WWUTT 377 Hastening the Coming of the Day of God?

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Peter instructed us to live lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God.

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That doesn't mean we speed up the coming of that day, but we look forward all the more to that day when we understand the text.

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Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text as an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty, visit our website at www .utt

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.com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky, and greetings, everybody.

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Yesterday we only got as far as one verse, 2 Peter 3, 11, and I said that this week we're going to finish up our study of 2

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Peter. I promise that's going to happen. We're going to continue the section that we started yesterday, verses 11, 12, and 13, and then tomorrow we'll cover verses 14 to the end of the book.

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I'm going to start again in verse 8, keeping in context what it is we're looking at today. 2

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Peter 3, beginning in verse 8. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the

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Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

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But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

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Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn?

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But according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

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And some of the things even that Peter mentions there in verse 13 were mentioned at the start of the chapter.

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So he kind of brings all these things full circle. We'll come to that as we study here.

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So verse 11 again, which is where we were yesterday, since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness?

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Again, when we go back to Matthew chapter 24, and I did this a couple of weeks ago, when

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Jesus is talking about his return and the kinds of things to expect in the last days, he said that the master will return and expects to find his servants faithful and serving in the master's house.

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But there's going to be those wicked servants who say, my master is delayed and starts to beat his fellow servants and carouse around with the drunkards and the swindlers.

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And that person, when the master comes back and finds him doing this, he's going to bind him up and cast him out with the hypocrites.

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So let us be on the ready and always serving, being faithful to the commands of the master so that we are living lives of holiness and godliness.

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And that is the way the master finds us upon his return. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, applying ourselves to heavenly things rather than storing up worldly things or treasures on this earth?

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We go on to verse 12, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God.

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So first of all, we're waiting for the day of God. We are living lives of holiness and godliness as we anticipate, as we are anxiously awaiting the return of our

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Lord Christ. We are looking for that day. We're looking forward to that day. We are not so bound up in the things of this world that we are kind of hesitant to let them go.

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I don't know that I'm ready to give this up just yet. I hope that God is going to wait a little bit until he comes back because I'm really kind of enjoying the way things are going now.

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If that is our attitude, then we're too bound up in the things of this world. But when we are waiting for the day of Christ, we are looking forward to that day.

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There is nothing on this earth that we would not be willing to let go of for that great and awesome day of God to be forever with him in his eternal kingdom.

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We know that all this stuff on earth, none of it will last. All of it will be burned up and dissolved.

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So we are waiting for the coming of the Lord. So that's the first word that's used there. Verse 12, we're waiting for the coming of the day of God.

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We're also hastening the coming of the day of God. Now that's an interesting word, hastening the day of God.

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Can we actually do something to speed up that process? Yes, we can.

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And also, no, we can't. Be careful with the application of this. So that's how we're going to look at it, how this applies.

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Yes, we can hasten the coming of the day of God by doing what it is that God has commissioned us to do.

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And that is to take the gospel to all nations, making disciples, baptizing in the name of the

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Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that Christ commanded us to teach and observe.

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And in doing this, we are hastening the coming of the day of God. The moment the last soul that God has elected to be saved is saved, then the plan is done.

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It's over. Christ returns. The day of God, boom, we're with him together in glory.

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So we are hastening God's plan as we fulfill the great commission. This is all according to God's sovereign ordination.

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We're not doing anything outside of his will. This is all according to his will.

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So let us hasten that day by obeying God's commands to take the gospel and make disciples.

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So that's one way that we consider that. That's the right way that we consider that.

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How we don't consider that is that we somehow have power to hasten the day of God.

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Like I can do something that changes God's mind. Oh, look at what my servants are doing now.

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I guess I better go return. We don't do anything that changes God's mind or speeds up his plan to move the day earlier than he has already ordained that day to take place.

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We don't do anything that moves the date up. We don't have the power to do that.

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Jesus said nobody knows the day or the hour, only the father knows. So that day is set.

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But there are some false teachers out there who claim that the church can do something to manipulate that day.

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And I'm not far away from one of those centers of false teaching, the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, founded by Mike Bickle, the church in shorthand also referred to as IHOP.

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I want to read for you an article that is published at Equip .org. This is entitled

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Forerunner Eschatology, Mike Bickle's End Time Teaching and the International House of Prayer.

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This was written by Andrew Jackson. I read a book of his a couple of years ago. We got his theology degree from Fuller Theological Seminary.

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The article is rather lengthy. Again, you can find the whole thing under that title at Equip .org. I'm going to start about a third of the way through the article here.

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Jackson writes, Mike Bickle teaches that Jesus' second coming can be delayed or sped up according to the degree of the church's spiritual maturity and readiness.

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He declares that most Christians are waiting passively for Jesus to return when in actuality

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Jesus is waiting for the church to prepare itself as the pure bride of Christ and to ready itself to launch the last day divine war to drive evil from the earth and cleanse it so that it can be filled with God's love and glory.

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Bickle does not simply preach that the church will go through the great tribulation sealed by God's sovereign power, but that the end time church will actually cause

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God's judgments to be released on the earth through prophetic prayer. In other words, the end time praying church will not simply be helpless martyrs during the great tribulation.

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It will victoriously establish justice on the earth by releasing the devastating great tribulation judgments on the antichrist global evil empire.

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At the end of December 2008, Bickle ratcheted up his end time enthusiasm by passionately announcing that IHOP's One Thing conference would mark a major defining moment within the

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IHOP prayer movement and would primarily center around his interpretation and implementation of the book of Revelation.

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Bickle declared that it was time for the prayer movement to realize that it will be the primary agent to transition human history to the age to come through, quote, prayers of faith that not only heal, but also kill, unquote, releasing the heavenly arsenals through intercession that will strike the antichrist political, military, and economic power bases across the earth.

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The end times will reveal a killing Jesus who is covered with blood as he marches through Jordan to free

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Jerusalem while engaging the antichrist army in physical combat. And again, Bickle is teaching that the church is releasing all of this, okay?

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Jackson goes on, based on Bickle's end time teaching, Jesus' second coming has preconditions.

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He teaches that Jesus will not return until the global church is crying out, come

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Lord Jesus with a full understanding of her identity as the bride of Christ. Jesus will only return when the church is functioning in the unity of the spirit and is anointed in prayer to release the destructive end time tribulation judgments.

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The church releases this, according to Bickle. He envisions that the end time forerunner church will be an advanced apostolic movement.

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They will experience greater things than the apostles themselves. They will function as the last day

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Moses, who through prayer releases God's plagues on the antichrist, the end time

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Pharaoh. Bickle emphasizes that during the end times, Moses' miracles and the miracles of the acts will be combined and multiplied on a global level as the praying church loses

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God's judgments on the earth. This is why Bickle calls the book of revelation, the end times book of acts, meaning that the book of revelation reveals the acts of the

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Holy spirit that will be demonstrated through the end time praying church. Bickle goes even further to add another eschatological interpretive twist to Matthew 16, 18 through 19, which says, this is where Jesus says,

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I will build my church and the gates of hell will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

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Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

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Bickle claims that Jesus' statement refers to the end time church's possession of the keys of the kingdom through prayer that will drive hell off the planet during the great tribulation.

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The church will exercise binding and loosing end time authority over God's judgments, assuring that the gates of hell, the antichrist evil empire, will not prevail.

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So that's the portion of the article to read there and that's not even halfway through the article. Again, you can find the whole thing at Equip .org.

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So there are false teachers out there who teach this kind of stuff, that the church has the power to unleash the return of Christ.

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And if we would all just pray and be unified together, then Jesus would come back.

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We're not waiting for Christ's return. He's waiting for us to get it all together. I mean, this is false teaching.

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Have nothing to do with the International House of Prayer or any other new apostolic reformation churches that are associated in partnership with what

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IHOP does. That would include Bethel Church, Jesus Culture, The Call, some of those other things that we've talked about in the past here on this broadcast.

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So Peter, when he says, hastening the day of the Lord's return, he is not talking about the church doing something to speed up that process or to move the date forward.

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But there are things that happen in conjunction with that day, with the day of the Lord. We are instructed to pray that the

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Lord's day would come. It's in the Lord's prayer. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

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Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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We are instructed to pray for that day to come. And this is all about perspective. The more that we do as we pray, as we live in obedience, as we share the gospel and there are others who come to Christ, from our perspective, it's as though the day of the

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Lord is drawing nearer and nearer to us as we live out in obedience to Christ Jesus.

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It's not that we're literally moving that day forward or God is going, okay, you guys are doing so well.

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I tell you what, I'm going to come a little earlier than I had previously planned. He is sovereign and he has already ordained that day.

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But from our perspective, as we live in obedience, it's as though that day is drawing near and it makes us long for that day all the more.

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As we live in obedience to Christ and we suffer as he suffered, we are persecuted and ridiculed for the faith that we have in the gospel that we proclaim.

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We long for the day of the Lord all the more. So once again, 2 Peter 3 .11,

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since all these things here on earth are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved?

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You know, this also goes with what Peter had mentioned in verse eight, do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the

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Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. And when this is talking about the day of the

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Lord, how God is slow to bring about his wrath, which is also going to happen on the day of the

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Lord, not only our deliverance, but also the wrath of God. We talked about that yesterday. All of this happening on the same day.

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God is slow to fulfill his promise. He's waiting for this plan to come to fulfillment before that day occurs.

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So one day is as a thousand years on that one day of Christ's return.

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The judgment that he pours out on those who are ungodly, that that's all in context with everything we've talked about here in chapter three.

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The judgment that he pours out on the ungodly on that one day will be on on like more than a millennia of godlessness that has been going on over the course of the existence of the earth and the judgment of God pouring out on all of that godlessness in one day.

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Because remember, in context, what we're talking about here is the is the coming of the Lord, the judgment that is going to come against the ungodly.

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We go all the way back to chapter two with this, where Peter is assuring his readers, if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment, if he did not spare the ancient world but preserve

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Noah, a herald of righteousness with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly, if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly.

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And if he rescued righteous lot greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked, for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard.

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Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteousness under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.

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So Peter mentioned that in the middle part of chapter two. And then here we get to chapter three, where Peter means to remind us what was written by the holy prophets and the apostles, knowing this, first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.

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They will say, where is the promise of his coming forever? Since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.

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For they deliberately overlooked this fact that the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God.

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And that by means of these, the world that then existed was deluge with water and perished.

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But by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

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And here is where Peter is describing that judgment by fire coming upon the earth, since all these things are thus to be dissolved.

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What sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of that day of God, the day that he brings his judgment upon the ungodly, which he has promised he will do and will deliver those whom he has shown mercy to, which he has promised he will do because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved in the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn.

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But according to his promise, once again, the promise of deliverance that he has given to us as well.

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We are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

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And what will this new heaven and new earth look like? Revelation chapter 21.

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Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more.

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And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

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This is the church. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.

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He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their

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God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more.

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Neither shall there be morning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away.

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And he who was seated on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new.

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Also, he said, write this down for these words are trustworthy and true. And he said to me, it is done.

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I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end to the thirsty.

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I will give from the spring of water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage and I will be his

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God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

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The promise of God's judgment and the promise of his deliverance for the godly, for those whom he has saved by the blood of Christ on the cross and his resurrection from the grave.

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And then these words from Peter, therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace and count the patience of our

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Lord as salvation. And that is where we will pick up tomorrow. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the

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Text. Pastor Gabe is the author of the book, 40 of the Most Popular Bible Verses and What They Really Mean.

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Available in paperback or for your Kindle, found at our website at www .utt .com.