Doubters of the Truth

A little recap

Peter is reminding them he is still concerned about their “right belief leading to right behavior.”

Anyone remember our “equation”

Peter says he wants them to have “sincere” understanding. The word is actually that of “pure” or “tested by the light”. It is something that is examined and has been proven to have the type of characteristics you would expect from it.

-If your whole life was examined, would it show that you live as a Christian?

He wants them to be complete thinkers of the Gospel who show the fruit of what they believe in their lives. He just showed them the false teachers who are the opposite of those who bear fruit, they are “dry springs” those that look refreshing but actually are just a false hope. But they are to be fruit bearers.

Does anyone remember the “virtues” of chapter 1?

What were the two evidences given to us of Jesus resurrection?

The prophets in the OT

The witness of the apostles

Why do we need to be aware of false teachers?

They deny the truth

They deny several parts of the truth.

The death and resurrection of Jesus

The 2nd coming of Christ

Their denial leads to being enslaved to sin

In fact, denying the truth is just so that they continue living the way that they want to.

So if we had to summarize chapter 2 it would be something like “God has the power to judge and to save.

Chapter three would be “the promises will be fulfilled by His power”

There is one crucial question that is being asked here…Is Jesus coming back?

-We ask the same question today. Why hasn’t Jesus returned?

-What do we say to those who wonder why Jesus hasn’t returned?

What Peter warns them of is that these “scoffers” are not to be trusted, they aren’t coming to table in good faith.

-Sometimes we have this idea that everyone is coming in “good faith”. That if they sound “nice” or they seem like a “good person” that this means they are trustworthy. There are many “nice” people with wrong opinions. Are trust should be in the word of God, not in the words of man.

-The people that Peter is warning about are people that seem sophisticated, knowledgeable, even “courageous”. But in fact they are driven by their own greed, driven by a desire to be well-liked by other, or just blinded to the truth.

The people that Peter is warning about believe that nothing has changed, that things are just going on as they have since the beginning of creation. That God hasn’t intervened, the Bible is a bunch of stories, and there are no such things as miracles. They are an early form of what we would call an “agnostic”. They don’t necessarily believe there is no God, but it is easier to say “I don’t know” so you can go on living how you want to.

2 Flaws in their Argument

God’s creation of the heavens and the earth

The very creation of the heavens and the earth proves that God intervenes in the world. That in fact, all things are “held together” by God’s Word. God spoke and everything came into being.

-The referral to waters reminds them of a time that the world was full of chaos and that God brought order to the chaos.

-The only reason everything is held together is because God holds it together. The only reason that sin hasn’t overwhelmed the world is because God is preparing for its final judgment.

-The waters also reflects evil, God “forming” the waters shows that God has power over evil.

Peter is arguing that when you ask the question, “how did everything come to exist” there is really only on good answer…it is God. If you ask any atheist how the universe was created they have to start with “something” being there at the beginning. Or that we just live in one of infinite universes that exist.

Tim Keller’s 5 clues that point to the existence of God in his book The Reason for God: Clue 1: The Mysterious Bang — Either God created the universe, or it “just happened” – and both require faith. Clue 2: The Cosmic Welcome Mat — If any of this universe’s constants were different, we would not be around to observe them. Saying we live in the one universe that life exists is like someone saying they got lucky getting 20 straight royal flushes in a row (or blackjack…or whatever) Clue 3: The Clue of Beauty — Our bodies hunger for food because it knows that it needs it. We find the Grand Canyon or a sunset beautiful because God made us to enjoy His creation.

The flood of Noah

This reminds us that just as God spoke and judgment came on the ungodly while He also saved the righteous, this will happen again. That God isn’t bound by the laws of nature.

In the same way, God will judge all things again by His Word. But this judgment is being prepared for the last days.

God will create again and God will judge again