The Lord’s Knowledge, Our Safeguard

The Lord's Knowledge, Our Safeguard

(No. 2441)

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S DAY, DECEMBER 1, 1895.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, JUNE
30, 1887.

"The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to
reserve the unjust unto the Day of Judgment to be punished." 2 Peter
2:9.

THERE are very narrow limits to our knowledge. There is a great breadth
to our conceit, but the things that we really know are very few, after
all. He who is wisest will be the first to confess his own ignorance.
Our faith in the superior knowledge of God is a great source of comfort
to us. That He knows everything is a sort of Omnipresent covering to
our naked ignorance. Though we know not as yet, we rejoice that He
knows, and it is better that He should know than that we should know.
Knowledge is safer in the hands of God than it would be in our hands.
Only the Infinite God is to be trusted with infinite knowledge!

The first words of our text, "The Lord knows," often come as a comfort
to my own mind. The text says, "The Lord knows how to deliver the godly
out of temptations." This is only one of the many things which the Lord
knows. For instance, sometimes we meet with perplexing
doctrines–perhaps we endeavor to effect reconciliation between the
Predestination of God and the freedom of human action. It is better not
to wade too far into those deep waters, lest we lose ourselves in an
abyss! "The Lord knows." There is a reconciling point in His mind as to
all the great Truths which He has revealed. One was wishful, the other
night, to tell me some great secret which he had discovered, but I was
not so wishful to hear it, for I did not think that I should be any
holier or any happier if I did hear it! I was just as pleased not to
know as I should have been to know the secret. That insatiable craving
to know everything draws away the life of men from what ought to be
their insatiable craving, namely, to be like God, to know Him, to trust
Him, to love Him and to serve

Him.

Sometimes, dear Friends, we come across puzzling prophecies. Some
Brothers and Sisters profess to know all about prophecy. I do not,
neither am I quite sure that they do. This I know, that you have only
to place one set of interpreters of prophecy over against another set
and they speedily swallow one another, as Aaron's rod swallowed the
rods of the magicians of Egypt! But I am satisfied to feel that "the
Lord knows." And He knows how every prophecy will be fulfilled and the
exact order in which the prophecies will come to be facts. We may make
our prophetic charts if we like, but God will follow His own chart. We
may think that we have discovered the clue of the maze in the
Apocalypse and in Daniel, but whether we have, or have not, is of no
very great consequence! John and Daniel spoke by the Holy Spirit and
their words will all be fulfilled in due time–and the Lord knows all
about the whole matter.

The same is the case in reference to the Lord's amazing promises. Many
of them are so amazingly bright and grand that we sometimes ask
ourselves, "How can all these things be fulfilled?" And possibly, like
Abraham, we may have a Divine promise, yet there may come a precept or
a Providence which seems to murder the promise and render its
fulfillment impossible, as when God said to the Patriarch, "In Isaac
shall your seed be called," and then bade him offer up his son in whom
the promise was wrapped up! Yet Abraham, although he did not know how
the promise would be fulfilled, staggered not because of unbelief, for
he felt that God knew. God will keep His promises, Brothers and
Sisters. We need not try to help Him as she did who sought to secure
the blessing for her favorite son by setting him on an evil and
mischievous piece of plotting to deceive his aged father.

It is not your work to fulfill God's promises–you will have enough to
do to obey His precepts–and you will need His help to enable you to do
that! He does not need your help in fulfilling His promises, but you
may say with regard to the whole of them, "The Lord knows how to
fulfill them and He will fulfill them to the dot of every i and the
stroke of every t. Not one good thing that He has promised shall ever
fail to be bestowed upon those who put their trust in Him."

The same is the case, also, dear Friends, with regard to afflictive
Providences. "I cannot see the wisdom of this trial," says one. "I
cannot understand why this trouble has befallen me," says another. Why
do you wish to understand? Why do you need to see? We walk by faith,
not by sight! I have known what it is to feel a thrill of sacred joy
within my soul when my Divine Master has given me a task altogether
beyond my strength. I have felt, "If this work had been only half as
heavy as it is, I might have attempted it, but now I know that I cannot
perform this task in my own strength, so I am cast upon Omnipotence."
It is poor work–paddling about on the muddy beach, lifting first one
foot and then the other! The grand exercise is to swim–and you must
swim when you cannot touch the bottom. Sometimes God puts us into an
ocean of afflictions where there seems to be no bottom. Our trials are
altogether too heavy for us, they quite overwhelm us. Oh, then, what a
mercy it is if we have faith enough to trust in God!

If Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had been summoned to the common trial
by ordeal–well-known among our ancestors–that of walking over red-hot
plowshares, they might have hoped, somehow, to pick their way. But when
they were "bound in their coats, their hose, their hats and their other
garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning, fiery
furnace"–where there was no possibility of escape unless Jehovah,
Himself, entered the furnace with them–well, then, they had a grander
arena for the display of faith in God! They had passed from the
littleness of human possibility into the grandeurs of Omnipotence–and
God was glorified as they walked loose in the midst of the fire having
had nothing burnt except their bonds! It is a great gain when any tried
or persecuted child of God has the company of his Heavenly Father even
in the midst of the fiery trial to which he is exposed.

It is the same with regard to grievous temptations. Some of the Lord's
very dear children are sorely tempted, sometimes by their own thoughts,
into which Satan casts the bitterness of his blasphemies. Sometimes by
trials at home which they cannot understand, or by afflictions which
seem like that wind from the wilderness which smote the four corners of
the house where Job's children were feasting. Well now, at such times,
when we cannot comprehend our temptations, but seem altogether in a
maze, and at a standstill, then let us fall back on these three words,
"The Lord knows." The infinite breadth of Divine Wisdom comprehends all
our needs, all our sorrows, all our feeblenesses, all our trials and
temptations! Let this be like an all-surrounding atmosphere to us,
breathing which we shall feel our life strengthened and our hearts made
glad!

In our text, the Apostle calls attention to one item of God's
knowledge. He makes us feel quite safe as to the government of the
universe, seeing it is in the hands of the All-Knowing One, the Lord
who knows, on the one hand, "how to deliver the godly out of
temptations" and, on the other hand, how "to reserve the unjust unto
the Day of Judgment to be punished."

I. In considering these words, I shall ask you, first, to think of THE
LORD'S KNOWLEDGE IN REFERENCE TO CHARACTER. This may not appear on the
surface of the text, but it is evidently implied, for the Lord would
not know how to deliver the godly if He did not know who were godly and
He would not know how to reserve the unjust unto the future judgment if
He did not know who were unjust! Reflect, then, for a few moments, upon
the Truth of God that the Lord knows the godly. Sometimes they come
under trials and temptations so that they are not known to others.
Their former friends and their kindred stand aloof from them, as Job's
friends and kindred did from him. The Patriarch was so sorely smitten
and wounded that his three friends concluded he must be a hypocrite. He
"was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil,"
a very favorite of Heaven, yet his friends did not know him as one of
the godly because of the great trials which had befallen him.

Yes, and sometimes, because of imperfections, others may not know us to
be godly. It is a pity that it should be so, but there are times when
sin fiercely assails the Believer and he is sorely put to it. He has to
confess that he gives cause to others to stand in doubt of him. Well,
Beloved, when others do not know you to be godly, the Lord knows! "The
Lord knows them that are His." There have been secret passages between
you and God which nobody else can ever know. He perceives your
sincerity in the midst of your infirmity and, though He will chasten
you for your sin, He still knows that you believe in Him. You may, like
Samson, lose your eyes and be shorn of your strength. I pray that you
may not fall so low as that, but even if you do, remember that it is
written of the blinded Nazarite, "howbeit the hair of his head began to
grow, again," and the Lord gave him back his former strength, for,
notwithstanding all his folly and his sin, he was a

Believer in Jehovah! He had a firm, childlike faith in the Most High,
and in the power of that faith he did great exploits and the Lord, even
in Samson's death-struggle, acknowledged him as His servant and avenged
him of his adversaries.

Do not let us get into such a condition that others may justifiably
doubt us, but if they maliciously doubt us–if without cause they cast
out our name as evil, if they slander us and invent fictions and
falsehoods to injure our character–let us come back to this, which is
implied, if not stated, in our text, "The Lord knows the godly."

It may sometimes come as a great comfort to us that the Lord knows the
godly when they do not know themselves. I have heard some of God's
people speak as though this were not possible, but I boldly assert it
from my own observation of hundreds of those who truly love the Lord.
We may sometimes be so beset with temptations and our spirit may so
sink within us that we may have to stand in doubt as to our own
salvation and say, "Am I really the Lord's, or am I not?" There are
times when we have to hear the question from our own conscience–and
why should we not hear it from our own conscience, since Peter heard it
from his Master's own lips, "Simon, son of Jonas, do you love Me?" I
would like to say to you, with the poet Cowper–

"Come, then–a still small whisper in your ear–

He has no hope who never had a fear

And He who never doubted of his state,

He may, perhaps–perhaps he may–too late."

It is not an ill thing to go and search to the very foundations to see
whether there is peace between God and your soul or not! Some of the
best of the Lord's servants have had to go through the Valley of the
Shadow of Death, wherein the voice of the evil spirit has been louder
in their ears than the whisper of their own faith–and they have had to
stand still in utter bewilderment! They could not get their sword out
of its sheath, or, if they could, they were unable to use it, for it
seemed as if the enemy could not be touched by their sword. The only
weapon they could handle was the weapon of all-prayer, as they cried
out in their anguish, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" Now
remember, when you do not know yourself to be godly, God knows! Here is
the comfort for our hearts, "The Lord knows the godly." He knows both
them and their ways–but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

As this is true about the godly, so is it most solemnly certain
concerning the ungodly. The Lord knows the unjust. That is to say,
despite their loud pretensions of piety, the Lord knows that they are
really ungodly. They have joined the Church, they wear the name of
Christian, they are even honored among Christian men–but the Lord
knows the unjust–no garb of religion can conceal their wickedness, no
form of pious speech can hide the insincerity of their hearts! Oh,
should there be any such here, may this flash of light go right through
them! The Lord knows the unjust, whatever they may pretend to be.

He knows them, also, notwithstanding their great possessions. "I have
seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay
tree." And many a hollow profession has been gilded over with riches
and, because the man was well-to-do, they thought that he must be doing
well–two very different things, however. But God can read us through
and through. If we climbed to a throne, He would discern the state of
our heart even there! And if we had the acclamations of a nation for
our devotion and piety, He would discover us, even then, for all things
are naked and open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do! Let this
not be forgotten by any of us! Let us not try to deceive the Lord, but
let everything be open and above-board before Him. There should be in
us all the most strict truthfulness–I am afraid that there is a tinge
of hypocrisy even in the most gracious. May God take it away from us
and let us walk in the Light of God as He is in the light, while the
blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, still cleanses us from all sin, for we
shall still need it!

II. Now let us come to the very marrow of the text, which is this–THE
LORD'S KNOWLEDGE IN REFERENCE TO THE GODLY. "The Lord knows how to
deliver the godly out of temptations."

Notice their name–"the godly"–that is, the people who know God. He is
no dream of fancy to them–they know Him. He is the most real of all
existences to them. Knowing Him, they fear Him. They have learned to
fear and tremble before the Most High. It was a name of scorn which
they gave to the Society of Friends when they called them, "Quakers."
But, after all, it was a right thing for them, like Moses, to
exceedingly fear and quake in the Presence of the Most High God. The
godly also trust God. To them, God is the pillar of their confidence,
the brightness of their life, the life of their light, the light of
their delight! They rest on Him, as on the Rock of Ages, and they rest
nowhere else. These godly ones also love God–their heart goes out
towards Him. He is their Joy. He is their Companion, their Friend. He
is All in

All to them. The Lord knows these godly ones and He makes them to know
Him. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will
show them His Covenant."

Well, it is certain that these godly ones will have to suffer
temptation. Gold is tried in the furnace. Good things are tested and
proved–and godly men are full often tempted and afflicted and tried.
They shall, very few of them, get to Heaven without passing through the
trying waters and testing fires, else to them the promise would not be
true, "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and
through the rivers they shall not overflow you; when you walk through
the fires, you shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon
you." The Lord knows all about them and their trials! And especially,
according to our text, "The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of
temptations." Let me make a few observations upon that Truth of God.

The first is this–His knowledge answers much better for them than
their own would do. They do not know how they will be delivered out of
temptations. Sometimes they make a guess and so make a mistake–and
then they are disappointed. They would be far wiser if they left
knowledge to the Most High and kept to their own sphere, which is that
of trusting, believing and knowing that the Lord knows! One says of
Adam that he knew a great deal and it was a pity that he did not know
one thing more, namely, that he knew enough, for had he known that he
knew enough, he would not have eaten of the fruit of the Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil! You know enough when you believe. If you
know nothing except how you can put you hand into the hand of God, you
may go boldly on with a surer tread than the best-sighted man ever knew
by his own wisdom alone! "Commit your way unto the Lord; trust also in
Him, and He shall bring it to pass." Better that the knowledge be with
the Lord, your Head, than in your own head, for you are not the Lord!
"The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations." It is
almost a cant expression among the ungodly–"The Lord knows." Oh, but
let it be a very solemn expression among us, "The Lord knows" and,
blessed be His name, "The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of
temptations!"

In the next place, His knowledge of their case is perfect. He knew the
temptation before it came! Before He appointed it, He weighed it in His
unerring scales–not in the big scale of the coal merchant, but in the
delicate scales of the chemist who measures every tiny grain and has a
scale that will turn with the weight of a single hair! If God appoints
me 10 afflictions, the devil, himself, cannot make 11 of them! If the
Lord shall put half an ounce of a bitter ingredient into your cup, all
the devils in Hell cannot make an ounce of it! God knows your
affliction before it comes to you and He knows it when it comes to you.
When Israel was in Egypt, the Lord knew their afflictions. Well said
David, "You have known my soul in adversities." The Lord knows just
where the trial touches and pinches us, how we grieve under it, how far
it has gone and how far it must not go. The Lord knows our afflictions
with a perfect knowledge before they come–and when they come–and He
also knows all about them when they go. I bless His name that He can
foresee the effect of trial upon His children! He knows what Grace it
will brighten. He knows what shams it will destroy. He knows what it
will teach us and He knows what it will make us unlearn, which we
thought we needed to know. He knows all about us from beginning to end
and, consequently, His knowledge of our temptations is absolutely
perfect–and we may be content and rest in perfect peace. "He knows the
way that I take."

And this is true in every case of every child of God. "The Lord knows
how to deliver"–not merely some one godly man, or some 20 godly men,
but "the godly" as a whole, all of them! Dear Friend, to put it very
personally, the Lord knows how to deliver you out of your present
temptation. But do not put your hand to sin in order to deliver
yourself! That is what Satan will tempt you to do. Lay not the hand of
Uzzah upon the Ark of the Lord, much less upon any piece of furniture
in your own house! Oh, the temptation there is, sometimes, to indulge
in a hasty temper, or to speculate in business, or to keep back a part
of the truth, or to pretend to be something which you are not, or to
allow a sin to go unreproved because you wish to escape reproach or to
avoid censorious judgments! No, the Lord knows how to deliver you, and
if He does not deliver you, then say with those three holy children
whom I mentioned a few minutes ago, "If it is so, our God whom we serve
is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will
deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto you,
O king, that we will not serve your gods, nor worship the golden image
which you have set up." Do not attempt to supplement the wisdom of God
with your insanity, for it is nothing better than insanity when you
fancy that you can ever profit by wrongdoing!

God's knowledge, as revealed to us in this verse, gives us a very
comfortable thought. If the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of
temptation, then, depend upon it, there is a way of deliverance out of
every temptation. The Lord does not know what does not exist. If He
knows that there is a way of deliverance, then there is a way of
deliverance, and there is a way of escape for you! You do not see
it–do not ask or wish to see it. Ah, those eyes of ours–would God
that they were put out! I was going to say we see a great deal too
much, Brothers and Sisters, or we think we do. And because we say we
see, we go blindly on, stumbling and blundering every foot of the way!
It is for God to see and it is for us to believe and to trust in Him!
There is a way of deliverance and it will be proved before long that
there is a way of deliverance for you. If you believe it, you shall see
it. God knows how to deliver–that means that there is a way of
deliverance!

But it means more. The Lord knows how to deliver the godly in the way
most profitable for themselves. We have invented various ways of
deliverance, but God has not used them. And then we have found out
another way, but He has not acknowledged that. And we have sought
another way, but He would not have that. No, He knows how to deliver,
so why do you come in with your inventions? Verily, I shall apply that
text even to you, "God has made man upright; but they have sought out
many inventions"–even inventions for escaping from trouble and trial!
But the Lord knows which is the best way for their deliverance. He will
bring you out of Egypt, but not in the way you thought, that you should
flee away all of a sudden and escape by stealth. No, no–this is how He
will deliver you, even as He delivered Israel of old– "He brought them
forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person
among their tribes." He will bring you out in a profitable way and a
right way!

And, best of all, He will bring you out in the way which will be most
glorifying to Himself. With a high hand and an outstretched arm, He led
His people out of Egypt, shattering all the might and pomp of the
proudest monarch of the day! And the emancipated nation sang unto the
Lord a new song as they took their timbrels and danced before Him who
had triumphed gloriously over their cruel oppressor. That is what you,
also, shall yet do. "The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of
temptations" in the way that is most glorious to Himself. God's
children ought to think less of what is done, at any time, than of the
Glory that God gets out of it. We sometimes want to see a great work,
but a great work may not glorify God. If there is a little, obscure,
unknown work–and to human eyes it remains almost a secret–if it
glorifies God, it is to be preferred to the most gigantic wave of
supposed revival that, after all, would leave behind it the names of
men, but the name of God would be forgotten! In all things let God be
glorified! Oh, that we would always aim at this objective! The
salvation of men is a grand aim, but it must always be in subordination
to the Glory of the Lord, that His arm may be revealed and that all
flesh may see it together. Oh, that God might be glorified! Be this our
prayer in our trials and in coming out of our trials, "Father, glorify
Your name."

III. Now, I must say a few solemn and weighty words upon THE LORD'S
KNOWLEDGE IN REFERENCE TO

THE UNJUST–"and to reserve the unjust unto the Day of Judgment to be
punished."

Observe that Peter does not say, "the ungodly." He is not dealing with
their inward character so much as with their outward conduct. They are
"unjust." Ungodliness is unrighteousness and, sooner or later, the
ungodly are seen to be unjust.

Ungodly men are legally unjust–they have broken God's Law and,
therefore, they are not justified in His sight. Worse than that, they
are evangelically unjust, for they have not believed in the Lord Jesus
Christ and, therefore, they have not His justifying righteousness to
cover them. And then they are practically unjust, for their life is an
injustice to God and to men. They have not received the sanctifying
power of the Spirit to make them just in their daily lives.

God knows how to deal with these people. Let me read Peter's words,
again, "The Lord knows how to reserve the unjust unto the Day of
Judgment to be punished." You hear their blasphemies. You mark their
infamies and your indignation burns against them–but the Lord knows
how to deal with them. He knows how to reserve them under restraints.
He acts like a magistrate who commits a prisoner for trial at the Great
Assize. That is what God has done with some of you ungodly ones–you
are committed for trial at the Day of Judgment. The Lord lets you live,
but you are only out on bail and you will soon have to appear before
the great Judge of Heaven and earth.

According to the Revised Version, and I think that translation is
correct, the punishment has already begun. The Lord knows how to go, on
even, now punishing the ungodly! That unrest of theirs, those fears,
the trembling–all show that God is dealing with them. They swell
themselves out very big, they laugh with loud laughter, they deny the
Truth of God and they scoff at Christ–but, believe me, dear Friends,
you need not wish to be like they are–no, not even like the
healthiest, the wealthiest, the proudest and the greatest of them! The
Lord knows how, even now, to smite them, and He does smite them! The
life of an ungodly man, at its best, is a horrible life. I would sooner
be God's dog than the devil's darling! It is better to be the most
weeping Jeremiah than the most boastful Pharaoh. The day will come when
the ungodly will, themselves, see it to be so–and the proudest tyrant
will envy the lowest man or woman who crept humbly to the Mercy Seat
and cried, "God be merciful to me, a sinner!"

The Lord knows how to deal with the unjust even now and He will know
how to deal with them by-and-by. O Sirs, these are no trifling matters
of which I am speaking! The unjust may be in the fullness of their
strength, but the Lord can bring them down to lie on a sickbed. Even
there they may defy God, but He knows how to stop their impious mouths.
"Ah," He says–and that is an awful text–"Ah, I will ease Me of My
adversaries, and avenge Me of My enemies," as if they vexed and plagued
His Holy Spirit and, at last He says, "I will be rid of them. They
shall not trouble Me any longer. I will ease Me of My adversaries."
Then He sends the "reaper, whose name is Death." I think that I meet
him now, swinging his sharp sickle, and I say to him, "Whither away, O
Death? What are you about to do? Will you dare destroy that scarlet
poppy blazing in the midst of the growing corn?" "Ah," he says, "one
touch of my sickle will bring it down." "And that blue flower, yonder,
in all its splendid majesty of beauty?" "Ah," he says, "I will lay that
low with all the common grasses of the field."

The Lord knows how to deal with the unjust in the next world as well as
in this. Oh, that dreadful thought! Trouble not yourselves about it,
except to "flee from the wrath to come!" Raise no perplexing questions
in your mind. The Lord knows how to deal with the unjust in the world
to come and that dealing shall be according to the strictest rule of
justice. The Judge of all the earth shall do right–men shall not be
able to accuse Him of injustice! He will deal with them as the God who
cannot err. They are in His hands and, "it is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God." Do not believe those who tell you
that it is not. They are the servants of the devil–be they who they
may–who seek to delude your souls upon this matter! I beseech you,
escape for your lives! Look not behind you, stay not in all the plain
but escape to the Cross of Christ, for there, and there, only, is there
salvation for the unrighteous! Oh, seek it now, for Jesus' sake!

I close with an illustration of the text which I feel almost certain
was in the mind of Peter when he wrote these words, "The Lord knows how
to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto
the Day of Judgment to be punished." Turn to the 12th Chapter of the
Acts of the Apostles, where you have the record of Peter lying asleep
in the prison, watched by soldiers, and yet at dead of night the angel
of the Lord came into the prison, smote Peter on the side, bade him
bind on his sandals, gird himself and follow him. Peter went through
all the doors of the prison till he came to the great iron gate and
that opened of its own accord! And there stood Peter, out in the
street, in answer to the prayers made at the Prayer Meeting at Mrs.
Mark's house, when the Christians in Jerusalem were gathered that night
to pray for him. This miracle proves that the Lord knows how to deliver
the godly out of trial!

Read the rest of the chapter, please, for that takes in the other half
of my text. Herod sat upon his throne of state and all the people were
paying him homage. And when he made an oration from his golden throne,
they shouted, "It is the voice of a god, and not of a man." That same
God, who had delivered Peter, knew how to lay hold of Herod, for we are
told that immediately the angel of the Lord smote him and he was eaten
of worms and gave up the ghost! The first is a brilliant deed of
infinitely wise Grace, the next is an astounding deed of n infinitely
wise Justice! It is not necessary that you go to the gallows to meet
your doom–a few worms can destroy you! It is not necessary that you be
killed in a great railway accident, or that there be a collision at
sea, or that you fall on the field of battle! Herod was eaten of worms.
A grape-stone has, before now, choked and killed a man. A draught of
water has been poisonous to another. A little gas, that was almost
impalpable, has laid another in his grave. There is not one of you
ungodly ones who can escape if God shall say to His angels, "Smite that
man while he sits in his pew. He has resisted My mercy and rejected My
love. He will not come to Christ." You, too, may be eaten of worms
before another Sunday comes! God grant that you may not meet such a
fate, but may you learn the lesson of this text and feel the force and
power of it in your own souls, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 1 PETER 116-21; 2:1-10.

1 Peter 1:16. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when
we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. There is need in these perilous
times to come back to such an elementary Truth as this. The Truths
taught us in God's Word are not fables, myths, or merely parables, but
they are matters of actual fact. The Apostles were eyewitnesses of "the
power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ"– "eyewitnesses of His
majesty." We receive these Truths of God without the slightest question
and base our faith upon them. We would be troubled, indeed, if we had
any doubts whatever about these great foundation facts of our holy
religion.

17, 18. For He received from God the Father honor and Glory when there
came such a voice to Him from the excellent Glory, This is My beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from Heaven
we heard, when we were with Him in the holy mount. They were not
deceived–neither Peter, nor James, nor John. There was "such a voice"
from God, Himself, which they literally heard. It was the Father
bearing approving witness to the Person and work of His only-begotten
and well-beloved Son.

19. We have also a more sure word of prophecy. Surely nothing could be
more sure than the evidence presented to the Apostles in the holy
mount! Yet Peter thus writes to express his utmost confidence in the
Word of God. Surer than the light he saw, which dazzled him. Surer than
the voice he heard which he never failed to remember and to which he
always bore unfaltering witness! Surer, even, than these things is that
Divine Book which is still preserved to us–"We have also a more sure
word of prophecy."

19. Whereunto you do well that you take heed, as unto a light that
shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the day star arises in
your hearts. You already have the assurance of the Word, itself–you
must build upon that and upon that, alone–but you shall have added to
that a, "day dawns," and a, "day star," in your own hearts. We have the
witness within us now–"The Spirit Himself bears witness with our
spirit that we are the children of God." And those things which we have
received by faith we now have proven to be true by their effect upon
our own souls! We know the Light of God, now, because we walk in it! We
know it to be the Light of God for it has enlightened us.

20, 21. Knowing this, first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of
any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by
the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the
Holy Spirit. How we rejoice in this fact! We shall never give it up. It
is a disbelief of Inspiration which lies at the bottom of all the
modern theories–but with this disbelief we have not the slightest
fellowship! In our inmost souls we believe that "holy men of God spoke
as they were moved (or, "borne along"), by the Holy Spirit." They spoke
not for their own age, alone, neither were the prophecies given to a
few persons so as to belong privately to them–but the whole Inspired
Scripture stands fast for all the faithful and is the Truth of God to
us, today, even as it was to those to whom it was first spoken!

1 Peter 2:1. But there were false prophets also among the people. How
true that still is! Be not startled, Brothers and Sisters, as though
some strange thing had happened to us in this generation! It was always
so and so it will continue. If there are true Prophets, there will also
be false prophets. And if there is the Spirit of God, there will be the
spirit of evil! And often, in proportion as the everlasting Truth of
God is full of power, the everlasting lie will be full of power, too,
and will strive mightily against it. That same sun and shower which
shall make yonder wheat to grow, will, at the same time, cause the
thorns to spring up! And perhaps for a time they may threaten to choke
the wheat until, at last, the wheat will choke the thistles. "There
were false prophets also among the people."

1. Even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall
bring in damnable heresies. They always try to do their hateful work
privately and then they ask, "What is all this fuss about? We have not
departed from the truth, we are as sound in the faith as any of you
are," when they know, traitors that they are, that they are undermining
the foundations and trying to take away the very cornerstone of the
faith! These "false teachers" would deceive the very elect of God if it
were possible, but they are not easily deceived, for God has given them
a discerning mind by which they "try the spirits whether they are of
God." The Lord Jesus said of His sheep, "A stranger will they not
follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of
strangers." Sheep though they are, they have discernment enough to know
their shep-herd–and the godly soon detect false teachers who privily
"bring in damnable heresies,"

1, 2. Even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves
swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by
reason of whom the way of truth shall be spoken of evilly. They say,
"It is narrow; it is old-fashioned; it is not in accordance with the
spirit of the age." I know not what else they say, but, for all that
they say, it still remains "the way of truth."

3, 4. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make
merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingers not, and
their damnation slumbers not. For if God spared not the angels that
sinned, but cast them down to Hell, and delivered them into chains of
darkness, to be reserved unto judgement. "If God spared not the angels
that sinned," He will not spare any who sin, however high their
position may be–even though they are the angels of the Churches, He
will "cast them down to Hell."

5. And 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. Which some in these days say could not be consistent with the
acts of a God of Love. Their imaginary deity, from whom they have taken
away every glorious attribute of holiness and justice, would not have
done this! But the God that judges righteously must and will punish
sin, as He always has done and, "this God is our God forever and ever,"
even the God who is "a consuming fire."

6-8. And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned
them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after
should live ungodly; and delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy
conversation of the wicked: (for that righteous man dwelling among
them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day
with their unlawful deeds). I love to see in God's people a holy horror
of the sin which surrounds them. In several of the prayers in which we
joined before we came upstairs to this service, there were many tears
and cries over the wickedness of our streets–the impurity and the
drunkenness which defile so many all around us. Alas! Alas! Men seem
bent on horrible iniquity and it looks as if London, this great modern
Babylon, will repeat the story of the cities of the plain! Well may we
pray, "O Lord, have mercy upon the people!"

9. The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations. As He
delivered Lot–

9, 10. And to reserve the unjust unto the Day of Judgment to be
punished: but chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of
uncleanness and despise government. We have far too many, nowadays, of
both these sorts of sinners, and of the two sorts joined in one–"them
that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise
government."

10. Presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak
evil of dignities. There let us cease our reading and turn to another
holy song in which we will praise our God, whose Grace has made us to
differ from the ungodly by whom we are surrounded.