The Wonderful Works of God ~ Clive Barber series.

 "Used by permission from Truth & Tidings"

 In our faith journey, we often focus on God's love, grace, and mercy, but the fear of the Lord is equally important.  This fear is profound reverence and awe for who He is, recognizing His holiness, majesty and power.  Proverbs 9:10 tells us that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding."  This fear leads to a deeper relationship with God, built on respect for His divine nature.

Biblical encounters with God's glory, such as Isaiah's vision (Isaiah 6:5) and John's vision of the risen Christ (Revelation 1:17), highlight the profound humility and awe these men felt.  The holiness of God inspires awe and worship.  Living in the fear of the Lord means honoring Him in every aspect of our lives, obeying His commandments, and submitting to His will.  Job exemplified this fear through his integrity and resilience despite suffering (Job 1:1, 13:15). 

Approaching the Scriptures, we find there are multiple words in the original languages describing the salvation that God provides.  

Taking a dictionary of Bible words and an interlinear concordance and tracing the use of these words, we find them in many different settings relating to our spiritual, physical, emotional, mental and moral wellbeing in connection with time and eternity.  

We learn that the theme of salvation in the Bible is much more than a fire escape from hell.  That the English words “salvation/saved/save” have to be defined by their context is an important distinction to make as false teachers distort Scriptures to suit their evil agendas (2 Peter 3:16). 

A simple example of this is 1 Timothy 2:15, which has been exploited in an attempt to teach that eternal salvation is obtained by good works. 

With this in mind, let us focus on the threefold aspect of salvation, highlighted under these headings: Justification (past), Sanctification (present) and Glorification (future). 

In each instance, we find that the entire Godhead is intimately involved.

Luke 15 contains one of the most delightful parables the Lord ever told.  It’s of great importance to note that it is a singular yet three-pronged parable.  There were many lessons our Lord was communicating to His audience that day, but perhaps the most important was illustrating the entire Godhead at work for the justification of the sinner.  

The shepherd going after the lost sheep “until he finds it” graphically portrays the lengths to which our Lord Jesus would go (John 10:11), “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2).

The lost coin unquestionably represents the helpless condition in which sinners find themselves, never seeking after God (Romans 3:11) and lost utterly without hope except for the gracious illuminating light of the Holy Spirit.  

Fittingly, the Father who waits, looking for and desiring a response from the individual, runs at the moment of repentance, covering any ground the lost son intended to make (no penance there!).  Confession is made (Rom 10:9), and the picture is drawn together with another threefold image: the best robe outlining our standing before God in righteousness (justification), the ring displaying the new relationship (reconciliation), and the shoes depicting the changed walk (sanctification).  On these grounds alone the fatted calf is killed and fellowship is enjoyed; the son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.  Truly this son could say, “I have been saved.”

The NT declares that Christians are sanctified in each Person of the Godhead – the Father (Jude 1), the Holy Spirit (1 Peter 1:2) and Christ Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:2).  

1. "Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept safe for Jesus Christ: "  Jude 1

2. "in the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification by the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling with the blood of Jesus Christ: may grace and peace be yours in abundance. "  1 Peter 1:2

3. " to the church of God that is in Corinth, to you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy, with all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. "  1 Corinthians 1:2

That is, we have been not only positionally set apart as holy for God but also provided for to make this a practical reality.  The Christian has three great enemies – the flesh, the world and the devil , and the Bible declares that these are impossible to conquer by human intellect, willpower or physical strength. 

Paul reminds believers that we were once controlled by the world, the flesh, and the devil—but now we live in Christ’s freedom.  The world, the flesh, and the devil are powerful, but they are not greater than the power of God in you. Through Scripture, prayer, and the Holy Spirit, you can resist temptation, renew your mind, and walk in victory. 

Sadly, the professing sphere of Christianity is full of groups and individuals who (even to the extent of excluding themselves from society) vainly attempt to attain holiness by such measures.  

We noted in preceding articles that when God saves a person, He indwells them with the Holy Spirit, sealing them as divine property for eternity. 

How extraordinarily gracious of God to provide His Holy Spirit, the One who is our teacher, comforter, helper and guide, whose mission is to conform us to Christ.

Gifts are given by each Person of the Godhead (Romans 12; 1Co 12; Eph 4), enabling us to function in every sphere of life to the glory of God.  The Father disciplines (Heb 12) and forgives us (1 John 1:9).  The Spirit intercedes on our behalf (Romans 8:26), and the Son ministers as our Great High Priest.  Hebrews 4:14 

Beloved, we are inexplicably and extraordinarily loved by God, and whether it be physical (Matthew 6:26-33), spiritual, emotional, mental or moral, there is sufficient care on hand by each Person of the Trinity.  

The Christian can say, “We are being saved.”

Believers in the Thessalonian church were perplexed and distressed about the future of their deceased brothers and sisters.  Would they miss out on the second coming of Christ and His glorious kingdom?  Paul, having received a word from the Lord, taught them that every believer in this dispensation will rise together to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).  Each body will be instantaneously changed (1 Corinthians 15:51-55) and fashioned like unto our Lord’s glorious body (Philippians 3:21), forever beyond the reach of sin (1 John 3:2).  

What God desired in the beginning, He shall have in the end, and failure in every dispensation won’t prevent each Person of the Godhead from bringing this great salvation to pass.

• In the first dispensation Adam failed, but in the last God states, “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion” (Psalm 2:6).  
• In the second, a cursed earth and wicked world were sunk under a flood, but in the millennium the curse is lifted and righteousness reigns. 
• In the third, the world was led astray by the government of Nimrod, but in the millennium there’s a new government where the seven-fold characteristics of the Holy Spirit will be displayed (Isaiah 11:2-3). 
• In the fourth, the newly called-out nation of Israel ends in detention as slaves in Egypt, but in the millennium God will have Israel at the head of the nations, never to be set at nought again. 
• In the fifth, God’s covenant of law was impossible for any to keep, but in the millennium, Christ having established a new covenant, the Holy Spirit empowers individuals (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Eze 36:26-27). 
• In the sixth, the Church fails time and again, but in the millennium, it’s presented a “glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27). 
• In the grand finale, the doors of time shall close and the eternal Day of God shall open; only the redeemed of all time shall enter and every tear shall be wiped away!  “There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

Beloved, there are not sufficient adjectives in the English language to adequately convey the perfection of the salvation God provides.  Every child of God can lift their voice to declare, “We shall be saved!”  “We will … [show] to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done” (Psalm 78:4).  “He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered: the LORD is gracious and full of compassion” (Psalm 111:4).

"We have an advocate with the Father, Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus the Messiah) the righteous; and He is the atoning sacrifice (propitiation) for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world."  

(John 2:1–2) 

“This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty.'"  (Zechariah 4:6) 

Seeing we are facing such things, as the great white throne judgment, we are interested in salvation and in the immersion that leads to it. 

“Baptism, the counterpart of that, saves you to-day (not the mere washing of dirt from the flesh but the prayer for a clean conscience before God).”

 1 Pet. 3:21, Mo. 

JEHOVAH God is the great Baptizer or Baptist.  The baptisms which he performs are either to life or to death, to salvation or to destruction.  History proves this.  In the near future we are going to witness a tremendous baptism of fire.  Will this be a great modern Pentecost, and will those who have it come on them survive it?  The only way to face the happening of that fire baptism is to make sure we have the baptism for salvation now.  By this we do not mean baptism in water by total immersion or by submergence of your body under water or by sprinkling or pouring water on your head by some religious clergyman.  Millions in Christendom claim to have had water baptism in one form or another, but they will experience no salvation because of it.  We mean the baptism which God administers, not man. 

The apostle Peter tells us there was an ancient illustration of judgment to come.  So we do well to study it carefully. to know what to do to gain the desired salvation in this perilous time.  Peter tells us the illustration was given in Noah’s days.  The mention of Noah instantly reminds us of the flood—water—and that raises in our minds the thought of water baptism.  

But let us examine and see whether that is what Peter points to.  He writes: “The patience of God was waiting in Noah’s days, while the ark was being constructed, in which a few people, that is, eight souls, were carried safely through the water.  That which corresponds to this is also now saving you, namely, baptism, . . . through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  He is at God’s right hand, for he went his way to heaven, and angels and authorities and powers were made subject to him.” (1 Pet. 3:20-22, NW) 

Who are now being saved by this which corresponds to the ancient pattern which was set in Noah’s days? 

We are happy to say, The Christians from both Jews and Gentiles who receive the baptism in the holy spirit, and now also a “great crowd” of their companions of good will.  In Peter’s day the life-seeking Jews needed to be saved from the baptism of fire that threatened the nation, and Peter, on the day of Pentecost, urged them: “Get saved from this crooked generation.” 

Three thousand believed the message that Jesus was glorified in heaven to be both Lord and Christ, and later thousands more; and they were all baptized in his name for the forgiveness of their sins and to receive the gift of the holy spirit, participating in its baptism.  In course of time these followed Jesus’ instructions and did not enter into the city of Jerusalem at Passover time A.D. 70.  Consequently, they did not get trapped there by the Roman legions that besieged the city, and so they did not fall by famine, pestilence and the sword nor get captured and led off into exile as slaves of Rome.  They were spared from a fire baptism upon that faithless nation.  In this they pictured how persons with faith in God and Christ today will be spared from a similar event shortly to come upon Christendom. 

After mentioning features about Noah’s days the apostle Peter tells us that what is also now saving us “corresponds to this”.  Corresponds to what? Evidently the procedure or arrangement which was the way of salvation back there during the Flood.  There must be correspondent truth, for Jesus spoke prophetically of the “time of the end”, where we are now, and said: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away. Concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father. For just as the days of Noah were, so the presence of the Son of man will be. For as people were in those days before the flood, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark; and they took no note until the flood came and swept them all away, so the presence of the Son of man will be.” (Matt. 24:35-39, NW; Luke 17:26-30) 

By these words Jesus added proof that the Flood was a historical fact and also that this “time of the end” of this world during which he is invisibly present in Kingdom power is like the time of the end of the ancient world when Noah was present. 

Let us, therefore, note the important facts  Then we can be sure of the baptism that brings salvation.  The main character on that ancient scene was Noah, the builder of the ark.  Whom does he picture?  Noah was given his name by Lamech his father, because at his birth Lamech said: “This same shall comfort us in our work and in the toil of our hands, which cometh because of the ground which Jehovah hath cursed.” (Gen. 5:29, AS) 

The name Noah means “rest” or “consolation”.  But Noah was no lazy man of inactivity either before or after the flood.  He was the visible leader in the most important activity of that day.  Noah was the tenth in line counting from Adam, and thus he completed a series of generations from Adam, ten being a number symbolizing completion with regard to earthly things.  Noah did not rest before the Flood.  He was a “preacher of righteousness”, and when he was given divine warning of things not yet beheld by man he “showed godly fear and constructed an ark for the saving of his household, and through this faith he condemned the world, and he became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith”.—Heb. 11:7, NW. 

The first thing Noah did after he and his family came out of the ark following the flood was to build an altar and offer sacrifice to Jehovah.  This was restful to the Lord Jehovah, for we read: “And the LORD smelled a sweet savour [a savour of rest, margin; a satisfying odour, Ro]; 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 living thing, as I have done.”  Then Jehovah blessed Noah and his sons. (Gen. 8:21; 9:1)  Here we see how, in accord with the meaning of his name, Noah brought comfort to mankind at its new start after the Flood, procuring relief as respects the work and the toil of their hands which they had formerly endured because of Jehovah’s curse on the ground. 

The one who corresponds with Noah is Christ Jesus.  Jesus was the seventy-seventh from Adam, according to Luke 3:23-38, and his name means “Jehovah is salvation”.  But like Noah he ushers men into rest, even now.  Jesus said: “Come to me, all you who are toiling and loaded down, and I will refresh you. . . . and you will find refreshment for your souls. For my yoke is kindly and my load is light.” (Matt. 11:28-30, NW) 

During this “time of the end” of this world Jesus gives this rest and refreshment to all the sheep whom he serves as the Right Shepherd, both the remnant of his “little flock” of heavenly joint heirs and also the great crowd of “other sheep”. (Luke 12:32 and John 10:16) 

But after the battle of Armageddon baptizes this old world, including Christendom, with fire, he will comfort mankind with a great sabbath of rest for the thousand years of his reign.  “For Lord of the sabbath is what the Son of man is.”  He said that to Jews who objected to deeds of mercy on the sabbath day.  During the thousand-year sabbath he will rule as King and High Priest and will lead mankind in the pure worship of God, so that there will be no divine curse upon obedient mankind.  Jesus is indeed the antitypical Noah. Ancient Noah did a constructive work “for the saving of his household”.  So does Christ Jesus.  What is this construction?  How does it correspond with the ark? 

That which corresponds with the ark is Jehovah God’s theocratic system over which he has placed the antitypical Noah, Christ Jesus.  This Son of God is also a builder like Noah, and he tells us that he builds his church or congregation upon himself as the Rock. (Matt. 16:18)  Moreover, at Hebrews 1:1, 2, 8, 9, we read that he is a “preacher of righteousness” by whom God has spoken to us and “whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the systems of things”. (NW)  The ark which this Greater Noah constructs consists of a new system of things, a new divine arrangement which affords us protection and preserves us for eternal salvation.  The congregation, the theocratic organization which he builds, must live within this new system of things and must think, speak and work in harmony with it.  This ark or theocratic structure is the laughingstock of the world, because it is built according to God’s instructions and for His purpose.  It is different!  The world has seen nothing like it and does not understand it.  The Father Jehovah is preparing a bride for His Son.

Hence faith in God is required for its construction, and those who work for this new system of things must exercise faith to carry on under the scoffing and reproach of this world.  But in the great crisis ahead it will serve its purpose faithfully by preserving all those who take refuge in it, just as the ark carried Noah and his family safely through the flood-waters of divine judgment.  We remember, too, how such an ark, chest, or tebah (Hebrew), also saved the infant Moses from a watery death in the Nile river.—Ex. 2:3, 5. 

This is a new system of things (dispensation) when compared with the old system that prevailed among the Jews under the law of Moses.  When that Jewish system fully ended in the fiery destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70, this new Christian system of things survived.  Today, nineteen centuries since then, Jehovah’s witnesses are enjoying that same new system of things and are entering into more and more of its new things.  

We have done well to take refuge in it, rather than in the system of things which obtains in Christendom and in the rest of the world.  

For the hypocritical worldly system will be baptized with fiery destruction at Armageddon, but God’s new system of things will survive and prove the salvation of those who shape their lives according to it.  The end of this present wicked world means the end of the things of Satan’s construction, his heavens and earth.  But the Greater Noah, Christ Jesus, is in the holy heavens at God’s right hand and he will come through the conflict of Armageddon victoriously.  He will survive, and so will the remnant of his anointed followers and their good-will companions who have taken refuge in the divine new system of things as an ark.  When on earth Jesus, like Noah, confessed that he did not know the day or the hour when that which corresponds with the flood would break out, but now in his heavenly contact with God He knows. 

In further examining the corresponding points between Noah’s days and this “time of the end”, we ask, "What is the thing into which we are baptized for salvation in view of the approaching world destruction?"

Of course, the anointed remnant of Christ’s “little flock” are baptized in holy spirit, as the early disciples were on the day of Pentecost.  But this is not what the apostle Peter is talking about here.  In Noah’s day water was what the ancient, ungodly world was baptized in to its destruction: “the world of that time suffered destruction when it was deluged with water.” (2 Pet. 3:6, NW) 

Hence it was not this flood into which the eight survivors were baptized for salvation.  Also, it was not merely the ark or vessel into which they were baptized, for doubtless there were some boats afloat on the rivers which flowed out of Eden and these may have ridden the flood waters for a time but at last became swamped and were overwhelmed.  So the Scriptural conclusion is that what brought salvation from the deluge was for the survivors to be baptized or immersed into Noah the ark-builder. 

The seven who went into the ark with Noah had to have confidence in him as Jehovah’s prophet.  They had to be unbreakably attached to him and walk with him as he “walked with God”.  They had to be willing to suffer the taunts and reproaches that fell upon him and suffer with him for a righteous cause.  They had to be incorporated into a system of things not of that world, a theocratic arrangement in which Noah was the chief builder, the chief consultant and shipmaster or pilot.  So they had to submit to him as the head who took the lead and directed the body of fellow workers.  Doing all this, they were in effect baptized into Noah. 

This being baptized into a chosen servant of Jehovah was duplicated in the case of Moses.  Peter tells us of the baptism into Noah, but the apostle Paul tells us of the baptism into Moses.  Those who escaped from Egypt with Moses were the circumcised Jews or Israelites and the “mixed multitude” (Egyptians) of good will, and all these were immersed or baptized into him.  How?  By Jehovah’s symbolic act at the Red sea; and there again Jehovah by his angel acted as the great Baptizer or Immerser.  He formed the watery walls on their right hand and their left as they moved eastward through the bed of the Red sea.  He provided the watery cloud above them, and with it he hid them from the view of the pursuing military hosts of Pharaoh.  Then he lifted his people out of these waters by bringing them out alive on the eastern shores of the Red sea, a living free nation, But to experience this baptism they had to accept Moses’ leadership.  Rebellion against him as Jehovah’s chosen deliverer was punished with destruction.  As he was the mediator between God and the Israelites, they had no approach into relationship with God except through him. They had to accept Jehovah’s laws through him.  Outside of the theocratic organization under Moses’ visible headship and outside of this “state of Israel” there was no hope and a person was “without God in the world”.  So we read at Ephesians 2:12, NW. 

By following Moses through the Red sea under the cover of the miraculous cloud the Israelites and the “mixed multitude” of good will were baptized into Moses.  From then on they were bound to his headship and dependent on his acting as mediator between Jehovah God and Israel.  Consequently Moses spoke of bearing them as a father does a child in his bosom. (Num. 11:11-14) The apostle Paul pronounces all this a baptism when he writes: “Now I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all got baptized into Moses by means of the cloud and of the sea.” (1 Cor. 10:1, 2, NW)  The Egyptian armies in pursuit were not under that protecting cloud.  So when Jehovah’s angel looked out through that cloud and saw the Egyptians in the bed of the Red sea, the walls of water were let collapse and those armies were baptized in watery destruction.  They were never lifted out alive by human or by divine power. 

God used Moses to predict that there was coming a Prophet like him but greater than he was.  The apostle Peter plainly points out that this Greater Moses who was to come is the Lord Jesus Christ.  As with Moses, so with Christ.  There is a baptism into him for salvation.  His “little flock” who become joint heirs with him in the heavenly kingdom are baptized into him by the holy spirit which God first poured out upon Jesus as the Head and which Jesus at Pentecost began pouring upon the members of his “little flock”.  For, says the apostle Paul, “just as the body is one thing but has many members, and all the members of that body, although being many, are one body, so also is the Christ.  For truly by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink one spirit. Now you are Christ’s body, and members individually.” (1 Cor. 12:12, 13, 27, NW) 

However, Peter points to a baptism into him at this “time of the end” of this world, a baptism which includes the Right Shepherd’s “other sheep” as well as the remnant of his little flock, for he brings them all together to become “one flock, one shepherd”. (John 10:16, NW; Acts 3:19-23; Heb. 3:4-6) 

This is the baptism into the Greater Noah.  When the ancient world ended, one’s being inside the ark was a symbol of being baptized into Noah under the theocratic system of things.  Noah’s wife, his three sons and their wives were the seven baptized into Noah.  Whom did these picture? 

First take Noah’s wife.  She is a woman who has been entirely ignored in previous discussions of this prophetic drama.  In whom does she find her correspondency today?  Obviously in those whom the Scriptures call the “bride” of Christ, the “Lamb’s wife”.  They are the “body of Christ”, his 144,000 faithful anointed followers who make up his spiritual “little flock”.—Rev. 19:7-9; 21:2, 9; John 3:29; 2 Cor. 11:3; Eph. 5:21-32. 

Noah had his wife at least a hundred years before the flood, for her son Japheth was the oldest and was born about a hundred years before the flood, since Noah was five hundred years old when he became a father.  Shem, her next son, was born ninety-eight years before the flood began. (Gen. 5:32; 7:11; 10:21, AS, margin; Ge 11:10; 9:22-25)  How many years of Noah’s six hundred before the flood he had this wife we do not know.  He had her well before the end of that ungodly world and possibly long before the birth of his three sons. So Christ’s bride began forming long, long before the end of this wicked world, namely, nineteen centuries ago, at the beginning of this Christian system of things.  In this “time of the end” she is represented on earth by the remnant of his anointed little flock. 

Noah’s wife had a most intimate relationship with him as her husband.  Just so, the “bride” class, including the remnant today, are baptized into the modern-day Noah, Christ Jesus, in a special way by holy spirit.  This means they must be baptized into his death for the vindication of Jehovah God’s kingdom, that they may be finally raised up in the likeness of his resurrection, the first resurrection, to heavenly “glory and honor and incorruptibleness”.  The apostle Paul asks them: “Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  Therefore we were buried with him through our baptism into his death, in order that, just as Christ was raised up from the dead through the glory of the Father, we also should likewise walk in a newness of life.  For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall certainly also be united with him in the likeness of his resurrection.” (Rom. 6:3-5, NW) 

Here Jehovah God is the great Baptizer.  In ancient time Noah worked for his wife’s salvation by showing his faith in a practical way.  She did not forsake him.  She followed him into the ark and did not die off but spent some of her years after the flood, though not to bring forth further children to Noah.  So with the remnant now. 

Here we come to a consideration of Noah’s three sons and their wives.  Who today correspond with them?  We must be honest and face the facts of our day, “the time of the end.”  Today our glad eyes behold a great crowd of men and women, boys and girls, flocking to Jehovah’s theocratic organization and taking up sacred service at his spiritual temple.  They see there is no salvation for them in any of the demon-inspired, man-made religions of this fateful day. So they turn from doing the will of men and of this world and dedicate themselves entirely to doing God’s will.  They ascribe all power of salvation to Jehovah God who sits on the throne and to his Son Jesus Christ, whom the Father gave as a Lamb in sacrifice.  They hail Him with palm branches as Jehovah’s anointed King, and they follow His leadership as the Right Shepherd.  He will become their “everlasting Father”. (Isa. 9:6)  These now vastly outnumber the remnant with whom the Shepherd has made them one flock, and we see they have come under the new system of things at the opportune time, in the interval of favor between the opening part and the closing part of the “great tribulation” upon Satan’s world.  In such terms as the above they were foretold at Revelation 7:9-17. 

We, therefore, cannot erase them from the scene of the end of the world.  We cannot leave them out of the picture.  They are in the ark arrangement with the remnant of the little flock.  Hence they must have a correspondency with some of those in Noah’s ark during the flood.  It is only reasonable, it is only factual, that they correspond with Noah’s three sons and their three wives. 

This is nothing strange or unusual.  We have already noted that a “mixed multitude” were baptized with the Israelites into Moses at the Red sea and eventually entered the Promised Land.  Further, when Jesus was comparing the days of his second presence before the battle of Armageddon with ancient days when great calamities and remarkable deliverances occurred, he drew not only Noah’s days into the comparison, but also those of Lot.  Lot was a nephew of Abraham, in whom all the families of the earth were to be blessed. Lot had taken up residence in Sodom, which was condemned to fiery destruction.  Showing that Lot and his two daughters who escaped the fiery destruction were figures prophetic of persons to come, Jesus said: “Likewise, just as it occurred in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building.  But on the day that Lot came out of Sodom it rained fire and sulphur from heaven and destroyed them all.  The same way it will be on that day when the Son of man is to be revealed.  Remember the wife of Lot.” (Luke 17:28-30, 32, NW) 

Lot and his daughters, for whose lives Abraham interceded with Jehovah’s angel, doubtless picture the same class as the mixed multitude of Moses’ time and Noah’s three sons and their wives.  All this pictures that, not only is a spiritual class, the remnant, carried safely through Armageddon, but also an earthly class of good will.  Believers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Noah’s sons and daughters-in-law outnumbered him and his wife three to one, and after the flood they were the ones who fulfilled God’s mandate: “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” (Gen. 9:1)  They had been baptized into Noah by faithfully co-operating with him as Jehovah’s servant during all the years of building the ark and by finally entering the ark with him, likely going in two by two as the male and female animals did.  So they came under Jehovah’s blessing after the flood, with a mandate that agreed with part of the mandate given to Adam and Eve in Eden. 

How fitting a picture they are of the “great crowd” of other sheep of today! These also are being baptized into the Greater Noah, Christ Jesus.  Not, however, in the same way as the remnant of the “little flock” are.  They are not baptized into Christ’s death, for the great Baptizer Jehovah God does not will this concerning them.  It is his will that, surviving the battle of Armageddon in the modern “ark” of salvation, they may be fruitful with children in the righteous new world and may have part in building up the paradise on the cleansed earth and inhabiting it as perfect humans in God’s image and likeness forevermore. 

Hence they are not like Christ’s remnant who are “buried with him through our baptism into his death” or “united with him in the likeness of his death”.  Even though some “other sheep” may die in the remaining time before the battle of Armageddon, yet they never sacrifice their prospect of perfect life in the earthly paradise.  They sleep away in the hope of resurrection to human life on earth under Christ’s kingdom of a thousand years.  So it is by their hearing the voice of the Right Shepherd today proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom in all the earth for a witness to all nations and then devotedly following him as God’s anointed King that they are baptized into the Greater Noah.  For this reason they live changed lives in this fallen world.  They no more waste time in imitating the manners of this world, but live according to the new system of things, the ark of safety.

“Nevertheless the gloom will not be upon her who is distressed …  The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.” (Isaiah 9:1–2) 

“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder and His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice, from that time forward, even forever.”  (Isaiah 9:6–7) 

"For all the things that were written aforetime were written for our instruction, that through our endurance and through the comfort from the Scriptures we might have hope."  Romans 15:4, New World Translation.

We grow more sure that Jesus really will raise up on the last day every single man, woman, and child whom the Father has given him (John 6:37–39). 

No darkness can stop Him.  Satan can lie and murder all he pleases, but Jesus will keep His promise.  Precious relationships may be healed.  

The apostle Paul saw John Mark restored to much usefulness (2 Tim. 4:6).  Sometimes there is wonderful forgiveness and restoration.  But even if there isn’t, Jesus keeps all who are His.  The most horrible sickness on earth cannot stop Him.  There is no accident outside of His providential wisdom and love.  Moral failure cannot defeat Him.  Hatred cannot disable His power or blunt His love.  

And so even as the shadows fall, the precious assurances of the gospel shine joy into the troubled heart. 

Many of us do grieve more deeply than ever with disillusionment over a church, whether their own or others’.  The older we grow, the more we have to see of how Babylon (world religions, religious/political system) has infiltrated Zion (God's kingdom).  We come up close to the party spirit that drives a wedge through the harmony of a church.  We weep as we watch false teaching deal death in a church or denomination.  We sorrow as we watch immorality dirtying the purity of Christ’s church.  We hear words of harsh self-righteousness or legalism in a church.  We watch, sorrowful and helpless, as some cause divisions in a church, contrary to the gospel.  The older we get, the more we see and feel the sorrows of Christ’s church.

And yet, as these sorrows press in on our souls, the promises shine even more brightly.  Christ will build His church, and the gates of hell (death and the grave) cannot prevail against it.  

Babylon will be destroyed at Armageddon  Revelation 16:16 , and Zion will triumph.  We see anticipations of this when a church recovers from some needless split when applying scriptural principles; relationships are mended, wrongs are corrected and  forgiven; harmony is restored.  We take comfort when an impenitent church that surrenders to false teaching withers and dies, and when a church nourished by the Word of God grows in faith and love.  We rejoice as we experience the delights of fellowship in a faithful Biblical church.  And so, even as disillusion dims the lights of our hearts in a troubled church, the glory of Christ shines ever more brightly.

As we grow older, we know more of death.  More people we have known die. We go to more funerals.  We sit by more loved ones on their deathbeds.  We stand more often at the graveside.

And yet again we hear more often the words “I am the resurrection and the life,” as they ring out hope in Christ in the face of the greatest sorrow.  The cold of a corpse lies side by side with the warmth of the gospel.  We know, as we have never known so deeply, that one day Jesus will raise from the dead each one who is His.

Perhaps most acute of all, as we grow older, we sorrow more for the darkness of our own sinful hearts.  Paul never forgot that he had viciously persecuted the church (e.g., 1 Tim. 1:13).  We have more memories of our own moral failures, and even old memories come back to haunt us with their ugliness.  We despair more deeply of our own miserable lack of growth in godliness. 

I say to myself, ' Have you learned nothing at all in your many years as a follower of Jesus?  How can your heart still be so full of self-pity or self-protection, overflowing with covetousness or lust, driven by self-will, or enervated by weariness in doing good? '

How stubborn are my sins, how resistant to the workings of the Holy Spirit of God!  And so I weep for my own sins, and I do so more than I did when I was younger.

And yet again I see more of God’s triumphant grace.  I know in personal experience what I have known in theory for many years, that where sin abounds, grace super-abounds (Rom. 5:15–21).  The Holy Spirit pours into my heart the assurance that the Father himself loves me, even me in all my sin and shame (Rom. 5:5).  And the love that God has for me from all eternity works in me the stirrings of the steadfastness of Christ (2 Thess. 3:5), so that—to set it at a very basic and unimpressive level—I do not give up.  I fail and I weep.  But the more I weep for my own sinfulness, the more deeply I rejoice in the beauty, the power, the majesty, the truth, the light, and the love of God the Father and Jesus Christ.  And one day all the tears of sorrow will dissolve into pure and endless joy. 

All of God's promises are 'Yea and Amen'.  

" I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race (on the new earth). He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will always be with them [as their only God].  He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, [for] the old order has passed away.” 

Revelation 21:3-4   NABRE

Jesus said:  "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away."   Matthew 24:35

The apostle Paul wrote:  "I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus."  Philippians 3:14

"For all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us."  2 Corinthians 1:20

"And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen." Romans 16:20

"For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen."  Romans 11:36

"Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen."  Ephesians 3:21

"To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen."  Romans 16:27

"Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever."  1 Timothy 1:17

"Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen."  1 Timothy 6:16

"To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen."  Jude 1:25

Bible quotations in this article are mostly from the KJV.

Some of the material was borrowed from JW.org.

also go to see: Gospel Hall Audio | Homepage 

( churchgrandbendgospelhall.godaddysites.com )

https://www.facebook.com/p/Grand-Bend-Gospel-Hall-100069236461238/

Page created by Peter Brenner October 2023

(Revised Friday, December 19, 2025)