Keep Holding On to the Truth

Transcript

GR 1967
10/23/2016
Keep Holding On to the Truth
II Peter 3:1-5
Gil Rugh

We are going to 2 Peter in your Bibles, the back part of your New Testament not too many pages away from the book of Revelation, 2 Peter; Peter’s last letter and a letter written to encourage and challenge believers to faithfulness. He began this letter in chapter 1 by reminding them of the great salvation God has provided for us in Jesus Christ.

Verse 3 of chapter 1 said “That His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining life and godliness through the true knowledge of Him who called us by his own glory and excellence. And He has given us precious, magnificent promises as those who have become partakers of His divine nature. We have become the children of God and as His children we become partakers of the promises He gives to His children and as partakers of the divine nature as those who have everything necessary to living a life of godliness we keep our focus on what God intends us to be” and we noted those qualities that are to be growing and maturing in us in the subsequent verses, the things that we are to be building upon with diligence. We apply to our faith in verse 5 and following and these qualities are to be increasing in us so that we are fruitful now that we have come into the true knowledge of the salvation God has provided in Christ.

That moves us to where we are going as His children down in verse 11 as we are settled and become more settled in our assurance our relationship with Him. He said, “Be all the more diligent (verse 10) to make certain about His calling and choosing you. As long as you practice these things (the things he has talked about) you will never stumble. For in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.”

So He has provided everything necessary for living a life of godliness now as those who have become partakers of His divine nature through faith in Christ and we are to be growing in these qualities as we move toward the ultimate end which is what we have been talking about as we began a study of Revelation as well, the kingdom and entering into that kingdom and the fullness of the glory and realization of all that He has promised us for eternity.

So Peter said in verse 12: “I am just going to keep reminding you of these things. My time is short. I may at any time face my martyrdom so I want to leave you with that which will constantly be on your mind and be the focus of your attention.”

When you come into chapter 2 he warned them that false teachers would infiltrate in among believers and they had to be careful and wary of them. They will have a certain success. Verse 2 of chapter 2 said: “Many will follow their sensuality.” They appeal to the flesh as we have seen through chapter 2 but they are to be warned, not discouraged.

Verse 9 gave both the encouragement and the warning. “The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation or testing and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the Day of Judgment.” Don’t get discouraged. These testings are not brought into our lives by God to overwhelm us, to ruin us, to destroy us. So He will rescue us. We have that assurance but for the unrighteous they don’t win. And if this love, Peter, here he is. The unrighteous are reserved for judgment but here he is facing the imminent martyrdom, execution at the hands of the unrighteous but it doesn’t shake his faith. He knows how to rescue the godly from these testings but the unrighteous are kept under punishment for the Day of Judgment. I am going to be martyrdom. I will suffer execution which will not be pleasant. Tradition says he was crucified upside down. Not pleasant but that doesn’t mean he loses.

The wicked think when they can kill the body of the righteous or make life as difficult as they can for the righteous therefore they win. Peter doesn’t lose his perspective. Even though I am going to be martyred at any time soon here I don’t lose because God doesn’t lose in the sense that the world would think of it. So encouragement in the context of it is not pleasant and chapter along with Jude are as harsh a thing that could be said about unbelievers, unbelieving teachers, unbelieving people who infiltrate among believers to corrupt them, in doctrine and in conduct but it is a reality. They must be warned. We must be on guard and it is always difficult because when you are dealing with those who profess to be believers it can become confusing. He doesn’t want them to be confused nor does he want them to be discouraged.

When you come to chapter 3 where we are he wants to encourage them. He has warned them in chapter 2 and he has made as clear as you could under the direction of the Spirit how serious these matters are and these unbelievers with their influence, these are serious matters. He closed that chapter by a comparison, an analogy, a picture that is not pleasant. “It has happened to them according to the true proverb. A dog returns to its own vomit. A sow after washing returns to wallowing in the mire.” These people have acquired a knowledge, superficially; the facts about Christ. Enough to be able to converse and talk and be accepted among believers as both Peter has indicated and Jude indicates as well. And yet they have never acted on that knowledge to truly make it their own, placed their faith in Christ and come to His cleansing, His true forgiveness. So it is a knowledge that makes them more accountable.

We noted as Jesus told the people in cities that He ministered to, “It will be more tolerable in the Day of Judgment for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah than for you because you have greater light than they ever had.” And so these teachers they had been in among believers. They have heard the teaching of the truth. They have heard the testimony of true believers. They have developed an ability and a facility to talk the language but the heart has never been changed and they go back rather than go forward with the knowledge that they have acquired and heard to true faith in Christ. They now have taken a position against the truth by attempting to corrupt it.

This is a constant problem. Paul had it in a letter to the Galatians with the Galatian churches. He was concerned for the Corinthians as we saw that these false teachers masquerading as messengers of light, as true apostles were leading the church at Corinth away from the truth.

Peter has the same concern. But he doesn’t want them to be discouraged. Think, oh, along with everything else now we are going to have this problem within. Isn’t it discouraging? And it is. When we deal with it, it is disappointing but chapter 3 is to encourage these believers. Remember it all turns out okay. It turns out as God intends. He knows how to deliver the righteous. There is no confusion. God’s judgment will be clear.

He has a love for them. He hasn’t written to be mean spirited, to be harsh, unkind in chapter 2. He is writing because he loves them just like you give those stern warnings to your children and not because you want to be harsh, not because you want to make them afraid of everything but they have to be prepared for what will face them in life. There are dangers and that is true for God’s children.

So you will note he starts out chapter 3: “This now beloved.” That is just a form of the Greek word for love, agape, beloved, loved ones. Four times in this chapter he is going to call them loved ones, verse 1, “This now beloved,” loved ones, those I love. Verse 8, “Do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved,” loved ones. Down in verse 14, “Therefore beloved,” loved ones. Down in verse 17, “You therefore beloved,” loved ones. I mean Peter is wrapping it up. He loves them. These are his last words to them if you will. He sent out as a letter. Perhaps even by the time that many of them get to have it read to them he will have been martyred but he writes out of love for them just like again, the picture – when you love your children the things you tell them, the warnings you give them, all of that comes out of your love for them. I mean that is the way Peter is with the spiritual children of God.

He is going to warn them about mockers, those who will ridicule the idea of the return of the Lord, coming judgment. This shouldn’t shake them. Now again remember, the problem comes from within. You know we can deal with those out there that are clearly promoting a religion that is Christianity that can impact us and then the closer it gets to us – remember how broad the word ‘evangelical’ has gotten. So that, what is an evangelical? It just keeps getting the meaning so we don’t want to use the word ‘fundamentalist,’ we use the word ‘evangelical’ and we begin to struggle for how do we identify. Well Bible believing, fundamental. This is what we mean. Why? Because we keep expanding the terminology to be more inclusive. Evangelicals, we have evangelical Lutherans, we have evangelical Catholics. Well, if they are with us we shouldn’t be attacking them. Then we have evangelical, evangelicals but they don’t believe the doctrine of inspiration like we do. They don’t believe necessarily the doctrine of salvation the way we do and there are more mockers coming. We have some who have been noted as evangelicals who have moved away from the doctrine of a literal, eternal hell. As soon as that comes up within the realm of believers and among those who have been accepted as believers and I am not saying that everyone who gets led astray by this is an unbeliever. That is part of the problem.

What Peter is concerned about, what Paul is concerned about, even true believers get confused. Well I have respected them. They have been used of the Lord. Something is wrong and I can’t tell myself sometime if I am dealing with a believer now or am I dealing with an unbeliever? So all we can deal with is what they are teaching and if it is not correct, their practice if not correct then we have to oppose it. So these are mockers.

Peter is concerned, you live as those I loved in light of the return of the Lord and the certainty of the judgment that I talked about and be assured that you will escape that judgment. Be careful now. That doesn’t mean there won’t be that judgment but you as a believer don’t have to fear that judgment. You won’t be carried away in that judgment.

So we pick up with chapter 3, verse 1: “This is now beloved,” loved ones. There is warmth after the harshness of chapter 2 it probably was welcomed to these believers. I mean it is like Peter thunders down on these who would corrupt the truth and lead these precious children of God astray.

Remember Jesus warns, “It is better to have a millstone hung around your neck and you be cast into the depths of the water than you lead one of these little ones, one of these precious children of God astray.” And Peter wants them to know, “I love you. I have spoken so firmly but don’t misunderstand there is depths of love in my writing to you. This now my beloved. This is now the second letter I am writing to you.”

I don’t know. Sometimes I give up on certain commentaries. I mean you read page after page. Well we have to figure out. First we have the problem but we don’t know for sure who Peter is and these are people who claim to be evangelicals. You know, it probably wasn’t the apostle Peter but someone acting like him. Now we don’t really know what the first letter was. Probably not the first letter that we have because…... It is clear this is the second letter. I Peter is the first letter. We are familiar with the first letter. We studied it. “This is the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder.” I followed up my first not because I have new information that I didn’t include in the first letter. I am writing to stir up your sincere mind, pure mind.

So what he has said is not because he thinks they haven’t been faithful. We saw this that the false teachers lead astray those who aren’t stable and settled in their faith but he is confident that they are stable. We saw that in chapter one and we have been back there. He is not saying he thinks they have been led astray but because we haven’t doesn’t mean the danger is not there that we could be.

You know I am really on shaky ground when I think, “well I couldn’t be led astray. I know some people get led astray but I am a lot clearer in my theology and a lot more stable than those who would get led astray.” The battle goes on until the end. We want to finish well. Don’t ever think, “Well the devil knows you are too mature. He couldn’t get through to you. He couldn’t get through to me.” So Peter is stirring up their sincere mind while they are still on track, haven’t been led astray. “I want to remind you.”

Come back to chapter 1, verse 12: “Therefore I will always be ready to remind you of these things though you already know them.” And then what I was just referring to, “And have been established in the truth which is present with you” but these false teachers, these counterfeits, Peter won’t be there. You know like your children when they are going to move out of the house. They are going away to college or something. You realize now you know, they will face new dangers, new temptations. Peter won’t be there just like you won’t be there present with them so you have concerns. That’s where Peter is. I am not saying you have gotten off track. Paul writes to the Galatians and he is concerned that they have gotten off track but Peter doesn’t say they have but there is danger ahead. You have a pure mind, a sincere mind, it is genuine. It is what it should be. “You have been stabilized in the truth.” Great, let me just remind you.

And what do your kids do? They are going off to college and you want to remind them. They say, “I know, I know. You have told me that 100 times.” What does Peter say? “I am just reminding you, I am telling you again what I already told you.”

I have become convinced after many years in the pastorate it is not new doctrines that get Christians confused. It is a failure to take hold of the old doctrines that you teach and teach and teach and teach then something comes up. What do you say? And again, it is like our kids and how many times, I have told you a dozen times and we are in many ways like that, children, all of us. Some of us are more mature children, some of us may be less mature but somehow even when we think we are most mature. I mean just stop and think about it in a different line. I am mature. I have trusted the Lord. I have trusted Him over many years. He has never been unfaithful and He says, “Don’t worry about tomorrow. Everyday has enough trouble of its own.” Can I say when I go to bed and never have a troubled thought about tomorrow? I find myself sometimes awake at 2:00 in the morning starring at the ceiling. I say I might as well get up and go to my study. Lord you know this is on my mind. This is troubling me. Why? I told you not to worry about tomorrow. Well it’s too late to worry about yesterday, Lord. I’ve got to have something to worry about and tomorrow is ahead. Why don’t you just go to sleep? You will do better tomorrow if you are rested. But as mature as I pride myself in being I can’t say that never happens to me. I can’t say that I am not in danger. Keep your heart and mind focused.

Okay, back to chapter 3. “I am stirring up your sincere mind,” your pure mind. It has not been defiled by the heretic teaching, the heretical practices of these teachers but I don’t want to wait until you are. It is much more difficult to get pulled out of error than it is to avoid getting into it.

You know if you watch programs where you know they do crimes things. They are crying and what was I thinking of. It is hard to get out of it. So don’t get into it. That is what he is writing, “To stir up your pure mind by way of reminder that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commands of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles.” He is going all the way back. “I am stirring up your pure mind by way of reminders so you will remember.” And that is what reminders do. That is why we come back and many of you have studied 2 Peter several times in different settings whether in our service together, in your Bible study, in the Bible classes in the morning and on your own. Some of you have taught it in different situations but we keep coming back and you know I find even though I have preached through the these books I come back and you know it needs to be impressed on me again so I will remember it like it is fresh in my mind; “That you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets.” He is going back to the Old Testament. He did that back in chapter 1, verse 19 for time: “We have the prophetic word made more sure.” I mean what do we have? With the coming of Christ and the revelation given now as he is going to mention with the apostles that just confirms the truth of what was said beforehand through the Old Testament prophets and verse 21: “No prophecy was ever made by an act of human will but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”

So there is a consistency and that affects our interpretation of Scripture as he mentioned in the previous verse because as you know if we get off track on what God said previously we find ourselves off track with what He has revealed more recently through the apostles. So he is going to talk about back in chapter 3, verse 2: “He spoke beforehand by the holy prophets,” that is the Old Testament Scripture and now the command is given through your apostles like Peter, John, Paul, Matthew and you know our New Testament Scriptures. There is continuity to that, the new revelation hasn’t cancelled the Old as we often emphasize. It hasn’t changed the old but additional revelation brings additional clarity. So Peter sees them as tied together; that you remember both the prophetic Scriptures of the Old Testament as we have it and the commandments given now by Christ through His apostles that will comprise as we have it, our New Testament. Peter is writing part of it here under the inspiration of the Spirit. You have to remember these things and there is a lot to think about, how long you have been a believer, how much you have studied the Word. Could you say I haven’t mastered?

I have shared with you I had a professor in Bible College who preached here many years ago, he’s now with the Lord. I hate to think you can graduate from Bible College and I can’t give you a test that requires you, I will say to you, “I want you to give me a chapter title for every chapter in the book of Isaiah and a specific detailed outline for chapter 9, chapter 27, chapter 43 and chapter 65. You ought to know the Bible that well or you shouldn’t graduate.” And all of us are sitting there going whew, glad you don’t make the decisions here but none of us, no matter how long we have been a believer can say we have mastered every chapter of this book and it just is part and parcel for us and you know, we are growing. Peter realizes that and he reminds them of that. They didn’t even have their own copies but they have to remember what the prophet said but they didn’t have their own copy of Isaiah, remember. They couldn’t run around with a scroll of Isaiah and a scroll of Ezekiel and a scroll of Daniel and a scroll of Genesis and everybody had it in their own house but they had to remember. God was holding them accountable. Think of how accountable we are before the Lord. We take our copy home with us. We have it there every day. We have to remember it so we what? Act in light of it, live in light of it.

Okay, the warning, verse 3: “Know this, first of all.” So what he is going to do is draw their attention back because the false teachers begin to undermine confidence in the Old Testament Scriptures, confidence in what we have as the New Testament Scriptures. They bring in teaching like Paul said to the Galatians, “another Gospel” but it is not a Gospel that is in any way like the one I preach but it looked enough like it that it can fool believers and it depends on the counterfeit. The better the counterfeit the more easily believers can be fooled.

So, “Know this first of all,” of prime importance. “That in the last day’s mockers will come.” Down through history the pattern has been the same as we have talked about as we worked through this letter. The church gets led astray. Churches get led astray. We get worn out in conflicts. We get careless in the handling of Scripture. We get more superficial in our handling of the Scripture. Think where the church and our country has gone.

My brother-in-law pastored. He has been with the Lord over 20 years but he told me back then, “You know Gil I have 3000 people on Sunday morning and 100 on Sunday night.” That was before they closed up and then what happens. We narrow it down to one service on Sunday morning but we don’t want it to be long. Couldn’t we have 30 minutes and then 20 minutes? Well how are believers going to be so saturated and knowledgeable with the Word that they are going to be discerning on error? If you don’t know the truth as thoroughly as you must how will you know counterfeits when they come? And then we go by our feelings. Well I feel it is okay. I think it is okay. You know it is sort of like one of our presidents. I looked into his eyes. I know he is okay. Well, the passing of time has shown looking into the eyes didn’t make him know anything. And we as believers begin to function that way. “Mockers will come with their mocking following after their own lusts.”

The “last days” in the New Testament are the days of the Messiah so we have been living in the last days since the first coming of Christ and remember why that is so? In the Old Testament they saw the first coming of Christ and the second coming of Christ just as the coming of Christ. Sometimes the prophecy is talked about what would take place in the first coming. Sometimes the second coming but it was not until He came that it was revealed that there would be a space of now 2,000 years separating the first coming and the second coming. Peter wrote about that.

The Old Testament prophets couldn’t understand how the Messiah could come and suffer and die and also rule and reign in glory because God didn’t reveal to them that He would come on two separate occasions. And since we only saw the coming of Messiah as involving his death and also His reigning in glory they couldn’t sort it out. Now nothing changes about the prophecies that related to His first coming, His death, resurrection and His second coming, ruling and reigning in glory. It is just now we have additional revelation.

So when the Old Testament looked at the last days they were the days of the Messiah. Well the last days now we know encompass the first coming of Christ all the way down to the second coming. So that in the last days, now as we get toward the closing portion of the last days which brings in the second coming of Christ we can expect these things will continue to get worse, to deteriorate because we are moving toward where we are going in the book of Revelation, the worst of the worst days so we can expect a deterioration but through church history there have been times it seems that have been worse and times better. Times when it seems that the truth has all been lost and then there has been a revival of the emphasis of the truth. We went through that in this country in the time I have been in the ministry here.

In the 60’s, the 70’s and the 80’s there was just a supernatural interest in the Word of God and a desire to be taught the Word and know the Word and it seems it was going on all over the country. All I had to do was get up and say, “turn in your Bibles” and people were pouring in to hear it and that was happening across the country but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will happen indefinitely.

I was reading a pastor this week who preached back in those days and is now with the Lord. He said, “As long as we keep preaching the Word they will keep pouring in the doors.” No, that is not true. It seemed like it was true. I thought boy, all we have to do is keep teaching the Word. I don’t know how we will ever build a church big enough for all the people who keep wanting to come but things changed.

But in the last days. This is the characteristic of the last days and even in the good times the opposition to the truth, the persecution of those who proclaim the truth so we have what we call the Protestant Reformation but even in that those whom we would call the Anabaptist and the radical reformation they would be experiencing intense persecution but there was a drawing back, a clarifying the facts of the Gospel that had been so much of it lost. Always a faithful line but small comparison, so in the last days.

Come back to 2 Timothy, Paul’s last letter, 2 Timothy chapter 3. What does Paul want to say? Verse 1: “Realize this.” What did Peter write in chapter 3, verse 3? “Know this.” Paul writes “Realize this that in the last days difficult times will come.” So we can expect that this time between the first and second of Christ will as a general rule be difficult times, difficult days. That doesn’t mean in every place the difficulties will be the same. God in His grace has moved around over the period of time in the 1880’s where the preaching of the Gospel in England and on the continent, you know, was flourishing but those days passed and in our country we have had opportunity but we see a growing open opposition to anything Biblical. “In the last days difficult times will come. Men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,” now note this – “after all of that you think they have abandoned godliness altogether.” But “They are holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power.” You think after that summary it sounds like the end of Romans chapter 1, the work of the flesh in Galatians chapter 5. This is what we have but they hold a form of godliness. Don’t be confused. Don’t be distracted. “Avoid such men as this.” We have to hold the line.

I don’t mind being called a fundamentalist. Now there were certain things about the fundamentalists that we wouldn’t hold but they got sidetracked on superficial things, the length of your hair, the length of the sleeves. For a while we were part of a very narrow group. My mother couldn’t wear anything that had sleeves above the elbow. That was worldly and the hair had to be pulled back in a bun. We attended a Bible teaching church but no ladies in the choir could wear lipstick because that was drawing attention; those kinds of things.

We have to be careful that we don’t add superficial things to the truth. We become like the Pharisees. We are going to protect the Word of God by adding all these things to be sure people don’t get drawn away. No, it is enough just to be Biblical but we can’t sacrifice what the Bible says to become more acceptable. We want to be sure the Bible requires this. The Bible forbids this or the Bible permits this or the Bible doesn’t address it. Even as the pastor of this church that doesn’t give me the right to impose my convictions on you. You have liberty and freedom. I have liberty and freedom and there are certain things that are done because there has to be certain order so we have to decide. We will meet at 10:30 on Sunday morning and 6:00 on Sunday evening and somebody says, “Well, why is that Biblical?” It’s not. We have just decided it will work best for us as a church to meet at this time. So there are going to be those kinds of things and we are just going to accept. That’s right. We are not saying to get to heaven you have to meet at 10:30 on Sunday morning. The church may meet at 1:00 on Sunday afternoon or 10:30 on Saturday morning or 4:30 on Friday afternoon but the truths of Scripture we stand for. That is the obvious.

Alright, come over to I John chapter 2. That is just after Peter, in fact 2 Peter. You probably only have a page or two to turn and you will be in I John chapter 2. Look what he says in verse 18: “Children, it is the last hour.” So again, the last days, the last hour. Live in light on the importance of the coming of Christ and the end of these things. “Just as you heard that antichrist is coming,” the antichrist which we will be talking about in Revelation, “even now many antichrists have appeared.” So there is one culminating figure. In the life of the church already there were antichrists who were undermining the truth concerning Christ turning people away from faithfulness. “Antichrists have appeared. From this we know it is the last hour.” They had begun in the New Testament to live in the light of the imminent coming of Christ. We saw this in Revelation chapter 1. “I am coming soon.” My coming is imminent. You better live like that. It will be unacceptable for any of us if the Lord shows up in the morning, sometime this evening yet. We say, “Oh, I wasn’t expecting You.” “What do you mean you weren’t expecting me? I told you I was coming at any time. You lie like you are expecting me at any time.” That doesn’t mean I don’t make some plans for tomorrow but I realize those plans are dependent upon the fact the Lord doesn’t come tonight among other things. That is what He is saying. It is the last hour.

When we lose that perspective we begin to settle down into a comfortable Christianity and a comfortable relationship with the world that I am going to be here awhile and I just want to be able to get along. That is not acceptable. It is the last hour. What has happened? Verse 19: “They went out from us but they were really not of us. For if they had been of us they would have remained with us but they went out so it would be shown they are not all of us.” Already you have defections. This is not, you know, one believer goes to another believing church, believes that is where the Lord wants to use him but here people have been revealed. That is what Paul told the Corinthians. “There must be divisions among you so that those who are approved,” the word dokimos, who pass the test become evident. John says “Some have been revealed.” They went out. Why, because they held the truth and those who weren’t going to stay with the truth if they can’t win them over they move on to someplace where they can be effective. That doesn’t mean the devil won’t try again. “If they had been of us they would have remained with us.”

In other words true believers don’t abandon the faith. We are talking about the perseverance of the saints. Again, don’t go out and you know by the time this makes its way around people will be saying, “Gil preached that anybody who leaves Indian Hills was really an unbeliever.” Well I didn’t really preach that so what I am saying is if you abandon the truth of God you reveal your character. We have people who were part of this church for years and today they don’t hold to the truth. That is true in any church. That has been there for a while. People settle in, fit, become part of it, and I say that for people for their own testimony who have said they don’t believe the truth. So that is what John is talking about.

Jude 18 and then we come back and finish the section in Peter. Jude, that is just after the epistles of John. Jude, verse 18. Verse 17, you see this constant emphasis. What is Jude saying? Verse 17: “But you beloved.” There is that word, the same word Peter is talking about. I am telling you because I love you so much. “You ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ that they were saying to you, ‘in the last times there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts. These were the ones who caused divisions, worldly minded, devoid of the Spirit but you beloved.’” He is not saying it is true of all of those. That doesn’t mean there are differences we have in certain areas but as believers we hold to the truth and otherwise those who get carried and depart form the truth, John says, “They never really had a handle on the truth in a saving way.”

Come back to Peter. This is Peter’s concern. “Mockers will come following after their own lusts.” I mean all that is in the world, we keep going back to I John 2, “The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and boasting about what you have in life.” That is what the unbeliever has. He is driven by his selfish desires, self-centeredness, selfishness, his own lusts. That’s what they follow after. Their connection to the Word and attachment to the Word has been superficial. Then they will be saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? Forever since the fathers fell asleep all things continue just as it was from the beginning of creation.”

So these are mockers, scoffers. Psalm 1 begins with a blessing for those who don’t sit in the seat of the scoffers. They don’t give their ears to the mockers, the scoffers. These are those following after their own lusts so they mock the Word. They are scoffing, “Where is the promise of His coming?” Well you know it has been a long time and a variation of this begins to creep into the evangelical church. Look, we are just not going to talk about prophetic things. The Lord will work out the future. It sounds like well they are not you know, that is not a problem. I am willing to trust the Lord with the future. Don’t you think it is more important how we are living now? I think it is more important to put our focus where God says our focus must be. So I am concerned about anyone who professes to be a believer but that tells me understand what God says about the future is not that important. Now I am not saying that is an unbeliever but I am saying what have we done when we begin to open the door a crack? Well, that portion of the Word really doesn’t matter because we believe God will work it out however He wants it to be. There are so many different views on understanding prophecy we don’t want to make that an issue. Well, they might say, “Well we still believe in His coming. That is what we have to believe in, His coming and as long as we believe that Jesus is coming again the other things don’t matter.” Well then why didn’t God help simplify it and keep our mind clear? Why didn’t He just tell us, “Jesus is coming again and that is all you need to know?”

We have the whole book of Revelation that people will write off because that is not that important. All that matters is chapter 19, “Jesus is coming again.” Everything else you can just disregard.

Well now we have opened the door and it is going to get pushed open wider. They say, “Where is the promise of His coming?” And it is true. For 2,000 years we have been saying, “Jesus is going to come again, Jesus is going to come again.” This is what they are saying and “Ever since the father’s fell asleep all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” So you understand nothing has changed. Well some things have changed. Christ did come the first time but you know you skip over things so what happens is we begin to piecemeal Scripture and they take pieces of Scripture.

Peter is going to give an example here. “All things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” Well first off, when they maintained this “it escapes their notice that by the Word of God the heavens existed long ago. The earth was formed out of water and by water.” We have to come right in to start at the beginning. They say, “From the beginning of creation” however that was.

Well let’s talk about how creation occurred. We haven’t had now as the world has become more scientific in this and you know what? Most of our Christian schools have picked up “scientific approach” of evolution. So now even those I have talked to men as well as reading their writings that I believe in salvation by faith in Christ. I know men have to believe in Him but I don’t believe the Biblical account of Genesis. I believe evolution and I believe somewhere 4 billion years ago maybe God started the process but it has just been an evolving process and whether there was ever a literal Adam and Eve or not doesn’t make any difference. Well what he says, this makes a world of difference. First thing “it escapes their notice,” note, “by the Word of God.” And he will mention that again, verse 7, “By His Word.” How did this begin?

You know this is a problem with altering the opening chapters of Genesis. Well it is creation style literature. We don’t have to interpret it literally. So in other words Peter is just acting on the ignorance of the time because it wasn’t created by the Word of God as Genesis 1 says, “God spoke and it happened.” Well now I not only have a problem with the beginning of Genesis. I have a problem with Peter and then you see how we begin to corrupt the Word of God because well he is speaking according to the understanding of his time and day. Now science had given us a clearer understanding.

So if Peter was writing it today he might not do it that way. Now what are we doing with Scripture? Now this is what is going on in the evangelical world. You see once we begin to do this with Scripture now we have opened the door a little further. Now it is getting broader. Now we have to question the Biblical account of creation and you know what he says, “It escapes their notice.” This is something these false teachers overlook, don’t take into account. “It was by the Word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water.”

Come back to Genesis 1 and this is where we have to stop not for your sake but for the nursery workers and those that they do threaten me that they will turn all those little ones loose into the auditorium if I go too far.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void. Darkness was over the face of the deep. The Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters then God said.” You know what the Spirit of God is directing Peter to do? Write it exactly as the Spirit of God moved Moses to record it in the book of Genesis, “By the Word of God.” We have it in verse 5, “God called;” verse 6, “Then God said;” verse 9, “Then God said;” verse 11, “Then God said;” verse 14, “Then God said;” verse 20, “Then God said.” But that doesn’t really mean it was created by God speaking. Phew and the air goes out. I not only can’t trust this. Then I can’t trust Peter. Well just understand. They wrote in their time period.

Well you know the Bible never said the world was square. So the Bible never said anything that wasn’t true about the earth and the world and the creation. This is how it came into existence.

Come to Psalm 33. We have a few minutes before the kids will be here, Psalm 33. If I see the doors open I will just say, Amen and you will know we are done. 33, verse 6: “by the Word of the Lord the heavens were made. By the breath of His mouth all their hosts.” Now I have a problem with the Psalmist. Now you see how seemingly, well that is scholarly to know Genesis was never expected to be interpreted literally but it undermines confidence in the rest of the writers of Scripture, Old and New Testament alike because there is a consistency that this is how it happened. It is not a myth. It is not just a story and it fits reality and true science better than anything else does. So it is not a matter of faith.

Those who were writing, one writer he taught at an evangelical seminary for years, he has written books and he has some good things in it but he said, “Science shows there was never a literal Adam and Eve. It doesn’t bother me a bit.” The drift occurred. Where will it stop? And the comparison in Romans 5 with Christ as the second Adam begins to dissolve if there was no first Adam. And so you end up with liberal theology. You say, “how do they get here?” Churches that just disregard the Bible and read verses and talk about it. Well you begin to take it apart, piece by piece. The devil is clever. Yes, I am not a scientist. Scientists demonstrate that Genesis couldn’t have happened that way, well I guess it didn’t happen that way. Then they want to say about the flood of Noah, well if those didn’t happen what do you make out of a literal hell? And now we have some of those evangelicals who wrote in a book, we don’t believe in a literal hell. You don’t have to take that as fire. You don’t have to take that as suffering forever. So we dismantle the front. We dismantle the back and the in between just begins to crumble.

So we don’t want to be deluded. It doesn’t matter how many people vote that evolution is right. God’s vote is the only one that counts and we want to be on His side and that is where we take out stand.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for Your Word. We would never take for granted the awesome privilege that is ours to have been born again by Your grace and now be entrusted with the treasure of Your Word. May it be a great treasure to us. May we hold it precious. May we not yield on our stand for the truth, our giving forth of the Truth. May we do it in love. May we do it in kindness, may we do it intolerant to error and corruption. Bless us in the week ahead as we represent You wherever You put us we pray in Christ’s name amen.