There have been many people in this world who have known that a certain night was their last night—some, because they knew they were sentenced to be executed the following morning, and some because they knew they would die of medical complications before the morning. If that person were you, would you be ready?
Jesus predicted several times what it would be like for people on their last night on earth. One of those predictions is found in Luke 17:28–30: “Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.”
Lot came to the night which was to be his last night in Sodom. Jesus used this as an illustration of what it would be like at the end of the world. It says in Genesis 19:12–14, “Then the men said to Lot, ‘Have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city—take them out of this place! For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.’
“So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, ‘Get up, get out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city!’ But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking.”
Lot’s family refused to listen to the warning because they saw no visible evidence that the end was near. They carried on their regular activities until Lot went out of Sodom and then the city was destroyed. Did the time come when they would have liked to have left the city? Here is what happened early the next morning.
“Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of the heavens. So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground” (Genesis 19:24, 25).
All were destroyed. There was one person who started out of the city of Sodom with Lot and actually never made it to safety, Lot’s wife. One of the shortest texts in the gospel is Luke 17:32, where, after Jesus described the way it was in the days of Lot, He says in three words: “Remember Lot’s wife.”
In Genesis 19:26, we are told what happened to Lot’s wife. Remember, the angel commanded them to flee the city and not look back. “But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.”
Why did Lot’s wife look back? Her heart had remained in the city with her family and possessions. Jesus gave instructions to prevent us from having that experience by saying, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19–21).
The last night on earth will be just like that last night in Sodom. Will it be easy to make a decision for God when we come right to the end of the world? Will it be easy to make a decision to pray and to be religious on that last night? Yes, it will be easy to make a decision to pray then, but it will be too late. Revelation 6:14–17 describes this as the biggest prayer meeting there has ever been, but it will be too late then to decide to be saved.
Notice what will happen. “Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?’ ”
Is there some earthly treasure that you are clinging to like Lot’s wife did that is keeping you from going all the way with the Lord? What often keeps some people from following the Lord is their money. So Jesus said in Luke 14:33, “So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.”
For some people the thing that keeps them from following the Lord all the way is their evil habits. The Bible refers to this as the “temporary pleasures of sin.” In Hebrews 11 concerning Moses, the Bible says he chose “rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward” (verses 25, 26).
For some people the reason is their job. They cannot keep all the commandments and keep doing what they are doing for a living. Concerning this, Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things [what you need in this life] shall be added to you.”
For some people it is their jewelry or adornment. Notice what Paul said about this in 1 Timothy 2:9, 10: “In like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works.”
The thing that keeps other people from following the Lord all the way is their family. Jesus also had something to say about this as well. He said, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;’ and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 10:34–39).
Did you know that you can drown in honey as well as in vinegar? There are many ways that Satan works through human influence to bind his captives. He secures multitudes of people to himself by attaching them by the silken cords of affection to those who are enemies of the cross of Christ. It doesn’t matter whether this attachment is parental, filial, conjugal, or social, the effect is the same. The opposers of truth exert their power to control the conscience of the souls held under their sway who have not sufficient courage or independence to obey their own convictions of duty.
Some people think it really doesn’t matter what you believe if only your life is right, but your life is molded by your faith. If the light of truth is within your reach and you neglect to improve the privilege of hearing or seeing it, you virtually reject it and are choosing darkness rather than light. When the last night on earth comes, people’s excuses will be swept away.
The Bible teaches that God’s mercy has a limit. That is what happened in Noah’s day. Jesus said that the end of the world would be like it was in the days of Noah. He said, “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, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24:37–39).
People will not know until it’s too late. That is why Jesus said you need to be ready. There is a limit to God’s mercy. Notice what God said about this in the days of Noah: “The Lord said, ‘My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years’ ” (Genesis 6:3).
God’s mercy has a limit. Bible prophecy clearly shows that we are close to the end of the world. Bible prophecies that show us that we are living in the very last epochal period of earth’s history are found first of all in the book of Daniel, in chapters 2, 7, 8, 11 and 12.
As we go through those lines of prophecy, we see that we are living in the period of time that the Bible calls in the book of Daniel “the time of the end.” We have been living in that period of time for over 200 years. Through Bible prophecies, God predicted the history of the world in advance. And as we study these prophecies, we see that all have been fulfilled, except for the final scenes of earth’s history. When you compare the visions in chapters 2, 7, 11 and 12, you can see where we are today in the stream of time.
In the very last days, the Bible predicts that many people would say the following: “ ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.’ For out of Zion the law shall go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples, and rebuke strong nations afar off; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Micah 4:2, 3). You can read the same thing in Isaiah 2. In other words, in the last days there will be an international, political, and religious peace movement.
We are living in that time when all the nations are trying to figure out a way to avoid war. This is a specific sign that we are in the last days. This is a phenomenon of our time that has never before been seen. Its first manifestation was the proposal of a world court to solve disputes, about 1899, and then the League of Nations, and now the United Nations. This kind of worldwide peace-seeking development has never been seen before. There is an international, political, religious, peace movement today. But what is actually going to be happening is just the opposite.
This is what the Lord says is going to happen. In Joel 3:9–14 the Lord says, “Proclaim this among the nations: ‘Prepare for war! Wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near, let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, “I am strong.” ’ Assemble and come, all you nations, and gather together all around. Cause Your mighty ones to go down there, O Lord. ‘Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down; for the winepress is full, the vats overflow—for their wickedness is great.’ Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision!”
We are living in a time when there is a great international, political, religious peace movement, at the same time, there are the greatest preparations for war that have ever existed since the history of the world began. This situation is exactly what the Bible predicted would happen in the last days. Jesus said, as recorded in Matthew 24, that there would be wars and rumors of wars in the last days.
Jesus also said that in the last days there would be a vast increase in lawlessness, the occurrence of which has frightened people today everywhere in the world. (See Matthew 24:12.) He predicted there would be a vast increase in promiscuity of all kinds in the last days. (See Luke 17:28–30). You can read the same prediction or the same account in Ezekiel 16:49 and 50. And in 2 Timothy 3:13, Paul gives the same prophecy of the last days.
The Bible predicts that in the last days there would be an increase in all types of violence and terrorism. Notice what it says in Genesis 6:11: “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.” The earth was filled with violence in Noah’s day and Jesus said it would be like that at the end of the world.
The signs in the heavens that Jesus predicted in Matthew 24:29 have appeared, and it is predicted in Revelation 11:18 that in the last days the nations will be angry. Paul predicted in 2 Timothy 3:2, 3 that there will be a state of social morals where children are disobedient to parents and parental authority cannot be enforced. This prophecy is also about the last days.
Then, of all things, the Bible predicts that in the last days people will be outwardly religious, that they will have a form of godliness, but they will deny the power of it. (See 2 Timothy 3:5.)
Peter also predicted that the last days would be a great day, or time, of unbelief. In 2 Peter 3, he says, “knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 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.’ For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which now exist are kept in store by the same word, reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (verses 3–7, literal translation).
Notice, Peter says that in the last days there will be great scoffing at the Bible teaching that God created the world in seven days, that the world came into existence by the word of God. He also said that it would be said that everything has continued uniformly from the beginning of creation. That is the uniformitarian theory. Eighteen hundred years before it occurred, Peter predicted that unbelief in God’s word would happen.
Peter also predicted that in the last days people would not believe in a world-wide flood. All of these Bible prophecies have been fulfilled in our time during the last hundred years, right to the letter. So the question that comes to mind is, Why do people then make excuses instead of getting ready for the end of the age (world KJV)? There are many reasons.
Some people neglect or reject truth because they want to retain their friends. Some people say that they will accept and act on truth later. We must beware of procrastination, for the Bible says, “Today is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).
There are stories in the Bible about men who decided they were going to follow the Lord later, but never got around to it. One example of this would be Felix, as recorded in Acts 24 and 25. He told Paul that at a later time when it was convenient for him he would consider what Paul told him.
There are others who don’t follow the Lord because they want to keep enjoying some sinful pleasure. Just as it was in the days of Noah, the message of truth to get ready for the end, is not popular. The end came suddenly at a time of which the scoffers were not aware. God drew a line.
God told Noah to preach that everything in this world was coming to an end. If you wanted to save your life, you had to accept the warning that God sent through Noah and get into the boat. But the people were not willing to make a big enough commitment to get into the boat. It would have required a person to risk everything on whether or not the prophecy Noah was preaching would be fulfilled. It is the same today. There are millions of people who are waiting and just watching to see if Bible prophecy will actually come true.
People say, “I would lose my job if I am obedient to everything the Bible says.” Well, friend, Jesus lost everything to make salvation possible for you, and the question needs to be asked, “Has God drawn a line today like He did in Noah’s day?” Yes He has.
The line that God has drawn today is found in Revelation 14:9–12. It reads, “Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, ‘If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.’ Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”
How long did it take for a person to be saved in Noah’s day? It was only the time it took for them to get into the ark of safety.
How long does it take to be saved today? Well, however long it takes you to decide that you are going to “keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” by obeying the three angels’ messages—the focal point of the latter half of the book of Revelation. It describes the eternal destiny of those who accept the last warning messages to the world and those who reject those same messages—the three angels’ messages.
(Unless appearing in quoted references or otherwise identified, Bible texts are from the New King James Version.)
Pastor John J. Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by email at: historic@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.