Certainty of God's Judgment

Mean Girls

How many of you have seen the movie “Mean Girls”?

The main idea of the movie is how dangerous it is when we act in a way that is meant to lift ourselves up even when we need to tear others down. That exploiting others, lying and making up stories about other people, and pretending to be friends with people while secretly hating them will lead to our own destruction. It is essentially the dangers you face every day in Middle School and High School.

But the thing about this, is that this story goes past high school, and there will be many in the world who will tell us they have our best interests in mind while actually seeking to exploit us. So the question is…how can we tell? How can we tell who is looking out for us and who is looking out for themselves?

Peter says the key is keeping the end in mine.

What were the two ways that Peter says we know the truth?

Eyewitnesses

Scripture

Paul starts here by saying just as we have false teachers and false prophets now, there have always been those who speak falsely and even those within those we believe we can trust who will “bring in destructive heresies” and “deny the Master who bought them” But what we believe isn’t a “cleverly contrived myth” but the truth and these people will “bring swift destruction on themselves”.

-In fact, Jesus, Paul, John, and here Peter all warn us about those who call themselves Christians but are actually spreading lies.

So Peter tells us...

God’s judgment is certain, but He rescues all who have faith in Jesus.

Peter identifies important false teaching we should be cautious of

Lies about God’s character

There will be people who will bring in “heresies” to the church. Does anyone know what a heresy is? It is a teaching that strays from the orthodox belief of the church about God.

Why is heresy dangerous? It erodes the Christian faith, it is destructive to the church and leads to judgment.

-If Jesus isn’t God, than how can we know that we are saved? How can we know that Jesus did enough for us? How can we have confidence we will be with God in heaven?

-If God isn’t the Creator than He doesn’t have control over all things, we have no confidence that God will have victory in the end.

-If Jesus will not return again one day than what hope do we have that one day good will win and evil will be judged? God’s return is the foundation of our ethics

Following the path away from God’s character

Pilgrim’s Progress

“All paths lead to God”

“There is no hell and all people will go to heaven”

“The Bible is outdated and we need to change things for modern times”

This lead them to “shameful ways”. We will talk more about this more next week. But if we go down these dangerous roads we can start to believe that it doesn’t matter how we live. That what we believe is good, no matter what the Bible says, is good enough. There are many who call themselves Christians who deny what the Bible teaches about sin. Who make their own interpretations of what is right or wrong. If we do this we have made ourselves our own god.

This path is easy to follow, it says “many will follow” these ways. Why? Well, you follow the crowd. If other “Christians” are doing it, then that must mean it is okay if I do it. Or if it is the hard thing to do then God wouldn’t want me to do the hard thing, right? And honestly…it is easier to do what seems fun.

Jesus tells us many things that seem hard.

“Love and pray for your enemy”.

“If anyone slaps you, turn the other cheek”

“Don’t gossip”

“Don’t lie”

“The world will hate you because of me”

Exploiting God’s character

“God just wants you to love people”

“If you are generous than God will be generous with you!”

People exploit God’s character for their own benefit. They weren’t saying these things because they truly believed them, but because they knew it would bring people in.

There are “churches” that do the flashy and cool things, that seem fun to go to…but they aren’t teaching you the truth. They just say what students want to hear and do what students want to do. But in doing so they are setting a path of destruction by not teaching the truth.

That is what Peter warns about next.

God’s judgment is sure

God says that these people who have twisted God’s Word, who have led people down the path of destruction, who have exploited people for their own gain…their judgment is coming. And Peter gives several examples of how we know this judgment will come.

There will be many who think God’s judgment isn’t coming, that they can escape it, that live their life pretending they don’t care about what happens to them after they die. But none of these things do anything to stop the fact that one day they WILL be judged.

Peter mentions 3 passages that are in Genesis. Moving through the book

The Fallen Angels

Do you remember the story of the Nephalim where the angels have relations with humans?

Those angels were judged by “chains” This is the future judgment of them, they are currently “held” to this day. It is like someone who is waiting for their judgment but they are still being “held” until the time they are sentenced. There are currently being punished, but also waiting for a future judgment.

All will be judged

Notice the “if”. For IF God didn’t spare the angels, and IF he didn’t spare the ancient world, and IF he reduced the cities… Then know that the same judgment will come on people in our time.

There will be some who mock, and even call us bigoted, for believing that people will be judged by God. But notice…WE are not the ones who judge, it is only God who judges.

-It would be like if you were in the car with someone and they were going 30 MPH over the speedlimit and you said “you need to slow down, it isn’t safe to drive that fast and you will get a ticket” and they looked at you and said “who do you think you are telling me how to live my life? You don’t make the rules! I can drive however fast I want”.

-You might say back to them. “If a cop finds you going 30 mph over the speed limit they WILL pull you over and if we crash we will at a minimum have serious injuries because this is a dangerous speed to drive”. What you are telling them is the truth, no matter how they feel about it. Which leads to the 2nd point

Judgment is real

No matter how people feel about it, God’s judgment is real. Peter has given examples that prove God’s judgment. That is why we tell people that God’s judgment is real. If they don’t know the consequence then they won’t believe there is any reason to stop how they are living!

Where we have challenges is that we haven’t seen it yet, when we have yet to see the consequences we can sometimes think it isn’t coming. I know with my children, sometimes you don’t BELIEVE the consequence until it has already arrived. Then you can yell “unfair!” Even though you were told from the beginning what would happen.

The Ungodly World

The righteous are saved

Then Peter moves to the scene of the flood in which Noah lived by faith and His faith in God was credited to Him as righteousness and He was saved. Even though there was wickedness all around Him and it would have been easy for him to say “everyone will think I’m dumb if I believe a flood is coming” he decided to live by faith instead even when he was surrounded by ungodly people.

The righteous proclaim salvation

But Noah didn’t just seek to save himself, but it says that Noah was a “preacher of righteousness”. He attempted to save others as well.

The Wicked Cities

The wicked should learn from examples

Then Peter uses the example of Sodom and Gomorrah, which were wicked cities that Lot, the nephew of Abraham, lived in.

In Ezekiel God will send a warning to other nations because of Sodom. Not only was sexual sin an issue but “pride”, that they had plenty of food and comfortable security yet they “didn’t support the poor and needy”.

-They were also “lawless” and “filthy”

Peter says their destruction was a condemnation on their wickedness, and it should serve as a warning, an example, to others who are living in wickedness, that their sin will also be judged.

-But here is the thing…all of us are wicked. Therefore all of us should seek to find our salvation in Jesus.

The righteous should weep over wickedness

Notice how Lot responded to all this wickedness. His righteous soul “was tormented” by their deeds. What does this word torment mean? It is having inner sorrow and distress over these actions.

But this is how we should feel about wickedness if we are going to stay as the faithful people of God. We can’t look at sin and say “no big deal” but rather we should be sorrowful, even tormented by these choices.

Have you ever shown someone a funny video and you forgot that it had as much cursing in it then you remember? Then you start feeling kind of awkward? Maybe a movie that has some risque scenes that you watch with a parent that makes you awkward. Maybe that feeling is telling you something, that you know there is something wrong with that. But sometimes we try and forget that feeling.

-It is really easy for us to try and ignore the feelings of sorrow and torment that sin brings to us. But we should listen to the voice that tells us something is wrong. We shouldn’t ignore it. Our world tells us to listen to whatever voice makes us “feel good”, but those voices often lead us astray.

-Do you notice the things around you that others believe is normal but you know is sin?

Only God can rescue us from sin

Why is God’s judgment in the OT important for us today. It lets us know that even when we deal with challenges in our world today, that those who do evil to us will be judged by God.

-Notice in all of these stories that God is doing so to save the righteous.

-Sometimes our feeling of temptation can come from the way that we see sin win in our world. It can be easy to “give in” to the world. But Peter is encouraging the church to faithfulness, to not let sin creep into their lives.

-Peter says that even when we go through “trials” that God can help us through all our challenges.

We can have hope in our trials because we know that God will judge the unrighteous. Specifically those who:

-Follow the desires of the flesh. That is sexual perversity, drunkenness, hatred towards others

-Despise the authority God has given. That is our parents, teachers and principles, police, government leaders, church leaders. We should submit to them as to Christ. But rebelliousness against these authorities is an example of judgment on us.