The Willfully Ignorant Ignore God's Past Judgment
Notes
Transcript
PASTORAL PRAYER
PASTORAL PRAYER
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Read 2 Peter 3:1-7
Returning to our point of departure last week, we rejoin Peter in his defense of the faith against the uniformitarian view of the skeptic who denies the Second Coming of Jesus.
ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation (v. 5)
As we started exploring last week, this is a faulty premise on which to build our understanding.
These skeptics… The Willfully Ignorant… deniers of the assertions of the Word of God… Ignore God’s Creative Activity.
They ignore the fact that the Lord is the One who brought the heavens, earth, and all that is in them into existence… by the breath of His mouth (Psalm 33:6)
By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
There is no Big Bang cosmology
There is no deep time considerations
There is only the instantaneous, supernatural, miraculous Word of God that has brought all things into existence
Dr. Werner Gitt, who has written numerous scientific papers in the fields of information science, mathematics, and control engineering, wrote in his book Did God Use Evolution? concerning “The Origin Of The Universe”:
The earth possesses a large number of astronomical and physical peculiarities which make life on earth possible. In addition, the exact values of very many properties must fall inside very restricted bounds, all at the same time. The following prerequisites are exceedingly improbable in the light of the nebular hypothesis:
the correct distance between earth and sun
the elliptical orbit of the earth around the sun with its small eccentricity
the constant energy output of the sun
the correct rate of rotation of the earth
the optimum tilt angle between the axis of the earth and the ecliptic
the correct size and mass of the earth
the correct quantity of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of the earth
the correct quantity of oxygen in the atmosphere of the earth
the correct distance of the moon from the earth.
The fact of the matter here is that a hypothesis of origins based on the assumption that there is no Creator is riddled with too many “coincidences” and problems that it cannot account for.
Moving on to verse 6 of this text, we see that…
The Willfully Ignorant Ignore God’s Past Judgment
The Willfully Ignorant Ignore God’s Past Judgment
v. 6
As they continue in their assumption that all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation, skeptics are overlooking not just God’s creative activity, but they are also overlooking the fact of a year-long global flood in Noah’s day.
by means of these…
by means of these…
Peter is referencing the waters out of and through which the earth was formed.
The waters that the Spirit of God was hovering over at the beginning of creation (Genesis 1:2)
These same waters are what God used to bring judgment on the earth.
God’s revelation to Noah:
As for Me, behold I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth…
the world… was deluged… and perished…
the world… was deluged… and perished…
What is meant by the word “world”?
All That Exists
κόσμος - ordered universe
The landscape after the Flood looks very different from the landscape before the Flood
That’s the effect of floods!
Washed out roads; damaged/destroyed properties; erosion; sedimentation; etc.
People associated with a world system and estranged from God
Noah was a preacher of righteousness (2 Peter 2:5).
He was warning people to repent and escape from the judgment to come.
Things of the world
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.
You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
Satan is the ruler of this world
And you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all also formerly conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
It has always been the intent of Satan to prevent mankind from seeing the truth of the Word of God:
Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”
There has always been an attack on the Word of God, raising doubt and confusion about what is clearly stated.
Many Christians and churches have compromised on clear teachings of the Bible:
Did God really create all things in 6-days?
What about the billions of years that scientists talk about?
Homosexuality is not really all that bad, is it?
Many people have same-sex attraction, isn’t that just their nature?
Afterall, why would God give them those desires if they were “wrong”?
Are different genders really a problem?
I mean, God identifies as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit… that’s literally three-in-one… the original “they/them.”
Honestly, if God can be a burning bush, a dove, and a carpenter on a cross… we can handle a little gender diversity.
We are not unique in our experience of evil in the world.
The concept of total depravity is not as “new” of an idea as we think
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.
The world in the days of Noah is defined as being only evil continually.
It was this world that God decided needed to be judged…
The world of evil people, estranged from God and doing what is right in their own eyes
[not very different than our own]
That world perished…
perished - to destroy or to cause the destruction of persons, objects, or institution
Genesis 7:11, 21
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened… And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind.
God did not tolerate the rampant unrighteousness.
Genesis 6:3, 6–7
Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years… And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
God apparently put a timeline in place for when He would judge the world, and He provided a means of salvation from that judgment: an ark!
Some estimates claim that upwards of 2,000 people could have fit on the Ark, including the animals and food.
If that is so, it explains why Noah was a preacher of righteousness, he would have been begging people to repent and get on the Ark to be delivered from judgment.
How does this apply to the return of Jesus?
How does this apply to the return of Jesus?
Doubters of the Second Coming of Christ overlook the fact that things are not continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.
They overlook the fact that God supernaturally created the world and all that is in it.
It is not a result of slow processes over billions of years of time.
They also overlook the fact that God has judged the world with a global flood, which would have severely disrupted their uniformitarian observations.
The Flood is the only viable explanation for the geologic features we observe in the world today
It serves as a warning for us that God does indeed judge sin
And just as in the days of Noah, when God provided a means of salvation from the judgment in the form of an ark, He is providing a means of salvation from judgment of our sin in the form of His Son, Jesus Christ.
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
Read 1 Peter 3:18-22
The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent
Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
