End-Time Scoffers… Following Their Own Lusts
2Pet 3:1-7
Be encouraged… God is sovereign. (2Pet 2:9)
God is all powerful & controls all things…He has permitted evil, but He keeps it within bounds & limits. (Job 1&2)
Nothing is more certain than fact that God punishes sin, evil, & unrighteousness. (Ps 73)
The way of the transgressor is hard (Pr 13:15)… sin’s excitement & fun for a season soon turns to misery & wretchedness..
After death, the ungodly will be judged…The Lord knows how to reserve the ungodly for the Day of Judgment to be punished. (v.2:9)
The “marks” of the godly… examine yourself.
There are only two kinds of people in the world… the godly & the ungodly...those who are God’s people & those who are against God.
The fate of those two groups is already fixed… if you are godly, you will be delivered out of the final judgment; if you are ungodly, you will be involved in it.
Therefore, the most important thing is that you make certain you are among the godly!
What are the “marks” of the godly? You must believe on & trust only in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior& Lord. False teachers & their ungodly followers deny Christ’s deity & lordship. The godly see that the world is opposed to God & under judgment. The godly therefore separate themselves from it… they refuse to be controlled by it, or to live its kind of life. They choose to live for the glory of God, their passion is to know & please Him, to praise His Great & Holy Name, & to lift up Jesus that He might draw all men to himself.
End-time scoffers… it’s not about science (2Pet 3:3-5)
End-time scoffers are willingly ignorant of biblical facts that by the Word of God the earth was formed out of & by water, & by these waters it was later destroyed. (2Pet 3:5-6)
In spite of extreme inconsistencies of their own theory of naturalistic evolution, they refuse to consider seriously the biblical story of Creation.
In spite of overwhelming evidence from geology, archeology, & other fields of science, their minds are closed to possibility that God made the heavens & earth.
Scoffers don’t want the flood story to be true because it would go against their theories & presuppositions… they don’t want the truth if it leads to God.
If they accept the truth about creation & that God has judged the earth in Noah’s day, then they must accept truth that Christ will return & once again God will judge the unrighteous.
The ungodly scoffer shuts out the personal & moral God of the Bible… he is offended by moral demands of Bible & purpose to walk after his own lusts. (v.3:3; Jn 3:19-20)
People who mock the Bible are doing so primarily because they don’t want to live up to its demands… not a mater of philosophy/science but of not wanting to give up their sins.
The importance of biblical history. (2Pet 3:1-7)
Jesus & NT writers treated the events & stories of OT as historic facts. (Balaam’s talking donkey: 2Pet 2:16; The Flood: 1Pet 3:20; 2Pet 2:5-6;3:6; Mt 24:38-39; Jonah: Mt 12:39-41; Lk 11:29-32; Creation: 2Pet 3:5)
OT reveals that natural/rational man’s normal reaction to God’s revelation is to refuse it, ridicule His warnings, & then be overwhelmed by the judgment.
NT warns that mankind will scoff at revelation of Christ’s second coming. (Mt 24:37-39)
Scoffers today ridicule what Bible teaches about Creation, history, & final outcome of life.
It is fundamentally a matter of faith, & of acceptance of the teachings of Scripture. It’s not a matter of reason… you either accept the revelation of the Bible, or you don’t.
Those who reject it are scoffers… they challenge with reason things that are by nature supernatural… beyond the mind of man & which powers of reason can never attain to.
Creation, God making something out of nothing, is a miracle, & natural man rejects it. (Evolution leaves unsolved the question of where the original matter came from)
Bible is supernatural & filled with the miraculous… it asks us to accept it by faith.
By faith in God, we are to accept His revelation & submit to the authority of Bible.
All Scripture is God-breathed (2Tim 3:16), & sits in judgment of us, not we of it.
Heresy: we can accept the principles & teaching of Bible, but reject the facts.
Miracles aren’t meant to be understood… they are meant to be believed.
For men not to believe warning of coming judgment is to shut his eyes to history. Almighty God who brings things into being out of nothing can also destroy them in a moment.
God is on the throne.
Don’t let the mocking words of scoffers trouble you.
Those who ridicule teaching regarding Christ’s return are unwittingly fulfilling Bible prophecy. God told us they would appear in the last days. (2Pet 3:3)
Remember, scoffers are willfully ignorant of the promise of Christ’s coming.
They are walking after their own lusts (following their own evil desires)… they don’t want to know the truth. They’re interested in finding a way to sin without fear of punishment.
Don’t be discouraged by current events. God is on the throne, & He’s in charge of history.
God will allow forces of evil to go just so far, & then He will step in. It may appear that evil scoffers are getting away with blasphemy, but their day of reckoning is sure to come.
In the end, the righteous (godly) will be honored, & the evil (ungodly) will be punished, & God will be glorified… God knows how to hold the unrighteous for the Day of Judgment, & how to rescue godly men from trials. (v.2:9)
08-23-09