GOD’S ROAD TO REDEMPTION
#089 GOD’S ROAD TO REDEMPTION
Scripture II Peter 2:4-9 NIV Orig. 12-16-62
Rewr. 8-3-77
Passage: 4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell,[a] putting them in chains of darkness[b] to be held for judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; 6 if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless 8 (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— 9 if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.
Purpose: To remind men that God’s Word establishes the reality of His judgment, but that out of that judgment are the first rays of hope and salvation.
Keywords: Salvation Judgment
Introduction
Most of us who have spent any time at all singing in Baptist churches are familiar with the music of John Newton. We have enjoyed such favorites as “How Tedious and Tasteless the Hours” and “Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken.” We may know very little, however, about his own Christian experience.
When he was still only a boy, he left his native England to go to sea. The day he left home, his mother hold him that she would pray every day that he would become a Christian. (Has it ever occurred to you what might happen in the lives of your children if they knew your spiritual concern for them?) Many years passed, and that prayer went unanswered. As if to aggravate the sorrow that his mother knew, the life of John Newton turned to depravity and decay. He became, eventually, a slave trader, plying the waters between West Africa and the American South. He had come finally to moral and spiritual ruin.
It was in that depravity, however, that God convicted him of his sin. After his experience of repentance, at which time he turned to Christ in faith to save him, John Newton wrote, as an expression of his own life and transformation, a song that became one of the best-loved songs in Christendom, “Amazing Grace.”
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.
Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come,
‘Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.
When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we first begun.
I. The Condemnation. V9 “The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and . . . to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.”
CONDEMNATION IS DESERVED. The examples of our text show that the angels were not spared, but were cast into mystical “Tartarus,” a holding area awaiting judgment: not gehenna (hell), mentioned at least 11 times by Jesus; not sheol (Old Testament), a region of departed spirits. Revelation 6:8 “. . . a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.”
There was a prior world judgment by flood upon the ungodly. Deliverance was through the preaching of righteousness.
There was a judgment of limited scope upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. It was to serve as a warning to others. As the judgment was limited, even so there would be the righteous “living among them” who would be delivered.
There is also the evident displeasure of God with contemporary humanity. Our age is an age of indulgence. Judges 17:6 “In those days . . . every man did what was right in his own eyes.” Did you catch the article in the paper this week? A St. Bernard parish political figure reminded a reporter that questionable funds were not a kick-back, but a campaign contribution.
Paul found it necessary to remind believers in Ephesians 5:18 “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be ye filled with the spirit.” Proverbs 14:9 “Fools make a mock at sin.” Luke 18:11 “I thank Thee, that I am not as other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers.”
God’s truth concerning condemnation covers all the ages of man. Genesis 3:17 “cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow thou shalt eat of it all the days of the life.” I Kings 21:21, Elijah said to Ahab “I have found thee because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord.”
I looked with dismay at a Times Picayune article, June 7, 1977, about a 13-year-old and a 16-year-old facing indictment on 4 counts of murder. One said, “I’d rather be sailing.” Those two boys lived in somebody’s community with the gospel. Are there any like them in our community? What to do? As a member of Riverside Baptist Church, what do you do? Leave it to the staff! As a Christian, a Baptist, live in indifference? It’s just temporary.
II. The Judge. V4 “For if God spared not the angels that sinned . . . , to be reserved unto judgment.”
He is the judge who cannot be mocked. Have you ever thought to consider what you taught your small children about Santa Claus, and later about God?
You’d better not pout, you’d better not cry
You’d better be good I’m telling you why…
You used a fairy tale to bargain your child into better behavior, getting them committed to a myth. That is not wrong in itself, but when you fail to teach them the true meaning of Christmas and their ultimate responsibility to God, then you are mocking God.
To live in atheistic disbelief is not to mock God. Martin Luther tells of the time when “I hated God and was angry with him.” But by his own reckoning that state of mind and heart spoke badly for himself and not of God.
Even Madeleine Murray O’Hare claims to believe in a god of nature. But, you see, she wants a quiet god who makes no claims or demands. One who sits around like the three monkeys with eyes, ears, and mouth covered.
Galatians 6:7 “Be not deceived. God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
He is the judge who cannot be other than just. He will not turn his back to ignore sin. Psalm 90:8 “Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of the count.” Jeremiah 32:19 “. . . Thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”
In the Orleans Parish Criminal Court record of one Richard Norman Glover, self-accused rapist and murderer of 17-year-old Cynthia LeBoeuf, confessed in June 1972. In October 1972 he was ruled insane and unable to stand trial. He was committed to East Louisiana State Hospital. In March 1975 he was ruled synthetically sane, and able to stand trial. In February 1976 his admission of guilt was allowed (5 to 2) by State Superior Court. Eleven months later they reversed themselves and Glover was free.
III. The Promise. V9 “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation.”
It is a promise which cannot be earned. Romans 3:24 “Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ.” Understand, please, that we may stand convicted of sin, and sincerely want to change our ways. But the power for justification is not in ourselves, but in Christ. Satan’s last foothold occurs when God convicts us of sin and he, Satan, tries to make us think that we can change ourselves.
It is a promise which can only be believed and received. It is more than a mere fresh veneer. Matthew 23:27 “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like unto whited sepulchres, which appear beautiful outwardly, but within are full of dead men’s bones.”
It is the new birth, an inner change, wrought by God alone. Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
NOTE by Rev. Skinner: Verse 4 contains a reference to God in judgment. Verse 9 completes this in reference to the Lord in that through Him there is the promise of deliverance.
***THE CONCLUSION OF THIS SERMON HAS BEEN LOST***