Today, as in the time of Noah, there are two groups of people in the earth. There are the sinners who are headed for destruction and there are the members of God’s family who, like Noah and his relatives, have the promise of deliverance.
Just as in the day of the flood, the outcome of each group will be very different. The future of the sinner is extremely dark and sad. The future of God’s family is very bright and full of joy.
Isaiah 3:10 puts it this way: "Say to the righteous that it shall be well with them, For they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, For the reward of his hands shall be given him” (NKJV).
Certainly that’s bad news for those in the wrong group. But the good news is...nobody has to stay in that group. Anyone who wants to can get in to safe harbor.
God has invited everyone to become part of His family. Although He created man with a free will and He allows every person to choose whether he wants to walk in the light or the darkness. But if God had His heart’s desire, every single person would accept His invitation, and become part of His family and walk in the light. The Bible tells us, “[God]is long-suffering (extraordinarily patient) toward you, not desiring that any should perish, but that all should turn to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9, AMP)
Another verse, familiar to most of us, says it this way: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16, NKJV)
All you have to do to get into God’s family is make Jesus Christ the Lord of your life—recognize that you’re a sinner and repent of your sin. Jesus came to earth and shed His blood so that we could obtain forgiveness. Literally, He bore our sin on the cross so we could be made right with God through simple faith in Him.
Someone might say, “I’m of a different religion. I don’t want to do that. I’m just going to act nice and be right with God my own way.”
But you need to understand we can’t get right with God our own way. We have to do it His way and His way is through faith in the Lordship of Jesus Christ. As He, Himself, said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6, NKJV).
If you think that’s narrow-minded...you’re right.
Jesus said, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it” (Matthew 7:13, NKJV).
Jesus is the only way to salvation.
I know it’s not politically correct to speak in such absolute terms right now, when the world is shouting “Diversity! Tolerance!” By diversity they seem to mean: “I can be different and tell everyone about it, but you cannot. You have to keep your mouth shut.” And by tolerance, “You must put up with whatever I want to do and say, but I don’t have to tolerate you.” That is one-sided
Being politically correct is not what we should be concerned about. What’s important is for us to be biblically correct, because our eternal lives depend on it as well as the eternal lives of others. People need to know the truth and we have the responsibility to tell it…not to keep our mouths shut.
You Can Be One in Eleven Thousand
Once you’re part of God’s family, His promises of protection and deliverance become available to you. You can live in security and safety, not just when you get to heaven in the sweet by-and-by but, right here on earth in the dangerous here-and-now!
Psalm 3:8 says, “Salvation belongs to the Lord. Your blessing is upon Your people” (NKJV). The New Testament echoes that truth in 1Thessalonians 5:9 and assures us that “God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (NKJV).
The Greek word soteria, which is translated salvation in this scripture, means “wholeness, preservation, material and temporal deliverance from danger and apprehension, pardon, restoration, healing and soundness.”
God promises to provide those things for us as His children even in dangerous times. As amazing as it may seem, God has the wonderful ability to preserve one family—as He did in the time of Noah—even when everyone else is perishing around them. And Psalm 91 tells us He has the ability to protect one person even when ten thousand are falling on one side and a thousand on the other.
I’m telling you, God can keep you and your family safe day after day, no matter what’s happening around you! As Psalm 68:19-20 says, “Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, The God of our salvation! Our God is the God of salvation; And to God the Lord belong escapes from death” (NKJV).
Through thousands of years of history, God has proven He has the ability to preserve His people in the most dangerous situations. He’s also proven that those who don’t choose to make Him their God don’t fare as well during those times.
For instance, the Israelites safely walked through the Red Sea on dry ground. But when the Egyptian army tried it, they all drowned. Daniel slept peacefully in the lion’s den. Later, those same lions ate his enemies for dinner. The three Hebrew children came out of the midst of the fiery furnace without so much as a singed hair or the smell of smoke. But those who threw them in were burned to death.
Clearly, God hasn’t promised us that we’ll be free from trouble. All the people in the situations I just listed faced serious trouble. But in the end, those who obeyed God and trusted Him were delivered. Against the most impossible odds, God brought them out safe and sound!
Excerpt permission granted by Eagle Mountain International Church, Inc.
aka: Kenneth Copeland Ministries
For the last 50 years Kenneth and Gloria Copeland have been passionately teaching Christians all over the world how to apply the principles of faith found in God's WORD to their lives.
