God Judges Sinners

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, "'But we did not yield in subjection to them "'for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel "'would remain with you.'".

In short, if you like smooth, watered down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry.

My name's Mike Abendroth. Yes, after my critique of Paul Washer, he's preaching, I'm still alive. I'm alive! I'm alive! I'm alive! I'm alive! I'm alive! I'm alive! That's funny. If you want to write me, mikeatnocompromiseradio .com.

Israel 2022, that's February, that's coming up. We're on AGTV now, five-part series on law gospel. That's an announcement. My brother has a new podcast called The Pactum, thepactum .org. You wanna listen to that.

I'm trying to think of what else. I think that's probably it for the announcements. I'll see you very soon in Ohio, Lord willing. Community Bible, Conference on Sanctification slash Law Gospel, that will be coming up very soon.

Hope to see you then. Also doing some preaching seminars, two-day preaching seminars, one in California this summer, and I think one in Arizona. And if you wanna get your lay people together, deacons, elders, pastors, staff, two-day preaching seminar, kind of a preacher's tune-up, non-wokesimian trust version, you can write me, mikeatnocompromiseradio .com.

God's Judgment, Justice, and the Problem of Prosperous False Teachers

Well, what are we gonna talk about today? Today, I wanna talk a little bit about judgment in God's justice. And here's the take. God has judged sin in the past, but will he judge sin in the future? I mean, a lot of people are getting away with a lot of stuff, don't you think?

That's an understatement. But it seems like with all the false teachers everywhere, lots of them rich, healthy, wealthy, prosperity, cars, Lamborghinis, jets, fleets of jets, are jets fleets? Do you have a fleet of jets?

I think you do. What's going on? I mean, is God asleep? Is his judgment, destruction, asleep? God's sleeping at the wheel. Maybe he's getting tired. Maybe the Lord is just, you know, used to be on top of sin and judging it, but now he's a God of love.

Maybe God's evolved a little bit and from being holy and wrathful and just and righteous, now he's kind of more, you know, it's not God is love because, you know, he is, but, you know, he's only love.

Maybe that's it. Maybe God's only love. And you know what? It's kind of hard to keep up with all the sin and judging because the sin just keeps coming wave after wave after wave after wave. But we know, of course, that the Bible teaches that God is holy.

He is always holy, that is immutably holy. He never mutates into something less holy or more because he is holy, holy, holy. And even though people seem to be getting away with sin, there is a payday one day.

The Bible is clear. God judges sin, not in an abstract way either. God judges sinners who sin. And while it's not maybe on earth, it will be a judgment day. There will be a judgment day and it will be inevitable.

And after the judgment of God, it will be irrevocable. God has a track record of judging sin. And the book of 2 Peter tells us a little bit about that in chapter two of 2 Peter. And what he does is he essentially says, false teachers are going to be judged by God.

And he gives some case studies. He will say, you know what? These are the case studies. God judged angels when they sinned. God chronologically in order judged everybody but Noah and his seven family members in the flood.

God judged sinners then. And then God judged Sodom and Gomorrah. And it's inhabitants. And therefore God judges sin. Don't forget God judges sin. And in the midst of all that, you might be saying, yeah, but I'm in the middle of all these sinners, false teachers, pagans, and I still sin, but I'm trusting in Jesus and his righteousness.

Am I going to make it out alive? I don't think I make it out of the world alive, but how about on judgment day? Am I going to get caught up in that? Does God rescue people in the midst of pagan craziness?

And the answer is, of course, he rescued Noah. He rescues Lot and he rescues godly people that are his children. Even you, dear listener, the Bible is clear. God judges sin because he judges sinners who sin.

And you don't have to worry. God will take care of it. Vengeance is mine. I will repay. And you can go to a book like 2 Peter and it starts off right at the beginning that God does objective work to make sure you are secure.

And then he does another work that's part of the benefits of Jesus, not only for justification, standing before God, a legal standing, but also he does a sanctifying work. And he gives you power. He gives you the Holy Spirit.

God begins to sanctify and God begins in that sanctification to enable you to say no to sin and yes to righteousness, that is mortification and vivification. And when you realize that, you want to live a life to honor the Lord.

Spurgeon said, gratitude for pardon in Christ produces more fear and reverence of God than all the dread which is inspired by punishment. And so now we know we're not going to be punished and therefore we have this great awe of God and fear of God and a desire to respond to him with gratitude that's the motivation.

The law has demands and those demands for us are relentless demands. They don't stop. They don't take vacations. They don't take sabbaticals. The law of God is perfection, obedience, perfectly entirely your entire life.

And it is strict, perfect obedience. And therefore in the beginning of second Peter, he's trying to tell you, but now you have righteousness based on the work of another. Jesus did perfectly obey that law and you get credit for that law keeping.

And he, although he was not a law breaker, he was treated like one because he bore our sins on his body at the tree. Calvary was raised from the dead. Peter is going to say in chapter one, these false teachers, they say there's no second coming.

They say there's no judgment. We might even say, well, we believe in the second coming, but where's the judgment for these false teachers? What is going on? And Peter wants to encourage these dear people.

He wants to say, do you know what? People who reject Jesus, people who deny the master who bought them, people who say bad things about the Lord Jesus, they're going to get it in chapter two, it's ferocious.

I don't think there's anything more ferocious maybe in all the Bible about false teachers with the exception of Matthew 23, our Lord Jesus, with the woes to the Pharisees. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces, for you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.

You blind guides straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you clean the outside of the cup and plate, but inside they're full of greed and self-indulgence.

You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and plate that the outside also may be clean. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.

You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? That's blistering. And 2 Peter 2 is very similar. He, the writer, Peter, inspired by the Spirit of God, begins to show us, I had to move this chair here, sorry, show us what these false teachers are like, what they do, kind of a portrait of false teachers.

And he wants you to know. He does not want you to just wander through life going, oh, I don't know how to spot a false teacher. Doctrine divides. My only creed's Christ. By the way, that's a creed. No creed but Christ is a creed.

It's a screed is actually what he says. No screed but the creedless Christ. I don't want you to get caught up with false teachers. I want you to reject them. I want you to run from them. I want you to give them a wide berth.

I want you to think of a football player who gives a stiff arm underneath the chin of a cornerback that's trying to tackle them. There are true prophets, 2 Peter 1, that have heard from God and have written what God has had them write.

There are true apostles who do the exact same thing. And there are false prophets, false teachers, and they're in the church. They're in evangelical circles. They're in the Big Eva. They're on the internet.

And they should not be listened to. They need to be confronted. And when they start giving you cleverly devised tales about who Jesus is, and he's not the eternal son, or he's not begotten, or in this particular case in 2 Peter, Jesus isn't gonna come back.

There's a word that's got a refrain in this section, and it is destruction. It is destruction. That's what's going to happen to them. And so you don't wanna get caught up in that. Peter's fired up. He's emotional.

He does not deliver his message on false teachers or about false teachers with what Calvin called cool, dispassionate fashion. End quote. That's not what he did. He begins to say these people, they are secretive.

Remember the first three verses of chapter two? They're sinister, they're sensual, and they're selfish. And false teaching about Jesus is bad. I guess I could put it this way on no compromise radio ministry.

There is something worse than transgender surgery. There's something worse than divorce, homosexuality, whatever you think these days America struggles with, a Marxism, there's something worse. And that is teaching things about Jesus that aren't true.

Did you get that? Teaching things about Jesus that aren't true and saying things about what Jesus said, ah, they're not true. He didn't really mean that. And his person and work and how he's promised to come back and how we second chapter of Titus eagerly await Jesus coming back.

When people act this way and they tell you bad things about Jesus, Paul knew in a similar fashion to Peter that these wolves would come and not try to do the right thing. They wouldn't spare the flock.

He warns, and this is what we have to do. We have to warn people. I don't like the warning. That doesn't feel good. Well, you're gonna have to rip out a lot of your Bible because there's a lot of warning in the scripture.

This most important truth in all the world is what? It's Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

And he appeared to Cephas the 12 and then to more than 500, excuse me. If that's the most important message, don't you think Satan's gonna attack that? Yes, of course. These people's mouths must be stopped.

You gotta gag them. They subvert whole houses. They teach things he ought not to for filthy Luker's sake. Titus chapter one, first Timothy chapter six, perverse disputings of men with corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness.

King James from such withdraw thyself. There's a war going on and the artillery is firing shots of immorality and looseness and lawlessness and sin and rebellion and ungodly sensuality. And we just cannot put our fingers in our ears going around, la, la, la, la, la.

We're just, you know, which way's the beach? I only wanna hear positive things. I don't like to hear about false teachers. I never thought you would. I never thought you would like to hear about false teachers.

Who would? Just give me wonderful things, sweet things. Let your mind think on these things, Philippians chapter four. What about that? But it's in the Bible. And these men that have written about it have been moved by the Holy Spirit, chapter one.

And it's good for us to know. We must know. It is profitable for you to know about false teachers. It's good for you. It helps you value the truth. It helps you cherish and embrace the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

It helps you to say, you know what? I can recognize these false teachers now because God wants me to know. This is the shepherd Peter following his ultimate shepherd, the Lord Jesus, as he makes sure that we understand where there are sheep, wolves want to come.

My sister has a farm with her husband outside of Omaha on the Iowa side, on the other side of the mighty Moe, the Missouri River. And I always remember her telling me about, you know, there's chickens in the chicken coop.

You can think of the chicken wire, right? That octagonal shaped wire. And if the chickens are too close to the edge, then the raccoons stick their arm through that chicken wire and then pull the chickens through, or at least if they can't get their whole body through, then they pull their head through and eat their head off.

And I thought, that's what false teachers do. She also told me the story about once that they did it to a cat. They pulled a cat through and ate the leg off. What do you do with a cat with three legs?

Ouch. Well, if you think that's bad, if you think that's gross, what about sheep? What about like a day old sheep? What about new believers? What about older believers? What about, what about? What about any of these Christians?

Do you want the wolves to attack? There are wolves around. So we need to be careful and we need to not say, I cannot talk about this. I don't want to talk about it. I want positive. I don't want to be known for or against, but what we're, you know, for, that's what I want to be known for.

Easy for me to say. God gives that in this section at the track record. God judges sin. It's almost like you can relax. We want to be warned. We want to identify. We want to do something about it, especially church leadership.

But in the end, they're not going to get away with it. That's kind of good to know, isn't it? They're not going to get away with it. Therefore, Peter says, let me give you the track record of God judging sin.

And in the middle of it all, which I think this section chapter two, verse four to 10, if you understand verse nine of 2 Peter chapter two, verse nine, you'll get it. Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment.

That's what he's doing here. How am I going to make it out alive? God rescues. He knows how to do that. The Lord knows how. Isn't that neat? The Lord, sovereign, he knows how. He first knows, and then he knows how.

I have a drill and something happened with the bit and the auger and all this other stuff. And I'm trying to figure out how to put it back together. It's pretty new. And what am I going to do? And I'm like looking at YouTube.

I don't know how to do this. I don't know how to do this. And then I watched the YouTube and I go, oh, now I know how. We don't have to teach anything to the Lord. He knows everything, right? He's not increasing in knowledge or decreasing in data or intellect or anything like that.

The Lord knows. This is meant to give you, this is language, of course, of accommodation to give you the idea so that you can just let your heart settle down and rest that the Lord knows. He knows how to rescue.

Am I ever going to be rescued from this? I guess Noah could have said the same thing. Lot could have said the same thing. The people that Peter was writing to must have been thinking the same thing. And so for us in a world of chaos, oh, what's going to happen?

The Lord knows. He knows how to rescue. You're in a trial and he also knows how to punish and keep those who have done bad things for the ultimate judgment day. The Lord knows how to rescue the godly and to keep the unrighteous under punishment.

And if you like language, which you should if you're a Bible student, and if you like grammar and logic and all that kind of stuff, what Peter's doing in 2 Peter 2, verses four through 10a, it's a syllogism.

He's got inferences and conclusions. And the English has a lot of ifs, but there's just the one there in Greek that I remember. There's all these premises, minor premise, minor premise, minor premise, minor premise, and then the major premise.

If God didn't spare the angels, if God didn't spare the ancient world, if God didn't spare Sodom and Gomorrah, and if God rescued Lot, and then obviously Noah, will he judge people today? And will he rescue godly people today?

Yes, God knows. Indeed, God knows how to rescue and God knows how to judge. So that's really what's going on in 2 Peter 2, verses four through 10. If you look at verse four, held in judgment, verse nine, day of judgment.

Is there a judgment day for unbelievers? Yes. At the end of verse three of the same chapter, is there destruction asleep? It says their condemnation from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep.

God is going to judge, even though our timeframe is different. Even though it doesn't seem like he's doing it fast enough for us. This is one long, complex, conditional sentence, according to the commentaries, verses four to 10a.

God is holy, he's immutable, he's immutably holy. And these sins that these people commit on these creatures commit. Angels are rebellious. During Noah's day, people were ungodly. And during Sodom's day, they were lawless.

Does God judge rebellious, ungodliness, rebelliousness, ungodliness, and lawlessness? And the answer is yes, yes, and yes. You act the opposite of Jesus does, you're gonna get judged. Because unlike the rebels ungodly and lawless, Jesus is obedient, godly, and a law keeper.

And that's the focus. Why is false teaching so bad? Because it blasphemes and defames and strikes at the heart of our dear savior, who when you would just watch him on earth, you had to be thinking, he is totally obedient.

He is totally godly. I mean, never let up one time, never slipped once. And he keeps a law with the light. Who does that? Well, false teachers can't stand that. And so then they malign Jesus, they blaspheme him.

They are secretive and sinister and sensual, and they do it for money. They do it for sex and money. That's what they're in it for. Ultimately, I mean, you just turn on the news and that's just what happens.

Obviously, pagan's pagan, but we need to be aware of what's going on because they're exactly the opposite of Jesus, who was in the form of God. And Jesus did not count a quality with God, a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form.

He, Jesus humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him, quite opposite of the false teachers, that they're going to be crushed so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of the glory of God, the Father.

Jesus, the godly one, Jesus, the obedient one, Jesus, the one who kept the law. If you keep my commandments, Jesus said, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abided his love.

Is God asleep? Is God's judgment asleep? When people defame who Jesus is, defame him. Did I say defame? Defame him? Is he just going to let it, you know, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words may never hurt me.

Obviously the essence of God isn't hurt, but the reputation of God can be hurt in the minds of people. And therefore Peter, as a good pastor, an emotional pastor, as a caring pastor, as a sensitive pastor, goes on the attack.

It's a track record. Ever ask yourself the question, what's track record come from? Probably a racehorse track or athletes on track, like track and field. And you look at the past performance and you can kind of infer what they're going to do in the future.

And so you look at God's past performance, not that he performs, but his past actions. And then you go, oh, if he never changes and he's immutable, he's, you know, I, the Lord God did not change, then he's going to judge false teachers in the future.

I think we have to be careful that we don't get all so riled up about this that we think we're the theological police. And you say physician at No Compromise Radio, heal yourself. I stand guilty. Guilty as charged.

I haven't been on Twitter for a few months, like I was in the past. And so I feel the force is disturbed and we need some theological correcting out there. I want people to know what I think. And that's why I shouldn't be on Twitter.

I do post some videos and some shows, right? If Pat's on or whatever, episodes or videos, those things I will, you know, top of the mountain at Wachusett. That was fun, by the way, top of Mount Wachusett ski resort, preach the gospel to about 120 people up there.

Somebody even wrote and sent a check and said, I feel brand new and refreshed after your message. So I sent him a little couple tracks. My name is Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio ministry.

You can write me, Mike at NoCompromiseRadio .com if you've got an idea for shows. If you want sexual fidelity, you can buy that. We'll send you things to go bump in the church for free. And that's just an ongoing special that we have at the show.

We hope to see you in Ohio. Later this month in April, Community Church, Community Bible with John Tucker. God bless.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.