So you think man is good? Only Jesus is good.

The conditions preceding the last global judgment- the Flood- had reached a point where the LORD was grieved He had even made man, because the thoughts of man's heart were only evil, continually.

God said that at that time He "saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. (Genesis 6:5-7)

Jesus said, those conditions will reappear prior to the second global judgment- the Tribulation.

"For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man." (Matthew 24:37)

People seem good on the surface. They're not. The bible is replete with verses telling us that man is evil from the get-go. We're bad from birth-

"What is man, that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous?" (Job 15:14)

We're bad as youths-

"And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth." (Genesis 8:21a).

We're bad as adults-

In this verse Jesus is speaking- "Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!" (Matthew 7:9-11) [emphasis mine.]

Man is not good and earth is a hostile, dangerous place. It is satan's place. When we read about a shooting in a movie theater we like to think that this kind of evil from man against man is an anomaly. "Aw, we're all right," we fool ourselves, "that was just one crazy man. Man is basically good." But all men are crazy, or at least have the potential for that kind of evil. Witness these few examples from recent news which resulted in great pain to people. These are photos of the pain of the world. It is agony!

The agony of war

"A man cries in front of houses destroyed during a recent Syrian Air Force air strike in Azaz."

The agony of mass rape

"Nicolas Kristof, Journalist and NY Times Columnist, recently wrote a column for NYTimes.com titled “On Top Of Famine, Unspeakable Violence.” He describes the horror of “mass rape” that many women fleeing Somalia, in pursuit of food and water, are currently facing. He challenges the reader to “Imagine that you’re a Somali suffering from the drought and famine in that country. One of your children has just starved to death, but there’s no time to mourn. Depleted and traumatized, you set off on foot across the desert with your family, and after 15 exhausting days finally reach what you believe is the safe haven of Kenya. But at the very moment when you think you’re secure, you encounter a nightmare broached only in whispers: an epidemic of violence and rape.”

 The agony of starvation made worse by thieves stealing the food

"One of the UN’s largest international relief efforts is under investigation after it emerged that thousands of sacks of food aid were being diverted from starving refugees and openly sold for profit." 

The grief of a father whose 9-year-old daughter was found dead in an alley

The grief of an Aurora CO family whose child was killed in a mass shooting

The grief of a nation shocked by terrorism

 

The grief of a nation all-too-familiar with terrorism

 

And this is the time of gentility! This is the time of the Holy Spirit's restraining ministry on earth! And yet we see man's inhumanity to man on a constant basis. We have seen man's evil ever since the Fall. Cain killed Abel. There is none good, no not one! (Romans 3:10). Only God is good. (Mark 10:18). We are evil.

If we are this inhumane to each other now, with the Spirit's restraining ministry on earth, what will happen when He takes it away? God took Him away before the first judgment. "My Spirit will not remain with man forever," says the LORD God." (Genesis 6:3). God will take Him away prior to the second judgment,

"For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way." (2 Thessalonians 2:7).

And yet, Jesus sacrificed Himself on the cross, dying in history's most agonizingly brutal terroristic, heinous act for the very people who flew planes into buildings, bombed a residential area, murdered a 9-year-old, shot up a movie audience, knifed a sleeping Jewish family- including a months-old infant, stole food from the starving, and raped refugees. Jesus is THAT Good. He died for bad people, which means He died for all of us.

Don't you want to follow a God who came down to us and taught us and then sacrificed Himself for those sins, your sins? Man is not good. But Jesus, who once lived as a man, is Good.

Repent. The end is nigh, and when it comes, and people's inner evil will come bursting out. If you repent to Jesus, you won't be here on earth to experience it. Jesus made a way to escape it. He IS the way, and He is the truth and the life. If life is agony now, just wait until satan is given full sway to allow unrestrained evil to take over the world.

If this could happen when the Holy Spirit restrains man's inclinations...

What do you think these guys could get man to do?

Repent.