FBC Morning Light – October 28, 2022

A good Friday morning to you. Here we are, coming to another end of the week. I hope you're looking forward to the Lord's Day and our gathering together with God's people. This particular Sunday, it's the fifth Sunday of the month, and so sometimes what we do in our church, and we're doing it this week, is having a regular Sunday school at 9 .30 and a morning service at 10 .30, and then having a luncheon together, potluck meal together after that morning service, and then at 1 o 'clock, an afternoon service, and then when that afternoon service is over, then that will be our services for the day, for this particular Sunday.

I hope you can make it for that, and if you're visiting from someplace else, another community or whatever, never been to the church before, come Sunday and plan to have dinner with us. We'll have, you know how the church potlucks are, there's always plenty of food.

Be sure to plan to join us. We're looking forward to the Lord's Day together. Let me ask you this. Do you ever get really frustrated, maybe concerned, perhaps a little scared, nervous or whatever, about the state of affairs in this world today?

You're seeing so much craziness when it comes to wicked thinking. I saw recently a video of a young girl, probably in her early 20s, who insisted that she was a bird, a cardinal, and a friend of hers was a bird, a blue jay, or some other kind of bird.

They insisted that they were birds. If that isn't crazy enough, there was another article I saw about a teenage girl, a high school-aged girl, who insisted that she was a cat, a cat. Here's the insane part.

The school accommodated her by putting kitty litter in the restroom. Those things are just crazy, bizarre, and they're just the tip of the iceberg of so many things. We could spend hours talking about the crazy stuff going on in our world, the wickedness, the perversion, etc., etc.

Corruption on every level of society political, economic, social, cultural, moral it's just everywhere. Then, as we talked about earlier this week, the condescending attitude toward Christians and Christianity and godly living, etc.

Does all of that concern you and frustrate you and make you think, is there any end to this? The answer is yes, there is. 2 Peter 2, in verse 9, it says, The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations, or testings, trials.

The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment. In other words, what you and I can do based on this verse is we can be confident that in God's time and his way, he will deliver us from this craziness of our ungodly world, and those who are perpetuating and promoting the ungodliness of our world are reserved for judgment, and their day of judgment is coming.

You say, it's great to say that, but how do I know that's ever going to happen? Peter helps us out here by saying, look at history. He gives a couple of examples from history. He talks about how God in the great flood knew how to deliver Noah and to bring the rest of the world under judgment.

He saved Noah in his grace, he saved Noah and Noah's family, and the rest of humanity was punished in judgment in that great flood because of the wickedness that was so great in the earth in that day.

He also speaks of Sodom and Gomorrah. You can go back to Genesis chapter 18, 19, where you have the account of God destroying Sodom and Gomorrah for that heinous sin of unrestrained licentiousness and homosexuality.

There are other sins involved in Sodom and Gomorrah too, but that was the main thing. Those were the abominations that were committed. Here's Lot living in the middle of this, and Peter tells us that he vexed his righteous soul, he was tormented in his righteous soul, seeing and hearing their lawless deeds.

But what happened? God brought an end to the lawless deeds of Sodom and Gomorrah, and in doing so, he also delivered Lot from that same fate. The bottom line is this. You get frustrated and angry and fearful about the perpetuation of evil in our day, and begin to wonder, is there any end to this?

Be confident. Yes, there is. God in his time is going to deliver the godly from these testings, and he's reserved the ungodly, the unjust, under punishment for the day of judgment. He will set it all straight.

I am so thankful for that, and I'm sure like many of you, I'm looking forward to that. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for your justice, your righteousness, and thank you that by your grace, you will deliver the godly from the trials and testings of an ungodly world, and that you will hold the unjust accountable for their perpetuation of evil.

Encourage us with that today, Father, we pray, and I pray that you give us a good weekend, especially as we gather together in God's house on Friday. We pray these things now in Jesus' name, for his sake, amen.

All right, listen, have a wonderful weekend. May the Lord bless you in it.