Judgment

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Sunday morning, the 24th of January, 2021, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  This was an abbreviated service due to constraints put in place from the COVID-19 pandemic.  Our YouTube streaming channel is:

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDIz4WuP8igQstkEOq1AMTg.  Look for the video of our recorded services on our Vimeo channel:  http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]

While Jesus still walked this earth, He kept telling His followers what would soon happen, how He would be sacrificed for our sins, die and be buried, but then rise again from the dead before ascending back into heaven, with the promise of returning someday to take His church home.  He also told them of the judgment to follow, judgment for the whole world.  But the disciples didn’t really understand what Jesus was trying to impart, not until after He died and was resurrected and they saw with their own eyes the truth of His words.

Perhaps most notable of those who had trouble grasping what Jesus told him was Peter.  But he finally did get it, he finally saw the truth, and then tried to share it with everyone else.  Please listen and follow along to the words the Apostle Peter wrote in his 2nd letter to the early church, from chapter 1 verse 19 through chapter 2 verse 17, and I’ll be reading from the Living Bible this morning…

1:19 So we have seen and proved that what the prophets said came true. You will do well to pay close attention to everything they have written, for, like lights shining into dark corners, their words help us to understand many things that otherwise would be dark and difficult. But when you consider the wonderful truth of the prophets’ words, then the light will dawn in your souls and Christ the Morning Star will shine in your hearts. 20-21 For no prophecy recorded in Scripture was ever thought up by the prophet himself. It was the Holy Spirit within these godly men who gave them true messages from God.

2:1 But there were false prophets, too, in those days, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly tell their lies about God, turning against even their Master who bought them; but theirs will be a swift and terrible end. 2 Many will follow their evil teaching that there is nothing wrong with sexual sin. And because of them Christ and His way will be scoffed at.

3 These teachers in their greed will tell you anything to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago and their destruction is on the way. 4 For God did not spare even the angels who sinned, but threw them into hell, chained in gloomy caves and darkness until the judgment day. 5 And He did not spare any of the people who lived in ancient times before the flood except Noah, the one man who spoke up for God, and his family of seven. At that time God completely destroyed the whole world of ungodly men with the vast flood. 6 Later, He turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into heaps of ashes and blotted them off the face of the earth, making them an example for all the ungodly in the future to look back upon and fear.

7-8 But at the same time the Lord rescued Lot out of Sodom because he was a good man, sick of the terrible wickedness he saw everywhere around him day after day. 9 So also the Lord can rescue you and me from the temptations that surround us, and continue to punish the ungodly until the day of final judgment comes. 10 He is especially hard on those who follow their own evil, lustful thoughts, and those who are proud and willful, daring even to scoff at the Glorious Ones without so much as trembling, 11 although the angels in heaven who stand in the very presence of the Lord, and are far greater in power and strength than these false teachers, never speak out disrespectfully against these evil Mighty Ones.

12 But false teachers are fools — no better than animals. They do whatever they feel like; born only to be caught and killed, they laugh at the terrifying powers of the underworld which they know so little about; and they will be destroyed along with all the demons and powers of hell.

13 That is the pay these teachers will have for their sin. For they live in evil pleasures day after day. They are a disgrace and a stain among you, deceiving you by living in foul sin on the side while they join your love feasts as though they were honest men. 14 No woman can escape their sinful stare, and of adultery they never have enough. They make a game of luring unstable women. They train themselves to be greedy; and are doomed and cursed. 15 They have gone off the road and become lost like Balaam, the son of Beor, who fell in love with the money he could make by doing wrong; 16 but Balaam was stopped from his mad course when his donkey spoke to him with a human voice, scolding and rebuking him.

17 These men are as useless as dried-up springs of water, promising much and delivering nothing; they are as unstable as clouds driven by the storm winds. They are doomed to the eternal pits of darkness.

--2 Peter 1:19-2:17 (TLB)

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for giving our early church leaders insight into Your truth.  Even the men who walked with Your Son for three years had trouble understanding everything until You opened their eyes.  Please help us understand as well.  Thank You for giving us Your words in our Bible, so that we can better understand.  And Father, please protect us from those who work for the devil and who would lead us away from Your Son Jesus.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and purpose in our love and worship, and healthy and safe through these trying times.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit and better understand the message You have for us this day.  Help us spend more time in our Bibles so that we can better grasp the truth You have given us.  Teach us all we need to know.  This we pray in the blessed name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

In South Africa, naturist club owner Beau Brummell was irked by accusations from morals watchdogs that a shriveling Transvaal drought was brought on by the "sin" of nude togetherness at his 1000-acre farm.  So he asked his 370 visitors to get dressed.  And, for the first time in two months, it poured rain.  "It's enough to make me become a monk!", Brummell grumbled.

You’ve probably heard of Beau Brummell, usually associated with clothing rather than nudity.  But there he was, owner of a club where guests could run around nude all the time.  And the land was experiencing a horrible drought.  The locals complained that the drought was God’s punishment for the sin being allowed to continue at Brummell’s club.  Finally, Brummell asked his guests to get dressed, and just like that it started to rain and the drought ended.  It’s like God had passed judgment on the entire Transvaal region because of the sin of Brummell’s club.  Sort of like Sodom and Gomorrah, maybe?

A gentleman by the name of John Endsley once said, "It is not the severity of punishment that acts as a deterrent.  It is its inevitability."  Well, when it comes to the punishment God dispenses, it can be both very severe and entirely consistent.

Yet we tend to ignore what He has done in the past, or think He would never do that to us.  Perhaps we're beginning to see how wrong that line of thinking truly is.

And that should have been evident to us all along.  As Peter noted, we have seen and proved that what the prophets said came true.  Everything Jesus said has come true.  What the apostles saved for us in their Gospel accounts and their letters has come true.  So we would do well to pay close attention to everything they have written, everything saved in our Bibles for us.  Their words are like lights shining into dark corners, showing us what might otherwise be kept dark and hidden, difficult to understand.

And the devil would much prefer we not see and understand that there are those among us who would mislead us.  There are men and women standing in their pulpits this very morning telling lies about God and Jesus, saying that everything in our Bible is subject to our own interpretation, twisting God’s words to meet their own personal agendas.  There are those in positions of authority, even in our seminaries, who say there are no absolute truths, that there are many ways to heaven other than through Jesus alone, that there is nothing sinful about having sex with whoever, or whatever, you want, that we can treat anyone anyway we want as long as we “believe”.

Sadly, many people will be led astray because of them.  Many people will step off the straight and narrow path and follow the road of personal pleasure and gain.  And worst of all, this will cause Jesus and His way of truth, and those who follow Him, to be scoffed at and ridiculed.

Those who do follow Jesus, who try to stay on His path, should remember that God has promised that this sort of misbehavior will not go unpunished.  These false prophets, false teachers, will be severely punished for they are already condemned.  After all, God did not spare the angels who rebelled against Him, nor the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, nor all the world’s people except for Noah and his family when He brought forth the great flood.

God’s punishment is severe and inevitable.  As Peter notes, He is especially hard on those who follow their own evil, lustful thoughts, on those who are proud and willful, on those who spread their lies.

We need to understand that everyone will be judged at the last, but the fate of the wicked will be horrible.  To avoid their fate, we must do as Peter warns and be very wary those who teach anything counter to what our Bible says.

The Apostle Jude very closely echoed the words of Peter in his own letter to the early church, holding to the same truth that the wicked will be punished.  Listen to what Jude wrote in the opening chapter of his letter, verses 3 through 11…

3 Dearly loved friends, I had been planning to write you some thoughts about the salvation God has given us, but now I find I must write of something else instead, urging you to stoutly defend the truth that God gave once for all to His people to keep without change through the years. 4 I say this because some godless teachers have wormed their way in among you, saying that after we become Christians we can do just as we like without fear of God’s punishment. The fate of such people was written long ago, for they have turned against our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

5 My answer to them is: Remember this fact — which you know already — that the Lord saved a whole nation of people out of the land of Egypt and then killed every one of them who did not trust and obey Him. 6 And I remind you of those angels who were once pure and holy but turned to a life of sin. Now God has them chained up in prisons of darkness, waiting for the judgment day. 7 And don’t forget the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns, all full of lust of every kind, including lust of men for other men. Those cities were destroyed by fire and continue to be a warning to us that there is a hell in which sinners are punished.

8 Yet these false teachers carelessly go right on living their evil, immoral lives, degrading their bodies and laughing at those in authority over them, even scoffing at the Glorious Ones. 9 Yet Michael, one of the mightiest of the angels, when he was arguing with Satan about Moses’ body, did not dare to accuse even Satan, or jeer at him, but simply said, “The Lord rebuke you.” 10 But these men mock and curse at anything they do not understand, and like animals, they do whatever they feel like, thereby ruining their souls.

11 Woe upon them! For they follow the example of Cain who killed his brother; and like Balaam, they will do anything for money; and like Korah, they have disobeyed God and will die under his curse.

--Jude 1:3-11 (TLB)

Jude felt the great need to “stoutly defend the truth that God gave once for all to His people to keep without change through the years”.  Why?  Because there were too many false teachers going around spreading untruths, or interpreting things in a way God did not intend.

God’s word is forever, constant, unchanging.  It does not “evolve” with the times, as some people might want us to think.  To teach otherwise, to get people to believe otherwise, will bring condemnation and God’s punishment.

Jude warns that just because we now accept Jesus as our Lord, that doesn’t mean we can go back to doing whatever we want without worrying about being punished for what God has said is wrong!  Anyone who says differently is a false teacher, and they will be punished.

These false prophets, false teachers, remain disobedient to God.  They carelessly, disdainfully go right on living their evil, immoral lives, degrading their bodies and laughing at those in authority over them.  Woe upon them!  Woe upon them, for they have disobeyed God and will die under His condemnation.

Family, we need to heed the warnings Peter and Jude give.  We must beware those who would tell us that what our Bible says is not strictly true, or that it only applies to ancient times or to certain people or in particular circumstances.  We must avoid false prophets and their teachings, but to do so, we need to better understand just what it is that our Bible tells us.

Too many people spend no time at all reading their Bible.  We need to sit down, open our Bible and read it.  And if we can’t easily understand what we’re reading, then we need to get a different version or even invest a little in a good Study Bible.  Of course, there are some parts that still won’t be very easy to grasp, even with repeated reading and much study.  That’s where prayer comes in - prayer for clarity, insight, and vision.

So let’s get into our Bibles more, and pray for God to open up our eyes and our minds and our hearts to His word, His truth.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord, the one true Son of God, the Truth.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You so much for our Bible and all the truth and warnings it holds for us.  In it You have saved Your eternal word, so that we might know what is coming and what to expect when this age ends.  Thank You, Father, for providing this for our benefit.  We know we need to spend more time reading it, but sometimes we are confused by what we read.  Father, please help us better understand.  Please give us clarity and insight into Your truth and word.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more faithful and true, putting all our trust in You and Jesus, and seeking Your help as we do so…

Lord Jesus, when You walked this earth, You told Your followers what to expect, not only in their time but as the age draws to a close.  In turn, they recorded those words, in their accounts of Your life and in their letters to the early church.  Please, Lord, help us better understand what they saved for us.  Help us recognize and beware those who would tell us lies about God’s word.  Help us show the world the truth that comes from God alone.  Let the whole world see that truth so they might believe in You and accept You as Lord.  And Jesus, please help us keep our focus on the needs of others rather than on anything this life might tempt us with.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.