Posted on 01/06/2002 12:04:52 PM PST by VaBthang4
What are we going to do?"
With all the violence and calamity bearing down on us these days, that's a question you hear a lot. "What are we going to do about the Persian Gulf crisis? What are we going to do about the economic failures? What are we going to do about the drug problem?"
Build yourself an Ark.
Look in Genesis 6 and see how the Bible describes the condition of the earth back in Noah's day and you'll see why I say that. Verse 11 says:
The earth was depraved and putrid in God's sight, and the land was filled with violence (desecration, infringement, outrage, assault, and lust for power). And God looked upon the world and saw how degenerate, debased and vicious it was; for all humanity had corrupted their way upon the earth and lost their true direction.
Sounds like 1991, doesn't it?
Then, God told Noah, "Make yourself an ark" (verse 14).
That ark was to provide Noah's deliverance from the destruction to come. It was to keep him safe when the whole world was perishing around him. And that's exactly what it did.
I believe today God is saying to us, just like He did to Noah, "Build yourself an ark." Not an ark made of wood but an ark made of the Word.
Did you know that what you know from the Word of God will save your life?
That's right. If you've built God's promises of protection and deliverance into your heart and life, you can live in this crazy earth with all its dangers and still feel secure.
Psalm 91, verse 1, puts it this way, "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty."
That word abide means "to dwell in." It's a permanent word. When I'm staying at a hotel, for instance, I'm not abiding there. I'm not living there permanently. It's just a temporary situation. My home is where I abide.
Jesus talked about abiding. He said, "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love." In other words, to abide is to be consistently obedient to the Word of God.
So many people don't understand that. They think they can just live any old way and then, when they run into trouble, just holier, "Jesus, help me!" and everything will be fine. But that's not what the Word says.
Proverbs I warns that those who don't listen to and obey the Word of God in good times may find themselves stranded when the hard times come. It says,
Because I [the wisdom of God] have called and you refused [to answer], I have stretched out my hand and no man heeded it. But you have treated as nothing all my counsel, and would accept none of my reproof. I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when the thing comes that shall cause you terror and panic.
Thank God, we're living in a day of grace and mercy and it's never too late to call upon the Lord. Thank God you can just be going your own way and you can still repent and call on Him when you get in trouble. But I'm going to tell you, it's difficult to have faith when you do that. It's difficult to trust God and believe He'll help you if you haven't been spending time with Him.
I find that when people live according to the world and they don't pay attention to the things of God, when calamity comes, it's hard for them to take their dependence off the world and put it onto God.
So, the first step you need to take in building your ark is make obedience a lifestyle. You need to abide in the Word!
The second step you need to take can be found in Psalm 91, verse 2. "I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust."
Don't just read those words, say them. Speak them out right now. "God is my refuge. He is my fortress. He is my God and in Him I will trust!" Those are the words you need to be putting in your mouth these days. Words of safety and deliverance. You should meditate on them so much and speak them out so often that they just start flowing when trouble comes.
That's what I've done. I have so put the 91st Psalm in my heart that at any moment of danger, it comes up within me. If we lose an airplane engine or whatever, I just automatically crack down on the 91st Psalm. My mouth doesn't say, "I'm scared to death." It says, "The Lord is my refuge!"
Verse 3 says if you'll do that, "He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His pinions [or feathers] and under His wings shall you trust and find refuge."
I want you to notice, that verse doesn't say the fowler (or the devil) is just going to go away and leave you alone. It doesn't say that pestilence and trouble are just going to disappear forever. It says God will deliver you from them.
It's important for you to understand that because in the days to come you're going to see a great deal of trouble in the world around you. The reason is, there are two groups of people on the earth. There are the people of God and there are the people who still live in the devil's kingdom of darkness.
The people who live in darkness have no covenant with God. Because God has given the gift of salvation to the world, they constantly have the option to accept Jesus as Savior and change groups. But until they do, they can't enjoy the benefits that God's people have.
Now, the Word of God tells us that these two groups, even though they may live side by side on the earth, are going to experience very different kinds of lives. We can see that in Isaiah 3 where the Lord tells Isaiah to "Say...to the righteous, that it shall be well with him. Woe unto the wicked! It shall be ill with him" (vs. 10, 11.) Take two groups of people living in the same space, in the same earth, in the same city, even in the same family, and one can live well and the other can live in woe. One can live in security and the other in constant peril.
A few years ago, one prophet of God heard the Spirit of God say, "Declare judgment upon the world, blessings upon the saints, unrest upon the wicked, but rest upon the Church. Remember that when events in the world start to look dark and troubled. Don't be moved by the things that are going on around you but remember, instead, that God has the ability, the wonderful ability, to deliver you.
"A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it [destruction] shall not come near you. Only a spectator shall you be...because you have made the Lord your refuge, and the Most High your dwelling place" (Ps. 91:7-9).
God has proven again and again throughout the Bible that He can pluck His people right out of the middle of the most terrible circumstances. Look at Noah! The whole world went down around Noah. The whole world bought the farm, everyone!-except the eight people in Noah's family.
So don't be confused when you hear words of doom and destruction around you. Those words aren't meant for you. They're not meant for the Church of God. The Church is not going to undergo the wrath of God. We've already been delivered. We've already been set free. We've been made the righteousness of God. It's sin and unrighteousness and disobedience that brings the wrath of God upon the earth just like it did in Noah's day.
If you're a believer who's allowed yourself to slip into a life of sin, then repent and get out of that sin right now. Start putting God first place in your life again.
He says in 1 Samuel 2:30, "Them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed." If you want God to honor you in your life with this kind of deliverance and supernatural protection, then you must honor Him.
Once you've taken care of that, dig into His Word of protection. Build it into your life line by line and verse by verse. And don't wait until trouble hits to begin because it's going to take some time.
It took Noah many, many years to build his ark. Think about that! There he was out in the middle of nowhere building this big ship. No water in sight. Don't you know his neighbors laughed at him? "Crazy old Noah!" they must have said. "Crazy old Noah and his boys talk about God delivering them from the flood that's coming. They don't know what they're talking about!"
You know, people made fun of Noah and his family all those years, and the scripture says they did not know or understand until the day the flood came and swept them away. They were in the dark. But when the flood came, Noah wasn't in the dark. He was in the ark! He knew exactly what God was going to do and he was prepared.
Today I'm saying to you the same thing God said to Noah. "There's a flood coming. Build yourself an ark!"
Build it with the 91st Psalm. Build it with scriptures about your deliverance. Build it by abiding in the Almighty. Build it by saying with your mouth, "He is my refuge. He is my fortress. He is my God. In Him will I trust and on Him I lean and rely."
Don't wait until the flood comes and sweeps you away. Start now. Meditate on God's Word of deliverance. Read it. Go over it every day until it's so deeply rooted in your heart that it comes flowing out at the first sign of trouble.
Build yourself an ark...today! Don't be in the dark. Be in the ark.
The sun is setting on the day of grace.
So don't be confused when you hear words of doom and destruction around you. Those words aren't meant for you. They're not meant for the Church of God. The Church is not going to undergo the wrath of God. We've already been delivered. We've already been set free. We've been made the righteousness of God. It's sin and unrighteousness and disobedience that brings the wrath of God upon the earth just like it did in Noah's day.
Yes. There is thick darkness of spiritual oppression in the land and in the church NOW. The flood from Satan's mouth is present in the world today and many on the broad way know not. Too many have received the false doctrines which blind them to the call of the Holy Spirit which is to REPENT and walk in holiness, purifying one's soul in obeying the truth through the Spirit. 1Pe 1:22.
Mt 24:37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Lu 13:25 When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are:
26 Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets.
27 But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.
2Co 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
There is so much false doctrine in the above article that I hardly know where to begin. Briefly, to inherit the promises, one must keep covenant with the Lord -- abide -- which requires following in obedience lest one be cast way. If one abides in the secret place they have the protections of Psalm 91. If not and they refuse to repent, they go under Prov. 1:20-33.
Jer 5:31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?
Why do the people love the false prophets who spread this ear tickling nonsense which is another Jesus, another spirit, another gospel? Because the people refuse to repent, don't want their deeds reproved and love the things of the world more than the things of God. They want out of Egypt, most have not made it through the red sea and they want to enter the promised land without the wilderness or the deserts -- all gain, no pain and that has never been His way. No wonder God is lopping of the dead unfruitful branches and turning to the faithful Jews who love Him enough to keep His commandments.
1Jo 2:4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar**, and the truth is not in him.
Re 21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and **all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
Mt 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
More here: Click and go to #11
In England, people think 100 miles is a long distance. In the US, people think 100 years is a long time. Don't look now, friend, but your provincialism, your parochialism, is showing.
I am aware of very powerful trends at work among God's people towards new, higher standards of Godliness, of expectation, of achievement. A growing number of us, even here in America, are having large families, home-schooling those children of the covenant, teaching them to think Biblically and optimistically, and launching them against an unsuspecting world. We view ourselves as more than conquerors, through Him who loved us, called upon to fight, and to win, the myriad battles for the popular culture. While your team visualizes the inexorable rise & global triumph of antichrist, our team visualizes a mosquito climbing up an elephant's hind leg intending rape -- and the elephant ain't got a chance!
You are probably too young to remember the Cold War, when all good Christians "knew" that communism was invincible. Even Whittaker Chambers (do you know the name? he wrote the most insightful book about the central struggle of the 20th century, Witness) felt that he joined the losing side when leaving Marx for Christ.
Rather than rejoicing in God's visible triumph over Marxism, your ilk seeks out other foes to cringe and cower before. Do you indeed bring honor to the King of Kings by this stubborn, intransigent, and obstinant love of defeat?
Hark ,Mark ,,a dog will bark ,Its not a lark ,build an Ark ,and watch for a shark.Put it in the Park (the Ark)after darkand Bob may be a Nark...so Hark.
God: Noah, I want you to build an Ark.
Noah: Right.... what's an ark?
God: Build it 80 cubits by 30 cubits.
Noah: Right.... what's a cubit? Who is this really?
One of the funniest comedy bits I ever heard.
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