This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome back for day two of our look through 2nd Peter chapter 2. Peter is
talking to us about false teachers and how to stay away from them and how to
make sure you're protected and the people you love are protected from these lies
that can destroy a life. Before saying more about false teaching, Peter takes a
moment to remind us that we can trust that you can trust God as the judge.

He's just said that God's going to judge those who have these false teachers.
Well, who's the false teacher? Who's not?

How's God going to judge? How's God going to protect those who are His? Peter
takes a moment to remind us you always have been able to trust God as the judge.

You always will be able to trust God. Listen to what he says in verses 4 to 9.
Now, by the way, before I read verse 9, note here.

This verse tells us more about the heart of Lot than we actually read in the Old
Testament. It's one of the places where we read that Lot was a righteous man who
allowed himself to be caught up to live in this unrighteous place and the
torture that it brought upon his life. With that example in mind, Peter goes on
to finish in verse 9 and say, "If this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue
godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment while
continuing their punishment.

" So in these verses, Peter gives three examples, angels, Noah, and Lot. And
from these three Old Testament examples, he draws two reasons you know you can
trust God. He says, first, from these three examples, we know God knows how to
rescue the godly.

God knows that He did it with Noah. He did it with Lot. God knows how to do
that.

And God also, secondly, the second truth is He knows how to judge the
unrighteous. You can trust Him with both. God is a trustworthy judge.

None of us are, but God is. Now, that's the simple truth of these verses. Now,
there is a question that comes up about the afterlife in these verses.

In verse 4, he says that angels are held for judgment in gloomy dungeons. What
is that all about? And then in verse 9, he says that God knows how to hold the
unrighteous for the day of judgment.

What does that mean? This is one of the places in the Bible that most clearly
talks about somewhat of a holding place for the day of judgment. What does this
mean?

It's important to understand what the Bible teaches because this is actually a
favorite place for false teachers to tell lies. And so in reading these verses,
one of the things you need to understand is the difference in the Bible between
Hades and paradise and hell and heaven. And I want to give just an extremely
brief description here and what it means for your eternity so that you can study
it some more.

And I want to admit that we're going to sort of take in a few moments a very
deep dive into some truths about your afterlife. You might want to put on some
spiritual scuba gear because we're going to be diving very deep in these next
few minutes. The truths that we're going to look at take some deep thought, but
the thought is worth it because failing to understand these truths can lead to
all kinds of false teachings and personal doubts.

For instance, there are some who teach that as believers, we don't go to heaven
immediately when we die, that our souls sleep in the grave until Jesus comes
again. That's not what the Bible teaches. But it comes from a misunderstanding
of what's being taught here by Peter.

Others teach that believers are punished for our sins in a place called
purgatory before we get to go to heaven. Again, that's not what the Bible
teaches and we'll be seeing why. But this source of Peter talking about being
held until the day of judgment is one of the sources where that false teaching
comes from.

Those are a couple of examples of a great deal of confusion that's cleared up by
taking the time to understand what we'll be looking at in the next few minutes.
According to the teaching in the New Testament, post-resurrection teaching,
believers go immediately into the presence of God to await the resurrection of
the body, the eternal joy of heaven when we die. And unbelievers go to a place
called Hades for punishment to await the resurrection of the body and their
final punishment in a place called hell.

Now that's the simple truth but it takes some explanation. And in that
explanation it gives some assurance that you need. I don't want you to know that
I assured you that you would be with Jesus immediately when you die.

I want you to know that God assures you, that the scriptures assure you. And to
have that assurance you have to look at what the scripture teaches about this.
And it really is a broad study of the Old and New Testament that you'll get into
as you study this more.

As you do this broad study you'll find out in the Old Testament the concept of
death was a place called Sheol. It was a shadowy place of existence after this
life. Now I'm not saying that that was what death was like for Old Testament
saints when they went to heaven, but that was their understanding of what it was
like at that time.

God had not given them the revelation that we have through the New Testament. By
the New Testament times, even before the New Testament is written, this Jewish
concept of Sheol had progressed to the stage where it was believed that it had
two distinct compartments. One, the place where the torment of the wicked was
occurring was called Hades, and the other, the place where the joy of the
believer was occurring was called Paradise or sometimes Abraham's bosom.

Jesus told a story about this in Luke chapter 16 where he talked about both
Hades and Paradise. He affirmed that this was happening in that story of the
rich man and Lazarus. So through the Old Testament now towards the New, God is
increasing our understanding of the afterlife.

First people viewed all the dead as going to a shadowy place called Sheol. Then
God gives further light and people understand Sheol as being these two
compartments. You couldn't pass between the two Hades for the wicked paradise
for the righteous.

Now after Jesus' resurrection, the picture in the New Testament gets even more
clear. Believers as well as unbelievers before Christ's ascension were said to
enter Sheol or Hades/Paradise, the good side or the bad side. The New Testament
very clearly pictures unbelievers as being held for final judgment in a place
called Hades and believers as being immediately with Jesus in heaven.

In Philippians 1. 23, Paul says, "I desire to depart and be with Christ,"
immediately with Christ. Or 2 Corinthians 5, 6 to 8, "Therefore we are always
confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body, we are away from
the Lord.

" We live by faith, not by sight, and we're confident. I would say I'd prefer to
be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So the moment we're away from
this body that we die, we're at home with the Lord.

Now why am I taking you quickly into this deep water of doctrine? Because of the
false ideas again about the afterlife that grow out of not knowing where you're
going to go when you die. Because of doubts that get planted in the minds of
those who have not studied this, what Scripture has to teach about this, about
God's eternal plan for you.

All believers of all times are now with the Lord in heaven. And that's where you
and I will go immediately when we die if we know Jesus Christ. No waiting
period, no purgatory, no soul sleep.

You're immediately in the presence of the Lord. Now by the way, that explained
that little bit more that we know in the New Testament. You realize there's
still a lot of things we don't know about the afterlife.

God has told us just enough to help us while we're here on this earth. He does
not burden us with things that we don't need to know until we get there.
Honestly, sometimes the questions that we ask God are like your five-year-old
walking up to you and saying, "Tell me what's going to be on my college entrance
exam.

I have to know right now. " And God's answer to us is something like you would
answer your kindergartner. If I told you, you wouldn't understand a word I was
saying.

You have different things to be concerned about right now, like cleaning your
room. Go do that. In the midst of this study, it is good to take just a minute
to admit something about us.

We haven't even mastered spiritual finger painting yet. Sometimes we ask God to
teach us calculus. No, he just gives us enough assurance to know that we can
trust him as the judge.

And as the judge, you know that there will be a day of final judgment and that
the wicked are held for that day. And there'll be a day of final rejoicing, but
you don't have to await that day when you die. You're immediately in the
presence of the Lord when you die.

You can live in that confidence. Now, that was a very quick run through this
actually complicated and in-depth doctrine. I hope you'll study it some more if
you're interested.

But more than that, I hope that this brief study has helped you to feel a sense
of confidence that you'll be in the presence of the Lord as a follower of Christ
when you die. Or if you don't know Christ yet, a sense of need to come to him,
to know him, so you can be assured of being in his presence. Let's pray right
now.

And if you're not sure you know Christ, if you're not sure you'd be in his
presence based on his forgiveness and love, you can trust him right now for
that. And just say, "Jesus, I don't want to be apart from you in eternity. I
want to know you.

I want to know you now and into eternity. And so I ask you. I ask you to give me
life through your life, forgiveness through your love.

And if you know Christ, I just encourage you to say, "Jesus, thank you. Thank
you for what you did on the cross so that I could be assured of being in your
presence. " Like that thief that was beside you on the cross that you told,
"Today you're going to be with me, with me in paradise.

Lord Jesus, thank you that today I can love you and serve you. And I know that
the day that I lose my life on this earth, if it comes before you come again,
Jesus, I know that that day I'll be with you immediately. Help me to live with
that confidence.

In Jesus' name, Amen. " Well, tomorrow we're going to get back to talking about
how you recognize a false teacher.