I’m Good
With Rebellion
2 Peter 3:8-13
Introduction
· This is something God is working out
in my life right now so this sermon I’m handing you is hours old truth if you
will. Hopefully I’ll continue to wrestle with it for a while.
· In fact, this message got so long I’m
going to stop as far as I get and pick up next week
· I’ve titled this sermon, “I’m Good
With Rebellion”
o
That
may sound odd, but let me tell you why
o
The
car, not just one failure, but two
o
24
years…wow
o
And
yet the gospel says: “I can start today forgiven”
o
And
repentance says, “I will change”
o
And
that has brought me to:
· One verse stood out to me:
o
(v:11)
“Since all these things are
thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you (Kyle) to be in a life of
holiness and godliness?”
o
So,
I’d like you to also think through this and insert your name here
· Peter is reminding his readers a 2nd
time of where all their hope culminates
o
All
of your life (except for a sliver) will be lived somewhere else
o
So
what will consume this brief period, that is your earthly existence?
o
How
will the gospel, propel (us) to holiness?
· And instead of thinking of how far
reaching holiness is
o
what
happens is, we often reduce holiness to a few external things: drunkenness,
adultery and pornography.
· That’s reducing it to a moralistic –
therapeutic – deism, when the Holiness of God is the standard
· Moral acceopatbility
· What do you think makes holiness hard
to pursue?
· I’ve come to his conclusion: the
reason I lack holiness is that I’m all too good with rebellion in my life
o
Not
mistakes
o
Not
unintentional sin
o
Rebellion
· So…actually, this text drove me (thus
us) to a different one,
o
Because
I need more than a list of rules to pursue holiness
o
Would
you turn in your bibles to (Isaiah 6) (1-7)
o
Hear
again…
Text
(Isaiah 6:1-7) – A God-saturated view of holiness
· READ
· PRAY
· Iahaih gives us a God-saturated view of holiness
· God is the standard, not moralism,
not religion
o
Here’s
the situation
o
Uzziah
has been king 52 years in Judah
§ Likely the only king Isaiah or most
people ever knew
§ Life expectancy was around age 30
§ He was one of the good kings who
reigned in Judah
§ Yet Uzziah is a vapor, God alone is eternal
and unchanging
o
Isaiah
is granted to see God in His glory
§ Aside for a moment, who does he see?
§ (Exodus 33:20) ‘ “But,” he said, “you
cannot see My face, for man shall not see Me and live.” ’
§ (John 1:18a) “No one has ever seen
God…”
§ He sees the pre-incarnate Christ
§ We call this a Theophany
§ (John 12:41) “Isaiah said these things because he saw His (Jesus’) glory and spoke of
Him.”
o
Back
the question, how important is God’s holiness to Him?
o
Before
we can look at a proper response to God’s holiness, let’s see how important it
is to Him:
§ Isaiah tells us more, fast forward 30
years to (chp. 36)
§ Sennacherib is king of Assyria
§ Assyria is the largest empire in the
world (in fact it’s the first real empire vs. kingdom) in the world
§ READ (Isaiah 36:16-18) “ ‘Do not listen to Hezekiah. For thus says
the king of Assyria: Make your peace with me and come out to me. Then each one
of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one
of you will drink the water of his own cistern, 17 until I come and take you away to a land like
your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18 Beware lest Hezekiah
mislead you by saying, “The LORD will deliver us.” Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land
out of the hand of the king of Assyria?’ ”
§ Do you hear what the earthly king is
saying, “I am God!”
ð I am provider
ð I am deliverer
ð There is no one like me
ð He dares to say to the King of all
Creation, “I am your better.”
§ How does God respond? How important
is God’s glory?
§ READ (Isaiah 37:36) “And the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when
people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.”
§ That’s
almost double all the battle deaths in the Pacific theatre in WWII throughout
the whole war.
o
That’s
why a few chapters later the Lord says:
o
(Isaiah
42:8-9) ‘ “I am the LORD; that is My name; My glory I give to
no other, nor My praise to carved idols. 9 Behold,
the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they
spring forth I tell you of them.” ’
o
This
is not just an OT theme
o
(Romans
11:33-35) ‘Oh, the depth of the riches
and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how
inscrutable His ways!
34 “For who has known the mind of the LORD,
or who has been His
counselor?”
35 “Or who has given a gift to Him
that he might be
repaid?” ’
o
Unsearchable
– beyond us (humbling)
o
Inscrutable
– above all scrutiny
o
How
important is God’s holiness to Him? How important is it to us?
o
(Psalm
148) READ
o
From
whom does God deserve praise?
o
(Psalm
150:6) “Let everything that has breath
praise the Lord!”
o
Let
everything in ALL creation praise the Lord!
o
His
Name alone is to be exalted
§ So why do I work so hard to exalt
mine?
§ Because I really don’t believe this, at
least not as I should
o
This
is a glimpse of God’s holiness, so…
· What’s a proper response to holiness?
o
In
other words; (v:11) what sort of people ought we to be in lives of holiness and
godliness with a God like this?
o
Peter
and Isaiah are saying the same thing: gospel-driven obedience
o
Back
to Isaiah, (6:2 & 3)
o
Seraphim:
§ The only place in Scripture they are
mentioned
§ The name means: the burning ones
§ Aflame with passion for the glory of
God
§ 24/7/365
§ While we sleep, and go about our day,
unconscious of God, they cry out: “Holy, holy, holy…” in ceaseless praise
ð And it is their delight to do so
§ If God had given His church nothing
more of His character this would have been enough
ð Enough to marvel at
ð Enough to delight in
ð Or for the unbeliever – terror
§ If we dell on it rightly
ð (Col. 3:16)
ð How are you doing in that?
§ Saturated by and with the Word of God
§ This is one proper response, the
second is:
o
(v:5)
Woe is me, I am ruined…
§ Isaiah gets that sin before an
infinite God, requires infinite punishment
§ God’s character determines and
then requires this response
ð Unsearchable
ð Inscrutable
§ And Isaiah’s conclusion is, “it is
hopeless, and everyone around me is hopeless…”
§ Job had the same response:
ð (Job 42:5-6) ‘ “I had heard of You by the
hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You; 6 therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust
and ashes.” ’
o
But
that’s not the end
§ (vv:6 & 7)
§ God has forgiven your sin, and you
will live
§ God is not only unsearchable and
inscrutable, but He’s rich in mercy
ð Just as we are told Jesus is
ð (Ephesians 2:1-5a) “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
2 in which you once
walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power
of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all
once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body
and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.(We
were ruined) 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of
the great love with which he loved us, 5 even
when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ…”
§ Made us alive in Christ
· This is
where we end today
o
Next
week we look at what God is saying through His Word about holiness as we apply
this
o
Good
news, God is rich in Mercy
§ Let that truth cause us to ask, “What
truths of Scripture, and areas of my character need to reflect the holiness of
God.”
Conclusion
· 24 years…is this discouraging
· Ask the Father to show you one area
you’ve been ignoring
· You see
· Today is the day, “because God, being rich in mercy, because of the great
love with which he loved us, 5 even
when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ…”
· Let’s PRAY
[1]
Hamilton, V. P. (1999). 438 דָּמָה.
(R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke, Eds.)Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. Chicago: Moody Press.
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