All right, if you wish to follow
along, turn to Genesis chapter eight. Genesis chapter eight. You all may get out of here early
today. Notice that three-letter word. I said you all may get
out of here early today. Genesis chapter eight, I will
begin reading in verse 18. Of course, this is an ongoing
narration of the events that were happening at that time.
Verse 18, Genesis chapter eight. And Noah went forth and his sons
and his wife and his sons' wives with him, every beast, every
creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon
the earth after their kinds went forth out of the ark. So now we know what this is,
that now everything that was in the ark, that God had spared
being in the ark, is now moving out of the ark. Now look at these
next few verses. And Noah built an altar unto
the Lord. Now I have to confess to you,
most of the time, especially in the past several years, when
I think about Noah, And I think about post-flood Noah. You know what the first thing
I think about Noah is after he comes out of the ark? And maybe
you think this way too, maybe you don't. I think about those
grapes. Don't you? I think about those
grapes. But that was not the first thing
Noah did. Our hearts and minds, this taught me a lesson. My heart
and mind is so prone to set itself upon everybody else's failures. First, before I set my heart
and mind upon the things of God. Because this has always been
there, I always knew it was there, and yet Mason, my mind always
goes to that grove of grapes. And Noah built an altar unto
the Lord. and took of every clean beast,
and I'm not gonna really mention this in a lot of detail, but
think about this. Even before the law had issued forth from
Sinai, which was hundreds of years later, it was already well
known amongst God's people there are clean beasts and unclean
beasts. How? Because God Almighty had told
somebody, and somebody had evidently passed that on down to other
believers and said, there are animals suitable for sacrifice,
and there are animals that are not suitable for sacrifice. Why? Because the animal suited for
sacrifice depicted someone who was to come. It wasn't just God
set up arbitrary rules, like there's a good one to sacrifice,
there's worse. These things pictured Christ. So even before the law
was given, Noah took what? Of every clean beast, of every
clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And then
this is amazing. And the Lord smelled a sweet
savor. And I'll tell you something,
it's not that God smelled the fat in the skin of these animals
burning. This was depicting the sacrifice
of Jesus Christ. And it, and I don't mean this
in a disrespectful or irreverent way, it put God in mind of his
son. That's what it's talking about.
That's what it's talking about. And the Lord smelled a sweet
savor. And the Lord said in his heart,
now this is, Mason, this is one of those things that just, it
takes us into the very person of God. and we don't often get
glimpses of this, even in the scripture. Generally, God's telling
us about ourselves, and then generally some outward facts
or the truth about himself, but here we're talking about God,
Ellen thinking within himself, and then expressing this to us
through Moses when he recorded his words and thing. And the
Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any
more for man's sake, And then notice the next wording. If it were me, and I were writing
a narrative like this, I would now add in some good thing as
to why God would not do this again. Do you understand what
I'm saying? I will not do this again because Noah offered some
offerings. It's not what he said, though,
is it? Look, I will not again curse the ground anymore for
man's sake, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his
youth. What's God saying? I know man
is still just exactly like he was before the flood by nature. All of this and me sparing even
just eight people Humanity in Adam are still corrupt. By nature,
we're still corrupt, even after God saves us. In Adam, in our
old nature, we're still corrupt. For man's, I will not curse the
ground anymore for man's sake, for the imagination of man's
heart is evil from his youth, neither will I again smite anymore
everything living as I have done. And I will not do this by water
again, that's what he's saying. While the earth remaineth, seed
time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and
night shall not cease. Now, I'm not gonna preach on
this, but I'll give in this little tidbit here. Please do not fall
into arguing with the men and women of this world because of
verse 22. And I'm not expressing an opinion
either way for this. I'm just saying this. Don't argue
against those who believe that global warming is a fact because
you see verse 22 in Genesis chapter eight. That has nothing to do
with the meaning of the verse. That's nothing to do about the
world becoming warmer or the world becoming colder. This has
to do with God Almighty declaring that His sovereign purpose will
not be diminished until He finally wraps this thing up. And I'll
try to show you that from the scripture. What I want to try
to talk about this morning is proper worship. That ought to be a redundancy.
You know that? I ought not even have to say
proper worship. If man truly sought God as man
ought to seek God and read God's word and study God's word as
man ought to read God's word and study God's word, man would
know that there is no kind of worship but that kind of worship
that God has ordained. We would automatically know that
there is false worship and there is true worship. But it is sad
that this still has to be reiterated today. There is a false worship
and there's a true worship. Think about it, the worship of
God, according to even as we see here, the worship of God
is paramount, is it not? What's the first thing Noah does
when he crawls off that ark? Builds an altar. and starts offering
up of every clean beast a burnt offering, a sweet-smelling sacrifice
unto God. You see, the worship of God,
yes, I can say it should come before all else, but the only
reason I say it that way is because of our propensity for it to be
anything else but first among our lives. The worship of God
comes before all else. or it is not true worship. Now,
you hear what I said? You can have all that worship,
the true worship, the proper worship of God is, you can have
that all outwardly seen, but if it's not first and foremost,
it's not proper worship. We don't worship God secondarily,
we worship God primarily. He's first, but it's more than
just first. The worship of God is superior
to all else. It's superior to all else. It
ought to be that the worship of God means more to us than
anything else in this world, yea, even our very breath to
breathe. It ought to be. As we see with Noah and every
one of all the others of our brothers and sisters in Christ,
all too often, the worship of God is not paramount in our lives. It's there, but all too often,
here are things, all kinds of things, whatever those things
are, everything else but the worship of God is here. The worship
of God ought to be here. But generally, at best, it's
right under here. This is why our Lord said, don't
even give any thought to what you wear, to what you're gonna
eat. He said, seek ye first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness. All this other stuff will be
added unto you. You see, the worship of God is
superior to all else. No exceptions. Now I'm gonna
give you something, and I'm not even gonna try to explain it
or qualify it. And I hope that you will consider it, think about
what I'm saying, and I will try, the best way for me to do this
is give you an example. Paul and Paula gave me a book
from John Warburton. It's The Mercies of a Covenant
God. And there's one instance in there
where he had preached the gospel, tried to preach the gospel for
20 to 25 years, something like that, and his wife was still
unconverted during all this time. And they finally had, or they
had a daughter, they had like 10 or 12 children all together,
but they had one young daughter that she was, I forget what,
three or four years old, I don't know if it even says, but she
was very young, and he had to go off on a preaching meeting.
And oftentimes, Mac, they were scratching just for enough food
to eat, but he still would go off and preach the gospel somewhere.
And when he left, that little girl died. And he said she was
one of my idols. This is what he tells you in
the book. He said, I loved that child. And sadly, I loved that
child more than sometimes, and I even loved my God. And said,
God killed that child. And killed that child while he
was off on a gospel endeavor. Of course, when he returns home,
his wife, you know, everything's turned upside down. As would
be if you had a young child die like that. And I don't, all the
other details don't matter, but here, something happened, and
his wife becomes distraught and depressed, and of course, he
thinks, well, it's about the child. So he asks her, honey,
something along the side, my love, my wife, are you distraught
about the child? And she said something along
those lines. She said, the child means nothing to me. I am in
fear for my soul. Now you think about that. You
think, is she saying she didn't love that child? No. Was she
saying that she had no mercy for that child? Her heart wasn't
grieving for that child? No. But this one thing is true. The worship of God is far superior
to everything else in this life. And when I read that, I thought,
oh God, make me that way. Oh God, make me that way. You
see, contrary to modern-day professing Christianity, all worship is
not God-accepted worship. Most people today think, well,
if you just put forth your best effort, that's all that matters.
Cain put forth his best effort, and God didn't accept him. You
know what I'm saying? God didn't, we've already looked
at that. Not only that, most of today's professing Christianity
think worship is about you doing things out here. How you sing. how often you should sing, whether
you should stand or sit when you sing, whether you should
repeat homily. You understand what I'm saying?
They think that worship is all these outward things. No, here's
worship. True worship is founded in and flows only from Christ's
person and work. Apart from the truth of Christ's
person and work, there is no worship of God, no matter how
orthodox the doctrine or the practice itself might be. Leave Christ out of the worship,
and it is false worship. It is damning to the soul. So
let me just get right to it. Just three things, just to lay
a brief foundation. I'm not going to even go back
and really read the text. Christ is our altar. First thing Noah
did was do what? He didn't just build a big fire
on the ground, throw a bunch of animals on it, did he? Why? Because God had instructed them
through time to build an altar. So Noah did what, Mac? He did
what God said to do. He built an altar. And I'm gonna
go back and read it, but you read Hebrews 13, verses nine
through 15. Anybody hears this on the TV?
There is but one altar wherein we worship God, and that is the
man Christ Jesus himself. He is both altar and sacrifice. And this is surely brought to
a head when we see the tabernacle and then later the temple and
the brazen altar is the first thing you see when you enter
into that compound. And what is that brazen altar?
It's the judgment of God being poured out upon the Lamb of God. Christ is our altar. There is
no altar, no. Check that. All the altars. that are in every so-called church
building are nothing but disgust to God Almighty because there
is no Christ at man-ordained altars. Go back and read it, Hebrews
13, nine through 15, our altar is now seated in heaven. So Mason, that means any other
altar down here is idolatry. It's idolatry. And yet men in
so-called Christian churches will tell other men and women,
come to the altar this morning. Do they not? It is idolatry. And I'm not trying to be mean,
I'm trying to warn the souls of men. Christ is the altar. But not only that, Christ is
all the clean animals. Now Mason, would it not been
sufficient enough type to take just even one clean animal? Sure. But then I thought of all these,
Mac, all these different clean animals. And then I thought about
Revelations chapter five and verse nine. When that great horde
of people sings praises to Christ the Lamb and says thou hast redeemed
us to God by thy blood, what? Out of every tribe. and nation
and kindred and people. Do you see why Noah here offers
many? Mason, I don't figure he offered
them all because there were deceased to be clean beasts on the earth,
but I guarantee you it was a horde of clean beasts. You know why? Not because there has to be many
sacrifices, but because there are many people for whom Christ
would die of all various kinds. Doesn't matter what your station
in life is. It doesn't matter whether you're
a moral person or immoral person. Both need the salvation of Jesus
Christ. It doesn't matter whether you're
a drunk or whether you're a reverend, as men call it today. They both
need salvation. It doesn't matter whether your
skin is white or brown or yellow or whatever. All need salvation. And thirdly, Christ is the burnt
offering. And this is clearly stated by
the Apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter five, verse one and two,
that he offered himself for us, not to us, he offered himself
for us to God as a sweet smelling savor. There's one thing that
always makes God say, that smells good. Only one thing. And that is the person and work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Roy Jr., if God ever looks
at me and says, that smells good, it can only be in the person
of his son. If God ever looks at you, God,
smells you and says that smells good, it will only be because
he's actually smelling his son in your place. I like that, don't you? When a holy God would get close
to me, Linda Pendleton, and say, well done, thou good and faithful
servant. Can you fathom that in yourself?
Not if you know anything truly about yourself, that a holy God
would come up next to you and say, well done, thou good and
faithful servant. The only way he could say that
about us corrupt creatures whose imaginations of our hearts are
only evil continually is because his son stood in the gap for
us. When His Son lived, He lived
for us. When His Son died, He died for
us. When His Son was buried, He was
buried for us. When His Son was raised from
the dead, He was raised for us. When He ascended and sat down
exalted at the Father's right hand, He did that in my stead. That's my only hope. You see,
if the worship, and we're talking about proper worship, if the
worship is not a sweet savor to the Lord, then of what value
is it? Right? It doesn't matter how
much we like it. It doesn't matter how pleasing
it is to our eyes and our emotions and our feelings. Does it smell
good to God? And God says of us, we are a
stench in his nostrils. If God smells me for me, Jack
Meadows, he's gonna smell stench. But if God smells me in his son,
Paul Pendleton, I am as righteous as the Son himself. In himself. Again, if the worship is not
a sweet savor to the Lord, what value is it? But since, here's
the second thing. But since, I didn't even say
if, because it says he offered himself for us to God a sweet
smelling savor. I know that everything Jesus
Christ did he accomplished what he came to do. And listen, since
Christ is a sweet saver to the Lord, why would he not be to
me as well? You see, if the person hearing
about the person and work of Jesus Christ doesn't ring your
bell, you don't truly know Jesus Christ in his true person and
work. Sadly for most people, Jesus
is just my ticket out of hell. Right? Sadly for most people,
Jesus is just a name they sing about. But they never talk about
Jesus Christ the Lord. The one who died in my stead,
took upon him my guilt and my shame and my sin and bore it
away. Away from God. Because Mason,
that's who it need to be bore away from. I still see it in
me. But you know what God says about
his people? I do not, I see. Balaam preached this. And Balaam
was right about it even though he's wrong about a lot of other
things. God hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob. In Jacob! Isn't that glorious? Why, because
none really existed? No, because every true Jacob,
God knew his son would satisfy the debt on Calvary's tree. Therefore, God refuses, refuses
to behold iniquity in his Jacobs. Why? Because it's been dealt
with in Jesus Christ. Third thing here on this last
third point. God demands, and this book is
full. I've already given you one of
Cain, shows us that God demands proper worship. Does he not?
God demands proper worship. But do you, and I think it may
have been Hothni and Phinehas, I may be rambling about their
names, but do you remember the two sons of Aaron? The book kind
of puts it this way. They brought in strange fire.
And most people read that and really have no idea what it's
talking about. They brought in strange fire and God dropped those two
boys dead right there in the holy place. Strange fire, what's
it talking about? In the worship of the tabernacle
and later in the worship of the temple. Every fire there was,
or I should say all the fire there was came from one central
place. You know where that was? the
sacrifice of burnt offering in that brazen altar out front.
That's where they put the wood, that's where they lit the fire,
and then all of those red hot coals were there. And when they
began to go into the holy place, and then even the high priest
once a year into the holy of holies, they had to take their
fire that they would put in their little censer that they would
sprinkle their incense on so then it would burn and make a
smoke and they would walk into that holy place. And then the
high priest, once a year, would move on in underneath and get
on his hands and knees and crawl under that veil with that censer
and with some blood in his hands. Where did that fire have to come
from? It had to come from that brazen altar. If it come from
anywhere else, it was called what? Strange fire. Now, Jack
Mattis, that coal is just as hot, just as capable of burning
incense as anything else. What's the problem? There is
no answer for sin and his problem other than in the brazen altar,
other than in the person and work of Jesus Christ. And to
get fire from somewhere else is saying Jesus Christ is not
enough. And when those two young men
took that strange fire, and they put it in that little old container
called a censer, and they sprinkled the incense. They evidently,
Mac, had the right incense, but they had the wrong fire. And as soon as they stepped into
that holy place, God struck them dead. One more example. Do you remember Uzzah? Uzzah
was a faithful man. And he was there with David and
all the other hordes of Israel when they were rejoicing and
worshiping, outwardly so, overtly, right? Because they were bringing
the Ark of the Covenant back to where it's supposed to be.
You remember the account? Here's the truth of Scripture.
That Ark of the Covenant, after it was originally made,
and they made these skins to cover that ark over. And before
they did that, they took the three articles that went in that
box, in that ark of the covenant, and they set that lid on it,
then they put that covering over it. That ark was not to be touched by
human hands after that. You know that? Because God gave
them, told them to make two staves, made of shittum wood, overlaid
with gold, and you slide that one stave in the left-hand side
between, in the two rings, You slide that other stave in the
right-hand side between them two rings, and the Levites alone
are to carry this box, and they're not to touch the box, they touch
the staves only. And they pick that thing up and
they carry it on their back wherever they go. And Mac, they set up
that tabernacle, put up that veil in the middle, and then
that box was carried under cover into there and set there with
the staves in the rings. And somebody, I figure Mason
may be the high priest, but that doesn't matter. Somebody took
off that covering, but nobody else was to look at it and certainly
not to touch it. Nobody was to carry it but the
Levites, and that only on the stage. Well, here David has got
the ark and bringing it back. And they're rejoicing, and David
said, well, we're gonna build a brand new cart to haul this
thing on. Isn't that a noble endeavor?
and we're gonna take some oxen that had never been under the
burden, and we're gonna pull this ark back to where it belongs.
And those oxen are moving along, and the oxen stumble, and the
cart starts to tilt, and that ark begins to rock like it's
gonna come off that cart. And Uzzah just stuck his hand
up, touched it to stable. Isn't that an honorable thing?
Wouldn't you think that's an honorable thing? And what did
God do? God killed him dead. People read that in so-called
Christian churches today and have no idea what that means. I'll tell you one thing it means.
Claiming you're worshiping God and still believing in free will.
Claim you're worshiping God and still believing in some kind,
even no matter how small, some kind of human merit before God. That's reaching up, trying to
stabilize the ark. We're gonna help Jesus out. You see? That's what they're
saying. God killed Uzzah dead. And David was sad. And David
was afraid of the God that day. Oh, God help us to keep that
fear in our hearts and minds. So. All of that was introduction. I told you, you might get out
of here early. Man, we still got 20 minutes
and it'll only be 45 minutes. Let me give you just four thoughts
about proper worship, seen typified in Noah's worship. And we're
not even going back to Noah's worship, per se. But I just wanna
give you four thoughts. Proper worship always acknowledges
God's mercy and our corruption. Did you remember seeing that
in verse 21? God said, I will not do this again to mankind.
Isn't that what he said? Why, because I know what mankind
is. Rid McCullum, if God acted toward
us with just strict justice, he would be bringing floods every
couple hundred years. And he'd save a handful of us
if we begin to populate and there'd be a bunch of us again, and we'd
go right back to our corruption, and God would drown us again.
You hear what I'm saying? And he'd save a couple handfuls
of us, and we'd go for a few hundred years, we'd populate
the earth again, and we'd go right back into our corruption,
and God would drown us all over again. And Mason, it'd be a never-ending
menagerie of judgment and judgment and judgment. Proper worship
always acknowledges God's mercy in our corruption, verse 21.
It always acknowledges God's sovereignty. Verse 22, who? If God controls the seasons,
God got any problem with anything else? Think about it. While the earth
remaineth, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter,
day and night shall not cease. God's saying, I'm going to keep
this thing in store. Proper worship always acknowledges
God's sovereignty. That's acknowledging the fact
of it. But proper worship also acknowledges God's sovereign
purpose, and that is indicated in verse 22. Why does God keep
this thing in store? There's the question. That's
why I said this is not about whether we argue for or against
global warming. It has nothing to do with that.
The results of God's sovereignty is this, God has a sovereign
purpose, and it's twofold. Now turn to 2 Peter, and we're
gonna see the answer to all this. Now before I even read it, 2
Peter chapter three. As I was thinking about this,
Peter wrote two epistles. And relatively speaking, they're
very short epistles compared to some of the others, it's a
short letter. You know what struck me as I began to look at this?
In both of them, Peter mentions who? Noah. In both of these short little
brief letters, Peter mentions Noah. Now turn to 2 Peter 3,
let me just read the first six verses first. This second epistle,
beloved, Now write I unto you in both which I stir up your
pure minds by way of remembrance. And how did you get that pure
mind? God Almighty gave it to you if you got one. It was a
free gift of God Almighty, that's where it comes from. That you
may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy
prophets and of the commandments of us the apostles of the Lord
and Savior, knowing this first, that there shall come in the
last days scoffers walking after their own lust. And most people,
when they read that word lust, they think of immoralities, especially
sexual immoralities. That may well be true, but that's
not all of it. When a man walks in religious
heresy and error, it is the lust of men's flesh. Isn't that called
one of the works of the flesh that are made manifest by Paul,
not just adulteries and fornications, but also, one other word, heresies.
A man or a woman can be very moral, but if they're holding
to heresy, it's the flesh. It's the lust of the flesh. Knowing
this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers,
walking after their own lusts and saying, where is the promise
of his coming? And they're talking here about
the second coming. for since the fathers fell asleep.
And notice, they're not denying scripture or anything like that,
but look, look, this is amazing. And saying, where is the promise
of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things
continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. There's
where they screw up. They were right if they'd have
said back to the flood. But they say back to the creation,
everything's just going on. God just kind of made this thing,
flung it out there. He's kind of holding it all together.
Everything's just been going on. But then Peter interjects,
for this they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of God, that's
Genesis chapter eight, verse 22. By the word of God the heavens
were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water
by the world that then was being overflowed with water perished. But the heavens and the earth
which are now by the same word are kept in store. You see it? Reserved. And what's
the first reason for which God reserved? Here's the first part
of God's twofold purpose, to judge sinful men. Isn't that what it says? But
the heavens and the earth, which are now, that's after the flood,
by the same word are kept in store. That's verse 22 of Genesis
chapter eight. Reserved unto fire against the
day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. God intends on judging not just
sin, but sinful men. That's what this says. You know
the phrase, and it's an obfuscation. Well, God loves the sinner, he
hates the sinner's sin. That's not what this book says.
This book says God hateth all workers of iniquity. Now, go
swallow on that one. Gnaw on that piece of meat for
a while, will ya? And it is a piece of meat, it's
God's meat. You see, Paul made it clear in Romans chapter nine,
verses 21 and 22, God is willing to show his wrath. That's what
it says. God is willing to show his, the
reason God has kept this earth in store and things just keep
on going like they've been going for several thousand years now
is because God Almighty has ordained a day in which he will judge
this world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained,
Jesus Christ, the righteous man. You see, Noah's, or God's purpose
is to judge some men, and that's just the way it is. There are
people who read 2 Peter 3, and especially verse nine, and say,
see, God willed to save everybody if they were willingly ignorant
of the first few verses of the whole blessed thing. But the
heavens and earth, which are now by the same word are kept
in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and
perdition of ungodly men. God's gonna judge some people
in themselves. Is that not what it says? Oh,
but aren't you glad there's a but? Look at it, but, beloved. Be
not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is what the Lord
is a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day, and here's
what I want to try to get to. The Lord is not slack concerning
his promise. As some men count slackness,
but is long-suffering to who? Usward, the beloved. That's who
he's just talking to. Some folks could be judged. But
there's another group of folks. Isn't that what this is saying?
but is long-suffering to us. We're not willing, it doesn't
even say wishing. Matthew doesn't say, it's not
willing, not purposing, that's the word. Not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance. God's purpose
is to save all those he willed to save. And then he goes on,
we'll jump up a little bit. He goes on, Peter goes on, look
at verse 15, and a count. that the long-suffering of the
Lord is salvation. If God's being long-suffering,
it's not because he just wants to be long-suffering toward evil
men. God would destroy us right now if that's what it was all
about. Right? The only reason he waited 120
years was to give Noah time to build the boat to save the world.
And at the same time, Matthew, to condemn the world. Now there's
another piece of meat to chew on. As a matter of fact, look
at what Hebrews chapter seven, or Hebrews chapter 11 says, verse
seven, about this man named Noah. Hebrews 11, seven, 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. Noah knew that's
all of the human beings that are going to come in to this
ark. by the which he condemned the world. You see it? By which he condemned the world
and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. The very fact that salvation
is by grace through faith lets us know that not all men will
be saved. It is because not all men have
faith. And that's just the way it is. This is exactly what God was
telling Noah and what God was doing in Noah. In other words,
according to Peter, 2 Peter 3, God's judgment will come. Verse 10, but the day of the
Lord will come, as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens
shall pass away, and with a great noise, and the elements shall
melt with a fervent heat, and the earth also, and the works
that are therein shall be burned up. The only works that really
matter are what? Those works. that are with the
one who did those works, up in glory, seated at the right hand
of God the Father. Even in that last time, Mason,
when God opens up the books, and I think it's probably these
books. And he opens those books, and he judges men according to
their works. Those that are judged according
to their works will be burned up like their works were burned
up. But then there's one other group. There's groups, there's
a Lamb's Book of Life. And Mac, that book's open. And
those people are saved. And the only thing that we're
ever told that's written in that book is what? Names. Name, not their works. Just their
names. Because that book in the preceding,
I think it's chapter 13, is called The Book, without a comma, The
Book of Life of the Landslain from the Foundation of the World. It's not the last part of this.
Judgment will come according to people, according to Peter,
but Peter lets us know as believers, verse 17 and 18, do not be presumptuous. Now look at it. Ye therefore,
who's he talking, the same beloved, right? Ye therefore, beloved,
seeing ye know these things before, beware. Well, I'm in Christ,
I just don't care, I'll do what I wanna do, live how I wanna
live, think how I want to live. You better not. You better not. You're in for a world of hurt
if you do. You hear what I'm saying? But
look, ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before,
beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked,
fall from your own steadfastness. You remember, I mentioned it
last week, if anybody thinks he knows anything now, he don't
know anything as he ought to know it. And he also said, let
him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. Well, I'm on top of this. Can't
nobody trick me. Be careful. God'll send somebody
along that'll trick you. Be careful. But, there's it,
but grow in grace. So that lets me know I still
need grace even after God saves me. But grow in grace and in
the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to whom
be glory both now and forever, so be it. So be it. So let us
never be presumptuous. We then should that is the repentant,
because that's who we're talking about. And remember, it's the
repentant. There are not too many people repenting today.
Do you know that? We got hundreds, probably thousands, giving their
hearts to Jesus, but nobody's repenting, are they? Nobody's
repenting. They're walking aisles and praying
prayers and telling the Lord they believe in him, and they
don't want to go to hell, and they're told they're going to
be okay, but nobody's repenting. Why? Because only those God willed
to bring to repentance are being brought to repentance, and everybody
else will perish. Everybody else will perish. But
let us consider this. We the repentant need to take
this to heart, and this is my summary. Since this is so, and
that's actually, Genesis chapter eight, especially verses 18 through
22 are teaching us the absolute essential nature of proper worship. And since this is so, let me
just give three things that we ought to take to heart. And these
come from Peter. First of all, in verse 11, he
tells this. Let us consider our devotion to God. You know what
he says? Look at it. Seeing then that
all these things shall be dissolved, that's all this world and its
works, they're gonna be dissolved, what manner of persons ought
ye to be in all holy manner of life, that's what he's talking
about, and godliness, that means to honor God as God is. That's
not all he's talking about, you being a personal little god.
In all holiness, holy conversation and godliness, our conduct does
matter. Take it to heart, let us consider
our devotion to God. Secondly, let us not bemoan God's
just judgment. Look at it, looking for, verse
12, and hastening unto. I got lost, I got lost. Loved
ones though, pastor, I know, I do too. And everybody on this
world does. Everybody on this earth does.
Somebody's gonna be left behind. That's just the way it's going
to be. Peter says, looking for and hastening unto the coming
of the day of God. And notice he doesn't even say,
and it would be gathered together with him. That's certainly true.
But look at what he says. Looking for and hastening unto
the coming of the day of God wherein the heavens being on
fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with a fervent
heat. Our Lord prayed, and I confess
to you, I cannot sincerely, honestly pray that prayer right now. Our
Lord talked about some people that God did not reveal the truth
to, and other people, he did reveal the truth to. And our
Lord said, Lord, I thank thee. I have trouble with that right
now, Mason. Those are people I want God to show it to, and
I pray about it, and I wish I could convince God to do it. but I
can't. And you know, trying to get God
to do it, if it's against his will, is rebellion against God's
will. It's rebellion against God's
will. So two things so far. Let us consider our devotion
to God. Let us not bemoan God's just judgment. Thirdly, let us
consider the glory for the repentant. You see it? Next verse. Nevertheless,
we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new
earth, and here's the glory of it, wherein dwelleth righteousness. The book says in the end, and
I don't know what all that's going to be, I really don't.
I don't know what all that's going to be. We're given a little
glimpse of it in Revelations 21, 22. But I know one thing,
nothing that defiles shall enter into that place. That's a good
thing. That means, Mason, I got to be
changed before I get to go there. Because right now, I still defile
things. Everything I touch, Jack, I contaminate
it to some degree or another. But bless God, when we enter
that new heavens and that new earth, it will be different then.
Let us consider the glory for the repentant. And here's last,
let us long for all God ordained. all God ordained, everything. When I say, I mean, let us long
for and look for everything that God ordained, especially our
blessed station and place in Christ Jesus. Look at verse 14. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that
ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in
peace without spot. and blame us. Now he doesn't
tell us go do something so you can be found that way, does he?
The doing is the giving diligence to make sure this is where you
really are. Watch this, am I in Christ or
am I not? And isn't that what Paul said
was the whole tenor of his life? These words, that I may be found
in him. Not, and what does it mean? We
can give all kinds, not having, my own righteousness, which is
of the law, but the righteousness which is through the faith of
Christ. Now that'll stop right there.
You see, if your righteousness is not of Christ, you ain't got
no good righteousness. But if your righteousness is
the righteousness of Christ, you have the very righteousness
that when God looks at you and says, He's gonna say, you smell
good. He's gonna smell you and he's
gonna say, well done, thou good and faithful servant. You know
why? Because you are called Christ's seed. You're called Christ's
seed. And there's a verse, Penny and
I were looking at it yesterday in Hebrews, that says these words,
that Levi, who received tithes, paid tithes in Abraham. And how
is that so? Well, because Levi was in Abraham's
loins. And when Abraham paid tithes
to Melchizedek, Levi was doing it in his head, in his representative,
in his forerunner, in his father, if you will. Let me tell you
something. Everything Jesus Christ did, he did for us. Everything
he merited, Mason, he merited it for us. And him now seated
at the right hand of God the Father, the book of God says
we sit there with him in him. Do we not? That's my only hope. What about you? Father, we pray
for those who were not able to be here today. Lord, bless them
and give them that sense of thy presence and thy comfort. Oh,
God, help us pots of clays to seek to worship you as you ought
to be worshiped. I ask you in Christ's name, amen.
Alright, let's stand and sing number 326 out of the old school. 326 will be closed with that.
Old school 326. Yeah.