Luke 17:26-30 – What in This World Is Going to Happen (2) – Bible study

Last week, I started a sermon. The thought came from our last election. No matter who you voted for, apparently at least half if not slightly over half of the country voted for a platform that is anti-God, socialistic, and pro-abortion. That tells me that our country has settled on a course. The question becomes, what is going to happen now? I shared two thoughts last Sunday morning. 1. \#Matt 24:3-12\ Much of the same is going to continue to happen. There will be more wars, more rumors of war, more famines, more pestilences, more earthquakes, more cold hearts, more false Christs, and so forth. 2. \#2Thess 2:3\ The church will continue to fall away. I said continue because the church has been falling away for some time. It has fallen in doctrine, in lifestyle, and in ministry. Then on Sunday night from 1Thess 4:13-17, I asked the question, "How far will the church fall?" The answer was, "It will fall right into heaven." The church may experience revival but even if it does, it will continue to fall until the Lord removes it by the means of the rapture. This morning, lets go back and note two more things are going to happen in this world. III. People will continue to live their lives with no thought of God. 1. Obviously, I believe that most people today live their lives with no thought of God. a. It is certainly true in the unsaved world. (1) The numbers of those who are atheists in America is estimated to be only between 3% to 4%. (a) Agnostics make up an additional 4%. (b) Atheists believe there is no God while agnostics while agnostics believe if there is a God you cannot know Him. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreligion_in_the_United_States (2) World-wide that number increases to around 14%. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_atheism (3) Yet, a far greater number take no thought for God in their everyday life. b. But it is true among the saved as well. (1) We do not pray and fast to seek Gods will. (2) We do not obey Gods Word. (3) Many do not even go to hear Gods Word preached. (4) And few live their lives to please Him. 2. I believe this is what was prophesied in the Bible. a. \#26\ Jesus was describing what it would be like in the days when He returned. b. \#26\ He said it would be like it was in the days of Noah. How was in those days? (1) \#27\ They were eating and drinking and marrying. (a) Is there anything wrong with those? (b) Has there ever been a generation that did not do all three of those? No. Any generation that did stop would be the last generation on earth. (c) It was not the fact that the people ate, drank, and married. (d) It was the fact that they did all of those things with no thought of God. (2) The Old Testament tells us that the people of Noahs day were also very violent and very wicked. \#Ge 6:5, 11\. (a) Why were they that way? (b) Because they had no thoughts for God. (c) Their sinful behavior (violence and wickedness) was a by-product of their sinful condition (taking no thought of God.) (3) We can see another result of their condition. (a) God told Noah to build an ark and to preach to the people for 120 years. (b) So Noah did, butas far as we knowno one repented. Not one. Why not? (c) Because no one had any thought for God. (4) People who have no thought for God will. (a) Ignore Gods law. i. Why, we do not know. ii. Perhaps they thought it was unreasonable, too restrictive, too-old fashioned. iii. Perhaps they thought they were too intelligent. (b) Then they ignore Gods preacher. Again, we cannot know for certain why, but probably for the same reasons. (c) By doing these things, they remain ignorant. i. They were ignorant of what right and wrong actually were. Human minds cannot figure out right and wrong for their own desires and emotions cloud their judgment. ii. They were also ignorant of what God was going to do. People complain that God is unjust, cruel, unfair; but God has never sent a judgment that He did not first warn was coming. iii. Dont plug your ears when God speaks and then get mad for not knowing what He tried to tell you. (5) Trying to think like God thinks will not save you. (a) Salvation only comes by faith in Christ and repentance of sin. (b) But trying to think like God will change your behavior. i. It will cut down on wickedness and violence. ii. It could and should be enough to get a person to see their need to trust Christ. (c) But the people in Noahs day would not think about Godand they perished because of it. c. \#28\ Jesus also said it would be like it was in the days of Lot. (1) When we read that, we normally think of Sodomy, for that was the sin that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah when God sent two angels to drag Lot and his family out; but notice, Jesus did not mention that sin in text. (2) Instead, he speaks of them eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, and building. (a) Is there anything wrong with those six things? (b) No, but that is what God thought of when HE thought of the sins in that day. (c) Why? Because they did those things with no thought of God. (d) Understand, I do not mean to minimize the sin of homosexuality, but when Jesus described the condition of His returning day, that sin is not what He mentioned. (e) Homosexuality was another of the results of their condition but their condition was they had no thought of God! (f) Both of these texts seem to be describing the same condition which will exists when Jesus returns. Neither texts mentions their sinful actions but both lead us to think it was their daily life without God. d. \#Luke 12:16-21\ d. I think the condition that was predominate during both of these time periods was that they people had no thought for God and having no thought for God lead to the sins of wickedness, violence, and homosexuality. (1) I think it is the same sin which is leading us down that path today. (2) And I think it is going to get worse and worse while we wait for the Lord to return. IV. \#Romans 1:19-32\ Sin will continue to increase. 1. We turn to this text often for in it is contained a description of this day. The entire account is an account of mans downward spiral into sin. 2. As I refer to it often, we will not read it all. The chapter contains 5 platforms from which man will descend. a. First platform: Romans 1:21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. (1) To know God but not to glorify Him is to refuse to obey or honor God. (2) This is what I just talked about. It is to strike God from your thoughts. (3) Man will sin because he is a sinner but for man to go deep into sin, he must strike God from his mind, to have no thought of God. (4) Doing so darkens your heart and stirs up your foolish and vain imaginations. (5) This darkness has been over the majority of the lost world for centuries at a time. i. Yet it must increase. ii. How? Where else can it go? iii. It will go and has gone into the church. iv. As I said last week, the church has always had to battle against the world and evil and it has often been infiltrated, but always, the true church has separated itself from the wicked, smaller in number. poorer in resources, but richer in Gods grace. v. Sadly today, the church does not seem to be separating. The darkness and the foolishness has come and the church is accepting it. vi. Sin is increasing. (6) Yet, this is just the first platform. b. The second platform: Romans 1:24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: (1) This is not homosexuality. That will be the fourth platform and it takes a while for man to descend that low. (2) This is to give oneself over to his lust and to mar his body with addictions. (3) Addictions are certainly not new. They are ancient. (4) And there is more to addict oneself to than just cigarettes, booze, and drugs. (5) Short list: food (eating), sex, pornography. computers, video games, work, exercise, spiritual obsessions, pain, cutting, shopping http://www.healthyplace.com/addictions/addictions-information/types-of- addiction-list-of-addictions/ (6) All of these have two things in common: i. They are done out of the lusts of the mind. ii. They dishonor the body. c. The third platform: Romans 1:25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. (1) We have not seen this on large scale yet, but it is beginning. (2) In our world today, religion is being largely abandoned, but twice in Matthew 24, we saw that false Christs were to increase and here we read that mankind is to turn to worshipping the created instead of the Creator. (3) Satan does not want worship or religion to be forsaken. (a) He wants to be the object of worship so it is counterproductive to him to stop it. (b) Satans goal is to redirect our worship. (c) At this point, it does not matter what we worshipAllah, idols, animals, stars. (d) As long as it is not the God of the Bible, he will be content for he has a plan. (e) When the world gets into enough trouble, he will step on the scene as a healer and helper and direct all of that false worship to himself. d. The fourth platform: Romans 1:26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. (1) This is the sin of Sodom and of our whole world. (2) In our life time, we are seeing something that the world has never seen before. (a) It is obvious that Sodomy has been around at least since Genesis 19. (b) No doubt, individuals, homes, cities, perhaps even whole nations have been given over to it. (c) But never before has the whole world been given over to it. (d) While there may be a brief turning back to some measure of sanity, the overall direction of the world in this area will be that this sin will continue to increase. e. The fifth platform: Romans 1:29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: (1) We will just call this the abundance of sin. (2) It does not matter what kind or what the results are. (3) Sin will increase until people are filled with hatred for God, betrayal, foolishness, anger, maliciousness, and every wickedness imaginable. (4) You are seeing this last platform taking hold right now. (riots, fear, murder of the police, stupidity beyond comprehension) (5) And sin will continue to increase in like fashion until God has had enough of it. I have listed four things that this world is going to continue to do until Jesus comes. It may be that there will be a period of slowing down in these vents. It may even be that a great revival will actually move the hands of time back a few years; but no matter what good may happen, these four evils will continue until Jesus returns. However, the issue is not what will happen to or in this world. Not for the Christian. For you, the question is, "What will you do?" and "What will you be?"