God Judges the Ungodly & Rescues the Godly

Transcript

GR 1963
09/25/2016
God Judges the Ungodly and Rescues the Godly
II Peter 2:4-9
Gil Rugh

We are going to go to 2 Peter in our Bibles together, 2 Peter, all the way back in your New Testament just a little bit before the book of Revelation you have Peter, his second letter written to Jewish believers scattered throughout the region outside their homeland of Israel. He is writing to encourage them, he is writing to warn them. He is writing anticipating that at any time he will experience his own martyrdom. Again think of how he handles that. That the Lord had revealed to him he was going to give his life and you live day by day knowing that will happen at any time. How does that impact you, your family? We know Peter was a married man from the Gospels, yet here you see something of the burden and focus of his heart and thinking to prepare God’s people to live faithfully. To prepare God’s people for difficulties and trials that will come. Not to discourage them but to encourage them.

So we come into chapter 2 and those opening verse he warns them “there will be false teachers among you just as there were false prophets among the people in Old Testament times, in Israel’s history.” That is never encouraging to hear. “There is going to be false teachers among you who will secretly introduce destructive heresies even denying the master who bought them” and the result will be swift destruction.

So he is going to put this in perspective and that is what he is going to follow through in this chapter and into the next as he has this short letter. False teachers, the difficulty they present, the problem is they will be successful.

The next verse, verse 2 of chapter 2 says, “Many will follow their sensuality. The way of truth will be maligned. They will exploit you with false words but their judgment will come.” This idea and this realization that false teachers can too often seem be so successful. We just look around us. You know in our day and we can see someone starting a Bible teaching ministry someplace and it struggles and there is a handful of people and the difficulty. I had some correspondence from a friend in the past week and going through some of this. You know what often happens? Somebody comes in with a message of error and it seems like their message explodes. The wicked get a good life and we struggle just to get by.

Come back to Psalm 73, back to Psalm 73. A psalm written by Asaph. We don’t know much about him but we learn something of him from this Psalm. He has written several of them but Psalm 73 he talks about his frustration with the prosperity and success of the wicked and sometimes it seems like being faithful to the Lord is a losing proposition. The wicked do well and the believer just gets by.

He says in verse 2: “But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling; my steps had almost slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant, I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no pains in their death; and their body is fat. They are not in trouble as other men; nor are they plagued like mankind.” They are just doing well.

Verse 9: “They have set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue parades though the earth.” You know they are arrogant, they are self-confident, self-righteous and they seem to be doing fine. “I am not doing so fine.” That’s what he said. “I was envious of them, their success, their prosperity. I almost slipped. I like the way he puts it, “I came close to stumbling” in verse 2.

Then you come down to verse 12: “Behold, these are the wicked; and always at ease, they have increased in wealth, surely in vain I have kept my heart pure, and washed my hands in innocence, for I have been stricken all day long, and chastened every morning.” Seems like every day he has a new trial, new difficulty. Now look at the wicked and everyday He seems to bring them more good things. Every morning I get up and more trial, more difficulty.

Verse 16: “When I pondered to understand this, it was troublesome in my sight, until I came into the sanctuary of God; then I perceived their end.” And that is the key.

Verse 21: “When my heart was embittered, and I was pierced within, then I was senseless and ignorant; I was like a beast before You.” I wasn’t thinking, it’s like I was an animal. “Nevertheless, I am continually with You; You have taken hold of my right hand. With your counsel You will guide me. Afterward You will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? Besides You I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For behold those who are far from You will perish; You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You. But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge that I may tell of Your works.”

That puts things in perspective and that is basically what Peter is doing in this chapter, reminding these believers. These false teachers will come up among you. There will be professing believers. They may have successful ministries. They may draw followers but keep things in perspective. Don’t stumble. Don’t let your foot slip. Don’t be led astray. You have to consider the outcome as Asaph did.

So come back to 2 Peter, chapter 2 and he is going to make two points as we move through these subsequent verses. Number one, God does not spare the wicked no matter who they are, angels or men, no matter how many there are, God will deal in judgment with the wicked. The second point, God does deliver the righteous no matter who they are or how few they are.

So we keep this perspective so that we don’t get led astray. This is how the church has often been led astray. What? Well we need methodology that is successful. We measure things by human standards, the number of people coming, the amount of money given and the expanse of what they are doing. Pretty soon we say, well, we make these adjustments. The church growth movement is not built of theology but built on these things work.

I have shared with you when I was with a professor who was teaching in this area many years ago and we were at a very prosperous, growing work in southern California. “Gil, look at what they are doing.” I said, “What about the theology?” He said, “That’s the beauty of these methods, they work whatever your theology.” And that is the danger and they infiltrate into the church and pretty soon we say, “Well look now at what we are doing.”

Peter wants to warn them ahead of time. You don’t get discouraged by “Lack of success or by the success by those who are promoting error.”

What you have as you come to verse 4, down to the first part of verse 10. You will see verse 10 is broken there into two parts as they have it in your Bible. That is one long, continuous sentence. He states the condition starting “If God did this” and then verse 6 “And if” and you have that word in italics just to remind you it is picked up from that first “if” in verse 4 and verse 7 “And if” he did this. Then verse 9 the conclusion, “the Lord knows how to do this.”

So going to take us through some examples from Israel’s history going back to the beginning before Israel and show God does not spare the wicked and He does deliver the righteous. It is not a matter of numbers. It is not a matter of importance. It is a matter of a relationship with God.

So when you pick up in verse 4 you will see it begins with the little word ‘for.’ “For, if God did not spare the angels when they sinned but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;” and here the issues of angels. That’s why I say it doesn’t matter who you are. Even angels were not exempt from the judgment of God when they sinned. You cannot be too important, too great. Angels who sinned were judged by God.

Now there is a difference of opinion on who these angels, what judgment is being talked about. Some say it is a reference to the sexual sin of angels in Genesis chapter 6 as we lead up to the flood when the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair and they had relations with them. So then the view is that God judged those angels for leaving the realm that God created them to function in and attempting to corrupt the human race by having sexual intercourse. That is a view. If that is a correct it doesn’t change anything as far as the point being made. The point being made, angels who sinned don’t escape judgment. They are not too great, too important, too powerful to escape God’s judgment.

There is another view which is the view that I personally hold is that this is referring to the fall of angels, their original sin or rebellion against God.

Come back to Isaiah 14 and we will pick up with verse 12: “How have you fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn, you have been cut down to the earth, you who have weakened the nations but you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend into heaven. I will raise my throne above the stars of God, I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the North. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will make myself like the most high. Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol to the recesses of the pit.’”

Come over to Ezekiel, chapter 28 and again I think it is a reference to Satan and his original sin, his pride and arrogance in Isaiah 14 to exalt himself to be like God. Then in Ezekiel 28, “You had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God,” which is to clearly indicate we have carried this not to be human being of the time but we are going back to the original creation. He was full of wisdom, perfect in beauty in Eden, the garden of God. “Every precious stone was your covering, the ruby, the topaz, diamond” and so on. The end of verse 13: “On the day that you were created they were prepared. You were the anointed cherub who covers. I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God. You walked in the midst of the stones of fire. You were blameless in your ways. From the day you were created until unrighteousness was found in you.” Satan was not created as a fallen being. He was corrupted by sin when he exalted himself and attempted to take the place of God.

Down the end of verse 16: “And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor.” God created him to be the anointed cherub that covered that, the cherubs that covered the very throne of God, splendid, in awesome beauty and he has fallen. He was not too great to escape the judgment of God. So he is cast down to the pit, to Sheol. His destruction is sure. Awesome to consider that this angel, created being so great even as a fallen being. Remember Jude references that, “Michael, the archangel, chief angel would not speak disrespectfully to him.” Even after his fall. But he was not too great to come under the judgment of God along with all the angels who followed him in his rebellion.

Isaiah 14:15 which we just read: “You will be thrust down to Sheol, to the recesses of the pit.” In Matthew chapter 25, verse 41 Christ will say to the wicked, “Depart from me. I never knew you” and cast them into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. That is their destiny now as fallen beings. So that is the picture, I take it.

Again, for those who want to say it was the sin of angels in Genesis 6 the point of angels not being able to escape judgment would be true but I think that we are starting at the beginning when sin entered God’s creation. It entered the human race with the sin of Adam but it entered God’s creation through the sin of Satan (Lucifer) and the angels who joined him which preceded the sin of Adam because it was the devil who tempted Eve and then resulted in the sin of Adam and the fall of the human race. The point, angels who sin are not going to escape judgment. Their ultimate destiny is an eternal hell.

So come back to Peter, 2 Peter chapter 2, verse 4: “If God did not spare angels,” (and He didn’t when they sinned) “but cast them into hell, committed them to pits of darkness reserved for judgment.” Now it is true. Satan is not in hell today. He goes about to and fro on the face of the earth as we read in the opening portion of Jude. He still has access to heaven even though he has lost his position in heaven, he still has access. We will see this when we study Revelation chapter 12. It is a yet future time when he will lose that access. But the judgment and the sentence has been pronounced. It will be carried out. So that is what he has been talking about down in verse 9 when he draws this long conditional sentence to the point. He will say, He knows how to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment when it is finally implemented and carried out but they become an example. We all know as believers what is the destiny of Satan? He will cast into hell forever. That is a settled fact. So judgment has been pronounced. It hasn’t been carried out or implemented yet.

In verse 3 when he talked about these false teachers, “In their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.” This is the first example. They won’t escape judgment because Satan and the angels didn’t escape judgment. So just because it hasn’t happened yet and even today we look around at the world and we say, “Why doesn’t God do something? You know we get frustrated and we think what is happening? It was the same in Peter’s day. Peter knows he is going to die as a martyr and other believers are going to die as martyrs. Where is the Lord? Why goes this go on? Patience, that is what he will tell them in this letter when we get to chapter 3, God is patient, longsuffering but don’t take that to mean judgment has been discarded. It has already been pronounced but He is graciously giving some the opportunity to escape the judgment. Alright, so angels, they have been consigned to hell. That will ultimately be their destiny.

Come over to Revelation, chapter 20. I quoted to you from Matthew chapter 25, hell was prepared for the devil and his angels but all human beings who are followers of the devil will also be cast into hell but in Revelation chapter 20 and we will pick up down in verse 10: “The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” Then at the end of the chapter those who have the devil as their spiritual father will join him in the fires of hell forever and ever. So the destiny of the devil is settled and we see as we get to that last book of God’s revelation, the book of Revelation as we talked of earlier today, we see it carried out.

So come back to Peter. That is the first example to demonstrate the assurance that God will deal with all rebellion against Himself. The angels who sinned didn’t get a pass and furthermore they didn’t get any provision for their salvation just as a side note. God, to be consistent with His character, has to deal justly with sin but He is not required to show mercy. There was no salvation provided for angels who sinned. That act of rebellion settled their destiny for eternity. That is the point in Hebrews 2. Christ did not become an angel and die for angels. Why did God make provision for us and not for angels? That is in the eternal counsels of God.

Okay, so in Peter, the second example is the flood that came upon the world in the days of Noah and again we have a universal judgment here. Verse 5: “And He did spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah.” Now here we bring in the second aspect. God not only knows how to reserve the wicked for judgment He knows how to spare the righteous from judgment. From the angels it was just an example that God will deal in judgment with the wicked. But here God didn’t spare the ancient world. That world in the days of Noah leading up to the days of Noah but He did spare Noah. Noah was a preacher of righteousness with seven others when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. So you see the judgment was poured out upon the ungodly. That is everybody in the world but there are eight people preserved; Noah and his family. Eight people were spared out of how many people in the world in those days. It doesn’t matter.

We get the idea we see how the world of the unbeliever functions. What? They take an opinion poll. They vote on something. So now it is right. God is not taking opinion polls. It didn’t matter if ten million people or a hundred million people or a billion people voted. They lost. There were only eight who were faithful to God, who were righteous by God’s grace. Everybody else perishes. The same thing Jesus said. What? “The gate is wide and the road is broad that leads to destruction and many are travelling that way. The gate is narrow, the way is narrow that leads to life and there are few that find it.” Believers need to be reminded of that. It doesn’t matter that the believers that he is writing to may seem like a small few. It is not going to be the numbers that count. The days of Noah, the world was destroyed with a flood. Eight people survived. Noah was a preacher of righteousness. There was grace in those days. Noah would have been saved by grace as would have been his family. He, during the years the ark was being prepared, 120 years he preached. You get done. You know you talk about a ministry that didn’t go anywhere. He got seven family members. He probably had them when he began. You see the sin of the world but he was a preacher of righteousness.

Come back to 1 Peter chapter 3 and we studied this earlier. Look at verse 18. “Christ also died for sins. Once for all the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God. Having been put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits” and we have the word ‘now’ inserted “in prison.” I take it that is talking about in the days of Noah when because verse 20 goes on these spirits He went and preached to were ones disobedient when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah during the construction of the ark in which a few, that is eight persons were brought safely through the water. So during the 120 years Noah’s preaching and people are saying, “What are you doing.” “I am building a large boat.” “Why, you don’t have any water around.” “No, but it is going to come. Judgment is going to come. You need the righteousness of God and turn from your sin and trust in Him.


Back to Genesis chapter 6. You see where the world went and where it is going now because we started to study the book of Revelation and where we are going is the coming world-wide catastrophic judgment of God. You see the sin that is going on in chapter 6, verse 5 of Genesis 6: “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth. That every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” But down in verse 9: “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time. Noah walked with God.” Verse 11: “Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God. The earth was filled with violence.” God looked on the earth. It was corrupt. It had ripened for judgment. It had gotten to the point in the plan of God where He said, “No more. Now judgment comes.” That is what we are building to again. So the judgment God is going to pour out is His wrath upon an unbelieving world; so during these years in a world where the thoughts of men’s heart and their minds was only evil continually. You get a little taste of that in our day.

I was reading an article in the paper online this week, one of the governmental leaders said there shouldn’t be any provision for religious beliefs to stand against and then he mentions the different kinds of activity, transgender and gayness and all this. He didn’t think there ought to be any allowance for that. You understand that is where the thinking of the world is. How strong their opposition. We ought not to allow that. It is contrary to the good of our country. That’s the way unregenerate people think.

So come back to Peter. It didn’t matter that the whole world in 120 years of declaring the need for God’s righteousness. He’s a preacher of righteousness. Old Testament and New Testament, sinners need the same thing. They need the righteousness of God. It was there. Noah had it. He didn’t earn it. He would get it the same way anyone else does, Hebrews 11: “By faith he believed was God had revealed and thus God credited it to him as righteousness.”

So when the flood came on the world of the ungodly the world is wiped out but god preserved the righteous. Okay, there is the second example. The world was destroyed by a flood but Noah was preserved and we are aware of the account of the flood and the outcome as Noah when the flood subsides he gets off the ark. He offers sacrifice and so on.

Alright, he comes to another example, the third example. We have the angels who sinned. We have the people who sinned in the days of Noah and Noah was spared. Then we come to Sodom and Gomorrah. “And if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter.”

Isn’t it interesting? Here we are in our modern day and age and still Sodom and Gomorrah are almost proverbials for wickedness, destruction. They haven’t been forgotten. Many people wouldn’t believe that it truly happened but Sodom and Gomorrah and the very sin of Sodom and Gomorrah is being promoted now as normal life. That’s the governmental authority. I attempted to recover the article but I couldn’t do it to share it with you tonight. This ought to be normal. Religious conviction should not allow, be given a pass on having to respect this and accept it; Sodom and Gomorrah. He gave it as an example to those who would live ungodly, so blatant. Having the example of Sodom and Gomorrah we promote that behavior and it has to be accepted as normal and we go beyond that. Amazing! Read the paper and we glorify this kind of wicked confusion. “He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes; having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter.” So Sodom and Gomorrah couldn’t escape judgment. They were made an example.

And a perfect participle where He made them an example, that perfect tense denotes something that happened in the past but the effects continue. God intended that to be ongoing. So Jesus during His earthly ministry said what, “It will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment,” because they didn’t have the clarity of truth presented to them that you have.

Now what about our day with the fullness of God’s revelation and His clarity? It will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the Day of Judgment than for the people of our day. And He reduced it to ashes because of their ungodliness. Jude 7 talks about their gross immorality, part of their expression against the relentless rebellion against God. But God knows how to rescue the righteous.

Verse 7: “And if He rescued righteous Lot oppressed by the conduct of unprincipled men.” Three times in verses 7 and 8 Lot is called righteous. Sometimes we emphasize negative things about Lot but really Scripture emphasizes the positive. Here we are. God’s comments on righteous. He was righteous Lot. In verse 8 he is that righteous man. He felt his righteous soul tormented. He is righteous Lot. Now the Old Testament doesn’t directly call him righteous but it does imply it.
Come back to Genesis 18. We may say he made some poor decisions. That is probably indisputable. In Genesis 18 verse 23 God has told Abraham that he is on his way to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham knows that his nephew, Lot and Lot’s family have moved to those cities. So verse 20: “The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great. Their sin is exceedingly grave.” You see the Bible emphasizes that there is what I would refer to as a ripening for judgment. Why doesn’t God do something? It can’t get much worse than this. God is patient. He is long suffering. He gives men opportunity to repent but there will come a time when judgment comes.

So Abraham intercedes. Down in verse 23: “Abraham came near and said, ‘Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?’” Who was he thinking of? Obviously Lot. “Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike.”

You know very early we have in our Bibles that God will not treat the righteous and the wicked the same. “Will not the judge of the earth deal justly?” “If I find 50 righteous people I will spare the city.” And Abraham keeps reducing it. “Well, if you only lack five of the 50 would You destroy if only 45 are righteous,” 40 and he is going to go all the way down to ten. He is probably thinking on his fingers. I am sure Lot and his family will add up to ten. Don’t be too sure. Noah and his family only added up to eight and Lot didn’t have ten in his family either.

So then you are familiar with chapter 19. The angels come to destroy the city and they tell Lot to take his wife, his daughters, their husbands-to-be and escape. But you know what? Look at verse 13, “the angels told him, ‘We are about to destroy this place but their outcry has become so great before the Lord that the Lord has sent us to destroy it.’” “Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law who were to marry his daughters and said, ‘Up, get out of this place. The Lord will destroy the city’ but he appeared to his sons-in-law to be jesting.”

And then you talk to people today of coming judgment you get a similar kind of reaction. I don’t believe that. They might laugh and say, “Yes, I know. People have been saying that for hundreds and thousands of years and here we are today.”

So the morning comes, the angels tell Lot, “You take your wife and your two daughters or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.” But they can’t be swept away because they are righteous and then he asked if he can go to a nearer city than he was going to go. Yes, go because verse 22, note what the angels say, “Hurry, escape there for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.”

So they have to leave the city so they aren’t destroyed with the wicked but these angels already know they can’t destroy the city and destroy the righteous with the wicked so you have to get out and so they really make them leave. And Lot’s wife you are aware is reluctant. She turns back, her heart is in Sodom and she turns into a pillar of salt. But He rescued righteous Lot. That is the point. These cities are going to be destroyed; Sodom and Gomorrah overthrown, volcanic action, whatever. God destroys them. Nobody survives except Lot and his two daughters, just three. The wife perishes by her own desire not in the actual destruction of the city but in her turning back to the city when they were not two but three. The Lord knows how to rescue and preserve the righteous.

Come back to Peter. Interesting what he says about Lot. You know we can sometimes build all kinds of things in our mind about these Bible characters and sometimes what the Scripture says is simple and we really can’t say much. You could read the Old Testament and say all the error that Lot made and the poor decisions and he wasn’t much of a godly leader in his home or any of this but we are told that he was really righteous.

Look back at 2 Peter, chapter 2, verse 7: “And if he rescued Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men.” Lot didn’t enjoy life in that city. He was oppressed. It pictures somebody being worn down, exhausted by that constant evil. You know how the world around you and you begin to feel it. It is just like it presses in on you and that’s the way Lot was. He was a righteous person living in that godless environment. It just was wearing him down. That was God telling him. That was his condition. He was oppressed, worn down, exhausted by that constant evil. Their sensual conduct and that word sensual aselgeia. It is unrestrained pursuit of evil. It was just a wicked city, more open. Again Sodom and Gomorrah, you know it is not so hard for us to imagine cities like that. We have laws being passed promoting this kind of activity today. It weighs on believers. Peter’s readers were living in the midst of ungodliness. He is encouraging them. Righteous people will feel the pressure of that. These are unprincipled men. They are in rebellion against all that God approves. That is their condition. I mean we sometimes lose perspective on the seriousness of the condition of unsaved people. They are opposed to everything God approves.

So it is a losing battle to try to get them to see this will be better for you. We cut through it with the Gospel. They are unprincipled men.

Look at verse 8: “For by what he saw and heard that righteous man while living among them felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds.” Picture the anguish he had in his mind, in his heart day after day he is surrounded by this, constantly exposed to this. You know that Lot didn’t join in to godless activity that was going on all around him and he never became accustomed or acclimated to that wicked conduct. It was agony to live with those who were in constant rebellion against God.

So I am sure Peter’s readers would be encouraged by this. You know what is going on? It is hopeless. We are so few and people reject the truth that we share with them and it seems you know we are going from bad to worse. You know we think maybe the next election will turn things around. No, that is a futile hope. Sometimes God restrains evil in His common grace and He is holding it back as we will see as we proceed in our study of prophecy as 2 Thessalonians 2 talks about. There is a restraint going on but that will be lifted. The next election is not the answer. Ultimately the world is going to judgment. We are not here to talk to the world. I received something in the mail from an organization that claims to be Christian. You get involved in all these things, racial reconciliation and what we are doing here and meetings we are having. One of the leading evangelicals is having prayer meetings for Charlotte. I am not against Christians praying for their leaders and that but calling unbelievers to prayer is what? It is a lie. God doesn’t near them.

So if the presses in on you, don’t be encouraged. That is the impact it should have on righteous people. We don’t want to become accustomed to this. It does burden us to live among people that are rebellious against the God that we love and serve, in rebellion against the truth. It is so dear to us that we know can bring salvation to them but don’t get discouraged in thinking that the unbelievers are winning. God will judge.

So then he draws this along, conditional verses 4 to 8 to its conclusion, verse 9. If he does this and you have the examples of God’s judgment on the wicked and we have the examples of rescuing the righteous from out from among the wicked then the Lord knows how to rescue the ungodly from temptation or trial to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment. That is the conclusion, the two things: God knows how to rescue the ungodly and He knows how to preserve, He knows how to rescue the godly and preserve the ungodly for the day of judgment.

That is what is going on in our world. That is what Peter wants for the believers. He’s about to exit the world at the hands of the ungodly for what? For his testimony for Christ. We can’t have that. Having lights shining in the darkness drives the lovers of darkness berserk. They have to put out that light. Those who promote error, to be told the truth just is something they cannot stand. That is like the stoning of Stephen. It just drove them crazy. They are grabbing rocks and stoning him to death. They can’t take it. They are gnashing their teeth, they are grinding their teeth. What are you doing, telling them the truth? What did Jesus say? “Why do you want to kill me, a man who has told you the truth?”

So keep perspective and give us confidence. Like Asaph wrote in Psalm 73, “You know my foot almost slipped, I almost stumbled.” What was I thinking? Well you know when I got my eyes off the Lord and all I had in my relationship with Him and what He promised me I got side tracked in what was going on in the world around me and it seems believers are losers and unbelievers are winners and it is just so discouraging. Well it can be discouraging in one sense. It wears you out. It brings you down. That is why we come back to the Word. We are strengthened. We are reminded, we are encouraged. God knows how to rescue the godly from testing. He will bring us through the trial. I love that Peter is writing this. He has already been told he will be a martyr. That doesn’t mean he loses. God’s hand is upon him. He will die the death of a martyr but you know that is the plan and purpose of God. I know God is in control here. He is watching over me and He is keeping the unrighteous under punishment for the Day of Judgment.

That’s why we are going to study the book of Revelation together. It puts things in perspective. It shapes and controls our conduct. It guides us in how to live our lives according to truth. The world and every unbeliever is going to a horrible judgment. Every believer is under the care and protection of God. While it may seem we are weak and failing in our frailty we know the outcome. We have read the last chapter. We read how it all ends. We belong to the living God and because of His grace we are the victors.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for these encouraging words and reminders from Peter who wrote to stir up our pure mind by way of reminders. Lord we live in an unbelieving, ungodly world and sometimes we feel worn down, worn out and if we are not careful we begin to lose heart and become discouraged. It is good for us to be reminded that the ungodly and the unrighteous are not those who will ultimately be victorious. Lord we don’t rejoice that they are going to come to judgment but we are glad that You are a God who will bring wickedness to its appointed end. We thank You for Your grace, Your mercy. Thank You for planting us as lights, weak as those lights might seem in such vast darkness but You are the God who uses Your truth to do powerful things. So may we be encouraged in our neighborhoods, in our jobs, wherever we are that we serve the living God and while we may not see the results that we would desire to live lives pleasing to You, to be used to accomplish Your purpose in these days. Bless the week before us. Lord, a week of opportunity. A week to again be used by You in a variety of ways in a variety of places. May You be honored we pray in Christ’s name, amen.