What Only Noah Knew — Sandeep Poonen

Numbering Our Days and Taking Life Seriously

I thought from Psalm 90, verse 12, which we heard on Sunday, so teach us to number our days, that we may present to you a heart of wisdom. Expression, teach us to number our days. I don't know if you know an expression in the English language called, our days are numbered.

When you say that to somebody, his days are numbered, that means they don't have much time left. When you say it about a person who's going to get a layoff from a job, yeah, their days are numbered. That means there's a very clear time in which it's going to end.

And so when God asks us to number our days, we have to remember that we are not the result of that should be, we find out, we realize that our days are numbered, and that we have a short time on Earth left.

That should be what should come out of it. We shouldn't think about it and say, well, I'm 35. People are living all the way till 85. So I guess I'm a third of the way through. That's not what it means.

That's how the world will tell you, number your days. Well, I'm 35, so I'm going to retire when I'm 55, and I should have enough money to live till I'm 95. That's how the world tells us to number our days.

But God tells us tomorrow is not promised. So the result of us numbering our days must be a greater conviction that my days are numbered. There should be a greater sense in which I don't have much time left.

So I must take my life more seriously. And someone who knew their days were numbered was Noah. Noah was one who knew he didn't have much time left. The world was going to come to an end. And God told him to preach about the end of the world.

The Days of Noah and the Coming of the Son of Man

I don't know if he knew what it is, and he built this awkward-looking, bizarre thing called the Ark, which made no sense when he was building it. But he did that. And Jesus said that the last days will be like the days of Noah, where our days are numbered.

And I want to show you this verse in Matthew 24. Matthew 24 talks about Jesus talking about the days of Noah being numbered. Matthew 24 talks about the last days being like the days of Noah. And for the coming, verse 37 is where it talks about this.

For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. And here's what the days of Noah look like. Eating, drinking, marrying, giving in marriage, having children, homeschooling, educating, progressing in your job, retiring, saving up, and so on and so forth.

That was the days of Noah. We know that the days of Noah was extremely evil, and there was a lot of violence. But God, Jesus doesn't raise that when he talks about the days of Noah. What he talks about the days of Noah was, they were rather normal.

And yes, I understand that we are dealing with a weird time with the pandemic and things like that, which is also part of the last days, the rumors of wars and all kinds of birth pangs. But in another sense, it's also just very normal.

And for those of us who are Christians, who know that God is in control, and maybe we have secure jobs, or maybe we don't have that kind of traumatic experiences going on all the time, we can get so caught up with eating, and drinking, and marrying, and giving into marriage, and homeschooling, and raising children, and saving up for retirement, and all those wonderful things, not evil things.

But this is the word that I wanted to point out to you in verse 39. And they did not understand. They did not know. In my margin, it says they did not know. They did not know what? To me, they did not know God.

Knowing God as the One Essential Thing

So one thing that you got to know in life, the one thing you got to know in life is God. They didn't get to know that. They got to know all kinds of other things. I'm sure they were talking a lot on different subjects.

They had a lot of research, and they had a lot of conversations, and they had a lot of things, but they did not know. The Bible, Jesus didn't tell me what they did not know. Because in Jesus's mind, there was only one thing really to be known, and that was to know God.

And that was the one thing they didn't do. They didn't know God. They did a lot of other things. And so in our lives, we can do a lot of things, but if we don't know, it's worthless. And then you ask, what should I know?

Well, Jesus didn't need to explain it, but we know what it is. We need to know God. We need to know him more and more in a deeper and deeper way. And the tree of life and the tree of knowledge and good and evil, that's something that stood out to me about the tree of life and the tree of knowledge and good and evil.

Eve, Deception, and Simplicity of Devotion

2 Corinthians 11 .3, if you don't know it, you should know it. Everybody at NCCF should memorize 2 Corinthians 11 .3 so that we don't even need to look it up. It's such a foundational verse. It's so important because it tells us whether we are deceived or not, 2 Corinthians 11 .3.

We must know this just like we know John 3 .16. 2 Corinthians 11 .3. For I am afraid as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness. Your minds will be led astray from a simplicity and purity of devotion to Jesus Christ.

This tells me the challenge that Eve faced when she was in the garden. When she was in the garden, this is what she faced. You know what I used to always think? I used to always think that Eve and the serpent had this conversation.

You know, the conversation that serpent and Eve had in Genesis chapter three. I always thought that that conversation happened in front of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But this verse tells me something different.

This verse tells me that the serpent led Eve astray from the tree of life, which the tree of life is simplicity and purity of devotion to Jesus. But as the serpent deceived Eve, what I got from that was Eve was standing in front of the tree of life.

She was reaching for the tree of life. And the serpent was not a snake back then. It may have been standing on two legs, who knows what it was. But the serpent came in front of that tree of life and said, oh, hold on, hold on, hold on.

Time out, time out, time out. Before you eat that, have you considered that tree of knowledge of good and evil? And the serpent led Eve astray to the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And redirected Eve's attention to the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

The reason that struck me was because it taught me that Eve was more sincere than I gave her credit for. And Eve was much more like me than I thought she was. She wasn't this woman who was just so attracted to the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

No, she was at the tree of life, seeking to know God. And then the serpent slips in and distracts her. With what? Not adultery, not with evil things, all kinds of crazy sins. But with the knowledge of good and the knowledge of evil.

Distraction Through Prophecy and Conspiracy

And I wanna say one thing about that, the knowledge of evil. Dear brothers and sisters, let's be careful of what we listen to. You know, in this time and day and age, there's a lot of rampant comments and videos and statements about prophecy.

What if I were to tell you that there is a prophet who prophesied something back in January or back in August of last year about the pandemic? Last August, it's on YouTube. There's this video of this man who prophesied last August.

You can look at the date about a global pandemic coming in February and March to the world. Are you intrigued? Okay. And then the person also prophesied in July of this year that there was gonna be a lot of confusion around the elections in November.

And that the presidents wouldn't wanna, there'd be a lot of turmoil whether voting is real and this and that. And when did they prophesy that? In July, four months before. That's interesting, same prophet.

Said two remarkable things. And now guess what? This prophet is prophesying that there's gonna be a massive earthquake that's gonna destroy the Bay Area in December. What are you gonna do about it? Are you gonna go and start listening to that person?

Are you wanna know more about evil? You wanna know more about the evil that's coming? I tell you, it sucks you in. We all wanna go and find out who that, I don't know who, I was making up this thing. I don't know anybody who's done this.

These things are happening to so many people. So many people are getting sucked into things like this. We're like, let's go listen to this. And I'll tell you what will happen. You'll spend the next 20 hours discussing this.

And this is what Eve did. This is what the serpent did. And this is what people in Noah's time did. They were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in a marriage and talking about conspiracy theories and talking about, wow, did you see how that happened?

This happened, that happened. And they didn't know the one thing that they were supposed to know, which was God. So let's not think that this tree of knowledge and good and evil is such a evil tree that we're all gonna know it.

The Devil's Deception and Our Need for Focus

The serpent deceived Eve. And in the same way, let's not think we're that smart. Dear brothers and sisters, we're about 45, I'm 45 years old. 45, yeah, I'm 45, I'm gonna be 46 soon. I'm 45 years old. I think I'm pretty smart.

I think I'm pretty smart because I haven't lived for 45 years. Do you know how long the devil has been dealing with human beings? 6 ,000 years. I mean, he's seen every version of me times 100. He can fool me like this.

He's been deceiving for centuries. He even tried to deceive Jesus. That's how bold he is. That's how shameless he is. We are toys in his hands. And it says about the devil that he's wiser than Daniel.

That's incredible giftedness that God gave him. And he's using it all for evil. Do we think that we're just gonna be able to just recognize all his schemes? We won't, unless we stay laser focused on knowing just one thing, knowing God.

That's our only hope. You look slightly to the left, you look slightly to the right. Good theology, good doctrine, good practices, good homeschool things, good lifestyles, good all kinds of things. And dear brothers and sisters, I'm talking to you as one who was in the working world.

I got my job. I have to keep my skills current. I have to keep learning security. I have to keep reading things in my field. And I'm doing all of that. I spend hours at work every day, just like you all.

I also am helping homeschooling my children in this pandemic period. I'm taking care of my family. I've got a lot of daily activities just like you. I'm not deserting any of them. But amidst all of those things, we have to stay reminding ourselves, Lord, I want to know one thing.

I want to know one thing. I want to make one thing known. And I get distracted just like you. I get pulled away to the other side just like you. And these are the words of Paul in 2 Corinthians 11, 3.

Work, Responsibility, and Guarding Free Time

Don't come back, Sandeep, come back to the tree of life. Come back, keep getting distracted. Not by your work commitments. God told us to take care of our work commitments. I want to, allow me to go a few minutes extra.

Do you know what Adam was doing for six days in the garden before there was sin? Before there was sin in Genesis chapter two, it says that God put Adam in the garden to cultivate the garden. He didn't have a five-day work week, he had a six-day work week.

This is in the garden of Eden before sin. So work is very good. Work was ordained by God. This is Genesis chapter two, we can read it. God gave Adam a task for six days, cultivate and tend to the garden.

So we don't need to despise our work. We don't need to despise the fact that we have to go into work and things like that. For six days, that's what Adam was asked to do in a perfect world before there was sin.

But yet, let us guard our free time. Let's gather the little fragments. Let us number our days. And no, Lord, our days are numbered. Let me not get sucked into this theory, this conspiracy theory, this video.

False Prophets and End-Times Deception

And these prophecies are gonna abound. In the last days, many will come and say, here's the Christ, here's the Christ, here's the Christ. This is happening, the Lord told me this. And you don't think the devil will give some information to prove that these false prophets are right, by making some of these videos come to be true?

What I shared as an example was a fake example. But do we think we'll get sucked into that? Do you think the devil cannot fake it and suck us in into these? And there are many Christians who are getting caught up with that.

This has been going on for decades, if not centuries. And the devil is a masterful deceiver. So, dear brothers and sisters, let's be laser focused on knowing God. Let's come back to the tree of life. Stand before the tree.

And as you reach up for the tree of knowledge, as you reach up for the tree of life, here comes the serpent. Open your eyes, be aware of him. And say, be gone. Get away from me, Satan. The Lord has taught me that I must worship you and serve you only.

Returning to the Tree of Life and Knowing God

The devil will try any trick. He'll even offer you all the kingdoms of the world and its glory. He'll show you 10 prophecies that have come true. And he says, keep listening to this guy. 11th, 12th, 13th.

Do anything except reach out of the tree of knowledge. Reach out of the tree of life. He's got a whole host of fruit out of the knowledge of good and evil that's so enjoyable, so desirable. Dear brothers and sisters, this is not a word of condemnation.

This is a word of calling you back. Come back. Even if your hands are full of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, God says, come, I'll wash your hands clean in the blood of Jesus. Come back to the tree of life.

Stand before that tree. And let's not make that mistake that Eve made. Let's say, Lord, I wanna know you. I wanna know you as more and more precious. I wanna know you as more and more valuable. Day after day.

And let's keep calling out that message like in the days of Noah. In your ordinary lives of eating and drinking and going to work and all of that. Nothing wrong with that. But did you know? Did you know?

Did you know God? That's our hope. That's what we'll keep reminding ourselves. Lord, I wanna know you. And I want to encourage others to know you too.