WWUTT 372 They Deliberately Overlook This Fact?

The Bible tells us that in the last days scoffers will come with scoffing, making fun of us because we are looking forward to the day of the Lord. But they deliberately overlook the facts when we understand the text.

You're listening to When We Understand The Text, committed to the sound teaching of the Word of God. Find videos and more at our website, www .wutt .com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Peter’s Reminder to Remember the Prophets and Apostles

Thank you, Becky. We continue our study of 2 Peter 3 today, looking at verses 1 -7. If you would join with me there. The apostle writes, this is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved.

In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.

They will say, where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the Word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.

But by the same Word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. So we go back to verse 1, Peter reminding his readers, this is the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved.

This letter is very nonspecific in the sense that there is not a particular audience that he is writing to other than the church, the body of Christ. So he's not addressing a church in a specific place, not this one church in this area, like Paul writing to the Corinthians.

He's writing to the church in Corinth or writing to the Galatians. He's probably writing to all of the churches in Galatia, writing to the Ephesians. He's writing to the church in Ephesus. But Peter is writing this letter that is likely going to all of the churches in Asia Minor.

So he is specifically addressing all Christians, all those who are of the church, the body of Christ. So when he says beloved, he is specifically referencing those brothers and sisters who are in Christ Jesus.

This is the second letter that I am writing to you, the second that they would have received from the apostle Peter, the first, of course, being first Peter. In both of them, I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder.

Remember something that Peter wrote in the first chapter. He said, I will make every effort. This is chapter one, verse 15. I will make every effort so that after my departure, you may be able at any time to recall these things.

So he gives a charge to the Christians who are hearing the letter being read. Here's what you need to do. Making every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with steadfastness, steadfastness with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love.

For if these qualities are yours and increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is Peter encouraging his readers to confirm their calling and election by being obedient.

The demonstration of faith is obedience. And so by growing in these things, showing a progression in their faith, they show that the beliefs that they have are not just some statement that they made sometime in the past, I believe, and then did not do anything with it, but they confirm their calling and election by following this list, this progression of faith, ultimately resulting in a growth in.

Love.

And if these qualities are increasing, then you're not unfruitful. If you're unfruitful, then you're not really in the faith. For the faith that you have is not actually producing anything, which James has clarified in a couple of letters ago that we read, is a dead faith.

Faith without works is a dead faith. So Peter is writing these things to his readers and saying, I'm going to put these things down. I'm going to write them to you in a letter so that I am making every effort that is available to me to put these things out to you in such a way that you can come back to them and be reminded of them again after I am gone.

And since Peter took great pains to make sure that these things were written down for the service of the churches, they are written down for our service as well, that we might be able to come back to these things and read them once again.

They are for our service also. So Peter is saying in the first chapter that he is making every effort to write these things down for a reminder for Christians to be able to come back to and read and continue to be encouraged and charged, commanded by the word of Christ through his apostles to make every effort to supplement our faith with love.

So then we get to chapter three where he says, this is the second letter now that I'm writing to you by way of reminder, I mean to write to you to stir up your sincere mind. He's issuing a statement here by saying that the faith of a Christian, of a true believer will be sincere.

So those of you who are believers, my beloved, my brothers and sisters in Christ, you have sincere minds. And I mean to stir up that sincerity of your faith by reminding you that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and savior through your apostles.

What prediction is that? Well, specifically that there are people that are going to make fun of you for the faith that you have. Why is it that there are false teachers that have come into the churches spreading their lies, preaching the things that they preach as we talked about in chapter two?

And the reason is because the Bible says there will be. So we who are genuine in the faith will not be led astray by the false things that the false prophets teach. So Peter means to stir our sincere mind by way of reminder that we should remember those things that were said by the holy prophets, those things that were commanded by the Lord and savior through his apostles.

Knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. Peter coming back again to this warning about false teachers. They're going to, they're going to make fun of you for the things that you believe.

There are going to be some that are going to come in saying that the day of the Lord is never even going to happen. Or as is the case with a couple of the false teachers that the apostle Paul had to rebuke.

There are some that are going to come in saying the day of the Lord has already happened. Why is it that you're not seeing the day of the Lord come? That's because it's already happened. And Paul said he had to put them out of the church for blaspheming and, uh, and, and leading others astray.

So Peter is saying here, there are those that are going to come in and they're going to say the day of the Lord, it's not going to happen. And because they don't believe that Christ is going to return, then they give into their own sinful desires.

I can do whatever I want because the judgment isn't going to take place. They are not convinced that the Lord Christ is returning. Jesus talked about this in Matthew chapter 24, where he says, who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has set over his household to give them their food at the proper time.

Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that wicked servant says to himself, my master is delayed and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day that he does not expect him.

And at an hour he does not know, and he will cut him into pieces and put him with the hypocrites in that place. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So you have in this picture that Christ gives a servant who has decided Jesus is not returning.

He hadn't come back. I haven't seen any sign of his return. And so then he ends up beating his fellow servants. He's the scoffers among the scoffers, scoffing those who believe in the Lord Christ. And then instead he eats and drinks, drinks with the drunkards.

So he is following his own sinful desires. It's just as Peter is talking about here in chapter three, verse four. They will say, where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.

Now careful with this use of creation of the word creation, because this just as much applies to atheists and Darwinists and naturalists as it does to those who would be believers, but would be twisting the scriptures and twisting the word of God.

Even those who are atheists and believe that all things have come about through natural processes. You will find creation language in the things that they say. They will talk about all things having come into existence by some sort of creative power.

Richard Dawkins does this atheist Richard Dawkins very commonly will use creation language to describe the origin of all things, contradicts himself constantly. He loves using the word design. He'll talk about looking at the cell and how wonderfully it's designed.

It's like he doesn't, he's not even aware of the fact that he is using language that points back to a designer. And then he'll try to apologize for himself. You know, when I say design, I mean, it all comes about by accident.

But it's this, it's this constant self-contradiction that is made by naturalists. They simply can't help themselves because all things have been designed. All things do have a designer, an ultimate creator.

There's no way that we can get away from it any more than a Mac computer can gain sentience and deny the existence of Steve Jobs. A computer would never be able to do that just as we are not able to deny the existence of our creator.

The fingerprints of everything that has been designed by him is all over creation. We read in Romans 1 20, a passage that we come back to over and over again, whenever we talk about these things where I start in verse 19, what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made.

So they are without excuse for, although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. But they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Ultimately, what is at the heart of unbelief is ungratefulness.

They're not grateful to God. They give no praise or thanks to him for anything, even the very life that they have. And so that is why they deny God. It is it is ultimately stemming from an ungrateful heart.

Unbelief comes from ungratefulness. We read in Psalm 92, you read from the psalmist, the gratitude of the Lord in all it is that he has made 92 verse four for you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work at the works of your hands.

I sing for joy. How great are your works, O Lord? Your thoughts are very deep. The stupid man cannot know the fool cannot understand this, that though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever.

But you, O Lord, are on high forever. For behold, your enemies, O Lord, for behold, your enemies shall perish. All evildoers shall be scattered. And those who lack belief, who are not grateful to God, who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness, they will scoff those who believe in the coming of the day of the Lord.

They will say, where is the promise of his coming? Ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. It's all just natural processes. It's all just been going on in this constant ebb and flow of the way things are.

You can look all the way back in history and you can see things were then as they are now. There simply is no change. There is no God. He is not coming back. That's the way that they will continually scoff us as we anxiously await the return of Christ.

Peter is writing these things to remind his readers that Jesus will return and there will be those who will scoff us because we believe that. Verse 5,. For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.

But by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. So it is a fact that the world was created out of water by the word of God.

We read about that in Genesis chapter 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

And then God said, Let there be light, and there was light. The water existed before God called light into existence. And so, as all things on earth were created out of water, and this is a fact, it is written down for us in scripture, that all things came to be in this way.

It is also written down for us in scripture, another historical fact, that the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. The judgment of God came upon the earth because of the sinfulness, the wickedness of man.

We can read about it in Genesis. Just as God fulfilled his promises in the past, so he will be faithful to fulfill his promises in the future. As he has judged wickedness in the past, we read about that in 2 Peter chapter 2, so he will judge wickedness also in the future.

As the world perished by water in the past, so the world is being stored up with fire and will be judged in that way in the future. As God created all things in the past by his word, so he has the power to bring all things to an end by his very word, and he will do at the last judgment.

As Paul talks about with the Thessalonians, by a breath of his mouth, the battle will be over like that. The enemies of God will not be able to stand against him, and he will bring all things to an end by the word of his power.

All things have been written down for us in the scriptures that we may know this, and those who are the true believers, who have the sincere mind, they know and are clinging to the promises of God, but those who mock God and mock those who believe in God will deliberately overlook the facts that have been given to us by God, suppressing the truth with their unrighteousness.

Neil deGrasse Tyson, kind of a pop culture scientist, but he's considered to be one of the more brilliant astrophysicists alive today. He was once asked, what is the most amazing fact in the universe?

And here's what deGrasse Tyson said.

The most astounding fact is the knowledge that the atoms that comprise life on earth, the atoms that make up the human body, are traceable to the crucibles that cooked light elements into heavy elements in their core under extreme temperatures and pressures.

These stars, the high mass ones among them, went unstable in their later years. They collapsed and then exploded, scattering their enriched guts across the galaxy. Guts made of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and all the fundamental ingredients of life itself.

These ingredients become part of gas clouds that condense, collapse, form the next generation of solar systems, stars with orbiting planets, and those planets now have the ingredients for life itself.

So that when I look up at the night sky, and I know that yes, we are part of this universe, we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the universe is in us. When I reflect on that fact, I look up, many people feel small because they're small and the universe is big, but I feel big because my atoms came from those stars.

There's a level of connectivity. That's really what you want in life. You want to feel connected. You want to feel relevant. You want to feel like you're a participant in the goings on of activities and events around you.

That's precisely what we are, just by being alive.

What a trite assemblage of meaningless jargon. Really, everything that this brilliant astrophysicist just said right there means absolutely nothing. We're just stardust. You're stardust. I'm stardust.

He's stardust. We're just stardust bouncing around. There is absolutely no meaning and purpose or intention to our lives whatsoever. If you go by what Neil deGrasse Tyson said right there, well, no, we're connected with the universe.

I can look at the stars and I can see, hey, I'm part of those stars because I came from those stars. Yeah, so did the rocks under your feet. You have as much meaning and purpose to your life as the dirt that you walk on.

That's all the significance to your life there is if you follow that definition of existence, according to Neil deGrasse Tyson. Consider what it is that David said in Psalm 8, O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.

You have set your glory above the heavens. DeGrasse Tyson can't get beyond the stars. David is praising the one who made those stars, who has set his glory above the stars out of the mouth of babies and infants.

You have established strength because of your foes to still the enemy and the Avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen and also the beast of the field, the birds of the heavens, the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the.

Seas.

And then David concludes the same way he began praising God, O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth? Degrass Tyson can't say any of that. David finds meaning and purpose in his existence because of God.

And because of God, David knows that there is judgment for the enemy and the foe. As he talks about in verse two, there is absolutely no judgment for any wrongdoing. If you go by existence, according to what Neil deGrasse Tyson defined, there's going to be no final judgment.

Those who do good and those who do evil will receive the exact same reward in deGrasse Tyson's universe. Also, while David says that God has crowned man with glory and honor and given him dominion over the works of his hands, you've put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

DeGrasse Tyson, on the other hand, is at the mercy of all of these things because he's a naturalist. He believes that all things evolved from single celled organisms, that we are evolved from frogs and fish, that that there is a common ancestor to the ape and man.

We're evolved from monkeys, according to Neil deGrasse Tyson. So we are being dominated by nature. We have no dominion over nature. We are at the mercy of nature. Whereas David says that by the intention of God and by his command that was given in the Garden of Eden, we have dominion over all things that God has made, crowned by him with glory and honor.

Oh, Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. David is grateful to God for being God. Neil deGrasse Tyson is not grateful to God for anything. So he suppresses the truth with his unrighteousness.

And unless he repents, he will be judged on the day of judgment with the rest of the ungodly because he deliberately, he deliberately overlooks the facts. So let us not forget the deliberate facts as they have been laid out for us in scripture that God created all things.

He brought all things into existence by the power of his word. He judged the world's wickedness. So he will also bring all things to an end. He will judge by the power of his word. And the next judgment that comes upon the world will be by fire.

Let us praise the Lord for his greatness and his goodness that he saved us out of our sins and the destruction that we deserve. We have been delivered into his eternal kingdom by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Let us praise his glorious name and be grateful to him for the salvation that is given to us in Christ. By his name we pray, amen.

You can find a complete list of videos, books, devotionals, and other resources online at www .tt .com. Thanks for listening!