Sunday School: Scoffers Will Come With Scoffing (2 Peter 3:1-7)

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You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes.

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Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

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New Testament book. On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday.

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Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series. Here's Pastor Gabe. Well good morning.

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If you will open please to 2 Peter chapter 3. We've got this

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Sunday, the next, and the week after that to finish up 2 Peter and then we will begin in 1

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Thessalonians. So 2 Peter chapter 3. I'm going to begin by reading from verse 1.

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We'll go through verse 13 and I think only getting through about verse 8 this morning as far as we'll get in our lesson.

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But let's start here in 2 Peter chapter 3 in verse 1. This is now beloved the second letter

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I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the

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Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles. Knowing this first of all that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking following after their own lusts and saying where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.

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For when they maintain this it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water through which the world at that time was destroyed being deluged with water but by his word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men but do not let this one fact escape your notice beloved that with the

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Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day the

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Lord is not slow about his promise as some consider slowness but is patient toward you not willing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance but the day of the

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Lord will come like a thief in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the the elements will be destroyed with intense heat and the earth and its works will be found out since all these things are to be destroyed in this way what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God because of which the heavens burning will be destroyed and the elements will melt with intense heat but according to his promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells let us pray

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Heavenly Father as we come to this word today what what a wonderful joy and promise that we've received in just these these 13 verses as we look around us and see the chaos that is happening in our world the uncertainty of tomorrow not knowing whether the next breath we take will be our last and yet we have this beautiful promise that is given here we are we're waiting for we're looking for a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells in which all the evil and trouble and tribulation of this world will be gone will be done and we will dwell forever with God in your perfect holiness and righteousness

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I believe it stirs in us all the more those words of John at the end of Revelation come quickly

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Lord Jesus Maranatha and may that be our prayer every day looking not for peace and tranquility in this world to be our hope but our blessed hope is

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Jesus Christ and the promise of your eternal kingdom it's in these things as we explore this further in your scriptures today we ask for clarity and guidance in Jesus name and all

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God's people said amen so we look here at the start of chapter 3 this is now beloved the second letter

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I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder this is the sequel

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Peter is saying to the previous letter that pastor Tom had taken you through and that was first Peter this is the second time also that Peter has said this because he mentioned in chapter 1 the need to have to repeat these things to the people of God again so that they're reminded of them so that they know the good word of these promises and the instructions been given us by Christ that we would continue to be fruitful in these days while we're waiting for the revealing of our blessed hope our

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Lord and Savior Jesus Christ may we continue even in these days to be fruitful and good servants of our

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Savior as I've been working on the curriculum for first Thessalonians which is where we're going next and it's not just this class but many of the other

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Sunday school classes are doing it as well I believe Gary camp just finished up first Corinthians and he's going to be doing first Thessalonians as well so a lot of our classes are doing this together as I've been working that curriculum out you know there were among the

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Thessalonians this comes out more in second Thessalonians than first Thessalonians but there were there was among the

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Thessalonians a certain laziness we're not really told exactly why there was a laziness that existed among the

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Thessalonians but many of them were not working they weren't doing anything and so Paul had to encourage them you see it in first Thessalonians we gave you an example to work we did not take anyone's bread we could have made you provide for us because that's how you should be about supporting the

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Apostles or supporting whatever preacher would come to you provide for his living provide for his way of life we could have expected that from you but instead what we chose to do was not take anyone's bread we decided to work so we could provide for you an example of somebody who's supposed to work you get the second

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Thessalonians that it becomes an even sharper rebuke there Paul says if there's anyone among you that's not willing to work he doesn't even get to eat discipline such a person and have nothing to do with him so that he would fear

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God and know to do his labor so we're not told exactly why the

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Thessalonians weren't working whether this is like a spirit of laziness whether the city was so well to do that that some people just thought hey we're a productive luxurious city we're doing well as Thessalonians why work why do

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I need to do anything so there were some who were preying off of the charity of the wealthy and they weren't working at all we don't see that happening in our culture today right but there is some speculation

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I read from a couple of scholars that thought maybe even some in the church in Thessalonica weren't working because they were anticipating the day of the

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Lord he's coming back any day now why do I got to work if Jesus could could come back tomorrow so I'm just gonna sit back and relax and wait for Jesus to arrive and Paul has to rebuke the

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Thessalonians and say no now now the letters first and second Thessalonians are not rebuking letters not in the spirit that we see like Galatians and first and second

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Corinthians but there's still a rebuke there of the of those among you who are not working let them not eat there's still work that we need to be doing

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Paul urges this of the Thessalonians Peter is urging this of his hearers here we need to be working if we're not working will prove to be unfruitful go back with me if you will to first Peter let's go to first sorry not first Peter second

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Peter chapter 1 don't go all the way back to first Peter just a couple of a couple of chapters to second

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Peter chapter 1 so remember where Peter gave this instruction about showing or proving affirming your election and calling in Christ this is in 2nd

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Peter chapter 1 beginning in verse 5 I get all my numbers right that time 2nd

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Peter chapter 1 verse 5 now for this very reason also applying all diligence in your faith supply moral excellence and in your moral excellence knowledge and in your knowledge self -control and in your self -control perseverance and in your perseverance godliness and in your godliness brotherly kindness and in your brotherly kindness love for if these things are yours you exhibit you show these qualities and they are increasing you're growing in them as well they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the full knowledge of our

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Lord Jesus Christ so what kind of work should we be doing what will that be looking like and there's the list right there especially as it comes to how we engage with one another within the church how we live how we fellowship with each other we're growing in godliness in brotherly kindness and in love and we're maturing in these things always productive in these things until the day of Christ labor in them and they affirm your calling an election and render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the full knowledge of our

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Lord and Savior Jesus Christ I don't know how well you remember pilgrims progress those of you who have read it if you haven't you need to but pilgrims progress by John Bunyan there is a character in that story whose name is atheist and atheist appears in pilgrims progress right before a

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Christian falls into despair an atheist is coming with his mocking right that's where we are in 2nd

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Peter right now so in 2nd Peter chapter 2 or sorry 2nd Peter chapter 3 again messing up my numbers that there are there are mockers that are gonna come following their own lusts they come with their mocking saying where is the promise of his coming since the father's fell asleep all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation now this certainly isn't an atheist speaking here as Peter has personified him in 2nd

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Peter 3 4 but nevertheless you have you have those atheists and agnostics who scoff

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I encountered one online last night in in fact somebody that every question that he asked of me about my faith he had some sort of derogatory term so he would quote something from the

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Bible and he would say now what do you say about this dummy you know that's I mean everything was just was just some sort of a mean however meanness he could throw in there just to make me feel foolish and stupid this was a guy with a

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PhD at Michigan State University even so this wasn't you know just some anonymous troll online he identified himself and very much wanted to assert that he was much smarter than I am so these people come with their scoffing they come with their mocking and when we listen to the scoffing and we listen to the mocking and if we happen to be persuaded by those arguments it can lead to despair and that's what it led to with Christian you are listening to those comments and your mind is just filled with that and if you are not rinsing out that toxicity with the

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Word of God those negative words just kind of hit there they sit there and they dwell and it feels awful

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I Tom mentioned it this morning in the sermon I've mentioned it recently too and you've probably heard it from many others sometimes you just need to turn the news off just stop reading it stop watching it and go read your

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Bible not that we should be uninformed but all news comes through a certain worldview nobody just delivers to you neutral news right it's it's all from a certain worldview so you have to be careful with the worldview that it's coming at you through but even that said you have to be careful with how much of that you're absorbing news by its nature is almost kind of you know fashion to be bad you only hear the bad news you don't hear the the fun uplifting fluffy stories that happen around you and even within your own community it's like you have to go look for the good news everybody's willing to give you bad news so they fill you up with bad news and they fill you with terror it keeps you coming back news in our culture in our capitalistic society is a commodity so if they can give you something that makes you fearful then you want to come back for more and they never actually resolve the story they just have another bad news story for you today so sometimes we just need to turn those things off because it will fill us with despair and if we have jobs that we work all week long that are secular in nature you don't have a whole lot of of filling your mind and heart with the things of God the world certainly not gonna want to give you those things and so to rinse out that toxic stuff that has come into your mind that can cause you to despair you got to come back to the of God you have to be reminded of the promises of God and Peter does that so pastorally here in chapter 3 scoffers come with their scoffing but take heart

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God's not slow to fulfill his promise he's working right now if there's any delay by our human perception as we're watching these things unfold if we're wondering where God is in the midst of this if there's any delay if we would perceive by our humanness a delay it's for this reason that God doesn't want you to perish that he wants all to come to repentance and trust in the

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Lord Jesus Christ now in context when Peter says that in 2nd Peter 3 he's talking about the elect that those who are elect will come to repentance and salvation we will examine that further next week we won't get into the nuts and bolts of that necessarily today but here as as Peter is continuing to encourage as he's continuing to stir up pastor

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Tom does the same today in the sermon and one of the things that I wrote down he doesn't say it this way it might come out in the sermon next week because he talks more about like a good tree bears good fruit a bad tree bears bad fruit that's where we get to next in the sermon on the mount so as he was talking about those things today

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I wrote this down this was among my sermon notes this morning the evidence of fruitfulness is not more people the evidence of fruitfulness is faithfulness and a lot of times we're expecting to see the evidence of fruitfulness will be more people what are we seeing that's going on in the culture and even in the church right now there's kind of a weaning that's happening isn't there like those who are not faithful are being weeded out if you will pardon the expression those that weren't really truly genuine and enduring in their faith to begin with are being weeded out of the church we're being shown who is truly faithful to the promises of God and who is not

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I've been listening to a podcast called the rise and fall of Mars Hill it's about Mars Hill Church and the the increasing fame that Mark Driscoll experienced throughout the 2000s and early 2010s and then just suddenly it was all gone just immediately he resigned the church fell apart

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Mars Hill fell hence why the podcast is called the rise and fall of Mars Hill now when the when the podcast began it was rather interesting and I was intrigued by it at first the most recent episode that broke this week was ridiculous so I don't really recommend it kind of it doesn't sustain itself all the way through the podcast it works for the first few episodes but then just just kind of plummets after that so unfortunately it's not one that I can recommend but one thing that Mike Cosper is the host of the program what one of the things that he kind of exposes as you go through the different interviews and things like that he doesn't

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I don't think he necessarily does this deliberately it's just as he's talking to different people who were part of Mars Hill during those extremely quote -unquote fruitful years when there was thousands of people that were attending this church multiple services that they did on Sunday morning what you will hear over and over again from those persons who attended

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Mars Hill Church is that there was so much fruit yeah Mark was doing something that was bad yeah he would do these things over here that were kind of suspicious we're like I don't know if you should do it that way or we would do our services like this and it would be totally outside the realms of Orthodox ecclesiology and people are looking at this going

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I don't think we should be doing church like that but look at the fruit like how can you argue with the fruit there's so many people and so many are coming in to get baptized thousands of people look at the fruitfulness my friends fruitfulness is not more people because what ended up happening to all those people where are they now where is that church it doesn't even exist anymore now there are some that remain faithful they went on to other faithful churches but a vast majority of them did not and in fact it's interesting to hear the interviews that Mike Cosper has with some of these people you can tell when he's interviewing them and they'll even straight -up say it they're not believers anymore they were part of the church and they worked in the church but they're not even

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Christians they're not even walking with the Lord anymore and they'll talk about those days when I was at Mars Hill yeah it was silly and we were doing this that and the other we all thought it was great at the time but now

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I look back on it and I kind of regret it you know so more people does not equal fruitfulness the evidence of fruitfulness is faithfulness and Peter seems to allude here in 2nd

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Peter chapter 3 to helping the church understand the majority of our experience the majority of our experiences

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Christians in this world is going to be the world mocking us that's generally how this is going to go

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Peter says this is the second letter that I've written to you and I'm writing to it

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I'm writing to you for your benefit to stir up your sincere mind by way of reminder

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I'm reminding you reminding you of what Christ of the coming of Christ don't despair do not let your heart be troubled

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I was reminded so much this week watching the news watching statistics and different things over various different subjects hearing reports that would come into the church that Barry had died that that someone else had passed away someone else had gotten sick was quarantining at home all these different things was bombarding us all week long and it was a week full of meetings on top of that at a lot of meetings this past week and yet I was reminded of these words of Jesus saying to his disciples in this world you will have tribulation you will have trouble now understand when

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Jesus says that that's a promise okay not a very uplifting promise but it is a promise in this world you will go through tribulation but then you have the next promise but take heart

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Jesus says for I have overcome the world now for us as Christians that's good news for those who are not believers that's actually quite bad news because they're part of the world

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Jesus has overcome and destruction is coming upon them if they do not repent we need to know that for a couple of reasons first of all so that we would not go the way of the world and then also come into judgment that's number one number two so that we would recognize those people around us who are lost who do not know

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Christ are coming into judgment so that we would share the gospel with them and they would understand because of my sin

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I deserve the wrath of a holy God but God is merciful and gracious to send his son who died on the cross for my sins and rose again from the grave so that by faith in him

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I'm saved saved from what it's a question

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I asked early on with all my so they would understand what salvation means what does it mean to call

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Jesus Savior what has he saved us from the first child of course

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I asked this of was Annie since she's the oldest she was about five or six years old when I remember her saying well he saved us from our sins

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I said that's correct what else has Jesus saved us from and Annie who memorized verses faster than any of our kids you if those of you have ever even had a conversation with Annie before you know how smart she is she reads more books in a week than I do she knows her verses and she knows

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Romans 623 even at the age of five and responded well the wages of sin is death so Jesus also saves us from death so that's correct he saves us from our sin he saves us from death what else does

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Jesus save us from and she thought about that and she couldn't come up with an answer she's

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I can't think of anything else I said Jesus saves us from the wrath of God as I heard

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Steve Lawson say a number of years ago God saves us for himself by himself from himself we are called by Christ to be children of God and by becoming children of God we're no longer children of wrath to be destroyed by the judgment of God that is coming against those who do not know

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God but continue in unrighteousness as we've been talking in the previous weeks going through 2nd

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Peter chapter 2 we're saved from our sin we're saved from death we're saved from judgment the very wrath of God itself when we have faith in Jesus Christ this is what

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Jesus saves us from and again it's necessary for us to know this my brethren so that we don't go the way of the world and so that we preach the gospel to the world that the world may know

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Christ and be saved from the judgment that is to come so Peter stirring up by way of reminder here in the churches that have received this letter 2nd

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Peter chapter 3 verse 2 that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the

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Lord and Savior spoken by your Apostles now there are some times where prophets and Apostles are used to denote those who are teaching in the

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New Testament Church era for example Ephesians 411 where it says God gave the prophets and the

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Apostles the evangelists the shepherds the teach and the teachers to prepare the Saints for the work of ministry okay so their prophets and Apostles are talking about in the church age those prophets that went out from the

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Apostles speaking the apostolic word they're not themselves Apostles who had seen the risen

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Christ appointed by Christ to be Apostles but they speak for the Apostles continuing in that apostolic ministry and even affirming

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Apostleship that this came from the Apostles that were sent out by Christ through the signs and the miracles that they did in Acts chapter 15

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Silas you remember Silas he partnered with Paul there for a while and some of the missionary work that they did throughout

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Achaia the Silas is mentioned there in Acts chapter 15 as a prophet so he's a prophet that speaks the apostolic ministry that was given by Christ to his

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Apostles but here in 2nd Peter 3 2 I think that the prophets that we're speaking about here is not in the

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New Testament Church context we're even talking about the Old Testament prophets they were the ones who spoke of the

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Christ who was to come they are the ones who spoke even there in the

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Old Testament about a king who would reign and bring judgment out on the whole world we see that in the

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Old Testament as well as in the new and so remember the words spoken beforehand beforehand by the prophets so we're talking before before the present age the church age in which we live there was a word that was spoken about the

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Messiah who comes and fulfills the word of the prophet but there are even yet things that the prophets spoke about that have not yet come to fulfillment so the prophets spoke of things fulfilled in Christ there are other things that the prophets said that have not yet been fulfilled though those things also will be fulfilled in Christ and namely we're talking about judgment we're talking about the day of Christ that final judgment that will come upon the whole world so you have words spoken beforehand by the

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Holy Prophets and remember the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your

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Apostles so that's present you have words that were spoken beforehand came from the prophets remember what

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Peter said previously in chapter 1 this is verses 19 through 21 we have as more sure the prophetic word to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts know this first of all that no prophecy of scripture comes by one's own interpretation for no prophecy was ever made by the will of man but men being moved by the

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Holy Spirit spoke from God right so Peter is already talked about the prophets the prophecies that had been made beforehand he he brings that back up again by way of reminder remember the words spoken beforehand by the

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Holy Prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your Apostles and he talked about Apostleship there also in chapter 1 as Peter being one of those eyewitnesses to the majesty of God that was revealed on that holy mountain when

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Jesus was transfigured before them before Peter James and John and they heard the voice of heaven say this is my beloved

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Son with whom I'm well pleased Peter talked about that in chapter 1 so he brings back again

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I like kind of like summarizing everything we've talked about thus far chapter 2 was dedicated to the warning against false prophets he comes back to remember the true prophecies remember the true

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Word of God that came from the prophets and came from the Apostles consider now verse 3 knowing this first of all that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking following after their own lusts that 2nd

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Peter 3 3 go back to chapter 2 verse 1 2nd

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Peter 2 1 but false prophets also arose among the people just as there will also be false teachers among you who will secretly introduce destructive heresies even denying the master who bought them bringing swift destruction upon themselves verse 2 and many will follow their sensuality and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned go back to chapter 3 verse 3 again knowing this that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking following after their own lusts same thing right same thing we saw in chapter 2 verses 1 and 2 we're seeing here in verse 3 this is

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Peter summarizing like a good pastor preaching a good sermon he's summarizing all the points he's made thus far good teaching in chapter 1 bad teaching in chapter 2 remember the good teaching avoid the bad teaching now what is the rotten fruit that's being produced by the bad teaching well you have sensuality and lust that's mentioned there but you also have this so that the scoffers as Peter talks about here in verse 4 this is not necessarily the false teachers that he just talked about in chapter 2 it could be those false teachers but it's also the people who follow them so what's the result of their false false teaching it's gonna be mocking that we're in the last days people who follow after teaching of false teaching will not understand that we're in the last days we're presently in the last days you go on to the next letter immediately after 2nd

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Peter and you have first John and John says in 1st John this is the last hour we're in the last hour there is there are two ages there's the present age there is the age to come we're in the age that is referred to now as the last days from the time that Jesus ascended into heaven and the giving of the

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Holy Spirit came we've been in the last days this entire time 2 ,000 years so this is the age prior to the last age which is the age that Christ is ushering in when he returns so the scoffers the mockers they say where's the promise where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation now as I mentioned these are not atheists right because the atheists would not be saying beginning of creation they're gonna deny that this is is creation you could certainly have some version of this that would come from an atheist or from an agnostic but you're probably talking about in Peter's mind as he's kind of relaying this to people you're talking about false converts number one those who claim to be of Christ but really are not and you're also talking about the

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Judaizers so those who do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah anyway and so what they're you're talking about this judgment that's coming talking about Christ coming in judgment where is that forever since the fathers fell asleep though the prophets those who had came previously before us or even going back to Abraham Isaac and Jacob the fathers ever since they fell asleep all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation we have good times we have bad times but none of this is ultimately going to end that's really kind of the word of the scoffer here there's not a finality to all of this sometimes times are good sometimes times are bad just do the best with the times that you're given that's the word of a scoffer verse 5 for when they maintain this it escapes their notice that by the

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Word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water through which the world at that time was destroyed being deluged with water but by his word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men by the way right here

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Peter is speaking of the noetic flood as a historical fact so my friends we should read the noetic flood in the book of Genesis exactly the same way as Jesus referred to it and Peter referred to it it was a real event it actually happened this isn't mythology and it's not some sort of a story that Moses writes into Genesis that's supposed to be some sort of allegory for something else no it actually happened exactly the way that it happened there and Peter is saying there was a world that existed before the flood in a certain way that world has since been destroyed it escapes their notice those of you have the

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English Standard Version it says they deliberately overlook this fact I love that wording right they deliberately overlook the fact of the judgment that came in the flood of Noah for since the fathers fell asleep all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation that's what the mockers continue to say the world at that time was destroyed it was deluge with water and by his word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men let me finish with this we'll end it we'll stop right there you can turn with me if you want to to Matthew 24 so I believe here

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Peter is repeating something he heard his Savior say he heard Jesus teach himself in the section of Matthew that we have that's called the

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Olivet Discourse Matthew 24 and 25 where Jesus talks about the end from the

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Mount of Olives it is in Matthew 24 starting in verse 36 if you're there with me

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Matthew 24 verse 36 and really just let me read verse 35 because it goes so well heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away but of that day and hour no one knows not even the angels of heaven nor the

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Son but the Father alone what this tells us my friends is that there is a day that is intended and on that day

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Christ returns God brings all things to an end we will be with him forever that's what we know about that day that day is fixed

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Paul talked about it at the Areopagus Mars Hill since I mentioned

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Mars Hill earlier his sermon on Mars Hill in Acts chapter 17 he says there is a day that is fixed that judgment is coming upon the whole world so Jesus continues here verse 37 for just as the days of Noah were so the coming of the

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Son of Man will be for as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark and they did not understand until when they were destroyed they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away so will be the coming of the

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Son of Man then there will be two in the field one will be taken and one will be left two women will be grinding grain at the mill one will be taken and one left by the way friends that's not talking about the rapture that's talking about judgment because again what was it

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Jesus said in verse 39 they did not understand until the flood came and took them so who gets taken the one who perishes in judgment there will be two in the field one taken one will perish in judgment one will endure forever with Christ two women will be grinding grain at the mill one will be taken one will perish in judgment the other will endure forever with Christ I conclude with the way

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Tom concludes the sermon today if you heard it in first service if not you're about to hear it in second there are two ways that are given to us a way of destruction and a way of eternal life choose

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Christ choose the way of Christ and know that that way is fixed and the end of that way that that final day is determined and the promises that we have in Scripture about that give us hope in these days my friends so do not despair cling to Christ long for that kingdom and take heart he has overcome the world

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Heavenly Father we we come before you and humble ourselves may we not think too highly of ourselves but each with sober judgment as David reminded us this morning from James 5 that your life is but a vapor it's but a mist it's here for a moment and it's gone tomorrow so in sound judgment we should say if the

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Lord wills we will do this or that may we be in all things submitted to the will of God and may we be diligent to warn this world of the judgment that is coming so that they will repent of their own sinful and fallen will and come to know the will of God in Christ Jesus our