Book of 2 Peter - Ch. 1, Vs. 20-Ch. 2, Vs. 13 (11/24/2002)

The End Declared From the Beginning in Isaiah 46:10

2 Peter 1 and 20. Turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 46 please. David, will you read that verse for us? 46 10. Now, declaring the end from the beginning. Roger, what does that verse mean? All right. Bill, what's it mean to you?

All right. All right. David, explain it. All right. The word declaring means that there are people in this world. There are those to whom he had the privilege of declaring. Declaring the end from the beginning.

It had an end and it had a beginning. The human race. Not talking about the creation. The human race. And it's already done. He cannot change anything. Be good if we would remember that verse each day.

It's already done. Now, I gave you a sheet of paper last week. I wanted you to take it to assign some properties to it. Roger, did you have a chance to think about it? All right. Lay it on us. Well, you did pretty well.

If you come down the line to your life, there's a point that is connected to Satan. And that's when you sin. You sin for a short time and then you come back. But this shows that we come back to where we left.

We don't come back downstream. It's where we left. If you take the amount of space on Satan of each one of those and add them up, you will come pretty close to the first death. In other words, if you didn't sin, your death would be the last death.

Your life, you have a certain time to die. This is not depicting that. This is depicting the knowledge that we have. And a lot of our life is wasted in Satan, following him. But we have to come back each time to where we left.

So I don't know if that makes sense to you or not. Think about it. And we'll get the rest of them next week. Come to 2 Peter 1 .20, please. Knowing this first. In other words, this is a statement that we are to know.

We don't have to stop and decide every time. We just know it. The knowledge was given to us by our Lord that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. Roger, what does that mean? A very great principle here.

All right. Does Isaiah 46 .10 control this part? Yes, sir. This is one of the first principles of our faith. That the scriptures are the very word and will of God. The scriptures are the very word and will of God.

You believe that, Joy? That the Bible is the Bible. Written not by any private spirit, but dedicated, dictated by the Spirit of God, and consequently are more, are no part of them, of human invention.

There's a lot of discussion about the Bible today. There's lots of different versions. Lots of things that are not the Bible that are taught as the Bible. But all of this is of a divine inspiration. The real Bible.

For which reason, great respect is due to the writers and to the Word. 21, for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man. Now, David, how could it not be the will of man? All right. How come Peter's writings sound like Peter and Paul sounds like Paul and Matthew's writings sound like Matthew, if it's all by the Holy Spirit?

One Spirit. That's it. God works in each one of us. He worked in these men individually, but it was all the same truth and the same Spirit expressed by that man. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but by men of God, as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

Yes, the same truth is taught from the beginning to the end of Revelation. That is, as the original seems to mean, comes of the prophets own interpretation. He does not invent his prophecies. They are not his own private unfolding of God's counsel, but that which the Holy Ghost makes through him as the Apostles immediately proceed the show.

None of it is that man's idea. Now we move on to chapter 2, and he makes a very startling revelation. A startling, not prediction, prophecy of what will be in the last times. But there were false prophets also among the people.

Now David, is that referring to the Old Testament times? That's right. Now the prophet of the Old Testament, but there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you.

There's no prophets anymore, but there are teachers who privately shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that brought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. Let's look at a false teacher.

First of all, he is doomed before he starts. He doesn't know it. A false teacher is one that gives a little truth and the rest of its lies. Roger, he presents the truth and the lie as one package. How do you determine the lie from the truth?

Alright, we have the Holy Spirit in us. We have the Holy Word, but if we do not study, we don't know. One that gives a little truth and the rest of its lies. One that leads by tradition. This is what Dad preached.

This is what I believe. You believe for the wrong reason. One that demands total control and obedience contrary to the Word. How do you know it's contrary to the Word, David? Yes, you've got to know the Word.

One that is afraid of someone else teaching the pure Word. Why is that fearful to them, Bill? They want to maintain control. One that demands the center of attention. I knew a preacher once, came on the field, was called supposedly by that church.

He immediately removed all of the old things. By old things, I mean the things that the church was doing. The enrollment of the church, he did away with all of the old and instituted his. Now, David, is that getting the foundation for a false teacher?

Yes. One that is always finding fault with others. This man would never accept anything that anybody else did, good or bad. One that thinks he's the only one with the truth, when it's not the truth. He was the only one for that church to listen to.

One that never allows others to grow spiritually. He stifled all spiritual growth. One that spends more time talking about things than about Jesus Christ. He would never mention Christ except spasmodically, and then it was not the center of his speech.

One that thinks that the world will stop when he dies. Well, he's dead now. I wonder if the world stopped. One who uses the word and you to profit himself. How can that be, Roger? One that uses the word to profit himself.

One that while filling the duties of one office, tries to run all of the rest. That's a dictator. In all of this, Bill, if all of this is unknowingly done, then he's ignorant. It's not all knowingly done.

Two, and many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil-spoken of. Pernicious, what's that mean, Roger? Evil way. And many shall follow their evil way by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil-spoken of.

The many they're talking about is the lost. I'm not afraid of any of you becoming affected by this, but you need to know it just in case someone, in case you run across someone that does. And you will, more and more.

And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you whose judgment of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. What is the root, the basis, the beginning, the foundation of all heresies?

Want my way. It is covetousness which the Apostle calls the root of all evil. They're covetous, worldly-minded men who hope some way or other to make an advantage of their opportunities, who induces error and false doctrines.

That the righteous judgment of God bring damnation upon the wicked and their damnation will come swiftly, very swiftly upon them. Our trouble, my trouble, is to me swiftly is right now. I'd like to see it happen.

Well, that's the wrong reason. For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved upon judgment, and spared not the old world, but saved Noah and the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with the overthrow, making them an example unto those things that after should live ungodly and deliver just lot vexed with the filth and conversations of the wicked.

For that righteous man dwelleth among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their ungodly deeds. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust unto the day of punishment.

Now let's go back. For if God spared not the angels that sinned. Clarence, did the angels in the original state have a free will? That's right. They chose to sin. They could not come back, but like Adam once sinned, you did it forever.

For God spared them not, but cast them down to hell. Cast means what, Bill? Here. Delivered them into chains of darkness. What kind of chain would that be, Roger? Chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment.

Yes. Here he is speaking of the angels that were cast into the pit and chained, but that certainly fits with what you were saying that the evil person, one that is of Satan's seed, is in darkness and he cannot escape it.

Greeks called the deep dungeons under the earth which should be appointed to torment the soul of the wicked. Bound with darkness as with chains and by darkness he means the most miserable state of life that is full of horror.

Chains of darkness. And spared not the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly. Now, was Noah the only righteous person on earth, Joy?

Well, that's true, but that's not what we're talking about here. That's right. Yes. Yes. The flood came upon the ungodly. Now, upon whom did the physical flood descend, David? No trick question. Everyone outside the making them all an ensample.

Roger, what does ensample mean? I thought you answered that last week. An ensample is the tool which leaves the stamp. The name of the subterranean region, doleful, dark, regarded by the ancient Greeks as the abode of the wicked dead, where they suffer punishment for their evil deeds.

It answers to Gehenna of the Jews. And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that should live ungodly. Yes, that's true, but he's putting it here so we will know.

Now, if it had not been for 2 Peter 2, 7, I would have never thought very much of Lot, and delivered just Lot. He was a just man, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked. We would not know that about Lot, except we're told right here.

He was a just man. As bad as Sodom was, it had a good man in it. God leaves not himself without witnesses in the vilest and worst places. For that righteous man, dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds.

Lot, seeing and hearing the wicked, the wickedness that they were practicing around him, was distressed. Now, Diane, who chose, as far as man was concerned, who chose for Lot to live in Sodom? No, as far as man's concerned, who chose?

Lot did. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment, to be punished. Now, God knows how. He put us there. He knows how to extract us.

All things are known by him. Yes. Yes. We're told that even we, or those that are most righteous on this earth, are just barely saved. That's right. That although the wicked sometimes escape trouble, yet they are never delivered from it.

All their preservation from evil are but reservations. Reservations for the future and further evil. The wicked are not so much preserved from as reserved unto future wrath. What a statement. But chiefly, them that walk after the flesh in the lust of lewdness and despise government, presumptions are they self-willed.

They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, whereas angels which are greater in power and might bring not railing accusations against them before the Lord. But these, as natural beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak of the evil things that they understand not, and shall utterly perish in their own corruption.

These people, like unreasoning beasts, more creatures of instinct than knowledge, both only to be captured and destroyed, railing at things of which they are ignorant, they shall utterly perish in their own corruption.

In destroying, they shall merely be destroyed. I guess one of my greatest faults, and I have many, is wanting to see the destruction right now. And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count pleasure to put to ride in the daytime spots they are, and unblemished sporting events with their own deceivings, while they feast with you.

They'll come in, they'll come into this church, and they'll be one of us. And little by little, they get into a responsible place, and they try to guide us. Unless you know the truth, it'll happen. They shall receive the reward of unrighteousness.

That seems like a misguided statement. Reward of unrighteousness means what, Roger? What does reward mean, all right? David, what is reward? That's right. It's what Roger said. Reward's payment for what you've done.

Now, these people collect for what they have done. And what are they doing? Wickedness. That's right. That's right. That's right. We actually do not. We say we receive our reward. It's not ours. We are given Christ's reward.

We want to end the time. We are given Christ's reward. We are deserving of unrighteousness. That's right. And so what they receive is reward of unrighteousness. That's right. Their destruction is the legitimate reward of their own wrongdoing.

In the day, I believe that the idea is that like dumb, brute, forgetful coming destruction, they take pleasure in the way, regardless of tomorrow. Well, we need to stop here. David intervenes, and I hate to use that term, unless she belongs to God.

If she does, then sooner or later he'll express it. But so many, many, many people are in church today thinking they're worshiping God when they're not. Bill, dismiss us, please.