Series: The End Time
Sunday Am 3 December 2017- Kobus Swart
Matt. 22:2-14; Matt. 24:37-41; Gen. 6:1-8; Gen. 18:1-8, 32-33; Gen. 19:1-5, 26; Jude 1:5-8; 2 Pet. 2:1-9; Matt. 24:37-NIV; Dan. 2:41-43; Eph. 3:8-11; (2 Cor. 2:14)
The story about the marriage feast is well known to us. God wants His house to be full and the marriage feast well attended. However, the parables are there to teach us certain principles, and by the Spirit of God we will know how to interpret this for where we are now (Matt. 22:2-14). This was another parable of the kingdom of heaven. At this wedding feast there was someone who found his way into the feast without the proper ‘wedding garment’. What does this mean?
For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be. Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left (Matt. 24:37-41). Unfortunately, these two last verses have inspired a multitude of books which were written about some who would be taken or ‘raptured’ and some would be ‘left behind’. The truth is that the ones who were taken were taken in judgement, as in the case of the Flood. The ones that remained as in the case of Noah and his family, were saved!
In the days of Noah, the corruption of mankind reached shocking levels. Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose (Gen. 6:1-2). What was wrong with the sons of God marrying the daughters of men? It depends how you read the phrase ‘sons of God’. The next verse must awaken you. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with (rule in) man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless, his days shall be one hundred and twenty years. The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord (Gen. 6:3-8).
What does it mean the sons of God came into the daughters of men? He is talking about fallen angels; angels that had left their domain came into the daughters of men and the Nephilim (or Rephaim) giants were born. In fact, one study talks about a non-human race. They were genetic monsters, mutants whose end is darkness. Angels can come from the spiritual dimension; they can materialise. In other words, come from the world of spirit and become tangible so that they can feel and eat. They can become physically real as in the case of their visit to Abraham and Sarah (Gen. 18:1-8).
Abraham pleaded for Gomorrah, and there were not even 10 righteous in it (Gen. 18:32-33). Then these two angels visited Lot who invited them into his house in Sodom. But then something strange happened: …the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter and they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them” (Gen. 19:1-5). ‘Relations’ here means sexual relations. Lot and his family were urged to get out of the city because God was going to bring judgement on Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot and his family went out but his wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt (Gen. 19:26). Lesson for us: Once you have put your hands on the plough and turn to look back you are not fit for the kingdom of God (Luke 9:62). Withdrawal and looking back can be disastrous. Then God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
Now this is how Jude explains that incident: … angels who did not keep their own domain, (their origin, their beginning) but abandoned their proper abode (habitation), He has kept in eternal bonds (imprisonment) under darkness for the judgment of the great day. Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh (different flesh), are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties (Jude 1:5-8).
The apostle Pater offers this insight: For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter; and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment (2 Pet. 2:1-9). We live in dangerous days! What used to be science fiction 40/50 years ago has become science reality in many cases! We as born again Christians should wake up to the enemy’s plans.
Jesus warns: As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man (Matt. 24:37-NIV). The enemy is going to try everything to make man look special and enter the realm of the born again Christian, the ‘wedding feast’. The process of cloning human parts has been developed and body organs can be cloned now. There are laboratories in the world sponsored by millions of dollars where they do experiments to create a super human being. It is in the plans and heart of many nations. It sounds like science fiction but the Church must wake up because we are called to be the sons of God! Genetic engineering is happening in the world. They want to combine the supernatural and call it ‘spiritual’. Remember – Satan will come as an angel of light, and his ministries, as ministers of righteousness!
When Jesus was born, the religious world of that time (Pharisees and Sadducees) had the Old Testament and all the Messianic prophecies at their disposal. Yet the astrologers from the East were first to know that Jesus was born and who He was! They read the stars and knew exactly that a King was born and they brought their gifts. The people who knew the Old covenant were totally unaware.
In the Christian world we are impacted by the materialistic spirit of this age. It is very hard for people in our days to meditate! This is the world we are living in and the enemy is cashing in. In the book of Daniel he interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. But it will have in it the toughness of iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with common clay. ….. And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men (Dan. 2:41-43). The prophetic interpretation is that this mixture is due to a mingling in the seed of men, in the bond of marriage. One thing we should keep in mind is that when we are truly born again and under the Lordship of Jesus the enemy will not succeed. It has been made so easy in much of the wider church-world to be ‘born again’, but true transformation involves a God-encounter. Each one of us needs a God-encounter on our journey. It only happens when there is a real hunger in your heart.
The city of Babel was a gigantic, unbelievable structure. The ‘unity’ in building the tower attracted the attention of God who said that nothing that they intend to do would be impossible for them. But because their foundation and motivation were wrong, God came and confused their language. God wants the Church to speak one language, the heavenly language, but on another foundation than that of Babel. Cloning is not what God wants. We have to create an environment by the word of God so that you can be formed into the image of His Son. God does not like clones; He never formed two identical snowflakes. God loves variety! Read 1 Cor 12:12.
Here is God’s plan. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord (Eph. 3:8-11).
God made sure that humanity as originally planned, would stay in the earth and fulfil its mandate. The number 8 is the number of new beginnings. Noah and his family were 8 in total. The name Noah means ‘rest’. May God find a Noah company in our time! What qualified Noah? He walked with God; he had a relationship with God. Noah was not contaminated by the Nephilim spirit. I pray that God will give us sensitive spirits, open eyes. Satan comes as an angel of light (2 Cor. 2:14). Let us pray that God will give us discernment of spirit to pull off satan’s mask and show him for what he is!
Remember the words of Jesus: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. …unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.