"4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly."
In our last message, we closed with discussing being uncomfortable in the church. I was thinking about that afterwards, and how it must have gotten really uncomfortable for Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, He was sweating drops of blood as He prayed "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done."
I was thinking about His ministry while here on earth, His life. Jesus made it clear, it was not about His comfort, it was about doing the will of His Father, even if it made Him uncomfortable. It made me realize, that sometimes, in my disobedience to God, my own sin, that I don't want to be made uncomfortable.
Praise God, that Jesus, even in His discomfort, He was still obedient to the Father
and died on the cross for my sins. For if Jesus would have remained
comfortable, hell would have long ago swallowed me up! So, beloved, I submit to you, that church is not about us and our comfort, it is about Jesus Christ.
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
Father, we are thankful for Your Word. We pray and ask You to teach us. Help us to understand that we can't just be tolerant of sin and error, especially in those who teach that blatant truth denying error. Those who subtly teach that we can live anyway that we want, that how we live doesn't matter, because it's all covered under grace. Lord, this is so difficult today and we can no longer even tell the wheat from the tares. They've become so subtle, even talking about Christ's death and resurrection, yet they are deceiving people with their lies and perverted grace.
Grant us wisdom O' Lord, that we might recognize those identify with Christ as Savior but not as Lord, whose wretched life maligns the purity of Your truth. Give us the boldness and courage to confront such destructive heresies. Thank You for loving us enough to give Yourself up for us, that we might be redeemed. Thank You for reminding us, that it is because of Your grace alone.
In Christ's precious name we pray
Amen
Today's Message:The Judgement Of God
God has revealed His truth in the Scripture. And, as a consequence, He wants it communicated effectively, entirely and exactly as He gave it. Without omission and without deviation.
In Romans 3:3-4, Paul said "If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar."
Open your Bibles with me to II Peter 2, verses 4 and 5. This is passage run all the way from the middle of verse 3 down to the middle of verse 10. Today, we will be looking at verses 4 and 5. However, allow me to read to you the entire passage to set the text in our minds, as we prepare our hearts for a Word from the Lord. Listen for the voice of the Lord. II Peter 3b-10.
"Their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter; and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority."
Titus 1:2 says "God cannot lie." In Isaiah 65:16, He is called the God of truth. God speaks only the truth.
In contrast, the adversary of God and Christ is the devil, and in John 8:44, Jesus said "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies."
Proverbs 6:19, says God hates "a false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers." Obviously God cares about truth. It is one thing to tell a lie, it is a far greater thing to teach lies as if it were truth.
In Jeremiah chapter 9, it says that God will bring judgment on Judah because she listened to lying prophets."
And in Jeremiah 23:25-27, God says "I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy falsely in My name, saying, ‘I had a dream, I had a dream!’ How long? Is there anything in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, even these prophets of the deception of their own heart, who intend to make My people forget My name by their dreams which they relate to one another, just as their fathers forgot My name because of Baal?"
In verses 1 through 3, Peter has given us a basic outline, a sketch of these false teachers. Today, we're going to see three very straightforward points are made by Peter. The promise of their judgment, the precedent for their judgment, and the pattern of their judgment. There are a lot of people who want to mock the reality of future judgment. Peter is very direct, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, when he wrote his epistle. A man is a fool who doesn't understand that God will not only judge false teachers, and He will judge along with them all who lived and bought into their deception.
At the end of verse 1, and at the end of verse 3, though false teachers are not yet judged, whether the ones that are alive at the time Peter writes and the ones that are alive at any time someone reads this, including now, though they have not yet been judged, their judgment was planned long ago. Their condemnation is promised, vested in the nature of God as a God of truth.
Now, let's move on to the precedent for their judgment.
In verse 4, Peter says "For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment." And in verse 5, he says "And did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. Then in verse 6, "And if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter." Peter is giving us three powerful illustrations, all from the book of Genesis. They are the precedent of the final judgment on the liars, the deceivers, false prophets and false teachers, and for anyone who follows them. These are three very classic, powerful illustrations.
Notice the word "for" which begins verse 4, this introduces the conditional sentence. I believe that a better translation would have been the "since," because there's no doubt here. "Since God did not spare angels when they sinned." I believe the word "if," implies some sort of doubt. And, in this case, there's no doubt, it's already written into history. It's a fact and its been done. So, if God judged in the past and He did, then be assured He will judge in the future. That's the point.
Notice, there's a pattern of movement here, from the higher to the lower. Angels are more elevated beings than we are and God judged them when they sinned, what makes men think they can escape? Be they men or angels, they will judged in the future, just as they have been judged in the past. All created beings are responsible to Him for what they do with His truth, whether angels or men. None fall outside the judgment of God.
I believe that Peter's choice of illustrations, implies that these false teachers may have been very prominent in the church. So, Peter is saying even if they had the elevated nature of angelic beings, it won't save them from judgement, it didn't save the angels. You know, this is one of those Scripture that is really inexplicable in many ways. God created the angels, they were before Him in holiness, worshipping Him, adoring Him, and then they sinned. Lucifer, the highest of the angels, decided that he wanted to be like God, he wanted to be higher than God, so he led a rebellion. And, one third of the angels bought into his rebellion and in pride, were lifted up, setting themselves against God. Thousands and thousands, myriads and myriads of these beings fell and were doomed to damnation.
At the end of verse 4, he says "And committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment." To be clear, they're not all in pits of darkness. In fact, they're all over place. There are some running loose on the earth causing havoc.
Ephesians 6:12 says "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places."
Whatever sin he's talking about here cannot be the original fall of angels, because when they fell, they were not incarcerated in hell and committed permanently to pits of darkness waiting their final judgment. Because the titles given in Ephesians 6, were titles for demons. So whatever these beings are,
they're something other than the demons running around loose all over the world.
they're something other than the demons running around loose all over the world.
In Matthew 8:29, remember when Jesus confronted the demons, and they said "What business do we have with each other, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?"
In Luke 8:31, Luke adds more detail, "They were imploring Him not to command them to go away into the abyss."
In the Greek, "cast them into hell," is one word, the word "tartarosos." the place of punishment fit only for demons. As vile and wicked as demons are, their conduct is somewhat restrained because of their constant fear of being sent into the abyss. During the time of Tribulation, some of those demons will be released contributing to the horrors of the Tribulation.
Whatever these demons did was much like Sodom and Gomorrah did. They indulged in gross immorality. Jude 7 says "Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire."
I once heard of a pastor who was talking about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. He reportedly said "If that’s the way God really is, then I’m not going to believe in Him!" You know, many people today dismiss God’s judgment by saying, "I believe God is a God of love. He would never judge anyone" Not believing in God's judgement doesn't make it not so!
In verse 5, Peter says "And did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly." That was really a bad time in the history of the world.
Genesis 6:1-3 tells us that "Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not ]strive with man forever."
Verse 5, "Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Just before God drowned the whole world, there were only eight believers in the world.
In verses 11 and 12, it says "Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth." I believe that they did it to breed an unredeemable race of demon men, to damn that race, no matter what Jesus did. I believe that's why Jesus showed up in the pit. To tell them "I have accomplished My redemption, you didn't corrupt the redemption of men." He pronounced His victory over them.
In Closing..
Church is not about the pastor, or deacons. Its not about some rich folks who are
generously contribute to the church. Church is about Jesus, its about what He
has been doing in my life that He can do in someone else’s life. There is nothing in God’s purposes and plans of how He wants to meet our need to be comfortable. For some, just talking to others about Jesus is uncomfortable.
In 1950, one new person was brought to Christ for 19 Christians, In 1978, that number increased to 36 to 1. By 2003, that number climbed to 43 to 1. That tells me there are a whole bunch of so called Christians who are not talking to others about Jesus!
I would like to encourage you today, to get bold in declaring the greatness of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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