Now the Spirit of God is speaking
through Peter, and He's been giving us a warning against false
teachers. We saw that the Lord warned the
children of God through Moses. We saw how the Lord warned His
disciples when He walked this earth of false teachers. We saw
how Paul did it repeatedly through the Gospels. We've seen Peter
doing it. We're told that their doctrine shall lead many to follow
them. And we've looked at their fruits.
Many, they'll have many follow them. We looked at their motives.
We looked at the covetousness. We looked at their manner. But
the Lord told us then, or the Spirit of God tells us then that
their end shall be judgment and eternal damnation. Now we looked
at the first example. We saw that God spared not the
angels that sinned. The Lord said, the devil abode
not in the truth. The truth was set forth before
the angels that God the Son would come and take upon Him the form
of a man, and that God, man, and mediator would put away the
sin of His people and would be exalted. And all the angels would
worship Him. Men would worship Him. All things
would be put in subjection under Him in the world to come. And
that message was the cause of rebellion in heaven before God
made this earth. And that message is the cause
of rebellion in this earth. It has been the hell of this
earth ever since Adam sinned in the garden. Satan and a host
of angels rebelled. They abode not in the truth,
Christ said, and God spared them not. He spared them not. Now
our focus this morning is going to be the second example given.
And I've titled this, God spared not the old world. Look at verse
5. It says, and God spared not the
old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of
righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly. Now, turn over to Genesis 6. Genesis chapter 6. As we look at this, I want you
to keep in mind that our subject is the error of false teachers,
which leads them and sinners who follow them to certain damnation."
That's a solemn subject, very solemn subject. Now, what was
it that led the whole human race astray? What was it that led
them astray so that God destroyed the old world with a flood? What
was it that did that? Doesn't that interest you? Don't
you want to know what was it that caused such rebellion in
this earth? It was rebellion against the
truth of God's salvation accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
That's what the rebellion has always been. That's what it is
now. That's what it was then. We're
going to look at this in two ways. We're going to look first
of all at the sin of the old world and God's judgment. Then
we're going to look at God's grace toward Noah and Noah's
faith. Now, the first thing we see here
is that the sin of the old world. We're talking about before the
flood, before Noah's day. We're looking at what caused
God to not spare the old world. Genesis 6-1. And it came to pass,
when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters
were born unto them, that the sons of God, a different group
of folks here, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men,
that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which
they chose. Now the world had been divided
at this time and at two kinds of people. There were those that
verse one calls men. They're the children of Cain.
Children of Cain. And then those that are called
the sons of God were the children of Seth. They were taught to
worship the true and living God. We saw how that the Lord revealed
Christ to Adam and Eve. And then Adam and Eve taught
their children. They had Cain and Abel. And Abel,
both of them came to the altar. Both of them came to the place
where they were to worship God. Abel came with blood. He believed
God. He trusted God. He knew he had
to come with the blood of a lamb. Abel came with the fruit of his
own hand, that which he had produced. That's the two religions over
this whole world, always, only, continually, as long as this
world works. It's held in store. It's grace
and works. I do not care the name it goes
by. It can go by Christianity. It can go by whatever name you
want to call it. It's either grace, salvation
by grace, through Christ Jesus the Lord, through faith in Him
alone, or it's works. It's the only two there are.
Well, Cain killed Abel because he didn't like that, that God
received Abel and didn't receive him. Well, after he did that,
They had another son named Seth. These that are called the sons
of God, here, are the sons of Seth. And the men, daughters
of men, are the sons of Cain. Now, you bear in mind that Cain
thought he worshipped a true and living God. God talked to
Cain. And he was, you know, Cain's telling everybody, I worshipped
a true and living God. And Seth, these children of sons
of God were separated from them and they worshiped the true and
living God. They weren't taught to worship
the true and living God. But something happened. Verse 1 says,
It came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the
earth, and daughters were born unto them. The first thing that
played a part in leading the posterity of Seth into apostasy
from God is that in proportion to them, and they're multiplying,
the children of Cain multiplied in greater numbers. They multiplied
at a more rapid pace than the children of Seth did. You got
to realize that about nine generations have passed here. There's millions
of people on the earth right now. We're not talking about
a few people. We're talking about millions of people. Now, you apply this
to our text in 2 Peter. We're talking about we're talking
about false teachers and their followers. Apply this increase
among the descendants of Cain to the religion of false teachers.
Free will works religion of every sort. Apply it to that. Works
religion always grows faster in number than grace. Always. always does. Remember Peter says
that the false teachers will be followed by many, by many. The Lord said, few there be that
found the straight gate. Few, many go in the broad way.
Few enter in this narrow way. God's always had a remnant, a
very small remnant in the earth. Work's religion increases faster
because it doesn't wait on the Lord. It doesn't heed the word
of the Lord. Cain's descendants practiced
polygamy. The sons of men practiced polygamy. Lamech was the first to take
two wives. He was a son of Cain. Peter describes
false teachers over in 2 Peter 2 as having eyes full of adultery,
beguiling unstable souls, alluring through lusts of the flesh. I
saw an interview one time with a man who was a head. This guy
had about four or five wives, and they asked him, they said,
How do you keep all of your wives happy? How do you keep them?
He said, I tell each one of them what they want to hear. That's
what that's what false religion does. They go to this place,
they tell that wife what she wants to hear. They go to this
place, this church over here, they tell them what they want
to hear. They go around telling each one what they want to hear. Those called to the Lord wait
on the Lord. We preach the word, we preach Christ and him crucified,
and we wait on Jesus Christ our husband to produce his children. That's what we wait on. The bride
waits on the husband to produce the children, and he produces
them at his time when he's ready. And that's why We don't have
as many in the earth compared to the children of men and compared
to the false religion. Well, the second thing that led
to this damnation was in verse 2 there, the sons of God saw
the daughters of men that they were fair. These sons of Seth,
these ones who had the name of God, they looked on these daughters
of Cain's daughters and they said, you know, they look pretty
good. Good looking gals they got over
there. And they liked them. They liked them and they took
them wives of all which they chose. God does the choosing
for His people. He chooses who our companions
will be by His word of grace working in their heart and our
heart. But here we have these men looking on them and they
were fair and they chose whom they would. Satan used Eve in
the garden to tempt Adam. That's who he used. He used the
woman. He used the bride. Do we think
it's a great stretch of our imagination that Satan has no problem whatsoever
using religion, using the one that's supposed to be the bride
of Christ to do his work? And this one that's supposed
to be the bride is described in Scripture as a harlot. She's
adorned. She has on lots of stuff that
makes her fair and comely to look at. You be turning over
to Proverbs 7. Proverbs 7. Let me read. I'll
just read to you some things we saw in Isaiah. as you're turning
there. You remember we saw a text in
Isaiah that says they walk with stretched forth necks and wanton
eyes, walking and mincing as they go, making a tinkling with
their feet, chains and bracelets and mufflers and bonnets and
ornaments of their legs and headbands and tablets and earrings and
nose jewels and changeable suits of apparel and mantles and fine
linen and hoods and veils. They got all this adornment on
them. It is decked out from head to toe. Listen to this description. It's Proverbs 7.12. It's a description
of a harlot. This is false religion. This is religion that's going
to appeal to man and appeal to the lusts of our flesh, which
is to come to God by our own will and our own works and to
dethrone Christ. That's what Satan wants. That's
exactly what he's been trying to do from the beginning, using
the bride to do it. Verse 12 says, now is she without,
now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner. So she
caught him, this one that come walking by, and kissed him, and
with an impudent face said unto him, I have peace offerings with
me. This day have I paid my vows. Therefore come, therefore came
I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I found
thee. Oh, the world's religion is diligently
seeking out. seeking out men out of this earth.
Just like this harlot. I've decked my bed with coverings
of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt. I've
perfumed my bed with myrrh and aloes and cinnamon. Come, let
us take our fill of love until the morning. Let us solace ourselves
with loves, for the good one's not at home, he's going on a
long journey. Peter said, there'll be mockers
in these days. Oh, they won't out and out say,
God's not coming back. God's not. But they will in the
gospel they preach because it's a gospel of right now. It's a
gospel of getting everything for themselves now, now, now. He's taking a bag of money with
him. He'll come home at the day appointed and he will. The good
one of the house is Christ Jesus and he will come home at the
day appointed. She says, with her much fair speech, she caused
him to yield. With the flattering of her lips,
she forced him. Now that's false religion. That's
false religion. Paul said, be ye not unequally
yoked together with unbelievers. What fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness? What communion hath light with
darkness? What concord hath Christ with
Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth
with an infidel? What agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? You're the temple of the living
God, he said. When the snow falls, it comes down, and it lands on
the ground, It looks like it's going to turn, it's beautiful
at first. It's snow white and it's beautiful. It looks like
it's going to turn all the ground snow white for good, doesn't
it? But the longer that snow lays on the ground, it turns
black and gets dirty and gets trampled on. And it doesn't turn
the earth at all. The earth turns it. Listen very
carefully. You may entertain good thoughts
and have the best intentions that you can go to a church and
a group of folks that just won't preach the gospel, being led
by false teachers. But I can promise you this, this
is what God tells us throughout the scriptures. You won't instruct
them. You won't bring them to a knowledge
of Christ. God says they will bring you down and they'll blacken
you. They'll blacken you. Alright,
next thing we see here is God gave them space to repent. Verse
3, the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for
that he also is flesh, yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty
years. When the Lord speaks of the spirit striving with men,
it's the longsuffering of God. God calling sinners to repentance
through the preaching of the gospel. He granted them space
for repentance. Peter said in 1 Peter 3.20, he
said, sometime they were disobedient when once the long-suffering
of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was preparing.
Noah was a preacher of righteousness. Noah was right there in the middle
preaching for 120 years as he prepared the ark. He declared
their salvation only in Christ. That's what was typified by that
ark. When that flood came, everybody died. Noah died. And everybody in that ark died.
And everybody outside of that ark died. The difference was
Noah and his people, his family, were in the ark. and the ark
bore the flood of judgment in their room instead. Everybody
that was in Christ by God's divine electing grace when Christ went
to the cross and laid down his life under the wrath of God,
they died in Christ. Judgment was poured out to the
fullest, but they died in Christ when he died so that now by the
spirit of God's grace he sends forth the gospel and they live
by the spirit of God and are called into Christ through faith.
But just like those fallen angels that rebelled in heaven and were
cast down, the sons of Seth who had the name of God, who wore
the name of the sons of God, they looked on these children,
these daughters of men and said, we'll join up with them. They're
not different than us. There's not much different in
them than us. We all, just nine generations ago, we all were
in the same family. You know why the excuses men
use in our day when we try to bridge gaps that God said can't
be bridged? Well, just think if you only
had nine generations from you and Adam. You'd be saying, we're
all brothers. We all came from the same family.
But they wouldn't do it. And here's another reason. Verse
4 says, because as they joined with them, they became prosperous. Now they got religion and wealth. Now they got big giant places
to go worship and frolic and meet with one another around
their false idol God. Look at verse 4. It says, There
were giants in the earth in those days, that is, in those days
prior, the sons of men, their daughters, these came from. And
I think the word giants here has reference to not only their
size and stature, they probably were big, but their influence
in the earth. Cain's family had everything,
he had the first industrial people, he had the first makers of instruments,
he had the first songwriter you read about in the scripture.
I forget what the son was, he wrote a song saying, Cain killed
his men, I killed, what did he say, three more or something
like that. A song about it. And after, it says, and also
after, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men,
and they bore children to them, the same became mighty men which
were of old, men of renown. Now they got the name attached
to them that they're the sons of God. And now they also men
of renown in the earth. They laid claim to God's name
and his promises, but in their hearts, they were sons of Cain. That's what they were. And nature
wasn't changed. They hadn't been born of God,
any of them. Look, God looks on the heart.
That's where he looks. Verse five, and God saw that
the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And
it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and
it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I'll destroy
man whom I've created from the face of the earth, both man and
beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air, for
it repenteth me that I've made him. Look down at verse 11. The
earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled
with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it
was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth."
That must have been a horrible place to live, wouldn't it? It
looked just like it looks right outside our door right now. Exactly. Exactly. Everybody was a Christian. Everybody was a son of God. Everybody
was worshiping the true and living God. Just ask them, they'll tell
you. Just ask them. They'll show you how God had
blessed them and how prosperous they were, men of renown. The
corruption in this earth right now, right now, it's not because
of the homosexuals. It's not because of the murderers
and the adulterers and all of that. They're the product of
what the problem is. The problem is, the corruption
that's served right now is due to the denial of the true and
living God, the accomplished, finished work of Jesus Christ
by men who claim to be promoting the name of God. That's the reason. That's the exact reason. False
teachers and the many who shall follow. Peter said they'll be
among you. Peter said they call themselves
the sons of God. They go by the name of Christ.
We're not talking about folks that you obviously know are not
belonging to Christ. We're talking about those that
come in privily. They allure by numbers. They make many converts. Children of Cain always multiply
faster. They make a fair show in the flesh. They got many wonderful
works going on. You want it, they got it. What's
your brand? What pleases you? We got a ministry
for every kind, everything, whatever it is you like. You go into a
bar, I'm talking about just a plain old bar. You go into an old bar,
if it's any good at all, it's gonna have every brand of alcohol
you want. Well, the bartenders at Babylon's
got any kind of drink you want. They got anything that matches
your taste that you want, except for what God's people want. They
won't preach Christ and Him crucified. The floodgates of corruption
of every kind is opened by free will works religion because they
deny that Christ is God the Son come in human flesh. Oh, I hear
them all the time saying, Christ is God come in the flesh. They
say that all the time. Some of them do say that. But
false teachers declare Christ didn't come in the flesh. They
deny it because they deny what He came to do. They say He came
to do something He did not come to do. And that's denying Jesus
Christ as coming to flesh. The truth is Christ came to lay
down His life for the sheep. That's why he came, the elect,
those given him of the Father. At the heart of all rebellion,
at the heart of everything, Satan has been trying since he rebelled
in heaven. He's been trying since he lured
Eve in the garden. He's been trying in every effort
he can throughout every generation. to stop Christ from accomplishing
his work to make men think he did not accomplish it and that
he is so that he doesn't have to bow to him and he doesn't
have to be brought into subjection to him. But he's conquered. He's conquered now because of
what Christ did. This lie that men tell of universal
atonement, it's, listen, it's not just, it's not just a little
bit off the mark. It's a lie. It's the lie of Satan. Because when Satan speaks, he
speaks of his own, the Lord Jesus said. And this is what this lie
is saying. It's saying that man's not totally
depraved. You take away particular redemption. You take away the fact that Christ
really laid down His life for His sheep, and He really put
away their sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and He really obtained
eternal redemption for them, and He really finished the work
of saving His people from their sins. You take that away. You
deny a man is totally depraved. Because men take that away in
an effort to throw it back into your hands and say, but now,
If you want to, you can make that blood effectual for you.
And that's nothing more but exalting man right above Christ. Just
what Satan's trying to do from the beginning. I'm not telling
you this to try to make you angry. I'm telling you this to try to
warn you and not to be your enemy, but to tell you the truth of
the matter. That is so brethren. It denies God's electing grace. It doesn't say that God put a
people in Christ and that Christ came for that particular people.
It says He came to try to save everybody. It makes Christ a
failure. That's at the heart of this thing.
That's what Satan has been trying to do since the beginning. It
denies that a man has to be born of the Spirit of God and that
he will be born of the Spirit of God if he's God's elect and
that he will be drawn to Christ and that he will be brought to
believe on Christ and cast all his care into His hand. It denies
that because it makes it so that if you want to, You can have a desire at some
point to either accept Him or reject Him. It's going to at
some point bring it back to you. They always bring it back to
you. Because Satan wants you to think God's waiting on you.
He places salvation in the hands of men. Let me read this to you. The false teachers in our day
use ingenuity in their preaching when all they need to do is proclaim
the truth. If it's God's message, just say
the truth. They speak in ambiguous language so that some may think
they preach the doctrine of particular redemption. Because they sometimes
speak of Christ dying for his people. But they will not boldly
declare that Christ did not die equally for all men. because
they don't want to be seen as an opponent of universal atonement
either. Whatever you want to call that
kind of false teaching, it's anything but the simplicity that
is in Christ. It's anything but that. It's
ambiguous bunch of trash. And you will end up in hell if
you follow that. Your daughter will, your wife
will, your children will, your grandchildren will. They'll end
up right where these folks ended up right here in Noah's day.
That's what Noah told them. That's what Noah preached to
them in that day. That's why they all turned thumbs down on
Noah and said, you're out of step with the times, Noah. You
don't know anything. Can't you see how long-sighted
we are? We got vision. Couldn't see past
the end of their nose. Couldn't see out of the mirror. And it led to corruption in Noah's
day, and it's doing the same thing in our day. Verse 13, And
God said to Noah, The end of all flesh has come before me.
For the earth is filled with violence through them. And behold,
I'll destroy them with the earth. And that's what we read in 2
Peter 2.5. God spared not the old world,
bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly. Did it
lead to all the other base violence? Yeah, it was all that too. It
was violence in the earth. But you know where it started?
Those that claim to be God's children said, we can join ourselves
with these false teachers and these false, and we'll bring
them up to where we are. And it didn't work. It don't
ever work. It won't work today. Don't, Satan
wants you to think you got some kind of, some kind of, what do
you call it? What do y'all call it? Hoops?
I can't say the word. Anyway, y'all got something about
you that That's what He wants us to feel like. We've got something
about us where we can prevail a little different than others
did. No, we can't. It's going to bring you down. It's going to bring you down.
Well, I'm in a hurry here, but I want to see God's grace to
Noah. Verse 8 there says, But Noah
found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Grace is free, grace is
sovereign, grace is unconditional. The world was lost, but Noah
found grace in the eyes of the Lord. The world was condemned,
but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. The world perished,
but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. God has always had
a remnant to whom he will be gracious. Peter says, God saved
Noah. That's what he said in Arctic,
God saved Noah. Verse 9, Noah was a just man. Just in his dealings
with men? I'm quite sure he was. But that's
not the only thing. He was just in the sight of God.
Not by his own works, but by the righteousness of the promised
seed of the Messiah. He became heir of the righteousness
which is by faith, Hebrews said. In verse 9, Noah was perfect
in his generation. Perfect means he didn't join
in with all that junk. That's what it means. Come out
from among them in perfecting holiness. Let's see if we can
make that leap a little less complicated. Okay, if I'm over
here, I'm polluted. If I come out from among them
and I get over here, am I still over there? I'm out. It's done. It's perfected. I'm out. If you're
halfway in a door, standing in the threshold, you're in and
out. You're not out yet. You're just straddling the fence.
But if you go through it and you're separated from it, you're
out of it. It's done. You either are holy
or you're not. You've been separated or you
haven't. Noah had been separated by the grace of God, and he was
perfect in his generation, unblemished in his conduct, unspotted by
that world, and while the rest were joining in with the sons
of men, Noah remained unaffected by them. God stopped up his ears
to all that garbage and tuned his heart to Christ. That's all
he had, his heart set on. Verse 9 says, Noah walked with
God. Just like Enoch before him, Abraham after him. Noah lived
in the awareness of God's immediate presence. Wouldn't it be something
if we could do that? Realize God is with us. Realize
God's right here. It's not like he's hiding his
face and don't see everything. He's right here with us. He walked
with God by faith. He trusted Him. He believed Him.
He did His will. He walked in communion with God.
Why? He believed God's word. Verse
13, God said to Noah, the end is here, Noah. Verse 14, he said,
make an ark of gopher wood. Verse 18, he said, I'm with you,
I'll establish my covenant. You shall come into the ark,
thou and thy sons and thy wife and thy sons' wives with you.
You know what the foundation of the believer is? The Word
of God. We believe what God has said.
We believe Him. So then faith comes by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God, we believe the Word of God. And
because God spoke, Noah believed Him. Hebrews 11, 7 says, By faith,
Noah. By faith, Noah, being warned
of God, of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared
an ark to the saving of his house. He believed God. He heard God
speak. None of these things had been seen yet. He hadn't seen
it rain. He'd never seen a flood destroy
all mankind from off the earth. But he believed God. And Noah
moved with reverence for God. It says he moved with fear. You
know what God was to Noah? All wise. How many times don't
we want our children to consider us to be just all wise? Don't
you want them to say, this is what I'm about to do. And if
they don't understand it, for them to just say, okay, I dare
you, you're wiser than I am. Wouldn't that just thrill you?
Well, that's what God's people say. Lord, You're all wise. You're all wise. He believed
that He was holy. He believed He'd do right. He
believed He was just. He believed He was merciful.
He believed He was true. He was powerful. He reverenced
God. He believed God. He had a fear
of God in his heart. And here's what the fruit of
it. He prepared an ark. He prepared an ark. And God told
him exactly how to build that ark. Noah didn't go out there
and say, all right, now, I know how God said I need to do it,
but now I think a window would go better over here. I think
that this ought to be a little longer, and I think the bow ought
to go up like this instead of being all blunted at the front
end like this. I'm going to change up the way. No, he built just
like God told him to build. He used the wood God told him
to use. He used the dimensions God told
him to use. He did everything the way God told him to do it.
That's how Paul built too. Paul said, Christ didn't send
me to baptize. He didn't send me to try to outnumber
the sons of Cain. He sent me to preach the gospel,
not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be
made of no effect." Is that what we want? Do we want the cross
of Christ to be non-effectual in what He did? Do we want the
cross of Christ to have done nothing, but just make something,
just be a crapshoot? Do we want it to be nothing more
than the pull of a... I'm having trouble thinking this
morning. A slot machine? The turning of
a roulette wheel? No. And he said, so I preach
Christ. And he said, and I know this
is foolishness to men. It's foolishness to men to just
tell people what God said and what he does. But he said, those
that believe know it's the power of God and the salvation. And
Peter says while he prepared that ark, he preached this righteousness
to the folks there. He preached this to them there.
You see, we're getting ready in just a little while to perish
under judgment. Just a very short while. That's
where Peter's coming to next in our study in 2 Peter. We're
getting ready. It's almost ripe to burn up right
now. Every week we see some new report
of an asteroid getting closer than it's ever gotten. We see
some new report of how this whole island out in the middle of the
equator, they're thinking about moving over to another place
because they're global warming, they won't have any place to
even live where they are. It's going to burn up. This world's
going to burn up and it's going to happen very soon, not very
long. And Noah stood and preached just
like I'm preaching to you right now to those people and told
them the exact same thing. And he was to them as one that
mocked. They said, Man, we're too busy
making godly people to listen to you. We're too busy building
God's church to listen to you. We're too busy teaching men how
we need to yoke and bind and whip and constrain and make more
whores out of people than to listen to you. But God did just what he said
he would. God saved Noah and his house, and he became the
heir of the righteousness which is by faith. And everybody else got exactly
what they deserved. Noah got exactly what he deserved.
He got exactly what Christ earned for him. He got exactly what
Christ merited for him and what he deserved. And Noah got it
all because he just believed God. He believed God. You hear
what the Holy Spirit's declaring here? This is what He's declaring
throughout the Apostle Peter. If God didn't spare the angels
who sinned, it does not matter how high a level a teacher of
false religion gets in this world. It doesn't matter how high we
attain to any position in this world. He didn't spare the angels.
He won't spare a sinner. He won't spare a sinner. And
if He didn't spare the old world, though they had millions with
Him, He won't spare the many who joined themselves with the
fair daughters of Cain. He just won't do it. But God
saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness.
Believe on Christ. You'll be saved. Amen.