By Rev. Mark H. Creech
February 9, 2004

(AgapePress) - The likeness of our day to Noah's age is very evident. We have our own "giants in the earth" -- "men of renown" (Gen. 6:4) -- who fashion wicked philosophies, produce obscene expressions of art, eagerly champion the causes of smut, make fashionable the vilest of sins, and pour society into their mold. Iniquity accelerates at their hands. They exist because of the Church's apostasy and marriage to worldliness.

Our culture is not unlike that of ancient Sodom. In our decadence, people who indulge in their wicked passions are termed "gay." They press upon the door of restraint just as they pushed upon Lot's door to break it down. No longer will they practice their abominations in secret, no longer will they be ostracized, no longer will they simply be tolerated, instead they are an open, aggressive, and insistent force. Their behavior is not criminal, but a constitutional right to practice when and wherever they please.

"What's this world coming to?" is the pervasive question of our day. The answer is a disturbing one -- judgment. Jesus taught we should be fairly warned of judgment by the days of Noah and Lot: "[A]s it was in the days of Noah ... and the flood came and destroyed them all .... Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot ... it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all" (Lk. 17:26-29). Sadly, there comes a time with the individual as well as nations when the die is cast, the fatal line between God's mercy and his wrath are crossed, and the machinery is set in motion that on a given moment the flood and fires of judgment explode upon the scene.

Possibilities abound in today's world, but genuine certainties are few. Nevertheless, the evil of our day is as certain for judgment as the character of God is holy. The Psalmist writes in Psalm 7:11, "God is angry with the wicked every day." God will never make détente with our sin. His judgment sometimes comes immediately; other times it's much later, but no unrepentant sinner or culture ever escapes it.

My heart agonizes over our era. For we vainly entertain and comfort ourselves with notions that we shall avoid judgment. Yet I suppose as Jonathan Edwards once said, "Almost every natural man that hears of hell, flatters himself that he shall escape it; he depends upon himself for his own security; he flatters himself in what he has done, in what he is now doing, or what he intends to do. Everyone lays out matters in his own mind how he shall avoid damnation, and flatters himself that he contrives well for himself, and that his schemes will not fail .... But the foolish children of men miserably delude themselves in their own schemes, and in confidence in their own strength and wisdom; they trust to nothing but a shadow."

I make no apology for saying it, nor do I say it without tears, but Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake, Nelly, P. Diddy, Kid Rock, the producers of MTV, and all the rest of their ilk represent a lifestyle destined for God's fiery judgment. The Justices in our land who pervert righteousness by calling evil good and good evil will also face His fierce anger. Those who blindly follow the blind shall fall together with them into the ditch.

Is there hope? Because the city of Nineveh repented, God changed his mind about judgment. Judgment didn't fall upon that city for another 150 years. The sentence of God's judgment was suspended.

Huldah, the prophetess, was instructed by the Lord to warn Judah of its coming judgment, "Thus saith the Lord, Behold I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof" (2 Kings 22:16). However, Huldah was commanded to give a different message to the King, "Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I have also heard thee, saith the Lord. Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place" (2 Kings 22:19-20).

God's judgment can be withdrawn for a time. It doesn't even take the repentance of everyone to delay it. Abraham would have been granted a stay in God's judgment for Sodom if there were but a mere ten righteous persons in that city. Nevertheless, judgment for wickedness eventually comes -- only those inside the Ark shall be saved -- only those who like Lot and his family flee the wrath to come will be spared.

Listen carefully and you can hear the distant sound of the thundering hoof beats of the horsemen of judgment. They are swiftly riding in our direction and their swords are raised to strike. The only hope is God's people working as His allies in the salvation of the lost and social justice. It is not easy to work against evil that judgment might be postponed, but it is the task to which every believer is called. We must keep our testimony unspotted from the world. We must take our stand for righteousness -- even unto death.