WEBVTT 00:00:00.760 --> 00:00:04.480 Good evening. My name's Archie. If you don't know me, I'm the pastor in training here. 00:00:05.080 --> 00:00:10.439 Whoa, what a passage. Do get it open in front of you. It'd be really useful for me and for 00:00:10.439 --> 00:00:17.339 you to have that open in front of you. The first time I remember feeling it, something 00:00:17.339 --> 00:00:22.839 we all feel, probably every day we feel it. I wonder if you feel like this. I must have 00:00:22.839 --> 00:00:28.379 been eight years old. I'd amassed a really good collection of Pokemon cards. Pokemon 00:00:28.379 --> 00:00:32.299 cards. It was the game in the playground, right? If you don't know what Pokemon is, it's a little 00:00:32.299 --> 00:00:37.379 bit like Top Trump's, but a bit more complicated. Some of my cards I'd saved up and bought from the 00:00:37.379 --> 00:00:44.480 local shop. Some I'd won fair and square in the playground. But some of my collection, I'm ashamed 00:00:44.480 --> 00:00:50.960 to say, was definitely ill-gotten, right? Pinched out of the pencil case on the next door desk. 00:00:50.960 --> 00:00:58.960 One by cheating in the playground sometimes. And when my mum found out about my dishonest 00:00:58.960 --> 00:01:05.240 enterprise, she took my cards. She grabbed me by the scruff of the neck. She marched me into the 00:01:05.240 --> 00:01:11.659 woods. And then right in front of my eyes, she burned my entire collection. From a hundred yards 00:01:11.659 --> 00:01:19.939 away, apparently, my sister could hear the screams, it's not fair. The injustice I felt as a stupid little 00:01:19.939 --> 00:01:24.399 eight-year-old. It was just so unfair. Apparently, that became a bit of a regular refrain for me. 00:01:24.879 --> 00:01:28.879 That's not fair. I actually asked my sister if she could remember a time when I said something like 00:01:28.879 --> 00:01:35.719 that. Which time, she responded. That happened about 10 times a day. I asked my mum something similar. 00:01:36.500 --> 00:01:45.239 What did I think was particularly unfair growing up? Her answer, life. And it's true, isn't it? Sometimes 00:01:45.239 --> 00:01:50.039 our sense of injustice is slightly ridiculous like that, and maybe even wrong. I'm sure in hindsight, 00:01:50.199 --> 00:01:56.379 my mum was probably quite wise to get rid of all my Pokemon cards. But it's true, isn't it? We all feel it. 00:01:57.479 --> 00:02:03.219 The world we live in is just full of injustice. How can you not feel that? 00:02:04.759 --> 00:02:07.979 Right? If you ever watch the news, look around the world today. 00:02:07.980 --> 00:02:17.420 Russia, Russia preying on Ukraine. Human trafficking, maybe even increasing as a result of that conflict. 00:02:18.159 --> 00:02:22.060 The clothes that most of us in this room are wearing, made in sweatshops. 00:02:23.580 --> 00:02:27.900 The wealth and income inequality, even in this country and this city. 00:02:29.180 --> 00:02:32.960 Gender discrimination all over the globe. The cost of living crisis. 00:02:34.020 --> 00:02:37.540 There's just an overwhelming amount of injustice in this world, isn't there? 00:02:37.979 --> 00:02:44.219 And there's something especially jarring about this, when a person or a group, when they 00:02:44.219 --> 00:02:51.120 cause injustice and they claim to do that in the name of Jesus. I'm sure we've come across that. 00:02:51.199 --> 00:02:55.719 Let me give you an example. Actually, I was told this story just earlier this week. A friend of mine, 00:02:56.519 --> 00:03:01.699 her aging grandmother, she's got a very old grandmother, and her grandmother just loves watching 00:03:01.699 --> 00:03:06.859 preachers on TV and listening to them on the radio. You know, the sort of preacher. Bible in hand. 00:03:06.860 --> 00:03:12.720 And they calmly urge their viewers to donate. Often very specific amounts of money. Don't delay. 00:03:13.540 --> 00:03:17.400 Invest in God's kingdom and your investment will be multiplied to you. 00:03:18.840 --> 00:03:24.220 And this friend of mine's poor, well-meaning grandmother, starting to suffer from signs of 00:03:24.220 --> 00:03:31.160 dementia, desperate to provide for her family's future, has given crazy money to these greedy 00:03:31.159 --> 00:03:38.719 preachers on TV. When I hear stories like that, everything inside of me, and I trust everything 00:03:38.719 --> 00:03:44.400 inside of you, is calling out to God for justice, isn't it? I mean, how are these men and women 00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:50.419 exploiting people, using Jesus's name, praying on the vulnerable, ruining lives? How are they allowed 00:03:50.419 --> 00:03:59.400 to get away with it? And what are you and I supposed to do about it? Well, that's the thrust of our 00:03:59.400 --> 00:04:04.860 passage this evening. What do we do with all this injustice? And maybe in particular, the injustice 00:04:04.860 --> 00:04:12.500 caused by false teachers in the church. We'll begin in verses 1 to 3, where Peter says to his readers, 00:04:13.200 --> 00:04:20.639 false teachers will come. And then in verses 4 to the start of verse 10, where Peter reassures them, 00:04:21.160 --> 00:04:29.120 justice will come. And as we do that, we're going to be driving towards this verse, verse 9. It's a key 00:04:29.120 --> 00:04:33.060 verse for us this evening. Have a look at verse 9. It's on the screen. Look at it in the text. 00:04:33.560 --> 00:04:41.980 The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteousness for punishment on 00:04:41.980 --> 00:04:50.519 the day of judgment. Do you see what Peter's saying? Essentially, this is where we're going. God has made a way 00:04:50.519 --> 00:05:00.680 to bring justice and to rescue his people. So let's dive into our first point. False teachers will come. 00:05:01.500 --> 00:05:08.039 See how our passage starts in verse 1? Look down with me. But there were false prophets among the people. 00:05:08.259 --> 00:05:13.199 Now, I don't think that you'll be able to understand that without chapter 1. I mean, what does the but refer 00:05:13.199 --> 00:05:18.899 to? Before I explain that, though, just a quick note to say, this letter wasn't really written to be read 00:05:18.899 --> 00:05:23.379 and digested in chunks like this, as we're doing through this series. It's good to do that. There's 00:05:23.379 --> 00:05:28.639 nothing wrong with doing that. But it was supposed to be read or listened to in one go. And you know, 00:05:28.679 --> 00:05:33.379 it actually only takes about 10 minutes to do that. On the Bible app, if you press play on whatever 00:05:33.379 --> 00:05:38.279 translation you've got, it'll take about 10 minutes to listen to it. Why not try and do that a couple of 00:05:38.279 --> 00:05:43.539 times this week? Maybe 10 minutes on the bus, listen to it as you walk to work or do the dishes. It's a 00:05:43.540 --> 00:05:48.400 really good thing to digest a letter like this in one go as it was written to be digested. 00:05:49.620 --> 00:05:55.340 Our Pete, Pete Irvin, preaching last week in the second half of chapter 1, he said this, 00:05:55.879 --> 00:06:04.040 remember, we can trust God's word. Jesus will return in power. Right? Have a look at verses 19 to 21 of 00:06:04.040 --> 00:06:10.800 chapter 1. Just scan your eyes over those. Peter, the apostle Peter writing this letter, 00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:16.660 he's writing there about the Old Testament prophets. And he's saying that because the Holy 00:06:16.660 --> 00:06:22.160 Spirit was speaking through them, and because God's promises through them have been and are being 00:06:22.160 --> 00:06:29.360 fulfilled, we can trust what they said. So we can trust that Jesus will return to rule and reign in 00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:39.740 justice. But as the apostle Peter begins chapter 2 saying, there were also false prophets among the 00:06:39.740 --> 00:06:46.180 people. It's as if to caveat and clarify, the Holy Spirit wasn't speaking through just anyone just 00:06:46.180 --> 00:06:51.420 because they called themselves a prophet. There are lots of examples in the Old Testament of false 00:06:51.420 --> 00:06:59.900 prophets setting themselves up against the prophets of God. And so Peter says, continuing in verse 1, 00:06:59.960 --> 00:07:08.000 it should be no surprise that there are false prophets in his day too. Peter's warning about the false 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:13.560 prophets that are going to be teaching amongst them. And so what are the marks of that teaching in this 00:07:13.560 --> 00:07:20.180 text? Well, two things, I think. It's the things that they teach, and it's the lives that they live. 00:07:21.199 --> 00:07:27.920 The things that they teach, still in verse 1, see, they secretly introduce destructive heresy. 00:07:29.459 --> 00:07:33.759 Just think about how different that is to the apostle's witness that we saw in chapter 1. 00:07:33.759 --> 00:07:40.839 And just there, the apostle's teaching was rooted in eyewitness testimony of Jesus's life-giving glory. 00:07:40.959 --> 00:07:47.240 It was anything but secret. Their teaching was well known, and it was the truth. It wasn't a new 00:07:47.240 --> 00:07:53.259 introduction. It was simply a reminder of the gospel, and it was in absolute continuity with God's 00:07:53.259 --> 00:08:00.420 Old Testament prophets. These false teachers, on the other hand, what they teach is secret. It's new, 00:08:00.420 --> 00:08:07.140 introduced, destructive, and it's divisive. That's really just what heresy means. It couldn't be more 00:08:07.140 --> 00:08:13.560 different at its roots. And what does this teaching lead to? Keep reading with me. 00:08:15.040 --> 00:08:21.439 They will even deny the sovereign Lord who bought them. In other words, their teaching is so wayward, 00:08:21.439 --> 00:08:31.019 it is so false that it's actually a departure from saving faith in Jesus. Secret, new, destructive, 00:08:31.399 --> 00:08:37.500 and divisive. This is the things that they teach. And friends, I think it's probably fair to say that 00:08:37.500 --> 00:08:43.620 the same is true today. Right? False teaching can take many forms. We'll have a chance to discuss some 00:08:43.620 --> 00:08:49.980 of those later on. But most common, I think, probably in our country and in our city today, I think, 00:08:49.980 --> 00:08:56.360 maybe just to fuel your conversations later, is a teaching that basically says that the Christian 00:08:56.360 --> 00:09:07.800 life is always an easier life. That faith equals comfort, healing, happiness. Doesn't sound so bad, 00:09:07.899 --> 00:09:14.519 that, does it? Like, it doesn't sound like that bad of a false teaching. But friends, it's so destructive. 00:09:14.519 --> 00:09:22.360 Because when the follower of that teaching finds the Christian life as it is to be a difficult life, 00:09:22.419 --> 00:09:31.199 a good life marked by hope, but difficult, in that disappointment, how many walk away? 00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:40.299 Generally speaking today, false teaching, it's not changed. Whatever it is, the things that they teach 00:09:40.299 --> 00:09:46.139 are secret, right? They require some kind of special access or knowledge or insight, maybe from a 00:09:46.139 --> 00:09:52.699 particular leader. Their new introductions probably requiring something additional, something more 00:09:52.699 --> 00:09:59.719 than Jesus to be really Christian. They're destructive because they ultimately lead people away from life-giving 00:09:59.719 --> 00:10:05.359 faith in Jesus. And they're divisive because they cause people to walk away from his church. 00:10:05.360 --> 00:10:15.519 It hasn't changed. But notice also the lives that these teachers live. In verse 2, 00:10:16.460 --> 00:10:21.680 many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 00:10:22.560 --> 00:10:28.120 That phrase, depraved conduct, is really more specific than that. It's sexual immorality, 00:10:28.120 --> 00:10:38.840 indulging their sexual desires however they please. And so even when what they preach looks something like 00:10:38.840 --> 00:10:47.279 the way of truth, what they teach by the lives that they live, by example, is contrary to the gospel. 00:10:48.560 --> 00:10:55.060 And it ruins the reputation of the Christian community and its message. It's the lives that they live. 00:10:55.059 --> 00:11:02.719 In verse 3, not just marked by sexual immorality, but in verse 3, in their greed, these teachers will 00:11:02.719 --> 00:11:09.000 exploit you. In other words, those things that they teach, secret, new, destructive, and divisive, 00:11:09.119 --> 00:11:15.000 they wanted to teach like that because it fed their greed. It manipulated and exploited its hearers. 00:11:16.479 --> 00:11:22.079 The lives they lived marked by material greed. So we see the lives that these false teachers live 00:11:22.080 --> 00:11:28.660 marked by two things, right? Sexual immorality and material greed. And maybe that sounds really very 00:11:28.660 --> 00:11:37.160 specific. But again, I think that this is often true today. Sometimes today's false teaching actually 00:11:37.160 --> 00:11:45.740 explicitly encouraging people to live these sorts of lives. Denying what the Bible says about sexual 00:11:45.740 --> 00:11:52.879 ethics, moving the goalposts of what sexual morality is, encouraging people to indulge whatever their 00:11:52.879 --> 00:12:00.779 desires. And it also often promises some sort of material gain. Like the example we used at the start, 00:12:00.840 --> 00:12:05.779 that's actually really quite common. If you give X amount for God's purposes, he will multiply it back 00:12:05.779 --> 00:12:13.080 to you. So sometimes false teaching does explicitly teach those things. But whatever the false teaching 00:12:13.080 --> 00:12:20.100 might look like, I think we've also seen this to be true. Even if it's not explicit in the teaching 00:12:20.100 --> 00:12:26.200 itself, very often it's evident in the lives of those teaching it. There are countless examples of 00:12:26.200 --> 00:12:32.580 that, aren't there? Where teachers' lives are marked by sexual immorality or material greed. And their lives, 00:12:32.639 --> 00:12:39.220 when it all spills out, as it spills out as an example, their lives do just as much teaching as their 00:12:39.220 --> 00:12:44.920 words ever did. And as they do that, members of their churches are led away from Jesus. 00:12:45.940 --> 00:12:54.440 Out of the door, their faith is destroyed. It's tragic. But here's the thing. How are we supposed to know? 00:12:55.980 --> 00:13:01.360 Right? All the books that we read and blogs and online sermons and seminars and podcasts and YouTube 00:13:01.360 --> 00:13:08.060 videos and TikToks and Instagram reels. There's loads of good stuff out there. And it's great to learn. 00:13:09.080 --> 00:13:12.860 But it's just so difficult in the world that we live in, with all the information that there is, 00:13:12.899 --> 00:13:18.639 how are we supposed to know? And we don't just want to mindlessly bash all the teaching that we 00:13:18.639 --> 00:13:25.519 get in order to work out whether it's false. And actually, I just don't think that we should be 00:13:25.519 --> 00:13:31.480 consuming the majority of our soul food, forming the way that we think about Jesus, primarily from 00:13:31.480 --> 00:13:37.860 people that we don't know. It's why I love the church. It's one of the reasons that the church is 00:13:37.860 --> 00:13:43.860 so important. Our primary input should be from the elders of the church in which we are members, 00:13:44.939 --> 00:13:51.199 in a place where we are known and loved, where we trust that our leaders are prepared to ask each 00:13:51.200 --> 00:13:56.420 other tough questions and hold each other accountable, where we know that they're helping 00:13:56.420 --> 00:14:01.480 each other avoid these things, sexual sin and material greed, where we see evidence of that, 00:14:01.820 --> 00:14:08.940 of that ministry to each other in their lives. And so I've been slightly dreading saying this all week, 00:14:08.940 --> 00:14:18.100 but to the elders in the room, just specifically to you, a plea from us, the members of this church, 00:14:18.100 --> 00:14:26.480 be brave enough to challenge each other. I don't think it's unfair to say that your potential to 00:14:26.480 --> 00:14:32.120 fall into sexual sin and material greed is the greatest threat to our mission and witness as a 00:14:32.120 --> 00:14:37.100 church. It has the potential to lead our people out of the door of this church, never to return, 00:14:37.220 --> 00:14:43.519 destroying their faith. What are you doing about it? Will you hold each other accountable? 00:14:43.519 --> 00:14:51.500 Peter says, these are the things that mark them out. Their teaching pattern is secret, new, destructive 00:14:51.500 --> 00:14:59.579 and divisive, and their lives are marked by sexual immorality and material greed. False teachers will 00:14:59.579 --> 00:15:06.559 come. And I don't know about you, but all of this, it just makes me really angry. Right? Some of it I'm 00:15:06.559 --> 00:15:12.299 sure is unintentional, but there's just so much clearly willful, intentional exploitation of God's 00:15:12.299 --> 00:15:18.779 vulnerable people. And everything inside of me is calling out to God for justice, for God to do 00:15:18.779 --> 00:15:24.219 something about it. We live in this world that's just full of injustice. Why will our God not act? 00:15:26.240 --> 00:15:36.519 Well, Peter says, justice will come. Remember verse nine, key verse for us. God has made a way to 00:15:36.519 --> 00:15:44.840 bring justice and to rescue his people. See the second half of verse three for these false teachers 00:15:44.840 --> 00:15:51.399 in particular. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them and their destruction has not 00:15:51.399 --> 00:16:00.059 been sleeping. In other words, God sees the injustice of this and he intends on doing something about it. 00:16:00.059 --> 00:16:08.859 Indeed, in a sense, he already is. Justice is coming. Peter then uses three examples of God's justice from 00:16:08.859 --> 00:16:17.759 Genesis, the angels, Noah and Lot. We're going to unpack each of those, but first just see how they work. 00:16:17.859 --> 00:16:22.559 The logic of these verses, look at the text. This won't make sense unless you're looking at the text. 00:16:23.019 --> 00:16:26.679 Beginning in verse four, you see the first two words of verse four. 00:16:26.679 --> 00:16:36.620 For if, then each verse repeats the word if, and then verse nine, if this is so then. 00:16:38.059 --> 00:16:43.979 And so each of these examples is pointing to verse nine. It's where the passage is driving. 00:16:44.319 --> 00:16:52.319 They're all there to convince us that God has made a way to bring justice and that he is going to 00:16:52.320 --> 00:16:57.500 rescue his people. That's the logic of these verses. Let's begin in verse four with the angels. 00:16:59.160 --> 00:17:05.420 God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness 00:17:05.420 --> 00:17:11.860 to be held for judgment. Now, there are lots of things that we could say about that verse. There's 00:17:11.860 --> 00:17:17.620 plenty of speculation available. The truth is, we just don't really know exactly what Peter is talking 00:17:17.619 --> 00:17:22.199 about, and that's okay. What we do know just from a plain reading of this verse, right? Angels, 00:17:22.779 --> 00:17:28.579 spiritual beings, have rebelled against God. They've sinned, right? That's in the verse. 00:17:28.839 --> 00:17:32.979 They are in hell, again, in the verse, though that's actually quite an unhelpful translation, 00:17:33.179 --> 00:17:38.379 given all the popular baggage associated with that word. The word used here describes a place in 00:17:38.379 --> 00:17:43.139 Greek mythology, actually, where demigods are sent when they've done bad things. 00:17:43.140 --> 00:17:49.080 I think all that Peter is trying to say there is that God has put these sinful angels, these angels 00:17:49.080 --> 00:17:54.259 that have rebelled against him, he's put them in a place that belongs to him. He's chained them up. 00:17:54.460 --> 00:18:01.060 They have no power anymore. They are under his control, and they're there waiting judgment for 00:18:01.060 --> 00:18:09.000 their rebellion. That's the angels. Justice is coming for them. Next is the Noah story, probably more 00:18:09.000 --> 00:18:15.460 familiar. In verse 5, if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its 00:18:15.460 --> 00:18:21.380 ungodly people, right? We know this story. Sin rages across the face of the earth, people everywhere 00:18:21.380 --> 00:18:28.279 increasingly rebelling against God. In Genesis 6, it's put like this, the Lord saw how great the 00:18:28.279 --> 00:18:33.019 wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts 00:18:33.019 --> 00:18:40.879 of the human heart was only evil all the time. It's a pretty damning condemnation of what the world 00:18:40.879 --> 00:18:50.619 had become. But by God's grace, Noah is found to be a righteous man. And when God tells Noah of his 00:18:50.619 --> 00:18:58.759 coming justice, when he warns him about the flood, Noah trusts God, and he builds a big boat. And so, 00:18:58.759 --> 00:19:07.220 in verse 4 of 2 Peter, God protected Noah. Just notice how this works, right? By God's grace, Noah is 00:19:07.220 --> 00:19:13.920 warned about what is coming, and is provided with everything that he needs to sail through that 00:19:13.920 --> 00:19:21.700 judgment and out the other side. And all those who go with him are also kept safe. Just last weekend, a 00:19:21.700 --> 00:19:27.220 friend of mine asked me a pretty tricky question. I think it's worth dealing with here. Maybe you've had 00:19:27.220 --> 00:19:30.900 people ask you this question. Maybe if you're honest, this is a question that you have yourself. 00:19:31.259 --> 00:19:39.660 Here's the question. How can you say that I'm going to hell, but that God could send a murderer to heaven? 00:19:41.579 --> 00:19:48.440 It's a good question, that, isn't it? At the time, I definitely didn't do that question justice. In fact, 00:19:48.500 --> 00:19:55.559 I kind of dodged it. But this week, reflecting on the story of Noah, where the entire ancient world 00:19:55.559 --> 00:20:01.919 faced justice, I think we probably have to say that that probably included murderers, 00:20:02.019 --> 00:20:07.879 but it also probably included some pretty normal people like you and me. Not perfect people, but not 00:20:07.879 --> 00:20:13.980 that bad. But that's just not how the Bible views the world and the people who live here. 00:20:15.139 --> 00:20:22.679 It's not the case that we're all either too bad or just good enough. You see, the murderer isn't being 00:20:22.680 --> 00:20:29.180 judged by God for that single act of murdering. Evil though it is, though it grieves God, it's a 00:20:29.180 --> 00:20:36.100 heart that's in rebellion turned away from God. Yes, that's spilled over into an act of evil, but it's the 00:20:36.100 --> 00:20:45.820 heart that's the problem. And the same is true for any one of us. Jesus equates anger to murder. Have you 00:20:45.819 --> 00:20:54.460 ever been angry? He equates lust to adultery. Have you ever felt lustful? Part of the reason that Jesus 00:20:54.460 --> 00:21:01.399 does that, I think, is because those hearts turned away from God, they might not result in such outward 00:21:01.399 --> 00:21:08.439 grievous evil as murder or adultery. I think where people are living relatively comfortable lives, that's 00:21:08.440 --> 00:21:17.240 probably even more unusual. But exactly the same hearts turned away from God as they are, with all 00:21:17.240 --> 00:21:23.019 the same awful circumstance and life experience of someone else, might very well end up committing 00:21:23.019 --> 00:21:30.980 murder or adultery. And so it's the rotten condition of the heart turned away from God, it's by that that 00:21:30.980 --> 00:21:37.000 each of us falls short of the glory of God. We'll come back to that idea, but for now just acknowledge 00:21:37.000 --> 00:21:44.400 that this is true of each of us. Naturally, our hearts are turned away from God, prone to wonder, 00:21:44.599 --> 00:21:52.599 each of us battling anger and lust and greed and envy. In other words, if justice is to be done in this 00:21:52.599 --> 00:22:01.460 world, we all deserve this judgment. Before we return to that, let's just quickly have a look at our last 00:22:01.460 --> 00:22:08.940 example, the lot story. Maybe a slightly less well-known story in verse 6. He condemned the cities of Sodom and 00:22:08.940 --> 00:22:17.539 Gomorrah by burning them to ashes. Why does that happen? Well, this is what God says in Genesis chapter 18, 00:22:17.680 --> 00:22:27.660 their sin is so grievous. And so he sends angels to destroy this city, and the people of that city, 00:22:27.660 --> 00:22:33.519 they seek to gang rape the angels. There's no way of sugarcoating that. It's a horrific story. 00:22:34.580 --> 00:22:40.240 And before the angels destroy the city, before anyone's able to rape them, Lot offers them 00:22:40.240 --> 00:22:44.980 hospitality. He even tries to protect them, right, from the people trying to rape these angels. Now, 00:22:45.060 --> 00:22:49.980 he's not a perfect character by any stretch. In fact, it's his daughters that he offers in place of the 00:22:49.980 --> 00:22:57.200 angels. The angels don't let that happen. But like Noah, again, clearly by God's grace, 00:22:57.200 --> 00:23:04.279 Lot is found to be a righteous man. And when the angels tell Lot why they're there, when they share 00:23:04.279 --> 00:23:11.880 this message of justice, they share it as a means of mercy, because it gives Lot the opportunity to 00:23:11.880 --> 00:23:21.019 escape. And again, by God's grace, Lot trusts God's word to him by these angels, and he flees from 00:23:21.019 --> 00:23:29.259 judgment. And again, those who go with him, most of them, are safe. So just notice how each of these 00:23:29.259 --> 00:23:34.099 work, right? You've got the angels, they're being held for a time when God's eternal justice will come. 00:23:35.639 --> 00:23:41.480 And then you have the ancient world, which is judged in its wickedness, but Noah is rescued 00:23:41.480 --> 00:23:47.519 through God's judgment, because by God's grace, he trusts God's word. And those who go with him are safe. 00:23:47.519 --> 00:24:08.900 It's worth just pausing at this stage, and again, thinking back to the wickedness of the false teachers 00:24:08.900 --> 00:24:15.240 that we've met in this passage. Maybe you've been personally affected by that sort of thing in some 00:24:15.240 --> 00:24:22.720 way, fallen captive to that attractive teaching yourself. Maybe you've been hurt by those who call 00:24:22.720 --> 00:24:30.299 themselves Christians, but whose lives are marked by sexual immorality and greed. If that's you, notice 00:24:30.299 --> 00:24:41.140 verse 10. Justice is coming for them. This is especially true of them. Maybe that's not you, but you are 00:24:41.140 --> 00:24:47.600 nonetheless calling out to God for justice. Maybe that's about specific things in your life, past 00:24:47.600 --> 00:24:52.480 abuses or things that are currently ongoing. If that is you, by the way, please talk to us. We'd love to 00:24:52.480 --> 00:24:58.180 pray with you, pray for you. But it might just be that you see the horrible injustice in the world that 00:24:58.180 --> 00:25:03.560 we live in. Maybe a bit like Noah and Lot, you recognize that there is desperate, something 00:25:03.559 --> 00:25:11.599 desperately wrong, as human evil and death seem to reign in the world that we live in. If any of that 00:25:11.599 --> 00:25:21.379 is true of you, friends, what Peter wants you to know is that God's eternal justice will come. 00:25:22.519 --> 00:25:30.200 That we can trust his word to us, because through it, we see that he has made promises. 00:25:30.200 --> 00:25:40.000 We see promises fulfilled, and so we can trust his promises to us. Would we see in these stories 00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:47.100 from Genesis, as we see God's desire for justice in them, would we see the wonderful promise that it 00:25:47.100 --> 00:25:54.000 will all one day be made right? That all will be held to account? That all the exploitation of the 00:25:54.000 --> 00:25:59.279 vulnerable, all the false teaching, all of the abuse, all of the wars, all of the wickedness of this 00:25:59.279 --> 00:26:10.160 world. All of it will be dealt with. The world will be made new. Justice will come. Because in verse 9, 00:26:10.859 --> 00:26:19.480 God has made a way to bring justice and to rescue his people. But there's a tension here, isn't there? 00:26:19.519 --> 00:26:25.139 How does that work? I mean, if it's true what we said about our hearts being turned away from God, 00:26:25.140 --> 00:26:30.180 about us falling short of his glory, I suspect we all know that to be true about ourselves. 00:26:31.380 --> 00:26:37.720 Well, if God really is a perfectly just God, then don't we face this justice too? 00:26:39.160 --> 00:26:44.480 Are we going to be struck down by the eternal judgment of the flood like the ancient world in Noah's time? 00:26:46.860 --> 00:26:50.440 And how do we measure that with the claim that God is also perfectly loving? 00:26:50.440 --> 00:26:59.820 How can a loving God judge us like that? Well, God has made a way to both bring justice and to rescue 00:26:59.820 --> 00:27:06.960 his people. And it's the person of Jesus. You see, this is exactly what happened at the cross. 00:27:07.360 --> 00:27:14.340 As Jesus died, God's perfect love and his perfect justice met. As Jesus took the full force of that 00:27:14.339 --> 00:27:22.099 justice on his shoulders. It is finished. And so we trust that Jesus's death on the cross has achieved his 00:27:22.099 --> 00:27:34.240 purposes, satisfied God's justice, and contains the power of love and grace to free you, to free me, 00:27:34.779 --> 00:27:43.439 to free the murderer, and to restore our hearts to him so that we might live with him in his new creation 00:27:43.440 --> 00:27:48.980 forever. Peter's mate John just puts it so well. He says this, 00:27:49.740 --> 00:27:56.660 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not 00:27:56.660 --> 00:28:02.240 perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son in the world to condemn the world, 00:28:02.440 --> 00:28:09.740 but to save the world through him. This is Noah's big boat. Right? Well, you get on. 00:28:09.740 --> 00:28:15.779 Sail through God's judgment and emerge on the other side of the flood. This is the merciful 00:28:15.779 --> 00:28:26.079 warning from God's angels to Lot. Jesus is his word to us. Will we trust him? Will you believe in his name? 00:28:27.140 --> 00:28:33.759 Guys, this world is full of injustice. I felt that intensely as I watched my Pokemon cards devoured by 00:28:33.759 --> 00:28:41.259 flames. I felt it profoundly this week as I heard about those evangelists on TV swindling money from 00:28:41.259 --> 00:28:48.079 my friend's grandmother exploiting the vulnerable, and I desperately want justice to come. But if I'm honest, 00:28:48.700 --> 00:28:52.339 I have to say that there are ways that I contribute to that injustice. 00:28:53.559 --> 00:28:58.839 I'm sure the kids that I took those cards from as they learned about injustice, that it was really me. 00:28:58.839 --> 00:29:09.179 heart turned away from God spilling over into action, and justice will come. And you know, 00:29:09.240 --> 00:29:16.500 I'm going to have to flee to the safety of Jesus. Will I find you there? Will I find you there? 00:29:18.039 --> 00:29:18.939 Let me pray. 00:29:18.940 --> 00:29:29.779 Heavenly Father, we recognize that you are perfectly just, that you are a holy God. 00:29:31.980 --> 00:29:36.259 And Lord, we're so grateful that you are also a loving God. 00:29:38.860 --> 00:29:41.500 We're grateful for your mercy to us. 00:29:43.160 --> 00:29:46.000 We're grateful for your word to us. 00:29:46.000 --> 00:29:46.839 Lord, we're grateful for your mercy to us. 00:29:46.839 --> 00:29:52.339 As we see the injustice around us, and we recognize the warning of the coming justice, 00:29:52.339 --> 00:29:54.579 and we know that we deserve it too. 00:29:56.140 --> 00:29:58.180 Lord, we're so grateful for Jesus. 00:30:00.480 --> 00:30:02.960 We recognize what he's done for us. 00:30:05.640 --> 00:30:09.079 And we fall to our knees at the foot of the cross. 00:30:11.900 --> 00:30:14.640 Where we find shelter from the storm. 00:30:16.000 --> 00:30:21.539 Lord, would you send your Holy Spirit to help us? 00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:29.160 To keep us firm in that faith, we pray. 00:30:30.160 --> 00:30:32.319 In Jesus' name, amen. 00:30:32.319 --> 00:30:32.500 Amen. 00:30:32.500 --> 00:30:32.559 Amen. 00:30:32.559 --> 00:30:32.599 Amen. 00:30:32.599 --> 00:30:32.619 Amen. 00:30:32.619 --> 00:30:32.640 Amen. 00:30:32.640 --> 00:30:34.559 Amen. 00:30:34.559 --> 00:30:34.599 Amen. 00:30:34.599 --> 00:30:34.660 Amen. 00:30:34.660 --> 00:30:36.660 Amen. 00:30:36.660 --> 00:30:38.660 Amen. 00:30:38.660 --> 00:30:40.660 Amen. 00:30:40.660 --> 00:30:42.660 Amen. 00:30:42.660 --> 00:30:43.660 Amen. 00:30:43.660 --> 00:30:44.660 Amen. 00:30:44.660 --> 00:30:45.660 Amen.