Let us turn in the Word of God to 2 Peter and the chapter 2. With the Bible before us, we will bow together and seek the Lord, recognizing that a work in men's hearts is totally beyond anything that we can do. It must be a work of God, and therefore there is the tremendous need of the Lord to speak through His Word. I cannot make you concerned in the sense that it will bring you to Christ. Only the Spirit of God can do that, and certainly there's no man can save you. Only Christ can save you. And so, if a work is going to be done, God must do that work. And so as we pray now, it is with a confession in our heart that we of ourselves are totally unable, but we're looking to God and we're praying for His work. And Lord, it is the work of God that we desire. It is the presence of God that we long for. It is the voice indeed of God by His Spirit that we want to hear, both in the reading and the preaching of the Word. It is that voice in the heart as the Holy Ghost applies the Scriptures and the truth of the Scripture to men and women and young people listening to this sermon that we want to be discerned. And so we hand ourselves to thee. Lord, we are weak of ourselves. We can do nothing. But Lord, we look to thee tonight. Remember every person in this service without Christ. Lord, we pray that thou will solemnize their heart. We pray that thou will speak to them now. Don't let them go through another gospel meeting with the end result being that they reject Thee again. But Lord, bring them to Christ. Show them their need. We plead and pray in Jesus' name. Amen. I'm going to read just some of the verses from this second chapter, chapter 2 of 2 Peter. And I'm going to read from verse 4 through to verse 10. But 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 judgment, 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, 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. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations 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. And we will read just the other little part where it says, presumptuous are they, self-willed they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. Maybe notice that what I read tonight is all one sentence except for that last little part, and it all deals with the same subject. And it is the subject of judgment, the judgment of Almighty God. God spared not the angels that sinned. He spared not the old world, that world back then in the time before the flood, Noah's time. He turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes. And thus, he will reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. And it's that last little phrase of verse 9 that I want to think about tonight, the day of eternal and solemn judgment. Now undoubtedly, the God that we know, the God that we're here to worship, is a God of love, infinitely so. We have that little statement of the Apostle John in 1 John chapter 4 and verse 8 that declares, God is love. And that's a mighty statement. I'm so glad that in the great character of God, there is this eternal and infinite attribute of love. It flows from that aspect of God's character that we call His goodness. And so flowing from the goodness of God is his great love, wherewith he has loved us. There was nothing in us or in any of the sons of Adam's fallen race that could ever evoke the love of God. We were sinners, defiled and unclean in his sight. We all deserved eternal wrath. That's what every man deserves. But God is love. And in that first epistle, where we have this mention of the love of a mighty God, John goes on to proclaim how this love was particularly manifested. It's just a few pages over in 1 John chapter 4. Having made the statement, God is love, this is what he says. And listen to it carefully. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. God is love. And the great manifestation of that love we see in Jesus Christ and all that He came to do. That God sent forth His Son, and He sent Him forth to be that propitiation for our sin, to turn away the anger and the wrath of a holy God against sin, so that those who come to trust in Him and His redeeming grace might be saved. So I say look to Christ and look to the cross. Look to the sacrifice that was made at Calvary. Look to yonder center tree where the sacrifice for sin was made. This is the love of God in its highest measure and fullest extent. Indeed, it provokes a song of praise, an anthem of rejoicing in our hearts that we sometimes sing. when we sing about God's love. Oh, t'was love, t'was wondrous love, the love of God to me that brought my Savior from above to die on Calvary. We rejoice in God's love, in his mercy that flows on like a river through the ages of time, seeking out the lost and bringing many sons to glory. But let us also remember and acknowledge with solemnity that God is a God of justice, as well as a God of love. God is holy. God is righteous. God is just. And His holy, righteous character demands the punishment for sin. He wouldn't be God otherwise. And Peter is discussing this very reality in these verses that we've read. The judgment day is coming. Now, most people don't like to think about the judgment day. Or when they do, they like to think about it as being a way out there. It's a way in the future. Years and years and years to come. And of course, that might be so. We don't know when that judgment day will be, but it could be right that it's a way out there in the future. And then maybe it is true to say that the ungodly, those that are living without the Lord, the sinners, gathered in this meeting, too, they don't like to think about the Judgment Day at all. Or maybe they deny the existence of such a day, that there's no accountability, there's no standing before God, there's no reckoning with the Lord concerning sin, there's no solemn verdict of everlasting punishment. However, the righteous judge will at length take vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. The day of destruction is at hand, and not one person will escape." This is what Peter is saying. The angels did not escape. These holy, celestial, excellent creatures of God's immediate presence who fell into sin, fell from their holy estate, We are told here in the Word of God, we're cast down to hell and delivered into chains of darkness where they are reserved unto judgment. No high or lofty position will exempt a man from punishment. These angelic beings excel us in strength and in knowledge, but they were not spared. No favor at all was shown. And I'll tell you something more than that. No savior was found for the angels. The angels that sinned, they were sent to hell, and they were reserved there until the day of judgment, held in chains of darkness. The angels did not escape. God dealt with the old world. Peter tells us that. Not one impenitent sinner was spared. Sin was universal, and so judgment was universal. The world was destroyed. Yes, God had shown mercy. God had given time to repent. God sent a preacher who preached the gospel in his day, Noah by name. God suffered long for 120 years while the ark was being built. and give space for repentance, but the people continued obstinately in their wicked ways, and their cup became full, and the wrath of a holy God was poured out. In wrath, he remembered mercy, and we know of the family that was saved, Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives, but the rest of the world was obliterated. They were wiped away, destroyed, the judgment of God. There was no exemption made for Sodom and Gomorrah. Not even 10 righteous souls were found within the cities of the plain. Now, they were blessed in so many ways. Their land was the choicest land, like the Garden of Eden, like the Garden of the Lord. That's how it is described, the most fertile and productive soil, a beautiful place, no doubt. And they had a man of God who came to live among them. Now how he lived, we're not quite sure. We read the account in the Old Testament, and we would have to conclude Lot didn't seem to have much of a testimony when he was there. Maybe it was a silent testimony. But the New Testament does tell us that he was vexed in his soul by the sins of Sodom, the things that he saw in that city. They vexed his righteous soul every day that he lived in that city. So there was a man of God. Whether his testimony was audible and public, we don't know. But a man of God came to live in that city, and there was another man of God who prayed for them, who supplicated the throne earnestly that God might spare them. And to have a man like Abraham pray for you, what a blessing that was. But their sin reached high heaven and provoked God and called for the judgment of God to come, and it came. The fire of God fell, reminding us that the most heinous sins bring the most grievous judgment. They who were sinners exceedingly before God must expect the most dreadful vengeance. And when we think of the sin of sodomy, we think of what must have gone on in that city. I tell you, it provoked God exceedingly. insomuch that He destroyed those cities with fire and brimstone that fell from heaven. And yet, just as I was coming into the meeting just a few minutes before I came in, I was thinking about that, and I was thinking about what the Lord said about Capernaum. That city that had the privilege of Christ preaching in it, preaching on to those people how they were exalted to heaven, and yet the Lord says they'll be brought down to hell and it will be more tolerable for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than it will be for those who have been privileged with the gospel. And I just thought about people who come and sit in this church and they listen to the gospel every week. You've never committed the sins that are outlined there in the Old Testament in sodomy. You wouldn't dream of committing such sins, and yet the Bible says rejecting Christ and rejecting the gospel is a worse sin. Sinning against the light that you have, and even the sins that were found in that city, and it would be more tolerable, and not they are a great judgment. And my friend, you'll not escape. You see, this is the conclusion that Peter is drawing as he writes this part of his epistle. If God spared not the angels, and if God spared not the old world, and if God spared not Sodom and Gomorrah, He will not spare sinners today. There is a judgment. And those without the Lord and His salvation are reserved unto that judgment day. So we want to talk a little bit about what the apostle has to say here about the day of eternal and solemn judgment, as we have it at the end of verse 9, where the Lord is said to reserve the young just unto the day of judgment to be punished. Notice the persons described. They're called here the unjust. And it's important to understand the terms that we read about in the Word of God and to know who is referred to in this passage. Peter, by the inspiration of God, he calls them the unjust. We could rightly, use the longer term, the unjustified. The word in the Greek is the unrighteous, those who are without righteousness, those who are not just in the sight of God, not righteous in the sight of God. That's what it means. And that's who Peter's speaking about here. As the Almighty looks down into this world, and particularly into the hearts of men, what does He see? He doesn't see as you and I normally see. He sees only two kinds of people, if we were to put it in very basic terms. God looks down, looks into the hearts of men. What does He see? He sees the just and He sees the unjust. He sees those that are justified and those that are not justified. We know that this world is made up of many nations, and we observe that the many nationalities across the face of this globe We're told that there's something like one hundred and ninety-six countries in the world, and we are told that there are one hundred and ninety-three members of the United Nations. Now, this indicates approximately how many nations exist in the world, and we know on top of that you have hundreds more of tribes and different groups of people that live in the world, but there are roughly 193 nations in this world. And as we look out, we see the nations of the earth. We know that there are many languages in the world in these various nations. We look out into the earth and we hear the various tongues which are spoken. It is reckoned that there are 6,909 distinct languages in the earth. We thank God that the Word of the Lord has gone to many places and has been translated into many languages. Over 2,500 languages have received at least part of the Word of God. So there's still many other languages into which the Scriptures have not been translated. But we look out there and we see a multitude of people in the world that speak with different languages. We look across the world and we see the many colors of people who inhabit this earth. And basically, maybe just to put it in the language of the little chorus that we know from childhood, we have those that are red and yellow, black and white. That's very often how man sees the world. But as God looks down, He looks down into this earth, He doesn't fix His eyes upon the nations, whether you're British or Spanish or American or Chinese or Indian or some other nation of the earth, nor does He focus upon the languages and the dialects of the world, all of them known to Him. Nobody knows all the languages of the earth except for God. He knows them all. He knows the very thoughts of every man, no matter what language he thinks in and what language he speaks in. The Lord knows it. Nor does God see the color of a man's skin. It doesn't count with Him. No, He sees the just and the unjust. These are the only two kinds of people in the earth as far as God is concerned, those that are justified freely through the blood of Christ and by grace alone, received by faith alone, and those who are still in their sin, the unjust. They've never been converted. They've never been saved. They've never been declared righteous. They've never been pardoned, never been redeemed. And where do you fit in, in this service? I look down and I see a variety of people, but God sees just two. And He looks into your heart and He either sees you as one who is justified in His sight, or you are, as Peter terms these people, the unjust, the unjustified, the unrighteous, the unjust or the ungodly. Do you know what it is to be ungodly? It means just to be without God in this world. The ungodly are those who live for themselves and for the world. It is this life with all it affords that charms them. And really, so many things in this world of themselves are not sinful except when they become those things that we indulge in and we give all our effort to them, like family. It's great to be blessed with family. It's good to have family. Some people just focus. That's all the focus. It's on their family, or maybe it's on their business or employment, or maybe it's their education, or it could be their hobbies, their pastimes, or maybe their holidays. And these are the things that become the center of their focus, and in and of themselves, not sinful. And then there are the obviously sinful things in this world that men give their attention to, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life. These are the central focus of their hearts and their lives. They have not set their affection upon things which are above, nor have they made preparation for heaven. No, they're still in their sin. They're unwashed. They're unholy. They're unjustified. And as a result, they're unprepared for eternity. Now, what I want to speak to you for a moment in this meeting those that are the unjust here, I want to tell you about your need. I want to remind you that you need a Savior if it is to be well with you in time and eternity. The only safe position that will give you a standing with God and acceptance in His sight is as one who is justified, declared to be righteous in God's sight. This is the act of God whereby a person is made or accounted just or free from the guilt and penalty of sin. This justification is through what we call the merit of Christ alone. It's all because of Him. It's what He has done. It's what He has accomplished in His life and death. And it is received by faith alone, therefore being justified by faith. we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Are you justified tonight? This is the heart of the gospel, and this is your greatest need. You must turn in faith to Christ and trust in Him alone for your salvation, for your eternal well-being. And so there are the people here, or the persons that are described, the unjust, Peter calls them, You'll notice in the second place there is the prospect declared, and it's there in the words, the day of judgment. Now, this is the only prospect for unjustified men, a day of solemn and awful judgment. God has reserved this day for ungodly men. Now, what is the judgment, the judgment day? What does it mean? When Peter speaks in such terms, when he tells the people unto whom he writes that God has reserved the unjust unto the day of judgment, what does that mean? Well, it means a number of things. It means, first of all, that it's something future. Hasn't happened yet. The day of judgment is still to take place. It is reserved. It is set aside in the calendar of God. Now, we have known judgment in time, judgment that God has sent to this world. We've read about some of those things tonight already. We think of the flood that came in Noah's time. That was the judgment of God upon the old world. We think of Sodom and Gomorrah, the fire and the brimstone falling from heaven, the judgment upon those cities of the plain because of their sin. We can think of, at the same time, Lot's wife, who, being brought out of the city, mercifully, miraculously, by the angels of God, yet she turned back. Her heart was there in the sins of Sodom. And that looking was a looking to go back there. She was turned immediately into a pillar of salt. For God said, escape and look not behind you. But she looked back. She hankered after what was really in her heart. And that was the sin that she had become accustomed to, and she loved back there in the city. We think of the ten plagues that fell upon the land of Egypt. That was the judgment of God upon the Egyptians. We think of Dathan and Abaram in Numbers chapter 16, where they were judged. And the ground opened just like a mighty earthquake and swallowed them alive into the pit. The Bible tells us, we think of New Testament times, Ananias and Sapphira that were cut down in a moment because of their lies, not just against the apostle, but particularly against God. They lied against the Spirit of God. And we think of Herod Agrippa II in Acts chapter 12, who did not give God the glory, and he was judged there and then in time, eaten of worms." It's the language that the Bible gives concerning his death. So these were judgments in time, but when we're speaking here about the judgment day, we're talking about something that is future, something that takes place after the Lord comes back again. And the Lord spoke about it when he preached about his return to the world in Matthew 24 and 25, and I think particularly of some words that we have in chapter 25 and verse 31 and 32. When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory. And before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats, and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left." When Jesus comes again, my friends, that's future. Another writer that speaks about it and reminds us that it is future is Jude. And we read in verses 13 and 14 of His book, there's just the one chapter, reaching waves of the sea, foaming out of their own shame, wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. And Enoch, also the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these things, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment upon all. and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." The Lord cometh. It's future, and so is the judgment day. It's not only future, but it is appointed. God has a day set aside, a day that's fixed. Just as the day of your death is fixed, so the day of judgment is fixed. God hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world, as such was part of the sermon that Paul preached when he stood on Mars Hill just outside the city of Athens. He's got a day appointed. It's there, as I've said, in the great calendar of God. A day that's marked. It's the day of great judgment, and one day you'll stand before God, and it's an appointment you're going to keep. You've got appointments, no doubt, made for this week, maybe even for tonight. Some of you young people have an appointment with Randallstown. You want to go to the Youth Rally, perhaps, and you have appointments this week that you put down in your diary, or at least you've got some kind of mental assent to it. You're going to do this, that, and the other this week. You could break any of those appointments. Anything could happen to you, and you'll not keep those appointments. But here's a day you will keep an appointment that you'll not miss. It's the Judgment Day. It's future. It's appointed. We have to say it's most solemn. You can't read any part of the Scripture where this day is spoken of and not have a trembling feeling within your heart as you contemplate the kind of day that this must be. You know those familiar words in Revelation 20, where John sees the great white throne? This is the judgment day of the ungodly. He saw him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fell away, and there was found no place for them. He saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them. And they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." Now, you can't read a passage of Scripture like that without seeing how solemn this day is. When men without God will come and stand before Christ, the judge of all the earth, when they will stand in absolute silence as He gives the verdict, as He opens the eternal records of heaven, the books are opened and the judgment is given. Men who have died without the Lord are cast out forever. This is something future. This is something appointed. This is something that is most solemn, and we have to say that the judgment day has eternal consequences, as we read about it here. Because when you come to stand before God and you're sentenced on that day, you go out into eternity. And that leads me on to my third point of the text. There is the punishment that is disclosed. In those words, to be punished. where the Lord has reserved the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. This is the only thing that is facing the unjust punishment. Everlasting, unending, unbearable, unparalleled punishment. It's in the lake of fire that we've just read about. The hell of hells, if we can put that term upon it. What a dreadful end. And yet, in a real sense, it's not the end. We think of the end as being the finish of all things. We speak about the end of the ungodly, but the end there is not the end as we know it. No, it's just the beginning. It's just the beginning of eternity. Forever and ever and ever and ever. Eternal consequences. Sinner, do you not realize your sin? Do you not realize the consequences of your sin? Or it all finishes. Hell. Hell forever. There is no release from the torment and the suffering of hell. There's no parole. There's no exemption here. There is no termination. It is forever. I just wish that God would teach us all a little more about eternity. Eternity, forever and ever and ever. A good thing for God's people to think about eternity. No doubt it's a good thing for you that are not saved, who are unjust in their service to think about eternity and see the end result. and the terrible perdition that awaits you. You know what you need to do? You need to flee. That's the Bible word that is used, to flee from the wrath to come. You need to flee with all haste. And where do you flee? To Christ. To Christ alone, who has borne the punishment. That's what he came to the earth to do. And this is the mercy of God. There's a Savior. I want you to know that. From this awful judgment, this awful perdition, there's a Savior from all sin. There's one who can save you from eternal destruction. There's one who can justify you, make you just in His sight, and that is Jesus. He went to the cross. He satisfied divine justice. He laid down His life in a sacrificial offering for our sin. He bore our sin in His own body at the tree. He felt the wrath of God. He tasted death for every man. He endured the suffering of hell. He stood in the sinner's place, and He poured out His precious, precious blood. for our redemption, as a ransom for our sin. But you must come. Here's your responsibility. You've got to come to Christ. Or to use the word that maybe expresses a little bit more urgency that I've mentioned already, you need to flee. You need to flee. As you would flee any awful danger, you need to flee the wrath of God, the judgment day. You need to get to Christ. It's the only safe place to be, found in Him, declared to be righteous through His work that He has done and accomplished. Where do you stand with God? As we think of the judgment day, where do you stand? Are you the unjust that Peter's speaking about? Well, he's telling you the only thing that's reserved for people that are unjust is the judgment day where you will be punished forevermore. But Christ is the Savior. Let that be the thing that dominates your thought now. Christ is the Savior, and He's able to save you now.