The Last Days Will Be Like Noah's Days — Zac Poonen

Christ’s Return and the Call to Look Up

We've been thinking about this theme of the last days and Christ's return. So there are a number of passages in the Gospels particularly Matthew and Luke where Jesus spoke about certain things in relation to that and For the particular time in which we are living when we see all the things that happening around the world.

I Think of one verse which we can begin with thinking. Please turn with me to Luke's gospel in chapter 21. Luke's gospel chapter 21 It says here that in these days Luke 21 verse 26 men will faint from fear and The expectation of the things which are coming upon the world for the powers of the heavens will be shaken so That's I mean men Afraid of the things that are coming upon the world you begin to see that already nowadays.

Maybe they haven't started painting yet. Maybe in some places they have But fear as to what's gonna happen when's all this gonna end and at that time That's where the time where We need to be like Jesus said a light in the midst of the darkness.

We don't hide our light under the under a bed. But Let it shine bright for everyone to see. And what does that mean in the next verse it says in verse 28 When these things begin to take place because soon after this it says in verse 27 You'll see the Son of Man coming in a cloud approaching the return of Christ but Don't wait for that.

When these things begin to take place, what is when you begin to see men fainting from fear? Straighten up. Don't bend down. Looking down at the things of earth. Straighten up and lift up your heads to the heavens.

In other words The meaning is not just physically lifting up our heads, but it in our heart. Our vision is going to be up More than down while the whole world Is looking down at the things it says here the things that are happening in the world verse 26.

In the midst of it are a group of people who love Jesus whose heart and mind is set on the things above and I really believe. This is a time when many believers are being tested as To where their heart is set, you know, we've read many times in Colossians 3 if you are risen with Christ Set your mind on the things that are above and not on the things of this earth.

But we probably never had much of an opportunity to Have that tested. But now we have the opportunity For that to be tested to see whether and each individual I cannot judge for you. Because I do not know where your mind is set most of the time but I know where mind it mind is when I get up in the morning and What I'm thinking out we have to be concerned about our Earthly affairs, especially those who have small children.

They could be sick. They are hungry they need to be fed and we need to think of providing for them all that is essential and That is perfectly right. But in the midst of all that that's part of our responsibility.

It's towards God if God's given me children. Then it's part of my responsibility towards God to move to feed them clothe them educate them bring them up properly till they're able to Stand on their own feet.

That's part of a divine calling. There's nothing wrong in that. But I'm not to be so occupied with earthly things that my wine mind gets weighed down. Weighed down With it's like a drunken man. The Bible speaks about that in the last days people will be in their mind.

So weighed down that they'd be like drunken people who a Drunk is not looking up to heaven. He's looking down all the time and You know, I've often mentioned the fact that God created Animals on the sixth day many people don't know that all the rest of the fish and birds and all were in other days, but animals were created on the.

The fish were created on the fifth day the animals were created on the sixth day the first part of the day from the same dust. That God picked up and made man. The only difference was that God Created the animals by just a word of his mouth.

And all the animals all the thousands and thousands of different creatures just came into existence but man. He did not create with just a word saying let a man be made like let a lion be made. No, he took dust and made it as it were and God doesn't have hands.

But the nearest we can think of God's personal touch out of the dust of the ground. It says he made a man. That means he first made the man the body and then he breathed into him that is also on the sixth day and Man became a living soul.

Man got a spirit which the animals didn't have but both men and Animals were both made on the sixth day from the same dust to teach us one lesson. That if you don't live by the spirit that God breathed into us.

You will end up being like the animals. The only difference between Adam and those animals was that God breathed into Adam no other difference. Many of those animals had eyes and legs and hands and a heart and a kidney and all types of internal organs just like man and Some of those monkeys look like man, too but there was one big difference and that was God breathed into man and That made man look up.

Not down if you look at every animal on earth. They're always looking down whether it's a cow or a dog or you look at any animal. They're looking down most of the time. You never see an animal looking up.

They don't have a calling to look up. But then we see so many men and human and women also then their heart. They're always looking down worried about the things on this earth now to be Responsible as parents and to do our work on this earth for our family and in our job, that's Absolutely important if you're a true Christian.

You'll be a very good father a very good mother a very good brother and sister and a very good worker in your office or your Factory or wherever you work. If you are not that then we are a failure but along with all that are Unlike the people in the world.

Our mind is not occupied only with that in the midst of all that we do that with our heart and mind set on the things above. It's very very important that we never lose that upward vision. Otherwise, you know, it says here when these things begin to take place straighten up.

Why straighten up? Because most people are looking down. The Lord says you my disciples should not be looking down like that worried. What's gonna happen worried? Straighten up and lift up your heads.

Expecting the Lord’s Coming

Because Christ is coming back. So we especially in these days we Lift up our heads. Expecting the Lord to come. Is it right for us to expect the Lord to come in our lifetime? I'll tell you I Was born again 60 years ago it's more than 60 61 now and All these years.

I'll tell you honestly, I have never Expected that I'm gonna die. I Say I'm gonna see the Lord coming. I Expect that I've always expected that right from the time. I was born again. And I shall see the Lord face to face when he comes.

I'm not prophesying anything. Please don't misunderstand me. I'll show you from Scripture and that is the right attitude to have turn with me to one Thessalonians in chapter 4. That's where I learned it from.

I learned it from Paul. Paul had this attitude that he would see Christ in his lifetime coming back see one Thessalonians chapter 4. It says here in one Thessalonians chapter 4 is speaking about the Lord's coming.

We who are verse 1 Thessalonians in chapter 4 and verse 15. This we say to you by the Word of the Lord. Remember, this is the Word of the Lord. We who are alive notice the word we. He's not saying those who are alive.

If he says those who are alive, then we can understand that somebody is talking about somebody else. We all you include yourself as One of those who's going to be alive when Christ comes. Yes. If you had asked him just when he wrote that letter.

Hey, listen Paul, you said we who are alive you did you believe that you're gonna be alive when Christ comes. He's absolutely. And I remain until we who will remain until the coming of the Lord Will not be taken up before those who are dead.

We'll go up together. And the Lord will ascend and we're 17 we again we who are alive. Not those who are alive. When we talk about other people we don't say we. We say those all never said those. Inspired by the Holy Spirit.

He said we so that's where I learned that all my life I have to have the attitude that I might. The grave is not my goal. You know, we sing that in One of our songs the sky not the grave is our goal. Yeah, so.

But later on in his life when he was about 66 of 67 years old He writes his last letter 2nd Timothy and now see what he says in 2nd Timothy in chapter 4. He says in verse 6 The time of my departure has come.

I fought a good fight. I finished my course. 2nd Timothy 4 verse 6 7 and 8 and you say hey Paul I Thought you were gonna be alive till the Lord comes. No now the Lord has shown me. The time of my departure has come and so I'm not gonna be alive till the Lord comes.

The Lord's gonna take me home and I finished my course. And appointed number of days God set for me. I've kept the faith. I did not deny the faith. I kept fought a good fight all these years and now there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness Which the Lord will reward me in that day.

In that day, I'll come out of the grave. Paul says I won't be alive so when do we decide that We're not going to be alive when the Lord specifically shows us that you're not going to be alive. Now if the Lord hasn't specifically shown that to you anybody even if you're a hundred years old Say the sky not the grave is my goal.

Redemption from Sin and Walking Upright

So we have to look up all the time like Jesus said and Not be looking down and let's turn now to a verse I want to show you from the book of Leviticus. It's a very interesting verse. That's been a blessing to me for I Think more than 55 years more than 55 years when I first studied the Bible as a young man in the Navy.

I Read this verse and I've never forgotten it. It challenged me then and it challenges me today you know the Old Testament redemption from Egypt is a picture of our redemption from sin and When they got out of the slavery of Pharaoh, it's like are getting out of the slavery of Satan and when they came through the waters of the Red Sea that baptism is a picture of our water baptism and coming out into Canaan's land in the land of victory and Here the Lord says in Leviticus 26 verse 13.

I am the Lord your God Who brought you out of the land of Egypt you can say? Applied to today. I'm the Lord your God your heavenly father who brought you out of slavery to Satan and So you don't be their slave.

So you don't be a slave of sin and I broke The bars of the yoke of sin. I broke it on the cross and through my resurrection so that from now onwards you'll walk erect. Or upright as the King James Version says upright never bent down.

Boy that encouraged me more than 55 years ago, and I read it and I say Lord. I never want to forget it you delivered me from the slavery of sin so that I'll never be bent down in discouragement and gloom and Know that anything happened.

I'm gonna walk upright with my head held up because I'm not an animal. Animals put their head down. God has made me from the same dust, but he breathed into me the Holy Spirit you see. It was Jesus out there in the beginning.

The second person of the Trinity who breathed into Adam don't forget that Jesus breathed into Adam and made him a living soul. The same Jesus when he came to earth we read in John chapter 20 in John's Gospel chapter 20.

He was among his disciples and we read there in John chapter 20 he came into the midst of his disciples verse 21, and he said peace be to you and then It says here in verse 22 when he said that he breathed on them and Said receive the Holy Spirit.

4 ,000 years earlier. When Jesus breathed on Adam in the Garden of Eden He said receive your spirit your human spirit. Which will make you a living soul. Not a dead soul a living soul, which is in touch with God.

Living means spiritually living. God breathed Jesus breathed into Adam and Gave him a spirit a human spirit, and that's why today man is spirit soul and body. Soul is our mind and our emotions. But the spirit is what has our conscience the deepest part of us which contacts God.

Animals don't have that. They don't have a conscience. They can't contact with God. Jesus breathed a human spirit into Adam and Now on his disciples he breathed the Holy Spirit that's the new covenant where he breathed into us and Gave us the Holy Spirit and.

And that's why we're not gonna live like the animals with our face down to the ground we're gonna look up. We've been called to walk erect not Looking down never. I Want you to remember this dear brothers and sisters as we approach the end of time.

Fearlessness in the Last Days

It's not gonna be easier as we approach the end. It's gonna be more and more difficult. Because Jesus said turn with me to another verse. I'm not trying to Picture a very dismal future. No. The future is as bright as the promises of God.

It's a beautiful expression. I don't know whether you've heard it. The future is as bright as the promises of God who said I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. I will be with you. I will make you more than a conqueror.

Neither death nor persecution nor sword nor peril nothing will separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. So we don't fear anything. You know that well-known verse from Isaiah 8. Verse 12 and 13 the Living Bible says Isaiah 8 verse 12 and 13 Living Bible if you fear God.

You need fear nothing else. Nothing. No person no event. No circumstance. No pandemic. Nothing means nothing. Nothing means zero. If you fear God you need fear nothing else. If you don't fear God and fear means reverence God.

If you don't have a reverence for God. Then you better fear all the other things that are going to happen to you and to the rest of the world. But if God is the one you fear and reverence. You don't have to fear anything else because he's your father.

So here it says in Matthew 24. When he said some of these things, you know, they asked him what's going to be the sign of your return? He said first of all verse 4 don't let anybody deceive you. That's one of the things we got to be very careful about because there's a lot of deception going on in the last days a False gospel, I'll come to that in a moment.

Many will come to say I am the Christ and will mislead many. Read that carefully. Matthew 24 verse 5. It's not that somebody comes and says I am Jesus Christ. You're not gonna believe that. Nobody will believe that.

Read it like this. Many will come in Jesus name and say that Jesus is the Christ understood. They're not going to say they themselves are the Christ. They're going to come in Jesus name and say Jesus is the Christ.

Jesus is saying many will come in and remember think Jesus saying. Many will come in my name and say I am that is Jesus is the Christ. That's the meaning of that sentence and We have lots of people today saying yeah, Jesus is the Christ and they deceive people.

If they took the name of some other heathen God, you can't deceive Christians. Impossible Christians are deceived when somebody comes saying yeah, Jesus is the Christ. Of course, I believe he's the son of God and We trust him.

He's the one who died for the sins of the world. You think the devil doesn't believe all that you're gonna ask the devil. Do you believe Jesus son of God? Of course, you believe he died for the sins of the world and rose again.

Of course, you believe is coming back. Of course these things mean nothing. So but he says there'll be many many things. Rumors of wars and you know, it says you're about famines and earthquakes and all worse heaven.

See to it. Look at this word in the middle of verse 6. So we'll take that word to your heart. Make sure you don't get frightened. Did you hear that? Make sure you don't get frightened. Because these things have to take place before the end.

Isn't it good to have a warning. About things that are coming. If you're warned about something you're gonna be prepared for it. It's when you don't get a warning that you get a shock. Hey, I didn't know that was coming.

But the Lord has warned us. You read Matthew 24 you read Luke 17 read Luke 21 particularly these three chapters of the Lord's warns about his Coming and don't be frightened. Lift up your head. I call I called you out of sin so that you can walk erect.

Birth Pains and the Days of Noah

Please remember these words and Then it says when it says there'll be famines and earthquakes and shortage of food. So many people dying. I Told you in Revelation it speaks about a time in the future when one-third of humanity will die.

It's some type of pandemic worse than what we are seeing today. And today people get disturbed when they hear that 1 million people are sick or a hundred thousand people died in the last one month just of this one sickness.

Well, wait till the world hears one day Over the internet or the television that one-third of humanity has died. Don't be frightened. It's all written in Scripture. God will never forsake his own. He's still on the throne.

There's a beautiful song God is still on the throne and he will remember his own though trials may press us and burdens distress us. He never will leave us alone. The song that I Sing often. It's a little chorus.

You should learn it and sing it. God is still on the throne. He will remember his own. Yeah, look if you don't know the words look it up on the internet and learn it just the chorus. You'll never forsake his own.

It's something we can sing to ourselves. You know, the Word of God is what strengthens us and then it says here and we're saved. This is what I want to show you. These are just the beginning of Sorrows.

They're gonna be many more there's a lot more and it says here birth fangs. Yeah women know this. That before they deliver a baby they go through what is called birth pains. Tremendous pain. I Heard women who say they feel like dying.

Because the pain is so great when they have to deliver the baby crying out in pain. But at the end of it all They smiling at happiness because a baby is born so that's the picture Jesus uses of the last days both pains because a new world is going to be created by God and new heavens on a new earth and Jesus is gonna establish his kingdom.

It's like a birth of a completely new world and There had to be some birth pains before that. But in those days verse 11, there'll be many false prophets man. First of all verse 10 many will fall away.

They'll fall away they won't deny that Jesus is the Christ. You don't have to fall away by saying Jesus is not a Christ. You can fall away with the love of money. You can fall away by watching pornography.

Definitely, you know, it says here. Jesus says the last days will be in verse 37 Matthew 24 37. The coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. He repeated that again in Luke's gospel also.

Where he said in Luke 17 about the same thing. Because just like in the days of Noah they were Eating verse 38 and drinking and marrying in man giving in marriage and suddenly one day Noah entered the ark.

It would be like that in the day of the Son of Man and The Lord comes two will be in the field one will be taken the other will be left. Two women will be at the middle one will be taken the other will be left.

So he reminds us of the days of Noah and If you turn back to the days of Noah There were two things that characterized the days of Noah which we see today. Turn with me to Genesis in chapter 6. One of the things that's mentioned here is That the earth was filled with violence verse 11.

Genesis 6 verse 11 in the days of Noah the earth was corrupt in the sight of God and filled with violence. You know what violence means murders. Terrorism. Kidnapping little children Was sexual sin. Kidnapping for selling little girls to be prostitutes and Violence murder terrorism wars wars between nations and all types of evil ways in which man discovers to kill one another.

The earth is filled with violence and the earth was corrupt in God's eyes and it's an amazing word here in verse 6. If you ever thought of this verse, it's an amazing verse to me. Genesis 6 6 the Lord was sorry.

He was sad. That he made man on the earth and it grieved him in his heart. You know the difference between somebody being angry and somebody being sad. If a good father sees his Son go astray or his daughter go astray.

Not really angry. It grieves him in his heart and he's sad. God is not angry with his children. He's angry with the wicked. The Bible says he's angry with evil people, but with his children. Those who have received him.

He's sad When he sees them like animals looking down. He's not angry When he sees a worldly minded believer. God is not sad. God is not angry. He's sad. Look at that son of mine just like you would be concerned if your son was wayward.

Wasting his money wasting his life. When he could be productive and useful on On earth instead of that Living wasting his time and money on useless things. You'd feel sad as a father or mother. God is a father and mother and he feels sad.

He's not angry. I often have to tell believers that don't think God's angry with you, but he's terribly sad when the way the way you behave. And it says here the Lord was sad and it grieved him in his heart and Remember, this is immediately before he destroyed the world.

For their sin. He had earlier said in verse 3. I'm going to give man a hundred and twenty years and in those hundred and twenty years Nobody repented. Just Noah and his family and the Lord was sad. That the people were going out of violence and evil and one of the sins mentioned in those days.

Listen to this. Violence was one of the primary sins of the loss of Noah and is true in the last days. People hating one another and hurting one another. And even among believers hurting one another and the other sin was sexual sin.

Sexual Sin and the Judgment of God

It says here in Genesis 6 verse 1 in those days when daughters were born to men to human beings. The sons of God. Now whenever the Bible speaks about the sons of God. It's referring to the direct creation of God.

All of us are not the direct creation of God. We were born through our parents. Holy Adam Was a direct creation of God. Adam and Eve. So Adam is called a son of God in the last verse of Luke chapter 3.

By the genealogy of Jesus comes because he was a direct creation of God. Anything directly created by God is called a son of God if that's the language created by God. Let's say those who were created directly by God and refers to the angels.

Here is referring to the angels. You read in the book of Job about these sons of God are the angels so in those days the angels some of the angels in heaven saw. Looked at the daughters of men. There were many beautiful girls in the days of Noah.

It's gonna be true in the last days many beautiful girls who know how to beautify themselves in numerous ways and They these angels. Now they can't the Bible said these. Jesus said that when somebody asked Jesus.

You know a man had seven brothers and he died and who's gonna marry is. Each of the brothers had their wife one his wife because that is a law your brother dies. You got to marry his wife. All seven had them one by one and they all died.

So this man asked Jesus whose wife is she going to be in the resurrection and Jesus said in the resurrection. There is no marriage. There's no sex and marriage in heaven. They'll be like the angels. He said angels don't marry.

Jesus said that. But here we read the angels saw the daughters of men and they took wives. How is that? They could not do and they could not have sex with these girls. They possessed men. They lusted.

Angels can lust and They lusted after these pretty girls and they possessed men. Men became demon-possessed and then those angels could satisfy that lust through a man. Just like they possess men to do evil and they satisfy the lust to do evil.

They satisfy their lust to murder people. They satisfy their lust to hurt people. They can't do it directly they have to possess a person and they possess these men and Satisfy their lust with pretty girls that they saw and the Lord saw it and he was angry With the wicked and he said my spirit will not strive with man forever.

I'm going to punish him. So what is it that made the Lord say that? Perverted sexual sin. Unnatural sex. That's unnatural what happened there in verse 2. Whatever it was they did and the Lord was angry and that's going to be one of the characteristics of the last days.

Not only violence, but unnatural sexual sin not normal marriage. Between man and woman which is very sacred in God's eyes. Do you know that marriage is very sacred in God's eyes? When God created Adam he created Him Adam and Eve with the function to be able to produce children through each other and he said be fruitful and multiply.

That is saying you must have children. You must have the normal intimate relationship and have children and it says God looked at it in Genesis 131. He said it is very good. The intimate relationship in marriage is very good.

God says that in Genesis 131. There's nothing bad about it. But when it goes outside marriage. Or in some unnatural way it is very bad. It's evil. It's corrupt and that's one of the things that made God judge the world in Noah's time and we see that today and one of the evidences is pornography married men.

Who do not. We're not satisfied with what God has provided always Lusting after others and I want to tell you this. Whenever people go into that the demons are pretty close. People watch pornography on their phones and on their laptops and they look around.

Oh, nobody's watching me. No, ha. Demons are there. With they laugh with glee. When they see this person watching pornography one more person. That I've got in my grip and if that person happens to be a believer.

Who claims to love Jesus Christ? The demons are even more delighted. You know The Bible says the devil accuses believers to God and I can imagine those demons delightfully going to God and saying God.

Did you see this guy? He claims to be your child. He sings and preaches on Sunday morning. But see what he's doing right now. Just because his wife is not looking and just because nobody else watches him.

Look at this guy God is he your child? He accuses believers to God and this is the last days remember like the days of Noah perverted people who try to get sexual satisfaction. In not the normal way. God is intended but all types of perverted way even married people they do perverted things with their own wives and you believe that and with Lusting after other women in their office and when they walk down the street.

The days of Noah, all right. How many believers take all this seriously how many believers compare what we read in Matthew 24 with Genesis chapter 6 and See how terrible this sin is and of God that is the thing that made God said I will not let my Holy Spirit Strive with these people anymore.

I've spoken to enough. The word is my Holy Spirit. Genesis 6 3 will not strive with these people forever. I give them a time limit and I believe that every believer I'm talking about believers now because the believers are the only one who have the Holy Spirit.

When believers indulge in any type of sexual sin in their thoughts or in their habits. The Lord sees it and says my Holy Spirit is not gonna strive with that child of mine forever. I give him a time limit maybe so many days maybe so many weeks and we so many months and Then he's gonna get it from me.

Loving Christ as the Motive for Holiness

That's the lesson from the days of Noah and the last days are going to be like the days of Noah and I tell you see. If now the best way to avoid sin is not by being afraid God will judge me. No. The best way to avoid sin is not by saying Oh God will send me to hell.

No, and It's not we don't avoid sin in order to go to heaven. That's also wrong. I want to go to heaven. So I'll avoid sin or I want to have a good testimony. So I'll avoid sin. There are so many reasons why we can avoid sin and all those reasons are wrong.

I Don't want to go to hell. Good but that's not the reason to avoid sin. I want to go to heaven so I don't sin good. But that's not the reason to avoid sin. Oh My testimony will be spoiled before others if I sin that's not the reason to avoid sin.

Those are all good reasons. If you can't find the best reason then use all of those. Or I want to have a powerful ministry of preaching. I won't be able to do that if I sin. Oh, then I'll avoid it. All these are wrong reasons.

Jesus said if you love me. Keep my commandments. That's the only right reason to avoid sin and obey God. Not I want to go to heaven or I've got God to use me or people might catch me rubbish. Let the whole world watch my private life.

Let the whole world watch my thought life. I want to hate sin everywhere. Because I love Jesus Christ. So dear brothers and sisters that is the solution in the last days. How shall we stand walk erect.

How shall we value our spirit more than the lusts of our body. How shall we prevent the lusts of our body. I'm beginning to control our mind and our thoughts. Only one way I Make sure that in my heart.

I love Jesus more than anything else and if I seek to fellowship with Jesus and Develop a intimate love relationship with him every day. You know how when a young boy and a girl are in love with each other.

They can hardly think of they will never think of anybody else. It's just each other and That's how we must be all the time in our relationship with Christ we do all our earthly work. That boy may be Terribly in love with a girl, but he's he's working and he's doing his job and all that.

He's looking forward to the day when he can marry that girl and set up a home with her. It's the same way we are to be with Christ. Lord, I love you. You're my bridegroom and I'm looking forward to the day when we get married.

I have to do my earthly work. I've got a family to look after. I've got to do all these things. I've got to work eight ten hours a day to support myself but Underneath it all Lord. I love you with all my heart and that's how I want to live on this earth.

Anything that hurts you or displeases you I Want to avoid? You know this verse in some 139 some 139 and verse 24. Psalm 139 verse 24 it says here Lord, you know earlier on it says in verse 23 Psalm 139 verse 23 search me O God and know my heart.

Try me know my thoughts. Tell me about my thoughts. All my thoughts preoccupied with something of earth and See if there is any the margin of my Bible says way of pain. Anything that causes pain in me.

Pain to whom? Not to me. Pain to the Lord. Lord, is there anything I'm doing that causing pain to your heart? See if there's any way of pain in me the Living Bible paraphrases it very well Lord. Point out anything in me that makes you sad.