If you can turn your Bibles with me to Hebrews 11.7, we're going to be looking at Noah, the third person on this list of heroes of faith. Hebrews 11.7. Reading out of the NASB. By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

Let's pray. Father, I praise you. We need you. Lord, we plead with you. May your word have its intended effects in our hearts. I pray, Lord God, that you would soften hearts that have become callous. If we have drifted, call us back that we may be anchored, that we may live lives truly worthy of the gospel that we proclaim to believe.

I pray that these truths would not fall on deaf ears. May your word and your word alone go forth and accomplish its purpose. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, so when we think about the story of Noah, if you can put up the first, okay, I don't know if you guys can see it, that's a typical picture that we remember when we think of Noah, right?

You have these cute animals who are sitting on this large boat two by two, right? And so if you grew up in the church, you're very familiar with this picture, you know. But this is not an accurate depiction of what we see in Genesis. If you go to the next picture, and that's obviously a rendition of a tsunami that's coming and wiping away a small town.

The story of Noah is really the devastation of mankind, that God's judgment. It really is a foreshadowing of what God says is going to happen to mankind. And he preserved only eight people, 1500 years have passed since Adam, and during those 1500 years, all those hundreds of thousands of people that must have been born during that period and only eight people survived this judgment.

So the story of Noah is a depiction of the judgment that is coming. It serves as a warning to mankind to take God's word seriously. It also is a picture of how God will save mankind. So I think we need to be careful when we teach our children that we don't simply sanitize what this story really is about.

Because when I was younger, and I'm not saying that we can't ever use those pictures, but when I was younger, before I became a Christian, when I thought of Noah, I've had that in my mind. It's a cute picture of animals coming together and riding a boat, going to the zoo.

And I remember once reading what the story was about, it's like, wow, this is the story of the judgment of God. And we would never picture the book of Revelation in that way. In fact, if you look at it, the animals coming to the ark is a very small portion of what happens.

The majority of it is God warning year after year after year. And in obedience, God leaves a witness. And in the end, just as God says, devastation comes. You know, if you look at Genesis, Noah is introduced to us in chapter 5, just in genealogy. And then chapter 6, 7, 8, and 9, and then 10 is about Noah's life.

So we have about six chapters in the book of Genesis about Noah and his descendants. The only other person on this list that gets that kind of attention is Abraham. And yet, in this text, we only have one verse. So it's not that his life isn't significant, but that every part of what he says in verse 7 is hugely significant.

Because God uses Noah repeatedly in the Old Testament and the New Testament as an example of the judgment to come. We need to take heed as we study Noah's life. And we need to ask ourselves if Noah, what happened to Noah, serves to remind the world that judgment is coming.

And then to live the rest of our lives with this sanitized version where we're trying to make a better life, we're trying to have an easier life, a healthier life, a long and prosperous life, the whole time professing mankind is going to be wiped out. Maybe not through a flood, as God said that he was not going to do it in that way, but if you read the book of Revelation, it's pretty clear.

The devastation that's coming at the end of human history is going to be much like the flood. In fact, greater than the flood. Because it's going to be an eternal judgment. What is it that we are to learn from this text? So I divide it into three things that I think we really need to pay attention to.

First is that through Noah, God warns the world to turn from their sins. And that really is the core of the gospel message. It's not simply that there is a superpower being who created the universe who loves you unconditionally. Why don't you give him a try? Open your heart and let him in.

And God will take care of your life. That is not the gospel message. The gospel message begins by saying God is actually angry with this world. He is so angry. He was so grieved by what he saw. He told Noah that they are all going to be gone. Not just a few select, not just people here and there.

He said all of it. In Genesis 6, God looked on the earth and behold it was corrupt. For all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. And God said to Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me. End of all flesh. And when he says all flesh, he meant all flesh.

All of mankind. I mean, look at the whole world that has been locked down. Because we are afraid that we are going to get this virus and a few of us might die. Point two percent might die if we get this. And so in fear, the whole economy has been shut down.

People can't travel. Schools have been shut down. But God says to Noah, all flesh, all flesh, a hundred percent of the flesh has fallen short. For the earth is filled with violence because of them. And behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth. Now we would love to sanitize this and say, well, you know, God was done with that in the book of Genesis.

He started, he may have started out with that, but surely that's not who he is now. I think you and I know better. This warning is throughout human history. In fact, it escalates because he said the wrath of God is being stored up. It's being stored up. If God was so grieved with 1500 years of men rebelling and sinning against God, how about tens of thousands of years?

If he was angry with a few hundred thousand people, how about billions and billions of people rebelling against God? So when he says the anger of God is being stored up and we see a glimpse of a tiny glimpse of that in the book of Revelation, what would the wrath of God look like then?

In Amos chapter 3, 7, it says, surely the Lord God does nothing unless he reveals his secret counsel to his servant, the prophets. God uses Noah, the prophets, the scriptures, the church, the apostles, missionaries, pastors, lay people. Each one of us has been called what he revealed to us to tell the nations.

He says surely the Lord God does nothing unless he reveals his secret counsel to his servants, the prophets. That's exactly what it says in Hebrews 11, 7, by faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen. God warned Noah first. Remember last week we talked about how Enoch was established and he was caught up in Jude 14 and 15.

He was the first evangelist who warned about the judgment to come. What's interesting is Enoch has a child before he is taken up. His name is Methuselah and his claim to fame in the Bible is that he lived the longest of all human beings recorded in Genesis. He lived 969 years.

But the significance of Methuselah is not the length of his life. His name literally means in Hebrew, "when he is dead it shall be sent." Now you know that God does nothing by accident. That even the names of the prophets, even the names of the patriarchs have significance because God embedded in their name what he planned to do in the future.

Methuselah's name is "when he dies it shall be sent." If you look at the chart of their life, we know exactly what he was talking about because Enoch dies, Methuselah is born, when Methuselah dies, what happens? The flood comes. Flood comes. So God did not all of a sudden sprung it up on mankind and say, "I'm done and then you guys are finished." He's been telling Enoch, he's been telling Noah, he prophesied within Methuselah's very life, warning the nations to turn.

God has implanted all throughout history, every part of scripture, warning about the judgment to come. The church has sanitized the gospel because it is not palatable to the world. They will not come to church if we emphasize this aspect. That's why hell slowly has fallen off the pulpit. I want to talk about being encouraging.

Life is hard enough as it is. We have pastors who just outright say, "I'm not going to preach about sin because it ruins people's days." So they have not rejected it and said, "It's not because I don't believe in sin, it's because if we talk too much about it, people are going to be discouraged and they're not going to come to church." By all practical purposes, it's been weeded out of the church.

And yet, the central message of the gospel is a warning about the judgment to come. There's a reason why Noah's story is six chapters in the book of Genesis. He didn't just pick out a few people here and there. He was so angered, he wiped out the earth. Isaiah 13, 9, "Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, cruel, with fury and burning anger, to make the land a desolation, and he will exterminate the sinners from it." The way that we understand God, Isaiah 13, 9, doesn't make any sense.

Why would a loving God do this? And that's a common question that Christians in this generation, even Christians in the church in this generation, ask that question. Why would a loving God do this? It's because they've forgotten about Noah. Because we made the story about Noah, about two animals going home and resting and having fun.

He actually did it already. In 2 Peter 3, 10, "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up." All that you and I treasure.

This means that every beautiful place that we visited, everything that the world says is magnificent. He says the earth is going to be burned up. It's all going to be destroyed. And he warns the church not to be caught off guard, as if a thief is coming. In other words, pay attention to his word.

Remember what he says. Revelation 9, 18 and 19, "A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues." He's only talking about one event. If you've ever read the book of Revelation, 70% of what he says is about the judgment that's to come. And in one verse he says, "These three plagues killed a third of mankind by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which proceeded out of their mouths.

For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, for the tails are like serpents and have heads, and with them they do harm." Today if you preach from this text, immediately you get the label, "Oh, he's a fire and brimstone preacher." Which means, I'm not going to go to a church of fire and brimstone.

That's an ancient thing. That's what they did, you know, a hundred years ago. No one's going to sit through that. And they're absolutely correct. Because we have a generation of people who think fire and brimstone is not biblical. That is not the God that they serve. And they are absolutely correct.

We have a generation filled with people just quoting scripture, they get offended. And yet the Bible tells us not to ignore. As much as we love to hang verses and memorize scripture and put it on our t-shirts and tell it to our children about the grace of God, the faithfulness of God, of the mercy of God, the Bible is filled with warnings of Noah.

That this judgment is real. That when the end comes, when the white throne judgment comes, what comes after that, there is no mercy. Up to that point, God is being patient. He's being faithful. He's waiting patiently. But after the white throne judgment, what happens in the day of Noah is going to seem merciful.

And it is not one verse. It is not one event. All throughout scripture, mankind is warned that this will come. Romans 118, "For the wrath of God is revealed, is even now being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." If you go on and share the gospel to the unbelieving world, one of the most common questions you get is, "How can a God that you say is loving allow 9/11 to happen?

How can a God who is so loving and gracious and who loves us so much, why does he allow sex trafficking to happen? Why does he allow poverty to happen? Why do they allow injustice to happen if your God is so good?" Part of the reason why is because we preach the wrong gospel.

We sanitize the gospel where they don't understand that God is angry with this world. That in our natural state, if we die, we are not going to meet a gracious and loving God. We are going to meet the God of Noah where he was so grieved and angered that he said, "Enough!" And he wiped out the earth.

That's the God that a man and a woman who is not covered by the blood of Christ will meet on the judgment day. And the Bible tells us that the wrath of God is being revealed. So whenever you see disaster happening because of the sinfulness of mankind, it is a glimpse of what will come in the future.

In fact, the question really is, the only reason why we don't see more of it is because of common grace. It is because he left the church as a witness. It is because he left the church to sanctify and to be the light. But one day that light and the darkness is going to be separated for eternity.

And the Bible tells us that you and I are here just as Noah was given this message to share. Hebrews 11, 7 says, "By which he condemned the world." Genesis 6 says, "The Lord was sorry that he had made man on earth." In the NIV it says, "He grieved." And that's exactly the meaning behind this.

That God was so disturbed by the sins of mankind that he said, "Enough!" Imagine if God had enough 1500 years, what his wrath would look like after all these years of being stored up. All these years of violence. All these years of blasphemy. All these years of murder. All these years of sexual immorality that has been stored up.

In Ephesians 4, verse 30 says, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God." Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Imagine God was grieved because of sin of mankind and he wiped them out. Ephesians 4, verse 30 when it says, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God." Imagine.

Imagine. Not realizing how much God hates sin. He hates sin so much that he was willing to start all over. So when he says, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit," he's talking about an almighty God who by the snap of his finger can wipe out the earth with a flood, with fire, with plague.

He said, "Do not poke this God. Do not take lightly who he is." That's what it means, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit." It's not saying, "Do not make him sad." It's not saying, "Don't get on the wrong side." To grieve the Holy Spirit is to stir up anger and wrath.

If that's what he says, Genesis 6, "And 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 all the birds of the sky. For I am sorry, I am grieved that I made them.'" Romans 2, 4-5.

"Or do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?" Whole reason why we even repent is because God was merciful. It wasn't our doing. He said, "Do you take lightly the grace of God, not knowing that God saved us from this wrath?" And then in verse 5, "But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath." After hearing the gospel, after being enlightened, after being around the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, after being in the church, given the word of God, and after all of that, you simply drift along into the world, denying the Savior by our life, loving him with our lips.

Do you not know? That repentance is God's kindness. If observing mankind stirred him up that much, how much more if we are storing up this wrath for ourselves? Matthew 24, 37-39, "For the coming of the Son of Man will be 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." You notice here, he doesn't talk about pornography.

He doesn't talk about murder. He doesn't talk about poverty or injustice. He just says they were just marrying, giving in marriage, drinking, eating, just like everybody else does in this world. Yet in all of that, they were living in rebellion against God. Because they refused to acknowledge God. And they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away.

So will the coming of the Son of Man be. So the storing of the wrath isn't just murdering and killing. Just living a life where God is not honored. And living a life away from the purpose of God. Just living our lives like everybody else in this world. Raise good children.

Often go to church. Pay your tithe. Do your part. Being religious, yet having our hearts far from Him. See, God left a witness. Enoch, Methuselah, and Noah. Secondly, God gave opportunities for people to repent. Not only is Noah's ark serves as a warning to mankind, it's actually an opportunity where God is being patient and calling us to repentance.

120 years, Noah built this ark. In the middle of nowhere. Literally middle of nowhere. And you know what it says in Hebrews 11.7, it says, "In reverence," when he heard the warning was coming that isn't there yet, "in reverence he prepared an ark." So why did he build an ark?

They don't elaborate. And in the short statement, basically it says, "because he believed." God said judgment is coming, the world is going to be wiped out, and because he believed he says he feared. The word reverence in some of your translations, it says he feared. For whatever the reason, we think fearing God is not biblical.

That's not Christianity. I'm going to quote Kanye West this morning. He was being interviewed and asked, "What happened to you?" Now whether you believe his faith is genuine or not, but at least this statement I can't deny. And he said, "I fear God. And because I fear God, I don't fear anything else." Don't you fear your peers and other people in the entertainment industry?

The politicians that you're being called this and you're being called that? Do you not know the consequence of having that political thing and being religious? And he says, "I fear God. And because I fear God, I fear nothing else." Noah heard the warning and he said because he believed, he feared God.

In other words, he took it serious. He took his warning, he took it serious, and that's why he started building this ark. This ark was 500 feet long, 85 feet wide, 50 feet high. Five story building, even though it had three levels. People often say, "Oh, could they have fit all the animals?" In fact, they actually did a study in 2014.

There's 34,000 known species that are living in there. In 2014, they said over 90% of the animals that we know of are smaller than cats. So, it's just even scientifically, if you were to say, "Was that boat big enough?" He said, "By far." But that's not the point of the story.

Because God left that to us as a witness. What do you think that Noah did for 120 years while he was building this? Why did he even build a boat? Why this drama of rain and flood for 40 days and 40 nights? I mean, he wanted to save Enoch.

What did he do? Come up! Why did he do that with the aid and then just destroy them? What was the drama of 120 years of building this ridiculous square box in the middle of the desert, while for 120 years, enduring the mocking, probably, of all their neighbors? Look at that crazy man.

And this is before power tools. This is before Home Depot, where you can go and get nicely cut wood. You have to cut down trees, and you have to get it all handmade. That's why it took 120 years. For what purpose? You know, it's interesting that the ark is just a rectangular box.

It's almost like it wasn't meant to go anywhere. It was just meant to float. And God did it on purpose, to leave a witness. What do you think he did for 120 years, when people asked him, "Why are you building that boat?" God left a witness. For 120 years, every time they asked him, "Hey, God said you're going to be judged.

God said you're going to be judged if you do not repent." So the 120 years of his labor was a physical and verbal witness of God pleading with mankind to repent. Genesis 6.22, "Thus Noah did according to all that God had commanded him, so he did." I mean, it's so simple.

He believed, so he did it. We've made Christianity so complicated today. It's almost like if you convert and become a Christian, you have to go to seminary to even understand what you're supposed to believe or not believe. It's simple. If you believe Jesus, you follow Jesus. And you want to know what he has to say, read the Bible.

You want to know him, go and pray. We have books, seminaries, conferences, discipleship, programs, training. I'm not saying any of that stuff is bad. But if you say you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you have to follow Jesus Christ. If you say you believe in Jesus Christ, you actually have to believe in Jesus Christ.

You can't say you believe that he's the way and then not go. You can't say that, "I believe the warning is coming. I believe the judgment is coming. I believe the world is going to be wiped out." And then live the rest of your life like everybody else in this world.

That's not Christianity 401. That's just basic common sense. But if you believe in the message that the Bible teaches, either you believe it and you follow him or you don't believe it and don't follow him. But you can't say, "I believe" and then not follow him. It simply says, "He believed, he feared, and he did it." All of this to leave a witness.

First Peter 3, 20-22, "Who once were disobedient when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah." He kept waiting in the days of Noah, telling them to repent. "During the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is eight persons, were brought safely through the water, corresponding to that baptism now saves you." Not only did he leave a witness to them, he left a witness to us of what God was going to do.

That through his death and resurrection in our baptism, he said he was going to save us as well. Just like he condemned the world for rejecting him, he will condemn the world and those who believe and are saved through the water, just like Noah, we will be saved. Not the removal of the dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven after angels and authorities and powers and had been subjected to him.

Can you put up the next slide? Yes, I know the room is filled with Chinese Americans, but I'm going to teach you some Chinese today. That's the word for boat, chuan. I almost corrected. It's not chuan, it's chuan. And I know somebody is going to correct me too after that.

That's the word for boat in the Chinese character. And as you guys know, the Chinese character basically at one point were pictures that were made into characters, and you could see the meaning of the word. You know, like we look at English words and we do the history of that word and where it came from, so it either came from Greek or Latin or something, and that's how we dissect the word and say, "Hey, this is what this word means." With Chinese characters, it's embedded into their character.

Well mainland China has been using the simplified version, but those of you who are Taiwanese, they still use that old, regular Chinese. And this Chinese word for boat are three words, three pictures put together. The vessel, number eight, and people. If you've ever studied Chinese, there's so many words like this.

In fact, when I took Chinese class, one of the words that really intrigued me was the number six. So the teacher who was teaching this, she studied Chinese character history, and she was not a Christian. So she was telling us about the character, and she said, "The number for, or the character for man is the number six." I said, "That's interesting." So I went up to her and I said, "Why is the number for man six?" She said, "I don't know." So I said, "I know." So I opened up the Bible and I showed it to her.

The Bible said the number of man is six. And she said, "Oh, that's interesting." I mean, there's all kinds of, you can go to a website that has a bunch of this stuff. Character for righteousness is a character of a lamb over an altar. And I asked her that.

It's like, "Why is this character for righteousness? Why is a lamb being offered up over an altar the word for righteousness?" She's like, "I don't know." I said, "Well, this is what the Bible says." So I got to share the gospel with her through these Chinese characters. It was interesting.

So, "I don't know." We could just say it's embedded into the culture. It's an ancient culture. Obviously, the Chinese culture, they've used this language for thousands of years. And I don't know how it came in. That's why I always, you know, I'm very skeptical. So I thought maybe the missionaries.

I said, "They didn't have boats before missionaries?" You know what I mean? So it didn't make sense, but, you know, I'm skeptical. But the number six? They must have had that from the very beginning. Why would that be man? I have my conclusion. But whether you believe this or not, God has left imprints of himself if you are interested.

That's why he calls people to himself. He said he left evidence of himself in all of creation. He sent prophets. He gave us the word of God, the Holy Spirit, all of it, so that if we are interested, if we humble ourselves and seek him out, he left imprints.

The problem is, the Bible says we suppress the truth because we're afraid if we find the truth that all the other things that he said is true. A judgment is coming. That he said you have to pick up the cross as well. You have to lose your life as well.

So if this is true, I don't want this to be true, so neither do I want this to be true. And so I suppress the truth. Because I don't want to receive the consequence of what this means. And so we embrace cultural Christianity. Cultural Christianity is simply jumping through the hoops to appease what is expected of whatever church or fellowship that you belong to.

And following Christ, following Christ requires us to focus our eyes upon Christ. And true unity in the church is unity that happens as a result of men and women who are sold out for Jesus Christ. Even if we look different, even if we speak different languages, even if it takes us to different parts of the world.

See God through Noah warned them for 120 years that they would return, but they would not. Third and finally, by faith God made Noah an heir of righteousness. Genesis 6, 8, "But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord." And he explains it in this text. Noah became an heir of righteousness according to faith.

You know whenever we study Hebrews chapter 11, we have two ways that we get imbalanced. So the first group of people will look at Hebrews and look at all these achievements. By faith look what they did. He gave up everything, he built the ark, Abraham walked down to the desert.

Some people lived, some people died. Look what they did. And so some people will read this chapter 11 to challenge whoever that they are challenging. Look, we're supposed to do, we're supposed to give our life. And then other people will read this text and say, no it's by faith.

Everyone starts by faith, by faith, by faith. It's not about what they did, it's about faith. So stop talking about what we should do and just talk about what he did. Either extreme is not biblical because the point that he's trying to make is because he believed he did this, the evidence of genuine faith is that they obeyed.

His salvation didn't come because he worked, he worked because he believed. You can't profess faith and then just go home. You can't just profess faith and become a member of the church and then just go home and live like everybody else. It's not one or the other. That's the point that he's trying to make.

If you profess and there's no evidence of that, it may not be genuine faith. And if you think that you're going to somehow gain righteousness by doing all of this stuff and yet thinking that somehow you can earn your righteousness, it's completely unbiblical. He's saying, Noah did all of this because he believed and he became an heir.

You know what heir means? Heir means it belonged to somebody else. It belonged to somebody else and when that person dies, you get it free. You didn't earn that. That's what he means. He became an heir of righteousness. He received something that he did not earn. That's what he means by this.

By faith, he became an heir of righteousness. But his faith caused him to build that ark and be a witness for 120 years, telling people about the judgment to come. What's interesting here is out of all those people, now we have no idea how many people were there, minimum thousands, hundreds of thousands possibly for 1500 years.

And remember, each one of these guys lived hundreds and hundreds of years. Meaning they could have had hundreds of kids. We don't know that for sure, but just how human beings work. Out of all those people, eight people got saved. Eight. That's a pattern that we see all throughout scripture.

Remnant, remnant. Isaiah 10.21, "A remnant will return, a remnant of Jacob, the mighty God." A small number. That's what he's saying, small number. Romans 11.5, "In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious choice." A small number.

That's what a remnant is. Romans 9.27, "Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, 'Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved.'" A remnant, a small number. Do you know why this is so important? It's because you and I are social creatures.

So we don't like to be the first ones to do anything. We usually wait until we see if it's acceptable to the community that we belong to before we move. Even when we are being stirred. We will wait until the masses come together, then we can speak out, then we can walk, then we can go that direction.

Because that's our tendency. But here's the problem. Just as he saved the eight among the multitudes, the Bible says that he will do the same at the end. In Matthew 7.13-14, "Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction." And there are many who enter through it.

You know he's talking about the church. You know he's talking about the church. Cultural Christianity isn't a lesser Christianity. It's not Christianity. And it is so powerful that we can live all our lives jumping through hoops to belong to whatever church that you belong to, and yet you never truly followed Christ.

That's how much power community has. You know, when we're young, part of the reason why children are cute is because they don't think too much about what other people are going to think. So they do crazy things. They're inhibited, uninhibited. So they'll walk around naked. I mean, they don't realize it yet.

As soon as they hit puberty, all of a sudden, you know, they're very aware, in fact, hyper aware of their friends. They'll cut their hair a certain way, wear tight skinny jeans. You know what I mean? You have to have a certain kind of sunglasses, you have to wear certain brand of shoes, because they're hyper aware all of a sudden.

But you know that peer pressure never goes away. It never goes away. It's just your community changes. So in your 20s, you know, you have a certain way because that's what your friends do. You do certain things, you get certain jobs, you buy certain houses, you buy certain cars, all because of this is what's acceptable.

That doesn't change. You get married and have kids. What do other kids have? How come the other parents are doing this, and they have this many children, and they have, what do they do? What school did they go to? What kind of jobs do they have? That peer pressure never changes.

That goes to grandkids. I spent a lot of time with seniors when I was teaching ESL. It's no different with them either. You would think that at the age of 70 and 80, you know, they're just kind of coasting along. No, they're just older teenagers. They have the same problems, comparing.

Lot of the comparing they do is, what did their kids give you? So they compare the success of their children with other grandparents. That pressure never goes away. And so we rise to the expectation of the community that we belong to, but we never break out. We never break out.

See, cultural Christianity can be easily explained by psychologists and sociologists. Religious people go to church because they need to be comforted. They want their children to be taught morals. They go to church because they need community. Because we live in a society where there isn't any community, so a lot of people go to church.

So if you happen to run into a non-Christian who is perfectly happy with their family, they have community with whatever it is that they have. And they feel secure, and they're not worried about death. I don't need it, because what they are observing is cultural Christianity. And so they'll say, "I don't need the gospel," because they think that's what Christianity is.

But the message of the cross and the life that he calls us to makes no sense psychologically and sociologically. Jesus took rich fishermen and told them to follow him, and they gave their lives, professing that their Savior was resurrected from the dead. Apostle Paul, who already was in the top of the world as a Jew, said, "No, now you will suffer many things for my name's sake." Why would he do that?

He already told him, "You're living a nice, comfortable life now, and from the get-go, God said, 'I've called you to the Gentiles, and I will show you how much you will suffer for my name's sake.'" He told him he was going to suffer for his name's sake. Why did Paul do that?

Because he believed. Because he believed. The biblical Christianity that Jesus calls us to, there is no psychological, sociological answer unless you actually believe that judgment is coming. Why would you forsake your comfort? Why would you forsake your careers? Why would you risk the future of your children? See this secular, materialistic world, it makes no sense.

Biblical Christianity makes no sense. Either you are crazy, or you actually believe what you profess to believe. There is nothing in the middle. Because everything in the middle is just cultural sociology. You just happen to have a lot of Christian friends. You just happen to be raised in a Christian home.

Your parents, your grandparents, your great-grandparents happen to be Christians, so you're Christian because the easiest thing to do if you grew up in that culture is to remain there. So you happen to run into a bunch of Christians, and so they happen to be your best friends. So the easiest thing for you to do is to stay in that, and in order to stay in that, you just jump through the hoops that they jump through.

But never following Jesus Christ. There's a reason why God calls people out into the desert. He breaks them away from their community and makes them stay alone with God for a period. Because God does not call us in communities. He calls us one by one. The sociological aspect of modern Christianity that you and I experience is so powerful that it can easily deceive nominal Christians that we hold on to this community for dear life.

Even when false doctrines are being preached, even as it slips, you hold on to community for dear life. Because what we are following is cultural Christianity and not Christ. Let me conclude with this. I learned this when I was younger back in college, and I shared with you because my parents moved around so much, there was a longing in my heart to belong somewhere.

And I couldn't articulate that when I was younger, but I realized that that was what was going on in my heart. I didn't belong here. I didn't belong in Korea. And then right when I was confused, puberty hit, you know, junior high school. That's why I started getting into a lot of trouble.

And then in the midst of all of that, I became a Christian. And when I became a Christian for the first time in my life, I felt I belonged. I felt like I'm part of his kingdom. I'm not American. I'm not Korean. I'm a citizen of his kingdom. And so I didn't even realize what was going on in my heart.

But when that happened, nothing else mattered to me. Because I wanted to belong to this. I mean, I practiced baseball. I tried so hard to get on this team and everybody that I knew, instantaneously I lost interest because that's not the community that I wanted to be part of.

I wanted to be part of this community. So I went to their Bible study. And they spoke Korean. My Korean was not that good. But I had to learn because that's the community I wanted to belong to. To this day, I have songs memorized in my head that I don't know what it means.

Because I sang it for like four years. And then I came to college and there was this campus ministry. And my former youth pastor asked me, "Hey, Peter, you want to be disciple?" And I was, "Yes, that's the reason why I came to Biola." So he started meeting up with me and I didn't realize that he was part of this campus ministry.

And then I started really growing. I started getting excited. And I joined this ministry and we would have meetings. And at that time, I was the youngest guy there and all of my roommates were 10, 12 years older than me. But I was elated and all of a sudden, it became a thing at Biola.

Even though it was a very small campus, all of my peers started joining this ministry. So even though I was the only one at that time, all of a sudden, six months later, this tiny little ministry of like three or four or five people, it grew to about 50.

All my age people. And for the first time, not only did I feel like I belonged in God's kingdom there, I was a physical community. I never felt that at church, in neighborhood, anywhere. And it was fun. You know, have friends to hang out with, you know, leading worship, praying together, evangelizing together.

But about eight, nine months later, they all started leaving. They started having problems with ministry and then it was no longer the cool thing to do. So as much as they came in all at once, they started leaving all at once. And I was so tempted because for the first time, I felt like I belonged somewhere.

And I got a small taste of what it felt like to belong somewhere. And then they left. And I was so tempted to leave with them. Because for the first time, I belonged. And so I was really on the verge of telling my leaders that I'm going to leave.

But I can't deny what happened with God. And so it was in me that was competing with my loyalty to God and this. And I was rationalizing, it's the same thing. Why can't you have both? And I genuinely was confused. So I decided that I'm going to give it six months.

I'm going to wait six months. And if I feel the same way after six months, whatever I'm saying like, oh, I got to leave because of this and this. If I feel the same way, and this isn't just an emotional tug because I want to belong to that group, then in six months, it'll be more clear.

Sure enough, six months came and it became crystal clear that I needed to stay. What I was being challenged by, what I was learning, was greater than any fellowship or whatever that I thought I was going to miss in doing that. The reason why I tell you this story was because that made such a huge impact in my heart because I was already committed.

I was already saying, I'm going to give my life and I'm going to follow Christ and I'm going to preach the gospel. I was already committed. But that desire to want to belong was so strong that I was rationalizing in my head, I can't possibly do this or else I'm going to lose my friends.

I'm not going to be able to be a part of this community. And at the end of all of that, I realized, wow, that pull, that peer pressure is so powerful that if I'm not careful, I can live the rest of my life jumping through hoops to try to belong somewhere while denying Christ in the name of Jesus.

The truth will always pull us out of our comfort zone. Don't look around to see if your friends are doing it. If you have a community of people to do this with. First and foremost, do you believe what the Bible says? From my experience, if you follow Jesus genuinely, you will experience loneliness that you may not have experienced if you weren't a follower of Jesus Christ.

Some of the most intense feeling of loneliness came after I made a decision to follow Jesus. As much as I wanted to belong, as much as I desired to belong, the feeling of being isolated was never more intense than after I truly committed my life to Christ. And that's why he became my affection.

He's more to me than anything else in this world. Even my wife, even my children. Because they're fallen creatures like me. I want to end with this challenge. Have we sanitized the gospel like the Noah's Ark, where the punch and the power of the gospel is no longer relevant in your life?

You've sanitized it to the point where we made a to-do list of things that we do. And if you behave this way, if you say certain things, if you go certain places, then I'm okay with God. Yet it does not fit the message of the cross. The wrath of God is being revealed against all unrighteousness.

A third of heaven will be wiped out. And all of that, all of everything that we see in the book of Revelation, is actually God being merciful so that sinners would see that and repent. But when the end comes, there is no more patience, only righteousness. And he will divide between those who are covered and those who are not.

Those who believe and those who do not. Those who followed and those who did not. Broad is the way that leads to destruction. Narrow is the gate that leads to eternal life. And few will be found in it. Please be that few. Please be that few. Do not let peer pressure keep you in nominal Christianity.

Love Christ. Love Christ. Love Christ. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that the truth of your word will not just go through one ear and out the other. Lord, we pray for revival. We pray for men and women who take your warning seriously and embrace the truth of salvation seriously.

That we may live up to the calling, live up to the gospel that you have given us. That we may live worthy of what we profess week after week. Lord, as you warned us that in the end times, that because of the increase in wickedness, the love of many will grow cold.

Help us, Lord God, that we would not be a part of that many. That we would strive to be the few that believe and act. That we may also be heirs of righteousness by faith. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.