Living In The Light

Welcome to Living in the Light. We're so glad you joined us for this special broadcast with Bible teacher and Graham Lotz. And today marks a very special edition of the program as we're pleased to announce a new voice to Living in the Light. Anne's daughter, Rachel Ruth Lotz Wright, leads us through today's Bible study of the Old Testament character Noah.

So, right at the start of today's program, let's join Ann for a little more insight on her daughter, Rachel Ruth. I'm delighted to have my youngest daughter and co-author, Rachel Ruth Wright, join me on the microphone. This week, she's going to focus our attention on the life of Noah. I know you'll enjoy her Bible teaching as thousands have around the world.

So let's join her for today's study. In Genesis chapter 6, we learn of a man named Noah. He was a man of righteousness, he was blameless, and one who walked with God. but he lived in a world infected with wickedness and sin.

So let's find out more about what the world looked like at that time and how it compares to our world today. Let's join Rachel Ruth now with her message entitled, As it was in the days of Noah. I know you all have recognized that we are living in the last days, that with everything that's taking place, it's kind of hard not to recognize that. If you didn't know that, you know something's going on.

So, I just wanted to touch on Matthew 24. I'm not going to be staying there. I'll be in Genesis, but Matthew 24 is when Jesus was telling his disciples what to expect in the last days. And just briefly, some of those things that he was talking about, he says in chapter 24, verse 4, he says, Watch out that no one deceives you. And we can all see how there is a deception, a deceiving spirit across the world, deceiving people through social media, through the news, through all different kinds of ways, trying to deceive people and make them believe things that aren't true.

And there's just all this confusion and chaos. And that's one of the things. And it says you'll hear of wars and rumors of wars and all the wars that are taking place, whether it's Israel and all of his neighbors or whether it's Russia and Ukraine. Ukraine or things going on in China, North Korea, Taiwan, all the attacks of different wars in Africa. There's just an unrest.

You know, we've got wars here against the cartel, all kinds of stuff that's happening.

So much unrest around the world, and it's everywhere. It's touching everybody. It's not just like, oh, we hear about those.

Now it's everybody's involved, everybody's talking, and there is so much unrest. And then it goes on and it talks about the things that we'll see in the weather, famines, earthquakes. And look at all that's taken place just in the weather. Everything's record-breaking. It's the worst.

You know, think about the floods, the blessing that we're here at the Cove this year because last year the floods hit western North Carolina and just wiped out so much and they're still suffering from it. And I have friends down in South Texas that were affected by that flood down there. And then you think of the fires and the palisades or in Maui and all the hurricanes that just wiped out Jamaica. And all over the world, the different things, the volcanoes, they were saying they're going to blow all over the place. And then the record-breaking snowstorms, record-breaking heat.

Everything is worse than it was last week or last month or last year. And we see it ratcheting out because Jesus said that it'll increase in frequency and intensity. And we see that across the board in our weather. And in the persecution of Christians, I mean, we just saw Charlie Kirk get shot in front of all those college-aged kids because he loved Jesus. And all that's happened.

And people celebrated that death. People celebrated that he was assassinated. And the persecution in Nigeria that's all over the papers now with 56,000 Christians that have been murdered over there. I'm sure it's more than that. But all the deaths that are happening in North Korea and China, pastors getting arrested, and there's so much persecution of Christians and persecution of Jews.

Who would have ever thought after the horrific stuff of the Holocaust that we would see this happen again? It's not just. Across the world, people are hating on Jews, but Christians, churches are turning on Israel and on the Jewish people. And we see that happening in the last days. And the false teachings, there's going to be signs in the sky.

Did you all recognize that the blood moons and the solar eclipses are happening on Jewish feast days? And that's not a coincidence. Oh, it just happened. No, it's God telling us, wake up, wake up. And He's getting ready to come back.

And so all these things are happening. And we could go on and on. My mom could tell us all this stuff she studied so much. But down in verse 32, she's always taught me this: that it says, Now learn this lesson from the fig tree. In Israel, the nation of Israel has always been represented as like a fig tree, okay?

And so Jesus says, now learn this lesson from the fig tree. As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near right at the door. I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

And Israel was reestablished in May 14th, 1948. And so it had been dead in a sense or dormant. And all of a sudden, the fig tree's leaves started coming out because the nation of Israel was reestablished in 1948. And a week later, May 21st, 1948, my mom tells people this, so it's not me giving away her age, but she was born. And so it's her generation that Jesus is saying will see the return of Christ because that's when the nation of Israel was reestablished.

And not just that, it's all these things that we've just talked about happening in this one generation. And we see it just increasing, you know, in that frequency. Intensity. And so we know we're living in the last days. You know, it says you can't know the day or the hour, which we don't.

But why would God tell us to watch if He didn't want us to know, to be aware? He wants us not to be caught off guard. We can watch and know the generation. And then He says, In verse 37, as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away.

That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. In the days of Noah, it says they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. They were just doing normal day activities, completely unaware, didn't want to even notice what was happening around them. That there was so much wickedness, and then it was too late. And the end came.

The judgment fell. I wonder what it looked like in the days of Noah. And so let's look at that. If you turn now to Genesis chapter 6. This is when God tells us what it looked like in the days of Noah, and this is what it's like right now.

And you'll see the similarities. It says in Genesis chapter 6, starting in verse 5, The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. Can you imagine? This is God's heart.

God's physical heart was filled with pain. His heart was filled with pain because of the wickedness that had grown so great that was across the world.

So the Lord said, I will wipe mankind whom I have created from the face of the earth, men and animals and creatures that move along the ground and birds of the air, for I am grieved that I have made them. And right there, we see it was so wicked that all of men's heart was wicked, all of their thoughts. And look at how wicked the world is that we live. Yes, we've got all these signs, but then if you just look at humankind around the world and you see how wicked it is that they are glorifying all this stuff that they're doing to kids, taking kids to drag queen shows and having them go get their genders changed, mutilating their bodies and changing and confusing kids about their gender and welcoming that, celebrating that, and there's the sex trafficking that is around the world up to the highest forms of government, down and all the evil with that. The gay marriage that is celebrated, even taking place in churches, abortions that are just epic.

The murder of these children, the AI reading our thoughts and knowing what we're thinking, and then bringing up advertisements. I mean, that's scary. And then the false teaching in churches, the cloning, the lying, the cheating, adultery, total lack of holiness. You can feel the anger and agitation in people. And just with my daughters, two of them, one's middle one's in law school.

My youngest is a freshman at Baylor. And just the things that they've seen, these kids are angry, they're mean, they're rude, there's an agitation. You can go into stores, you can go driving on the road, and people are honking and cutting you off. And there's just so much anger and wickedness. And the love of most has grown cold.

That's what Matthew 24 says, too. And we see it as in the days of Noah.

So that means we need to wake up. And how are we going to live in the days of Noah? What are we going to do to live for God in wicked times? And so let's look at Noah's life. He is a wonderful example.

You know, so many of the little nursery stories they depict Noah as this little old man, and here are all these sweet little animals that come on, and there's a little boat that floats. And then when you get to know who Noah was, he was nothing like that, he was unbelievable. And so let's look at what the type of man he was. It says in verse 8, but Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

So when everybody's wicked, and there weren't as many people on the earth as there are now, so everybody was wicked. Noah was it. Noah was the one guy, the one guy living for God. And it said that he found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

Now, Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of this time, and he walked with God. And so the first point is that he was right with God. He was righteous and blameless. And my parents taught me that righteous is being right with God, blameless is being right with your neighbors. And so Noah, living in this wicked, wicked time, so wicked that God was going to destroy.

all of them. Noah was right with God.

So that means Noah didn't talk like the people of his day. He didn't do the things that the people of his day were doing. He didn't go to the places they were going to. He didn't participate in those things. He didn't listen to, talk about, watch, get involved with all the wickedness.

He was set apart. He was different. He was an alien, a stranger, a foreigner in his own land. He was set apart. And that's what it means when we have to be right with God, living in the wicked times that we live in, because we're living in the days of Noah.

And so what does that mean? We can't blend with the world. We can't fit in. You know, we're on top of the world. That means you got to question something.

You know, we've got to be set apart. That means we're going to be left out of things. You know, we're not going to be invited to stuff. And we're going to be made fun of. We're going to have people get angry with us.

And because we're not going to be like the world. And so do you look different? To than the rest of the world? What are the things that you talk about with your friends, with your family? What comes out of your mouth?

What words come out of your mouth? What are in your thoughts? What are the things that you're thinking about? Are they pure? Are they lovely?

Are they admirable? Are they glorifying to the Lord? And what are the things that you're watching? You know, we've got access to everything on our phones now and on our TVs. And what are you doing in private?

What are you looking up on your phones? What are you watching? What movies do you see? What are you feeding your mind with? And we have got to be so vigilant to be very safe and step into walking with the Lord that we're not letting things into our tent that shouldn't be there.

And so, are you pure? Are you living a holy, Christ-like life in a wicked world? Are you set apart? How have you joined in the world? What do you need to cut out?

What do you need to be separated from the world and look different? Do your friends know you're different? Does your family know you're different? Do they see something and say, you know, she doesn't get angry like everybody else? And he's so patient.

And that person just treated that person awful, and they handled it so well. And all these different things. What do people see inside of you when the rubber hits the road? What's coming out, you know? And we need to be set apart.

And my daughter, my youngest daughter, Regan, is just a little example.

So she's a freshman at Baylor, but last year when she was in high school, she was at the school that my husband teaches and coaches at. And it's a very secular school. I mean, there's a lot of partying going on at this school, and there's very few believers that Riggan ever got in touch with and didn't know very many. And so she was very much alone, but she's very outgoing, big personality, so sweet to everybody. And the people loved her at school, but she wasn't doing anything on the weekends, never got invited to anything because she was set apart.

She wasn't going to involve herself in the things that they were doing, but she was still kind to them and everything. And if a high school girl with all the temptations, because I tell you what, high school is not like it was when we went. It was bad when I went, but it is, it is a whole nother level now. And if she can withstand the temptations and if she can be kind when it's not easy to be and be set apart, then why can't we? And in the settings we're in with our friends and our little lunch groups and our jobs, our businesses, our little committees that we're on.

Then we need to make sure and check our hearts in every situation that we walk in with the armor of God, that we're going to be set apart with every action, every word, every thought held captive by the love of Jesus and set an example, be right with God in these last days. You know what? If you've blown it, if you haven't been doing that, if you have made a mess of things and maybe you've been watching the wrong things or saying the wrong things and not living right, it's okay. We serve a God that is full of grace, and you can repent now and say, Lord, I'm changing. I'm going to be different.

I'm going to let my friends know where I stand. I'm going to let my friends know that I love Jesus. And you're going to start being different in front of those that you're around. And so be right with God. And not just write with God, be quiet.

And I actually love this part, maybe because I talk too much, but. Betty. In verse 13, so everything's corrupt, you know, in the world, and you've got Noah who's right with God, and God speaks to Noah. And as far as we know, this is the first time God's spoken to Noah. There's no record before that, and maybe He had, but we don't know.

So it says in verse 13, So God said to Noah, I'm going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I'm surely going to destroy both them and the earth. Like, right there was Noah, like, what? You know, spitting out his goat's milk and like, What you're gonna kill everybody? You're destroying the earth, but wait, wait, I have so many questions.

But instead, there's no interruption here. He didn't say anything, he just kept listening. Then God says, So make yourself an ark of cypress wood, make rooms in it, and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build it. The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high.

Make a roof for it and finish the ark to within 18 inches of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle, and upper decks. I'm going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish, but I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark, you and your sons, and your wife, and your sons' wives with you. You are to bring into the ark all, and he goes on to say, all the animals to be kept alive.

And Noah never was like, wait a second, what are you talking about? Hold on, I've got some questions here. You want me to build an ark? And you could say, I'm a farmer. And it says in chapter nine that he was a man of the soil.

Noah was a farmer. He could have been like, God, I'm 500 years old. You're going to change my job now. You want me to be a carpenter? I don't even know how to cut wood.

And I've been working with the ground. And now you're changing my job at an old age. What am I going to do? I can't do it. And he never talked back to God.

He never said, I can't do it. He never said, I'm too old. He never said, I'm not good at that. I think I'm good at this. Why are you putting changing my job to this?

He didn't argue with God. He just said, yes, sir. And he was quiet before God. And there is something to that his heart posture was right. And God can change our jobs.

He can change where we live. He can change the ministry we're in or whatever it might be. And we need to say yes, sir, to him. Obey him and listen to what he's trying to tell us. And there's so many things that we could come back and argue with him.

And, you know, there's an example in Luke chapter one of Zachariah. You remember, Zachariah and Elizabeth had wanted kids forever. And it actually describes, the Bible says that they were blameless.

So they were set apart. They were living for the Lord. And you remember, Zachariah was called as a priest to go into the holy place to light incense. And so he went inside. And then the angel Gabriel appeared to him and said, Zachariah, you are highly favored.

God is going to gift you with a son. You're going to name him John. He's going to prepare the way for the Lord. He's going to bring you so much joy. It's going to be wonderful.

And Zachariah's response was, I've got, you know, basically, I've got some questions. How can this be? How can I be sure this is going to be happening? And I want to be like, you got an angel standing in front of you. Have you seen that before?

You know? And so Gabriel was like, I'm a messenger of God. I've brought this word to you. And because you Did not believe you will not be able to talk. Until this son is born.

And so we just see the heart posture that, yes, it's okay to ask God questions, but when we're defiant against what he's asking us to do in disbelief, we need to check our hearts. We need to be quiet before the Lord and be open and willing. Lord, use me, send me. What is it you want me to do? Do you need to change what I'm doing?

What is it? Where do you want to lead me? And be open to where God's going to trust you to lead you. And so, some of those things, you know, maybe he's asking you to be loving, to be loving to somebody that's not easy to be loving to. Maybe he's asking you to forgive.

We saw that with Erica Kirk after Charlie Kirk was shot, to get up in front of the world and forgive the man that shot her beloved husband. And forgiveness can be hard because that means they've done something really bad to you, or hurt you, abused you, done something. And to forgive, you can be like, Lord, you can ask me anything, but not that. And maybe. That's something that you need to lay before the Lord and say, I'm going to be quiet.

You've asked me to do this. I'm going to forgive. And maybe it is a job change. Maybe you think, well, wait a second, you know, Noah was 500. Maybe you're older in your life and you think, I can't switch now.

I've been doing things this way for a long time. How am I going to switch now? And just say, but Lord, if you're telling me, if you're telling me to do this, I'll do it. I'm going to obey you. And Moses was 80.

You know, when God kept him, said, no more shepherding, you're going to go to Egypt and confront Pharaoh for me. He had to do big things. Noah had to do big things at the end of it. Don't think your life is over when you get older. God still has much for us to do.

You know, he picked us to live in the very last days of human history. Do you realize what a privilege that is? How strategic that is of the Lord? That we weren't born in the 1800s to ride horses and sit back, you know, whatever. We were born now in the last days.

And so you were handpicked by God because He wants you to be a voice where you're at, where He's placed you. If He's called you to do that, to start a Bible study in your home or to do something in your church or to witness to your neighbor, to do something that's kind of stepping out of your comfort zone, this is stepping out of His comfort zone for Noah. You know, Moses getting out of His comfort zone. All I mean goes all through scripture. And you just say, Yes, sir, to God.

Be quiet before the Lord. Have you been arguing with Him? Have you been upset in just saying, I can't do this, I don't want to do this, I don't like what you're asking me to do, and I'm just going to ignore it? And so today, would you decide to be Noah in these last days and be quiet before the Lord? What a man of God he was.

I mean, that's a huge thing God was asking him to do. And there was no talking back. And I think if there was, God would have put it in here because he does that in scripture, you know. But he was quiet before the Lord.

So be quiet before the Lord and then be obedient. And so it says in verse 22, Noah did everything just as God commanded him. And then it says in chapter 7, verse 5, and Noah did all that the Lord commanded him. And so what did God command him to do? He told him, you know, to build this ark, and he gave him all those dimensions and everything.

So can you imagine Noah. Why? The first tree he had to cut down? Like, did he have to make the axe? And then, Start chopping away at the first tree and think, one tree.

Okay, I've got 200,000 left to go. And there were no power tools. He didn't have a chainsaw. I mean, he's chopping away, and then he's got to take the bark off, and then he's got to cut the boards, sand them down, and shape them. I don't know how you shape them to do the shape of the boat curved.

And I'm not a carpenter. I'd love to be, but anyhow. And shape the boat. And then, did he have to make the nails? How did they put it together?

Like, how did he make nails? And then he's putting that together and building the ark. And then he had to do the pitch and cover the whole ark and pitch. And not only that, he had to make the different floors to the ark, the different walkways, the different compartments, because we're going to have little animals, we're going to have this, and then we're going to have elephants, and we're going to have these big, all the different compartments that had to fit the different animals. And not only that, he had to make the storehouses for the food.

And God said, get all the food, all the different kinds of food. He had to get all the food to feed all the different things. Think about there's lions and tigers and bears and hyenas that are eating meat, you know. And then you've got all the other animals that are eating grain or the rabbits that want lettuce. Or the, I mean, just all the different things that they had to store away in the storehouses and enough to last an entire year or more on that boat.

And there was so Much planning, so many details, so much organization, so much manual labor. It was hard, hard work. I mean, Noah must have been a beast. I mean, gotta be a built man. And so he did all that layer after layer after layer, putting it together.

And at year 99, he didn't say, I quit, I'm sick of splitters, I can't do it anymore, and just give up. Can you imagine if he had given up, if he had just stopped and said, I can't do it anymore, what would have happened? And so your job is important. Do not give up. Do not just throw in a towel and say, I'm tired.

I've tried and tried and tried. I've been praying for this person for years. I'm not gonna do it anymore. And would you obey to the finish? Be strong to the finish, don't give up, work hard, keep vigilant.

Uh Living in the Light is a weekly study in God's Word. Learn to listen to His voice. Then start making the choice to keep on going and believing and trusting who God is. Go to anngrahamlots.org. Take advantage of the many helpful free resources to get you started.

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