Amen, you may be seated please. And we're turning to 2 Peter 2, verse 4 and following. 2 Peter 2, verse 4, page 1018 in the church provided Bible here. Peter has started this chapter by writing about false prophets, false spiritual teachers. And so with that context and about that topic, he now moves to three very severe examples from the Old Testament days. 2 Peter 2, verse 4, this is God's word. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment, If he did not spare the ancient world but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly, If by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly, and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked, for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard, then, The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority." This far we read in God's Holy Word, verses four to nine are one long sentence. In the original, it shows three pictures of like it's a triple picture frame to make his point here. So follow me. So scene one from verse four is when God kicked the angels out of heaven who had sinned and they became known as demons. Scene two from verse five recounts when God destroyed the world by flood in the days of Noah. And then scene three from verse six narrates when God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them. So each of these three pictures shows God's destruction. And in two of the pictures, there's also someone who finished well. So scene two from verse five, Noah is described as a herald or preacher of righteousness, and Noah was preserved. And in scene three from verses six and seven, Lot was rescued from watching and hearing the wickedness. So three scenes. three destructions, two, someone was rescued. And what is the meaning of all this for us? And so the main point you see on your handout, in our day two, God has plans. to rescue his own people while destroying the rebellious. Number one, attempted to be your own boss. See how God punished the bad angels by detaining them while releasing Christ. We'll see that from verse four. Then we'll move on to point two where we'll see, are you tempted to make up your own truth? See how God destroyed the ungodly by the flood while rescuing Noah, verse five. And then point three, we'll move on to, versus six to the end, tempted to indulge yourself? See the indecent cities God destroyed by fire while rescuing Lot. So move to point one, are you tempted to be your own boss? the shirk authority and decide for yourself how things ought to be. Well, if so, if you're at all tempted to listen to the false teachers, as remember that's the topic here in chapter 2, already in verse 1, and Peter is now teaching about those false teachers and warning about them, And so if that's your temptation, is to follow the false teachers, then let's look at this first scene. Remember that each of these three scenes, each of the three pictures is presented with the word if. You'll see that's our word as the beginning of verse four, beginning of verse five, beginning of verse six, you have the word if. But don't be confused by the word if. Don't doubt whether these are presenting historical facts because of the word, if. The word, if, is not used that way here. It's not used as a condition here. Here, the word, if, is used the same as we would use the English word, since. Since God did not spare angels. Or to say it another way, it's proper to put the word, if, in here. It's fine translation because you can think of it this way. You just have to understand it. If God did not spare angels, and it is true that God did not spare angels, then what can we conclude? So as long as you're following with the logic of how Peter's presenting it, the word if is just fine. It presents a statement of fact. The punishment of angels did take place. Okay, so we're not distracted by the word if, you got that. We're tracking with Peter, so let's go to the meaning. Here is one of those rare glimpses in the Bible showing us those fascinating beings called angels. Are we ever fascinated by angels? We're just constantly fascinated with angels. And so here is a glimpse. God's word tells us here that angels rebelled against God. And we're even more fascinated. But we're not given details about what the angels did. The only reason it's brought up is to give us a point supporting Peter's lesson. It's because the details of the sins of these angels is not needed for us to get Peter's point. We know that what they did, the angels fell. The angels disobeyed God. But Peter's point is that when the angels sinned, God's response was to take away their lives and their freedom by confining them to hell and keeping them there while they await God's judgment. And on the day of judgment, don't be confused, the angels will not be set free." Notice how it says in verse 4, "...committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment." That doesn't mean at the day of judgment they'll be released. It means that they will be judged on the day of judgment. The evidence against the bad angels is now being preserved and the case will be presented on the day of judgment. And on that fearful day, when God pronounces the verdict, The bad angels will remain in the same condition as the devil, the beast, and the false prophet, who are all listed in Revelation 20, verse 10, and this will be their condition. Tormented, day and night, forever and ever. Let that be clear, what Peter's bringing up here. as a somber and solemn reminder. Why is Peter writing this? Why is Peter bringing this up to a scattered and discouraged people who are already dealing with false teachers? What does this have to do with Peter's original readers? And even more so tonight, what does it have to do with us? Well, here in verse four, Peter gave us what we call an argument from the greater to the lesser. An argument for the greater to the lesser in verse four. This if-then combination is not conditional, but rather is showing what God will do in the lesser instance because we know what God did in the greater instance in the past. So here's scene 1, verse 4. Scene 1. So if God did not spare sinning angels, then God will not spare false teachers who lead God's people astray with false teaching. Now do you see the logic of what he's saying in verse 4? Writing about false teachers and he brings up false angels. And if God is not going to spare false angels, He's not going to spare false teachers. And what's the lesson for us? We are to not commit the same sin as the bad angels did. Not rebel against God. Not to be your own boss, to put it in the language that I did here in point one. When we're tempted to be our own boss, it means we remember that we're not remembering how God told us to respond to him. We're not remembering how God responded to the angels who decided to be their own bosses. In remembering what Peter wrote here in verse four, we must submit to God and obey him and commit to doing so. What we learn from the story of the bad angels and the history of the bad angels is one basic truth. Rebellion is always and eventually answered by God. But the opposite truth is also true. that true obedience is always and eventually rewarded by God. So how do we prove this? And what is the basis for Peter to write these things? We look to the cross. Peter is pointing us to Christ and to his cross for the demonstrative evidence of how God deals with both obedient and rebellious people. The death of Christ Jesus is proof that rebellion is always answered by God because even when our rebellion was placed upon the perfect Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Jesus received judgment. That is the definitive proof that rebellion is always punished by God. But the opposite truth is also proven by the cross. Obedience is always rewarded by God. We see the evidence of the Lord Jesus Christ who obeyed the commands of God in his life. He obeyed to fulfill the redemption of God's people as he was commanded to do by the Father. And the evidence of that is all proven in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our author Peter himself said it in his sermon in Acts chapter 2, which was preached on the day of Pentecost. Pentecost was the day when God poured out his Holy Spirit from heaven onto the people of God. Here's what Peter preached about the resurrection in that sermon, Acts 2.24. God raised Christ up, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for Christ to be held by death. Why? Because he's obedient. He is obedient, so God always rewards obedience, and he cannot be held by death. He was set free from the pangs of death, released from death and hell because of his perfect obedience. So if you missed all that, let me just summarize. Bad angels, God detains in hell, But the innocent Christ was released from death and hell, and God raised Christ up and out of there. And what's that have to do with you? Peter's writing for you. He's not just writing for his original audience, God is having this written for the church of all ages. And so the three scenes we get here, now we've studied the first scene, the three ifs are each connected to verse nine. So that we could connect our verse now, verse four, to verse nine like this. Verse four, if God did not spare angels, Connect to verse 9. And to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment. Who will judge on the day of judgment? Christ Jesus himself, the one who rose. How do we know? Because of his resurrection. Listen carefully to Acts 17.30. Listen, in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. And of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. So the man whom God the Father has appointed to be the judge of the world in righteousness is the same one who rose from the dead. Of course, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. So that was point one. That the cross teaches us to submit to God instead of breaking away to independency because God judges rebellion and God blesses submission. And God has plans to rescue us as obedient children of God and has plans to destroy rebels. Which brings us to scene two. Scene two, point two now of the sermon moving forward. Point two from verse five, tempted to make up your own truth? See how God destroyed the ungodly by the flood while preserving Noah. That should say preserving Noah. Verse five, God did not spare the ancient world but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others when God brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. Who were these ungodly people in the world a long time ago? Regular sinning human beings. Genesis 6 verse 5 said, every intention of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually. It's human beings, garden variety, regular old human beings. Don't allow people to speculate and bring in other ideas. That's who this was. Genesis 6 verse 11 and 12 says the world was corrupt. It says it was filled with violence. We see the similarity, the times in which we're living. When I say violence, what do you think of? When I say corrupt, what do you think of? When I say evil, continually. But it's not just recently. Through all of history, Peter gives us this perspective. Through all of history, he says, to the scattered and discouraged people who are suffering in unique ways. Through all of history, he reminds us. We see the similarity to the times we have. There are accounts of crime and corruption through all of history. It's nothing new. And it remains the case today, of course, that we live in a violent world of ungodly people. But here's Peter's point in verse 5, that God pronounced judgment on the ungodly world and destroyed the world with water. And Peter wants us to learn something huge and take it with us and keep it with us from the fact that every person was destroyed except eight people. There's something significant we're supposed to learn from that and have it as a gigantic object lesson to never forget as God's people. That God judges the ungodly who will not repent, and the flood taught us that truth. But there's an alternate truth, not an alternate, but a pair, the other side of that truth that's also taught in the flood, and it's a permanent lesson of truth as well, that God also saves. There's the flood that destroys, but there's the ark that saves. So in the same story, you get God both destroying and saving. You see the similarity to the first point? It's the same thing here, and I'll give you a hint. It's the same thing in the third point. It's a complicated passage. I'm trying to simplify for you. God both destroys and saves. We learn that from the flood. So at the same time that Peter's making an alternate point in verse 5 about God's actions to preserve Noah, he's making a point about God's actions to destroy the world. It's both. Who's Noah? He's described here as a herald of righteousness, a preacher of righteousness. But the people were not church-going sorts of people, and they didn't have TV, didn't have Billy Graham crusades, so how is it, in fact, that he preached righteousness to the people of his day? Well, Peter expects us to actually think this through, based on what we know from Genesis. Just think, obviously, obviously, what's Noah doing? He's building a very, very very big boat in a desert, okay? It kind of draws attention to itself, and so people come by and say, what are you doing? I'm building a big boat. Why? It's going to rain. And don't you think you're going to be in the rain? No, I'm going to be in the boat. You want to be in the boat? What is this all for? Because God judges and God saves. You want to be in the people that he judges with the flood or you want to be in the ark of the people that he saves? And I'm oversimplifying, but you get the idea. And what I want you to realize is that Peter expects us to remember it took Noah 120 years to build the ark. That's more than enough opportunity to preach to all the pastors by, and all the people that they told, and the people that they told, and anybody who wanted to visit, anybody who wanted to mock, anybody who wanted to ask questions and interrupt the progress of building the Ark could get an explanation from the righteous Noah about why and what this is all about. That's a very long time for Noah to plead with people to repent. And here's what Peter wants to sink into our minds, our hearts, to take with us permanently about God's plans. In that 120 years of Noah building and Noah preaching, absolutely no one repented. Absolutely no one joined. There's not a ninth or tenth person added to Noah, his wife, their three sons, and their wives. Those eight people are the only ones in the ark. You came from Adam, and you also came from Noah. everyone else was destroyed. And if there's one single convert from wickedness, that person could have and would have joined them on the ark. Not one person repented. Every single one perished in the floodwaters except for Noah and his family. Noah and seven people, that's it. Okay, so Peter, we're sobered. Peter, you have our attention. But what's the takeaway lesson from my life this week? Peter is a New Testament apostle who points us to the story and the history of the ark, but not just to the ark, he points us to the cross. He points to the ark and points to the cross. And just as God is doing two things in the flood and the ark, In the days of Noah, God's doing two things at once at the cross. Just as God both destroyed the world and preserved Noah, so when Christ died on the cross, he was both raising Christ from the dead and saving us and him by faith, but also destroying those who will not repent. Two things happen at the same time. God is saving people and judging others. God raised Christ and us with Christ and the saved were in the ark physically and the saved are in Christ spiritually by faith. Jesus himself taught in Matthew 24, 37 to 39 that the days before his second coming can be compared to the times when Noah was building the ark. The flood wiped out the violent ungodly people, but after the flood, when Noah and his family got off of the ark, some became ungodly again. That's how we got in our soup that we're in today, right? It happened again. And when Christ comes, he will once again and once for all deal with the ungodly in the world. That's what the rainbow is all about, because God himself promised, never again will I destroy people with water. I will destroy with fire. What's the lesson for us? To think clearly about the truth. If you're tempted to make up your own truth, come back to the ark. Come back to the flood. Come back to the rainbow. See how the grace of God compels us to repent. Truth is truth and we must repent. Grace is grace and we receive that from our God through the cross. Be encouraged that God still protects his people who are living in these ungodly days. Third point, we're moving on now, verse six, are you tempted to indulge yourself, see the indecent cities that God destroyed by fire while rescuing Lot? Third scene, we're on scene number three, the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Recorded in Genesis 19, 24 to 29, we turn from worldwide devastation of the flood to the utter torching of two cities, a local issue. Just as only eight people were saved from the flood, only three people escaped from two cities. Just as water rained down in the flood, so burning salt and burning sulfur rained upon the cities in the plain of Jordan. Think that God will make an exception of you if you turn to immorality? God will not make an exception for any disobedience. Lot's own wife did not escape. When she had a single act of disobedience, turning back to look at the city, herself became a pillar of salt. Genesis 19, 26. Only Lot and his two daughters survived. Peter's writing this to us. What a litany of examples. What a heavy message. You want a fire and brimstone sermon? Peter's giving this to us here, right? The recipients of Peter's letter were familiar with this story too. It was a very common example. Let me tell you how common the example is of bringing up Sodom and Gomorrah. It's used as a preaching point by Moses. Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, I ran out of a hand, Amos, Jesus. It's a very common example in scripture to bring up Sodom and Gomorrah. In Matthew 10, verse 12, Jesus gave instructions to his apostles as Jesus sent them out two by two. As you enter the house, greet it, And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it's not worthy, let your peace return to you. And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. Truly I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town. That was Matthew 10, 12 to 15 words of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is apt to say things like Peter's writing here. Jesus is apt to tell us about stark things that have happened in God's redemptive history. that ought to stay with us and keep us right thinking and truth in our day and our generation. And there's a bright spot even within the doom of God's plans here. In our text in verse seven, we read God rescued righteous Lot. Remember how God had preserved Noah in scene two in verse five? Both Noah in scene two and Lot in scene three are described as righteous men. Now you think to yourself, Lot? Lot was not perfect, just as Abraham was not perfect, as we're learning from Pastor Tony's excellent sermon series. When we read the story in Genesis about Lot, we find that he was not commendable. Perhaps it's especially troubling to you that day when he offered up his daughters to an attacking mob. Now we could sit and guess the thoughts of Lot on those days as reasons, but we must be very careful in our evaluation of Lot that we notice in our text, this is part of Inspired Scripture in verses 7 and 8 here, Lot is described as righteous. three times. Verse 7, righteous Lot. Verse 8, that righteous man. And again in verse 8, we're told that the lawless deeds he saw and heard in his city tormented Lot's righteous soul. Three times he's described as righteous here. Peter presents Lot as a righteous soul who is personally distressed by the immoral practices of the Sodomites. Lot objected to the sins of the people among whom Lot lived day by day. He saw things that bothered him. He heard things that vexed him. Lot and his family were not swallowed up with the tide of his culture and of his city. Lot never ceased to be repulsed by the wrongness of the behavior of people in his city. The word tormenting here is used to describe his soul and it literally means to test or prove something. to be touching a material upon a touchstone like a litmus test. A Lydian stone was used to test the genuineness of metals. Lot was being tested by God. Would he change? Would he soften? Would he adopt a different view of these sins if he lived around it long enough and heard certain arguments for it or some things like that? In verse 9, the Lord rescues from trials. or the Lord rescues from testing. Such a trial or testing is designed to uncover the true character of someone by submitting him to a thorough and extensive verification. Would he or would he not be worn down by the depravity of his day and take a worldly view instead of a godly view? Is he godly? ungodly, for God or against Him. Would Lot warm up to it eventually and relax some? Noah being preserved in verse 5 is different from Lot being rescued in verse 7. The Greek word is translated here as rescued means to cause to be safe. to bring someone out of severe and acute danger, or to deliver. In the New Testament, this Greek word is always used with God as the subject, God as the one delivering, and a human person as the one being delivered. So Noah was preserved. He's different from Lot. Noah was not in acute danger of drowning because God himself had closed the door of the ark. He was safe through the flood. But Lot, Lot had been told by God's messengers to leave that city, but Lot hesitated. Does that mean he's a goner now? You don't do what you're told? You hesitate? The way the story goes, the angels of God ended up grabbing Lot's hand and the hands of his wife and daughters to lead them to safety. Such was the Lord's mercy to Lot to literally rescue Lot. What a merciful God. It's fascinating to read. Just allow me to read Genesis 19, 16. So the men, we take this to be the angels, seized Lot and Lot's wife and Lot's two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to Lot, and they brought Lot out and set Lot outside the city. End quote. Genesis 19, 16. Notice the phrase, the Lord being merciful to Lot. how comforting it is to consider how God was doing two things simultaneously. Both destroying cities and rescuing his people. Destroying cities and rescuing his people. Not that there's anything heavenly rewarding or righteous about Lot. But there's something heavenly about God's mercy in rescuing the foiled Lot. Note the famous part of that story that God rescued Lot's wife. But she still perished later. Why? Because she insisted upon disobediently looking back to the burning city. And that action of Lot's wife is an action of disobedience with a very tall price. And it emphasizes the same point. God both destroys and rescues. What about the wicked? If the woman who looked back was turned to a pillar of salt, What about those who are in the city? Do they get away with their wickedness? No. Peter's writing that in verse 9, that God keeps the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, especially in verse 10. He's saying that this is especially true for some. Listen to verse 10. For those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. See, these false teachers we started to hear about in verse 1, who lived among Peter's readers, also engaged in shameful behaviors. The false teachers also secretly brought in destructive heresies. And the hint here in verse 10 is that there's a special concern for people who indulge in the lust of defiling passion. Those who do the same as he just taught about in Sodom and Gomorrah. especially those. The result of such practices will be utter destruction. These false teachers are not leaders of people, but instead they're followers behind the great masses of humanity who do all the same things. They're just bumbling along in the middle of the crowd, those false teachers. They're not leading anyone. They're following the crowds and following, in fact, their own sinful natures. They do not shun such defilements. Rather, they take pleasure in approving of such moral impurity, and they are the teachers who give logical and intellectual, supposedly, answers for why these things ought to be done. And they call evil good. They walk in the lust of uncleanness themselves. The word here, defiling, refers to an act of polluting both yourself and others. What does that sound like? Actions of asatagamora, polluting both yourself and others. And it modifies the word lust. So the word defiling modifies the word lust and it forms this phrase defiling passion or lust of uncleanness and it's a desire or a hankering after an unlawful and polluting use of the flesh. And the teachings supported by these false teachers lead to deliberate rejection of God's authority because God says no And they say, well, let's talk about it. Let's see just how we could wiggle around this. And they despise God's final authority when God says no. God says what's right. God says what's wrong. He issues commandments. End of story. It's very clear, plain and simple. But the false teachers despise God's authority. Look at verse 10. Peter wrote that they despise authority. Despise is a very strong word, which means to look down on, to disparage, to neglect, to disregard, or to slight. Do you know what he's saying here? A person expresses hatred for Christ by ridicule and contempt, and they scorn the authority of Christ with regard to sexual ethics and with regard to the truth. They deny the master, as Peter wrote back in verse 1. Let this come home to you clearly False teachers hate God. They despise His authority. They hate Christ. They hate Jesus Christ, the Master who bought us. So what have we seen? We've seen three points of teaching truth against falsehood. Number one, our first point was false teachers say, be your own boss. But Peter says, God punished bad angels when they tried to be their own boss. Don't do it. Point two, we saw false teachers say, make up your own truth. We can redefine this. But Peter says, God destroyed with a flood every single human being who wanted to redefine this. The only people saved were the ones in God's salvation plan, the ark. God's salvation plan now is the cross. And then third point, we saw false teachers say, go ahead, indulge yourself. We'll come up with the justification for it. We'll come up with the right words and verbiage. We'll get you out of this. Have fun. And Peter says, consider Sodom and Gomorrah. How many survivors do we have to tell us what happened that day? Sodom and Gomorrah. And consider how God rescued Lot. who played way, way too close to the fire. And there was mercy from God to Lot. That's what we've seen tonight. I have four concluding lessons. Four concluding lessons. Number one, humble yourself under God's rule. Number one, humble yourself under God's rule. It's not our place to challenge God, not our place to rebel. We will never get away with rebelling against God. So decide now, you're going to humble yourself and obey everything and anything that God commands. If you find it in this book, it's your command and you're going to do it. Let Christ be your master and celebrate the fact that your master is the same one who died for you and rose again to give you victory. Humble yourself and basically spiritually salute to your captain and follow wherever he leads. Humble yourself. You're going to never strike out on your own. You're going to never follow somebody who has a new novel thought. You're not going to commit the classic American sin. Autonomy. Me do. says the two-year-old. The classic American sin is a demonic sin. Autonomy is what the demons did. They used to be angels of God. You will not fall for it. You will always follow your orders from a faithful king until you get your next set of orders because you're a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Humble yourself under God's rule. That was number one. Second concluding lesson, keep your ears open and eager for the truth. the truth of God's Word, of course. Keep your ears open and eager for God's truth. Don't allow yourself to consider apostasy. Like the people of Noah's day, what must they have told themselves? What must they have said to each other about the excuses for how this could be good behavior? Do not drift. Do not drift away from truth into falsehood. In fact, don't merely accept truth. Love the truth. Don't just content yourself with affirming truth and confirming truth and confessing truth. Love the truth. Be increasing in your passion for truth. Get all excited about the truth. Because the problem of people in Noah's day was that they no longer even recognized truth when they heard it. Noah stood right there in front of the bones of the boat and he told them truth and they couldn't absorb it. It went on and on and on for 120 years. Could this become the condition in our day if we're not careful? In the Bible, Noah is a Christ figure and the ark is a church figure. Listen to Noah, get in the ark, is what they should have done. And today, listen to Christ, join a true church. The church is the pillar and buttress or ground of the truth, 1 Timothy 3.15. Listen to Christ, join a true church, stay in a true church until we arrive safely home in heaven. Keep your ears open and eager for the truth. Number three, do not indulge yourself in the ease and immorality of this world. Do not indulge yourself in the ease and immorality of this world. Brothers and sisters, it takes a lot of self-control to live in this dark generation with a purity and a holiness for God inside and out. A conscious effort to remain godly in a perverse generation. It seems easier to relax. And then they relax some more. Until we think about the second coming of Christ. In the context of the flood, in the context of Sodom and Gomorrah, in the context of the fall of angels, we think about the second coming of Christ. And then we're back on task. We think about not falling into these things. Not relaxing. Because here in America, don't they make immorality look like a lot of fun? And don't they have every excuse under the sun for it? And it's lies. It's false teaching from false teachers. Don't eat at the pseudo-diner. Back away from this world's table. Walk away. Remember that a better feast awaits us. in the church, and the best feast awaits us in heaven. Don't eat the false meal. Don't indulge yourself in the ease and immorality of this world. That was three, the last one, the last takeaway point. Retain your living hope and be comforted. Retain your living hope and be comforted. Trust that God has rescued us for himself and will one day rescue us from this scene of debauchery. God's faith will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. 1 Corinthians 10, 13. God knows how to rescue us from trials. 2 Peter 2, verse 9. It's a trial. to live in our day in a place like this. It's a testing to live in our day in a place like this. We live around people, we work around people, we're related to people who are living without respect for the law of God. Either A, they know the law of God, a purpose to live in disobedience anyway, pretty scary, or B, they do not know the ethic of God in the first place, and they wouldn't believe the story about Sodom and Gomorrah. They wouldn't believe fallen angels. They wouldn't believe the flood, worldwide literal flood. They wouldn't buy it. Either way, that's A or B, they know it and won't obey, or they don't know it. Either way, they torment us. with their actions and their words about their actions. Peter says here, we are the ones who need rescue. Lot was the one that needed rescue. We are the ones that need rescue from this crazy generation. Peter says our Lord knows how to rescue us from this trial. That's what verse nine says. That's where your hope is, that's where your comfort is. One fine day, our Lord Jesus Christ will rend the heavens and come down here, taking us out of this mess. God has plans, is the sermon title. God has plans for you to live a righteous life until Jesus comes for us. And you're supposed to keep these things in mind. Keep in mind the bad angels. Keep in mind the flood. Keep in mind the ark. Keep in mind Sodom and Gomorrah and Lot being taken by the hand by an angel because God is so intent on saving. Well, God did far better than that for you. He didn't just take you by the hand. He sent his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die in your place. Rise again. Send His Spirit that He may go right inside your heart and take you by the heart all the way to heaven. God has plans for you. Retain your hope in Him. Psalm 34 says, In Christ we're the righteous. When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. Psalm 34 19 says, So the fourth point, retain your living hope and be comforted. Number one, humble yourself under God's rule. Number two, keep your ears open and eager for the truth. Number three, do not indulge yourself in the ease and immorality of this world. And number four, retain your living hope and be comforted. Let's pray. Lord, keep us from the danger of false prophets by giving us ears to hear your voice. Help us to dig into your word and find the sort of lessons that Peter is digging out for us here, presenting to us. Keep us from the dangers of false prophets. In the name of the word of God, even Jesus Christ, amen. Let's sing together number 568.