Being Salt In An Evil Day

Lord, grateful to be back home. Thank you for another beautiful day you've given us. Lord, it was raining so hard the last few days.

Sometimes you just wonder if it's ever going to stop. But then this morning, Lord, the sun breaks forth and we remember that you're still with us. You haven't given up on us, and we're grateful.

Let's pray that we continue to anoint the reading of the scriptures, that we might go thereby. In Jesus' name we thank you. Amen.

I was thinking of Noah this morning as I was reflecting on him. And it wasn't that many years before the thoughts and intents of men's hearts became completely evil. And it's written in Genesis 6, and there's only five chapters.

I believe Moses wrote Genesis, and the Lord gave him the account of what happened. It all started when sin entered the world, and death spread to men because of one act of disobedience, and praise God for one act of righteousness, reconciling us back to Jesus. But in those days, the days were dark, and times were evil, and everyone did what seemed right in their own eyes.

And the Lord was sorry that he made man. He was sad that he even created them. And he decided he was going to destroy all flesh from the face of the earth and start fresh.

But then he saw one man who had faith, and who was righteous before him. And it says, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. You know, to be salt and light in a wicked and perverse generation that is what the Lord desires of us.

To do justly, from Micah 6, 8. To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before God. It doesn't matter what education we have, it doesn't matter how much money we have, it doesn't matter whether we're esteemed by men. But is your name written in the book of life? Does the Lord know your name? I think of the rich man and Lazarus.

In the days of the rich man's life, Lazarus was looking for something, anything. He sat at his gate begging, and he had sores all over his body, and the rich man had no pity on him. And they both died and were carried up into Abraham's bosom, the Lazarus was, and the rich man found himself in torment, in tormented flames, in hades.

And he was able to see that Lazarus was being comforted by Father Abraham in the parable that Jesus shared. He didn't ask for a cup of water, he didn't ask for a drink of water, he asked if Lazarus could come and just dip his finger in some water and just touch his tongue, that he might have one second of relief, but it was not possible at that point. And it brings me back to the point of, where does love come from? Why did the rich man not have any love for that poor man laying at his gate? Why did he have no compassion for him? Because the man was completely selfish, and he was godless.

He knew about God, you say, how did he know about God? He called him Father Abraham. But the difference between Lazarus and the rich man, is the rich man's name was not written in the book. Because he said, when I was hungry, you gave me nothing to eat, and when I was thirsty, you gave me nothing to drink, and when I was sick, you didn't visit me.

And when I was in prison, you never visited me. Lord, when? When you didn't do the least of these to my brothers, you didn't do it to me. And God doesn't know the rich man's name, because his name is not written in this book.

And so when they come knocking from Matthew 6, Matthew 7, and they say, Lord, Lord, open to us. He said, who are you? No, we know God knows everyone. But what's important is that God knows your name.

Lazarus' name was known by God. We can dot all I's and cross all T's and do all manner of righteousness and not have love. If we would read 1 Corinthians 13, it says, Though I speak with tongues of men and of angels, yet have not love.

Dan talked about how the sounding brass was played at the orchestra in just the perfect moment, and it brought such enhancement to the piece. But you know what? If you don't have love, you can have all the doctrines right, and you can have all of the stories correct, and you can fathom all mysteries and knowledge. If you don't have love, you become like a sounding brass, and a clanging cymbal, and it's just annoying, and just like, quit it.

You don't want to become like that. So where does love come from? Brothers, sisters, love is of God. You cannot love apart from God.

You say, well, I've met some very loving people. Human compassion is much different than the love of God. People have human compassion.

People are very generous. People can be very inviting. People can have a very, you know, but their motives are not pure, because they're not rooted in God.

They're not rooted in Christ. And so this kind of love is perverted. Love is patient.

Love is kind. Love does not envy. And it doesn't boast, and it is not proud, and it is not self-seeking.

You don't do it for yourself, or for what you can get out of it. Love is selfless, it's sacrificial. Greater love has no man than this, than to lay his life down, or her life down for her friend.

When no one sees the sacrifices that are made behind the scene, you know, we would see an orchestra or a situation, and people just come in and they just enjoy the piece. No one sees the sacrifices that are made. The hours, the hundreds of hours, that go into the preparation to make a five-minute song sound beautiful for people who are paying just a measly amount in comparison to the hours spent.

How much more in a life that is sacrificed for Christ the hours spent in prayer, in the word of God, in denying of self, in pouring out one's soul to the Lord, in battling the devil and his lies, in seeking first his kingdom and his righteousness, and then come and enjoy for a few moments the crushing of a rose petal and the fragrance of Christ. A sweet aroma to them who are perishing. The love of God which surpasses knowledge.

There Noah is. God says, build an ark. I'm going to destroy the earth.

And the man with his sons-in-law, they start to build, and it takes them probably 100, 120 years to build this ark. And God, because he loved Noah, and his family, waited. When he was so sorry, 100 years later, he waited for that ark to be built.

And it says in Hebrews that by what Noah did, he condemned the whole world. By what he did when he built an ark for his family. Because God said the wicked shall not perish with the righteous.

In the same way with Lot, when Abraham was pleading for Lot's life and for his family, he said the wicked will perish, but he'll preserve the righteous. God will not allow the righteous to perish with the wicked. He'll preserve us.

He'll make a way for us, because we have our hope in him. We abide in him. David the psalmist says, he will hide me under his pinions.

He will hide me in the cleft of the rock. He will hide me. The Lord is a strong tower.

The righteous run into it, and they are safe. Even in a wicked and perverse generation, we can go to the Lord, and we can find rest and safety in him. It was time to enter the ark.

And they all went in at God's word. This is what we need to take heed to. Take heed to ourselves and to God's word.

The teachings. By it we will save ourselves, our families, and them that hear us. What does it profit a man if you gain the whole world? But we forfeit our souls.

We need to have a foundation which is Christ. And then our children and our children's children will be our inheritance. God went to bless Abraham years later.

He said, blessing I'll bless you. Ask me what you want, I'll give it to you. I'll pour out from heaven such blessing on you.

Even it says in Malachi. Abraham says, what are you going to bless me with? I have so many camels. I have so many goats.

I have so many herds. I have so many oxen. I have no son.

How are you going to bless me saying I have no son? No one to leave it to. No heritage. The one who is a servant in my house is my heir.

And God made him a promise. You might seek after money. You might seek after fame.

You might seek after glory. After power. Whatever it is that you're seeking after.

If you have no inheritance in leaving a heritage of Christ to the next generation, you are spiritually impoverished. Now those people say, well I've not been able to have children. You know what? You can have spiritual children.

You can pour into. I think of this Anna in the temple. And she was there night and day just longing to put her eyes on the Christ child.

And she lived long. Faithful. Dan spoke of faithfulness.

She was faithful there waiting for the Christ child because God had spoken to her and she persevered until she laid her eyes on Jesus. Are you going to be like Anna? And persevere to lay your eyes on Jesus? It's written about her. We can be faithful in our life.

And we don't want to take for granted the blessings of the Lord. Some of us, we have many children. Some of us, we don't have so many.

But you know what? The Lord is our inheritance. And God blessed Abraham with a child. He had a child but it wasn't from God.

Ishmael. It was according to the flesh. Born according to his own what he could do.

His own will. His own way. His own desires.

To fulfill the purpose and call of God. There's a way that seems right to him. But you know the end of it? Destruction.

But then when God acts. When God speaks. And when we wait patiently for him.

He brings about a blessing. And he makes everything beautiful in his time. That's it.

We need him to make things beautiful in his time. Waiting for the precious fruit of the earth. The hardworking farmer.

You know at grain time. You have to wait for the spring rain and the latter rains. And at the right time.

Then the harvest comes. You can't be impatient. You have to read the times and the seasons.

And at the right time. When it's time to harvest. It's now.

And the combines come out and they go. And they'll go night and day. Even sometimes the neighbors will come and help to get the crop in.

Because time is of the essence. But at the perfect time. We need to come to that measure.

That stature. Of the fullness of Christ. Being perfected in love.

Faith working through love. I want to read something from Galatians in chapter 5. Stand fast in the freedom. And the liberty by which Christ has made us free.

And don't get entangled again. With the yoke of bondage. I Paul say to you.

That if you become circumcised. Christ will profit you nothing. The Lord has given us freedom in Christ.

Freedom to go here, to go there. This yoke of bondage that has come through religion. Is not the way God wants us to live.

He wants us to live in freedom. To be led by his spirit. To walk in the spirit and to live in the spirit.

But if we live by rules and regulations. Don't taste, don't touch, don't handle. We miss Christ.

Christ won't profit you anything. Because you will never hear his voice. We have to come to hear his voice.

To know his voice. And yes, the lambs, they don't know the voice of the shepherd. But the sheep know his voice.

The lambs follow the sheep. But we have to come to the maturity and the stature of Christ. That we might know the voice.

Noah knew the voice. Enter the ark, he went into the ark. When God said, at the time God said.

We need to hear what God is saying to us. Fathers and husbands and mothers. Daughters, young men, old men.

Children. We can all know his voice. And I testify to every man who becomes circumcised.

That you are a debtor to keep the entire law. You have become estranged, separated from Christ. You attempt to be justified by law.

You have fallen from grace. Brothers and sisters, by grace we are being saved. And have been saved through faith.

This is not of ourselves. It is a gift from God. Why? What does it take away? Boasting.

God is against boasters. You have a gift from God. Where is boasting? It's excluded.

It has to be. Because God will not share his glory with man. He will not share his glory.

So by grace we are being saved through faith. This is not of ourselves. It is a gift from God.

Lest any man should boast. So does that mean that because we have such liberty. We should do whatever we want, whatever we feel.

No. We want to hear his voice. My sheep hear my voice.

They follow me. Many times we have taken decisions. And we went because circumstances demanded it.

But we were not sent. And then we reap the consequences of those decisions. Abraham took decisions and he went.

But God had not sent him. And he reaped the consequences of those decisions. Even Israel today in the flesh is reaping consequences.

Of Abraham's decisions. When those of his brethren are like wild men. Fighting against him even to this day.

Ishmael and Isaac are at war. The flesh and the spirit cannot dwell together. And we see it manifest even in our own homes.

Father against son. Mother against daughter. Mother-in-law against daughter-in-law.

And a man's enemies become those of his own household. Because Ishmael and Isaac are struggling to dwell in unity and peace. Yet we're brethren.

But brother, sister. All Israel is not Israel. And just because they're children of Abraham.

It doesn't make them the children of God. It says that in Isaac your seed shall be blessed. The children of faith.

The children of promise. Are counted as the seed. Both Jews and Gentiles reconciled into one new man in Christ.

So just because you're the natural seed. That doesn't mean that you are going to be a natural. Born again child of God.

There's no such thing. Not born of corruption but born of incorruptible seed. You must be born again.

You must be so changed in the inner man. So conformed into the image of Christ. That you're new men and women in Christ.

And that when Christ comes we are done. With being under guardians and tutors. We're done with this don't taste, don't touch, don't handle stuff.

We come into being led by the spirit of God. Through faith. Now Noah he's on the waters.

And it's been almost a year now. And all flesh has perished except the eight that God preserved. With the animals there.

And God speaks or he opens up a window. And he sends out a raven. And the raven goes out.

And it says of that raven that it roamed to and fro throughout the earth. Never came back to the ark. Some people they're in the ark like Ishmael.

But they have a raven spirit. And that raven it roamed to and fro. Never found any rest and never came back.

But then. He sent out a dove a week later. And that dove went forth and found no rest and came back to him.

You know. Not all Israel is Israel. But you know what those that God has predestined.

They will come back. Into the ark. Again he sent out the dove.

He was done with sending out ravens. And that dove come back with an olive branch. And then the dove went out the next week.

And the dove never returned. It found rest. And then in the process of time Noah opened up the lid.

And he looked with his eyes. And he saw the surface of the ground had dried up. The earth was dry.

He saw with his eyes everything was dry. Looked good. But Noah did not move from the ark.

Because God had not yet said. And it was yet another over a month and a half. When God had said open up the ark and it's time to come out.

Many times we would look with our eyes and say. Now is the time. But we need to hear from God.

When we should move. If you learn to listen to his voice. And to hear.

And if you are not hearing then you wait. I don't say do nothing. I say be faithful.

With what God has entrusted with you. You have heard him before. Be faithful with what he has given you.

And in the process of time. He will make it beautiful. Now you know what happened was they came out of the ark.

And God gave them a promise. And he gave them a covenant. It's been so rainy here.

We've had so much rain in the years past we've had floods. But you know what? They put a bowl in the clouds. God made a covenant with Noah and his family.

And not only with Noah and his family. With all flesh. That he would no longer destroy the earth with a flood.

You know I was reading this morning. I saw it for the first time. When he caused it to rain.

He opened up the foundations of the deep. And the waters came from the ground like an artesian well all over the place. And he opened up the windows of heaven like a canopy that was over the earth.

And waterfalls came down. And also he caused it to rain. And so when he caused the rain to cease.

The foundations were shut. And the windows of heaven were stopped. But the rain was restrained.

You see three sources of water there. And so the rains came after that. But before that time I don't believe it ever rained.

And now we see the bowl in the clouds. Now the homosexuals have hijacked God's bowl. They changed it around and mixed up the colors.

But you know what? We don't care what they do. The rainbow is not for them specifically. The rainbow is for all mankind.

And it represents that God will not destroy us with a flood. But I have news for you that he is going to destroy the earth with a fire. And the elements will melt with fervent heat.

And we need to hasten the day of the Lord. Because it is going to come like a thief in the night. When all the earth will melt.

When the Lord shows up. Because the Lord is a consuming fire. But you know what? His patience is absolutely amazing.

Waiting for the precious fruit of the earth to manifest in the children of God. It says, Brothers and sisters, behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us. That we should be called the children of God.

And you say, man I am so far from where I need to be. But it has not yet been manifested what we shall be. Because you know what? He is waiting for the precious fruit of the earth to come to maturity.

But when he is revealed. When Christ is revealed in us. You know what? We are not going to be so carnal and worldly and ungodly.

We shall be like him. Because we shall begin to see him as he is. And people are going to be able to see Christ in you.

The hope of glory. And it says everyone, as Dan shared from 2 Timothy 2, 19-21. Everyone who has this hope in him.

Purifies himself. Just as he is pure. Do you have this hope in Jesus today? Are you purifying yourself just as he is pure? When you see your shortcomings.

Do you call on his name and ask forgiveness? Say Lord change me, I don't like the way I am still. I need your help. It says those who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

When we see areas where we struggle and we fail and we fall. You have to ask for help. If you humble yourself and ask for help, he will lift you up.

That is what he will do. May the Lord help us to understand his will and his ways. God made this covenant.

He said no longer will I destroy the ground. With a flood. And he is having patience with us even to this day.

Not just with Noah and his descendants. But all flesh. Because God is true to his covenant and to his word.

He is true to his covenant and to his word. Let's pray. Lord thank you for today.

This is a day that you have made. We choose to rejoice and be glad in it. Lord those of us who are trying to please you by our efforts.

Our own will. Our strength. Our self-desire.

Our zeal. Lord you see it all. But Lord you want us to come to the end of all that.

That we would just come and embrace the cross. And die with you. That we might live with you.

Raise us up with Christ. Cause us to become new creations. Make us more and more like yourself.

Jesus' hand. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive everyone who has trespassed against us. In Jesus' name.

Amen.