As the world spirals down and drowns

“People get this idea that the Lord Jesus Christ was this meek and mild little milksop that went around the country just, ‘Oh, isn’t it wonderful, God is good, the Lord just bless all of you,’ ” says Jordan.

“He wasn’t anything like that. He was a rugged individualist, as it were. He was a man who could pick up His sandals and walk across a desert place and go and leave everyone dropped in His tracks behind Him. Physically, He was a very strong individual. But more than physical strength, because that is never the measure of manhood, He had a constitution and an inner commitment to righteousness that was absolute.

“In Matthew 23, Christ thunders and it’s a scathing denunciation of religion and to the religious system; ‘the Jews’ religion,’ as the Bible calls it. In Matthew 8 you have the same kind of exchange.

“In the Book of John there’s always this thing about continuing: ‘If you continue in my word, if you abide in my word, if my word abides in you.’ People take the Book of John and say, ‘John teaches eternal security,’ and go to verses like John 10 about Christ having given unto them eternal life. But people don’t read the whole verse. They don’t read verse 27, they just read verse 28.

“John 10:27 puts a condition on the possession of eternal life: ‘My sheep hear my voice and follow me.’ Well, then who are His sheep in John 10:27? Those who hear His voice and follow Him.

“That’s what He’s saying when He says in John 8, ‘[31] Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
[32] And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

“But look at how the Pharisees respond in the next verse: [33] They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?

“I mean, you’ve got to be blind in one eye and not able to see out of the other one, with a brain about the size of a split pea, to make a statement like that. Can you tell me where the nation Israel came from? Weren’t they delivered out of bondage in Egypt into the existence of a nation at the Exodus?!

*****

“Imagine they say, ‘We’ve NEVER been in bondage’? These are politicians!

You know who ran Palestine at the time John 8 was written? The Romans. They were in Roman bondage right HERE when they’re writing! They had to go get permission from Pilate for anything they wanted to do! That’s what religion does. It’s that blinding.

“As the passage goes on, [34] Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
[35] And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.

“You notice how He didn’t argue the issue of Egypt or Rome? He argued something far more pertinent than political advantages or disadvantages--the bondage of sin and the servant abideth.

“Notice He says in verse 32, ‘Ye shall know the truth and truth shall make you free.’ Verse 36 says, [36] If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

“You see how He equates Himself with the truth? Later on He’s going to say, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life.’ In I John 2, the truth is that Jesus is the Christ. If you know that truth about who the Son is, you’re going to be free, He says. Otherwise, you’re going to be in bondage.

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The great passage in II Peter 3 about the condition of man in the ‘last days’ says, [3] Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
[4] And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
[5] For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
[6] Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
[7] But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

“Notice there’s an 'old world' and it begins with creation and extends to the time of the Flood where it’s overflown. The water overflows it and drowns it all and then there’s a new world on the scene there. There’s a new cosmos. A new world system. George Bush would say, ‘a New World Order.’

"But it’s more than a political order; there’s a new way that the world is structured and it lasts from the Flood all the way to the Judgment at the Second Advent of Christ.

“Verse 10 says, [10] But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

“There’s going to be a future heaven and earth. There's one that starts with creation and extends to the Flood, then there’s one from the Flood to the Great White Throne Judgment, and then there’s ‘a new heaven and earth’ (Revelation 21 and 22) out beyond that.

*****

“The change from the ‘old world’ to the one that now is takes places in II Peter 2:5-6: [5] And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
[6] And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;

“The ‘old world’ the Bible talks about was the pre-Flood world. Now that takes you back into the Book of Genesis and does some very interesting things.

"Come to chapter 11 and you have a genealogy, and if you compare the genealogy and the time period of the people’s lives in Genesis 11 with the people in Genesis 5, in Genesis 5 people lived hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. Methuselah lived 969 years and his life is cut short, actually. People lived hundreds of years. They’re not having children until they’re 2-300 years old.

“When it says Noah was the 8^th person, the question is the 8^th person of what? Well, it’s not the 8^th from Adam because Enoch was the 7^th from Adam, according to the Book of Jude and Noah is a couple of generations after Enoch, but it isn’t hard to see.

"I Peter 3:20, talking about Noah again, says, [20] Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

“How many people got on the Ark? Noah was the eighth person. What does that tell you? Noah was the last dude to get on the Ark, folks. That’s what II Peter's talking about when it says, ‘But saved Noah the eighth person.’

“Noah is the last guy. You remember Genesis 7? Noah gets on the Ark. Who shut the door? The verse says God shut the door. There’s some great things back there. In Genesis 8:1, it says, ‘And God remembered Noah.’

“That’s a great comfort to Noah, I bet you. God shut him in. Noah’s the last one in. He got his family, the boys, their wives, his wife.

“But he’s ‘a preacher of righteousness.’ No doubt, Noah stood one more time on the deck of the porch going in and offered the invitation for others to come. Of course, nobody followed.

“Folks, I tell you the majority seldom ever follow a preacher of righteousness. If you ever feel like you’re ‘a few of many,’ well, you’re like the remnant told Jeremiah: ‘That’s who we are, the faithful few of the many who’ve gone away.’ And that’s okay.

“Noah was in the victorious minority. He’s the last guy to get on and he’s the preacher of righteousness. God extends the invitation through Noah to the very moment God shuts the door and shuts him in. Then the Flood came and destroyed the world of the ungodly.

“Now, again, the next verse in II Peter 2 says, [6] And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;

“The world in Noah’s day was ungodly in a different sense than Sodom and Gomorrah was. Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19) was a hotbed of liberalism.

"A ‘sodomite’ is a word we use in our vernacular today for a homosexual. To sodomize someone is to commit a homosexual act on them. Sodom and Gomorrah were places where sin ran rampant. And sin always goes in a downward spiral to that which is against nature.

"When II Timothy 3 lists the characteristics of men when, ‘in the last days perilous times shall come,’ one them is they’ll be 'without natural affection.' "

(to be continued)