Noah’s Day Was Characterized By Great Violence - Genesis 6:13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
d. Noah’s Day Was Characterized By Great Rejection And Ridicule - 2 Peter 2:5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
e. Noah’s Day Was Characterized By Great Apathy - Genesis 7:1, 4, 16 And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation….For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth….And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.
f. Noah’s Day Was Characterized By Great Discouragement - Genesis 6:3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
g. Noah’s Day Was Characterized By Great Loneliness - Genesis 7:13 In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; (There will not be many today either.)
h. Noah’s Day Was Characterized By Great Falling Away - Genesis 6:1-2 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. (This was the godly line)
| Genesis 19:7 And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. |
| 2 Thessalonians 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; |
1. More People Profess Salvation And Less Attend Church
2. Doctrinal Apostasy Has Become The Rule Of The Day
3. Discouragement Has Ravaged The Ranks Of The Redeemed
4. Sinfulness Has Permeated The Church House
5. There seemingly Is No Clear Definition Of Right And Wrong
Consider Noah…
1. Noah Was Saved – Noah Was Just (Spiritual Stability Comes Through Assurance Of Salvation)
a. If you are not saved, you are blinded – 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
b. If you are not saved, you will be deluded - 2 Thessalonians 2:8-12 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
2. Noah Lived For God – Noah Was Perfect In His Generations (Spiritual Stability Comes Through Consecration And Holiness)
a. Separate From Sin - 1 Thessalonians 5:22 Abstain from all appearance of evil.
b. Separate From Compromise - 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
c. Separate From Imaginations - 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
3. Noah Was Steadfast – Noah Walked With God (Spiritual Stability Comes Through A Resolved Heart)
a. Steadfast In Service - 1 Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
| 1 Corinthians 4:2 Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. |
b. Steadfast In Faith - Hebrews 3:14-15 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
| Hebrews 6:19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; |
c. Steadfast In Resistance - 1 Peter 5:8-9 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
d. Steadfast In Fellowship - 3 John 1:5 Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren, and to strangers;
e. Steadfast Indefinitely (I came here to stay!) - Revelation 2:10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.