Even so is the resistance of the world's inhabitance to God's future. The direction of human nature, which is guided by the flesh and Satan's schemes, is going in another direction. The flesh desires to be satisfied and Satan's world order is more than ready to offer what appears to be "living it up." The church usually joins the world and becomes a part of its plans and schemes. One only has to visit the archaeological sites in the Sumer Valley of Iraq to see the great religious towers of Noah's day to understand that the world and most religions are always headed in the same direction.

The past is truly a picture of the future. "... There is no new thing under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 1:9).Our God certainly does not change and mankind is incapable of changing his spots. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil." (Jeremiah 13:23).

The Holy Bible gives us many incredible pictures of past generations acting out their rebellion until the Creator's holiness was offended to the point of judgment. Our God is perfect in all aspects of His nature and judgment cannot pass the line of His appointed wrath.

Two historical events in the past provide perfect examples of generations that serve as a picture of the present. "But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." (Matthew 24:37). Jesus made that clear statement in His Olivet Discourse. Then, Jude, the Lord's half brother stated, "Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." (Jude 1:7).

These two specific civilizations are striking examples of unfettered human wickedness that attracted God's attention. It was evident that the morals of mankind had lost all sense of guilt and restraint until the Spirit of God ceased to deal with them by Grace. That's the point of judgment.

Let's learn the facts about these two civilizations and try to identify the point where grace turns to judgment. That is always where judgment occurs. This expression of God's nature was identified in the Scripture before the flood came and destroyed the pre-flood world. "And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years." (Genesis 6:3). God will never judge any generation until grace has been ultimately spurned.

As it was in the Days of Noah
Three verses in the Book of Genesis describe the depth of sin that characterized Noah's generation. One verse expresses the loss of all morals. Another verse shows the invasion of evil spirits at the invitation of the people, while the third expresses the loss of all consciousness of man's Godlikeness. Read carefully, "That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose." "There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." (Genesis 6:2, 4-5).

What we see in these statements is that the laws of righteousness and any sense of the nature that the Creator created in man were utterly lost. Their lives had become unbridled from created restraints and they were totally given to the vileness of their sinful nature. The first description was of men that gazed in lust upon the opposite sex and found great pleasure in sexual pursuits. Delight in one's own companion had been lost until sex was not intimacy, but prowessness. Nothing describes a society on the edge of losing all grace more powerfully than sexual perversion. There is only a short step between fornication and homosexuality. Once men are unfaithful to their wives, they will soon become unnatural in their desires.

As mankind lost his moral consciousness and fear of God, they quickly began to welcome the opposing spiritual realm. Nothing is more impossible than a spiritual vacuum. If the true God is not honored, the idiot god, Satan, and his fallen angels will be. When men treat women like a plaything, women lose their interest in man's pursuits. The next step is women consorting with spirits (fallen angels) in acts that are nothing less than blasphemy against God. The liberal women of the church (Presbyterian, Methodist, Pentecostal, etc.) that are involved in the worship of Sophia present a perfect fulfillment of this historic event. I have yet to read of these women having sex with the spirit realm, but I am convinced it is already occurring. I have received several oral reports of such activity, but do not believe that an oral report it trustworthy enough to describe. There are many lesbian ministers in mainline churches. These women have literally gone beyond the acts described in Genesis.

If Jesus tarries, the coming wave of immorality will clearly be manifest as occurred in this text under discussion. Sex in our world is very close to being nothing but fleshly depravity without any restriction or restraints. Bestiality, sadomasochism, and many other forms of sexual perversions are on the same level as consorting with demons or fallen angels. It is a mindless, insane descent into the abyss.

The third description of Noah's generation is breathtaking. Man was created to reason and think on a level second only to God Himself. Adam had given every creature that the Father created a name based on the very characteristics that were inbred in their creation. It was an overwhelming task easily performed by the first man. He could visit with God in the evening of each day and discuss truth that only the Creator could have breathed into his person. Man, the creature, created in the Godhead's image, could have one on one fellowship and think to the level of knowing God's truth.

From that lofty place, mankind had fallen to the unbelievable depth so that "every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Created to have dominion over God's new world and to have intimate communion with the Holy One, now his only thoughts are sex, pleasure, vileness, and self. The sight and sounds of such a depraved multitude caused the Great God to repent that He had made man. Imagine the brokenness of God's heart when He heard no evil sound coming from His creation, but that of the blood of Abel crying from the ground. Horror of horrors it was to the Holy God. Yet, now in our text the blood of Abel is but a whisper, while the filth and commotion of millions is the noise of a tumult.

Our present world is close to exceeding the world of Noah. The imagination of our generation has produced the technology to send wave after wave of depravity into every nook and cranny of this globe. The homosexual and lesbian have become one of the most potent forces of societal change known to human history. Humanists have created the legal organizations to force the high court systems to support their wildest imaginations. We are on a fast track to a literal hell on earth and only the intervention of the Creator will stop the total destruction of both the earth and all human existence.

His cup of wrath is approaching the brim. Grace is without expression when the hearts of man reach the approaching dead end. It is almost over and the past is a picture of the future.

Even as Sodom and Gomorrah
The judgment of Noah's civilization was a worldwide event where only eight persons survived. Sodom and Gomorrah was a localized community of a few large towns and maybe a few thousand people. Apparently they either forgot the worldwide knowledge of the Flood or they just plain snubbed their nose in the face of God. I would suggest the latter. The sin of moral depravity was at the heart of their rebellion.

The judgment of Noah's day was horrible beyond description. Apparently, even the Holy God was overwhelmed by the acts of His justice. He promised never again to judge the world in the same manner. God spoke, "And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done." (Genesis 8:21).

His judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah was apparently an example of where grace ends and judgment follows. Jude stated it with these words, "Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." (Jude 1:7).

We must look at the parallel of these cities and the absolute same abandonment to the evil that is engrossing our world. Our just God has no choice but to treat every generation by the standard He has set forth in Scripture.

The cry of evil, the tumult of Godless confusion had risen like a cloud out of these wicked cities and its stench had entered the nostrils of God. Here is what the Lord said to Abraham, "And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know." (Genesis 18:17, 20-21).

Can you understand the depth of what our God said to our Father of faith? There is a point where sin may reach that its stench ascends up to God and justice, righteous judgment, must transpire. Our God does not act until His last expression of mercy is offered. In this example story, God sent His pre-incarnate Son and two angels to visit Abraham. While the angels proceeded to Sodom, the Lord and Abraham discussed mercy.

When the angels entered Sodom, they discovered the source of the stench. They had no more than entered the home of Lot when the perverted men of the city acted out their cravings for evil satisfaction. These sodomites recognized that these were holy men and the ultimate act of demon possession is to defile the righteous. Satan and his unholy angels are never more animated than when they can defile the holy and blaspheme the Creator. Their sodomy had passed the point where flesh was their craving. They wanted to blaspheme that which was pure and undefiled. Pedophilia or sex with children is the scourge of our present world and reflects exactly what was occurring in Sodom and Gomorrah. Instead of being contained in a few cities as in that day, it has now become a worldwide scourge that our God will not ignore.

The very Greek word that Jude used by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost sounds exactly like this generation. The words, "giving themselves over to fornication" comes from one word, which is ekproneuo. It means, "to become wholly abandoned to porn or its lifestyle of filthy fornication." These men of Sodom did not have pornographic magazines, television sex, or Internet connections. Can you but imagine what an additional depth of depravity they would have discovered if they had our modern technology? You do not need to imagine because our generation has already experienced it. Its evidence is even now rising as a stench into the presence of Divine Holiness. The past has become the present.

What Must be Transpiring in Heaven
Our God never acts compulsively. "For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven." (Psalm 119:89). All His ways are pure and eternal and He will not be found a liar. The Words of our God have settled that grace and mercy will be extended until the last thread of hope. James, the brother of Jude by whom we have heard these words of judgment, described the heart of God to us. James said, "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door. Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy." (James 5:7-11).

Only one thing deters the coming of the Lord. He "waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth." Mercy is still available for a limited period. Even in the coming judgment He promises a Latter Rain, a harvest after the Great Tribulation has begun and even after it ends. Even in judgment there is mercy. This truth is one of the great results of our Creator's words to Noah after the flood had destroyed all human life, except his family. The whole meaning of the "rainbow in the storm" is mercy in the midst of judgment.

The Biblical Type of the Ark
The ark is a great type of the Rapture. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord and the Father instructed him to prepare an ark out of a specific wood. Right in the midst of contradictions by a multitude, sins so vile that even the heart of God was repulsed, he prepared his ark and preached the gospel of grace as he knew it. When the ark was finished in God's planned time schedule, the grace of God was finished also.

Remember, God spoke to Noah from within the ark, "And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation." (Genesis 7:1). The Creator did not say, "Go into the ark." He said, "Come thou and all thy house into the ark." The ark was a "chamber" or a "covering" from the storm. When Noah and his whole entourage were safe inside, "God shut the door." (Genesis 7:16). Noah was safe above the storm, but returned back to the earth when the storm was finished. It is a beautiful picture of the future.

Our Father has prepared a "chamber" where the Bride of Christ will be safe during the coming Great Tribulation. When the moment of grace for this wicked world is finished, the trumpet will sound and we will move into that prepared place. After the seven years are finished, we will return to the Earth as did Noah and his family to continue God's plan for His earth.

Lot's escape from Sodom and Gomorrah was a type, although an imperfect one, of this same event. The judgment in Sodom and Gomorrah could not begin until Lot was out of the city. The angel spoke to Lot and said, "Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither." (Genesis 19:22). The nature of God and His perfect holiness can never judge the righteous with the wicked. Sodom and Gomorrah was also a picture of the future. Goes does nothing without revealing the same to His ordained prophets and pastors.

Conclusion
The past is a picture of the future. Our God is eternal and He changes not. Sin is nothing but defiance against the holiness of God, so sin expresses the same nature and acts in each generation. The Bible is an infallible book that has recorded the past as well as the future. It is of little consequence to God to perfectly declare the future because the future is no different than the past. It is all the perfect expression of His eternal person. The perfect peace in the unstained Garden of Eden is soon to be replayed for eternity.