Derek Prince - Be Alert! Jesus Will Come When You Don't Expect Him
This is an excerpt from: Pressures, Tests & Challenges
Then in both cases in the case of Noah and in the case of Lot Jesus speaks about another feature. It’s better to read it in Luke 17. He says about the days of Noah in verse 27: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage. And then it says in verse 28: Likewise as it also was in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank they bought, they sold, they planted they built. Now, Jesus mentions eight specific activities: eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, buying and selling, building and planting. I want to ask you, is there anything intrinsically sinful about any of those activities? The answer is no. What was the problem? The problem was they were so immersed in those activities that they didn’t recognize the days in which they were living. I would sum that problem up in one word, materialism. They were so immersed in the material, that they no longer had any understanding or alertness for the spiritual and the eternal.
So, let’s call feature number five materialism. How much materialism is there in our Western civilization today? I would say it is virtually inundated with it. And believe me, it is by no means excluded from the church. I think there are many professing Christians who are in their hearts just as materialistic as the people of the world. Maybe a little less demonstrative about it. They don’t show it in their lifestyle, but they are absorbed with materialism. Jesus warned us, that if we are sucked in into that pit of materialism, we will not be ready when He comes. We will be in the same category as the people of Noah’s day and Lot’s day. And finally, there’s a good side to the day of Noah.
Let’s not forget that. It says, but Noah walked with God. There was one man out of all those people who had an intimate, personal relationship with God. God could speak to him and tell him how He viewed the situation and the judgment that He was going to bring. I’d like to read from Hebrews 11 just that one verse about Noah. I believe Noah is a pattern for us as believers as we live in the world today. Noah and his family were the only survivors. It seems to me clear that only those people who live like Noah and his family, will survive today. Hebrews 11:7: By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. So there was one man in that whole evil situation that walked with God. He had daily communion with God. God could speak to him, reveal to him what was coming on the earth and show him the only way of salvation for him and for his family.
Let me just very briefly sum up those aspects of the days of Noah and Lot. Number one, satanic infiltration. Number two, corrupted thought life. Number three, sexual perversion. Number four, violence. Number five, blatant, aggressive homosexuality. Number six, materialism. And number seven, the good thing one man who walked with God.
Let’s turn back to Matthew 24 and go on from there. In verse 40 we get to another then. This is ninth then in chapter 24. Then [at this time] two men will be in the field one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and the other left. And elsewhere in Luke it says there will be two in one bed; one will be taken the other left. So here is a sudden, dramatic, eternal separation, separating the people who are closest to one another. Even the two that share a bed. The two women that worked at the mill. The two men working in the field. When the rapture comes, it will snatch one and leave the other. Which will you be, snatched or left? It’s important that you decide that issue.