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[0:00] 2 Peter chapter 2 is where we are at. 2 Peter chapter 2. We will pick up in verse 4. We're only going to read one sentence this morning.

[0:11] ! 2 Peter chapter 2. We're going to pick up in verse 4 and we're reading one sentence. That one sentence takes us down to verse 10. The first part of verse 10. So we are in 2 Peter chapter 2 verses 4 through 10.

[0:25] The first half of verse 10. If you are physically able and desire to do so, I ask if you would join with me as we stand together and we read the word of God found in 2 Peter chapter 2 starting in verse 4.

[0:39] Again, it is one run-on sentence. So we will try to read it as such so that we can understand the weight therein. 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.

[0:58] It 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.

[1:18] 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.

[1:35] 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.

[1:50] Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that we come and we stand in confidence on the word of God and not the opinions nor thoughts of man.

[2:04] We come, some of us, with hearts full of joy and happiness, others full of sorrow and sadness. We come in various circumstances, having dealt with various matters throughout this week, but we come before the same one.

[2:22] And we cry out to you, O Father, that you would move in our midst. We pray that you would remove every distraction, every hindrance, every tool that Satan would long to use to call our attention off of anything other than you.

[2:39] And may we look to you and give you all the praise and the glory and the honor. May you speak to us. May we hear a word from you that you would draw us closer into your presence so that you could equip and form and fashion us for your glory.

[2:59] And we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. As Peter is writing this letter to the saints that are scattered abroad, we find from the letter 1 Peter, and he is writing it to the believers in Christ Jesus, and he has reminded them of their position in 2 Peter 1, verse 1 and following.

[3:28] He's reminded them of the glorious position they hold in Christ, and that it is not their work nor their effort, but that it is his sovereignty that has called them to himself.

[3:39] He has reminded them that they are a peculiar people, a chosen people. It tells us, Peter writes, that the people of God are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, knit together for Christ.

[3:51] He has called them there at the end of the first chapter to be people of the word, people that understand the word, that they are people of situations and circumstances, and some of them are experiences, and they're glorious experiences of seeing God do magnificent things.

[4:11] But then he tells them their greatest confidence in what they believe is not found in their experiences or found in their circumstances, but rather it is found in the certainty of the word of God.

[4:24] It is, as he refers to, the holy scriptures, the holy scriptures, moved by the men of God, as they moved by the spirit of God, as they wrote the word of God, these men that God utilized for his purposes in bringing about the prophetic word of God.

[4:41] Upon the heels of that, as we transition into the second chapter, he says, as certain as there were holy prophets, there are also false prophets. So as the people of God who are called to be slaves of Christ and apostles sent out from his presence, to be wholly committed, belonging to Jesus Christ, and to be his ambassadors to a watching world, part of that responsibility as an ambassador is to guard the truth of scripture.

[5:15] And it is, if we're going to be quite frank, getting harder and harder to guard the truthfulness of scripture. Society is not becoming an easier place to take a strong stance upon the certainty of the word of God.

[5:35] But my friend, within your heart and within your mind, you need to know what is true. And your life must be dictated by convictions. And it must be dictated by the primary conviction, let the word of God be found true and everything else, and even everyone else found a liar.

[5:55] We are called to guard the truth as it will inevitably be attacked on multiple fronts. And it's a battle that rages for certain.

[6:07] Sometimes that battle is an external battle and the enemy attacks us from the outside and we see him approaching and we know how to prepare ourselves. And we fight against it.

[6:19] Sometimes that battle is an internal battle and churches must declare and dictate to themselves, this is what we believe. Even though culture and society says we are wrong in this, this is what we believe.

[6:34] Sometimes it's a hidden battle in which we wrestle with doubts and concerns and fears in our own life. If you find me a believer who has never wrestled with the certainty of their salvation, I will find you a believer that has really never surrendered the entirety of their life.

[6:52] I'll put it another way. As a pastor, it is not uncommon for me to sit in my office and say, is this truly what I believe? I mean, do I really believe it?

[7:04] Do I believe it with all of my heart, with all of my soul, with all of my strength? Will I commit my life to this? For if I don't, then it's foolish.

[7:16] And the battle rages and we stand upon the truth. And sometimes it is all that we can do is to stand upon the truth. But Christ, here moving through Peter, shows us where our confidence lies lies in the day of battle.

[7:38] I want you to see our confidence in the battle. Now, if you were to take a look at my outline, on Sunday mornings, there's one who gets it on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights.

[7:52] There's seven or so that get a copy of the outline. And some of you are better students of my outline than I am. And if I ever knew so many people were going to look at my outline and hold on to them, then I'd be ashamed of how I typed them out.

[8:03] But anyway, I digress. If you were to look at a copy of my outline, you would see that underneath my title and underneath my verses, which is kind of basic for my outlines, which mine are very basic.

[8:15] They're not transcribed notes at all. Then you would see a verse emboldened there. Now, while it is the pastor's wife who is currently printing the bulletins, the pastor never really sees the bulletin until he stands up.

[8:31] Very seldom. I just, full confession, very seldom do I look at the front of a bulletin. I just don't. Because immediately when I walk into my office on Sunday mornings, there's a bulletin waiting on my desk and immediately, the first thing I do is I fold it in half.

[8:45] I tuck the visitor part inside. I'm just telling you my mannerisms because I don't expect that I'm a visitor and I don't have to fill it off and tear it off and put it in the offering plate so that you know I was here. Most of you usually know I'm here or I'm not here.

[8:56] So I fold it in and I fold it in half just like this so that I can have my song list and I have all these things and these are the only things that concern me. Never do I look at the front.

[9:07] You say, oh, pastor, that's so unholy for there's a prayer list on the back, right? And I have the prayer list in my office, okay? I have it as the prayer list. This is for those who do not come on Wednesday night.

[9:18] So this is all I ever see of the bulletin. But if you were to look on my outline and you would see the verse that I'd penned here than if you were to look at the front of your bulletin and I noticed it just a moment ago standing in the foyer as I was praying over the message.

[9:35] It's Ephesians 6.10 and it tells us there finally be strong in the Lord and in the might of his strength.

[9:48] Now you know what follows the rest of that verse and it talks about putting on the full armor of God but the admonition is not to be strong in your armor and not to be confident in your armor.

[10:01] The armor is the equipment given to you because of the confidence you have in verse 10. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. That is, the strength for the battle is not found in the shield or the shoes or the sword or the belt or the helmet of salvation.

[10:20] The strength is not found in any of that. The strength is found in the Lord and in the strength of his might. And these are the equipment that he gives you because of his strength to be utilized in the battle.

[10:38] Peter reminds us here in one grand run-on sentence what it looks like to have confidence in the day of the battle.

[10:50] And where that confidence is found is in Christ. Not in self nor in abilities nor even in your equipment. did not trust in his proudness with a sling and a stone but rather he came to him in the name of the Lord God Almighty and it was God who empowered the sling and the stone.

[11:12] For the equipment possessed by David was inferior to the equipment possessed by Goliath. That's why he didn't cut Goliath's head off with his sling he used Goliath's sword.

[11:23] You remember that right? He knocked him out with a stone and cut his head off with his own sword. That's pretty amazing to me because his equipment was better fit for the chopping off of heads.

[11:34] You say pastor that's kind of grotesque. Well it's biblical. It just is. And so we understand that it is not the superiority of the equipment provided to us in the armor of God but rather the superiority of the strength in which we stand while wearing the armor of God.

[11:53] And it is the confidence that we have to defend the truth. Even in circumstances which may seem so difficult. And Peter here tells us in verses 4 through 10 as he gets excited much like Paul does and won't quit writing this one sentence and starts this grand discourse as he has just told them to be defenders of the truth.

[12:22] And he tells them why they can do it because I'm sure as believers they're like but I can't do that. Do you see the Roman society around me? You know all was not well in Rome.

[12:34] Do you see what's going on here? Do you understand the atrocities that I'm surrounded with? I could break it down for you what was leading to the collapse of the Roman Empire but if I did all you would think I was doing was describing our own society to you so we digress.

[12:48] We do not need to really describe it because we would just look around today and see these same matters. And these believers were like how can I do that? And he's going to in the second part of verse 10 and following describe what these are like and it is very similar to Jude's description in Jude verse 6 and following that we find in the little epistle of Jude but what we find is that they knew what the enemy looked like and they understood that they were ravaging wolves and prowling around and being crazy and all this stuff and they understood their appetites for their greedy and their sensual desires and all these things after the flesh but what they didn't know is how can we resist them?

[13:30] How can we be confident? How can I be bold? How can I stand strong? And he gives it to them here and he starts very basically where we do for if God did not spare the angels when they sinned so you need to understand verses 4 through 10 are one great we would call it the if then statements in scripture right?

[13:56] If there's all these ifs for if he did this and if he did that and if he did this and if he did this then if then's are very important right? Because if this is true then this is true and if this is so then this is so and so he gives us the ifs first for if God and if the Lord and if he did not and if and if and if and if and then those are common it says then the Lord knows so the very first thing we notice is the witness of scripture friend listen to me if you don't know what God has done in the past then you do not know what he can do in the present if you don't know what he has done in the if statements then you have no then to stand on if God is the creator of the heavens and the earth if by the word of his mouth he said let there be light and there was light and if he said let the light be separated from the darkness and it was so and if he called it all into existence by the sound of his voice then there is nothing in creation that is greater and grander than him but all the world is his footstool and he rests upon it but if that is not so this is why by the way

[15:10] Genesis 1-1 is so important because if that is not so then creation rules and not God if we do not know what he has done in the word of God then we have no confidence it should not be telling to us that biblical illiteracy is running parallel with church debauchery that the more illiterate our churches are the more worldly they become for they in their own strength and in their own might will never be able to deliver themselves from the wares and ways of Satan and they will never be able to set themselves free from that which holds them captive because you can't and I can't either and they know no one that can for everyone they look around they see just like them and their comparison meter says well that one's just like me and this one's just like me and they do not know one who is greater and one who is grander because they are illiterate to scripture but if we know the ifs then we can stand in the thens it is the witness of scripture and Peter calls forth two grand narratives from the old old testament both of them found in the book of genesis both of them repeated multiple times throughout scripture he calls what we refer to as the flood narrative to example if god did not spare the angels who sinned but yet reserve them into the pits of hell and cast them into the pains of darkness the little translation is he confined them to chains of darkness by the way you need to stay with that let me just run on that one for just a moment here okay if god did not spare the angels who sinned jude says who stepped out of their proper domain so i want to mess with you for just a little bit okay so if he did not spare the angels who stepped out of their proper domain and sinned but yet he cast them into hell and chained them in darkness until the day of judgment you say pastor that seems kind of crazy right until you open up the book of genesis and then you're there in genesis i don't know five and six and you begin reading about these nephilim and when the sons of god saw the daughters of men and the sons of god went the daughters of men and they had children we want to kind of dispel that and say oh that just means that's another way of referring to great strong men but the only other time in scripture it says sons of god is in the book of job and it's clearly referring to angels so now you say well wait a minute i have a dichotomy is genesis saying that angels inhabited bodies and took daughters of men and had children with them and there were these strange creatures called nephilim well it seems to because the rest of scripture said there were angels who left their proper abode and entered into this world and sinned that is they rebelled and they were cast into hell and chained in darkness and then when we open up the book of revelations there's the angel of the lord who has the key who goes into the pit of darkness and what does he do he unlocks the chains and who comes out all of the condemned angels and satan and all hell breaks loose upon the face of the earth because there were some angels chained until the day of judgment and what follows the unlocking of that chain we call that the battle of armageddon where jesus comes back and those that belong to him come with him and by the sword it comes out of the word of his mouth he slays those angels and he casts them forever and ever into the lake of fire prepared for satan and all those who do not know him and if that happened in genesis then we can believe that it's going to happen in revelations but if we try to persuade it any other way and make it a little bit more manageable then we're belittling the work of god you say pastor i don't know how that could happen neither do i but it must have happened because scripture tells us it did over and over again and that's the very matter that led to the world falling apart and it was so horrendous that if he did not spare the ancient world but utterly destroyed it and we call that the worldwide flood and i believe in the worldwide flood with all of my being i believe in it why

[19:10] because if it was not worldwide then it is not true to what scripture says he's all with science i don't care what science says because science is proclaimed by scientists and scientists are men and women of finite minds i believe with an infinite god says and i hold true to him even when scientists get it right it is because he has empowered them to do so and if he did not preserve the ancient world but preserved noah and seven others that's what the word of god says right noah and seven others it is the flood and if god rained down fiery brimstone upon sodom and gomorrah because of the debauchery and the wickedness found therein but he preserved righteous lot side note here i would never refer to lot as righteous if peter didn't i just wouldn't i wouldn't refer to samson as a hero of the faith if hebrews 11 didn't i wouldn't refer to myself as a saint if the word of god didn't see notice what the test the witness of scripture is telling us here is peter is is giving us examples and it tells us that these things happen to sodom and gomorrah look at what the word of god says as an example he did it to make them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter so here's your greatest confidence that god has given us examples of his abilities throughout scripture we don't have to wonder at the character of god we don't have to wonder at the ability of god we do not have to wonder at the plans and purposes of god for he has clearly made those known to us what we must stand and wonder is why do we not know it i read a quote today some of you might have read it before that said the word of god is very simple i'm paraphrasing this quote just a little bit that the word of god is really very simple but man in his debauchery seeks to make it complicated because we know when we understand it we're forced to obey it we want to complicate it and so i just can't search the depths of scripture friend i can't search the depths of scripture either but it's not real difficult to understand that i should love the lord your god with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind and with all your strength and your neighbor as yourself now what do we need to do there what do we need to dissect and pull apart there we get that right we say well who is my neighbor that question's been asked already jesus tells you who your neighbor is it's the least likely person you would think what do i need to do to inherit eternal life that question's been answer to over and over again the word of god is very clear we want to make it difficult because the moment we understand it is the moment we're accountable to believe it it is the witness of scripture are there deep things in the word of god absolutely absolutely is there meat sure hebrews chapter 6 says that we can be confined to the milk but we ought to get to the meat of the word but friend listen to me take a little bit of milk first taste and see that the lord is good and then dive a little deeper into the meat of the word so many people so many new believers they want to jump right past the milk and they want the meat of the word and they come to me with difficult questions and they come to me with with questions that that i was wrestling with 15 16 you know 20 years

[23:12] into my walk with christ and i said that's good that's good because we have access to all this now so i'm glad you're thinking about that but what if we just focus on this for just a moment why don't we get the elementary principles of christianity right and then we'll be prepared to go a little deeper it is the witness of scripture and scripture indeed testifies to us over and over and over again and one of the greatest witnesses that it does is that it has a warning that it gives notice the warning for if god did not spare angels tonight we'll be in the book of job by the way if you're a sunday night attendee thank you so much for being here and for your patience with me if you're not a sunday night attendee thank you so much for being here now and your patience with me now sunday night crowd you you may have to be a little bit more patient with me this evening i'm taking brayden to camp and so camp drop off as i get four that's a little bit of ways away you know so it's going to take me a few minutes if i'm not here right at six it's okay okay i'll be here as soon as i can get here but we're going to be in the book of job we're going to be in job 15 uh tonight and job 15 eliphaz answers job's discourse back and job said in job 14 if you weren't with me job said in job 14 job made a declaration who can make the unclean clean no one and this job's kind of admonition that our admission that we are unclean and we can't make ourselves clean eliphaz takes a little bit further says god will never look at man and see him as clean for even the angels are unclean in his sight now that's kind of him trying to one up job we'll get to that later but so so what we're saying here in this resonation again it kind of parallels what's going on because that's early history they would have known about the whole nephilim thing we talked about just a moment ago where it says the angels aren't even clean in his sight and so we're reminded here for if god did not spare the angels why do we think he is constrained to spare us see the warning but if god did not preserve the ancient world which he created if he says this world is beyond repair but he found a preacher of righteousness in noah and if he did not even spare the world and if god rained fire and brimstone down on sodom and gomorrah watch the documentary not too long ago they're excavating the sites of sodom and gomorrah and you know it's been a long time since that happened it's right there around the edges of the dead sea if you go down to the araba and that judean land territory and they found this city which they think is pretty much gomorrah they think it is and these are non-christians by the way saying this and they're like we don't really know what happened it seems as if there was a sudden flash of fire that consumed this city because everything was charred and preserved in a moment i was like well i can tell you open up the book of genesis and it says fire and brimstone rained down out of heaven and man it's crazy isn't it they said it just seemed like it was burned in instant by high heat yeah i know pastor's been saying that for centuries and you're just not catching up congratulations we're glad you're there but anyway if god did not preserve sodom and gomorrah and you say man god is a big mean god no why did he do that as an example as an example and scripture gives us those examples right the early church you remember there are two that kind of told a half-truth you remember that in early church there's some people who sold a piece of property barnabas sold his land and he gave all the money to the church and he was referred to as the son of encouragement and he is a son of encouragement so there's this couple that saw that and they're like oh yeah we want all the recognition to barnabas has and so they sell some land and they say yeah we gave it all aren't we sons and daughters of encouragement too really nobody told them they had to give the money they could have gave a part of it and the church would have been rejoicing in that they could have gave a portion but they lied they told this half-truth yeah that's all of it and they died on the spot and I feel

[27:13] so sorry for those grave diggers because they they picked up the man carried him outside buried him and it says in the moment they walk back in the building his wife fell down to death so they had to pick her up too so it's like three hours later so you know they just got done from three hours of burying this man and now they walk into there's another one so they gotta go bury her and you say man does that mean that everybody lies in church dies no that shows us an example of the severity of lying to a holy God because if that example was a literal fulfillment then none of us would be here none of us but that's an example Sodom and Gomorrah are an example of the severity of God's view of sin and these are the ifs so if God did not spare the angels and if God did not preserve the ancient cities and if God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah then read the then it's found in verse 10 then God knows how to do this I'm kind of skipping over one yet because I mean just the pastoral purpose in me I want to keep the good news to last okay so yes I'm jumping over a verse but stay with me then God knows how to do this to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment if God shows us there then he knows how to keep the unrighteous under judgment until the day of punishment here's confidence the wicked do not prosper always if you're fighting the battle for the truth he has told us in the first three verses of the second chapter that their condemnation is judged from long time ago but yet we look around and we say but the wicked seem to prosper the the ungodly seem to flourish and and they're fighting against me and I don't seem to be winning this battle the world is going downward the world is falling apart much like the days of Noah right much like Sodom and Gomorrah but if

[29:11] God shows us the example then God knows how to keep the wicked under punishment until the day of judgment this is the first thing there's these great ifs and then there are two thens the first then is this God will bring a day of judgment he will and he knows how to bring it about in its fullness especially those it says going into verse 10 who indulge in the flesh and its corrupt desires and despise authority so friend listen to me let us be careful in what we indulge because we may be indulging the flesh despising authority and saying well I'm getting away from I'm getting away with this nobody knows nobody sees anything these are my secret things these are the things I nobody knows I got away with it the word of God promises us if God did it then then he knows how to keep us now until that day and this isn't a fear tactic this is just truth this is just true statements God will not be mocked and he is patient and he is kind but he's also holy and just and righteous and he will keep the wicked until the day of judgment but the day will come we have confidence in preserving the truth because it may seem like we're losing but we've read the end we win we've seen what God can do in a moment we've seen his faithfulness to his purposes and his plans and we hold on to that because God knows how to keep the wicked here's the good news here's the word of encouragement because there's the witness of scripture there's the warning given and there's a word of encouragement because we need confidence in the day of battle because we grow weary it seems as if the battles never stop full confession 20 years in pastoral ministry for 20 years I have walked through innumerable spiritual battles they are not getting easier they're getting more severe the closer I get to the Lord and the more I fall in love with this church and the more I see

[31:55] God bringing people around me that are growing in strength and growing in confidence and the more I can have men who hold me accountable and a group of young men that I can sit down that are excited about the word and the more that I can see what God's doing in in your life and in their life and I can see all these things that are going then the battles get harder and harder and harder and harder and it stinks and I'm tired and it breaks me down and I want to give up I'm just just being fully transparent I said forget it but there's no confidence here because my confidence is this there's a word of encouragement for if God did not spare the angels or the ancient world but preserved Noah and seven others and if God did not spare

[32:57] Sodom and Gomorrah but cast them into judgment but preserved righteous Lot what was going on Noah for 120 years built an ark and nobody would believe him for 120 years he was an outcast for 120 years he was seen as a fool it tells us in scripture again we wouldn't say it if it didn't that Lot's righteous soul was tormented by everything he saw around him Lot was living in a world full of sin and passion Lot was living in a world that was under strained and Lot's soul was being tormented he didn't know where to go because he was sitting in the court gates of the town square that means he held a pretty high position in society but he couldn't change it at the government halls because that's where you make political decisions because heart matters aren't changed in government courts heart matters are changed in the heavenly courts we understand that he couldn't make any laws that would restrain him he couldn't by his own character keep them out of his house he couldn't keep them by his own goodness he was tore apart by the battle that was going on snatching and pulling and he was tormented it says but God preserved him here's the word of encouragement God knows how to keep the wicked but God also knows how to preserve the righteous don't grow weary for he keeps you he knows the midst of the battle you're in he knows the struggles you're fighting against he knows the extent of the battle he knows the weakness of your flesh but he knows how to keep you he knows how to walk with you he knows how to empower you he knows how to strengthen you he knows how to use you he knows where you're at and he knows how to keep you will he bring the wicked to judgment yes but will he rescue the righteous yes for if he did it then then he can do it now he knows how to keep you by the way complete sidestep but if you want to stay consistent in biblical teaching and again we can disagree on this it's okay there this is not a big rock issue but i'll just show you why i believe in it why i believe in the pre-tribulation rapture of the church you say oh no you're gonna start talking eschatology i am i'm gonna see if i can divide the room real quick no i'm not i believe in the pre-tribulation rapture of the church why really quick because the tribulation is god's judgment upon the rebellious people who do not know jesus christ the lord and savior i believe it's the final call of god calling the nation of israel back to himself i believe it's those who never professed jesus christ as the lord and savior their condemnation will rain down upon them we'll see it in the book of revelations uh verses chapter five and following we see and when everything goes on there why do i think the church is not there i think the church is in heaven in chapter four because you got letters the letters to the church is in chapters two and three introduction chapter four there's a scene of heaven the cast and the crowns i believe that's the church why why do i believe the church won't be there in rapture because nowhere in scripture does judgment come and god's people sit in the middle of it when god brought flood upon the earth what did he do seven days before the waters came noah was in the ark noah didn't even get a first raindrop upon him because god's judgment was upon the wicked not the righteous what did the angels tell lot go for we cannot call down the fire and brimstone until you get there go for we cannot do anything the judgment on sodom and gomorrah was restrained by the presence of lot do you know what's holding the world's judgment back it's the presence of the church when the world says that they don't need you friend you say oh you have no idea how much you need me for if i'm not here satan gets his way

[37:01]  but the moment i'm gone glory hallelujah i'll be in his presence the righteous will be preserved but the day of judgment would have come and i have confidence in the day of battle for it is the might of history not the power of mine let's pray father we thank you we thank you for this day we thank you for this word and we pray that its truths would resonate within our hearts and minds lord whatever battle we're facing whatever stronghold may have its way in our life at the moment may we surrender that to you or may we lay it before the throne of mercy we confess you know how to keep the wicked and we rejoice that you know how to preserve the righteous may we search our own hearts and search our own minds to know on which side we stand through the blood of christ and we ask it in jesus name amen we're going to have a time of invitation following the time of invitation we're going to be taking communion