Alston Road Church of Christ Podcast

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: John Kilgore

Series: 2 Peter (Hastening the Day of God)

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Scott Kercheville

Christians live with an orientation towards time, history, and life that is different from many others.

With time we live (in theory) with a constant awareness that we don’t know when all time as we know it will end. Everything might seem stable from what we can see, but we know the Lord will appear from heaven to end it all in the blink of an eye.

Some see human history as having an upward trajectory: we are getting more advanced, educated, peaceable, and our cities will continue to improve. But Christians know that however much Babylon’s power and wealth increase… its idolatry, lawlessness, and injustice also rise. But the story of reality is not one where Babylon leads us into a golden age of tolerance, peace, and security, but to the triumph of God’s kingdom over all the earth.

And with our lives we strive to live each day in a manner that is loyal and pleasing to King Jesus who will judge on that final day whether have done good or evil.

And if we live with this fearful view towards the final day of the Lord, that will cause many to wonder about us. Some will ask for reasons why we have such a hope. God, help us to be ready for them. Others, Peter says here, will scoff. “So, where’s the promise of his coming? You are believing a naive myth. Nothing like that has ever happened in all history.” They may be from the outside. How surprising has it been that it has come — as Peter predicted — more and more from the inside? “God won’t judge.” But Peter tells us that people say things like this because they are ultimately following their sinful desires. We mock truth when lies offer us a shelter of reason for the sin we love.

While Babylon is building its future on false hopes and false versions of reality and when even Christians are watering down the truth of that a final day of judgment is coming, it can be hard to keep our wits about us. Peter offers us a few reminders to help us keep our sanity among the scoffers. Keep in mind that Peter is not necessarily dealing with modern atheists, but people who simply didn’t believe God (or “the gods”) would bring final judgment.

1. This was all predicted by the prophets, the Lord, and the apostles (v. 1-2). Ancient prophecy means little to people in the modern age. But most people throughout history have been dubious of new information that supposedly contradicts what is old and trusted. Socrates was executed because his philosophy sounded new and strange.

The modern age is different. We live under a new form of government with new knowledge and new technology to shape our world how we want. What is new seems reliable. From young to old, the feel of our age is that we have overcome the past — whether sicknesses, war, misinformation, superstitions, or small-minded arguments — and embraced what is newer and better. So, today, Peter saying that ancient prophets and apostles predicting a final day can sound at first to our ears like the superstitions of cavemen.

But do try to appreciate the power of remembering and trusting these ancient predictions. When nations burn to the ground — and they do — people make it of utmost importance to have passed along by that point what is sacred and important — knowledge, skills, possessions. The Scriptures we hold in our hands range from 2,000-3,500 years old. Consider how many big, new, exciting things have happened and that have been built over that time — and yet these words never disappeared in the distraction. Consider how many attempts have been made to actively destroy these pages, and yet by divine protection and great sacrifice, they remain. Millions of parents have recited, chanted, and sung these words to their children for thousands of years and held them more sacred than their own children.

Why? Because these prophets, poets, and preachers had special connections to the true God. And, they all testify in various ways that no matter how long time will seem to go on, God will intervene in a final day to bring his kingdom power and justice. Every human dead or alive, great or small will be judged. And though every generation of the faithful have died still hoping to see this day, they still passed along this sacred knowledge because they knew it to be reliable beyond their lives. They were thinking about you and me needing to be warned.

When scoffers come with cutting edge data and clever appeals to rationalize their choice of sinful desires, remember that we are not clinging to the predictions of some hot-off-the-press cult-leader with special Kool-Aid, we are clinging to the ancient, reliable words of the prophets and of our Lord through his apostles. A hundred faithful generations have clung to these same words and passed them on to us.

2. The earth was formed by the word of God. Peter says that as people rationalize why they don’t believe God will intervene, they will say that, “Ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” Ironically, their argument undermines their very point because they maintain that there was an actual creation of the cosmos. And if God can and did intervene to create the heavens and earth, how inconceivable is it that he would one day intervene to cast fire upon it?

Now, some today do not believe God began all this. I don’t have enough faith to believe that. Without attempting to wade into those waters, I would simply suggest that we acknowledge that something began all this and that there must be an equal and opposite power able to destroy it all. And I would recommend that we not look too hard to find that power before we humbly consider the One who is easily found and trusted by children — the purest among us.

The fact that we even exist is a marvel. Of all other possibilities, we are alive in a place that is quite livable and beautiful in comparison to the chaos it could be. The word and the power that made all this can and will bring it to an end one day.

3. The world has perished before. Even in Peter’s day it was a pretty foolish thing to say that “all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation” because everyone knew there had been a flood. Though the stories differ in their details, it doesn’t matter if you were from India, China, or Mesopotamia, if you were an Aztec or a European, they have a flood story. Now, of course, some would say that because the details differ, we can’t trust any of it. I would offer that this is not a careful conclusion. If suddenly all sorts of people showed up in your neighborhood talking about a grocery store burning down, but they differed on some details, it would be foolish to be “conservative” and conclude that nothing happened.

Here’s Peter’s point: the world was once formed out of and by water in the beginning, and that the world once perished in a watery deluge of epic, mythological proportions and it is only in the past couple hundred years that our world has forgotten that. If that world perished in water, the heavens and earth that now exist can perish by fire too. And they will. That day await a word from the Lord.

4. Delay? Time is different with the Lord (cf. Ps. 90). With scoffers speaking in our ears, a big question arises: “Okay, he says judgment’s coming. So where is it? Why the delay?” It’s not just scoffers though, the discouragement of the wilderness can bring us to that point. If God is really an all-powerful loving God who is near us, why hasn’t he come? We grow impatient.

Turn to Psalm 90. Peter alludes to this Psalm of Moses here when he speaks of a thousand years as being but a day — which is appropriate because Moses wrote this some 1,400 years before even Peter. Notice how Moses compares the passage of time for God and humans (vs. 1-13). Moses says God is the one who predates the mountains, he is the one who is everlastingly God. But people are dust, grass. We wither away in God’s anger in the heat of a moment before the next generation rises up and flies away in a moment. Because of this, we need to fear God, we need to number our days, we need to recognize how small we are.

We need this reverential awe for the everlastingness of God among scoffers and in our wilderness years. We want him to work so quickly. Show up so these scoffers are can see. Show up so we can be rescued. And though Christ has come once, he hasn’t yet come a second time, and that can become frustrating. But let’s just hold off on trying to figure that out. If God is really an all-powerful, all-knowing, God of love, what sort of question are we going to ask about the timing of his judgment that we could even comprehend? Let us fear lest we end up with too high an estimation of the reasoning in our pea-sized brains in comparison to the Everlasting one. To say he’s been around longer doesn’t even do it justice.

5. Delay? The Lord is patient toward you, not slow. But Peter ultimately comforts us. The reason he hasn’t come yet is not due to any human-like slowness, it’s really out of patience. Think about it. Who wants the evil that has wrecked his creation to be burned up more: us or him? Who wants to be with us more: us or him? Hands down, it’s him. Then why is he waiting? Because he does indeed want to be with you. But you may not be ready for him.

And when we consider that he wants evil to be eradicated from the world he made and for righteousness to triumph more than we do, his patience is astonishing. His love is astonishing. His patience is toward you. He wishes that none would perish, not even the scoffers, but that all should reach repentance. Do you need to repent?

Brothers and sisters, sin makes a fool of us. It is plain that history will have an end, but people scoff at plain facts because sinful desires have mastered them. Sin makes us like children who insist 2+2=10 because we want to have ten. Sin makes us say and believe what is false. But we must release our pride. There is a day around the corner that is the Lord’s, and shelters of self-deception will evaporate in an instant. In Isaiah’s words, the agreement we think we have with death — that we’ll somehow escape death and judgment — it will be annulled. He will  come like a thief in the night. But the Lord has delayed until this moment so you can repent. Now is the time to turn back to him before it is everlastingly too late.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Scott Kercheville

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: John Kilgore

Series: Who is a Christian?

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: John Kilgore

Series: 2 Peter (Hastening the Day of God)

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Scott Kercheville

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: John Kilgore

Series: 2 Peter (Hastening the Day of God)

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Scott Kercheville

Have you ever imagined what it would have been like to be Lot living in Sodom and Gomorrah before it fell? Peter tells us in 2:7-8. He was greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked. Day after day he tormented his righteous soul over their lawless deeds. Do you ever feel that way in our current environment?

Initially, Lot’s response might strike us as odd. Of course we’d all be disturbed by the violent crowds that surrounded Lot’s house, but the sensual conduct that was ongoing before that? Maybe we think, “So… they liked to sleep around. Or they are greedy, or they lie, or are wrathful. What does that have to do with with Lot? He should focus on his own problems and not be so arrogant, Pharisaical, and judgmental.”

If our distress turns into a disgust at everyone else while rarely reflecting on our own weaknesses, then yes, that’s a problem. We should tend to the logs in our own eye first. But if we aren’t distressed by wickedness — we just see it as the personal choices of others that don’t affect us — that’s another problem. Should we not have compassion for what they are doing to themselves? Should we not see that anyone’s sin — ours and theirs — affects God’s good world and everyone in it? Should we not be concerned with God’s purpose for his kingdom to come, and his will to be done on earth as in heaven?

Consider Jesus. We could say he was so tormented by the world’s wickedness — and ours — that he left heaven and died a sinner’s death to end it. And he is angry enough about sin that he is coming to save those who turn from sin, and to destroy those who refuse.

The point is this: Lot’s distress over Sodom’s wickedness is a sign that he was a righteous man in need of salvation from the wicked. Lot was flawed — as we have been and are too. But Lot’s grief over their lifestyles was right. The only reason things are not good in the world is because of sin — all strife, all corruption, sickness, disability, sadness, and death comes from it. So, while we humbly kill sin in our lives, it is right to be tormented by wickedness.

When Lot urged the people of Sodom and Gomorrah to not behave so wickedly — they became angry. “The outsider is trying to become our judge! You’ll pay for that.” And people inside and outside the church may respond to us like that too — “You’re being judgmental.” We certainly don’t want to be harsh. We come with truth in love to protect the unprotected and to save the world. But being misunderstood is a certainty.

How do we live in a sinful world where Sodom and Gomorrah are built up around us? How can we endure when wickedness infiltrates the church? Peter gives us two solid pillars to hold onto in verses 3-10 that he succinctly summarizes in verse 9: The Lord knows how to rescue the godly and how to punish the unrighteous.

Peter has cautioned that false teachers will secretly bring in destructive heresies and lead people into sensuality. But he declares in verse 3: Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. His point is that we don’t have to worry, their fate was sealed long ago and God is actually in the process of bringing their destruction about.

Peter wants us to be confident about this so we are not afraid or led astray when this wickedness comes into the church, so he gives three examples of how God is in the process of restraining and destroying wickedness.

Peter reminds his readers that God did not even spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell. Genesis 6 and other Jewish writings speak of the “sons of God” sleeping with the “daughters of men.” And the result was giants walking the earth. Consider how scary it would be to see days where dark spiritual powers are plainly invading the earth and animating wickedness, sensuality, and violence in such epic proportions. And yet, God did not stand by quietly — he cast them into Tartarus — the underworld — and has confined them in darkness until the day of judgment. Note the two-fold judgment: God punishes and restrains wickedness in our own day in advance of the final day when wickedness is judged.

Peter tells us that God did not spare the ancient world either, but that he did preserve Noah with seven others. He refers to Noah as a “herald of righteousness.” Consider the world Noah lived in. Genesis 6 says that the wickedness of man was great and that people’s thoughts were on evil continually. Sensuality was rampant. Corruption and violence surrounded them. Only Noah and his family walked righteously. This is the world Noah preached in and to.

And we have talked about Lot. Day by day sensuality filled the streets and homes of Sodom. And as we see in Genesis, violence and injustice was allowed to reign on the streets — foreigners were oppressed. And Ezekiel tells us that though the city was very wealthy, the poor went hungry, and none shared their bread with them. And Lot tried to do what he could do — when he saw the two men — angels unbeknownst to him — he brought them into his home. He was the kind of man who shared his home and food with those in need. But there was only so much he could do. And when he simply tried to protect the two men and urged others to stop, they turned against Lot.

And in our world we too see that sensuality without restraint is on the rise. People sleep with whomever they want. People transform their bodies however they want. People watch videos of whomever they want. And we try to raise our children to not be stained by this world. It is scary to raise boys in a world with such availability to pornography; it is scary to raise girls in a world where boys are trained to see and treat women like that — and where pornography has infiltrated us as the church as heavily as it has. Violence is on the rise too — more random attacks. Our world is not Noah’s or Lot’s, but the ways it mimics it are troubling.

It can be quite scary to consider what people might do against us. And it is even scarier to recognize that Peter is addressing this because he is certain it will infiltrate the church. It is not merely people outside who will lead astray and harm the righteous — both false teaching and wicked behavior will spring up within Christ’s own church. Sometimes that is scary. And sometimes it’s just disturbing — as with Lot, we  may be tormented by what we see and hear from people in the church who — in terms of verse 10 — indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. And mark that again: Peter is saying that in the church people will freely indulge in lust and in the church people will disrespect the authority of our Lord.

And yet, the Lord preserved Noah when he brought a flood on the earth. He rescued righteous Lot in his distress too. And if he did that, the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from all the trials they may encounter. He knows how to rescue you and me.

But note that the Lord does not deliver us from ever encountering trials. Noah and Lot both suffered in the wicked worlds they lived in — as did Job, Abraham, Elijah, and our Lord Jesus — and we will too. God has never promised it will be easy. He has promised it will be hard. Satan has done a number on this world, but he has promised to deliver us. Often, as with Noah and Lot, he delivers us in our lifetime. But, if that’s not we can be certain that on the day of judgment God will deliver all the righteous from their trials — even after they have died — by raising us from the dead and granting us entrance into his eternal kingdom. He will not deliver us from encountering trials, but he will rescue us from our trials.

And, Peter says, the Lord knows how to punish the unrighteous both now and in the day of judgment too. He did not spare angels, he did not spare the ancient world, and he turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes. And note verse 6: these are each intended to be examples of what is going to happen to the ungodly.

Will we live in these times with that confident hope in mind — that God knows how to rescue the righteous and punish the wicked? Until our final rescue, fear of what may happen can get the better of us. Yes — flee wickedness! Young people, do not befriend fools and rebels! And yet, while we stay far away from wickedness, we do not fear it but God. Fear God, but fear of wickedness can become overpowering to the point that it takes over our identity: maybe we become paralyzed by anxiety over what is happening in the world, we can’t turn off the news, we accumulate earthly treasures in fear of the future, we hide out in our homes. The righteous have been surrounded by the wicked before, and God dealt with them. Let us not at all be naive about the world or about the ways it comes into the church. And let us also not have a spirit of fear, but of power and love and self-control.

Therefore, let us pray without ceasing, always pleading for him to do justice. God answers prayers and rescues in this age! And no matter what happens, God will indeed intervene in our time-space reality to rescue the righteous in the final day. But when the Son of Man comes, will there be faith left on the earth?

And will we live in these times with a certain fearfulness over the destruction of the wicked? God turned Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes as an example — this fortifies our hope and cautions us with fear. Sensuality can seem harmless and tempting and innocent. And the world paints it that way — but it is actually a plain rejection of our King who made us and who has the authority to govern our bodies. And it is all for our good, for the good of the world, and for the glory of his name. But if we despise what God has made and the glory of his name and his right to govern us — he has given an example of what he will do.

When Peter wrote this, it was still widely recognized what God had done to Sodom. Josephus wrote: “In fact, vestiges of the divine fire and faint traces of fie cities are still visible. Still, too, may one see ashes reproduced in the fruits, which from their outward appearance would be thought edible, but on being plucked with the hand dissolve into smoke and ashes. So far are the legends about the land of Sodom born out by ocular evidence.” (J.W. 4.484-85) The ancient “legend” is true, and so are the prophecies: Jesus is the rightful king over this world, and one day he will appear from heaven to rescue those who have been loyal to him and to bring fiery destruction upon the rest of mankind and their works. On that day it will not matter if we have justified ourselves before each other: God alone will judge. Let us fearfully turn back to our Lord! And let us not fear but loyally wait in hope for our salvation.