Days of Noah

Mark 13:32-37

Mark 13:32-37, Luke 17:26-27& 34; 21:34-36

Matthew 24:36-42

Matthew 24:36-42, “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. 37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. 42 Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. Jesus is only a few hours now from betrayal and execution on the cross. He sits on the Mount of Olives and His disciples approach Him with a very important question. V 3, “Tell us, when shall these things be and what shall be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?”

They have this feeling inside that the end of the age of man is very near, that the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ is coming very soon. They have been led to believe that because He is, after all, the King and He is there.

• Jesus has done signs and wonders to prove His kingdom power.
• He has recently denounced the false religious leaders of Israel.
• He has cleansed out the temple of all the godless enterprises that were being done in that place.
• He has also announced that there will be soon the desolation of the whole temple complex.
• He even pronounced the truth that He would come in glory.

All these things have led them to believe that it must be very, very soon. In fact,

Luke 19:11, Now as they heard these things, He spoke another parable, because He was near Jerusalem and because they thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately.

It seemed to the apostles that He was there announcing Himself as King, He was there destroying the false religious system that existed in order that He might establish the true spiritual kingdom promise They were filled with anticipation.

Their question has two parts.

What shall the sign be?

When will it happen? Our Lord began by answering what the signs question first. We have studied that answer from Matthew 24:3-35. He tells them the sign of His coming. V 29 the sun becomes dark, the moon stops giving light, the stars fall, the powers of the heavens are shaken, and then shall appear the Son of Man in heaven. That is the sign of His coming to earth, when they see Him in heaven.

There are some general signs described from V4-28. Those general signs are triggered by a very particular event in called the abomination of desolation, when the antichrist sets up the idol of himself in the Holy of Holies and demands that the whole world worship him (V 15). Triggering birth pains.

Now, all these signs, beginning with the abomination of desolation until the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, are very rapid signs. They come in a very brief period of time. The Bible tells us three and a half years, or 42 months, or 1260 days. They are called birth pains since they are rapidly increasing, intensified as they come toward the kingdom.

They are general indicators and finally a specific indicator of the coming of the Lord Jesus.

Jesus starts to answer the disciples first question

1. When? Answer V 36 onwards.

When specifically, will Jesus come? The answer comes from Matthew 24:36-25:46. V 36, “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. Jesus directs their thinking to the issue of when and tells them the when is an unknown.

The signs that precede the second coming have been clearly given. They are unmistakably detailed here in Matthew 24 and in Revelation chapters 6-18. We can’t miss those. The generation that is alive during that period will see those signs.

 They will be observable signs.  They will be worldwide signs.  They will be unmistakable indications of the collapse of the world and its systems as well as the universe. But the specific moment, the day and hour are not known.

We must remind ourselves that He is speaking of a day and an hour. V 42, Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. V 44, Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

V 50, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of,

Matthew 25:13, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. Jesus is talking about the specific moment.

The time period of the second coming will be known. It must be known because of all the sequence of events. The abomination of desolation will be a historical event. The tremendous worldwide conflicts, the wars, the rumours of wars, the nation rising against nation, kingdom against kingdom, famines, and the pestilences. The descriptions of Revelation 6 to 18 where the fresh water is devastated and the salt water is devastated. The sea turns blood and where the day is set off is its normal cycle. Daylight is shortened and there is a greater amount of darkness.

All those events that are very observable will indicate that it is the general period and the general time of the second coming. But the day and the hour will not be known. That will come with suddenness in an unexpected way.

The period of the Tribulation, very clearly indicated, and we know the coming of the Son of Man, verse 29 says, is immediately after the Tribulation. But how immediately, we don’t know.

To approach it another way, remember this

Both Daniel in the Old Testament and John in the New Testament writing in Revelation tell us that the Great Tribulation, is a period of 3 ½ years, 42 months, 1260 days. We find that in Daniel 7:25, 9:27, and 12:7. We find it in Revelation 11:2-3, Revelation 12:14 and

Revelation 13:5.

There are all those indicators, very clearly, that that’s a 3 ½ year period. It starts with the abomination of desolation in verse 15, the antichrist setting up his self-worship. So that’s very observable. Immediately after comes the sign of the Son of Man in heaven.

Once the sign comes, we don’t know how long it will be before He establishes the kingdom.

There is some latitude in that. Daniel gives us a hint.

Daniel 12:11, “And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days. Daniel speaks of a period of testing and tribulation of 1290 days, so he adds another ³⁰ days on the end.

Daniel 12:12, Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days. Daniel speaks of 1335 days, he adds another 45, making a total of ⁷⁵ days. Daniel sees a three-and-a-half-year period, ⁴² months, 1260 days, and then he sees another period, which is not described, as to its content of ⁷⁵ days. So, we don’t know exactly the day and the hour.

The general period, yes. Now, we only know that once that period has begun. We don’t know what generation that’s going to come upon.

It will be initiated with the Rapture of the church. That hasn’t happened. Then three and a half years of peace as antichrist comes to the political rescue of the Middle Eastern country of Israel and brings them safety and starts to build his revived Roman Empire in Europe.

Everything’s going fine. Then it’s in the middle of that seven- year period that all this begins when he sets up the worship of himself. The Rapture, the rise of antichrist, the birth pains, the sign of the Son of Man, those have not happened yet. We don’t know what generation they will come upon.

It could happen at any moment. The church removed and the Tribulation begins. So, we don’t know what generation it is. But the generation that it comes upon, even with all those signs, still won’t know the exact day and the exact hour when Christ is coming. That is a secret.

This is not talking about the Rapture, this is talking about the second coming. We are at the end of the Tribulation here, as is every obvious from verse 29. We have passed through the time of the Tribulation in the thinking of Matthew and the teaching of our Lord.

So, it is a time that no one knows about. Let us examine V 36 more closely. The focus here is on a specific day and hour, not an extended era. While we do not know which generation will witness it, one thing is clear: the generation that sees the beginning will also see the end—V 32-35 see this unfold.

The events will unfold rapidly, with 3 ½ years of Tribulation followed by an unspecified period, during which the Lord will return and establish His kingdom immediately after the Tribulation. However, the exact timing remains unknown.

2. Jesus doesn’t know when He is coming!

Jesus begins by stating, “No one knows.” This declaration applies to humanity. It is not revealed to ordinary humans. No person can predict the precise moment.

Matthew 25:13, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.

God has chosen not to reveal that specific moment and to give no specific sign of that specific moment.

God’s great wisdom that if men knew the exact moment when the Lord would come, they might be godless until just short of that moment. Or even the people who were prepared might be living in panic or might be giving up, thinking the time was too short.

If people knew the exact time of the Lord’s return, life would lose its natural rhythm—plans would stall, relationships would shift, and everything would be overshadowed by that knowledge. For this reason, God has chosen to keep that moment unknown, encouraging us to live every moment in expectation, always prepared for His coming and intervention.

If humanity were aware of the precise timing, it might drift into complacency, delaying repentance and change until the very last moment. By keeping this knowledge hidden, God ensures that no one can predict or manipulate the time of His return. It remains beyond human understanding.

“No, not the angels of heaven.” Even the angels don’t know it. Neither the natural world nor the supernatural world knows the exact timing of the Lord’s return. It remains hidden, beyond human and angelic understanding alike.

This divine mystery ensures that all creation continues in anticipation, encouraging vigilance and readiness rather than complacency. Only God holds this knowledge, reinforcing the importance of faith and preparation rather than prediction.

Angels are the intimates of God. In Isaiah 6, they are hovering around the throne of God.

Matthew 18:10, “Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven.

They are seen face-to-face with God in intimate communion with Him. They are very close to God. They are around the throne. They commune with Him regularly to do His bidding. In Matthew 13, the angels are the agents of judgment in the second coming.

Angels are very involved in the judgment activity. V 31 the angels are the ones sent out to gather the elect.

• Though angels are the intimates of God,
• Face-to-face with God in a spiritual sense,
• Doing His bidding,
• They are the agents of judgment,

• Gathering in of the godly and the ungodly in that time of Christ’s coming,

Despite all of that they do not know the exact moment. God has chosen not to reveal it to them. God has His reasons which is not revealed to us in the scripture to us either!

Mark 13:32, “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. How is it that Jesus Christ, who is God, cannot know something? How is it that Jesus Christ, who is God, who is omniscient doesn’t know something? Because of His incarnation. Jesus Christ is fully God, very God of very God. He is God fully and totally God.

But when He became a man, He voluntarily restricted the use of His godhood, of His divine attributes.

• It wasn’t that He laid the attributes aside,
• It wasn’t that He set His deity aside,
• It was that He restricted the use of those things.

• Jesus had them as instruments but chose not to pick them up and use them.
• Jesus lived without using His omniscience unless the Father told Him to use it.

This is the reason Jesus could command us to Follow Me! We know He was omniscient on some occasions.

John 2:24-25, But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, 25 and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man. He restricted the use of His omniscience to those things which the Father desired Him to know. That is the design of the incarnation. When the Bible says He became a Son, He took upon Him the form of a servant. It means that He submitted Himself to that which the Father wanted Him to do, that which the Father wanted Him to say, and that which the Father wanted Him to know.

John 15:15, No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. Jesus’ knowledge in His incarnation was qualified by what the Father had revealed to Him. God the Father revealed things to Him through Scripture. As Jesus studied the Old Testament

through experience as He walked in the world and moving of the power of God, and through direct revelation. But Jesus limited His knowledge to what the Father chose to reveal to Him. He didn’t have to do that, but He chose to do that to play the role of a servant to accomplish the redemption of mankind.

It’s a very important concept so that when it says He humbled Himself and took upon Him the form of a servant, was made in fashion as a man, and so forth, it means that He limited the use of those attributes. Jesus in His early life grew in wisdom, stature, and favour with God and man. He grew in wisdom.

How could Jesus grow in wisdom if He was God? Because He grew in wisdom in the sense that He limited His knowledge to what the Father revealed to Him, so as long as He lived, the Father was constantly revealing things to Him, so He was growing in wisdom.

A self-imposed humiliation of the divine nature to accomplish our redemption. He is still growing in wisdom. He is still increasing in knowledge because the Father has yet not revealed this to Him. After the resurrection this was revealed to Him.

When Jesus came out of the grave in the glory of His resurrection life He had all authority.

Matthew 28:18, And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Jesus said I have authority over all things.

Acts 1:6-7, Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. Jesus doesn’t include Himself anymore.

It may well be that after the resurrection. His knowledge was complete. It’s as if the Father only revealed to Him the next great event, and He never revealed to Him the full moment of His second coming until He had already come out of the grave and accomplished the resurrection.

Jesus says people don’t know and angels don’t know and for now even I don’t know, to show the tremendous unexpectedness, suddenness, and mystery of the moment of the coming of Jesus Christ. V 36, “But My Father only.”

Jesus always called Him Father except for one occasion when He said, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” because He was dying on the cross and separated from God. Every other time He spoke to God, He spoke to Him as Father.

Jesus certainly after His ascension entered back into the fullness of that which He had before the incarnation. At this moment He doesn’t know when that second coming moment will be. At that moment, we don’t know. Because the Lord wants every generation to live in expectancy.

We don’t know what generation it’s going to come upon. But when it comes, it’s going to come in a holocaust and it’s going to come rapid-fire. We don’t know what generation that will be, and even the generation that comes on isn’t going to know the exact moment.

So, Christians ever since the New Testament have always lived in the eagerness of the coming of Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:7, so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Corinth is the first-generation church waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are waiting as if He were to come in their own generation.

Hebrews 10:24-25, And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

Philippians 3:20, For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul says we are looking up there to see if He isn’t coming any moment.

James 5:8, You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

1 Peter 4:7, But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers.

1 John 2:18, Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.

Revelation 22:20, He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.” Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

The writers even in the New Testament time were looking for the second coming of Jesus Christ. They didn’t fully understand the time that would go by, they lived in expectancy. Every generation should because every generation should live in preparedness.

If we expect it at any time, we are prepared for it at any time. God only knows when it will be. God only knows when that specific moment will take place.

Why is He waiting? Jesus is waiting for this reason.

Revelation 14:15-16, And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, “Thrust in Your sickle and reap, for the time has come for You to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” 16 So He who sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped.

The imagery here is very important. That’s a beautiful illustration of both natural growth and spiritual truth. Just as a farmer faithfully tends to the crops, waiting for them to reach maturity live in expectation, preparing for the time of harvest.

This imagery aligns with Jesus’ teachings, where He often used agricultural metaphors to describe spiritual readiness. The Lord has waited for the ripening of evil. He has waited for the ripening of sin. God is not going to move in in judgment on this world until the harvest is ripe, until sin has run its course.

Until all the ungodliness of the mystery of iniquity and it’s hard to imagine that there could be some evil yet unrevealed. Evil will continue to grow unchecked until it reaches its peak. When that time comes, God will step in, bringing judgment and justice. Just like a harvest, where the sickle is put in, and the work is completed. Though the world may seem to drift further into sin, nothing escapes God’s plan, and His final intervention will be swift and decisive.

The reason God has waited for these two thousand years is, because He is allowing sin to run its reckless course, to spend itself, to ripen to the point where it will be fully, finally, and forever harvested. There is another reason.

Romans 11:25, For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

The fullness of the Gentiles speaks of the gathering in of the church in this age. Another reason the Lord waits is for the gathering of the church. He is waiting to gather all the saints whose names are written in Lamb’s book of life.

He is waiting to collect the Gentiles who will forever and throughout eternity give Him glory, praise, honour, adoration, and serve Him. He is gathering occupants for His eternal heaven to praise and glorify His name.

Romans 11:26, “so all Israel will be saved.”

There must be also in the future the salvation of Israel, that Jew and Gentile together through all eternity may praise God. There has been a long time going on since the first coming. We have waited all these two thousand years, and He has not yet come.

Twofold reason. One, that sin may ripen. Two, that the redeemed who have been planned for His glory eternally may be brought to that eternal glory.

Simply it is for sin and for salvation. What should be the attitude of the people who see birth pains? What should be the attitude of this generation that’s alive in that time? The generation that sees the abomination of desolation, the generation that sees the rise of the antichrist, the generation that sees the changing of the face of the earth, what should be their attitude?

3. Like the Days of Noah. V 37-39, But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

It is going to be like it was in Noah’s time just before the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. There was so much of evil in that world.

Genesis 6:5-8, Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the

thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

God felt sorry that He made men. Evil reached its apex. Corruption to the maximum.

Genesis 6:12, So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

God wanted to destroy the whole earth and every living creature. Is Jesus saying that don’t eat, drink, and marry? No. They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. Those aren’t sins. Eating and drinking are not sins and marrying and giving in marriage are not sins.

Marrying refers to the people who get married, giving in marriage refers to the families who give their young people to be married. What it means is that life went on as usual! They just went through the routine. They just lived as if nothing would ever change.

They totally disregarded what was going on. They didn’t see its implications. They kept on eating on Noah’s day and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage as if there would never be an end. Eating and drinking, that’s personal routine.

Marrying and giving in marriage, that’s family routine, social activity. They just went through the cycles of normal personal family and business enterprise, life as usual, just went through the routine. They tried to adjust a little bit to this character Noah and what he was saying, but life went on as usual.

The same thing will happen in the Tribulation. Noah built an ark in the middle of the desert and told people there was going to be a flood. They laughed because it had never rained. There was no such thing as rain. There was no water there.

Do you know how long it took Noah to build that boat? 120 years. They laughed, ridiculed, mocked, and scoffed at him. In the days of Noah people ignored the truth.

Do you know how long Noah preached?

2 Peter 2:5, and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; Peter calls Noah a preacher of righteousness. Noah wasn’t just a boat builder but a preacher. For ¹²⁰ years while he built the boat, he must have been asked a million times. Why are you building the boat?

It must have trigger for the sermon, God is going to judge the wickedness of this world, and only those who put their faith in Him are going to escape. God has asked me to build a way of escape.

Would you like to come on? They laughed and mocked.

For 120 years, they went on with life as usual while he preached judgment and demonstrated it to them by building a great big wooden chest right in the middle of everywhere so everyone could see it. They didn’t listen to him.

Surely when the first time a raindrop hit somebody’s nose, they thought a dinosaur sneezed behind a hill or something. Still wouldn’t believe it. They didn’t want to believe that. They could have come up with all kinds of excuses not to believe that.

Unbelievable. 120 years Noah preached and preached. They didn’t believe it until they were washed away in the flood. Peter in his epistle in relating the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and its judgment, its cataclysmic holocaust of judgment back to the flood.

It is the only illustration in human history that can even come close because it totally destroyed the face of the earth. We are going to find that the attitude that prevailed during the time of Noah will be the attitude that will prevail during the time of the second coming.

This is what Jesus means when He says, “As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.” Not only do people not know the day and the hour the Lord is coming, but most of them aren’t even going to care. Even with all the signs and all the wonders and all the things going on, they are not going to care. They are not even going to think about it. They won’t even be considering that as an alternative. It’s hard to imagine that.

They will be scoffing and mocking. They will be analyzing the universe to try to explain scientifically why everything’s going haywire.

Why are there earthquakes? Why are there all kinds of movements in the heavens?

Why are the tides all messed up?

Why does the moon go out?

Why isn’t the sun working properly?

Why has daylight been shortened? Why is there blood in the seas, bitterness in the fresh water?

Why are people slaughtering each other? Why are there terrible massacres all around the world? They are going to be trying to figure all this out sociologically, scientifically, and rationally. But they are not going to look to the truth of the Word of God.

Why would we expect them to be any different than when the Lord Jesus Christ was here the first time?

• They could see Him.
• They could hear Him.
• They watched Him remove disease from the land of Palestine.
• They watched Him raise the dead.
• They still couldn’t conclude the right things, but religious leaders decided that He was of the devil.

The world of our Lord’s time was so selfish, self-centered, hypocritical, materialistic, sinful, godless, and perception that it couldn’t even see the Saviour when He walked in its midst. Why should we expect the world of the future to be any different when they see the signs of His coming?

The Pharisees and the Sadducees came, tested Jesus and they desired that He would show them a sign from heaven.

Matthew 16:1-3, Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven. 2 He answered and said to them, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’; 3 and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.

You are supposed to be religious leaders, but you are great at telling the weather not a clue about what God’s doing.

• They shut their minds to the truth of God just as the history of Israel has been a history of ignoring the Word of God.
• They ignored the prophets of God.
• They ignored the miracles of those prophets.
• They ignored the words of those prophets.
• They murdered the prophets.
• They murdered the Son of God.

When it comes to the signs of His coming and the Great Tribulation, the world will be just as darkened, blinded as they have ever been to what’s going on. They will do what they have always done, they will explain it away, some rational means.

How foolish are the mockers?

2 Peter 3:3-6, knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For this they wilfully forget: that by the word of

God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, 6 by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.

The world hasn’t always continued the same. God wiped out the entire world except for eight people in the flood. It hasn’t continued the way it was. Evidence is available all over the world, for a universal worldwide flood where God drowned all human civilization.

2 Peter 3:8-10, But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

God doesn’t keep a clock. What seems to us like a long period of time because we are creatures of time is no time at all to a timeless, eternal God. He is waiting until all the Gentiles and all the Jews planned from eternity past have come to redemption. Then He will come again the second time.

Recap

Unexpectedly and suddenly, He will come.

When we don’t expect it, when we don’t think about it, when we don’t realize it, He will come. Jesus warns His disciples that His return will mirror the days of Noah. The world will be unaware, unprepared, and consumed by daily life, just as it was before the flood.

This calls us to watchfulness, righteousness, and readiness for Christ’s return. The Days of Noah: A Picture of the End Times

• a) Moral Decline: and people’s thoughts were evil continually. Today, we see increasing sin, rebellion, and rejection of God’s truth.

Genesis 6:5 describes how wickedness filled the earth,

• b) Spiritual Apathy: People ignored Noah’s warnings. Likewise, many today dismiss the message of salvation and the urgency of repentance.
• c) Sudden Judgment: The flood came unexpectedly, just as Christ’s return will be swift and decisive.

The Warning to Be Watchful

• a) Daily Life Continues: Eating, drinking, and marrying are normal activities, but they became distractions from spiritual preparedness.
• b) Noah’s Faithfulness Noah preached righteousness (2 Peter 2:5), yet the world ignored him. Believers today must stand firm in truth, even when society rejects it.
• c. The Call to Readiness – Jesus urges His followers to stay alert, knowing that His return will be sudden.

In the days of Noah before the flood, they just went on with their routine until the day Noah entered the ark. Once they enter the ark, they shut the door. When the water started rising that some were knocking, but it was too late. Too late.

V 37, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. V 39, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. It will be just the same. Life as usual goes on with the routine until it’s too late. Instant devastation.

That generation will be like Noah’s generation, warned and warned. That generation was warned for 120 years. The future generation will be warned for 3 ½ years. They are being warned right now. They have been warned ever since the New Testament was written.

Whatever generation it is that will be alive when that happens, but they are not going to wake up until they are swept away in judgment.

4. Believers Left Behind!

V 40-41, Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. The word “one” in verse 40 is masculine in gender. The “one” in verse 41 is feminine in gender.

V 40 speaks of a man in the field, two men in the field, one taken, one left. V 41 of women, two women grinding at the mill, one taken and the other left. The man’s task was agricultural at that time and was to be in the field.

The women were there with the stone, the mill, grinding that which was harvested by the men. It is just life as usual, and during the routine of life, one shall be taken.

What does that mean, “taken”? This is NOT Rapture. This is long after that. This is talking about judgment. It is based on that picture of the flood sweeping men away into death.

• Two are going to be in the field when that final devastating flood of fire comes and one is taken into judgment.
• Two at the mill and one is taken in judgment. The other left to go into the kingdom.

They become those who populate the Millennial kingdom. They are redeemed.

• The unbelievers will be swept away, and
• The believers will be preserved.

Separation process is described in detail in the judgment of the sheep and goats in Matthew 25:31-46, where He takes the

goats on the one hand and sends them into everlasting punishment, His sheep on the other hand and gives them the kingdom. They are left for the kingdom. Jesus compares His return to the days of Noah. In Noah’s time, the wicked were "taken"by the flood, while the righteous (Noah and his family) were left behind to inherit the earth.

This suggests that those "taken"in Matthew 24:40-41 are non-believers removed in judgment, while the righteous remain to enter Christ’s Kingdom. When the Millennial kingdom comes and begins, the people who will be left to go into it will be believers who were not swept away in the judgment of all the ungodly.

Millennial kingdom will be populated by those believers who have lived through the reign of terror of the antichrist and not destroyed. They are still alive when Christ comes. Christ sweeps away in a holocaust of judgment all the ungodly, but the godly that remain are alive will go into His Millennial kingdom to populate that kingdom.

So that kingdom is populated by physical beings, real people like we are, who have lived through antichrist’s reign of terror, who believed in the truth of the gospel and were not

destroyed. Maybe some of them even believed at the last moment. Acts 2 the very time when the Lord comes, it describes all those events, quoting from Joel 2, and it says at that great time. When the signs in the heavens take place and the kingdom is about to begin, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved”?

In that final moment as the King comes to establish His kingdom, there will be some who will call upon the name of the Lord in time to be saved. In time. They will be preserved along with those who believed before that, during the Tribulation time, and they together will go into that kingdom period to populate the earth, to reproduce, to have children, to live the kingdom that God has promised in the Old Testament.

They will be left. There will be time of great separation when He comes. V 42, Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.

When the Lord comes, the ungodly will be swept away and the godly will be left, remaining safe to enter the kingdom. That is the promise. But we don’t know, and those who are alive at that time won’t know the exact moment of that. So there needs to be preparedness.

They will be just going on with life, two in a field, two at a mill.

Luke 17:34, I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed: the one will be taken and the other will be left. Add two lying in bed, if you have got daylight in one part of the world and night in the other.

Matthew 25:10, And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut. In the parable of the virgins, it says that they were ready to go in with Him to the marriage and the door was shut. When that time comes, a separation will be made.

The Lord knows how to make that separation. He knows who to leave and who to sweep away.

Malachi 3:16-18, Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, And the Lord listened and heard them; So, a book of

remembrance was written before Him For those who fear the Lord And who meditate on His name. 17 “They shall be Mine,” says the Lord of hosts, “On the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them As a man spares his own son who serves him.” 18 Then you shall again discern Between the righteous and the wicked, Between one who serves God And one who does not serve Him.

2 Peter 2:4-9, For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; 6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; 7 and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked 8 (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)— 9 then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment,

The Lord knows how to separate them. V 42, be alert. Be continually alert.

Every generation, every person should be alert. V 42, “For you know not what hour your Lord does come.” A cry for constant vigilance, constant alertness. He will come and men who recognize that He is coming will be alert to that coming, spiritually aware.

This is not fiction, but this is fact. Just as the prophets said how it would be in His first coming and He fulfilled every prophecy, so will He in His second coming. Watch, therefore, for you don’t know what hour your Lord comes.

Conclusion

The Urgency of Salvation.

The Ark as a Symbol of Christ

Just as the ark provided salvation from judgment, Jesus is the only way to escape eternal separation from God.

The Open Door Will not Last Forever

Once Noah entered the ark, the door was shut. Similarly, when Christ returns, the opportunity for salvation will end.

Living with Expectation

Believers must walk in holiness, share the gospel, and remain faithful, knowing that Christ’s return is imminent. If Jesus is not your Lord now, He will be your Lord then. His Lordship will be made manifest in His right to send you into eternity, into hell, into punishment. He is Lord.

At that moment, every knee will bow. Some in loving adoration, some in terror, but every knee will bow. We could be living in that generation which will see the Rapture of the church, the holocaust of the Tribulation, the sign of the Son of Man, and the birth of the kingdom.

Could be this generation.

Are you ready?

Are you alert?

Are you reading the signs of the times?

Are you right with the Lord Jesus Christ? I invite you to come to Jesus Christ and with us be kept from that hour. While the world is undergoing the terrors of the Tribulation, we shall be rejoicing in the presence of the Saviour in heaven, living in the place He has prepared for us.

If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, you may know Him by a simple act of faith, inviting Him into your life, the one who lived and died and rose again for you. Confess your sin, embrace Him as your Lord and Savior. The days of Noah serve as a warning and a call to action.

Jesus will return when the world least expects it. Will we be found faithful, or will we be caught unprepared? Let us watch, pray, and live in obedience, anticipating the glorious return of our Saviour.