The God of Wrath and Rescue, Part 1

Have you ever found yourself gasping while scrolling through the news? It seems like every day we read shocking stories that take our breath away. Whether it's an act of violence or a heinous crime, we're left with lingering questions.

When will criminals pay the penalty for their crimes? When will God even the score? Chuck Woodall is teaching from the book of 2 Peter chapter 2. In this passage, we'll discover another facet of God's amazing character. He's filled with fury and he's filled with compassion.

Chuck calls him the God of wrath and rescue. I've had a bone to pick with the news media for years. Oh, I know, I know. They've got a tough job. But it seems as though they deliberately overlook great stories and remarkable accomplishments. And instead of that, they feature news that's discouraging and negative and depressing.

Have you noticed that? Scandals, homicides, political corruption, and of course natural disasters. Well, what sells is bad news. That's just a fact. And the media garners public interest by emphasizing that. Well, the problem is if that's all you hear, if that's all you watch on TV, eventually you may believe that's all there is.

Pretty depressing to be sure. That's one of the reasons I'm more than ever committed to teaching the Word of God. Without painting an imbalanced, pie-in-the-sky point of view, the Bible gives us the truth about life. Yeah, about life as it is, and more importantly, about life as it can be lived, with God's help, whether or not we choose to live it.

Now, don't make any mistake here. The Bible does portray the bad news about all the evil that's in the world. But it also reveals the good news about what God plans to do about it. You hardly need to be reminded that God is not soft on sin.

He won't tolerate forever those who openly rebel against His will and turn against His Word. The good news is that God will not abandon those of us who do believe in Him, who trust Him, those of us who long for God to rescue us from this corrupt and perverted world. In our journey through the Apostle Peter's second letter, we come to the place in chapter 2 where he presents both sides of the same coin. The God of wrath and the God who rescues.

The bad news as well as the good news. You'll hear that as I read for you from 2 Peter 2 verses 4 through 11. And did not spare the ancient world, but preserve Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly, and if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter, and if he rescued righteous lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men. For by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties, whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord.

You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into the Bible with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to download his Searching the Scriptures Studies by going to insight.org slash studies. And now here's the message that Chuck titled The God of Wrath and Rescue.

I'm on a serious subject tonight. We're actually studying the book of Second Peter. And if you're not familiar with it, it's way over there toward the end of the book of or the end of the New Testament. As a matter of fact, we're on a rather serious subject as we come to the second chapter of Second Peter. It's the subject of false teachers.

And that's no new subject, but it is one that is not frequently addressed publicly. Sometime those people come to our doors. Sometime we encounter their writings.

On occasion, we come across the teaching while we are at work. Perhaps we have heard some person tell us that they have decided to, as they put it, change religion. And they have gone to an area that seems much more open and teachable and warm and welcoming. And they're telling you, as they describe the difference between where they went to church half their lives and now where they're attending, they find a greater welcome. And they say to you words like, you know, I just cannot believe it took me so long to discover the truth.

And now that I have found it, I can't tell you the difference it's made in my life. I wish I had found a couple of quotations as I spoke last time from Second Peter Chapter two verses one to three, which I would like to read again, because those two quotations, which come from saints who are now gone, seem to describe so clearly that false teaching is cultic because of its style and it is heretical because of its doctrine and practice. And I want to describe those two concepts in these two quotes, but first let me read the first three verses of Second Peter two. False prophets also arose among the people just as there will also be false teachers among you who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.

And Peter isn't anywhere near through describing the scene. He even says there will be a great following. Many will follow their sensuality and because of them, the way of truth will be maligned. And in their greed, they will exploit you with false words.

Their judgment from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep. If I had in my pocket at this moment, a counterfeit twenty dollar bill, I could probably pass it among us. And not one of you would know that it's counterfeit, including myself. It looks real. And that's why it is called counterfeit. It appears to be something that is genuine when in fact it is worthless. It is false.

False teaching is like that. It looks real. It seems right. It appears.

It feels. It gives the impression that it's genuine. But in reality, it's empty. It's hollow.

It's worthless. And in fact, it's destructive. Irenaeus lived and wrote about 175 AD. Irenaeus wrote a work entitled Against Heresies.

He was the bishop of Lyon. While writing, he wrote this. Error indeed is never set forth in its naked deformity. Lest being thus exposed, it should at once be detected, but it is craftily decked out in an attractive dress. So as by its outward form to make it appear to the inexperienced more true than truth itself.

Irenaeus was exactly right. When you come across the teaching, for example, of New Age. When you come in contact with the teaching of other cults, other false religions, other nice sounding words and warm, welcoming friendships with people who have been deceived.

You will not know by being around them at first that it is false. It will be appealing. It will be attractive. It will even make you feel good. It may even make you feel better than when you were you regularly worship.

And those people who are who are encouraging you to follow it may be more friendly than the place where you have gone since you were a child. But remember, the teaching is craftily decked out in attractive dress. And remember what we just read. You will be exploited with false words. Another quote comes from the late Walter Martin. He was for so many years and especially through his familiar text, The Kingdom of the Cults. He was a man who exposed as intelligently and as boldly the false teaching of cults as anyone I've ever known personally. He writes this, the student of cultism then must be prepared to scale the language barrier of terminology.

First, he must recognize that it does exist. And second, he must acknowledge the very real fact that unless terms are defined, the semantic jungle which the cults have created will envelop him, making difficult if not impossible a proper contrast between the teaching of the cults and those of Orthodox Christianity. It's another way of saying what Peter has said in verse 2, because of them the way of truth will be maligned and they will exploit you, verse 3, with plastas words. Last time we were together I talked about the root meaning, plastic. Words that they mold in other shapes, meaning different things than you would mean or I would mean when we use them. As I presented last time, they use our vocabulary but they don't use our dictionary. They use terms like saved and salvation and sin and heaven and hell and righteousness and faith and hope and forgiveness. But they define those terms in different ways.

They differ from Orthodox Christianity. Now before I go any further in the verses that follow, let me present to you two sides of the same God. Because I think many people who hear teaching about false teachers and many of us who are in touch with those who are consumed in false teaching wonder if there will ever be a day of reckoning. I mean it looks like the cults are flourishing and they will continue to flourish right on into eternity. It appears as though that which is false is winning and that which is true is being denied by more and more.

And you would wonder as you see it happening in front of your eyes, is there ever going to be an end to this kind of madness? So if you will, hold your place here in 2 Peter and go back in the Old Testament to the ancient book of Lamentations. Let me show you one side of our great God and then I want to show you another side. Lamentations chapter 3, if you find the large book of Isaiah, that's a great prophecy of an ancient prophet, and then you'll find Jeremiah and then following Jeremiah there is a small journal that the prophet Jeremiah kept during downtime for him. After the fall of his beloved city of Jerusalem, he walked through the rubble, through the ashes, and he recorded his findings and he recorded his feelings as well. In Lamentations 3 verse 21, he finds something that gives him hope. And Christians all around the world will locate in this passage one of their favorite phrases. Lamentations 3 verse 21, Jeremiah says, This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. The Lord's lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for his compassion never fails.

They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. He looks at the ruins of the city and he reminds himself, nevertheless, God's compassion never fails. God's lovingkindness says, plural, never cease.

They are new at the rising of every morning sun. Great is thy faithfulness. Look at Jeremiah 12 verse 15. You'll see a similar thought back in the prophecy of Jeremiah chapter 12 verse 15 that we just read in Lamentations. By the way, the Psalms frequently describe our God as being a God of compassion and a God of kindness.

12, 15, And it will come about that after I have uprooted them, I will again have compassion on them, meaning the people of the Jews, and I will bring them back, each one to his inheritance and each one to his land. The reason he will do that, the verse begins, because he will have compassion on them. One side of our God that makes him real, that makes him valid, that makes him trustworthy and comforting is that he is a God of great compassion.

Great kindness. Just as a coin would be worthless if it had only one side, so our God would not be real if he had only one side. There is another side that is not nearly as popular and certainly is not as easy to hear. Turn from Jeremiah to Romans in the New Testament. I want to show you the side of our God that represents his wrath. Both of these have something to say in the book of 2 Peter chapter 2, and I want you to understand them both. After setting forth the most vivid expose of sin in all of the writings of Paul, Romans 1, 18 to 32, Paul comes to the second chapter of Romans and he describes God's wrath.

The scene is not happy and it's not pleasant but it's real. Romans 2, Therefore you are without excuse, every man of you who passes judgment, for in that you judge another you condemn yourself, for you who judge practice the same things. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. He has in mind the things he's described in verses 24 to 32 of chapter 1. Look at verse 3.

And do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment upon those who practice such things and do the same yourself that you will escape the judgment of God. What I see in chapter 2 verses 1 to 3 is that there will one day be a day of reckoning. Where God's compassion will be set aside and God's judgment will be enacted. Where God will no longer smile and wait patiently for the repentance of humanity, but he will in fact bring about reckoning a day of judgment. One more on the way to Peter that is Hebrews chapter 9 verse 27. Perhaps the most pronounced of statements in the writing of the New Testament on the judgment of God.

Hebrews chapter 9 verse 27. In as much as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment. It is appointed for all of us to die once. The teaching of reincarnation is a lie.

The information that you will come across in the popular media is a foolhardy. It is false teaching. We will live and we will die once and having died we will face our maker. Judgment will come. Now that is what Peter is emphasizing as he deals with the response of our God to those who teach false truth. Now 2 Peter chapter 2. First let me emphasize from the passage the judging of the wicked. Remember what I just read and now follow along the teaching of Peter as he describes the impact of eternity on those who teach falsely. Verse 4, 2 Peter 2. If God did not spare angels when they sinned but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness reserved for judgment.

And if I may add, if God did not spare the ancient world but preserve Noah a preacher of righteousness with seven others when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. Verse 9. Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation.

That's his compassion. And he knows how to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment. That is his wrath. I want you to see in this passage that God has both sides and both will be in full force when eternity dawns.

Spend a few minutes back on verse 4 with me. God has not spared the angels when they sinned. It is believed by many of us that when Lucifer fell from his exalted position as the archangel of God, the highest of all created beings, that he took with him a third of the heavenly host. Some of them as humanity came to pass on the earth were involved in perversions with humanity. And as a result, according to the sixth verse of the book of Jude as well as the sixth chapter of the book of Genesis, God stepped in and judged those angelic beings who had cohabited with humanity and he has reserved them in a place called here hell. He has cast them into hell. Don't let me confuse you with this, but this is to be differentiated from the hell where humanity will go.

This is a special compartment of the nether world. The Greek word is Tartarus and it is reserved for these creatures who fell because of perversions with humanity. It's a long story and I'll save our turning by simply saying that God did not overlook the act of unrighteousness. And he captured those angelic creatures and cast them into Tartarus where they remain until they will be ultimately judged and cast into the lake of fire.

But that isn't all. Verse 5. And God did not spare, notice the same reference, verse 4 did not spare angels, verse 5 did not spare the ancient world. If you go back in your Bibles to Genesis 5, Genesis 4, on into Genesis 6, you will see that humanity is in an awful state of affairs.

In fact, it grieves the heart of God that he even made mankind. And he sees mankind in all of its depravity and realizing that if it continues they will consume themselves, he promises Noah that there will be a flood, build an ark for the rescue of those who are righteous and in the process of time you preach righteousness. If they listen they will be saved, if they reject you they will be damned, they will be lost, you continue to be a preacher of righteousness. People don't know this, many don't, but for over a hundred years Noah preached and built the ark. In the process of time the flood came and those who rejected the Lord that Noah had preached were taken in the flood.

The flood, verse 5, the end of it that came upon the world of the ungodly. Now just as God did that on behalf of the angels that sin, verse 4, and the unbelievers in the days of Noah, verse 5, so he will do that in the future against false teachers, verse 9. Then in light of that the Lord knows how to rescue the godly and also to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment. He will keep the unrighteous under punishment and reserve them for the day of judgment. Will you observe back in verse 5 and then on into verse 6 and 7 how he preserves Noah and he protects Lot? While he did not spare the ancient world he preserved Noah a preacher of righteousness with seven others. It's a familiar story to Christians when the flood came Noah and the seven of his family were locked inside.

God shut the door and preserved them from the judgment that came on the world. God has very little patience with self-appointed Bible teachers who twist the truth and Chuck Swindoll has much more to say about this warning. He's teaching from 2 Peter chapter 2 so please keep listening as our study continues.

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I'm Bill Meyer. Next time Chuck Swindoll continues his message about the God of Wrath and Rescue on Insight for Living. The preceding message, The God of Wrath and Rescue, was copyrighted in 1989, 1990, 2011 and 2023. And the sound recording was copyrighted in 2023 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.