HE 5:2-5{NOTHING is more solemn than the description given us in the above scripture, of that character of things which we find now in the world around us, and which shall usher in the "Day of the Lord," "when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape." Now peace and safety is that which is secured for all who accept it from Christ; fruit of His cross; but the world who have rejected Christ and refused His peace, will accept the devil's peace, and it will be the subject of universal congratulation in the hour of speedy judgment. When the Lord Jesus Christ died and rose again, righteousness was established, and peace made, therefore it is said that He made peace by the blood of His cross; and His first word when He stood in the midst of His disciples after His resurrection, was "Peace be unto you." He had in death vanquished every enemy, He only proclaimed it when He said, "Peace be unto you," beside all this, He Himself alive from the dead was before them their peace: Now this is what the world will not have at any cost, the peace and safety desired by it and looked for by it, is prosperity, ease, luxury, indifference, in a word it is a peace procured by getting rid of all thought of God. If the world could blot out God, it would; the safety it wants is immunity from all that would interfere with its downward course. What a solemn thought that it shall eat of the fruit of its own ways, it shall have peace and safety, then sudden destruction! When the Lord Jesus Christ came at first it was to bear judgment, and so doing to put away sin. When He comes again in the day of the Lord, it will be to execute judgment upon them that know not God and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let me press upon my reader the striking likeness between the world now, and the world of Noah's time. If we turn to Luke 17:26, 27,26And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. 27They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. (Luke 17:26‑27) we are told that all went on in Noah's day in its customary rotation, eating, drinking, and marrying until the day Noah entered the ark, and then was the night of the antediluvian, age; solemn fact, no precursor was there of a coming flood, save the testimony and act of Noah, which was refused and disbelieved. The morning of the day that Noah entered the ark the sun rose, as it was ever wont to do. No cloud, surcharged with rain, cast its shadow upon the scene, and yet sudden destruction overtook the world of that day. We are told in the epistle to the Hebrews, that it was of things not seen as yet, that Noah's faith was warned about; he believed God, contrary to any evidence of senses, and resisted the reasoning of men around him. We are told in the book of Genesis that it was a mist which went up from the earth that watered it, and that God had not caused it to rain upon the earth. (Gen. 2:5, 65And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. 6But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. (Genesis 2:5‑6).) What they had not seen they would not believe, and this is the character of the world and the people on it to-day. The testimony of God is not credited-what is not seen is not believed. Of the world's rejecting the Holy Ghost, it is said, “Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth, him not." (John 14:1717Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. (John 14:17).) God has given testimony abundant in His word that His Son, the Lord Jesus, will come and execute judgment upon the despisers of His grace and rejecters of His love. Prior to this, that same blessed One will come to the air for His people; for all who have believed in Himself He will come and receive them to Himself, even as God, before the flood, took up Enoch to Himself. There are two things, my reader, either of which might happen at any moment. One is death, which would seal the doom of all who are not in Christ; the other is the Lord's coming for His people, which would equally seal the doom of all who, in this professing christian land, have, nevertheless, not believed in Christ, and who would be left behind for that terrible night, which will overtake the world, and surprise man on it as a thief. What a solemn thought, that at any moment eternal destinies might be fixed. Have you given it a thought? Let not, I beseech you, flattering words and fair speeches beguile you. Be assured of it, for God has said it, “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night." Sudden destruction will fall upon all who know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Children of the night and of darkness, hearken to the voice of God, turn not a deaf ear; every pulsation of your heart, every beat of the pendulum of the clock of time brings you nearer to the moment of judgment.
The gospel is the good news of God about His Son the Lord Jesus Christ, for a sinner such as you, that for you, even for such as you, God has forgiveness, peace, glory, a place with Christ where Christ is new. It is His joy to give, to receive; His delight to make you a child of day, and of light. Christ has died, has risen again, is now in glory, the author of eternal salvation to every poor soul that looks to Him.
W. T. T.