They Refuse To Listen To God, Pt. 3

Ronald Weinland

May 1, 2021

This will be Part 3 of the series entitled They Refuse To Listen To God.

There are several things I want to mention but I don’t know where to put them. Sermons are a little different at times depending on where we’re going. But as we continue to go through this I think it’ll become clearer, but it’s something that God wants us to understand, what we’re dealing with, what we’re going through. Because we live in an age that it can be very frustrating seeing the world in the condition that it is and living through these things and time going on for the length of time that it is.

But to understand in all this that God has a great purpose in it. That’s why I love the scriptures about where Christ made the comment in essence, that it’s in God the Father’s hands, the time and the season that this takes place. And not knowing fully what that means, God has brought us through a process so we can understand there is more, there is more to be given as time goes on. That’s exciting in itself, but there are going to be a lot of different reasons in all this when it all comes out, and I believe He’s beginning to show some of those things already. But that’s for another time.

But in this particular area here, to try to glean out of it that picture of what God is showing us. He wants us to understand the age we live in and what the world has come to at this point in time, and it isn’t necessarily specific things for us, except for where in the sense of our spiritual growth and development, except where there are areas that specifically apply to the Church, which we’ll mention as we go through it.

So again, I wanted to put that preface on there before we continue on because again here, sermons are given for different reasons and sometimes we kind of have to wait until we begin to see where things are going and why. This is one of those. And candidly, there is one part that I’m not going to fully share with you, but to let you know that this series, I believe as we go along here, is going to prove a lot more important in a short time.

So anyway, glean out of it what you can because God gives us things for us to learn and to see what He is doing and why He does the things that He does and in the timing He does them. So, we have much to learn. It’s always a desire we should have of wanting to glean what God is giving to us.

So again here, this is Part 3 of that particular series, They Refuse To Listen To God.

We have been looking at different things here as we’ve been going along, and with Christ’s first coming into the world as the Passover of mankind, God worked to prepare a people. And to me, in this context, it’s an awesome thing to go through this and see what God did and how God did it, to understand the condition of the Roman Empire at that particular time and its oppression upon that part of the world, Judea. They were oppressed by the Romans and it got a whole lot worse until 70 A.D. when things really got bad by that point in time and massive amounts of people were killed, massive amounts of people taken into captivity at different points in time there, and it was a hard time for them.

Just like during the period of the Maccabees and then going back even farther than that Judah (primarily) has always had this history, in essence, of when they had a king especially, that there was that desire when they were being oppressed for help. Our human nature is really amazing. It’s like being in the foxhole type of thing. Now you need God, you know, and you’re being overrun by an opposing force that’s out to kill you and so it’s easier then, all of a sudden, to say, “I need God.”

It’s kind of like 9/11, all of a sudden churches began to fill up more because there was this thing that hit this country in a massive way, that something like that could happen here in this country.

So again here, human nature is really a fickle thing when it comes to a relationship to God or even looking to God in any fashion or form. It was in this particular case through different periods of time. But God used this Roman period in a very powerful way to do what He was going to do.

So again here, God was preparing a people as far as the Passover was concerned and last Sabbath we looked at the miracle of the great sound from the sky that came upon the area where the disciples were gathered together and how they began to speak in different languages. That’s an awesome thing to think about. I think about how messed up the world is when they begin to teach this thing about speaking in tongues because of how this is translated into English. It’s old English, and even words change through time, especially when you have several hundred years.

And so, there is an etymology, you know, the ability to look at various words and go back in time and see how they have changed, and it is with so many words in the Bible. What’s amazing is then when you get different translations, I don’t care what translations they are, sometimes I get so frustrated because I know what certain things are saying so I think, “Maybe someone caught a portion of the translation of the word that makes more sense and how can I use that today?” It gets a little frustrating because most all of them have used the King James as a guideline. And you think, that’s what’s messed everybody up in different ideas and concepts that have come out into traditional Christianity because of that big church. Anyway, it’s frustrating for me.

So anyway, we took a look at some of that. You think about what took place and what God was doing to people, but there is a process that went through a period of time that led up to this and so we’re going to go back a little bit farther today than what we did there in the book of Acts as we looked at it last week and what happened when they began to hear in these different languages.

Then we see 3,000 in one day. But that didn’t happen overnight. Something was happening to people as far as the hardening of their heart and the softening of their heart, if you will, and a change in a spirit and attitude that was unique for their particular time, and God used that and molded and fashioned things.

Because God did all of it! God established His Church in 31 A.D., and He did a lot in preparing for that period of time, when on the Day of Pentecost this particular miracle that we looked at last week began to take place, and people were hearing in their own languages. Incredible!

Let’s turn over to John 11. Because it took some incredible events that, again, were miraculous in nature to bring as many as it did to this point to be moved by God’s spirit to seek repentance and baptism. This process actually began with John the Baptist and it began to spread, had a beginning there, and so it built up to this point in time, and then through Christ’s ministry.

But most of the things that happened in Christ’s ministry happened at the very end, so he had that period of time that he was teaching, but most of it to the disciples. There were certain miracles that were done at the very beginning, but small in comparison to what happened later on. Even in that there is much to learn, why God did it that way. Because we have some parallel things that are going to take place here at the end as well, similar.

So, to understand there were people who were moved, who were brought to repentance, but there were many more who were not, and yet they had the evidence right in front of them. Christ spoke to some of them in a very strong fashion at different times about this. Didn’t refer to it as a hardness of heart specially like it did concerning Pharoah, but that’s what we’re talking about here, an attitude and a spirit that was so set in it’s own ways that even after seeing absolute evidence of things that only God could do they wouldn’t listen. They wouldn’t listen. They insisted on something different.

That’s, I think, a difficult thing sometimes for us to deal with, to understand that human nature, that the human mind can be that bad, no matter how knowledge and so forth is given to an individual… I think of the Church. Again, people have been given absolute knowledge of the truth and turn against it. The vast majority through time. That’s kind of mind-boggling.

We had another one just quit here recently in the last couple of weeks. And you think, why? Why? Why give this up? Why throw away the truth? There’s going to come a point in time in the future where they’re going to come to regret that immensely so. Sad. Because what has been given is going to come to pass.

So again here, people that just won’t be moved, who won’t change from their position no matter what. That’s the kind of world we live in today, where the hardness of heart, it’s exceedingly frustrating. I don’t know about you, but it’s exceedingly frustrating to me. But we have to live through it because it’s a part of a witness of 6,000 years and technology and what mankind has done with technology that has deepened the worsening in the process of the mind and how evil it’s become. It’s evil.

Sometimes we can look at things and think, “Well, it’s not so bad.” It’s evil, it truly is. We live in an evil world today. If you’re ever thinking it looks pretty good out there? With God’s way of life, with God’s truth, it isn’t. It’s ugly, evil, turned inward, and it’s getting worse.

So again, we have to go back a little bit in time here and look at what God did in preparing all these people for the Day of Pentecost just for 3,000 to come forward.

John 11:32—Then, when Mary had come to where Joshua was… This is the account of her brother, of Lazarus and what took place. We know the story, but let’s go through it again here as a reminder.

Mary had come out to where Joshua was to meet him, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Now again, we’ve gone through this process where we’ve looked at, basically, the previous three weeks to Christ’s coming to the point where he was going to be our Passover, to fulfill those things about himself and what he had to do on that particular night.

Most of these things, again, happened during that three weeks. Not during the 3½ years before – during the last three weeks. The evidence of things was there, it was being spread around to different areas. He would go into various areas and people wanted to come out and see him because they had heard these things, but not to a point of being able to deal with this, what’s inside, to really make great change in their life.

…she fell down at his feet and said to him, Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died. What an incredible thing to say. She believed to this point in time that if he’d just been there that he could have done something, intervened, cried upon, called upon, if you will, God Almighty, and he would have been healed of whatever it was.

Therefore, when Joshua saw her weeping, saw her crying, and the Jews who came with her also crying, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled. He saw this nature that’s in us as human beings. And of everything that they had seen and known and still not able to see him for who he was, and yet knowing full well that it takes God’s spirit to be able to truly see, powerfully so.

So again, he was troubled. Because it’s frustrating. It’s frustrating. It’s frustrating to see the way the world is and what mankind is without God. There is that within us that we look forward to the time when finally, those who will give, if you will, give in, give of themselves, choose, make choices that are right and good. What a beautiful time. But there are going to be so many who won’t because this is so deep inside the human mind.

“He groaned in the spirit and was troubled.” That’s what he’s talking about. Just like we do. It’s like righteous Lot, as it says, vexed his righteous soul, as it was, day by day because of the evil he saw in that area of the world he lived in. We do today throughout the world in what’s taking place.

Then he said, Where have you laid him? And they said to him, Lord, come and see. And Joshua cried, it says here. It’s a word that comes from the meaning “with tears.” So, again here, they misread this, but this was very moving to him to see what was taking place, to realize what he was getting ready to fulfill.

Because that’s the big picture. He knew what he was getting ready to do and the purpose of it all, and the nature of man and those who just won’t change and what others have to go through who will choose to change. Because it’s not easy.

Then the Jews said, Look how he loved him! It’s like he missed him. That isn’t what it was about at all. They couldn’t understand that wasn’t why he was crying for them, knowing what they were going to have to go through in the years to come for a Church to begin and what people were going to have to go through once they were drawn.

Because he was already experiencing this. He was the witness of those things, of how mankind receives God, the Son of God, and if they receive the Son of God that way, how are they going to receive those that are brought into the Church who believe in the Son of God?

Then some of them said, Couldn’t this man who opened the eyes of the blind have caused it so that even this man would not have died? So, you would think at a time like this, as you look at it just on a physical plane, they knew he was able to heal the blind. Not he himself, God Almighty did it, but by the power God Almighty had given to him, at this point in time, the authority that God had already given to him at this point in time to perform, to do such things at will.

Joshua, therefore, again groaning in himself… Again, due to their inability to see after he had already taught and performed all the things he had. …he came to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone was lying upon it. And Joshua said, Take away the stone. Then Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to him, Lord, by this time he’s stinking because it’s been four days. Anyone that’s been around an animal or something of that nature, that’s been there for four days, you know what she’s talking about, the effects of a body, a physical body and what happens, what transpires. She didn’t want that to take place. She didn’t want that to happen.

Joshua said to her, Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God? So, they took away the stone where the dead was laid. Then Joshua lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank You that You have heard me. All these things are said for us today, for those who have read this through time. I know that You always hear me, but because of the people which stand by I am saying this, that they may believe that You have sent me. It’s powerful.

How many of them came through this? How many of them chose to continue on, to embrace this, to want it?

Verse 43—Then when he had spoken this, to the Father, to God, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth! Wow! Powerful! They’d never seen anything like this. Never even heard of anything like this in 4,000 years, in that respect as far as an event like this.

And he who was dead came forth bound hand and foot with grave cloth, and his face was bound about the head with a head cloth. And Joshua told them, Loosen him, and let him go. Kind of hard to imagine this. He’s up walking and moving and has to have all this cloth taken off. Shows like a mummy. That’s what it was. It was kind of like being wrapped in cloth and seeing some of this stuff take place right in front of your eyes – someone dead and now alive, moving around.

It had to be a frightening thing. It really had to be a frightening thing in one respect, until they began to realize what was really happening and what had taken place. Takes a little while for something like that to sink in.

Then many of the Jews who came to Mary, who had seen the things which Joshua did, believed on him. Basically, it has to do with the words that are being used here, and again, “on him,” or “in him,” as to who he really was, that he was the Messiah. That’s what this is about.

So, all of a sudden, now because of what had taken place, now they believed, “He has to be the Messiah!” Now, not to the point that we do when we’re able to see the truth and the way of God and have God’s spirit fully in our lives because of baptism and that process there, but just on a level playing field, physical, “He has to be!”

There are certain things of logic you can look at and say, as Christ condemned so many of the religious leaders of that time, “These things people have seen and you have seen, and you have heard and yet you, what about the judgment that’s going to be on you? Because you know these things to be true,” in essence.

That’s what he was telling them in essence, over and over again, that God Almighty is the only one who can do these things. No man can do these things. But they refused to believe he was the Messiah. Incredible! So, just as a matter of logic and looking at something, that’s what we’re talking about here. Incredible.

You think of the hardness of heart of human beings? It’s incredible what’s inside of us.

Verse 46—But some of them went their ways to the Pharisees and told them about the things Joshua had done. So, there is always this group that was always running back and forth and telling the ones that they knew, whom they knew didn’t believe in Christ, that he was the Messiah (Joshua, that he was the Messiah), and so they would go and tell what was going on, what was taking place because they try to lift themselves up. So, different ones were doing it for the wrong motive.

Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, What can we do? For this man does many miracles. “Nobody else is doing them, but he is, so what are we going to do?” So, just looking at it logically, you think, look at the heart of human beings and what they’re like.

We really need to get rid of this thinking in our minds that so many people are going to want and choose God’s way of life at the beginning of the Millennium. Because they are not! They are not! And one day we’re going to understand in a greater way the process whereby we were all called—truly—and to understand that there is a people that God has gathered together who were willing to humble themselves before God.

Because that requires a lot, a willingness to humble oneself before God. God gave us that opportunity. But not all can do that. Candidly, few can.

That’s why in the scattered Body, in so many ways, just looking at it by pure logic of certain things that should be able to be looked at, in many ways there is just not an excuse. Neither would there have been for us once this was all laid out before us after the Apostasy, if once we heard what was true and we rejected it.

We have had an Apostasy. The fact that we’re all scattered proves what has happened. There has been a great falling away! Just looking at it on a physical plane as far as knowledge is concerned, you don’t have to have God’s spirit if you’ve had the truth given to you before and you know and you were convicted of those things and it’s in your mind, and then to have it placed before you, to say no, that’s not the case.

That’s not a small thing before God. That’s why there was about a third of those who were scattered who still would not repent.

Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, What can we do? For this man does many miracles. It’s not a small judgment against them. It really isn’t. Even at this state it’s not a small judgment against them for what they chose to do.

They’re going to be in the Great White Throne. Will they come through? Don’t know. Time will tell. But there will be those who will not, those who were a part of that who will not. They just won’t accept God. They won’t accept God’s way. They won’t accept what is true because they really want something else. They want to do things their own way.

That’s the world we’re living in today. It’s so deeply rooted in people you can’t take it out. People can’t come together and work together in things anymore. Governments around the world, unless they have a strong, very strong leader who has control, basically, of the military, who work together with the military, what do they have? Those of the western world today, they can’t get anything done. They can’t come to agreement. Everybody has a different idea of what should be done and how it should be done. This is just getting worse and worse and worse.

I’ll be candid with you. If time were to go on and you think, what would this country, what would this world be like? It wouldn’t be like it has been in previous years. And it’s scary. It really is scary where it’s headed and how fast it’s headed that way.

Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered in council, What can we do, because this man has done many miracles. If we leave him alone in this matter all will believe on him. What a wretched, wretched, perverted mindset to do this. Really! To know that no man can do these things. So, where did this come from? They wouldn’t acknowledge it. So filled with pride and hatred for what he taught because it was against what they were teaching. They were so concerned about their position and their place with the Roman government because they had certain portion of power that was being given to them and they didn’t want to lose it.

Can human beings get to that point where they so want something like this, power, to be recognized, to be looked upon? Think, what a sick thing!

If we leave them alone in this manner all will believe on him and the Romans, see, exactly what it says, and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation. They had more concern with that then they did where this came from. Knowing that no man is able to do it, but unable to acknowledge, admit this is from God and he is from God.

On a physical plane without God’s spirit, that’s just hard to grasp, that kind of mindset, that kind of thinking. Incredibly hardened hearts. It’s what it boils down to.

That’s why the Great White Throne is not going to be a picnic. People resurrected from all kinds of backgrounds, from all kinds of evil. Well, I’m not going to get into matters of judgment there and what God does or doesn’t do at that point in time. But going to be a lot of people who just won’t be able to come through it. But it’ll be one government, powerfully so, by that time so many in the God Family. Beautiful world because it’s going to be under law and order, swift. But that doesn’t mean the hearts and the minds of individuals want it.

Matthew 21:1—Then when they drew near to Jerusalem, and they came to Bethphage, unto the Mount of Olives, then Joshua sent two disciples, saying to them, Go into the village next to you, and right away you shall find a donkey tied up, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. And if anyone shall say anything to you, you shall say, The Lord has need of them, and right away he will send them. All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell the daughter of Zion, Behold, your King comes unto you, meek, and sitting upon a donkey, and a colt, the foal of a donkey.

So, incredible here what was taking place and what he told them to do and showing them this is fulfilling that which is prophetic. All the things, basically, he did have to give that were a matter of him fulfilling he had to tell them because you can’t look at those scriptures and say, “This is what this is about,” until he tells you this is what this is fulfilling and doing, accomplishing. There are some other things that you’re less able to see and understand anyway.

It goes on to say here, verse 6—And the disciples went and did as Joshua commanded them and brought the donkey and the colt, and put on them their garments, and they set him thereon. So again here, all this that was taking place but it’s the reaction and the response of people that follows here that’s incredible, what happens.

Then a very great multitude spread their garments in the way, and others cut down branches from the trees and spread them in the way. Now, we’re talking about a lot of people that had gathered together for this Holy Day season. What an incredible thing that was transpiring in the city as people heard about Lazarus and other things that had taken place.

All these people gathering together in Jerusalem and this situation here of what had happened with Lazarus, it spread all over. I mean, you talk about spreading fast, this spread fast, and people were moved by the stories of people they knew and some they knew had been there to witness some of these things and had come back into Jerusalem.

All the things that happened that last three weeks built up because all these people were coming in from different regions as well into Jerusalem, and so all the stories of things he’d done, lepers, blind seeing, different things of healing that he had done, and then finally, the thing of Lazarus, someone from the dead.

People were moved just by on a physical plane of being able to recognize this is not something that’s normal. He has to be of God. So, just logically looking at a matter and being able to discern something doesn’t require God’s spirit. The ability to say, “This has to be of God; no human being can do this.”

So, the multitudes that went before and that followed cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David! They believed this had to be him.

All this time here understanding God was preparing him all along the way for this particular time and for what was going to transpire. Awesome!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! So, they believed he came from God. They knew. They believed the stories that had been told that he was of the lineage of David. He fulfills this. He is the Messiah.

And when he came into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? There were those who believed that he was, as it says here. There were others who heard this commotion who didn’t know of these things and they wanted to know, “What is this commotion? What is going on here that all these people are doing this?” Because there were thousands upon thousands gathered there for this Holy Day season.

And the multitude said, This is Joshua, the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. Incredible. It almost gives you chills just reading the story thinking about what took place, that all this had to take place. And you think, what an incredible thing to prepare a certain group who once they come to this point in time are willing to listen to God, be moved by God’s spirit once God begins to pour out His spirit. Not everyone was.

This is, to me, something that’s so incredible because we’ve witnessed this in the Church, witnessed it in Worldwide. That there were people, lots of people, lots and lots who had the ability to be drawn by God’s spirit and they wouldn’t make the choice. They knew.

There are some that come into my mind that I see that we visited, who if they’d come into a Spokesman’s Club environment in table topics (those of you who know what that is, some were in that, or Graduate Club or Spokesman’s Club environment), and they would have been right there with you, and in some cases be able to go beyond what some were able to say in table topics about a scripture, about something in the Bible, because they saw, their minds had been opened up and they’d done a lot of studying and so forth, and God had given them a great portion to be able to see those things.

But couldn’t come to Sabbath services, couldn’t make that step, and some did that came along maybe for a week or two and then just couldn’t go anymore because there is something else that is more important that was holding them back, that prevented that change.

Now, for individuals like that it’s not a matter of hardness of heart, it’s just a matter of a weakness and of choice, of an opportunity that was given to them. But for others and for the vast majority it’s just an absolute hardness of heart in this world. It’s always been here but we live in a time where it’s much, much worse. That’s what God wants us to understand.

Romans 8. We understand that the mind of mankind is adversarial to God. We understand that. Adversarial to His way of life. It’s naturally that way. But there is more to the story that we need to grasp. We grasp that the mind of mankind is fully open to all other ways of life, just not God’s. It’s the natural mind.

Romans 8:3—For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh… When I read stuff like this, I just fume a little bit inside when I think about what the protestant world teaches about these things. They say, “See, the law, it’s bad. It had to be done away in Christ. We’re saved from the law.” Think, what are you smoking?

We are weak, not the law. Isn’t that amazing how people can just twist something a little bit and read something else into it and that’s what they see? If that’s what they’ve been taught that’s what they see and that’s what they choose. Incredible.

For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, in other words, mankind can’t keep the law, we’re too weak, God by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin, which is what this is, condemned sin in the flesh. So, that’s why he came, because of sin, to pay the penalty for it, so that the righteousness of the law… So, the law is righteous. …so that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit.

So, it’s a change that has to take place. Again, what a beautiful thing that we grasp this. We no longer walk after our own desires apart from God and God’s way of life. We walk after God’s desires. We choose what God has chosen for us, had shown us that we should live. That’s our choice and we want that and then we battle for that, we fight for that. We want to live His way of life. We’ve seen the fruit of it, the joy of it, the beauty of it, and so we grasp a hold of it, and we have to fight for it, persevere.

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit, the things of the spirit. Therein sometimes lies the problem even within God’s Church! Sad! Because sometimes people have a mindset where they get pulled away, want to walk according to the flesh and not according to the spirit, not to live God’s way of life but get caught up in physical things, a desire for physical things, a desire for physical relationships, a desire of something that isn’t right with God as far as what is good and peaceful and truthful and all those things in life that bring about joy if we live them.

People rob themselves of happiness. They truly do. They don’t realize that different forms of drama will never produce happiness. Incredible.

Verse 5—For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, and sometimes those who live according to the spirit or think they are or play games with God do the same thing. And that’s the point. Sometimes begin to set their minds on things of the flesh because that’s where the thinking goes, because it’s not set on wanting God.

You know, our prayer life oftentimes indicates our desire to pray to God, our desire to, if you will, look at various things in our life and look at God’s and make sure and desire that we’re living according to His way. That’s a good and a beautiful thing. But sometimes the mind isn’t set that way. It starts looking at a different way, of something else. What is it that people want?

Why would anyone give up this way of life once they’ve tasted of it for a year, two years, three years, four years, five years, ten years, twenty years, thirty years? Why, why, why would anyone turn away to the world? What is it physical that you want out there? Because one day it’s not there, you don’t have it anymore, you don’t have a physical life. This is just a means to an end. But you have to choose your own end. Isn’t that amazing? That’s what God offers. You choose. You choose.

It blows my mind when people give this up and don’t recognize the value, don’t even begin to grasp the concept of the pearl of great price because it’s not of great price to them, this way of life. If this is of great price and we value it we’re going to fight for it, we’re going to hold on to it, we’re going to persevere, we’re going to desire it with all of our being and we’re going to fight against this nature that resists God, this nature that’s made this way for a purpose – so that we can enter into such a fight by the choice God blesses us to make if we so make it when that time comes.

Verse 6—For to be carnally minded is death. I think of the Great White Throne. It just blows my mind when I think about that, what’s going to happen. As the sand of the sea. At the end, the vast numbers of humanity that are going to be there, that can’t go any farther, blows the mind. We’re talking about hundreds of millions, billions who will not choose God when it’s all said and done. It’s not a few hundred thousand, it’s much, much more. What a horrible thing!

Eternal life, life in the God Family is not owed to anyone.

But to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. That’s what it leads to, away from the drama. I have learned to loathe with all my being anything that resembles drama. And you know what? Everything in human life resembles drama, because it is, it’s drama. Some people want it more than others. That’s like “As the World Churns,” type of thing. It’s like that drama.

Now, that doesn’t mean it’s wrong or bad in any fashion or form to watch something of drama on TV. When I watch a show that we have set aside to watch or whatever, to relax in an evening, to kind of become numb, mind numb so you can sleep, you know. There’s a lot of drama in the world, but we’re reminded of that, what a blessing that we’re not in that, that this is the world that’s going to be put aside, that this is the world that we can conquer and overcome and help others to conquer and overcome in time. It’s amazing what human beings go through.

“For to be carnally minded is death.” That’s really an awesome statement but it’s not understood like it should be so often. That’s what we want, that’s what we get. You don’t want God’s Church? What you get is what you’ve chosen, and perhaps, and hopefully in time you’ll be able to be of a mind that will be able to be humbled once again in a future event, in a future time, once you’re resurrected and you’re all together with nothing on.

Because that’s how you’re going to be resurrected in that period of time. You’re not resurrected with a full suit or a full dress on. You’re going to be shown this is what you are, and you have the opportunity of a new life, and to be humbled by that, to be moved by that, to realize “I’ve been dead,” and you’re going to learn, “for a long, long, long time.” Incredible. Because that’s a part of a process of humbling mankind in a way that has never been possible before. God’s going to use that in a great way to offer His way of life to so many. But even on top of that it’s going to be so many who won’t choose it. Mind-boggling.

But if you look at the world today, I can understand that. If you look at society today, I can see that. These minds just don’t change overnight. Minds that become unbalanced, minds that have no soundness at all, the inability to think right, people who will lie to themselves because they choose the lie.

Like one woman I saw on TV this morning who said, in essence, in correcting someone else in a college environment when they said that they felt police were heroes. She began to scold him and in essence telling him, trying to belittle him for what he’d said because she didn’t trust the police, she didn’t want the police, she didn’t like the police. Basically, asked her, “Well, what are you going to do if someone, whatever, a knife or comes at you and who are you going to call? The police?” “No! Not going to call the police.” Duh!

You know, and that’s a lie, because I can guarantee you if something happens and they’re in a room and locked in a room and someone is out there to kill them, broke into their house and they know that they’re coming after them and they’re poking a knife through the door, as it’s coming through the bathroom door or whatever it might be, I can guarantee you they’re going to call somebody on the telephone and it’s not going to be a psychologist! See?

You think, you lie to yourself, and yet when you’re there, all you’re going to say is, “Shoo. Get out.” Because that’s what they said she eventually said. I don’t know. I didn’t hear that part, but that’s what they said. You think, “You’re mad! You’re absolutely mad!” Where does that kind of a mind…? How does it exist in this kind of a world today? I don’t get it.

Well, that’s the point. Do we see what’s happening around us in the world? You think that kind of a mind is just going to automatically change when it’s so far gone? And when God performs certain miracles, raising people from the dead by the billions, that people are going to say, “Oh, You’re God. That’s what I want. That’s what I want to be.” No. When they start hearing the law and how they’re supposed to live and everything else, no, they want their own way. We are something else as human beings.

That’s the uniqueness of it all, that God created all the masses of mankind for 7,000 years to exist, to fill the earth, to populate the earth, but out of that is going to come the God Family. And it’s precious, and it’s beautiful, and it’s awesome, and it can’t be given to everyone because it’s the God Family that chooses to be of the exact same mind as God Almighty, a mind of love, a mind of caring concern for others, genuine in every respect, desires to be totally void of anything that is not true, won’t even consider anything that is not of the truth. What a beautiful thing for those who choose it.

For to be carnally minded is death, it’s a choice, to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God. What an incredible thing. Yet we learn within the Church – logical – self is our battle. It’s in the mind. We’re made this way for the purpose of so loathing and so hating this kind of nature as we grow and mature because we want that nature, we want the mind of God, we desire to have that nature that is love and outgoing and care and concern for others. Awesome!

Then to come to a point in time and you realize you can’t take anyone with you. You can’t change the mind of any other human being. If it is set to not choose God, if it doesn’t embrace God, if it doesn’t want God what can you do?

I’ve known of so many people in God’s Church, so many people in God’s Church who have made the choice to compromise in order to try to save others or someone else, and in so doing themselves have gone by the wayside because they did not put God first and choose God.

Yes, we want everyone we’ve ever known and loved, in that sense, in the sense of loving them, not everyone we’ve necessarily known because we’ve probably haven’t loved everyone we’ve always known until we mature and grow and realize I wish they would make the right choice when the time is there. But anyway, another story.

But anyway, what an incredible thing to understand and to know, we have to make such choices in life. Within the Church we’ve had to make such choices in life, whether to uphold God’s way or to compromise in order to have peace? How much does that mean? Now, there are ways to work around certain various things if someone is not of the same mind in thinking. That’s another matter. But if it’s in the Body, we’re supposed to all be of the same mind. There is no compromise in any of that.

Because the carnal mind is enmity against God. So, we know these things. It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. We know that. We know that! It’s not able to without God’s spirit. So, one cannot obey, one cannot live God’s way of life without God’s spirit. That’s the reality.

So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. So, if we’re not in the spirit in the sense of being filled with God’s spirit because we’re not repenting. You know, the big thing always that has to be in front of us as human beings, is always repenting when we see sin, always repenting when we see sin, when sin comes out of us.

Now, I don’t want to get into that today because that’s going to be another sermon in the future here, but when it comes into the mind that’s another matter. We make choices of rejecting certain thinking because we can be bombarded with thoughts and ideas of things that because of this world and things that happen, and something could come into the mind. But that doesn’t mean you choose it, and whatever it might be in life. But you have to make choices in those things.

Now, if we harbor certain things of wrong thinking in our mind and then act upon them, then that’s where the sin is. It’s in the action. It’s what comes out of us in the words perhaps or what we’ve said. But when it’s in the mind, that is where we deal with it. That’s what God wants us to do. He wants us to get to where we deal with it in the mind, to where it’s not manifested as sin, something to be repented of yet.

Because we’re bombarded. There are demons out there. I’ll tell you what, they are so stirred up right now. The demonic world, they know their time is getting shorter and shorter and shorter. And because of a lot of that too, there are a lot of attacks coming against God’s Church. You have to be close to God. “Greater is He that’s in you than he that’s in the world.” We’re going to have things thrown at us constantly in intense manner.

That’s where we go before God and we pray God for protection, the ability that those things don’t come at us in the same manner, and that God protect and help us to guard against those things and to be close to Him and be repenting of sin and that we be of that mindset.

As a whole, within the Body, we are that way…as a whole, for the Body, thank God. I’ve never seen a time like this where that strong of a percentage in the sense of the Church is of that mind, of that desire.

So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. As a whole, within the Body, when sin comes out, when we’ve said the wrong thing to someone else, when we have gotten in an attitude toward someone else and we know that attitude is wrong, and because of that we’ve said something or judged them in a particular way, we know we have to repent of those things and ask God for help to do things in a right way, in a sound way, to be forgiven of our sins. As a whole, that’s what we do.

I know that God’s people are doing that more and more as we grow because the fruit is there in the vast majority. But there are still some of those who still play games with God. And you can’t do that, not at especially, you think of a time like this when the Church is being cleansed. You want the world? God will give you the world.

…if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the spirit of God or Christ, he is not his. So, these are things we know. We know what our nature is like as human beings even with God’s spirit. We recognize there is still this battle, there is still this nature within us and that’s the way we are until the day we die. We’re just going to be that way, of a mind, of “lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life” are against God. They work against God. That’s what we have to fight against then in ourselves and we cry out to God to help us to do that, and He does, He blesses us in that.

Yet even in our knowing what we’ve just covered there is that which is much worse. This is what God is having us focus on a little bit more at this particular time because of the age in which we live, that He wants us to see and understand this is where we are in time.

This sermon is very much about where we are in time. So, even in our knowing what we just read here in Romans 8 we yet see a carnal nature that can go very far away from God. It is one thing to have a nature that is naturally adversarial, at enmity to God, but it’s another to see just how adversarial that nature can become, to the point where it becomes deeply hardened.

And candidly, there was that in that evidence that existed in the time of Christ. Of all people who have ever lived on the earth, and those just in the physical world around them, especially of Judah who had the knowledge, certain things of knowledge about God. Though not in the truth in the manner of what Christ was teaching them, nevertheless they had that history and of those things that were there. And yet to see what they chose and what they did, incredibly hardened hearts. That’s what we’re talking about here, a mind that goes beyond that natural enmity against God. It can go very, very far in that and become deeply hardened.

That’s what we’re addressing, a heart that can become fully set against God. What a horrible thing. I marvel when God first began to show us that in the Church, that the mind can become fully set against God, hence the flood and what took place at that particular time.

It’d be good to back up and take a look at that period and remind ourselves of what is shown there, of what it says. Because it’s about a type of what the world is like now. Mankind lived at that time for hundreds of years and became incredibly hardened in heart, evil in nature because of the length of time of living in a carnal mind, in a carnal nature and some of the evil that existed on the earth because of that.

Now we have technology that has speeded that process up to where we’ve come to a point where the mind is able to become far worse far more quickly, accelerated. It’s a horrifying thing that’s taking place because of the misuse of technology today. It really is. Things that people give their lives to. Scary stuff.

Genesis 6. Very poor translation here as most of this is. Some of the things that people read into this sometimes and because, well it makes you want to pull your hair out, but it is what it is. So, here it is like in the New King James.

Genesis 6:1, it says, Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men… Now, some have gone so far to believe that these are angelic beings that took women and had a relationship with them, were able to do that and had children. Stupid. Dumb. Ignorant. You think… Well, they’re not thinking.

…that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all of whom they chose.

Now, the context is pretty simple in so many ways. The first part of Genesis here is a very quick story. It really is! There’s not a whole lot covered here even up to the time of the flood and in through there. We’re still talking about not very far into scripture. And so, this is a quick wrap up of several hundreds of years. This is just telling what took place. That’s all it’s doing. It’s telling what transpired through this period of time when people lived longer on the earth. That’s all it’s telling. But people have read things into it that don’t belong.

So, it just builds up about the condition of mankind by the time of Noah. That’s what it’s doing. It’s taking us through this first several hundred years up to the time of Noah and telling what the world is like by the time it got to Noah. That’s all it’s doing.

Verse 1—Now it came to pass that, and again, this is not “when,” mankind began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters born… It started right away! It’s going through a story here leading up to the time of Noah. This is the way the world was. This is what God created. It just got through telling about some of that, man upon the earth, and what happened with Adam and Eve, and some of the children born, and now it’s just going back and telling the story, “This is what transpired.” It was just a normal, natural thing. Daughters were born. Children were born.

…that the sons of God saw the daughters of mankind, that they were beautiful, that they were good. It’s like, okay, this is a natural process. It’s just showing what took place. They began to multiply on the earth. And they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. So, it’s not getting into intricacies here of something evil in human beings and what was taking place and all the things you can read in commentaries and the like. It’s just going through a history and telling what happened and what led up to the time of Noah.

People took wives. In some cases they took many wives. It’s the way of mankind. It’s what mankind did afterwards until God began to show how mankind was to live according to His way, because He was going to introduce the Church and a stronger way of life to live as human beings in a sense of a relationship with God and Christ and the Church.

God allowed different things at different times as far as mankind was concerned, even within those whom He called. But they lived in a world at their particular time with their present truth and they were judged accordingly.

In the first 6,000 years mankind, whether it be in the Church or whatever period of time it was beforehand when individuals were called, it was still unique to them, but they were called in that world of their time. Have to judge things accordingly.

Verse 3—Then the Eternal said, My spirit shall not always, or as the King James says, forever. But the Hebrew meaning here, the Hebrew word is “perpetual.” It just means will not for a long time, will not for a long duration. That’s all it’s saying.

Then the Eternal said, My spirit will not for a long time strive… And this word has to do with judgment, to execute judgment with man. We understand what that is. It’s showing here this is a beginning, but God isn’t going to do this for a long time. It’s not going to be for thousands and thousands and thousands of years. Because time before this, we don’t know how long to create the vastness of the universe, a long time with angelic beings. That was a long time.

This isn’t going to be for a long time. He’s putting things in perspective, and we know what that time is – 7,100 years. With God that’s not a long time. It really isn’t! That’s what it’s talking about here. God is not going to have to execute judgment with mankind for a long time.

…and their flesh will be, as it says here, with days of one hundred and twenty years. So, it’s bringing us up to this point in time of what God’s going to work toward, what God’s purpose is going to be. But it wasn’t that way at the start, and so that’s what it’s telling us here, what took place, how long people lived and so forth up to the time of Noah.

He’s showing here that in essence here this is not a simple thing, mankind and dealing with mankind and what has taken place in the first several hundred years up to the time of Noah. Not only that, it’s not going to be for a long time, and especially individually in lives because lives are going to be shortened now. That’s the story that’s being told.

In those days, and also afterward, there were nephilim, and some translate this as “giants,” but this has also been translated in Hebrews even as “fallen ones” and it’s just not used. Later on, when it’s translated when it’s referring to some who were, but it’s a word that’s been misused a great deal as far as Hebrew is concerned. The context indicates and shows what many as far as those who have studied into some of these things over time. Because even Hebrew was lost and the ability to know what some things were. It’s gone through a lot to get to where we are today. Thankfully, with God’s spirit, He shows us what these things are, and context reveals so much with God’s spirit.

This is about people, in essence, who became very great in their lifetime. That’s what it’s talking about, because of living so long. Now they’re going to go to a period of time where they don’t live so long, 120 years, and then even shorter.

Verse 4—In those days, and also afterward… So again, it’s showing those days that led up to Noah. All this period of time and afterward because God addresses the condition of mankind that leads up to Noah and what continues afterward. That’s what it’s saying here. It’s going to be 120 years.

…there were nephilim in the land, sons of God who came unto the daughters of mankind and brought forth children. It’s just what they lived. Children were born from the very beginning of Adam and Eve and their children, and then what do men do? Well, they look upon women and women look upon a man and they get married, and they have children. That’s all it’s telling us. But it’s showing something a little bit different here as far as God dealing with mankind and what mankind was like, because that comes out.

These were the mighty ones; these were the mighty of those who were of long duration, long lives. So, it’s addressing here these people because they lived so long. If you look at what you’re able to do over a period of time, you build that for that many years and what you’re able to establish and build and you get to see it? In today’s world, you’re here 60-70-80-90 years and then somebody else has it and they fight over it. Anyway, another story. But what you have comes to an end.

But back then, think of the amount of time to accumulate, to build, to do the things. That’s part of what it’s addressing here. Look how great they became upon the earth. Some of these who lived longer, by the time others were born it took them time, but in time they were able to build something great as well. Time itself offered that.

…they were men of renown, in essence. Those who lived the longest and had built up these incredible things that they built. I think of the pyramids. What an incredible thing when God showed us that was before the flood. Look at what mankind had done by the time after living so long. They’re still trying to go back and figure out how that was done in such a short length of time and how another Pharaoh must have had to come along and then another one or whatever because it takes so long to build those things. Okay.

Then the Eternal looked upon… So, it’s just showing here what God did. They didn’t have to live very long. They lived long lives but look what happened.

And God looked upon the evil, the wickedness of mankind that was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of their heart was only evil continually. So again here, it’s one thing to be of a nature that’s adversarial, enmity with God, it’s another one to be like this, to come to a point where you become so hardened in heart about life and how you live life and selfish to gaining for oneself that society and the world at that time became hideous before God. Because of the long lives that people lived, because of what they accumulated, because of what they did, because they became so professional in selfishness, in power and exerting power and influence, getting what they wanted, how they wanted it, living life… Well, anyway, on and on it goes.

So, the more time they had the greater they were able to become as a people, as individuals let alone a people, God says their thoughts were just evil continually. That’s where we are today. And if you don’t think it’s evil out there? The word “continually” just means “day by day” or “daily.” Daily it was this way.

Verse 6—The Eternal, it says, repented… I hate how some of these are translated. It’s like “God repented that He’d made mankind and made him for this long.” That’s not what it’s saying at all. It’s just after you’ve created something and you see the results of what takes place, “He will not always contend with…” It’s going to be a short plan. It’s going to be 7,100 years because God knew it was going to happen and take place.

But now, look at this, because we’re to learn from that first phase of mankind. It wasn’t as God slapped Himself on the head and said, “Oh, got to change this. They’re living too long. They’ve become evil too quickly.” It happened exactly the way it was supposed to happen knowing what mankind would do when they lived that long, so that we could learn something from this of what God had to do and what’s going to happen then at the end because of our nature, because of the way we are as human beings. There would come a time again when the world would become that bad, human beings would become that evil again.

There’s been a lot of evil on the earth over the last 4,500 years, been a lot of evil. We can look at that period of time and see the evil that came together, but there’s never been an evil like there is now except for that time before Noah, to that magnitude. So it’s to happen so we could learn from this, so we could understand what human beings are like and what a merciful thing it is that mankind isn’t allowed to live longer, for longer durations of time, and what it is we’re supposed to learn from all this.

So the Eternal was in sorrow. Sorrowful for looking upon what people are doing; how evil mankind can truly be. Knowing they would be that way, but it’s still a hurtful thing.

It’s what free choice gives, isn’t it? That’s what it gives to a mind like ours as human beings.

So again here, it means “sorrow,” as in disappointment and just looking upon what they’re doing to each other.

The Eternal was in sorrow for mankind, for making mankind on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So, the Eternal said, I will destroy mankind that I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and moving things and birds of the air, for I am full of sorrow in what I have made.

It was like it came to this point in time knowing it was going to get worse and worse but watching it and it came to that point. What a horrible thing to look upon a creation that no matter what you do gets to a point where so much of it is never going to receive You, Your truth, Your way of life no matter what You would do before them as far as miracles, as far as Your own Son coming and on and on it goes.

That we’re that hard? When His own Son came and performed miracles, that people had no excuse and had a history of God and the power of God and a God that had incredible miraculous power and things about a Messiah that would come to the earth. And then when he was there and performed the kind of miracles, knowing it could only come from God? Hard, hard hearts.

Then it says, But Noah found grace (favor) in the eyes of the Eternal. Isn’t that amazing? Came down to one person, one person that could be called out of all that at that time to be worked with, to continue on, to raise up something. Then his own children didn’t even choose it.

Went through the flood. Can you imagine? You go through a flood. You see something of that nature. You know, you know the story. “God told my father to build this. We’re to build it this way. We built it. All these animals, they’re gathered together, and they’re put on here. We saw this. We witnessed this. We lived through this.” They just became angry that what they had was gone, that they couldn’t have it anymore.

That’s what happened to them. They turned angry, angry against God, in essence, angry against their father, blamed Him for the things that happened because their civilization, friends, people they knew, they’re no longer around. They can’t have the same world.

Verse 11—So the earth was corrupt before God and the land was filled with violence. Blows my mind sometimes when you think of the violence that we allow. We know, the government knows how much is coming across borders to hurt and to kill millions of people over time. They know it! And a certain show of force, a certain power is put there to work with some of it, but not what could be done to stop it, to put an end to it.

All the stuff that comes out of China that’s made over there that comes in through a southern border, that come into this country, and mixed with horrible drugs and kills people. What a sick thing! And we allow it! We are allowing it as a people. We’re allowing it to take place. Who is at fault? Who is responsible for stopping that? Let it happen. Give them more power now. How evil is this that it won’t be addressed?

To bring children, to bring people in to traffic them. There is that kind of evil that’s going on right under our noses. And how much effort is being put into that? Oh, the answer is let’s defund police. Let’s not let those who are on the border have too much power to stop things. Let’s do ‘this.’ Let’s do ‘this’… Yeah, it’s like cartels are lobbyists or something, I don’t know. Where is your kick coming from? What are you getting out of this?

I’ll tell you what, I am sick, sick to the core of my being. How do you think God Almighty looks upon a world, upon a nation of people that He brought to a point and gave us everything we have? We didn’t do it!

“Oh, but we discovered it and we made it great, and we built trains that go across the country.” You didn’t do diddly squat save God gave it to you and gave you the ability to do it and gave you the peace and the power and to accomplish it, to become a great nation at the end of an age. It should rile us up, truly.

Makes me sick to the core of my being to see what we are like, of what we’ve done as a people, as what we’ve done as a nation. Murders? Think all the guns out there, of people killing each other, drive by shootings constantly taking place, children being killed. What’s going on? And cities, massive murder rates! “Defund the police.” I mean, we’re talking absolute insanity. How can you have even such a discussion on a physical plane except your minds have become so corrupt, so perverted.

I hope we see this deeply inside of ourselves and we vex our souls from day to day by what we see. Because we live at a time worse than Lot’s as far as the world is concerned, and if we’re not careful we may think at times it’s not so bad out there. It’s so evil. It really is. The way of thinking of people?

I think of the one thing alone. You think of all things in life, of people who profess Christianity, and especially in the southern regions of this country, and people who can actually have enough influence at times to sway the vote of a president, who becomes a president. That such minds are not concerned about various things happening in families, the unspoken things at times, adultery, lying, cheating. It’s like, go to church on Sunday and everything is okay. What a sick, sick world.

Sorry. Is it corrupt? It’s corrupt to it’s core. What are children being taught? You see all the things that are happening out here. Just put it into a great big bubble and God looked down upon the earth and He said it’s filled with violence. The thoughts and the intents of people, it’s evil continually, day by day. That’s what we live in.

You say, “Well, I have neighbors that aren’t like that.” Who’s fighting against it? People feel helpless so they don’t try, just give into it. Then we have what we have today. Wear your mask outside. It’s like waving the flag, isn’t it? Sick. Sick. Sick.

Hope that doesn’t get out there too far, it’d probably be taken off the air, no longer able to use YouTube. That’s the kind of world we live in. Got to be careful what you say and how you say it so you can keep on for a time, but you know what I’m talking about.

So, the earth was corrupt before God, and the land was filled with violence. It’s what God wants us to see today, that we respond like Lot did, that it hurts us. It hurts us to see the world and people suffering and to know what’s taking place, how evil it really is, to loathe the evil that’s out there. So that we ourselves will not participate in any crap in this world! Because we still have people that mess with this world and you flirt around sometimes with this world. It’ll take you away.

If we hate it, you know what, you won’t put up with it. If you smell it for what it is, it’s a big pile of, and it stinks! And put your nose down a little closer if you don’t think it does. Do we not hate sin and evil that way if we’re practicing it?

Then we still have the times people who rob God. I don’t get it. I do, but it hurts. We either love God and want God and want to fight for this way of life and see the world for what it is right now and hurt inside because of what we see happening in the world around us, and because of that we want, and we look forward to Christ establishing His Kingdom on this earth regardless of what toll it might take upon the earth, to be in agreement with God’s judgment.

That’s what it’s about. It’s about being in agreement with God’s judgment, that this world can’t have part in the new one. No government. No economic system. No coin that got started out here somewhere and people are putting tons and tons of money into it. It’s out there in nether-nether land. You can’t sink your teeth into it, there’s no gold in it. Oh, you can buy some gold right now with it if you have some until it’s gone. It’s as bad as what we’re doing in printing money, too, but that’s another story. That’s a Ponzi scheme as well. Sick. Sick. Sick, corrupt world.

That’s why it talks about Babylon and the merchants crying. The merchants look upon it burning when it’s being destroyed, “My bit of a bitcoin, where did it go? Boo-hoo-hoo. I put everything into it.” (I’m sorry.) You think how stupid, crypto currency, the big thing. Insanity. Greed. Violence. Corruption in every facet of society.

So God looked upon the earth, and it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted it’s way on the earth. We’re knocking on the door. Millions, hundreds of millions, billions of people of this mindset.

Then God said to Noah, The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them. So, behold, I will destroy them from the earth or with the earth. By a flood. Incredible. Now God is going to allow mankind to do it to himself to learn another lesson, “This is what you do. Given enough time you will destroy yourself.”

You read about things of pollution they’re finding. They found all these drums, thousands and thousands out in different areas of California. They haven’t gone over all the coastlines out there. But DDT! Did you see that in the news? Barrels on the ocean floor out there not too far off… And you know what happens to a barrel over time in salt water. All that DDT, thousands and thousands and thousands of barrels on the ocean floor and you think, “How crazy are we?” Greed.

We’re destroying the earth without a care it seems. So, how does God look upon His creation and what they’re doing to His creation? We’re there again except now we have the power to destroy so much of God’s creation.

Then God said to Noah, again here, The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; so behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

How can we not be passionate? How can we not be moved? How can we not see things like this and desire and want God’s way so much for this earth and for ourselves, that we stand tall and persevere in striving for the truth, in striving for living what reflects and honors God and not mess around with this world, not hold on to anything in this world.

Luke 17:26—Even as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.

Now, yes, it’s showing that this is just the way of life and it’s going on and then it came to the time for this to happen. That’s the way it’s going to be toward the end. Life is going to be going on until finally, it breaks loose. But another big part of the story is the way mankind was at the days of Noah and how he is now, the corruption that’s there.

So again, this shows life will be going on just as it was then because no one would listen to God. It got to that point. I’ll tell you what, that really hurts right now, that that’s the way it is. It’s like you’re out here in the mud spinning your wheels. But you’ve got to do it. That’s why this sermon series is going to carry us in a certain direction as we go on.

The same degree of violence and corruption is in the earth. Again, like it was in those days.

That would be a good place to stop before I go into another thought adding to this. So, we’re just building upon this reality that God is showing us the way mankind is today, the way the world is, and understanding why we’re at a point in time where people aren’t listening.

It wouldn’t matter if the skies around the earth light up and mankind sees a power being exercised and a power that’s going to come down to this earth, and have knowledge of it, be told what it is. And they repent? Say, God is going to take control of this earth now, that Joshua the Christ is coming to this earth? And not repent.

That boggles the mind, that finally they have to come, many of them have to come face to face with that power. Because that’s what’s going to happen. 144,000 with Christ. He says he’s going to destroy those who are destroying the earth. How great will that be because of the hardness of the heart of mankind? It’s not going to be a small thing. God wants us to see this, and understand that, and hate this violence, this evil world for what it is and want to see Christ be here soon to establish His government, and why He’s going to do the things that he does. Because God wants us to be of the same mind, to agree “Speed that day” for the right reasons.