Episode 2414 - Lesson 10 - Monday June 02 - Noah's Evangelism

Peter reminds us that many will be unprepared for Christ’s return because they “willfully forget” (2 Pet. 3:5, NKJV) what happened at the Flood. Today, even though the world has a collective memory of a great deluge (an astonishing number of global cultures tell the story of a devastating flood, from the ancient Greeks to the Mayans), the story of Noah is today perhaps one of the most ridiculed of the Bible’s accounts. As predicted, the world is willfully setting the story aside as a myth, no matter how clearly and explicitly it is depicted in the Old Testament and referred to numerous times in the New Testament.Jesus said that the world situation would resemble “the days of Noah” in Matthew 24:37–39. Compare this passage with Genesis 6:1–8. What were the moral conditions that led to the Flood? What parallels exist between the two times?There is another important lesson for God’s last-day remnant people that emerges from careful study. Hebrews 11:7 tells us that Noah “prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith” (NKJV).Imagine preaching for more than a century with nothing to show for it but your own family in the ark. If Noah had been a modern evangelist, we might be tempted to write him off as a failure: decades of preaching and what would appear to be no results.Fortunately, at the moment, many parts of the world are very responsive to the three angels’ messages. Evangelistic outreach—the preaching of our unique remnant message—is proving incredibly effective in many places, and many are coming to know the Lord. We have not yet reached the point where there are no results, although we have been told the moment is coming when “probation will close, and the door of mercy will be shut. Thus in the one short sentence, ‘They that were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut,’ we are carried down through the Saviour’s final ministration, to the time when the great work for man’s salvation shall be completed.”—Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 428.Until then, we have a work to do as a church.How can we learn not to get discouraged if our personal evangelistic efforts don’t seem to be bearing much fruit for the moment? Why must we continue our efforts? (See John 4:37.)