False Teachers: A Warning

[0:00] Thank you.

[0:30] Please send your Bibles to 2 Peter. I think I can be pulled down a little bit. I sound at least loud to myself. 2 Peter chapter 2.

[0:45] We're continuing our sermon series in this short but very important letter of 2 Peter. And our attention this morning will be directed to verses 1 through 9.

[0:58] 2 Peter chapter 2 verses 1 through 9. Please follow along as I read.

[1:10] I'm reading from the English Standard Version. 2 Peter chapter 2.

[1:25] There will be false teachers among you. 2 Peter chapter 2.

[1:38] 3 Peter chapter 2. 4 Peter chapter 2. And many will follow their sensuality. 5 Peter chapter 2. And because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.

[1:52] 6 Peter chapter 2. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. 7 Peter chapter 2. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle. 8 Peter chapter 2. And their destruction is not asleep.

[2:05] 9 Peter chapter 2.

[2:35] 10 Peter chapter 2.

[3:05] And the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials. And to keep the righteous under punishment until the day of judgment.

[3:22] Let's pray. Father we are grateful this morning for your word we're grateful for the privilege we have to sit under it and Lord we ask that you would help us to hear as we ought and to apply your word to our lives as we ought I pray for your help and for your grace to enable me to be faithful to proclaim your word fully and clearly and that your word will be the impetus by which you will bring change in our lives and build up this church for your glory Father we pray that you would speak to our hearts now collectively and individually in ways that only you can we pray in the name of Jesus Amen a number of years ago when wigs and weaves were growing in prominence

[4:29] Alexia and I and Danielle we were at a particular function and there was a lady there whose hair was really eye-catching it was difficult not to stare at her hair it was full and it was somewhat long and it had this really attractive tint in it and she was doing the talk and I must say as I listened to her I really couldn't help but keep looking at her hair and I was wondering in my mind is that a weave or is that her natural hair and so when we got home a discussion ensued about this woman's hair and whether it was real or not and Alexia and Danielle were convinced it was a wig and I wasn't really so sure that it was and then I listened to the two of them talk about why they were sure it was a wig and I was even more confused by the reasons that they gave and

[5:31] I saw this lady a few other times after that and I still couldn't figure out whether this was a weave or her real hair and I've kind of given up now you just see them I was at a funeral yesterday saw many weaves and wigs and they were all around and different hair and I was behind sitting next to my wife with a natural hair and so I knew hers was not a weave but you just can't tell and I guess at the end of the day it really doesn't matter it doesn't matter whether it's real or not it's here it's it's real hair or false hair but it's here nonetheless but in this passage that we've just read the apostle Peter deals with something that is far more important than false hair he deals with false teachers and it is unimportant whether we know hair is false or not but it is very important for us to know whether a teacher is true or not in this section of the letter

[6:46] Peter is assuring his hearers of some realities that they were going to face he was saying to them false teachers are going to arise among you but God will judge them and God will rescue the righteous Peter is saying to them false teachers will arise but God will judge them and rescue the righteous Peter is showing his hearers of three realities number one the rise of false teachers number two the judgment of the wicked and number three the rescue of the righteous and in our remaining time this one day I want to consider each of these first of all the rise of false teachers notice in verse one that verse one begins with a conjunction but and that clues us then to the fact that Peter is connecting what he is now saying with what he just said and what Peter had said we considered this last week in verses 20 and 21 of 2nd Peter

[8:04] Peter is arguing for the authority and the validity of scripture the reliability of scripture and he is saying that the prophets who made the prophecies in the Old Testament he says they didn't speak of themselves they didn't speak from themselves they spoke from God they spoke as the spirit carried them along as the spirit enabled them to speak Peter says but even though there were true prophets there were false prophets among them as well so even though you have these true prophets who gave us the Old Testament scriptures as breathed out by God as inspired by the Holy Spirit Peter says in the midst of that there were the false as well and then he goes on to make the point he's saying and as there were false prophets among them there will be false teachers among you you're not exempt you're not exempt there will be false teachers among you in the same way that there were false prophets among the people of God and notice what he says that they will do

[9:18] Peter says in verse 1 that they will secretly bring in destructive heresies this is the way of false teachers false teachers they secretly bring in destructive heresies and Peter's point is is that it will not be immediately obvious when false teachers are introducing false teaching when they're bringing these heretical teachings he says they do it secretly it's not immediately obvious but over time their false teachings will grow and will become bolder as they gain the the confidence of those who they are misleading it will become bolder and Peter says they will even deny the master who bought them that they will actually get to the place where they will glaringly contradict the very word of

[10:25] God now this statement that they will deny the master who brought them has been the basis of much debate and there are some people who say that this statement is proof that a person who is saved can lose his or her salvation and really such a conclusion is not a valid conclusion from this text it is not a valid conclusion because it is saying about the text a point that Peter is not even attempting to make and would contradict what Peter said elsewhere all Peter is simply doing is he is calling these false teachers believers at face value based on a profession of faith that they would have made and based on their being in the church and this is what we do what we do in the church is we receive every person who makes a profession of faith in Christ they're part of the community but in time our professions of faith are going to be proven to be true or proven to be false and one of the ways it's proven to be false is when there is direct evidence in our lives that contradicts the profession of faith that we made in the past and it's at that point that we recognize that person really was not a true believer so these false teachers their denial of

[12:04] Christ is truth that they never belonged to Christ and that's all Peter is saying and we should read no more into what he's saying here but Peter promises this he says that they will experience swift destruction and now he's not saying that as soon as they start their false teaching they're going to be destroyed he's not saying that because if he's saying that there's really no need to be worried because we know that as soon as they bring the false teaching God is going to destroy them he's not saying that what he's saying is that the destruction that is coming to them when it comes it'll be swift it'll be certain and swift but the reason that Peter is warning them is that there's certainty that they're going to have time to spread these false teachings!

[12:54] and what Peter is going to do soon if he's going to say that God is going to judge and the reason he has to say that God is going to judge is because it seems like for the length of time they're allowed to falsely teach that maybe they're not going to be judged judged and Peter is assuring us yes they're going to be judged but the false teaching is not immediately obvious and these false teachers are not immediately judged in general now certainly God is able to swiftly judge in one particular situation what we're saying is as a general rule what we see is that God in his own providence and sovereignty gives them time gives them space gives them room to promote and propagate this false teaching but Peter says swift destruction is going to come upon them in verse two we get to the heart of

[13:55] Peter's main concern his concern for this letter as a whole what Peter says is that many will follow their sensuality and because of them he says that the way of the truth will be blasphemed I want you to notice that under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit the apostle Peter writes and he says many people will follow the sensuality of false teachers notice that many not few we talked about this in a previous sermon in this series at the end of the sermon on the mount in Matthew 7 Jesus says there are going to be many who will come to him on that day and say Lord Lord did we not do all these things in your name did we not did we not and he says I never knew you depart from me never knew you he says many and we saw earlier in that same ending portion of the sermon on the!

[15:04] Now again John tells us in the revelations that the number of people who will be saved is the number that cannot be numbered a mind boggling number of people John saw in heaven he says myriads upon myriads they cannot be numbered but relative to those who are lost that number is few and what Peter says Peter says many people are going to follow the sensuality of these false teachers the new international version instead of the word sensuality uses the word shameful ways and this word sensuality in the original language it is regularly translated to mean immorality sexual immorality it means making the grace of

[16:05] God as license license to do whatever you want to live however you want and to feel that there is no consequence as a result and this is what attracts people to these false teachers this idea that it doesn't matter how you live what matters more is your heart what matters more is your lips what you say not how you live and so Peter says many will follow their sensuality many will follow their sensuality and notice I not even follow them but be attracted to them because of this license that you get to do what ought not to be done to live in a way that we ought not to live Peter says many will follow them and what's the result of that he tells us the result he says that because of them the way of the truth will be blasphemed when they live these lifestyles that are contradicting the word of

[17:10] God and what believers are called to my barber plays games with the customers sometimes who may not know that I'm a pastor and he'll let them talk and lead them into all kinds of conversations and then when it gets into a sticky area he'll say he'll say he'll he'll say he'll say he'll be a bit!

[18:01] emboldened and they'll keep talking one occasion when a guy heard that I was the pastor he said man the blocks wanted to be a drug dealer so now everybody will be a pastor man because when you're a pastor man you have access to a lot of money you can live large you can drive fancy cars and think about that that is the truth being blasphemed that is the way of the truth being blasphemed and here's why it's being blasphemed when a minister of the gospel presents a picture to the world of a true minister of the gospel nobody wants to volunteer nobody wants that for him or herself but the picture of swimming in money and having people to serve you at your beck and call and to live like a prince or to live like a prime minister or live like a

[19:09] CEO of a big corporation that's being flaunted what happens many follow that many follow that because they desire for themselves and what happens is the way of truth the only way to lead to eternal life people say I have nothing to do with it the way of the truth is blasphemed because of the immoral lifestyle of false teachers and sadly when that happens is they they broad rush even the faithful ones of the Lord always remember this the principle that the Lord shared with Elijah when he said to him I have 7,000 when Elijah wanted to die he thought that there was no one else serving God but him he said God I'm the only one that's left and the Lord said to him I have 7,000 others who have not bowed their knees to Baal and the reason is not because there are 7,000 good people in and of themselves the reason is because

[20:15] God preserves to himself a remnant he preserves to himself the true and the genuine in the midst of the false but not only are these false teachers marked by sexual!

[20:29] immorality greed they're also marked by greed and what is in view here as financial or material greed look at what he says in verse 3 he says and in their greed they will exploit you with false words in their greed they will exploit you with false words and see greed can be hid such greed cannot be hid greed for material things or financial things it cannot be hid and so often times one of the things you see with these false teachers is they're always talking about money always trying to get money and then they're seeing their extravagant lifestyle sometimes it's not unusual to see them come and cry poor mouth and I need this and I need you to help me with this and then you see them waste money on themselves and on people who are near to them and

[21:34] Peter says greed is the motivation of these false teachers he says they exploit you through lying the word that Peter uses for false is the word where we get plastic from Peter says they give you plastic words it's like going to the store this leather store everything in the store man is 50% cheaper than you can get up from the other store up town and so you go there and you buy your items from the leather store and you get home and find out it's pleather not leather it's plastic and Peter says so these false teachers he says they will literally lie to you they will fabricate things they will in their greed exploit you with false words and you know one of the reasons that often times they get away with it because people are sincere and people are trusting and people generally fear

[22:46] God and they think you wouldn't get up there and tell a lie like that because you wouldn't do it we wouldn't do it because we fear God and you say they won't!

[22:56] get up and do that no Peter says no they will lie to you in their greed they will exploit you with false words and in our day the way it happens is they tell you the Lord dropped this into my spirit the Lord told me this I had this dream last night I had this vision last night and often times it's just blatant lies now it's not to say they're not true dreams and true visions it's not to say that God does not speak to the heart of people through prophecies not to say that at all as a matter of fact the counterfeit proves the real to have a counterfeit there must be a genuine that you have counterfeited it from but these are people who will literally tell lies in their greed to get what they want and so their prophecies and their stories are oftentimes connected to getting you to give money and what it is witchcraft manipulation it's nothing short of that and many people actually fall for this and you know sometimes

[24:15] I think I say to myself boy if everyone in the world was like me that person wouldn't even have a life or that business wouldn't exist or whatever and so we wonder how is it that these individuals are able to even have an audience how is it that there are people who even follow them and listen to them in that particular way back in July 2014 Calvary Deliverance Church a church on East Street many of you know the church was celebrating its 32nd anniversary as a church one of the key speakers they brought in is a man by the name of Jamal Bryant he pastors a church in Baltimore Maryland Jamal Bryant is a man who fathered five children with three different women and publicly acknowledged one of the children he fathered out of wedlock for the first time from the pulpit after the mother of the child took him to court for child support then the summer of 2007 rumors exploded in his church that he had gotten a 17 year old girl pregnant who was a part of the church the church leaders said to him okay you need to step down until we investigate it and await the paternity test results and

[25:54] Bryant's only response was this is a private matter and he refused to step down he continued to pass to the church and then after a five and a half year marriage his wife divorced him on the grounds of adultery which he acknowledged you can go online you can see the interview that he did with Roland Martin and he shares that whole thing just two months after that two months after Calvary Deliverance Church had Jamal Bryant to speak at their anniversary service he was the keynote speaker at Neil Ellis' Global United Fellowship Conference and more recently just in January the Church of God denomination the denomination I grew up in invited Jamal Bryant to be one of the conference speakers that they put on and since that time even more things have come out about this man more women at least one woman in particular accusing him of being the father of a child by

[27:10] DNA testing which he voluntarily participated in and when I saw that and if you drive on the East West Highway right at the corner of Robinson Road and the Marathon there's a big sign there advertising this meeting that was held at the Church of God I don't know why they don't take it down it's been since January it embarrasses me every time I pass by it why would leaders invite such a man to speak to God's people they cannot plead ignorance as a matter of fact if they plead ignorance they should resign from their positions because it shows they are reckless and careless and don't even do the slightest bit of investigation what can he tell God's people he has one thing going for him he is a master orator and he can raise a lot of money and he can draw a crowd and so he is brought and leashed on

[28:19] God's people and so we have to ask the question why does a sexually immoral man like Jamal Bryant have a church of 10,000 people who can read passages like we are reading and it doesn't occur to them this man is a false teacher why is it that such a sexually moral man is in such great demand that some pastors feel of all the individuals they could bring that they must bring him to speak at their churches and their conferences when he clearly does not fit the biblical qualifications to serve as an elder and the simple reason is this they are ignoring the warning against false teachers brothers and sisters Peter made the decision he said this is so important he said

[29:19] I see death in front of me and I want to use the remainder of my waking days the days that God has given to me I want to remind you of these things I want to warn you of these things and we are arrogant when we ignore it we are arrogant when we say it's okay we don't need to have that warning if you see one or more of these four marks on a leader who claims to speak for Christ run from him Peter gives them to us right here the first their teachings contradict the word of God the teachings contradict the word of God what this means is we must know the word of God this means that we must read our Bibles and we must not be afraid to question things we hear that are not consistent with what we have seen in the

[30:21] Bible whether it is apparent or it's just actual outright contradiction how did you come up with that first mark their teachings contradict God's word the second they lead immoral lives don't ignore blaring immorality don't ignore persistent rumors about immorality now I'm not saying that we latch onto every rumor that we hear but if you hear a persistent rumor about an individual without necessarily drawing a conclusion it should cause your antenna to go up and to be more alert and more observant to see whether there's some truth to that particular rumor and I would add this in my case if it is a rumor about me you approach me ask me

[31:24] I heard this somebody said this is this true the third they are financially greedy or materialistic they teach and preach a prosperity health wealth gospel extravagant lifestyle listen there's nothing wrong with an extravagant lifestyle if that's your money but you don't do that living off offerings you don't do that when people sacrifice to give and then you live like you run a corporation a fortune 500 corporation driving around in jets and staying in five star hotels you see they're marked by financial greed and opulence and extravagance recognized as one of the marks of a false teacher and then this is the fourth one they tell stories that can't be proven see this is one of the tricks of the trade because the easiest thing to do to mislead people is to stay away from the

[32:40] Bible of grace if you stay away from the Bible then really you don't have an objective way to prove that unless it outrightly contradicts the word of God but when somebody comes and says you know I had this out of body experience and I've heard some share this and Jesus came to me and Jesus spoke to me and let me walk down and they go on and on with these stories you really can't go and say well you know that contradicts a particular passage but beware of those who tell these stories that can be proven some dreams some vision some prophecy and even these vague prophecies I heard someone the other day talking about our elections our elections or even the US elections for example when you have two particular outcomes I mean largely in our elections it was going to be the Ephraim or the PLP that's a 50-50 guess

[33:42] I mean if you say the Ephraim is going to win and the Ephraim wins that don't make you a profit that don't make you a because it's 50-50 but there are some people who will come and say see he predicted that right but let's not be moved by that these are marks of false teachers they will lie to you to exploit you I want to ask you this morning how seriously do you take these marks that we are given in scripture these warnings about those who claim to be God's servants are you ignoring them or excusing them just for personal reasons the way some people relate to false teachers remind me of how some people relate to pitbulls listen I will not own a pitbull if you own a pitbull don't be offended by what

[34:48] I'm going to say if I had my way I'd ban them all but I watch people relating to pitbulls and I'm thinking you've read of these stories where pitbulls have attacked their owners and somehow they're thinking nothing happened to me and I don't understand their thinking I don't understand their thinking and so some who calls the false teachers and watch them on TV and buy their books what they're basically saying is that pitbull isn't going to attack me that's my pitbull I understand that if he says something that I don't like that I know is wrong I just don't listen to that but he says some good things and that is false teachers operate not every single thing the false teacher says is false he's going to use some bait to get people to come but we must take these warnings seriously God warns us because we need to be warned

[35:51] Now though false teachers will arise Peter tells us God's judgment will fall this brings to my second point the judgment of the wicked notice what Peter says in the second sentence of verse 3 he says their condemnation from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep here Peter is reminding us of the sovereignty of God over the deeds of false teachers that he has already determined their judgment it is not idle and it is not asleep the implication is they will be allowed to continue giving the impression that their judgment is not idle or asleep or that their judgment is idle or asleep sorry Peter says no it's not idle it's not asleep and Peter then goes on to give us three examples of

[36:54] God's judgment and the reason he does this is to give proof what he's doing is he's making a case he's saying listen don't listen to them saying that the Lord is not coming back because coupled with the Lord not coming back is them not being judged he says he will come back he will judge God has judged!

[37:18] And God will judge and he gives! three examples to show the serious judgments of God and it's amazing to me how people would acknowledge these judgments that God brought and they would say things like a loving God wouldn't send you to hell a loving God wouldn't do that Peter gives us three notable examples of past judgments!

[37:47] of God the first is the judgment of the evil angels the second is the judgment of the ancient world and the third is the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah now concerning these angels it's quite interesting that Peter's point in this passage is to assure us that since God has judged the wicked he will judge the wicked but often times people can get distracted about what Peter says in verse one when he says for if sorry in verse four if God did not spare angels when they sin but were cast into hell and committed into chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment there's speculation about who these angels were some say these were the angels in Genesis 6 that talks about the sons of men going with the daughters of the sons of

[38:48] God going with the daughters of men and having children and the reason he doesn't tell us specifically is we don't need to know but what we do need to know is that God didn't spare these angels these were angels God judged them and Peter tells us that they were cast down and they were they were cast to hell and if you have a

[39:55] Bible like mine the ESV you would see a footnote to the word hell footnote 10 and then the footnote itself actually says the Greek word is the word tartarus and tartarus in Greek mythology is the place where the spirits of the wicked went for punishment after death and so clearly Peter is using what would have been popularly understood in that day he doesn't use the typical word that is used to talk about the hell of judgment which is Gehenna he uses this word tartarus and the point really is that the judgment isn't a final judgment it's a judgment but not a final judgment because it's more like a holding judgment it's kind of like how young men when they got charged with crimes or women as well they put them on remand they haven't been finally judged yet but they are remand awaiting that final trial so these angels are kind of like on remand they're restricted using as the first example that

[41:33] God has judged to say that God will judge he says he didn't spare angels so we can also say he will not spare the false teachers they will also be judged the second example he gives is in verse five talks about the ancient world a reference to the flood recorded in Genesis 6 through 8 and here the judgment was universal and only eight persons were spared in this account we see Peter telling us that Noah was a preacher of righteousness something that we don't get from the actual account in Genesis 6 through 8 but remember Peter is writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and Peter is speaking truth so we know that Noah was a preacher of righteousness and so the implication is that for the 50 to 75 years or so!

[42:30] Noah was preaching to those around him he was preaching and calling them to repentance and we see in this God's long suffering and we see God's mercy on the one hand God is preparing for judgment on the other hand God is holding out a message of repentance to those who will be judged if they don't repent and then the third one Peter references Sodom and Gomorrah in verse 6 he tells us that God's judgment of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are an example of what's going to happen to the ungodly and what's going to happen to the ungodly they're going to be judged the same way Sodom and Gomorrah was judged the ungodly will be judged just another sidebar an important sidebar though this is one of the scriptures that seventh adventists use to make a case for what they call annihilation seventh adventists teach that hell is not eternal that lost people will be annihilated or they'll be extinguished at some point and the punishment is not eternal which doesn't make sense for any number of reasons but one I will mention in

[43:57] Matthew chapter 25 the very final verse in Matthew 25 it talks about the righteous going to eternal life and the wicked going to eternal punishment the very same word that describes the life eternal is the same word that describes the punishment eternal you cannot have eternal life that's truly eternal same word and is not eternal that's like saying yellow over there and saying it's yellow and then when you get over here you say it's beige or something it's the same thing it's eternal in both cases or it's not eternal in either case but my point though on this is that what the Adventists are doing in this particular point it's like misrepresenting the words of someone it's like being in a conversation with someone talking about the weather and someone goes and they take something that you said talking about the weather and they go over here and they use it to make a case about war or something something that's totally unrelated to what you are talking about

[45:22] Peter is not making a point to say to the wicked you're not going to be punished eternally that's not the point Peter is making here as a matter of fact Peter is not even talking about the people in Sodom who were destroyed who were judged and extinguished or they were put into extinction he's talking about the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah those cities were no more they were just sulfurized and nothing could grow there and so nobody could live there and the cities were just bare and desolate his point is not you're going to be punished and then extinguished his point is God is going to judge the same way he judged Sodom and Gomorrah and obviously that wickedness had gone on for a long time God's judgment is going to fall that's the point that Peter makes brothers and sisters God is no respecter of persons he didn't spare angels he didn't spare the ancient world he didn't spare

[46:28] Sodom and Gomorrah and therefore God will not spare the wicked in the future judgment past judgment is proof of future judgment and so we need to really consider whether we really believe that there is a day there is a great reckoning day where God himself will judge the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ and he will reward the righteous and he will punish the wicked and if we don't believe that we are standing with the false teachers we are standing with those in Peter's day who are saying where is the coming back things remain as they always have been but if we ignore the very plain words that we are reading in scripture we ignore them to peril but not only does Peter tell us that false prophets will arise and that

[47:33] God's judgment will fall so then finally he tells us God's people will be rescued God's people will be rescued so let's consider finally the rescue of God's people and this will be brief Peter tells us that God will preserve his people from the trials they face and he will rescue them from his judgment it's a wonderful promise that he makes understand that the people to whom Peter was writing the true saints the true believers who were under threat by these false prophets Peter is assuring them God knows how to preserve!

[48:20] his people and rescue them from trials now again this doesn't mean that we won't face trials it doesn't mean that God is going to evacuate us out of every trial that comes our way two examples of Noah and Lot is proof of that he didn't do that for them could you imagine what it would have been like for Noah to be the only righteous family at that time in the whole earth him and his seven member family imagine the kind of pressure he must have lived under the Bible says that the violence that existed at that time the conduct of men that existed at that time caused God to say I'm going to destroy it all God kept Noah and his family Noah and his family didn't go the way of the rest of the world not because they were good and better than the rest of people

[49:21] God the Bible says that Noah found grace Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord Noah found something he didn't deserve he didn't he didn't merit if God dealt with Noah and his family based on what they merited he would have destroyed the whole earth but he gave Noah and his family grace they all deserve to die because none of them fully pleased the Lord God rescued Noah and his family and God also rescued Lot Lot found tremendous grace tremendous grace in verse 7 it says that Lot was greatly distressed by the sensual conduct and we know that sensual conduct was homosexuality rampant open homosexuality unbridled lust for the same sex and says his heart was tormented as he saw and heard their lawless deeds and God preserved him

[50:29] God kept him again not because Lot was righteous I think if we look at Lot's life we could see in many ways Lot was very selfish Lot was short sighted the Bible says after he inconsiderately chose land more preferable over his his uncle he pitched his tent towards Sodom showing a lack of discernment he pitched his tent in that direction but God was merciful to him and God preserved him in the midst of very difficult circumstances Peter's encouragement to the righteous in his day should be an encouragement to us as well some of us may be the only believer in our families may live in a house with unbelievers some may be the only believer on a job or you may work in a very hostile environment where you like

[51:33] Lot have your soul tormented by the things you hear and the things that you see and there's a vexation of soul that takes place we have different circumstances and some of us experience this more than others and God's encouragement God's promise to you is this I know how to deliver the righteous out of trials again not evacuation but I know how to keep them I know I know their frame I know what they can bear I know what they can tolerate to the last degree God knows and so wherever we find ourselves whatever setting we find ourselves trusted is God's lot for us that his boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places for us and God will preserve his own in the midst of the trials one of the things that should encourage us to be aware of is yes we do have to seek to follow the Lord as best we can wherever he places us but ultimately we will overcome not because of our own strength we will overcome because of a God who knows how to rescue the righteous out of trials ensuring that they will not overwhelm them they will not overcome them there's a very sober warning that Peter gives in verse 9 first he gives the comfort to those who belong to the Lord when he says then the

[53:13] Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials the other part of that is and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment this is not like going to central police station and you just you know disappear and can't find no he says God knows how to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment and then we'll see next week that he he actually says especially a particular group of people brothers and sisters this is a wonderful promise but let me say this as I close in the end if we would all be honest as much as we seek to serve the Lord as much as we walk in the way of righteousness and renounce the way of wickedness our standing before God will still not be perfect will not be perfect and we should dread the thought that we have to finish this life and stand before a perfect holy God who sees all and who knows all and be judged based in our own merits that should frighten us all if we're honest with the reality that we're not perfect and that we fall short that even when we desire many times to do what is right by

[55:07] God we fall short the thought of that should cause us to shudder but the good news this morning is that's not the way we're going to stand before the judgment those of us who have put our trust in Jesus Christ what will preserve us on that day from being judged by God with the wicked is the righteousness of Christ his merits are not ours because we have no merits we are able to be rescued from the judgment of God because Jesus was not rescued on the cross the judgment of God fell on Jesus Jesus was our substitute Jesus took our place Jesus bore our sins Jesus took our punishment and that's the only reason those of us who have put our trust in Jesus Christ on that final day will stand before God and not be judged because we have been judged in

[56:11] Jesus Christ the judgment that we deserved was poured out upon him the Lord knows how to rescue the righteous and he does it through Jesus Christ that's great Father thank you for reminding us this morning that false prophets will arise that your judgment will fall and that the righteous will be rescued Lord help us to remember that we will be rescued not because of our own merits but we will be rescued and not judged because Christ was judged for us Lord will you help us to remember these truths in

[57:15] Jesus name Amen let's stand together for our closing song up