Judgment Is Coming - November 29, 2020

when i was 18 years old i left jacksonville florida and i went to a small bible college in dallas texas called the criswell college and it was known for imparting strong belief in the authority of the bible into the students one of the extracurricular activities that you could sign up for and actually get credit for was something they called street preaching they'd been doing it for years ever since dr chris wolf founded the school as a part of the great first baptist church in dallas i remember signing up for street preaching at the behest of some of my friends that i had met and how we walked several blocks from where the school was located down to the main bus terminal for the dallas area rapid transit or dart as it's called and they gave us all megaphones to use and to split up and we were to go out and preach about god's provision of salvation through the gospel with our voices amplified with these megaphones and these startled people standing waiting for their bus listening to us and maybe trying to tune us out now i just have to tell you something i was horrified i was terrified i don't know who was more scared the people listening to us or me holding that megaphone and i only did it that one time because i just felt like this isn't the way i feel comfortable sharing my faith now there were some of those guys they lived to do that and in god's goodness they were able to lead some people to the lord jesus christ but i found different ways to share my faith than street preaching since then every now and then i'll come across someone who's standing on a street corner or maybe through the years i've seen someone standing in a park holding up a sign and preaching about salvation and escaping the fires of hell and i know all of that plays into a caricature but whether or not i'm comfortable doing that with a megaphone or standing on a street corner it doesn't change the fact that the message is true there is a judgment from which god has provided us an escape through the provision of the cross it's not a judgment that we're being led to fear a judgment of our peers a judgment from our culture because we use the wrong word to and we say something that triggers someone else thinking that we meant something we didn't really mean it's not that kind of judgment that we need to be concerned about and it's certainly not the judgment that we need to fear that somewhere in our family tree 200 years ago someone in our ancestry mistreated another human being and we need to feel guilty for something someone i never met did to someone else i never met no it's not that kind of ridiculous judgment that we're hearing so much about in this day and time it's not a judgment of our peers it's not a judgment of culture it's not a judgment of all of these enlightened hollywood elites it's not a judgment we need to fear from all of the academics and phds no there is a judgment from god that we are facing and as simple as it sounds that's the title of the message judgment is coming and i want you to open your bibles with me to second peter chapter three and we're going to read verses one through nine and we'll just take the first four verses as we begin reading but as you find it in your copy of scripture and i hope that wherever you are and whatever you're doing unless you're driving as some of you said you listen while you're driving find a literal copy of scripture one you can make notes in and underline and i want you to engage with me in this important study in second peter chapter three let's just read verses one through four where he says beloved i now write to you this second epistle in both of which i stir up your pure minds by way of reminder that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us and he says we're the apostles he was one of the twelve as we know the apostles of the lord and savior knowing this first that scoffers will come in the last days walking according to their own lusts and what are they going to be saying they're going to be saying where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue just as they have from the beginning of creation so what i want us to do is to walk through this passage of scripture and i want you to realize the seriousness of these words although penned two thousand years ago by one of the twelve followers of jesus in fact many people have assigned to him the position of ring leader of the apostles penned by him two millennia ago and yet never more relevant than the day in which you and i live today as we see the things that are going on around us and i'm going to give you some basic points that i hope you'll write down today as we think about this idea of judgment coming but think with me a moment about this truth that the warning of of an impending judgment is never fashionable it's never fashionable it's never the cool or hip thing to talk about when you mention the judgment of god when peter began here in our first verse he says i write to you this second epistle did you notice that when we were reading so he's referring to first peter and he's saying these two letters that i have written to you now with this one being the second they have much of the same content some of this is repetition but it is for the cause of effect i want you to understand he's writing it twice he says that this is serious god has promised judgment for the earth god has promised to return to the earth to establish his rule which will be accompanied by a purging of the ungodly through a literal time of judgment and he says here that you are mindful of the writings of the prophets we understand that most of his readers had been jews who now have put their faith in christ and being from a jewish background they were familiar with the sacred writings of the old testament and he says there in verse number two i i want to remind you of the words which were spoken by the holy prophets which says they were aware they'd been exposed to those teachings but then he says and also to the commandments of us the apostles so speaking in concert with the old testament prophets the new testament apostles with their preaching and eventually with their letters which became the new testament that completed god's revelation the message is the same the message is this that god's grace is the only way by which sinful people can be saved but apart from god's grace and apart from faith in jesus christ people will stand before the judgment of a holy god this is what he's saying that he's writing to remind them of and as we were reading it he says let's get one thing straight right off the bat in verse number three he said scoffers will come in the last day the new american translates that word mockers think about that he's saying they're going to be people in the last days who mock and scoff at this idea of christ returning to the earth of god literally judging the world and that sinful people will give an account for every sin they've committed unless they've received the forgiveness that comes through the cross of jesus christ he says scoffers mockers people are going to think this is crazy stuff what it belongs to some backwoods cult somewhere living off the land in the compound and with the leader of practicing polygamist this kind of crazy apocalyptic notion it's far from mainstream and what peter is saying 2 000 years ago is that the later time grows the more there will be scoffing and ridiculing at this truth taught in the bible and their question is going to be where is the promise of his coming meaning that the christian message is one about salvation yes but the urgency with which we preach and the passion with which we engage this mission of we want to get everybody saved what motivates us to do that is we know the clock is ticking and judgment day is coming let's not let's not be coy about it let's not try to baptize this in coolness the way the contemporary church is trying to do let's keep it real for for the reality it is in scripture and peter is telling us that their questions their ridicule has to do with this idea of the lord returning to the earth now where will these scoffers come from well they're going to be false teachers first of all that's right false teachers who masquerade as christians he referred to this group already in the second chapter of this letter and i want to put it on the screen for you from second peter chapter two he warned them there were also false prophets among the people back in the times of israel even as there will be false teachers among you and they're going to secretly bring in destructive heresies heresies are teachings that are contradictory to the bible and they're even going to be willing to deny the lord who purchased them bought them on the cross with his blood and they will bring on themselves swift destruction and look at what he says in verse 2 of chapter 2 many will follow their destructive ways now i want you to understand what he's warning about prophetically is that much of the ridicule and the unbelief that assaults the gospel and the teaching of the return of christ and the judgment of god on a sinful humanity much of that will originate from within the ranks of christianity oh yeah from people who are getting paid by their churches to preach and their preaching either disregards the scripture or are completely denies the scripture and undermines the authority of scripture because they make light of the supernatural element of the holy scriptures so there will be pastors who masquerade as christian but they are called false prophets in the script they're going to be priests with clerical collars they are men of the cloth and nowadays there are women of the cloth and they're masquerading as holy servants of god but peter warned that in the last days though they look and sound like servants of god and messengers of god in their heart and many of them with their own lips they deny the truths presented in scripture that are fundamental to our faith and i want to add to that whether it's pastors or priests i want to add to this professors that are teaching theology in all kinds of colleges and universities and seminaries where they have been given a platform through their educational pedigree and all of the ethos that accompanies that and through the platform they've been given they sow seeds of doubt unbelief skepticism and even outright ridicule on the teachings of the bible particularly when it comes to this idea of a coming judgment peter tells us they are going to be from within our own ranks and i can tell you this i went to a seminary and i was taught by people who fit this description not all of them of course but there were enough of them to make me sick to my stomach to know that had i not been properly grounded before i got to the seminary i would have walked away from the seminary with doubts and questions and unbelief when it comes to the teachings of the bible about who jesus is and about the end of time and all the things that prophecy foretells which will come to an eventual culmination and so i want you to notice though what motivates people to deny the reality of judgment in verse number three of our passage it says knowing first that scoffers will come in the last days walking according to their own lust and all i wanted you to see there was they will walk according to their own lust which means if you think about it if i deny the reality of some kind of judgment i can live any way i want to live so deny the judgment live a lustful life discard the idea of god requiring a reckoning for sinful decisions discard all of that dismiss it as religious zealotry dismiss all that you can live according to your own desires it's it's it's easy to see why people don't want to talk about judgment why pastors don't preach about judgment because we would rather live life our way we would rather tell god what he can do with it and we would rather walk according to our own ambitions our own desires and as he says they're our own lusts and he says many of these false teachers who deny the truths of the bible they're denying it so they can walk in the fulfillment of their lust but we also know in addition to pastors and priests and religious leaders and theological professors there are going to be unbelievers people who don't who are outside the christian community who scoff and ridicule at this let me just boil it all down when it comes to the idea of the doctrine of judgment haters going to hate haters going to hate there will always be those who deny this what is the what are the claims of of those who who say the judgment is not real they say well it's just a scare tactic he told us there we were reading there a moment ago in verse number four they say since the fathers fell asleep in other words since people have been dying all of the ancestors have passed away and gone on to wherever they've gone he says all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation or the beginning of time so the claim of those who ridicule judgment is hey life keeps going man people live people die there are others who come behind them they live and they die and some people do good things some people do bad things but everything just happens in cycles it's been this way since the beginning of time and this notion that it's all going to come to an end with some kind of doomsday scenario that is just absolutely absurd and no one who is intellectually informed no one who truly is a critical thinker who who is governed by the laws of logic nobody would believe any of that stuff judgment is just a religious scare tactic that people use to manipulate other people that's what many people will say and then some people say well this idea of judgment is to turn off the people you know i've even read some materials several articles and found it in a few books and i'll leave it at that but there are even people who tell pastors you shouldn't preach about these things these are the kinds of things that people do not want to hear and when you preach like this your church won't grow those are the kinds of things that young pastors are being told many of them by very successful pastors slick and polished cool and hip pastors who'll say leave the talk of judgment especially out of your sunday morning sermon repertoire because it'll be a turn off to millennials it'll be a turn off to other generational groups it's a turn off and then of course there are people who say the sound the message of god's judgment sounds too antiquated it's old-fashioned when you preach about god's judgment uh it it you run the risk of sounding like some backwood country bumpkin preacher yelling into the microphone gasping for breath between his exclamations pounding the pulpit and i'm going to tell you something just to be honest with you i love that kind of preaching i love that kind of preaching but but when someone talks about judgment it sounds very obsolete old-fashioned antiquated out of date it's not current it's not relevant it's not trendy and you know what a lot of people say a lot of people say the message of judgment is inconsistent with the idea that god is a god of love oh do you feel the warm goosebumps all over your body when you talk about god being a god of love and not of judgment the good news is he is a god of love but the reason we value his love and value his mercy and praise him for his grace is because in addition to being a loving god he is a holy god and because of what he put his son through to absorb his anger against sin christ took our judgment and when we claim faith in christ we are credited with what he purchased by paying for the judgment that we were owed and this is why god takes it so personally yes he's a god of love but when you reject what he went to such great lengths to give us in this holy book and when you and and others reject what he did in sending us not just a book but his own son he does not take that lightly which leads me to my second point that when you reject past judgment you're inviting future judgment when you reject the past record of judgment and say i don't believe that ever happened you're positioning yourself to face the certainty of future judgment and we know that the record of the first universal judgment against sinful humanity by god is is is in the book of genesis and those who reject that by refusing to believe that it ever happened are demonstrating that they will one day face the future universal judgment it'll be a different kind of judgment but it will be worldwide and comprehensive in scope let's look in verse number five for this they willfully forget that by the word of god the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of water and in the water by which the world that then existed perished being flooded with water but the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men so notice he says this they willfully forget i think that's interesting because typically we don't think of forgetting is something we deliberately do that's why we call it forgetting you don't just uh say i'm gonna forget my phone at the restaurant that you you forget it because you weren't thinking about it but peter's wording here's interesting he says they willfully forget what what does it mean to willfully forget it means that these ridiculers and scoffers and mockers they deliberately say i don't want to think about that i'm going to push that out of my mind and then i'm going to cross the line from just dismissing it to ridiculing it and making light of it they're choosing to reject the truth it's a choice they make and what are the truths that they're rejecting well he says by the word of god the universe and the earth were spoken into existence that's what the genesis account tells us god said it and it was let there be light and there was light and you can read about all of that in the first three chapters but what what do they do i'm going to call them deniers because they reject the genesis account of creation they say the genesis is a crown account of creation we don't believe it verse number five they deliberately forget and this is from the new living translation they deliberately forget that god made the heavens long ago by the word of his command and he brought the earth out from the water and he surrounded it with with water what is he talking about here in verse number five the genesis account of creation and scoffers who mock the idea of a future judgment they do so because they deny creation itself they don't believe that god created the earth the way the book of genesis teaches it and after all aren't there multiple theories of origin there is the big bang there is a theory of evolution set forth by darwin and now embraced as fact across the scientific community and taught in schools as fact and should we really strain it and that on this creation thing and interpret all of this literally well apparently jesus wasn't as enlightened as many people are today because jesus believed in a literal creation and a literal man and a literal woman as the first two members of the human race adam and eve he was asked a question about marriage in matthew 19 and verse number 4 he responded jesus said to them have you not read that he who made them at the beginning made them male and female what is he talking about there have you not read that he who made them at the beginning can you say genesis that's what he's talking about male and female that's adam and eve jesus believed in the genesis account of creation well let's see what else does peter tell us that they deny not only that they deny creation but in verse number six i want to put this up in the new living it says and that that god caused the earth to be surrounded by water it said in verse five but then that he used that same water the waters that were under the earth's surface as well as in the canopy of water above the earth he used those waters to destroy the ancient world with the mighty flood so peter is saying they have willfully rejected that willful forgetfulness deliberate not going to believe that so they not only reject the genesis account of creation but they reject the genesis account of noah's flood which is what he's talking about in chapter 3 and verse 6. and i've heard many people who claim to be christians talk like this well you know there should be various interpretations allowed for this idea of the flood i mean it's perfectly reasonable to interpret it figuratively or allegorically or just spiritually you know the way little boys and girls believe it like the other fairy tales that we teach children but the problem with that is jesus kind of ruins the notion that you can dismiss the flood of noah to some type of myth or some type of fable that god put in the bible to be a bedtime story for children or a little sunday school story for four-year-olds that that never really was based in fact yeah once again we look at jesus in matthew 24 37 he says but as the days of noah were that sounds literal to me so also will the coming of the son of man be for as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking marrying giving in marriage until the day that noah entered the ark and they did not know until the flood came and took them all away so also will the coming of the son of man be now listen if he's basing it on a figurative myth the flood of noah then when he says this coming of the son of man will be that way maybe that's figurative too no let me tell you something jesus believed in a literal noah a literal flood a literal washing away drowning of all of humanity except noah and in total eight members of his household and the stories recorded for us in the first book of the bible and he says until the floods began to rise the people were laughing they were drinking they were partying they were living their lives because they thought noah was a village idiot and he said it's going to be the same way when the son of man comes to the earth there will be a handful of people who are expecting him and the rest of the world will have embraced their own ideas and rejected the truths that are taught in this book we've got creation deniers we've got noah's flood deniers and you know you don't hear much about this today you don't hear people villainizing others for rejecting creation or rejecting the account of the flood in genesis i'll tell you what you hear about you're about people villainizing and demonizing climate deniers you say what's a climate denier well this is the cultural pejorative expression assigned to people like me and maybe a few of you people who've not drunk the radical extremist environmental kool-aid who swallowed the dogmatic claims of so-called science concerning human-caused global warming you you probably aren't aware that right now there are efforts underway both in the academy and among practicing attorneys let me tell you something when you get liberal academics partnered with well-funded attorneys well you want to know what you get you get where we are today in this country that's what you get but there is a strategic concerted effort to criminalize denying human-caused global warming no room for dissent there are people radical forces that will not rest until someone saying something like i'm saying right now does not land them in jail or with steep fines they're unable to pay it's coming and you will remember me saying this it is going to be one of the radical components of an agenda sweeping across this country now now now almost without restraint almost without restraint almost just two steps away yeah two two steps away from a full flood of ideology like noah's flood you see the problem is not when you deny the so-called climate change the problem is when you deny the god who created the world the way he said he did the problem is when you deny the first book of his holy word that teaches that this holy god judged the world through the universal flood and i'm telling you among all of these thousands and thousands of climate extremists and radicals you could count on one hand among them those who believe this book those who believe in the genesis account of creation and the flood of noah and paul calls paul wrote about them this is peter but in the first chapter of romans paul wrote about them in chapter 1 of romans verse 19 he says they know the truth about god because god has made it obvious to them they're not stupid for ever since the world was created there's genesis people have seen the earth and the sky this didn't happen by accident and through everything god made they can clearly see his invisible qualities his external power and divine nature and look at his conclusion it they have no excuse for not knowing god so they just want to throw all of us in jail or do what they can to intimidate us into silence if we don't walk in lockstep with with their belief but what they need to understand is they are without excuse for the truths that have been revealed which they have willfully chosen to deny look in verse number seven peter says back in chapter three of ii peter he says the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word that created them are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and the perdition of ungodly men the same authority and force of the spoken word of god that brought all of the universe and our world into existence out of nothing he spoke it and it happened that same authoritative compelling word the sovereign providential word of the living god is preserving the universe and the world until the day of final judgment so how is it that those who are the most dogmatic about an imminent doomsday caused by climate change uh will bring about this rejection of the god who created the earth that they say is being destroyed our bible teaches us that god is preserving the world for when he will bring judgment it's something that is in his hands let's let's remember psalm 24 tells us who the world belongs to it says the earth is the lord's and its fullness the world and all those who dwell therein for he has found it upon the seas established it upon the waters so let's get one thing straight this planet belongs to god and the only doomsday we need to fear is the doomsday of the returning of christ when ungodly and unsaved people will face his judgment that's the doomsday we should be worried about you know in genesis after the flood god gave the sign of the rainbow that's what the rainbow really means it was god's promise that he would never again judge the world with a universal flood so just remember universal judgment will not come through water according to second peter chapter three and verse seven universal judgments coming by fire the heavens and earth in the new living translation are being kept for the day of judgment what's going to happen on that day when ungodly people will be destroyed this is real this is promised the ungodly are going to face the wrath of god and the proof of someone's spiritual status is their affirmation of the truths set forth not only in this passage but in all of the word of god and what i want you to listen to me i can't say it any more clearly than i'm going to say it those who reject the notion of universal judgment depicted in the first book of the bible are certain to face the judgment depicted in the last book of the bible you reject the judgment in the first book you will stand before the judgment bar depicted in the last book and the bible of god's goodness grace and mercy the books of god's mercy are sandwiched between these two books that tell us how it all got started and how it's all going to end and this is what you and i need to be sure of is that we are prepared for the day of judgment and the last thing i want you to write down is just a thought i want you to think about is what's holding back the judgment from happening well i'm going to tell you what's holding it back god's mercy is delaying god's judgment his mercy the only reason that this universal judgment of god planting his feet through his glorified son on this planet breathing fire against all adversaries of truth righteousness holiness and end of the gospel the only reason he is holding that off keeping his finger on the pause button is because of his mercy when we started this passage peter says i am writing you now a second letter in other words i want to drill this in you know what the prophets have taught you you know what the apostles like me have taught you and now you need to realize and and i want you to think about how long ago did he write this 2000 years ago i think about how he and the other disciples when they saw jesus go back to heaven after his resurrection they were on the mount of olives you remember what the angels said as jesus left their sight he said this same jesus that you've seen go will come again in the same way in which you go and they left that mound of olives preaching and changed the world because they believed what the angels said in a literal physical bodily return of jesus to the earth they believed that they preached it and for 2000 years christians been preaching this and now it's almost like people have grown deaf to it yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah another religious zealot another religious fanatic another freak another person who's been brainwashed by some religious organization yeah another cult all kinds of things are hurled against this notion of jesus christ bringing judgment to the world but see we might think 2 000 years that's a long time if it hasn't happened by now it's never going to happen but peter answers that objection look in verses 8 and 9 chapter 3 he says but beloved do not forget this one thing that with the lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is one day the lord is not slack concerning his promise as some count slackness but is long suffering toward us not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day and we say two thousand years have gone since the disciples left the mount of olives and said he's coming back he's coming back he's coming back and i think about all of the preachers and all of the christians who have shared that with their friends and their family and their neighbors in every pulpit where that has pounded out and still no sign that jesus is coming back well surely after two thousand years god has forgotten but peter says hey you just need to realize thousand years is a long time in human reckoning but with god who is not confined by the boundaries and parameters of time a thousand years is just like one day so we may think two millennia have passed since jesus left promising to one day return but the way god looks at it only two days have passed just like that just imagine a great infinite god for whom time is immaterial because even time is something he created thousand years is like a a day but i want you to look at verse number nine where he says the lord isn't really being slow about his promise like some people think no he is being patient for your sake look at this he does not want anyone to be destroyed but he wants everyone to repent i want you to remember this verse many of you know it but for some of you this may be new this is one of the most important verses in our bible about the heart of god that god does not want people to perish god does not want people to be destroyed god does not want people to face judgment unprepared god wants to spare people of judgment he went to great lengths to make the provision for people to be spared from judgment and so why is he waiting to give us more time and you know what we need to get busy we've got people who need to be convinced people who need to be saved people who need to be loved people who need to be prayed for and that's what he's left us here to do you know the way i look at it this is the this is the time for the church to rise up this is the time for christians to be christians this is the time for every follower of jesus to become a bolder and a louder follower of christ compassionately and humbly sharing our faith with people so they can escape this coming judgment it's coming but we have the answer for escaping it so i want to ask you today are you prepared have you made the preparation by receiving what god offers you free of charge free simply for the taking all you have to do is say father i want to be saved i want to be spared i want to be shielded from the fire of your judgment i want to be your child and if you will ask god to forgive you and then place your faith in jesus his son to be your personal lord master savior you will have made the soul preparation that is required you can only escape judgment i can only escape judgment by way of the cross through faith in jesus christ i trust that you've done that but i believe somebody is watching and you need to do that you know i'm concerned because if there's anything that covet 19 should have done for everybody in the world it should have been a token of what god is capable not just of causing but of allowing to happen do you realize if god had wanted covet to decimate our entire planet he could have allowed that if god had wanted coveted to wipe out your entire household he could have done that oh i'm telling you we have no idea what god is capable of what god could have allowed but didn't but if there's anything it should have taught us it should have taught us to repent it should have taught us to pray and for those who don't know christ to cry out oh jesus save my soul let me ask you that has that has that been the way our country's responded has that been the way that the world has responded no it is not we have persisted in our rejection of god and this is why i'm preaching this sermon today is because as we are praying the vaccine wipes out covet 19 i am telling you we've not learned what we were supposed to learn and when you don't learn what you're supposed to learn that means god's got to do something else to get your attention and it troubles my heart that coveted 19 could be a harbinger of future successive preparatory judgments for the final judgment you say well you sound you haven't preached like this in some time it's because this is stirring in my heart that we've got to wake up and realize where things are headed and we've got to ask god to enlighten people's heart people that we know people that we love play time is over it's time to know jesus it's time to trust jesus it's time to cry out to jesus let's pray together father we we confess that we have not we've not learned what we should have learned we've not responded as we should have responded and those of us who are saved i trust we've learned what we should have learned and we're thankful to know you but when we look at our nation in our world it's clear to see people have not looked up they've looked around and looked within and and and i pray that you'll have mercy on us for not having an outbreak of revival across this nation of people crying out how must i be saved how can i be saved but instead have hardened their hearts to truth and to jesus we're in a mess oh god we need your help oh god and we're weary of this token of possible future judgments and if this one virus has done what it's done lord we can only imagine the possibilities of what could happen in the future so i want to thank you that you have helped me to see your son jesus and to call on his name when i was 16 years old but i pray oh holy god that someone watching today someone watching this from the archive later that they would put their faith and trust in jesus to escape the coming judgment father use our church as a last days witness as times grow dark and as more judgments are sure to come and i pray that for those watching around our country and around our world this will help them to realize they've got a message to share wherever it is they are wherever they live and lord thank you for your grace in sparing our souls through the blood of christ in jesus name amen

Channel: FirstBaptistAtlanta

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Id: Z3KeGOY5VuY

Length: 44min 8sec (2648 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 30 2020