Holy Conduct (Avoiding Worldliness Part 2)

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website, morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. 2 Peter 3, 1, the apostle writes, Beloved, I now write to you in this second epistle, in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder, that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and the commandment of us, the apostles of our Lord and Savior.

So what is this? He starts out, this is a reminder, right? This is a reminder. And that's basically, well, to a degree, what preaching is. Preaching is a reminder. I know some of you come in and you hear that, well, I already know all this.

I've already heard all this before. Well, I know you have. Some of you haven't, but I know many of you have. But you know what? You need a reminder. We all need a reminder. And I'm trying to stir up your pure minds because I know the more we're out there, the tendency is that your minds become a little less pure.

And the more you're away from church, the more you're out of the word of God, the less you're praying, your minds start to become corrupt. So the more that we get the reminder, the more we focus on what God's word has to say, the more we realize we need to stay involved.

The more you realize how much we need to keep focusing on the things of God. I don't know about you, and I'm not going to get too off topic here, but when I leave church on Sunday, come Monday, Tuesday, I can't wait to get back.

Which, thankfully, we have a Wednesday service, so that works out. But I love being in the house of God. You know why? One of the reasons why is because it's one of the few places left where things make sense.

So I hope you love being in the house of God. Is it a duty? Sure, it's a duty. It's a privilege, though. I view it as a privilege. So as a pastor, I want you to be mindful of the things of God, and we need to stir each other up.

The Coming Judgment by Fire and the Certainty of the Day of the Lord

Look at verse 3. Because here's what we're up against. Peter says, So what does that mean? It's talking about the flood, and people have forgotten what God already did. And you know this is true. There are people who, they don't think Jesus is ever coming back.

You know, God's never going to step in and do anything. This is all, you know, all this preaching. It's all talk. It's all fear-mongering. God's never going to do anything, and that this world is just going to continue on as is forever.

And if we all die, it's going to be a global warming or something like that. What does it say? There is going to be global warming. Because he's going to destroy this earth by fire. Verse 7. But the heavens and the earth, which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for what?

For fire. Until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. Oh, that's been thousands of years. It's never going to happen. Here's one of the evidences that the scriptures inspired. Because God, the Holy Spirit, through Peter, knew that people were going to be saying that in the 21st century.

Look at verse 8. Oh, it's been thousands of years? Well, don't forget this one thing. That with the Lord, one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness.

But is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Why hasn't the Lord returned? Why hasn't Jesus come back yet? It's because people are still being saved.

People are still being delivered from this present evil age. Once that is over, you know, once God's plan and purposes are fulfilled, then the end will come. Not a moment before. But the day of the Lord, Peter writes, will come as a thief in the night.

In which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burnt up. You see, everything around you, just look around, everything around you is going to be burnt up.

Everything. So what does this have to do with holiness? Okay, look at verse 11. Therefore, based on this, that none of this is going to endure, based on that, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness?

Holy Conduct in Light of a Passing World

I think the modern church is filled with people. They want to be saved. They want to go to heaven. But they want to see, well, how much can I still get away with while I'm on my way? We need to eradicate that mindset.

So hopefully you can start seeing some of the connections that God saved a people so that he might deliver them from this present evil age. So that they and we would be a holy people set apart unto the purposes of God.

To proclaim the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light, as Peter goes on to say. And that question, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness?

You know, if I started giving specifics, I already gave two, you know, but if I started giving specifics, that's when people start to disagree and kind of grumble a little bit. Can we just agree that there are some things that are going on now that are not going to be going on in heaven?

Are there some things that we do and the way we behave and whatnot that that's not going to be the way it is in heaven? So why not try to weed some of that out now? If we know the Lord is not pleased with it, why not try to get that out of our lives right now?

And there's an added benefit to that. That way you don't be, you're not chastened by God later down the road. What does the Bible say? Hebrews 12 verse 6. This was mentioned in Sunday school. This principle of, you know, if you love your child, you discipline your child.

You do it for a reason. For whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives. Well, I could never do that to my little Johnny. You don't love little Johnny because he's on the road to hell and you need to discipline him.

And if you don't do it, every Christian can relate to this to some degree. You know, there's been things in my life and in your life that we didn't deal with. And you knew the Holy Spirit was convicting you.

You need to deal with this. You need to get this right. And we didn't do it. Put it off and I'll do it tomorrow. And then at some point the Lord steps in and you're not listening. And then he chastens you and it's not very pleasant.

But that's what it took to get that thing out of your life. And there are many people here. You've been through that chastening and you're saying, I'm glad that's over. Some of you, the chastening might be right around the corner.

And I preach this because I want to try to spare you from that. You know, there's this idea people have, this doctrine called purgatory. We've all heard of purgatory. This is the idea that some people have that there's this place that you go to after you die called purgatory.

It's not hell, but it's a very unpleasant place to be. And that's kind of where God purges you through fire, as it were. Maybe it's literal or maybe not. But God's purging you and kind of burning off all those imperfections.

And you're purified through this suffering of purgatory. Well, you know what? The good news is purgatory is a false doctrine. There's nothing in Scripture that teaches purgatory. But here's the bad news.

God does do that kind of thing, but he does it in this life. He does it in this life. And, you know, I've been thinking about this and many of us have. I think this, because this partially is a time of it's a testing of God's people.

He tests you and puts you through the fire to refine you and to purify you. This is a time of testing, I think, for the modern evangelical church. Certainly here in the West, throughout the world, really.

This is a time of testing that we're living through right now. You didn't see it coming. You know, a year and a half ago, we didn't see this coming. But this is a time of testing. Go back to Galatians 1.

We'll start to wrap up. But just thinking about this, our church, in many ways, has been tested. The past couple years, churches have been tested. I think by the grace of God, we've done pretty well. Praise the Lord.

2020 was an interesting year. It was. 2021, then more of the same. I suspect 2022 is going to be even more interesting. And if that's true, the question is, how are we going to respond to it all? Here's the point, going back to what we looked at in Galatians.

They were going through a time of testing as well, because there are all these false teachers teaching that, you know, you need to add to the gospel. You need to do works to be saved. It was a time of testing.

They probably didn't even realize it. They were going through this testing. They didn't even know. At least we know that we're kind of going through a time of testing. But people read the Bible today.

And I think any Christian who reads the Bible would say that if I were in the church of Galatia, I would have stood firm. I would have stood with the Apostle Paul. I would not have listened to the false teachers.

Well, if that's true, how come so many in the evangelical church today are listening to false teachers? How come so many groups today seem to want to add to the gospel, whether it's faith plus works, faith plus baptism, the sacraments, faith plus social justice or whatever it is?

That, yeah, you need to believe in Jesus, but you need to be this, and you need to do this, and you need to do this. Wait a minute. I thought you're saved by Christ. You're telling me I need to do all these things too.

Which is it? So how are we going to get through this time of testing? Christ alone. Christ alone. Yeah, but listen to what the government said. Christ alone. Yeah, but this teacher said Christ alone. Well, but you need to be involved in this work in order to be saved.

Christ alone. And just to clarify, we're talking about holiness and being set apart and the things we do. That's a result of being saved. You're not doing that to try to be saved. What does Christ come to deliver us from this present evil age?

Galatians 1, 3 and 5 are almost done. So what is the will of God for our lives? What is it? Paul answers this question to the Thessalonians. The will of God for your life is what? Sanctification is the will of God for your life.

We are not to be conformed to this world. Rather, we are to be transformed through the renewing of our minds. God works salvation in, then we work it out. God changes us from the inside and then hopefully that starts showing up on the outside.

He came to save us from sin and its penalty and from the ways of this world that we would live differently. So in conclusion, you've noticed I'm not going to say have you noticed because I know you have.

This world is an ugly place. It's a beautiful place. God's creation is beautiful. People make it ugly. People make it ugly. People hate each other. They lie to each other. They use each other, manipulate each other, abuse and cheat and steal and all the rest.

And if we're not careful, we can get entangled in all of this very easily. But Christ came so that he would deliver us from this present evil age. That is the will of God for your life, your sanctification.

Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Moores Corner Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, moorescornerchurch .com.

And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.