By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. Heb. 11:7

We do well to give heed to the description given of the "days of Noah, for our Lord said, that as it was in those days, so shall it be in the days that close the present age.

Mat 24:37  But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 
Mat 24:38  For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, 
Mat 24:39  And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 
​
​The world of that time had made great progress in the arts and civilization of life. But, as it has happened repeatedly all through human history, great luxury produced infamous immorality, cruelty, and widespread indifference to the claims of God. Things took place in those olden times which have their counterpart in the great cities of our time. In its feverish atmosphere sin of every kind abounded, and in mercy to the race, there was no alternative than to bring that wicked generation to an end. "They ate, they drank; they married, and were given in marriage, and knew not, till the flood came and carried them all away."

Amidst all this, Noah lived an unblemished and righteous life. He walked in daily converse with God.

​Gen 6:7  And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. 
Gen 6:8  But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. 

His Almighty Friend was able to reveal to him His intentions. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant."

Keep near to God, that you may hear the accents of His still small voice. Our happiest experience is when we walk with Him in unbroken fellowship, and He takes us into covenant with Himself. Through any one individual, whose heart is perfect toward Him, God will save others. We too shall cross the Flood of Death and enter the new life of Resurrection, but we must be quick to detect His voice, and our hands deft to fulfil the revelations of our Divine Teacher and Friend. (Our Daily Walk)

When we read Jesus' account of Noah's day, and use it to compare it to when He will return, several things can be taken from it:

Those of Noah's day lived in a business as usual fashion, nothing out of the ordinary was expected to happen. People were eating, partying, marrying, going from one event to another; many in Noah's day were well to do, every need was met, and pleasures of life were in easy reach.

Their minds were reprobate-scripture tells us all they thought of was evil, continually.

Gen 6:5  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. 

During the years Noah worked on the ark, he and Methuselah both preached a hundred and twenty years, but neither of them succeeded in converting anyone. There was no good to be found among them, no not at any time: the stream of sin was full and strong, and constant; and God saw it. Here is God's resentment of man's wickedness. He did not see it as an unconcerned spectator, but as one injured and affronted by it; he saw it as a tender father sees the folly and stubbornness of a rebellious and disobedient child, which not only angers but grieves him, and makes him wish he had been childless.

Any pastor, bible teacher or leader who feels burnt out, discouraged, and ready to quit, should go back and read this account of Noah, and research what it was like then, and realize we are in the same situation today. You may have a small group of people in a little chapel, a home bible study with a group that doesn't seem to be growing, but keep coming, you may be a weary street preacher that's had a lot of abuse, harassment, ridicule, but seen no proof that your work is getting anyone saved; and wonder if it's time to quit.

Don't let the devil take over your mind, and get you to beat yourself up, if you don't have a lot of people following you. Noah didn't either. Just keep being faithful, and do what God's given you to do. John Wesley said this-and he's right: "We aren't responsible for what people do with our preaching the Word of God, the one who hears it is responsible for what they do with it".

When the time came that God told Noah to go into the ark, and God shut the door; only Noah's family went in with him, eight souls. When the deluge began, it didn't stop until every one standing, who was left out, perished.

This is a sad commentary on our day, because in watching and listening to people today, it is clear, people again are in the same pattern of evil, and wickedness, as before the flood. The saddest part of it is, they do not see themselves as they really are; they are blind, and refuse to do so.

Every gross, heinous, and vile sin is out in the open today-there is no self control, no restraint either in speech, or conduct. Violence, oppression, wantonness, foul profanity is free-flowing. Lying, theft, and rioting in the streets, and open markets is common, its not safe anywhere anymore.

Jesus gives a somber warning at the end of this discourse, that warns us all, to pay attention to the days, for they are evil, and to be watchful:
Mat 24:42  Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. 
Mat 24:43  But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. 
Mat 24:44  Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. 

Watchfulness is staying awake, keeping our souls in tune with our surroundings, and discerning the events taking place and discerning the times, to not be caught unaware. As the disciples who fell asleep when they were with Jesus in the garden, as he agonized in prayer before going to the cross-we are prone to be dull, and drop into slumber while the devil and his agents are working relentlessly to overtake all those who he finds sound asleep, and drugged by the worlds' pleasures.

Peter gives wise advice in the day we are in, to guide us in the warfare we wage in these end days:
1Pe 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: 
1Pe 5:9  Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. 

In summary-an excerpt of comfort from F.B. Meyer:
"All grace is in God for every hour and need, 1Pe_5:10. We too are called to His eternal glory through Christ. The path of suffering, and that path alone, leads to the world where suffering is unknown. The suffering is only for a little while. Perfect, that nothing be lacking; stablish, that we may not waver; strengthen, that we may stand and withstand."

​And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Mat 3:10

In this verse John begins the proclamation of judgment, and the call to repentance, and the  coming Messiah. He begins the work, and paves the way by laying bare the hearts of man. The commentary below opens this verse for us:
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"Laying the axe at the root of a tree is intended to denote that the tree is to be cut down. It was not merely to be trimmed, or to be cut about the limbs, but the very tree itself was to be struck. That is, a searching, trying kind of preaching has been commenced. A kingdom of justice is to be set up. Principles and conduct are to be investigated. No art, no dissimulation, will be successful: People are to be tried by their lives, not by birth or profession. They who are not found to bear this test are to be rejected. The very root shall feel the blow, and the fruitless tree shall fall. This is a beautiful and very striking figure of speech, and a very direct threatening of future wrath. John regarded them as making a fair and promising profession, as trees in blossom do. But he told them, also, that they should bear fruit as well as flowers. Their professions of repentance were not enough. They should show, by a holy life, that their profession was genuine." Albert Barnes

I. The kind of fruit which God requires from us-“good fruit.”

II. The means which God employs to render us productive of this kind of fruit, and which show how reasonable it is that He should expect it from us.
1. God has endowed you with a capacity to produce this kind of fruit.
2. In order to enable you to bring forth good fruit, God has supplied you with the gospel of His Son, which contains the means, motives, and influences of fruitfulness.
3. God has visited you with various dispensations of providence, and with various convictions of conscience.

III. The continued unfruitfulness of some persons, notwithstanding all the means which the God of mercy has employed.
1. Some of these unfruitful persons are sensual and profane.
2. Some are intellectual, moral, and amiable. These can be the pillars of society-always doing good in the community, well-liked; but uncommitted in real faith in Christ, when tested, they will deny Jesus to keep their "good name" to those they want to impress.
3. Some are professors of the gospel. These are the false teachers, and Pharisees, Jesus called them white-washed tombs.

IV. The axe which is lying at the root of such unfruitful persons. Many get the mistaken idea that because long spans of time go on, with no judgment-that it never will happen. But, Johns meaning to this statement was really this:
1. The axe which is lying at your root reminds you of the patience and long-suffering of God.
2. It reminds you of the critical circumstances in which you are placed.
3. It has sometimes admonished you of its being there.

V. The awful condition to which such unfruitful persons are doomed.
1. The nature of this condition is indescribably terrible: “He is hewn down.” The certainty that this condition will be incurred: “He is hewn,” etc. (J. Alexander.)

A fruitless fig-tree was afterward made by our Lord the representative of the whole Jewish nation (Luk_13:6), but here John declares a universal law. What does not bear good fruit shall finally be destroyed.
Cast into the fire. When the tree is not fruitful, or bears useless fruit, it is fit for nothing but to be burned.

Now, moving on further, we get more insight into this verse, as Jesus expands on it.

Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits
​ye shall know them. Mat 7:16-20

​In the Sermon On the Mount, Jesus speaks of the analogy between the trees fruit, in the true state of false teachers, but these verses also define the life of somebody claiming to be a Christian. We can break his words down to get deeper understanding.

Points brought out in the verses above:
The fact asserted in this verse is, that a tree is known, not by its leaves, or bark, or form, but by its fruit. The application to the argument is this: “You are to judge of man’s being in league with Satan by his works. If my doctrines and works be properly the works of Satan, then I am corrupt; if not, then your charge is blasphemy. So, on the other hand, if, notwithstanding your professions, your works are the works of the devil, and your doctrines are such as he would teach, it would prove respecting you that which you charge on me.” In this indirect but powerful manner he advances to the charge against them, which he urges in the following verses.
The works will resemble the heart: nothing good can proceed from an evil spirit; no good fruit can proceed from a corrupt heart. Before the heart of man can produce any good, it must be renewed and influenced by the Spirit of God.

These corresponding verses sum up the teachings of Jesus on good an bad fruit; what they are, and what will happen to them.

Gal 5:19  Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 
Gal 5:20  Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 
Gal 5:21  Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Heb 6:8  But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned. 
​Jud 1:12  These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; 
Jud 1:13  Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever. 
2Pe 2:17  These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever. 
Rev 20:11  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. 
Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. 
Rev 20:13  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. 
Rev 20:14  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 
Rev 20:15  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Whatever we may face in life, Jesus has been there before us. He understands and knows what we deal with, He's endured every kind of suffering and temptation, and has won over every attack of the devil and has won. He will see us through to victory, we need to follow in His steps.

The days we are living in are the most perilous in history. People are losing hope, some have gone through so much, they've ended their own lives, other's are going through great tribulations and persecutions, not knowing what to do. The last three years, has brought untold suffering to many. The message from the bishop in the video below, has much wisdom, and answers that make sense for us, and much encouragement. You may find help, and be blessed by what he has to say.