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In this second session this morning, we have some difficult things to deal with. The thought that lunch grows rapidly nearer, of course, may serve to strengthen us to face and deal with these difficulties manfully. First difficulty is that in the question session, you'll come across as question number two, which is of extraordinary difficulty. But then, of course, you could have answered an easy question, couldn't you? This one says, what lesson is drawn from Noah in Hebrews chapter eleven seven? Is it simply the same as in A above?
And when you look, there is no A above. So that is an extraordinary question to have to answer. Nevertheless, we'll leave it as it is. If we altered it, it would be easy and beneath your ability. The second difficulty is more serious. It lies in the lesson being conveyed by the next verses that come for our study. Now, therefore, let us remind ourselves and reaffirm in our minds before we begin our study that this is the inspired word of God. Let us therefore start by believing it, whether we understand it or not.
Then let us have the wisdom to observe that different Christian people, good, honest, serious students of the word of God, would perhaps come to slightly different views on the verses and what they teach. And therefore we have need of patience one with another, not to grow cynical, not to grow unduly dogmatic, but to be patient with one another and try to progress in the understanding of what God is here telling us. It is in that, uh, uh, with that attitude I shall now proceed.
If I sound unduly dogmatic, you'll know it is simply my age, or my temperament, or the fact that it's Saturday morning, or something else, and make due allowance for these things. Now, at this point, shall we just read the verses that will be our particular concern in this session? Two Peter two and verse three and the last phrases in that verse, whose sentence now from of old lingereth not, and their destruction slumbereth not. For if God spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell and committed them to pits of darkness to be reserved unto judgment, and spared not the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, having made them an example unto those that should live ungodly and delivered righteous lots or distressed by the lascivious life of
the wicked. For that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their lawless deeds. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment. They then are our verses, and we may care to notice where they come in the thought flow of this chapter two. We observed in our first session that the chapter begins with some verses on the false teachers, verses one to three.
It characterizes them under three se- uh, special headings, and then comes quickly to say that their destruction does not slumber. It's coming very soon. It's been determined of old. It will soon be executed. And then it beg- goes on to explain how it shall be done. And how God can do it. And why the apostles should think it necessary to explain that God is able to do it. You say, isn't it obvious that God could do anything he wants to?
Well, why it is that, uh, Peter cites all these three examples from the Old Testament to show that God can deal very soon with these gentlemen. Well, why that is, we shall have to think in a moment. But this, uh, here, the second section, verses four to nine, are there to explain to us how God will be able to bring upon these false teachers their destruction. And when he has drawn the lesson, we noticed in our first session that he recurs to the topic of the false teachers, and once more he gives us a detailed description of them.
But then again, in verse seventeen, he comes to this solemn declaration once more, for them, the blackness of darkness has been reserved. We're once more back at the theme of God's judgment upon them. In the fourth section, another for, but this time it's not telling us how God will do it, but why he will do it. Because of the disastrous effect of their false teaching on the lives of others, God has reserved for those false teachers the blackness of darkness.
What they showed to the world was not light. What they showed to the world came from the very prints of darkness. There is a certain poetic justice that God has reserved for them the blackness of darkness forever. Let it move us to thank God in this very instant, if it be true of us that God has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of his son. And let us show forth the virtues of him that has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.
But if men will have darkness and spread moral darkness in this life, it is not to be wondered at if God reserves for them the blackness of darkness forever. So now this morning we're going to concentrate on this, uh, second passage, and you may notice simply as an interesting way of beginning to remember, uh, the thought flow of our chapter two, Now that there are two sections on the false teachers.
We saw them just now, the first and the third. And you'll notice that there is a certain similarity between them. We're going to leave the false teachers now for a while, at least the detail about them, and we're going to look at the other two paragraphs, and particularly the first. Here are the other two paragraphs, number two and four. And the paragraph two contains, among other things, examples of God's deliverance of the righteous.
And it cites as the examples Noah and Lot. Paragraph four is going to deal out warnings of the possible end of those that you may well describe them as the reformed, but not Regenerate. Instead of being delivered by the Lord, out of temptation, you'll notice a very big difference between this lot and this lot, won't you? The Lord knows how to deliver this group. This dope don't necessarily get delivered at all.
You won't confuse the two groups, will you? Why aren't these delivered? We shall find, I think, when we come to consider the detail, that you see, these are the righteous, these are the regenerate. In spite of all their mistakes, failings, and fallings, these reformed, but not regenerate, and therefore fall to the teachings of the false teachers, and the last state becomes worse than the first.
But now, as you see, as an example of, um, salvation, Peter refers us to Noah and Lot, and referring us to Noah, he mentions the flood. I'm going to turn aside now, uh, if you will allow me and not revolt, but if you revolt, you get no lunch. Uh, I'm going to turn aside now for a while and leave Second Peter and go elsewhere in the New Testament to consider other places where the New Testament talks about the flood. The reason I do that is this, that the flood is obviously a exceedingly important and significant story to the writers of the New Testament.
It is cited in several different places. In our epistle, it is cited twice. It is cited here in chapter two. It will be cited again at great length in chapter three. The flood, therefore, is an exceedingly important event according to the writers of the New Testament, and for that reason I want to dwell a moment on it. Secondly, I want to demonstrate, if I can, that the flood is used as a lesson book from which to draw several different lessons. And what the difference of those in those lessons is, we shall find as we proceed.
The differences do not contradict each other, of course, but they are different lessons. And I emphasize this fact, and I hope to point it out, because when we come to our passage here in second Peter two, I want us to concentrate on the lesson that it is teaching, and not to get ourselves a little bit muddled up by bringing into two Peter two lessons that are taught from the flood in other parts of the New Testament, but are not the particular point for which Peter cites the flood here in two Peter two. All right?
It does sometimes, uh, we do sometimes allow ourselves to be just a little bit confused, don't we? On a topic so large as the flood, by wanting one passage to teach simultaneously all the different lessons that are taught from that topic all through the scripture, and that perhaps is a mistake. What we're going to try to do in the end is to precise and to focus very precisely on the lesson that the flood teaches us here in two Peter two. So let us get rid of some of our surplus int- intellectual energy and not superfluous biblical knowledge, but the massive biblical knowledge we have, let's just put it into its compartments so that it will clear our minds for our chief job in two Peter two.
So if you care to turn to Luke chapter seventeen, for instance, Luke chapter seventeen verse twenty six to thirty, There our blessed Lord quotes both the flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Verse twenty six, Luke seventeen: and as it came to pass in the days of Noah, even so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man. They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, even as it came to pass in the days of Lot, they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded.
But in the day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. After the same manner shall it be in the day that the Son of Man is revealed. And it is easy, uh, for us to pick up the lesson that our Lord is teaching. If we read the account in the Old Testament, we shall read that the generation of the flood were exceedingly wicked. That is not what our Lord calls attention to here. If we read the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis, we shall find that the men of that city behaved in an abominable fashion.
That is not what our Lord calls attention to here. He calls our attention to the fact that in those days men were engaged in their ordinary activities. In themselves, there were nothing wrong with those activities. They ate, they drank, they builded, and so forth. All innocent, good, healthy, wholesome occupations in themselves. But alas, they went about those occupations as though there were no judgment coming. And right to the very last moment, they went about their ordinary occupations with no thought of the judgment in their head.
They were caught, therefore, utterly unawares by the coming of the flood, by the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, right up until the last point that the flood came, right up until the last point that Lot went out of Sodom. They were engaged in their ordinary avocations, and were found utterly unprepared. So shall it be when the Lord comes again, says our Lord Jesus. And he concentrates our attention not on the wickedness of the world that then shall be, but on the fact that multitudes will be caught utterly unprepared. You say, how was it that the people were caught unprepared by the coming of the flood?
Were they not warned? Oh yes, they were warned. They didn't believe old Noah, so they were unprepared. Why was it that the men of Sodom were caught unprepared? Were they not warned? Yes, they were warned by Lot, by angels. They just didn't believe, that's all. The New Testament talks everywhere about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why will thousands of people be caught unprepared? For the simple reason that our Lord gives. First, he must be rejected. This world has examined the claims of the Lord Jesus, and multitudes have repudiated them. Alas, even those who in some sense will nominally, nominally admit that Jesus is the Son of God, have failed to take seriously the announcement in the New Testament of his second coming.
When I was a youth in theological circles, the doctrine of the second coming was dismissed as a kind of the lunatic fringe of Christianity, that if you had any sense in your head, you would just sort of apologize for and say, well, yes, you know, can't expect the, uh, dear old apostles to have got everything completely right. On the whole, they were jolly good chaps, but they did have some curious notions, God forgive them. Things have improved somewhat in academic circles on that regard, as people have come to see that the doctrine of the Second Coming is absolutely central to Christianity. But it's one thing for the doctrine to be on the page of Holy Scripture.
It's another thing for people to believe it, and thus to be prepared for that coming. So the reference to the flood in Luke, as in Matthew, is a reference to urge us and all men to be prepared for the coming of Christ, and not to be so taken up with life's ordinary duties and activities as to leave no time to be preparing oneself for the coming of the Savior. Now let's look at the lesson drawn from it in Hebrews chapter eleven and verse seven. Hebrews eleven verse seven says as follows: By faith, Noah, being warned of God concerning things not seen as yet, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, through which he condemned the world and became the heir, became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
Here the writer takes a very practical turn. He says that Noah was warned of God of things that were not yet seen. There was a flood coming. Because it was not yet seen, it required faith in Noah's part to believe it was going to come. How genuine was the faith? Did he really believe it? Oh yes, says the Holy Spirit. You can see Noah believed what he was told about the coming flood. Why? Because he did something about it. He said, I've got a family here that need to be saved. If the flood comes tonight, they won't be prepared, and I want to see my family saved.
His faith that there was coming a flood moved him to do something practical about it and to prepare an ark for the saving of his, uh, family. Your family saved yet? All the members in your church saved yet? Believe the Lord is coming? You doing anything about it? Well, you say, I can't say them. Of course you can't. You say the Ark is Christ. Yeah, I know that in another sense. But no, let's, let's stay with Hebrews. We'll come to Peter soon enough, and he'll use the Ark as a picture of the salvation that is in Christ.
But let's stay with Hebrews for the moment and get the lesson that Hebrews is doing. Hebrews doesn't say the Ark is a picture of baptism or the picture of Christ or something. It simply puts before us Abram, who believed, and the evidence that his faith was a genuine faith is that he did something about it. He prepared an ark to the saving of his house. If I believe Christ is coming, and for those that are unprepared, there could be disaster. God help me that my faith in his coming shall lead me to take practical steps as best I can, by God's grace, to do something about the salvation of those of my family and friends that are not yet saved.
And then we come to one Peter three. Here is another reference to the flood. Uh, let us read the verses that are particularly relevant. one Peter chapter three. We'll begin, shall we, at verse seventeen. For it is better if the will of God should so will that you suffer for well doing than for evil doing, because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit, in which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which aforetime were disobedient, when the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, wherein few, that is eight souls, were saved through water, which also, after a true likeness, doth now save you, even baptism, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is on the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being made subject to him.
Those verses are famous for their difficulty, are they not? Particularly in relation to these spirits in prison. And if you have come to see the fun of David going down to meet that Goliath, I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed, at least this morning. I shall not be discussing these spirits in prison, interesting as they are and important. But it is quarter past twelve already. Let us fasten at the core of the matter, two of its details. First of all, here Peter remarks upon the nature of the salvation that Noah and the others experienced.
They were saved through the water. Interesting expression, isn't it? Because it becomes, as Peter is about to say, a vivid illustration of the principle upon which our salvation works. You could sum it up like this: Abraham was not saved from the judgment of the flood. He was saved through the water. That is a very interesting thing.
You see, actually, the water came down on Noah just as it came down on everybody else. The difference was that while the water came down on him and upon everybody else, he had an ark that took him through it, and they didn't. When Noah believed what God said, pray notice what it was he b- he he was asked to believe, the end of all flesh has come before me. Here was God's judgment on flesh, rebellious, sinful, corrupt, and corrupting flesh, and God had decided to end it. Not to try and improve it, but to finish it.
That was God's judgment. Perhaps it took a lot of faith. Are they so bad? Yes, so bad, says God. Noah's faith showed itself first of all in that genuine repentance that accepted the judgment of God, that the end of all flesh is come before God. It deserved his judgment. The storm was coming from beneath and from above. The end of flesh come. In that particular, of course, we may well see, like Peter, an illustration of the basic principle of our salvation. Salvation begins with repentance. And repentance is not simply agreeing with God that murder is wrong and adultery is wrong.
Repentance is more radical than that. Repentance is admitting that all flesh is so impossibly corrupt that all God can do is to destroy it. To bring it under his judgment. I was reading a book not so long ago. It professed to be talking to us about salvation. It says, you know, when we come to die, few of us will think we've ever done anything bad enough to be damned. On the other hand, perhaps none of us will believe that we're good enough to go to heaven just as we are. Ooh, I said, what a horrible book. I had to be restrained from putting it on the fire.
Few of us will believe we've ever done anything bad enough to be damned. Well, if you don't believe that, you'll never be saved, I tell you. Why is it that some people lack the assurance of salvation? Because they've never repented. That is precisely what we have done. According to Paul, Romans 3 and 19 and twenty, we stand, every one of us, Jew and Gentile, philosopher, moralist, and ordinary fellow in the street, we stand, our mouth shut, guilty before God, deserving of his wrath and displeasure. We stand under the judgment of God.
Damned? Of course. That's precisely where we do stand. And until I really agree with God that my flesh is thus bad, I shall not lay hold of the salvation that God has prepared. I shall imagine that Christ has come to save me by just improving me a little bit here and there. I shall miss the very gate into salvation. It's a very narrow gate. It demands radical repentance, the admittance that I, with the rest of humanity, am so sinful.
I stand condemned by God's law, under his judgment, left to myself. I must perish in the storm of God's wrath. When Noah believed that, then ready to hand was God's gospel message. There was a salvation. How did that work? Now I remark what Peter remarks. The nature of the salvation was that the ark took Noah through the judgment. The waters came up, the waters came down, the ark was surrounded by the judgment waters of the flood, before, behind, beneath, and above, and it went through it.
No, saved because the ark could come through it and survive to the other side. And our Christian salvation, Christ has saved me from the judgment of sin, and in a sense you're right. I tell you he's done something more. He saved you through it. For our blessed Lord, in whom we have salvation, he, by God's mercy, he went through the judgment, and all the wrath of God descended upon him, and he bore it all, bore in love unbounded what none can know.
And he came through it into the new world of resurrection. And all who enter that door, and God shuts them in to the ark of his salvation, they may come through to the other side absolutely saved of the Lord, knowing that the judgment has passed and is forever ended as far as they are concerned. That's why for the believer there is now no condemnation, no penalty ahead, no wrath of God. God has not appointed you to wrath. The wrath is finished.
It finished when Christ went through it, and you are counted as being in him. Peter then draws another analogy for our, uh, uh, uh, learning. He says, you know, that, uh, uh, there's a certain analogy between that ark and so forth and baptism. Baptism, he says, uh, is not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but it is, well, now let's see what it is. To follow Peter's Greek, it's not the al- always the easiest thing that anybody could be called upon to do, but the order of his words in Greek makes it quite plain that what he's saying is this.
He's not saying that baptism is the answer of a good conscience towards God. If he were saying this thing here, what it would mean would be as follows, that when you've got a good conscience towards God, how do you get that? Well, through the blood of Christ. That's right, oh. Then if you've got a good conscience towards God by the blood of Christ, then you ought to get baptized. Well, now that is perfectly true as to the fact. And if is that what you think the verse means, okay, well, what you think is true anyway, that in in itself, whether that verse is saying it or not.
It's fact that you don't get a good conscience by getting baptized, in the sense of a conscience free of guilt before God. Of course, if you are a believer and you haven't been baptized, you may have a niggling conscience about that, or you ought to have, and the only way to get rid of that would be to get baptized. Yes, I admit that bit. But in the fundamental sense of how do I get my sins forgiven? How do I get peace with God? You don't get that by being baptized. You get a good conscience in that sense through faith in the sacrifice of Christ. No, to be more exact, Peter is not saying that baptism is the answer of a good conscience toward God. He is saying that baptism is the answer to God.
You see, you watch old Noah. Noah was told of God there was going to come a flood. He believed it. His faith was in God. And in God's word in his salvation. How did he show it? Well, he made his response to God, didn't he? Watch him, there stands the ark. I believe, says Noah. You do, Noah? Well, show it then, good man. He walks up into the ark. And the ark takes him through the flood. Baptism is my answer to God.
The word answer in the Greek tongue is a difficult word, and for a long time foxt many translators. But now many have come round to see, from their consultation of the papyri, that it is a legal term. It means really the formal answer to a formal question. In the ancient world, it was used in the law courts. If two farmers had a dispute about a cow, well, before they came to court, the facts of the case would be determined by a magistrate or his official. He would summon the two farmers, and he would put formal questions to them and get their formal answers. Giles, do you say it's your cow?
And Giles would say, yes, I say it's my cow. How do you say that, uh, Brown got it? Well, he stole it. Noted down. Brown, do you say it's your cow? Yes, I say it's my cow. How do you say you got it? I bought it. And so on and so forth. Formal questions with formal answers that would be noted down and brought before the judge. I don't know if we have that system nowadays in the law courts. There is another, uh, area of, uh, experience where we still have it. As, uh, you will know, we have it at weddings. Maximilian and Emmelina come to be married.
They stand before the minister. The minister says, Maximilian, will you have this aforesaid Emmalina? There's a formal question there, if ever there was one. And he says, I will. He makes his answer. And turning to the aforesaid Emmalina, the minister says, and Emmalina, will you have Maximilian to be your wedded husband and all that. Formal question again. She makes a formal answer. When the minister asks Maximilian, wilt thou have, uh, Emmalina? He doesn't know. Don't be so silly. I told you that before. And Emmalina knows I will. You know, one night I put the question. We were standing by a five-bar gate, and I plucked up courage.
Of course, not without her encouragement. And I plucked up courage, and I popped the question, and she said yes, and it's a matter of the heart. We don't need all this formal business. What are you asking me again for? I've already said yes. Is that how ladies talk about weddings? No, not quite. I may have had the five-bar gate experience, but most of them insist on this other business. And real formal it is. And the formal question is put, will you? And the formal answer is given, I will. These are serious, if delightful matters, aren't they?
God has pronounced us sinners. He's given his son to be our ark and our savior. You've told him personally, yes, I will. Now God wants something more from you. He wants you to get baptized, of course. Why? Because baptism is the formal answer that we publicly make to God. And when a person is baptized, it is as though the God of heaven is formally putting the question, you, John Brown, Margaret Smith, do you take my son as your savior? And speak we words or speak we no words?
As we get baptized, we're making our formal reply to God, I do. You say, I don't see the need for it. Oh, really? Let me ask who commanded it. You say Christ. Half a minute. Did Christ buy you? Do you admit that you're not your own, that he bought you? You do? And that he's become your slave, master, and lord? Well, that's the end of it, isn't it?
Whether you see any sense in it or not. If the Lord and Master that has bought you commands it, then you do it, don't you? And what shall one Peter, uh, two Peter two say about it? Here, as I promised you, we come to a little difficulty. The general principle i- the general problem is as follows. Here are certain historical instances cited, and then from them Peter draws a lesson. The first one is easy enough.
If God spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to destruction, well, then it stands obviously, you scarce need say it, he won't spare evil men when they sin either. But our problem arises, and particularly with the false prophets that were around or about to come in Peter's day. Their destruction comes, but how will God be able to arrange it? You see, the day of judgment, the end of the world, is a long, long way off.
How will God arrange this business? Can he, does he know how to intervene so as to destroy the wicked and somehow save the righteous? That is the problem. Notice how he saved it at the flood, according to Peter. And notice the nature of the flood. Before the flood came, history was proceeding, as we all know. The world got exceedingly wicked. God didn't say, well, that's a pity because I hadn't intended to have the end of the world yet for many, many, many centuries.
And the world has got so wicked now, whatever shall I do? I, I, uh, have I got to wait until the end of the world? Well, God was under no compulsion to wait for the end of the world. He intervened. Catastrophically intervened. That wasn't the end of the world, was it? History went on. God can, in spite of some modern theologians, God knows how to intervene within history, catastrophically intervene. And the flood was one of those occasions. And history goes on.
It wasn't the end of the world. What happened with Sodom? Well, those particular cities got very wicked. History had gone on. God didn't say, well, I can't do anything about this because the time for the end of the world isn't here yet. Time for the day of judgment isn't here yet. So I shall have to let them be. No, no, God knows how to intervene within history. Doesn't have to wait till the end of the world. He intervened catastrophically with those cities, and history went on. And at the flood Noah was delivered, and Lot was delivered, and history went on.
The wicked were taken to prison house under punishment to await the great judgment. With those examples in mind, now Peter assures us that God can do the same thing. Still. What will he do and how? Well, that's what he's going to do. And there are the facts, and we may all agree about the facts. How you're going to interpret them now when you see it is another thing. But they're the facts, aren't they? Have I got the facts right? History is going on with these false teachers. And God is saying, look, I don't have to wait till the day of judgment before I deal with them.
The Lord knows how so to intervene that he delivers the godly out of temptation. Simultaneously, he keeps the unrighteous under punishment until. the day of judgment. This intervention then is not the day of judgment. The intervention consigns these people to the prison house where they await in God's custody until the day of judgment. What event is Peter talking of?
An intervention in human history comparable to the flood, comparable to Sodom and Gomorrah's destruction. He is referring, of course, to nothing other, and now I submit why I understand it, he is referring to the coming of our Lord. Now, if you cannot see how that suggestion could possibly be true, at least have the kindness of heart to consider how Paul talks about these matters. And I quote you him from two Thessalonians chapter one. He writing to believers that here was suffering, not temptation so much as persecution. And he says, you see, it is a righteous thing with God to recompense affliction to them that afflict you, on the one hand, and to you that are afflicted, rest with us at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven, with the angels of his power, in flaming fire, rendering vengeance on them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction, from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he shall be come to glory, to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at in
all them that believe. Paul is preaching the second coming of our Lord as a great intervention that will put a stop to the persecution of believers by consigning the wicked to their doom, and it will simultaneously give the believer rest and relief. When our Lord comes, according to the Revelation chapter nineteen and twenty, what he shall do is to take the beast and the false prophet, says the Revelation, and he will put them in the lake of fire.
Is that the end of history? No. There they await while our Lord proceeds to reign on this earth, and they wait until the coming of the great day of judgment. As I understand these verses, then, they are pointing out, pointing us first to our great deliverance that comes. We look for the Lord to come. You say I'm a little bit disappointed at that. You are. Yes, you say I I'd look, I'd hope for deliverance from temptation long before then. Well, yes, and yes, and yes.
You'll never be guaranteed freedom from temptation, however, till the Lord comes, will you? You say, am I liable to be tempted by one thing and another right until the Lord comes? You are my brother, you are my sister. You say that makes me wobbly at the knees. Makes me a bit wobbly as well. And then I say, oh, but then look at it, the Lord knows how to deliver. Oh, I say, well, I'm glad he does. For how I'm going to get through, I don't know. But if the Lord knows how to deliver, I shall be delivered.
And then I say to myself some wicked things. I say, well, Noah, he was a great man, he was, as a preacher of righteousness. Don't know if I'd like to compare myself with Noah altogether, but there was that Lot chap. The Bible says he was righteous, so we have to believe it. Ah, but some of his behavior, there's a big question mark over it, isn't there? And at the end he was saved, so as by fire was Lot. But he was saved. Oh, thank God the man was saved. The Lord knew how to deliver him. And as the angel hasted him out of Sodom, he said, Lot, get out, man, for I can't do anything until you're clear.
So is it with the believer. God's not appointed you to wrath, my brother. Yes, the day of wrath is coming. God has not appointed you for wrath. No drop of wrath will ever fall upon the head of a believer. Courage, the Lord is coming. Our temptations be at an end, and the Lord knows how to deliver you. To consign the wicked to where they shall wait. For the eventual end of the earth and the day of judgment.
You say, can't it have another application? Well, perhaps it can. Perhaps they are right who would point you to one Corinthians chapter ten and say, you know, the Lord knows how to deliver you out of temptation, because with every temptation he makes the way of escape, so that you can bear it. That is blessedly true anyway, isn't it? It's not temptation all the way home to glory, oh, thank the Lord it isn't. And with the temptations measured, each one to our ability to bear them, the Lord makes the exit. He is not interested in testing his people's faith to destruction, but to preserve their faith.
And he will make the exit from each particular test. That is blessedly true. But in my humble opinion, it means more than that. There will come tests right until the Lord come. Courage, my brother. The Lord knows how to deliver you and will deliver you, and no wrath of God in that great day shall ever descend upon your head. And with that, we go to our crosses. Session six, The lessons to be learned from the angels Noah and Lot.
Question one, What lesson does Christ draw from the stories of Noah and Lot in Luke chapter seventeen verses twenty six to thirty? What lessons does Christ draw from the stories of Noah and Lot in Luke chapter seventeen twenty six to thirty? Question two: What lesson is drawn from Noah in Hebrews chapter eleven verse seven? Is this simply the same as in part A above? Question three: Read first Peter chapter three verses twenty and 21 and then discuss the following questions.
Read first Peter chapter three verses twenty and twenty one and then discuss the following questions. Part A. Do you see any similarity between the salvation affected by the ark and baptism? Do you see any similarity between the salvation affected by the ark and baptism? Part B. What does it mean when it says that baptism is the answer to God made by a good conscience? What does it mean when it says that baptism is the answer to God made by a good conscience?
Question four: In second Peter chapter two verses three to nine, how do the experiences of Noah and Lot demonstrate the fact that the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation? In second Peter chapter two verses three to nine, how do the experiences of Noah and Lot demonstrate the fact that the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation. Question five: Considering the means by which God delivered Noah and Lot out of temptation, do you expect the Lord to use similar means to deliver you out of temptation?
Question 6. Would you see any similarity between Lot's situation as described in Genesis chapter nineteen verses fourteen to twenty four, especially verse twenty two, and ours as described in first Thessalonians chapter five verse nine to ten? verses nine and ten. Could you see any similarity between Lot's situation as described in Genesis chapter nineteen verses fourteen to twenty four, especially verse twenty two, and ours as described in first Thessalonians chapter five verses nine and ten.
Question seven: In light of Lot's behavior after he got out of Sodom, how can Peter refer to him as righteous Lot? In light of Lot's behavior after he got out of Sodom, how can Peter refer to him as righteous Lot. Question eight: The angels that sinned were cast down to hell, and they're reserved unto judgment. Chapter two, verse four. Has that judgment taken place yet? Compare with Jude, verse six. Question nine: Chapter two verse nine says that the Lord knows how to keep the unrighteous under punishment unto the day of judgment.
How do you think this warning was meant to apply to the false teachers? See chapter two verse three. Chapter two verse nine says that the Lord knows how to keep the unrighteous under punishment unto the day of judgment. How do you think this warning was meant to apply to the false teachers? See chapter two, verse three.
