Living In The Light

Welcome to Living in the Light. And today marks a different day in the history of this program, featuring Christ-centered Bible study. Last week and this, we're privileged to welcome Anne's daughter, Rachel Ruth, to the microphone. And out just before our program today, Anne has a few more insights about her daughter, Rachel Ruth. I love 3 John verse 4.

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. Rachel Ruth, my beloved youngest daughter, is not only walking in the truth of God's word, but her passionate, lively, demonstrative delivery is contagious. I'm thrilled to have Rachel Ruth join me to share her messages here on Living in the Light. You know, unhesitatingly, the Bible says God has a plan for your life, that you're on a path. And there's a reason God has put you through every circumstance in your life.

In fact, He promises to use your specific suffering for His purpose and His glory. Let's join Rachel Ruth now as she continues her message titled, As it was in the days of Noah. When you get to know who Noah was, 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. 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.

Noah gets to this point where he has built the ark. And can you imagine? It says in 1 Peter that he was a preacher of righteousness. And so Noah is not just building this ark and he's preaching to the people. You know he is.

I can't wait to see the replay in heaven, but. He's telling all these people, you know, he's saying, repent, get right with God, the end is near. There's gonna be this flood, and I'm building this ark. You can be saved too if you come on the ark and everybody's like, oh, crazy old Noah, there he goes again. What is he talking about?

A body of water, rain? We've never even seen that before. What is he talking about? Building a big boat. What is that going to do?

And this is crazy talk. We've never seen anything like that before. Have you heard that before? When people are like, What is a rapture? You're crazy.

And then nobody's heard of that. Nobody's seen that before. They're crazy Christians. What are they talking about? And you keep telling them, Be saved.

The end is near. Jesus is coming back. And people are like, I don't want to hear it. Y'all are just crazy. And look at what happened.

And, you know, there's going to be a point when there's no, there's no second, like, oh, wait, wait, wait, wait. You know, when God told Noah and his family after everything was finished, and by the way, when all the animals came, God brought the animals to him two by two, and they all line up.

So it was orderly. God is a God of order. And he had those animals go in two by two. Why weren't all the people standing around going, like, maybe they brought their kid, they're eating popcorn. What is that?

I've never seen that thing with a long nose sucking ants up, you know? And what, look at that, this bear has all these black and white circles on him, and a panda. All these animals they had never seen before coming to this ark to get on the ark. Why didn't people be like, wait a second they there's something to this what what is noah saying noah explain to me again what what is the rains coming and how can i be saved not one person repented not one person entered the ark and and noah and his family god said all right noah get on the ark after all the animals are on get on the ark and for seven days that door stayed open seven days they sat there and don't you know noah stood at that door just preaching be saved get on the boat it's not too late he saw his friends that he'd be friend he'd been friends with for 500 years neighbors walking by and friends he'd had dinner with and people walking by and everybody's like now uh you know enjoy that with all those animals on there and And he waited and waited and waited. And God has left that door open.

You know, it represents the cross. And when Jesus came to die on the cross, to take away our sins. To give us that right relationship with God, that's the only way. It's only through the blood of Jesus. And the only way to be saved was on that boat.

They had to get on that boat. Noah couldn't go up and be like, you know what? I smelt it in there. Those animals stink. I can't make it on that boat.

I'm going to, I'm going to, I've got them on there, but now I'm going to go make a different boat or I'm going to do something else. He would have died with the rest of them. There was only one way, and it was through that one door. One door. He had to go in and come under the covering of the protection of the Lord.

And there's other stories like that. Think of Moses when that last plague hit, and the Lord said he's going to send that angel of death to kill the firstborn son. And it was going to come through. And Noah had to, I mean, Moses had to tell the people: you get a spotless lamb and use that blood, paint it on the doorpost over your house, and your family, you and your family, have to come into that. Covering into your house under that blood to be saved.

And if the son was like, I don't want this, it's kind of creepy. I'm just going to run out in the woods and hide, they would have died. The only way they could be saved is if they came under the blood into their house and didn't run out when the angel of death was coming around. They had to come under that blood over the doorpost. And think of Rahab.

When those spies said, Rahab, you and your family will be saved. If you come into your house and hang that red cord outside of the window, you will be saved. But you have to stay in your house under that roof with that cord and hanging out. And she could have been like, after they left, she could have been like, well, the house on the other part of the wall is sturdier. I think that'll hold it better.

We'll just go stay over there. She would have died. She had to come under that roof with that red cord hanging out to be saved. There was only one way. And God was sharing, telling us in the Old Testament, pointing to the cross, there's only one way to be saved, and it's through the blood of Jesus.

You have to come under his protection, come into the ark, and be saved. And that's the message of the hour. We have to tell everyone we can there's only one way to be saved. It's not Buddha, it's not Allah, it's not good works. It is only through the blood of Jesus.

He did everything that is possibly needed for us to be saved and cleansed and forgiven of our sins, to be right with God, to go to heaven when we die. It's only through the blood of Jesus. Who are we to say we could do enough good works? I mean, it's crazy, it's ludicrous why anybody thinks they could earn their way to heaven. We're all of our good works are like a bunch of filthy rags, and our good thoughts are still muddled with bad stuff.

You know, I mean, there's nothing good about us, we are nothing, we're dust people without the blood of Jesus covering us and making us whole. Making us white and clean and cleansed. And so if you haven't come to the cross, You need to do that today. And come under their protection, come into the ark like Noah would have been preaching from that door and be obedient, not only to make sure that you've come under that protection of the blood of Jesus, but make be sure to share the gospel with those around you. And while time's running, it's ticking, and we're in that last.

The last hours, and who can you share the gospel with? Who is it that needs to hear the good news? And there's been so many examples. One of them, I was walking out in front of my house and going out to exercise, and there's a man that walks in front of my house all the time, every day. He's faithful, even if it rains, he's out there.

He's amazing, and he's kind of a well-known guy back in Raleigh, and just a sweet man and an older man. I went out to walk, and he's he stopped to talk, and we're talking about football and everything. And we talked and talked and talked for two hours. I knew the Lord had me there to share the gospel, and he began to share things with me-some really tough stuff that he had gone through years and years ago, been burned by Christians and didn't want to have anything to do with them. And I began to share the gospel with him, and I asked him if he wanted to pray to receive Christ.

He said, Yes, yes, I do. And right there, 77-year-old man, I prayed with him. To receive Christ. And when I finished, he was like, ah, I'm so excited. I'm so excited.

Now I'm going to go to heaven. I don't have to worry about it anymore. I just can't believe it. And every time I see him now, when I drive by, he does this. He does this.

He's so cute. He doesn't have all the Christian language and all that. You know, he just knows, you know, and just so excited. And so you can be walking, you can be at the grocery store. You can get your hair done.

You can be, it could be a cab driver, whoever it is. Share the gospel. You have no idea how God's been preparing their hearts. It can be, it's so easy. It's so easy because God's done all the work and we just get to share, you know, the gospel and then pray with them to receive Christ.

Don't be afraid. You open your mouth. God will give you the words. And so we are here strategically in these last days, and that's our mission. Tell people about Jesus, save them, bring them on the boat so they don't die in the judgment that's about to fall.

And. The last part is to trust God. And so. We come, you know, everybody's on the boat. And it says in the verse 16, the very last part it says, Then the Lord shut him in.

Noah didn't have to close the door himself. How hard would that have been to shut the door knowing that nobody had repented? Can make you teary thinking about people that you love that are not believers and you want them to come to Christ. And the door is still open right now. We can still share the gospel.

But the Lord shut the door. And there's a moment there when it's too late. And people can say, they'll put it off, put it off, put it off. But it was like a canopy. It was like a greenhouse back then.

And from what they think, you know, it was like water was up above and water was down below. And in the moment when the judgment fell, it was like it just went boom. The water just came down and the water rushed up from the ground. There was no like trickle, trickle, trickle of rain. And they knock on the door.

Noah, I think you're onto something. There's water dripping from the sky. And I think I'll get in. It was too late. I mean, that water hit and they were dead.

They were gone. And so when the rat. Rapture comes, it's that fast. It's not like, wait, oh, I see them going up. Wait, wait, I believe, I believe.

It's too late. It's in a blink of an eye. And so you can't put it off. You don't put this off because there will be a day when the door shuts. And so don't put that off.

And now Noah had to trust the Lord. And it says. For 40 days, in verse 7, for 40 days, the flood kept coming on the earth. And as the waters increased, they lifted the ark high above the earth. The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth.

And the ark floated on the surface of the water. They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than 20 feet. And every living thing died. Everything died.

And at that point, when that water hit, Noah had to just trust the Lord. He could have been like when the water hit and the boat starts going like this. Like, I wonder if the Lord made it easy because I would have been. Puking on that boat.

Sorry, but With the waves hitting in the boat, and everybody's the animals are roaring and I mean, it could have been chaos. Feathers are flying. I mean, you just have no idea what it was like on that boat. And Noah could have been like. I put the pitch in all the right places.

What if I left his spot open? And what if everybody checks? Is there water leaking anywhere? And at that point, he just had to trust. That God would fill in the cracks.

He had to trust God when the waves hit. And the waves are hitting our lives more so than ever, I think, in human history right now. We are all getting pummeled because the demons have been unleashed and we're getting attacked in our health. I mean, my mom talked about the heart attacks, and that was the big wave that hit me. I mean, it just slammed me, and I had no idea perfectly healthy, exercise, fit.

And and then almost died and I knew I was dying and And the Lord, just my last prayer, and I'll just tell you, I had total peace. I had no feeling in my body. It was all, I was dying. Everything was, I won't even go into details, it was awful. And I prayed, I said, Lord, just take care of my girls.

That was gonna be my last prayer, Lord, just take care of my girls. And then I felt what was like the hand of God go across my heart. I felt something go across my heart, and all the blood came back to my body. They rushed me off to the OR, and in the operating room, I mean, just so many answers to prayer. I won't even go into it, but the guy that is the best in that whole area.

For stents, he happened to be on call and happened to be not in surgery. And he came in and he said, just everything broke loose in that OR when they saw that artery shredded from top to bottom. It had to put the stents in and weave it through the shredding. Anyhow, God saved my life. There's no reason why I was alive even on the gurney laying there.

I should have been dead. And God just, you know, put blood in my body when there wasn't any.

So the waves hit me and it didn't stop after I came out of that hospital. For three years after that, you know, it can happen again. I had chest pain. I went to the ER 12 times after that and had all, I ended up having blood clots in my lungs. I had a mini stroke and I didn't have the COVID shot, but it just, I just got.

Slammed. I got slammed. And I was like, you know what? I'm not going to stop. I'm going to teach my Bible study.

I'm going to keep speaking about the Lord until the Lord takes me away, until it's my last day. Because I've learned that when these things hit us, we have a God that we can trust. These waves can slam us. They can be huge things like heart attacks or cancer or strokes or death of a child or loss of a business. But we stay steady in the Lord.

The Lord's going to take care of all the cracks. He's going to take care of you. All the what-ifs, all the things that we're afraid of that's going to happen because these waves hit us. We just have to be like, no, I serve a God who's greater. I serve the Almighty.

He's going to take care of all the cracks. He's going to take care of you through the waves. He's going to bring you through because He's a faithful God that's promised to be with us. He's a God that is with us. He told Joshua, be strong and courageous.

I am with you. He told Moses, I am with you. To Egypt, and with Noah, he was with him. He's with us when the waves hit. And so, what waves have hit your life?

What has knocked you down? You know, maybe it's just emotional difficulties. Maybe it's past memories that you can't get away from that just seem to torment you. Or maybe it's a difficult marriage or health diagnosis or scared about what's happening. You know, you're just fear.

And this is when we have to just trust the Lord. And, you know, the thing that got me through all those scary situations was God gave me a promise shortly after those heart attacks. And the promise was, you will not, the actual verse says, you will not go that way again. And I knew God was saying, Rachel Ruth, you will not go that way again. You will not have another scad heart attack.

And so, even though it took me a while to trust him because the pain was for real hurting me, I had to just trust in that when God's word says that, he means it and he keeps his word. And so, even when doctors are like, yeah, it can happen again. I don't know, mama. No, I know what God told me, and I'm going to be okay. When I got the blood clots in my lungs that were super painful, the Lord gave me.

Multiple verses that promised me in one week, seven times, he promised me, I will preserve your life. I will preserve your life. And I was like, all right, I'm good to go, you know, and I'm going to keep going and keep going and keep going. I'm not going to give up. And so don't throw in the towel.

You trust the Lord to the end. We want to be warriors. You know, you don't want to be wimps. I just, I mean, I've got a whole line of family members. You know, we're just strong people.

And I don't want to wimp out in the last days. I don't want to look at the Lord and be like, well, she's not going to be dependable. You know, and he's just kind of, you know, wishy-washy and they don't have a spine. Yeah. We want to be men and women that are strong in the Lord, that believe in the power of God, that step out in faith, that we're unashamed, we're unafraid to be warriors for the Lord and be a Noah in the last days and no more sitting back and just holding on until the rapture.

You know, get involved, step out, speak up, and make Make a difference and don't use age as an excuse. Don't use health as an excuse. Don't use the difficulties you've had as an excuse. Be a Noah. Be a know and be faithful, whether he's changing your job.

I mean, can you believe it? From a farmer to a carpenter, and did you know it took him 120 years to build that ark? 100, that's long obedience. And we think we've been waiting and waiting for the Lord to come back. And oh, I'm just tired.

And no, we just have to keep going. We have to be obedient until the end. And so that the Lord, when He comes back, He will find us so doing. He will find us living for Him, serving Him, being faithful to Him, sharing the gospel. And don't be afraid.

You know, I feel like I'm. Kind of an example of this because I feel like I'm the least likely in my family to be up here. I have the ADD, ADHD kid, and the and just have learning disabilities growing up and reading comprehension, and now I'm writing books. I mean, God can take the weaklings, the little nobodies, and do great things if you're just willing and open. And Noah was willing and ready to serve the Lord because he loved him.

It wasn't just out of like, okay, like he was a robot. He did it out of his love and devotion for the Lord. And like we're going to talk about when you have you lost your first love, you know, do you love the Lord with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength? And if not, check your heart. And maybe it's there's some sin that needs to be confessed.

Maybe you need to come back to the cross and remember what God's done for you, what Jesus did for you, and be refueled to serve him until your dying breath or until the rapture happens. We have got a call and we are here for. A reason and a purpose. He wants to use us in these last days. And so, would you commit to being a Noah in these last wicked days?

And would you pray with me? And so, with every eye closed right now, every head bowed, every eye closed. I just want to give this opportunity for anybody that wants to come into the ark, that wants to enter the boat, that knows they've never been. Come to the cross and ask for forgiveness. Ask for the Lord to cleanse you and forgive you.

Place your faith in the fact that Jesus died on the cross to take away your sins, to cleanse you from all the sin past, present, and future, to give you that right relationship with the Lord so that one day you can go to heaven when that final moment comes. And so, if that's you, if you want to enter that ark of forgiveness, come under the blood of Jesus, if that's you and you want to do that today, Praise God. Thank you. And I know there are people you can do that too. You can get on your knees in your room.

You can raise your hand in your room, wherever you're at. But if you know, if you've been going to church, you've been even a deacon in church, whatever you've done, and you've never remembered a time when you've prayed to receive Christ, do it today.

Well, if you would just pray this prayer after me, you can pray it in your heart. Just say, it's a simple prayer. It's about our heart posture. It's not about the words. It's just, you're giving your life to Jesus right now.

Say, Dear Jesus. I know that I'm a sinner. I know I haven't entered the ark. But today I believe that you died on the cross, Jesus. Shed your blood.

to take away my sins. to forgive me. to cleanse me, to make me right. To save me from the judgment to come. Lord, I place my faith in you and I ask you to come live inside of me.

and the person of the Holy Spirit. And I know now that when I die or when the rapture happens, I will be with you, that you promise to never leave me, never forsake me. Lord, thank you for your forgiveness. Thank you for promising me heaven when I die. Thank you that now I can have a relationship with you like Noah.

And Father, thank you for the glory of heaven to come. I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

So, for those of you who prayed that prayer, you are saved. You have come under the ark. You are saved. Yes, praise God. You are going to heaven.

When the rapture happens, you're going with us, and we will be in heaven for all of eternity. Nothing, no one can take that away from you. And so, for the rest of us, let me just pray to close this out. Oh, Lord, just thank you, Father. Thank you for your word.

Thank you for Noah. Thank you for putting stories in the Bible that open up our eyes, Lord, that they still speak today, even though that was thousands and thousands of years ago, Lord. It still speaks today. We want to be a Noah in these wicked times, Lord. We want to stand for you, live for you, be right with you, quiet before you, obedient with you, Lord.

We want to be trusting of you, Father. Just help us. Help us to live for you, not to be wimpy Christians, not to just hide away in our homes, Lord, but to be involved, to get in the race, Lord, to make a difference while there's still time. Who can we share it with, Lord? Show us.

Help us to. Share the gospel, help us to open our mouths, help us not to fight with you, argue with you when you change our jobs or move us or call us to do something to forgive somebody, to be loving to somebody, whatever it is, Father. We want to follow you and we want to say, Yes, sir, Lord, use us in these last days. We're going to be warriors for you, Lord. And so, whatever we haven't been doing, we repent of now.

We want to get right with you, Father, and we want to march forward for the rest of our lives to serve you. And what a privilege it is because we love you so much.

So, Father, thank you, thank you, thank you for being our King, for being our Savior, for shedding your blood to cover us, Father. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Lord. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus, Amen. This has been Living in the Light. Please take advantage of all the free resources at andgrahamlots.org to help and encourage you in your walk with God and in your study of His Word.

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