We're doing a series through the book of second Peter, and we have three weeks left in this series before we're done. This summer we'll do we'll do a few weeks in the Psalms.

And then we're going to spend the greater part of the summer in the book of Malachi. Malachi, so the Old Testament prophet. So that should be a good time. I'm really looking forward to it. I've not I've never preached through that before. So, Malachi will be what we'll do this summer. So, in, in second Peter three, there is a on a pretty, pretty transparent shift in the theme of the book, chapter three, he turns his attention to the day of the Lord.

So, this is the judgment of God, judgment day where all of history comes to an end. The Christian faith teaches that God has appointed a day where he will bring all world events to a final climax. And on that day, the wicked will be consigned to final judgment. And the righteous, which are those who have faith in Jesus Christ, they will be brought into eternal glory.

And God tells us these things as both a warning and a promise. So that the promise is that God will reward those who are faithful to him, that he delights to give good gifts and to give rewards for those that are faithful followers of Jesus. But it is also a warning that God will deal with sin and evil.

God will bring his justice to punish wickedness. And so, God tells us these things to stir us up to faithful living, to obedience to him. So, history will not go on forever. The day of reckoning will come. God will bring all things to a close and that's how we should receive the teaching about judgment day as both a warning and a promise.

So, let's dig in second Peter three verses one through seven, second Peter three, one through seven. I'll read through all seven verses and then we'll go through a section at a time.

This is now the second letter I'm writing to you, beloved, and 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's 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 overlooked 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. 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. This is God's word. Let's start off by talking about the day of judgment.

I'll read these verses again, and we'll talk about the day of judgment. He says, this is now the second letter I'm writing to you, beloved, and both of them I'm stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder. That you should remember the predictions, two groups of the Holy Prophets and the commandment of the Lord our 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. So, the first couple of verses here, that there's the Old Testament prophets, the and the New Testament apostles, even the Lord Jesus himself, they all issued warnings about God's judgment.

The most common way that they talked about this was the day of the Lord. We would call it the day of the Lord or judgment day or on that day, but it's a reference to a day. So, it's a particular time that will occur in history where God will bring about his final judgment. And the warnings that appear throughout scripture were given to drive behavior.

It's meant to affect the way that we live now in light of what is promised to come in the future and is to get us ready to face our creator. The apostle Paul said this in the book of Galatians. He said, do not be deceived. God is not mocked for whatever one sows that will he also reap for the one who sows to his own flesh will also reap from the flesh, reap corruption.

But the one who sows to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life. This is the, he's in, in the context of book of Galatians, Paul is talking about what happens generally as a typical pattern of life, but it is also something that will be this will come to pass on judgment day, on the day of the Lord.

So, God is not mocked. Actions have consequences. Whatever you sow, that will you also reap. And so, there's two ways that we might sow. The one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, which is death. The one who sows to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life. So earthly actions have eternal consequences.

And the day of the Lord is simply the day when God calls in everyone's accounts. Everyone will reap what they have sown. And we see two kinds of people mentioned, or two kinds of life represented here in Galatians. But throughout scripture, there are two kinds of people that are represented by those two kinds of lives.

They have believers and unbelievers in general. For believers, God will reward their obedience. There will be degrees of heavenly reward that correlate to one's faithfulness in this earthly life. How they stayed true, even went through trials and difficulty. For unbelievers, God will punish them for their wickedness, for their unbelief, for rejecting the truth.

Now that's, uh, for Christians, as we anticipate a reward, that's great news because we, that's meant to motivate us. God is telling us that there are good things that await you if you sow to the spirit. If you live in the spirit, then you will receive benefits of reward that will last forever.

But for unbelievers, for those that are wicked, then it's bad news because it's a warning, but the warning is meant to drive you to Christ, but also just a warning of what will come. And so, for that reason, there are those that want to deny that would happen. They want to deny the reality of God's judgment.

And in 2 Peter 3, Peter calls them scoffers. Scoffers are the ones in verse 3 and 4 that deny judgment. And so, they have this sort of sarcastic, where is the promise of his coming? Things have been going on the same ever since creation. So where is this judgment, this intervention of God that you talk about?

And so, what they mean is that Jesus ain't coming back. There's no future judgment. We see no evidence that God is intervening in history now. And so, we can live however we want. And so, the idea, the spirit of the scoffer is, because there's no future judgment, then my actions don't have consequences beyond whatever I might experience.

It's a way of sort of short circuiting the way that God has ordered the world of action and consequence. Now, the scripture teaches that the day of God's judgment will be accompanied by great signs on the earth. So, it's like a cataclysmic apocalyptic sort of signs that will happen in the earth and in the heavens and so forth.

The book of Acts tells us that a judgment day will or there's a judgment day was prominently featured in their preaching. And so, in the book of Acts, you see the apostles notably Peter in the early chapters and Paul in the later chapters, their preaching of the gospel, Peter to the Jews and Paul to the Gentiles in both instances the day of judgment was a prominent feature of their preaching, even their evangelistic preaching.

So, I want to show you a couple of examples, one from Peter and one from Paul. So, this is from Peter, this is Acts chapter two. And at the end of this long sermon that's recorded in Acts chapter two, just note the themes of judgment and the apocalyptic, earthly catastrophic phenomena that he's referring to.

So, he says, and I will show wonders in the heavens above. And signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

That's Peter's preaching. Later on, in the book of Acts chapter 17, here's an example from Paul's preaching. And this time Paul is preaching to a Gentile audience. So, if he's in the city of Athens and there's these, temples to various unknown, various idols. And there's this there's this idol to an unknown God, and he's preaching about this, but even in that sermon, this is what he says.

Paul says, being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone and image formed by the art and imagination of man, the times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands notices, but now he commands. All people, everywhere, to repent. Why? Because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed.

And of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. That's a real key sentence. So, Paul is, in this case, preaching to Gentile unbelievers, pagans, people that did not have the Jewish history, the Old Testament that they were relying upon for their worldview. And so, what Paul says here, there's or taking the two together, Peter and Paul, we can just, glean a few facts about Judgment Day.

One Judgment Day is certain. Because it says here, he has fixed a day. So, there is a fixed day in the mind of God that he knows that this is the day when he will return, and he's given assurance that it will happen. So that's why it's certain. Number two, Judgment Day is marked by catastrophe astronomical catastrophic sort of events, wonders in the heavens and signs on the earth.

Number three, Judgment Day will be just. So, God is not capricious or vindictive. God is just. And his righteous and good in all of his judgments. Number four, judgment will include a final eternal punishment for sin and a final eternal reward for faithfulness. Number five, judgment will be performed by one of us.

So, we will be judged by a fellow human, and that human is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the one who will be our judge. A human man, and that is the man whom he appointed. So just to make sure you see this, verse here in verse 30, God has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man.

Whom he is appointed, and of this he is given assurance by all, by raising him from the dead. Clearly, he's talking about Jesus Christ. So, whenever we stand before God in judgment, who we will stand before is actually the Lord Jesus Christ. We stand before a man, and we will give account for our lives to this man, and he will judge us in righteousness.

Number six, men and women can be saved from the wrath of God's judgment by trusting in that man. Placing faith in Christ, the man whom God has appointed. Because he was judged in our place at the cross. And so, this is what makes the good news of the gospel good. The good news of the gospel is set against the backdrop of the badness of God's judgment.

The badness in the sense of the experience of it. Not that it is in itself bad, but the experience will be horrible for those who endure it. But Jesus Christ is a righteous man, but he is a man. He is the God man, and he stands in our place. He is our mediator and the judgment that you or I deserve, he will have already suffered in our place when he went to the cross.

So, the judgment of God, the righteous wrath of God against all human sin and wickedness for those who are in Christ, he will be our advocate. And so, on that day, the judge who is judging us will say his sin, her sin has already been paid for whenever I went to the cross. And so, he then, the judge will also be our savior.

And so, we will be spared from the dread of the wrath of God. Rather, we will then be judged according to our faithfulness to our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. So, Jesus suffered in our place, he suffered for us, and that was the judgment on the cross, and then his resurrection is given to us. We now have life in Christ.

So, Jesus suffering of God's wrath is Jesus’ resurrection of life resurrection life, that both of those things, both his suffering and his life are applied to us by faith whenever two things happen. Two things happen. One is we repent. God commands all people everywhere. One, we repent, and we believe.

Repent of our sin and idolatry and unbelief. And then the other one is that we call upon the name of the Lord Jesus. That is that's back in Acts chapter 2. Repent and believe. So, God's judgment is the thing that is presented as a, it's a decision point. This will happen. This day is fixed. It is certain.

The God who made the world and the heavens and the earth and all that is in it, He has fixed today, when He will come and judge the world. Maybe it's today. Maybe it's a thousand years from now. We don't know. It is all in the mind of God. But it is a certainty, and He will judge the living and the dead.

And because of that, that prompts us to respond to the fact that a judgment is coming. We will give account for our lives, for the good things and the bad things that we did in the flesh. And if we do not have faith in Jesus Christ, then what we will suffer the wrath of God for our sin. And that God will be just and righteous to do that.

God will not be cruel or mean or evil to do God will be righteous and just to do because the our sin merits, a sin against a holy and eternal and perfect God merits such a response. Acts 17 tells us God commands all people everywhere to repent. Repent of your sin, unbelief.

Second, Acts chapter 2 tells us we call upon the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. And all people everywhere, everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's a promise. So, if you call upon the name of the Lord Jesus, you've repented of your sin and turned away and you call upon the name of the Lord Jesus and you say, Jesus, I want your life.

I want your death on the cross to be, to apply to me. Then by faith it does because you're calling upon the name of the Lord and God promises us here in His word. Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. So, Christ is the judge, and Christ is the savior. Both. Now, scoffers deny this, the denial of judgment, and that's the thing that Peter is warning against in Second Peter three.

Satan is a liar. Satan is the father of lies. He is a deceiver, and his strategy is to deny the judgment of God. And this. This has been his trick from the beginning. The first lie recorded in the Bible is in Genesis chapter 3. Do you know what that lie is? You will not surely die. That's a lie. That's the first lie in the Bible.

And what is the nature of that lie? The judgment that God warned you about that if in the day that you eat of it you shall die, the judgment that God warned you, the consequence of your action that would happen if you disobey Him, that will not happen. Satan was the first scoffer. He denied the judgment of God.

And so, the first heresy in the Bible is Genesis three, where the denial of God's judgment took place. Now in Peter's day, the scoffers that he's referring to are simply repeating the same lie and the same heresy that Satan initiated back in the garden. And as we saw in Galatians chapter six, God is not mocked.

Scoffer and mocker, similar words. God is not mocked. You can try to scoff at God. You can try to mock God, but God will not be mocked. Why? Because whatsoever you sow, that will you also reap. That's the warning and that's the promise. God's righteousness and justice demands that is his response. And that's why people are always vulnerable to this lie.

We're vulnerable to the lie because in our sin, we want to have our sin and not suffer consequences for it. That's just the way humans are. That's why this is emphasized so strongly in Galatians 6. God is not mocked. God will not be scoffed at. Whatsoever you sow, that will you also reap. And the, there is some earthly reaping, some earthly consequences for our actions, but there's also an ultimate reaping, which is on the day of judgment or on the day of your death, there will be that is when you're locked into whatever the consequences of your actions are.

And that knowledge should prompt us. To faith in Christ to call on Lord Jesus, to repent of our sin to make this process of renewal in the gospel a daily practice. Now, one of Satan's deceptive strategies of denying the judgment of God is, one way is just to say it won't happen. It doesn't exist.

Another strategy is to substitute a decoy in its place. A decoy judgment, ancient paganism is making a comeback, witchcraft, the occult like ancient pagan gods. These are making a comeback. There's a, one of them is the Greek goddess Gaia, you the Greek goddess Gaia. She is the goddess of the earth and mother of all life.

According to this pagan philosophy, there's a lot of people that are buying into this idea. And that, that is, that the earth is not merely something that God created that we steward, that's the Christian view, but the earth itself is some kind of a living being. And there are traces and vestiges of this reflected in things like Mother Earth, or Mother Nature, is more commonly.

Its Mother Nature is angry today, we've got a big storm coming. We might say that just as a, as a shorthand, funny reference, but there are those that, that this is more of a real-world view for them. This past Monday was Earth Day. I learned about this after the fact.

I don't really pay attention to it, but Earth Day is a big deal for some of these people, but it's like a high holy day of this new pagan occultic religion. And it's like Satan, it's a counterfeit. It's a decoy, this fake religion, pagan green religion that the devil has concocted. And that is, it is growing in prominence, but it is a decoy and that it counterfeits what is true.

So according to this fake religion, there are signs that are condemned in this religion, but the sins that are condemned are not against a holy God that has revealed to us his standard and his word. Rather, they're environmental sins from which, or for which we will endure the wrath of mother nature.

And so, we need to, and so it's a warning of impending doom and judgment with the hope that it would drive our behavior. And the behavior that it is driving is that we need to repent of our environmental sins and to commit to some kind of eco repentance and that typically means just voting for Democrats.

And that's the solution because they are the priests of priests and priestesses of this new pagan religion who will enact policies for us and be mediators between us and the angry green God goddess that whose wrath is certain to come now. I'm telling you this because it's, it functions like a religion and because of our memory of Christianity in our society, there's enough lingering memory for this to get some play because it sounds familiar.

And that makes it, it makes it a decoy that is powerful because we do have this fear of, possible judgment day that may come, and we don't want that. We don't want to experience the bad things on that judgment day. And so, we want our behavior now to reflect good choices that will protect us from the consequences of that bad judgment day.

So, it works. It functions like a religion in our society. And so, in Satan's decoy judgment day, the earth is the judge, and the righteous standard is environmentalism and the environmentalists have been predicting an eco-apocalypse for 50 years. So, I'll give you some examples 1969 and there are dozens and dozens of these, but here are just a few.

In 1969, Paul Ehrlich, he predicted that within 10 years, 100 to 200 million people per year will die of starvation. That was back in 1969, over 50 years ago, he made that prediction. Then the 10 years after that for in the eighties, 1980 to 89, 4 billion people, including 65 million Americans will die in the great die off.

He predicted that life expectancy would be reduced to age 42. By the year 1980, currently, for what it's worth, it's about 78. 6 years old. In 1985, Life Magazine predicted that air pollution would reduce sunlight on the Earth by one half.

More recently, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, I always have to think when I say her name, because am I saying that right? Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, she said, we only have 12 years left to stop the worst impacts of climate change. That's just the last few years that she said this. These are prophets of doom, and they are prophesying warnings of coming judgment.

An apocalyptic end to life as we know it. Millions and millions of people will die and there will be catastrophic meteorological phenomena that happens because of our environmental sins that we've committed. And the part that they're not saying out loud, at least the prominent people is that this is, there is some.

goddess that is at work behind it, but there are those who believe it. They're just not saying that part openly, in some, some of the actors behind the scenes that are not public figures they very much believe this to be the case. And so, the recommendations that they have what do we need to do to repent our eco repentance?

Eco repentance is to reduce human population in one way or another. That is always the net effect. So, either the population will be reduced by catastrophe, God's judgment, or the Earth's judgment, or be reduced by us enacting policies that reduce human population. And this is happening. This is happening, and there is a concerted effort in, in government and other, and businesses people like Bill Gates there's a number of names that you would recognize, people that are very actively crusading for the reduction of the human population.

And these are people that are in Silicon Valley people that are leaders in tech industry they actively believe we need to reduce the population on the Earth. You first! But that's what they're pushing for. Ironically the founder of Earth Day, the guy who started this, Ira Einhorn he murdered his girlfriend.

Back in the, it's seven years after Earth Day began, murdered his girlfriend and turned her body into compost. Ira Einhorn. According to Wikipedia, I saw a reference to it. I'm like, that can't be real. So, I looked it up on Wikipedia and sure enough there it was. This is idolatry. It's a decoy of the truth.

It's a decoy fake judgment day that mimics the truth in certain key points that there's enough of some semblance resemblance to the truth that it can be effective, but it does. So, what it does is it keeps people from the truth. It keeps people from fearing this. Ecological judgment day, that's the one that we fear, that's the one that we're really working to prevent and that, that diverts all of our energy and time and money and activism and things there rather than the real judgment against of a holy God against a sinful planet that has rebelled against him and from which we can be saved through faith in Jesus Christ.

There is a judgment coming and the real judgment will include environmental disasters and catastrophes but it's not judgment by the earth for sins against the earth, but a judgment on the earth for sins against the creator of the earth, by the God who created the earth, and from which we can escape through faith in Christ.

So, let's look more about the promise of judgment, although the last few verses in 2 Peter 3, still talking about the scoffers here, for they, the scoffers, they deliberately overlooked 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 these, 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, Peter's answering the scoffers here by telling them about the real judgment and answering some of their objections.

God's sovereign governance over all creation has been there since the beginning because he created the world. It's his. Verse four, we read a moment ago, scoffers are saying everything's just humming along in nature the way it always has. Where's the promise of his coming? Where do we see this? God's not involved.

Peter here in verse five says they overlook some very important facts, and they overlook it deliberately because they want to live how they want to live.

So, his response is that God made the whole universe to begin with, the heavens and the earth, he made it all, and he upholds it with his word. So, in Genesis chapter 1, in the beginning, God created all things. God formed the heavens and the earth out of water. And he formed all things by the power of his word.

Remember he spoke, let there be. And by the power of his word. The waters and the sea and the dry land and all these things took shape. God formed things by the power of his word. Just by saying it, it happened because that is God's power. Now, in Hebrews chapter one, we learned that it was actually Jesus Christ himself who was the agent of creation.

Jesus Christ who is speaking words and making worlds. And I want to show you this. Here's Hebrews chapter one. Wade wrote a song for this, and we've been we sang it a couple weeks ago and I think we'll sing it again this morning. But this is an important, this is an important text.

It says, long ago, at many times in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son. So now we're talking about His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world. So, God created through Jesus Christ, the Son.

He, Jesus, is the radiance of the glory of God, and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the Word of God. Of his power. That's all Jesus. That's all Jesus there. So, Jesus is the creator. He did that a long time ago. He was there at the beginning. But Jesus is also the sustainer and that is happening right now.

He is upholding the universe by the word of his power. It's a present and active verb. The word upholds is a present active verb. So, Jesus sustains the universe by his words. So, he didn't merely initiate it, like winding up a clock and letting it go. But rather, he initiated it, but he also governs it actively by his word, and he's working even now, moment by moment, sustaining the universe and upholding it because he wills it to be by his word.

It is his, he's declared that the universe will continue. So, Christ set the planets on their course, and he determined their orbits and the velocity of their movements. And his governance of the universe is not a set it and forget it sort of thing like the deist would believe. Like Thomas Jefferson, the old deist would, they would believe that God just started it all got it all rolling.

But everything there was just the natural, mechanical, material laws of the universe. And he walked away from it. That's not the way it is. What we see in scripture is that he is actively involved. He sustains the universe. He upholds the universe by the word of his power. So, he's involved in every intricate detail.

So, by his word, Jesus directs weather patterns. And temperatures and storms, hurricanes, tornadoes. It's like once-a-year Jesus says, Let the earth take another lap around the sun. It's like once-a-month Jesus says, Let the moon go through all eight of its phases once again. It's every morning and evening Jesus says, Let the earth spin another 360.

Another day, another night. It's every night while you sleep. He's speaking to your lungs, another breath, into your heart, another beat. He's sustaining us, he's upholding us, he's actively involved. And so, Peter goes on to say, that same power that created the world, that same power that sustains the world, is also the same power that will one day judge the world.

God created the world through water by his word, right? That's what we saw a moment ago in 2 Peter. If you look back at Genesis 1, the world was like a shapeless mass of this watery, the Spirit of the Lord was hovering over the face of the waters. And then God said, let there be light and let the sea and the dry land separate.

And so, by the word of God, the waters and the land separated, and God started to fashion, Christ was the one fashioning these things by the, his declared word. And so, God created the world through water and the word. And then in Noah's day, we see a reference here and Noah's day, God judged the world through water and the word.

So, God declared, let the firmament burst and the deeps break open and the rain fall. And the world was flooded by water again. And so, in the book, in the days of Noah, it was like a de-creation. It was like the acts of God in creation was all rolled back into reverse to where the earth was one big shapeless mass of water.

And then the water subsided and then God by his word recreated this new world from which Noah would live. And the, the ark was, it landed on wherever it is down in Williamstown, wherever the ark landed. And then from there, the earth, God

And so, the God who created is the God who judged by water and by his word. We see that. And so, there's the precedent that Peter's relying on. Just as God judged the world in the past, God will judge it again in the future because God is consistent. Actions have consequences. God is not mocked. What you sow, you will reap.

So, if you sow to the flesh, you'll reap to the flesh. If you sow to the spirit, you'll reap to the spirit. That is going to happen, and the judgment will come. God will bring that judgment. But he says there is a difference between the two judgments though. Do you know why? Why? Why did God say He would never judge the world again with water?

He made a promise. Remember that? He made a promise, I'll never judge the world again that way. So, Peter now is saying that whenever God judges the world again, this time it's going to be with fire, not with water. But it is the same judgment, the same God, the same word, the same standard. Once the world was judged with water, the next time it will be judged with fire.

So, the final judgment then will be affected with fire. Whereas the first judgment was affected with water. Whenever God judged in the days of Noah. No, we don't know exactly what that'll look like. We do know there's going to be, it seems some catastrophic sort of event. So, there are a lot of things or details that we're not given, but we do know that here that he says it will be affected with fire.

What is clear is that at the final judgment, God will destroy the wicked. And rescue the righteous. That's what we know. And so that is the doctrine of judgment that we're called to uphold. And this doctrine of judgment is a pillar of Christian theology. God uses this doctrine to warn us, and to awaken us, and to motivate us to obey him.

The, from the earliest confessions, the Apostles Creed, it says, Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father. From whence he will come to judge the living and the dead. The very earliest confessions.

I'll read to you from the London Baptist Confession of Faith here is it's fleshed out more. So, this is chapter 32, same doctrine just built out more and expanded upon. But here's what it says. God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit.

To whom all power and judgment is given by the Father. In that day, the apostate angels will be judged. So also, all people who have lived on the earth will appear before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account. Of their thoughts, words, and deeds, and to receive a reckoning according to what they have done in the body, whether good or evil.

So, this is what our faith teaches, and it demands a response from us. As I said before, there are two groups of people that are in view here. So, let's start with the first one. The righteous will be judged not for our sins to be punished because Christ did that on our behalf. So, whenever we are judged in the last day, the wrath of God will have already been applied to Christ.

He suffered once for sins. So, he died in our place. So, we're not judged for our sins. Christ was judged on our behalf for our sins. We will be judged, however, according to our faithfulness. And so that is a judgment of reward. We will be rewarded for how for our obedience. And there will be different degrees of reward.

Everybody will be perfectly content and happy in eternity, but some will have a larger capacity to enjoy greater degrees of happiness and fulfillment according to our obedience on the earth, according and it's important for Christians to maintain the doctrine of judgment, not be ashamed of it. And even maintaining the doctrine of judgment is one of those tests of faithfulness that God will reward us for.

It's interesting, in Acts 17, I read that earlier where Paul is preaching in the Areopagus. And that is considered by some to be like, the, The golden standard of winsome cultural engagement. This is how we want to engage the culture winsomely. And what did it say?

Paul's evangelism strategy being winsome to this unbelieving group of people. That evangelism strategy included a warning to unbelievers that God will judge you for your actions. Let me show you again. Paul's telling these people the times of ignorance got overlooked, but now he commands repentance is a command.

He commands all people. everywhere, to repent because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man who he has appointed. And of this, he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. So faithful Christians, we need to maintain the doctrine of God's judgment. It is even in our evangelism.

I know whenever I was first trained in sharing my faith, we never mentioned God's judgment because that might upset someone that might offend them or turn them away. And that's right. It might offend them and turn them away. And that's not a bad thing. Paul didn't run from it, and some people got offended whenever he preached this in the book of Acts.

But preaching telling people about the judgment of God is an important thing that, that shows what Jesus saved us from. It's important to know that we're saved we don't, heaven is not just you get to live forever, but rather heaven is you're being saved from the wrath of God, the judgment of God.

We hosted a conference this past week by a group called Operation Save America. We did rant, played a video last week and got to know some of the people here. On Wednesday night was their opener opening event. And I spoke here Wednesday night and there was a film crew from NBC news here.

And I knew when I walked in the room, I was like, I know who that is because they looked, they stood out they did not blend with the crowd. And I saw that big, huge camera back there, point in this direction and I'm here to give the opening message. And I know the group that they're affiliated with, this Operation Save America, it's an anti-abortion group, pro-life group, and they're, NBC News is here to report on these people.

And as you can imagine the coverage may not be favorable. Let's just say the guy that, that I talked to, he said something, it said it's not, it could be worse. It said they've had various kinds of coverage. Sometimes there's outright lies, and slander and some pieces have been more fair minded, but either way, we know that at least on the table is something that is scandalous and slanderous.

Yeah. And so here I am, I walk up on the stage, and I was thinking, it's what I know of some people that I want them to hear the gospel. At least I was planning on just speaking to the, to the people that were here for the conference. But I think I have some people I want to speak to.

So, I made a last-minute adjustment And I'd already been working on this sermon, and I was thinking, from what I'm studying and what I'm planning to preach on Sunday, this morning a faithful presentation of the gospel is going to include, not run from, the judgment of God.

And so here I am, feeling a little uncomfortable, just saying Every one of us will stand before God and give account for our lives, for our deeds, whether good or bad, what we did in the body and our actions have consequences. What we so that will we also reap. And we can have, through faith in Jesus, we can be rescued from our sin, and we can have eternal life and we can have the hope and we, that is assured of us because God raised him from the dead.

And the life that Jesus has now is what is ours through faith. But that's not pleasant. That's not comfortable. And that discomfort is my fault. Nobody else. This is not God's fault. It's my fault. And so, I, that's a, it was a, it was a test for me to say something that was unpleasant and uncomfortable but was the faithful true thing that needed to be said in a, in an environment that where the gospel is being presented, if we deny God's judgment or if we're afraid of it, then we're just like the scoffers.

In Peter's day, we're running from a truth, an unpleasant truth, because we don't like it because it's uncomfortable. And God wants it to be unpleasant. God wants it to be uncomfortable because that's what provokes our conscience, pricks our conscience to make us aware that there is, this is real. We will give account.

We should not hide that. The fact that somebody would be scared of that is a good thing. We should face that day. We're for believers, we need not fear it, but for people that aren't believers, there should be a sense of fear that I don't want that to be me.

And so, it is faithful and good. And the doctrine of the judgment of God, it highlights the beauty of the gospel because we are not judged like the wicked. As Christians, we're not. And so, we, as Christians, we await it eagerly, but whenever we proclaim it with the sort of seriousness that the subject demands.

And so, the righteous will be judged, not for sins, but for our obedience, but the wicked will be judged for their sins. And they will give an account. And they will receive justice from a righteous God who is perfectly holy and just. He is not capricious or vindictive or cruel. He is righteous. And our sins deserve a righteous answer.

So, for those who reject Christ and who do not believe the gospel, or for false converts who abandon the true faith, what awaits them is eternal punishment. God's wrath will be on them forever. We call it hell. It may be more appropriate to call it the lake of fire. But that is what awaits those who don't know Jesus.

That's a terrible thing. Terrible thing to experience. Not terrible for God to, to inflict that upon them. But it's a terrible experience. And we would, we'd want to rescue people from that. And part of, Doing so is making sure that we don't obscure or hide the difficult doctrine of judgment.

That's why it's in the Bible That's why I'm saying this to you now It's a warning that we would avoid this outcome and you know If anybody is here, then you don't know Jesus You're not a Christian or if you're not sure that's something that this doctrine is here so that you could Settle it so that you could respond as we saw in Acts it's like God commands all people everywhere to repent and To call upon the name of the Lord Jesus You could be saved from His wrath if you do that, if you repent of your sin and you call on His name.

So, here's the thing. All of us will stand before our Maker. There's a day that has been fixed. We don't know when it is, but we know that it is. And we're assured of that. It's promised. And we will all give an account for our lives. For everything we've done. And we will be judged according to a perfect, righteous standard.

Not some arbitrary thing that is a moving target and we don't know what it is. No, God has told us in His Word what the standard is. And His wrath against human sin will be manifest and God will be perfectly just and righteous to bring that about. This is real. This is real.

That's why the scripture is so eager to emphasize it. The holy prophets and the apostles and the Lord Jesus ever, they're consistent. Their message is the same. And that's why Satan is so eager to deny it and to decoy it. Distract us from it. Because he wants us in the lake of fire. Because he hates God.

But this doctrine makes the goodness of the gospel so much sweeter. You can know there is a path. We can be saved. We're promised that. You can be saved. By calling on the name of the Lord Jesus and repenting of your sin, that's why it's there. And that's my prayer for you today, that you would confess your sin, repent, turn to Jesus and call on His name and be forgiven.

Let's pray. Our Father and our God, you are righteous and perfect and holy and just in every way. Everything good and true and beautiful comes from you. And there is no good that exists anywhere that exists apart from you. Everything that lovely and wonderful and sweet comes from you and is, we have you to thank for it.

And Lord God, apart from you, we are vile and wretched and sinful. And we thank you, Lord Jesus, that in your tender compassion, that you did the unthinkable, that God became man, and you embodied your perfection as a human perfectly throughout the earthly life. And then you died unjustly in our place. An innocent man condemned on behalf of the wicked so that through your death, our sins could be atoned for and through your resurrection, we might find life.

And so, Lord, I pray now that anyone here, may we all just be eternally grateful for that, but for anyone here, Lord, who does not believe. And does not have that assurance of salvation, Lord. I pray that you will lead them now to confess their sin. God, I am a sinner. God, I have rebelled against you. God, forgive me.

And they will turn from that sin in repentance. And they will call on the name of the Lord Jesus and be saved. Lord, forgive me. Lord, save me. Make me who you want me to be. Lord, now I thank you that we get to celebrate it every week as we come to the table and we eat and drink a feast, a banquet of your grace.

May we enjoy that now in light of what you've done for us. We pray all these things in the name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.