"Fleeing From The Wrath To Come" Throughout the Bible in all of God’s dealings with mankind, God first sent mercy and offered deliverance, doing everything to persuade men to obey Him and escape impending judgment.  Still, man sinned and rebelled until the stored up wrath of God was poured out, destroying them all.  God had His remnant of people whom He preserved with supernatural power in times of judgment.  The Bible declares that “God is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).  How grievously man must sin against God for His cup of wrath to overflow! This was the depraved condition of mankind preceding the great flood:  “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.  And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.  So the Lord said, ‘I will destroy man whom I created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I made them.’  But Noah found grace in the eyes of God” (Genesis 6: 5-8).  Noah obeyed God and built an ark to escape the destructive judgment that swept away every living thing.  Noah preached as he built the ark to an audience of mockers and scoffers.  “By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith” (Hebrews 11:7). When the Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus told them of the suddenness of His return: “For as the lightening that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in His day” (Luke 17: 24).  Jesus then told His disciples that, just as in the days of Noah and Lot, life would be business as usual and people would be totally oblivious to the desolation that would sweep upon them like a whirlwind: “And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.  Likewise as it was 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 it will be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed” (Luke 17: 26-30). Jesus told His disciples that, “The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it” (Luke 17: 22).  For the people who are looking for and desiring the return of Jesus, those days are surely upon us.  When the news reports of children being kidnapped, raped and murdered, even at times by their own parents, every believer should groan, “How long, O Lord, will You delay Your coming?”  Tragically, many of those who claim to follow Jesus have their hearts tied to the things of this world, not discerning the season of His return and not warning those around them to flee the wrath to come.  There is a crown awaiting the Christian who “looks for and loves His appearing.”  Most times our warnings to a perishing world will fall on deaf ears; nonetheless, it is our duty, in obedience to God, to reprove, rebuke, warn and correct lost humanity of the danger in refusing God.  The cross of Jesus Christ is the ark of safety that we enter to escape the terrible judgments of God that will come upon the world during the Great Tribulation period.  When the mercy of God ceases to be a virtue towards the wicked and His judgments rain destruction from heaven, then men will hear Him say, “You will seek Me early, but your cries come too late, I will not answer.  I will laugh at your calamities, and mock when your fear comes” (Proverbs 1:26-28).  Repent, turn to Jesus, and the Blood of Jesus will remove every guilty stain of sin and you will obtain everlasting life.  “And that, knowing the time, now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.  The night is far spent, the day is at hand.  Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light" (Romans 13: 11-12). “He Who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely, I am coming quickly.’  Amen.  Even so, come, Lord Jesus!”   (Revelation 22:20)