A Young Person Who Makes a Difference! |
Those Who are Saved |
How did God see that generation? How does God see the present situation? Satan uses society to persuade us to think that the situation at the time of Noah, which is happening today as well, is normal. For instance, he wants us to think that divorce is normal. But divorce is the result of today’s love adventures. Those who experiment in this way are affecting their family. They are building a family without any foundation. Noah’s generation was fleshly, violent, seeking pleasure, and destroying the family. Now we ask, is today’s generation not like this? How does the Lord feel about what you are doing? A young person who wants to have love adventures should ask the Lord how He feels about them.
Genesis 6:6 says, “And Jehovah repented that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him in His heart.” Young person, do you understand this verse? God repented and He was hurt in His heart. God was very sad. Today it is common to hear on television that some parents say that they repent of being the parents of certain of their children. Are we causing our parents to think like that? Do you want to be like that? Do we want to grieve our parents and cause them to have a heavy weight in their hearts? And not only the parents! What about the saints in the church? Do the saints feel good about the young people living like that? The parents, the saints and the Lord are grieved. Do you want to grieve the Lord? Of course not!
Not only was God grieved but He also decided to put an end to that situation. He was forced to judge that generation. When you see that degraded generation, do you have the sensation that God is still waiting a little longer for your sake? If it were for the world, would He not have terminated everything by now?
Let us read Genesis 7:23: “Thus He blotted out every living being that was upon the surface of the ground, from man to beast to creeping things to the birds of heaven. And they were blotted out from the earth, and only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark.” Did it please God to judge the people in that way? No. He was forced to do it. God wiped out that generation because of their sin. And God will also carry out His judgment on this the present generation.
Young person, concerning this generation, where are you? Are you with the generation of Noah or with Noah? How are you conducting yourself? In a sensual way? To the world, the clothes young people wear today are decent, but what does God think about them? God’s principle is to cover our nakedness. Women today want to show off themselves, expose their bodies so that someone will buy them. When the women of the world expose themselves, they are selling themselves. A wise buyer will not buy merchandise from street vendors. He will go to a store and buy something valuable where everything is protected. Our “vessel,” that is, our body, is precious.
Pay attention to this testimony of a brother: “Twenty-five years ago when I was saved my friends told me that it was a joke. Do you know what happened to them? They did not take care of their vessel; they sold it cheaply for cigarettes and drinking, and now they have been damaged. Some have even destroyed them-selves.” Young person, our vessel is precious. When a valuable watch is for sale, does everyone touch it? No! Only people who have money and can pay for it go into the watch store. If the young people today expose their body, it is because they are selling it. This is to make it “peddlers’ merchandise.” Be careful with fashionable clothes, short skirts and see-through blouses. What are those clothes for? What message are you giving with the clothes you wear? What is the purpose of our clothing? It is to cover our nakedness because our vessel is precious. What should our standard be? Our standard should be clothes that do not draw attention to ourselves. We need to have discernment in the things of Noah’s generation.
Let us look as some numbers related to Noah’s history. He spent years building the ark and his generation must have thought that he was crazy. He even waited inside the ark for seven days before it started to rain (7:10). It rained for forty days and forty nights (v. 17). The flood lasted one hundred and fifty days (v. 24) and Noah waited more days before he went out from the ark (8:14-18). Altogether it was a year and ten days (7:11; cf. 8:13).
If we walk with Noah’s generation we will have no way to overcome. Society asks for help, trying to control the violence, drugs and social problems, but no one can do it. In the same way, we cannot overcome the generation of Noah unless we separate ourselves from it.
Let us read Genesis 7:23: “Thus He blotted out every living being that was upon the surface of the ground, from man to beast to creeping things to the birds of heaven. And they were blotted out from the earth, and only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark.” This verse shows us how to overcome the flood and the generation of Noah. In short, whoever was in the ark was saved. Today’s generation is worse than that of Noah so do not join yourself to it or try to overcome the “flood.” It is impossible.
Many must have tried to overcome the flood. They may have been able to overcome for the first seven days by hanging on to the boat. After thirty days some probably tried to survive by climbing up a mountain. Young person, are you on a mountain? Don’t you realize that there is only one place to escape the flood? How many of your friends have been carried away by the flood, dying from accidents, violence or other causes?
In 1995 a young person was with us who was living in the spirit and enjoying the church life. But one day he decided that life in the ark was not so good so he got involved in an “escapade.” He learned to go out with girls and, with the intention of saving his girlfriend who was drowning, he died as well. Do you know someone who has been swallowed up by the flood and was wiped out because of it? If we are far away from the ark there is no way to overcome the flood. Perhaps there is someone who has overcome for a week, but the flood did not last for only one week. It lasted for more than a year and everyone drowned. There is no way to overcome the flood unless we are in the ark. There is no way to survive outside the ark.
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