1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,440
What was that, Southern Gospel style?

2
00:00:03,440 --> 00:00:04,440
Something like that?

3
00:00:04,440 --> 00:00:05,440
Weissau.

4
00:00:05,440 --> 00:00:15,020
Let's open our Bibles together to 2 Peter chapter 2 and look tonight at one of the longest

5
00:00:15,020 --> 00:00:23,440
sentences in the entire New Testament.

6
00:00:23,440 --> 00:00:32,600
There is only one Sumner Wimp in the world.

7
00:00:32,600 --> 00:00:36,920
Some people are glad about that and others aren't quite so sure, but I'm glad he was

8
00:00:36,920 --> 00:00:41,440
here this morning and ministered to us as a church.

9
00:00:41,440 --> 00:00:46,920
Sumner Wimp talked this morning about the same thing he talked about 25 years ago.

10
00:00:46,920 --> 00:00:53,800
And that's really why I wanted to have him this weekend because his message is one that

11
00:00:53,800 --> 00:00:54,800
we need to hear.

12
00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:56,640
It's a pointed message.

13
00:00:56,640 --> 00:01:04,520
It is one that is challenging to us in an area where all of us can stand an occasional

14
00:01:04,520 --> 00:01:07,600
challenge and that of our personal witness.

15
00:01:07,600 --> 00:01:13,080
And I talked with him afterward and he's going to mail to us this week some of the tracks

16
00:01:13,080 --> 00:01:16,040
that he has written.

17
00:01:16,040 --> 00:01:20,600
Maybe those will be here by next Sunday for those of us who made a commitment this morning

18
00:01:20,600 --> 00:01:25,480
to pass out 10 of them at least or to invite 10 people.

19
00:01:25,480 --> 00:01:29,000
But the track should be here by next Sunday morning.

20
00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:33,880
And as he said this morning, as soon as my heart's right, I'm going to write one.

21
00:01:33,880 --> 00:01:38,880
But that's going to be a while because of some other things I've got on the docket.

22
00:01:38,880 --> 00:01:41,720
I mean not my heart getting right, but my writing.

23
00:01:41,720 --> 00:01:47,600
So you know in a few months we may be able to see that happen.

24
00:01:47,600 --> 00:01:52,120
But I was encouraged that the gentleman in our church in the first service came up afterward

25
00:01:52,120 --> 00:01:59,120
as a printer and eventually we're going to have Sumner's tracks with our church name

26
00:01:59,120 --> 00:02:02,640
on the back of them instead of his track society's name.

27
00:02:02,640 --> 00:02:05,240
He's given us permission to do that.

28
00:02:05,240 --> 00:02:09,720
And at least until we get some of our own written we'll be able to use those.

29
00:02:09,720 --> 00:02:11,220
And that's kind of exciting.

30
00:02:11,220 --> 00:02:17,920
So I appreciate that offer by the printer in our church.

31
00:02:17,920 --> 00:02:23,280
Well tonight we want to talk about what is kind of a, in one sense, a depressing theme

32
00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:29,660
because it is a theme of doom and gloom.

33
00:02:29,660 --> 00:02:35,920
Not for the children of God, but for those who are false teachers.

34
00:02:35,920 --> 00:02:40,980
Last week we talked about their presence, just as they were present in the ancient days

35
00:02:40,980 --> 00:02:45,840
in Israel, so they are still present today.

36
00:02:45,840 --> 00:02:50,520
Somewhat of a different message maybe, but the same idea, the same theme, a denial of

37
00:02:50,520 --> 00:02:51,520
God.

38
00:02:51,520 --> 00:02:59,120
And we saw last week that the signs of false teachers include a denial of the deity of

39
00:02:59,120 --> 00:03:04,920
Jesus Christ denying the master who bought them.

40
00:03:04,920 --> 00:03:11,080
Not only a denial of the deity of Christ, but a denial of the atonement of Jesus Christ,

41
00:03:11,080 --> 00:03:17,120
the sufficiency of his payment on the cross for sin.

42
00:03:17,120 --> 00:03:23,400
In the sentence that begins in verse 4, it's as though Peter gets started talking about

43
00:03:23,400 --> 00:03:30,600
what he wants to say and he's so absorbed in the whole subject that he can hardly stop.

44
00:03:30,600 --> 00:03:38,560
The sentence actually begins in verse 4 and continues at least through verse 9 and actually

45
00:03:38,560 --> 00:03:39,960
into verse 10.

46
00:03:39,960 --> 00:03:47,480
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed

47
00:03:47,480 --> 00:03:55,720
them to pits of darkness reserved for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world but preserved

48
00:03:55,720 --> 00:04:04,080
Noah, a preacher of righteousness with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world

49
00:04:04,080 --> 00:04:10,820
of the ungodly, and if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing

50
00:04:10,820 --> 00:04:17,960
them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly thereafter,

51
00:04:17,960 --> 00:04:26,240
and if he rescued righteous lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men,

52
00:04:26,240 --> 00:04:32,320
for by what he saw and heard, that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous

53
00:04:32,320 --> 00:04:38,000
soul tormented day after day with their lawless deeds.

54
00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:41,160
Then the Lord knows.

55
00:04:41,160 --> 00:04:45,320
Up to this point we've seen the first part of this conditional sentence.

56
00:04:45,320 --> 00:04:52,000
He begins by saying, if God, and then he gets started on his role, but now he comes in verse

57
00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:59,420
9, he says, if God, then he says, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation

58
00:04:59,420 --> 00:05:07,040
and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment.

59
00:05:07,040 --> 00:05:12,280
Peter seems to be like a sentry that is watching his enemy.

60
00:05:12,280 --> 00:05:21,320
His attention is fastened upon these who are false teachers teaching an opposite message

61
00:05:21,320 --> 00:05:24,840
from the one he proclaimed.

62
00:05:24,840 --> 00:05:32,020
He says regarding them that they deceive the people of God, as we saw last week.

63
00:05:32,020 --> 00:05:34,640
They deny the Son of God.

64
00:05:34,640 --> 00:05:38,560
They defame the truth of God.

65
00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:46,760
Peter wants us to know that the end of such people, God has already written.

66
00:05:46,760 --> 00:05:51,620
God has already determined.

67
00:05:51,620 --> 00:05:57,800
He launches into a warning that these false teachers are doomed, but there is a second

68
00:05:57,800 --> 00:06:03,520
message that underlies it, and that is that just as God knows how to preserve them for

69
00:06:03,520 --> 00:06:11,080
judgment, God knows how to rescue his own from the time of temptation.

70
00:06:11,080 --> 00:06:16,840
These false teachers, he says, cannot ultimately prevail over the plan of God, and one day

71
00:06:16,840 --> 00:06:23,440
they face a certain judgment from God for their unbelief and their damage to the souls

72
00:06:23,440 --> 00:06:25,320
of others.

73
00:06:25,320 --> 00:06:31,840
That is the reason that James says, as he does in James 3.1, my brethren, let not many

74
00:06:31,840 --> 00:06:36,760
of you be teachers.

75
00:06:36,760 --> 00:06:42,480
What he means by that is the one who is a teacher, who is an instructor of others in

76
00:06:42,480 --> 00:06:49,260
spiritual things, who is a guide to others, is one who will have a more strict judgment

77
00:06:49,260 --> 00:06:58,840
because of his accountability for the souls of his hearers.

78
00:06:58,840 --> 00:07:06,440
Hell will be a more comfortable place for a man like Adolf Hitler than it will be for

79
00:07:06,440 --> 00:07:11,000
a liberal preacher.

80
00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:15,400
You mark my words on it.

81
00:07:15,400 --> 00:07:22,280
The person who in the name of God and religion leads others in the false direction will in

82
00:07:22,280 --> 00:07:26,880
the end have the greatest judgment of all.

83
00:07:26,880 --> 00:07:31,520
That is exactly what Peter is warning.

84
00:07:31,520 --> 00:07:38,680
God will judge false teachers because of their sin against him and against his word, and

85
00:07:38,680 --> 00:07:43,440
he will preserve his own in the meantime.

86
00:07:43,440 --> 00:07:46,680
Notice with me the certainty of God's judgment.

87
00:07:46,680 --> 00:07:55,000
At the end of verse 3, he says, their judgment from long ago is not idle and their destruction

88
00:07:55,000 --> 00:07:57,540
is not asleep.

89
00:07:57,540 --> 00:08:00,200
The certainty of God's judgment.

90
00:08:00,200 --> 00:08:02,400
He mentions it again in this chapter.

91
00:08:02,400 --> 00:08:11,600
For example, at the end of verse 12, he says, they will in the destruction of those creatures

92
00:08:11,600 --> 00:08:19,320
also be destroyed, suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong.

93
00:08:19,320 --> 00:08:26,760
Then in verse 17, he says regarding these false teachers, for whom the black darkness

94
00:08:26,760 --> 00:08:30,360
has been reserved.

95
00:08:30,360 --> 00:08:35,520
And he says in verse 20 at the end of the verse, the last state has become worse for

96
00:08:35,520 --> 00:08:39,320
them than the first.

97
00:08:39,320 --> 00:08:46,000
Some people have the idea that God's long suffering indicates that somehow he is overlooking,

98
00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:48,720
but that is not the case.

99
00:08:48,720 --> 00:08:51,960
God is not forgetful.

100
00:08:51,960 --> 00:08:57,000
Judgment will come, except God picks the time when it will come.

101
00:08:57,000 --> 00:09:05,080
And in chapter 2, again in verse 1, he says that it will come swiftly, bringing swift

102
00:09:05,080 --> 00:09:08,440
destruction upon themselves.

103
00:09:08,440 --> 00:09:15,400
By the way, that word swift does not mean that it will necessarily come soon.

104
00:09:15,400 --> 00:09:22,080
It means that when it comes, it will come suddenly, like a bolt of lightning out of

105
00:09:22,080 --> 00:09:24,400
the sky.

106
00:09:24,400 --> 00:09:30,880
It's the same idea as when Jesus says in Revelation, behold, I come quickly.

107
00:09:30,880 --> 00:09:36,280
The word does not mean that he was coming soon.

108
00:09:36,280 --> 00:09:40,000
It meant that when he was coming, he was coming like that.

109
00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:44,040
The suddenness, the unexpectedness of his coming is in view.

110
00:09:44,040 --> 00:09:46,040
And that is the case here.

111
00:09:46,040 --> 00:09:50,040
He says the judgment of these false teachers is sure.

112
00:09:50,040 --> 00:09:51,160
It is swift.

113
00:09:51,160 --> 00:09:56,740
It will come upon them at the moment that they do not expect it, and it will take them

114
00:09:56,740 --> 00:10:00,280
away to their eternal doom.

115
00:10:00,280 --> 00:10:06,680
And then he launches into several historic cases of the judgment of God.

116
00:10:06,680 --> 00:10:15,120
These cases illustrate in Peter's mind and for us the fact that God does bring judgment.

117
00:10:15,120 --> 00:10:19,600
The first one has to do with the angels that sinned.

118
00:10:19,600 --> 00:10:28,760
If God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them down into hell, literally

119
00:10:28,760 --> 00:10:34,080
it says there, but thrust them down to tartar us.

120
00:10:34,080 --> 00:10:38,400
An unusual word, a strange word.

121
00:10:38,400 --> 00:10:48,240
The question is, who are these angels that sinned that God thrust them down to what are

122
00:10:48,240 --> 00:10:54,760
described as pits of darkness or to a place called tartar us that's not mentioned anywhere

123
00:10:54,760 --> 00:10:56,720
else in the New Testament?

124
00:10:56,720 --> 00:10:57,760
Who are these angels?

125
00:10:57,760 --> 00:10:58,760
What did they do?

126
00:10:58,760 --> 00:11:07,120
Well, there are some who say that these angels are the angels that fell with Satan when he

127
00:11:07,120 --> 00:11:09,360
rebelled against God.

128
00:11:09,360 --> 00:11:17,560
Well, that certainly would be true in a broader sense, but often people who use that explanation

129
00:11:17,560 --> 00:11:26,200
mean that all of those angels who fell with Satan have been cast down, thrust down powerfully

130
00:11:26,200 --> 00:11:31,720
to this pit of darkness where they're reserved for judgment.

131
00:11:31,720 --> 00:11:37,560
However, it seems to me that that is not the case.

132
00:11:37,560 --> 00:11:44,600
That the angels, many of the angels that fell with Satan are what are termed by our Lord

133
00:11:44,600 --> 00:11:51,920
in the Scriptures as demons.

134
00:11:51,920 --> 00:11:57,720
Maybe not to be the case that it's not referring to all of the angels that sinned with Satan.

135
00:11:57,720 --> 00:12:00,880
Who are these angels?

136
00:12:00,880 --> 00:12:09,100
And what did they do that a particular judgment from God came upon them and described in such

137
00:12:09,100 --> 00:12:12,280
unusual languages here?

138
00:12:12,280 --> 00:12:17,800
I believe that the preferable explanation is that these are the angels that are mentioned

139
00:12:17,800 --> 00:12:22,400
in the sixth chapter of the book of Genesis.

140
00:12:22,400 --> 00:12:29,080
You may want to look back there with me in case you're not familiar with that text.

141
00:12:29,080 --> 00:12:40,640
We here find record of Noah and the days before the flood.

142
00:12:40,640 --> 00:12:44,760
And it says in the first verse, it came about when men began to multiply on the face of

143
00:12:44,760 --> 00:12:51,000
the land and daughters were born to them that the sons of God saw that the daughters of

144
00:12:51,000 --> 00:12:58,360
men were beautiful and they took wives for themselves whomever they chose.

145
00:12:58,360 --> 00:13:04,400
The Lord said, my spirit shall not strive with man forever because he also is flesh.

146
00:13:04,400 --> 00:13:08,480
Nevertheless, his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.

147
00:13:08,480 --> 00:13:12,160
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days.

148
00:13:12,160 --> 00:13:18,800
And also afterward when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and they bore children

149
00:13:18,800 --> 00:13:28,320
to them, those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

150
00:13:28,320 --> 00:13:35,380
Unusual phrases used here to describe the offspring of the sons of God and the daughters

151
00:13:35,380 --> 00:13:36,380
of men.

152
00:13:36,380 --> 00:13:42,640
When it says they were mighty men of old, men of renown, these are not complementary

153
00:13:42,640 --> 00:13:43,840
terms.

154
00:13:43,840 --> 00:13:51,080
These are terms that refer to their notorious wickedness.

155
00:13:51,080 --> 00:13:59,840
The offspring of the union that is described here were people who were of unusual, one

156
00:13:59,840 --> 00:14:13,240
might even say supernatural strength and power and who were wicked in a way that was beyond

157
00:14:13,240 --> 00:14:18,320
the wickedness of the general race of Adam by that time.

158
00:14:18,320 --> 00:14:26,720
Men of renown, notoriously evil and wicked in their deeds.

159
00:14:26,720 --> 00:14:32,120
There have been two or three different explanations for these phrases that the sons of God took

160
00:14:32,120 --> 00:14:34,920
the daughters of men.

161
00:14:34,920 --> 00:14:41,560
But I believe that the best explanation is, it's not without problems in interpretation,

162
00:14:41,560 --> 00:14:47,200
but I believe using some New Testament texts including this one in 2 Peter, that the sons

163
00:14:47,200 --> 00:14:54,780
of God is in the case of Genesis chapter 6 describing fallen angels who assumed physical

164
00:14:54,780 --> 00:15:06,760
bodies as we are led to believe angels may do and that they had the capacity to go into

165
00:15:06,760 --> 00:15:19,400
the daughters of men to marry them, to go habit with them so that they produced a race

166
00:15:19,400 --> 00:15:29,280
of offspring that could only be described as half demon and half human.

167
00:15:29,280 --> 00:15:37,560
The kind of offspring that Hollywood fantasizes about in some of the more weird movies that

168
00:15:37,560 --> 00:15:45,640
they've come up with out of their rather twisted and weird minds in that place.

169
00:15:45,640 --> 00:15:54,760
I believe that the angels that sinned in 2 Peter chapter 2 are indeed the angels of Genesis

170
00:15:54,760 --> 00:15:56,420
chapter 6.

171
00:15:56,420 --> 00:16:00,740
Not all of the angels that fell with Satan did that.

172
00:16:00,740 --> 00:16:03,640
Some of them did.

173
00:16:03,640 --> 00:16:13,560
And because of the vileness, the unnaturalness of their particular rebellion, God judged

174
00:16:13,560 --> 00:16:21,400
them by sending them down to this place called the pit of darkness to Tartarus where they

175
00:16:21,400 --> 00:16:26,280
are chained and reserved until their final judgment will come.

176
00:16:26,280 --> 00:16:32,640
Now there's another text I want to turn to that I think sheds additional light on this

177
00:16:32,640 --> 00:16:40,320
and it's found in the book of Jude.

178
00:16:40,320 --> 00:16:44,120
And Jude also is talking in these verses about God's judgment.

179
00:16:44,120 --> 00:16:50,040
He warns about it in verse 5 in ancient Israel.

180
00:16:50,040 --> 00:16:53,320
But in verse 6 he also mentions some angels.

181
00:16:53,320 --> 00:17:05,280
He says, and angels who did not keep their own domain, that is their first estate, the

182
00:17:05,280 --> 00:17:12,800
sphere of existence that God assigned to them is the thought.

183
00:17:12,800 --> 00:17:18,720
But he says they abandoned their proper abode.

184
00:17:18,720 --> 00:17:21,420
This was an act of rebellion.

185
00:17:21,420 --> 00:17:28,360
It was throwing off the assignment that God had given to them, a sphere in which to exist.

186
00:17:28,360 --> 00:17:32,160
They abandoned their proper abode.

187
00:17:32,160 --> 00:17:39,480
He says he has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.

188
00:17:39,480 --> 00:17:44,040
You say, well it doesn't say anything there about the Genesis 6 sort of thing.

189
00:17:44,040 --> 00:17:48,700
We'll go on to verse 7 because actually the sentence continues in the Greek.

190
00:17:48,700 --> 00:17:54,040
He says, just like Sodom and Gomorrah.

191
00:17:54,040 --> 00:17:59,000
In other words, there was something with these angels that he's just talked about that was

192
00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:10,040
like Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these

193
00:18:10,040 --> 00:18:23,480
in verse 6, indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh.

194
00:18:23,480 --> 00:18:37,240
He is saying that the angels that are mentioned in verse 6 were guilty of some kind of unnatural

195
00:18:37,240 --> 00:18:43,280
immorality of the grossest sort.

196
00:18:43,280 --> 00:18:50,740
And I believe again that the only historical record we have of anything like that is found

197
00:18:50,740 --> 00:18:54,560
in Genesis chapter 6, in those days before the flood.

198
00:18:54,560 --> 00:18:59,760
And that one of the reasons that God sent the flood and destroyed the whole race at

199
00:18:59,760 --> 00:19:06,960
that time, except for those eight who were saved, was because of what had happened in

200
00:19:06,960 --> 00:19:14,400
this race, this offspring of supernatural and natural beings that were on the face of

201
00:19:14,400 --> 00:19:16,580
the earth at that time.

202
00:19:16,580 --> 00:19:22,400
It was the only way that God could deal with it and cleanse the earth of that kind of thing.

203
00:19:22,400 --> 00:19:26,840
By the way, you'll notice, you know what was involved in Sodom and Gomorrah, and you'll

204
00:19:26,840 --> 00:19:34,360
notice the kind of identification that kind of activity has in the mind of God.

205
00:19:34,360 --> 00:19:41,200
The same kind of thing, so unnatural, so gross in the mind and the purpose of God that he

206
00:19:41,200 --> 00:19:44,280
identifies it with these angels that sinned.

207
00:19:44,280 --> 00:19:48,240
Well, I don't want to take more time on that.

208
00:19:48,240 --> 00:19:53,520
I did want to just give you some explanation of how I understand this verse in 2 Peter

209
00:19:53,520 --> 00:19:55,520
chapter 2.

210
00:19:55,520 --> 00:20:02,420
Historically, Peter says God does judge, and here's an example of it.

211
00:20:02,420 --> 00:20:06,400
It happened with the angels that sinned.

212
00:20:06,400 --> 00:20:11,000
God did not spare the ancient world.

213
00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:13,340
He goes on to say, but preserved Noah.

214
00:20:13,340 --> 00:20:18,800
So here we have example number 2, the flood.

215
00:20:18,800 --> 00:20:23,840
And I think another reason that it is referring to those angels in Genesis chapter 6 is the

216
00:20:23,840 --> 00:20:32,000
close identification now with the flood that he's going to go on to talk about.

217
00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:37,280
He says God did not spare the ancient world.

218
00:20:37,280 --> 00:20:43,000
This flood of Genesis chapter 7 is an event that Peter mentions three times in his writings.

219
00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:50,800
1 Peter chapter 3 here, and then again in chapter 3 of this book.

220
00:20:50,800 --> 00:20:55,640
God unsparingly condemned the whole human race.

221
00:20:55,640 --> 00:21:00,840
He did not withhold judgment, and Peter says in the end he will not withhold judgment on

222
00:21:00,840 --> 00:21:03,880
those who are false teachers.

223
00:21:03,880 --> 00:21:06,880
That's the implication of it.

224
00:21:06,880 --> 00:21:12,200
You'll notice that he says that God brought upon that generation a flood.

225
00:21:12,200 --> 00:21:16,160
The word literally is here a cataclysm.

226
00:21:16,160 --> 00:21:19,440
That's the English word of the original word.

227
00:21:19,440 --> 00:21:23,080
A cataclysm, a deluge.

228
00:21:23,080 --> 00:21:29,960
The Greek word means to submerge, to overwhelm, to inundate with water.

229
00:21:29,960 --> 00:21:36,100
This was not some localized flood in some part of Mesopotamia, but he is talking about

230
00:21:36,100 --> 00:21:43,200
a worldwide flood that dramatically changed the whole biosphere of the earth.

231
00:21:43,200 --> 00:21:50,200
The whole environment of the world was dramatically changed and altered by the event that he is

232
00:21:50,200 --> 00:21:53,440
referring to here.

233
00:21:53,440 --> 00:21:58,160
He brought a cataclysm upon the world of the ungodly.

234
00:21:58,160 --> 00:22:02,700
And then he goes right on to the third historic case of judgment.

235
00:22:02,700 --> 00:22:11,240
If he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes.

236
00:22:11,240 --> 00:22:14,840
The word destruction here is our English word catastrophe.

237
00:22:14,840 --> 00:22:23,360
And so Peter first points to a cataclysm, and now he talks about a catastrophe.

238
00:22:23,360 --> 00:22:30,200
He goes on to explain that this catastrophe was a covering of these cities with ashes,

239
00:22:30,200 --> 00:22:33,600
or it can mean a burning of them to ashes.

240
00:22:33,600 --> 00:22:38,400
It's the only time in the whole Bible you find this term.

241
00:22:38,400 --> 00:22:46,640
Peter is describing what happened in Genesis chapter 19 when God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah

242
00:22:46,640 --> 00:22:50,880
and the cities of the plain because of their exceeding wickedness.

243
00:22:50,880 --> 00:22:59,120
By the way, that has never been found by archeologists, and I think there's a very good reason for

244
00:22:59,120 --> 00:23:00,320
it.

245
00:23:00,320 --> 00:23:03,720
It's buried underwater.

246
00:23:03,720 --> 00:23:10,040
I am convinced, and there is some evidence to point to this, that the cities of the plain,

247
00:23:10,040 --> 00:23:19,120
including Sodom and Gomorrah, are buried in the southern part of the Dead Sea.

248
00:23:19,120 --> 00:23:25,280
And that if it were possible to excavate below the waters, which is possible now, and there's

249
00:23:25,280 --> 00:23:30,680
been some talk of doing this, they will be able to go down and find the ruins of cities,

250
00:23:30,680 --> 00:23:35,760
and perhaps even uncover the very cities of Sodom and Gomorrah that God destroyed in what

251
00:23:35,760 --> 00:23:40,360
he calls here a catastrophe.

252
00:23:40,360 --> 00:23:46,000
In these cases, in each one of them, the emphasis seems to be upon some kind of unrestrained,

253
00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:50,560
shameless immorality.

254
00:23:50,560 --> 00:23:59,760
Sodom and Gomorrah, the generation of Adam before the flood, the angels that sinned.

255
00:23:59,760 --> 00:24:03,880
You see, he's tying all of this back with the false teachers.

256
00:24:03,880 --> 00:24:09,420
He wants to remind us that along with false teaching comes false living, and the kind

257
00:24:09,420 --> 00:24:18,920
of immorality that he's already talked about in verse 2, the sensuality of the false teachers.

258
00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:27,560
Now, he brings us to a conclusion here about God's judgment in verse 9.

259
00:24:27,560 --> 00:24:31,840
The first one we've already emphasized, and that is that God knows how to keep the

260
00:24:31,840 --> 00:24:35,240
ungodly for final judgment.

261
00:24:35,240 --> 00:24:44,640
The Lord knows how to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment.

262
00:24:44,640 --> 00:24:51,200
Same way that Peter puts this, the strong underlying tone is here that they are right

263
00:24:51,200 --> 00:24:56,060
now being punished, but they are waiting for their final judgment.

264
00:24:56,060 --> 00:25:07,280
That is a terrible and awful description of the reality of hell, where the lost are now

265
00:25:07,280 --> 00:25:13,600
being punished, but at the same time, God is keeping them until that day when they will

266
00:25:13,600 --> 00:25:22,440
be brought before Him the great white throne judgment for their final accounting, and then

267
00:25:22,440 --> 00:25:30,040
be cast into the lake of fire that burns forever and forever.

268
00:25:30,040 --> 00:25:33,080
God knows how to do that.

269
00:25:33,080 --> 00:25:35,680
All there are people who say, well, my God's a God of love.

270
00:25:35,680 --> 00:25:38,040
A God of love would never do something like that.

271
00:25:38,040 --> 00:25:40,480
Dear friend, God is a God of love.

272
00:25:40,480 --> 00:25:48,280
A God of wonderful love, so much love that He sent His Son to suffer for our sins and

273
00:25:48,280 --> 00:25:55,200
to die in our place on the cross to rise again from the dead.

274
00:25:55,200 --> 00:25:58,040
Through His dying on our behalf, we might be saved.

275
00:25:58,040 --> 00:26:09,600
God loves us so much that literally His Son went through hell on the cross in our place.

276
00:26:09,600 --> 00:26:15,620
So great was the suffering of the Son of God, not just physically, but spiritually.

277
00:26:15,620 --> 00:26:22,800
So great was the suffering of His soul that He bore the equivalent of the hell of every

278
00:26:22,800 --> 00:26:26,440
human being who's ever lived, eternal hell.

279
00:26:26,440 --> 00:26:36,240
You say, how could He do that in six hours on the cross, in three hours of darkness when

280
00:26:36,240 --> 00:26:37,920
there was intense suffering?

281
00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:40,520
How could He do that in six hours?

282
00:26:40,520 --> 00:26:48,320
He could do it because He was the eternal God hanging on that tree.

283
00:26:48,320 --> 00:26:57,440
Because He was eternal God as well as human, He was able to endure eternal punishment in

284
00:26:57,440 --> 00:27:00,200
that time.

285
00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:02,520
That's how much God is a God of love.

286
00:27:02,520 --> 00:27:06,560
But God is also a God of righteousness and a God of wrath, and that is what Peter's

287
00:27:06,560 --> 00:27:09,160
illustrating.

288
00:27:09,160 --> 00:27:13,040
Our world wants to forget this side of God.

289
00:27:13,040 --> 00:27:18,480
Our world wants to believe in a God of love, a God who will never punish sin, but that

290
00:27:18,480 --> 00:27:22,160
is not the God who is.

291
00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:24,400
That is not the God who lives.

292
00:27:24,400 --> 00:27:31,440
But not only does God know how to keep the ungodly for final judgment, but Peter has

293
00:27:31,440 --> 00:27:39,640
another theme that he's been putting into the text here, sort of swirling it in.

294
00:27:39,640 --> 00:27:48,000
He says that as God knows how to deliver and to rescue the godly out of trial.

295
00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:54,280
And you'll notice he's given us in our text two historic examples of this.

296
00:27:54,280 --> 00:27:58,960
One example is Noah, back in verse 5.

297
00:27:58,960 --> 00:28:03,320
He calls Noah a herald of righteousness.

298
00:28:03,320 --> 00:28:10,960
Noah was a man who proclaimed righteousness in the midst of an ungodly generation, when

299
00:28:10,960 --> 00:28:17,360
everyone else had turned their backs on God and just subtracted God out of their lives

300
00:28:17,360 --> 00:28:20,360
so that they were ungodly.

301
00:28:20,360 --> 00:28:22,360
No place for God.

302
00:28:22,360 --> 00:28:31,800
Noah was a man who stood for God and who proclaimed the truth of God.

303
00:28:31,800 --> 00:28:35,480
That's the assignment that you and I have.

304
00:28:35,480 --> 00:28:39,560
For we are living in an ungodly generation as well.

305
00:28:39,560 --> 00:28:44,800
I believe that we are living in those days that Jesus talked about in Matthew when he

306
00:28:44,800 --> 00:28:48,600
said, as it was in the days of Noah.

307
00:28:48,600 --> 00:28:54,400
So it will be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man.

308
00:28:54,400 --> 00:29:00,000
I personally believe very strongly that we are living in those end time days.

309
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:05,380
And that we're going to see our culture and our whole world move in the same direction

310
00:29:05,380 --> 00:29:09,420
as the days of Noah.

311
00:29:09,420 --> 00:29:15,780
And you and I are called by the grace of God to be the heralds of righteousness.

312
00:29:15,780 --> 00:29:23,240
To be the proclaimers of the gospel in this generation as Noah was then.

313
00:29:23,240 --> 00:29:27,920
God's long suffering waited 120 years in the days of Noah.

314
00:29:27,920 --> 00:29:35,960
And he proclaimed the truth to that generation as he built the ark.

315
00:29:35,960 --> 00:29:44,560
God guards, God preserves and protects His own in a time like you and I live.

316
00:29:44,560 --> 00:29:48,680
There may be times that we feel outnumbered.

317
00:29:48,680 --> 00:29:53,520
Or times when we are intimidated because of the atmosphere of the office where we work

318
00:29:53,520 --> 00:29:56,000
or the school where we go.

319
00:29:56,000 --> 00:30:02,680
It is wonderful to know that God is there with us and He knows how to preserve us.

320
00:30:02,680 --> 00:30:05,840
Right there in that classroom.

321
00:30:05,840 --> 00:30:11,080
God knows how to preserve us right there in that place of employment.

322
00:30:11,080 --> 00:30:15,680
He's with us to deliver us, to rescue us.

323
00:30:15,680 --> 00:30:19,960
He points to another historic example and this one we would not expect.

324
00:30:19,960 --> 00:30:25,120
If we did not have the New Testament record of Lot, we would have said Lot was a man who

325
00:30:25,120 --> 00:30:27,960
was lost.

326
00:30:27,960 --> 00:30:33,600
You will notice that he uses language regarding Lot here that cannot be but that of a saved

327
00:30:33,600 --> 00:30:34,600
man.

328
00:30:34,600 --> 00:30:39,200
He says he rescued righteous Lot.

329
00:30:39,200 --> 00:30:43,760
Do you remember Lot?

330
00:30:43,760 --> 00:30:51,480
This rather selfish man who chose his own way and chose what was best, the nephew of

331
00:30:51,480 --> 00:30:53,480
whom?

332
00:30:53,480 --> 00:30:56,800
Abraham.

333
00:30:56,800 --> 00:31:02,520
And he pitched his tent toward the cities down there in the plains, Sodom and Gomorrah.

334
00:31:02,520 --> 00:31:07,320
So that when he got up in the morning, opened the tent flaps, the first thing he saw was

335
00:31:07,320 --> 00:31:08,320
the cities in the plain.

336
00:31:08,320 --> 00:31:12,960
And when he closed those tent flaps at night, the last thing he saw were those cities in

337
00:31:12,960 --> 00:31:13,960
the plain.

338
00:31:13,960 --> 00:31:18,680
And it wasn't long before he went down there and he lived among them.

339
00:31:18,680 --> 00:31:23,400
And he packed up his tent and put it away in a crate and he lived in a home.

340
00:31:23,400 --> 00:31:24,640
He dwelt among them.

341
00:31:24,640 --> 00:31:28,640
That's what it says here.

342
00:31:28,640 --> 00:31:29,880
He lived among them.

343
00:31:29,880 --> 00:31:33,400
He made his home among them.

344
00:31:33,400 --> 00:31:38,800
What a terrible decision he made.

345
00:31:38,800 --> 00:31:46,120
At the same time, while he was living among them, this righteous man, the word righteous

346
00:31:46,120 --> 00:31:50,560
means this just man, this man who was justified before God.

347
00:31:50,560 --> 00:31:55,240
He believed in the God of Abraham.

348
00:31:55,240 --> 00:32:05,360
This man, notice what it says, was oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men.

349
00:32:05,360 --> 00:32:12,320
The word oppressed means to be worn down by exhausting labor or being greatly troubled

350
00:32:12,320 --> 00:32:15,960
until you just don't know if you can go on.

351
00:32:15,960 --> 00:32:16,960
That's where Lot was.

352
00:32:16,960 --> 00:32:21,480
You say, well it was his own decision that took him there.

353
00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:24,000
Yes it was.

354
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:31,400
And once he got there, he had to be dragged out of the city before God could put the judgment

355
00:32:31,400 --> 00:32:32,400
upon the place.

356
00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:34,440
You say, I don't understand that.

357
00:32:34,440 --> 00:32:38,280
Neither do I.

358
00:32:38,280 --> 00:32:44,880
The fact is that inside Lot, he was a man who was miserable.

359
00:32:44,880 --> 00:32:51,280
But isn't it true of all of us that when we choose our own way, inside we're miserable?

360
00:32:51,280 --> 00:32:55,880
And sometimes we get locked up in it and there are times we don't know how to get out of

361
00:32:55,880 --> 00:32:56,880
it.

362
00:32:56,880 --> 00:33:00,400
But at the same time inside, we are just torn apart.

363
00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:02,520
And that's exactly what Lot was.

364
00:33:02,520 --> 00:33:09,200
Furthermore, it says in verse 8 that his righteous soul, notice that word again, his righteous

365
00:33:09,200 --> 00:33:17,720
soul was tormented day after day, vexed.

366
00:33:17,720 --> 00:33:24,360
The suggestion is here that every day that Lot lived in Sodom, he blamed himself for

367
00:33:24,360 --> 00:33:29,720
the mess he had gotten himself and his family into.

368
00:33:29,720 --> 00:33:37,000
What a sorry way to have to live because of bad, bad decisions.

369
00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:40,000
But that was Lot.

370
00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:48,000
And we notice even at the end of his life that Lot commits immorality with his own family,

371
00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:51,760
a sad thing.

372
00:33:51,760 --> 00:33:59,400
He goes down in the Old Testament as one of the sorriest of all the characters introduced.

373
00:33:59,400 --> 00:34:08,060
But at the same time he was a man that God says was righteous.

374
00:34:08,060 --> 00:34:11,320
That is justified before God.

375
00:34:11,320 --> 00:34:22,120
Carnal, unfaithful, disobedient, vexed, tormented, oppressed.

376
00:34:22,120 --> 00:34:24,520
But God preserved him.

377
00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:30,680
It says God delivered even Lot.

378
00:34:30,680 --> 00:34:32,360
God dragged him out of danger.

379
00:34:32,360 --> 00:34:36,480
It's literally what it means.

380
00:34:36,480 --> 00:34:39,040
You remember that Abraham interceded before God.

381
00:34:39,040 --> 00:34:42,120
He said, oh God, finally just ten people.

382
00:34:42,120 --> 00:34:45,160
Just ten people, Lord, would you withhold your judgment?

383
00:34:45,160 --> 00:34:46,160
And God agreed.

384
00:34:46,160 --> 00:34:50,320
But not even ten could be found in the city of Sodom.

385
00:34:50,320 --> 00:34:57,480
And those two angels who stayed overnight with him and his family dragged him out of

386
00:34:57,480 --> 00:35:05,000
the city, his own wife looking back longingly toward the city and the salt and the brimstone

387
00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:08,240
coming down upon her and killing her at the very spot.

388
00:35:08,240 --> 00:35:14,640
And Lot and his daughters alone being saved from the cities of the plain.

389
00:35:14,640 --> 00:35:16,680
But they were saved.

390
00:35:16,680 --> 00:35:17,960
God delivered them.

391
00:35:17,960 --> 00:35:24,280
Peter says here you have one man who was righteous, one man who was blessed, one man who preached

392
00:35:24,280 --> 00:35:32,200
righteousness and you have another man also saved who was carnal, who was disobedient

393
00:35:32,200 --> 00:35:35,600
and who paid the price.

394
00:35:35,600 --> 00:35:48,040
Both the child of God and God knew how to deliver both of them, both of them from temptation.

395
00:35:48,040 --> 00:35:51,400
There's some people today who say that God knows how to deliver those who are faithful,

396
00:35:51,400 --> 00:35:56,120
but if a Christian gets unfaithful, he's gone.

397
00:35:56,120 --> 00:36:02,800
Others would argue to the contrary that God is faithful even when we fail.

398
00:36:02,800 --> 00:36:06,040
But who wants to live a life like Lot?

399
00:36:06,040 --> 00:36:10,800
Do you want to end your life like Lot did?

400
00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:14,040
Do you want to be vexed and oppressed?

401
00:36:14,040 --> 00:36:15,960
We can do that.

402
00:36:15,960 --> 00:36:18,560
God doesn't cast us away.

403
00:36:18,560 --> 00:36:21,200
God knows how to deliver us in the end.

404
00:36:21,200 --> 00:36:25,960
But oh, what a price to pay in the meantime.

405
00:36:25,960 --> 00:36:27,880
What a waste.

406
00:36:27,880 --> 00:36:33,400
How much better in the generation in which we live to be men and women like Noah who

407
00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:37,800
are faithful to God and heralds of righteousness?

408
00:36:37,800 --> 00:36:44,440
And who though living in an ungodly age of unbelievable shameless immorality all around

409
00:36:44,440 --> 00:36:52,040
us keep ourselves unspotted and unstained from the world and declare the gospel of Jesus

410
00:36:52,040 --> 00:36:56,120
Christ to this generation?

411
00:36:56,120 --> 00:37:01,840
Let's live so that when Jesus comes we might not have to be ashamed and just make it, just

412
00:37:01,840 --> 00:37:05,760
be dragged out against our own wills as it were.

413
00:37:05,760 --> 00:37:11,000
But let's live so that we're looking for our Lord and so that when we stand before

414
00:37:11,000 --> 00:37:18,440
Him we'll not have to be ashamed but may have confidence before Him at His coming.

415
00:37:18,440 --> 00:37:23,400
Just be men and women of faith and obedience like Noah.

416
00:37:23,400 --> 00:37:24,400
Let's pray.

417
00:37:24,400 --> 00:37:28,800
It's a tough passage.

418
00:37:28,800 --> 00:37:40,440
It deals with some awesome truths about the righteousness of God, God's hatred for sin,

419
00:37:40,440 --> 00:37:44,440
God's judgment upon false teaching and false living.

420
00:37:44,440 --> 00:37:49,040
But it also tells us of God's faithfulness.

421
00:37:49,040 --> 00:37:52,800
Let's thank God for His faithfulness.

422
00:37:52,800 --> 00:38:00,080
Dear child of God, are you tonight living more like Noah or like Lot?

423
00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:04,520
Which model are you more like?

424
00:38:04,520 --> 00:38:08,560
You can learn that God is faithful to you if you're His child from this text, but you

425
00:38:08,560 --> 00:38:17,360
will also see that it can be a terrible waste to live like Lot, to conform to the age of

426
00:38:17,360 --> 00:38:20,760
ungodliness.

427
00:38:20,760 --> 00:38:24,880
Would you determine in your heart tonight and say, oh God, make me like Noah?

428
00:38:24,880 --> 00:38:31,040
Make me a herald of righteousness where you've planted me in this generation.

429
00:38:31,040 --> 00:38:35,880
I hope you will pray that and determine that in your heart right now.

430
00:38:35,880 --> 00:38:40,720
Let's stand together.

431
00:38:40,720 --> 00:38:45,240
Father God, we live in those days we believe that Jesus spoke about when He said, as it

432
00:38:45,240 --> 00:38:53,960
was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of Man.

433
00:38:53,960 --> 00:38:58,600
We look around us and we see ungodliness on every side.

434
00:38:58,600 --> 00:39:01,920
We see false teaching abounding.

435
00:39:01,920 --> 00:39:08,660
We see it prospering and being received by the world.

436
00:39:08,660 --> 00:39:17,560
We see shameless immorality and we see the judgment coming.

437
00:39:17,560 --> 00:39:21,400
So may we live obediently to you, Lord.

438
00:39:21,400 --> 00:39:29,120
And this week as we walk out there in that world, make us a lover of those who are lost.

439
00:39:29,120 --> 00:39:37,200
May we like Noah be a faithful proclaimer of the gospel by word and by life so that

440
00:39:37,200 --> 00:39:44,120
we might be the instrument that you would use to save some.

441
00:39:44,120 --> 00:39:52,240
Father, as we go, we also want to just say thank you for the blessed assurance here that

442
00:39:52,240 --> 00:39:55,820
we're going to be preserved.

443
00:39:55,820 --> 00:40:01,920
Just as surely as you are preserving some who are already in chains for judgment, so

444
00:40:01,920 --> 00:40:09,640
you are preserving your children to inherit that great salvation that you have purchased

445
00:40:09,640 --> 00:40:11,080
for us in Christ.

446
00:40:11,080 --> 00:40:12,080
Thank you for that.

447
00:40:12,080 --> 00:40:16,400
And thank you for your presence in our lives.

448
00:40:16,400 --> 00:40:25,960
In Jesus' name, amen.