The End Times: Who, Not When - [2 Peter 3:8-13]

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The End Times: Who, Not When - [2 Peter 3:8-13]

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the
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Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.
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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.
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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her
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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Over the years, many people have tried to figure out the exact time, the exact date when
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Jesus will return. Back in the year 500
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A .D., some people studied the dimensions of Noah's Ark and figured out that, in fact, it would be that year that the
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Lord Jesus would return. People throughout the years have said, well, maybe it's 1829.
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George Rapp, founder of the Harmony Society, said Jesus would return that year.
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William Miller of the Millerites in 1844 said that Jesus would come back that year, of course, that was referred to later as the
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Great Disappointment. And we would see some Seventh -day Adventists spiral out from the
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Millerites. In 1874, Charles Taze Russell, who was the president of what we now call
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Jehovah's Witnesses, said that in 1874, Jesus was going to come back, and then when he didn't physically come back, he said, well, it was just going to be a spiritual return.
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Herbert W. Armstrong, edition of the Plain Truth magazine, said
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Jesus would return in 1934. To me, the funny ones are more by their name, 88
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Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988. Actually, then the next year,
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Edgar Wiesenart wrote the book, 89 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1989. Harold Camping, of course, published the book 1994, question mark, and then later he said
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Jesus would return in 2011. This morning, it's going to be very simple.
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The question is not when is Jesus going to come back, but who is returning.
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So with all the crazy end times discussions, the point is not when exactly, but who are we talking about?
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So if you take your Bibles and turn to 2 Peter 3, we're going to look at how do we live in end times chaos, and is it to figure out and unlock exactly when
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Jesus will return, or is it to think in a God -centered way, a triune
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God -centered way, to think rightly as we walk by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us.
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That is to say, not when, but who. That's the entire sermon, when, not who.
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And the great part about studying the person and work of God, it never gets boring.
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You're always amazed when you study the triune God. Spurgeon said, the proper study of the
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Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy which can engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the doings, and the existence of the great
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God which he calls Father. Spurgeon said, there's something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the divinity.
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It is a subject so vast that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity, so deep that our pride is drowned in its infinity.
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Other subjects we can comprehend and grapple with. In them we feel kind of a self -content and go on our way with a thought,
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Behold, I'm wise. But when we come to this master science, finding that our plumb line cannot sound its depth, and that our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away with a thought,
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I am but of yesterday and know nothing. No subject of contemplation will tend more toward the humbling of the mind than the thoughts of God.
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So this morning, dear congregation, we're going to look at who is returning and thinking about things from a
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God -centered perspective and not necessarily when exactly is he going to come. We will talk, as we did last week, about pure thinking, sincere thinking, unadulterated thinking.
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Scoffers and mockers and false teachers try to influence our minds and so we want to make sure we think rightly.
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So that at the end of this sermon you might say with Jeremiah, Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might.
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Let not a rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows me,
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God says, and that I am the Lord who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth, for I delight in these things.
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And that's what we want to do even in these last days. Well, if you're new to the church, we're working through an epistle called 2
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Peter and it's found in your New Testament toward the end, the second letter of Peter.
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So Peter, by the inspiration of the Spirit of God, is writing letters, not just for his immediate recipients, but also for us, because the
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Bible is transchronological, it's transcendent. God is relevant, we are relevant, sin is relevant, hell is relevant, and so, too, we have the ongoing relevancy of God's Word.
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And we're in chapter 3, verses 8 through 13 today.
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That's the plan. Sometimes we don't go according to plan. I have also been told that sometimes this is the church of the two -part sermon.
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Nothing wrong with that, right? Peter writes two letters, we can do two parts. No problem.
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And so we just go verse by verse, because I want you to see this message for yourself.
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I'm not some holy man, I'm not a mediator, I'm not a bishop, I'm not somebody who stands between you and God, I'm just the mouthpiece today.
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I want you to deal with the text, so you come to know this book, 2 Peter, and as it were, you own it, and you understand it, and you think, in this book of 2
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Peter, there's all kinds of great things happening. At the very beginning, he makes sure everyone knows that they're equipped, and that they are a child of God, if they're trusting in the
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Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And God gives you power, He gives you promises. He doesn't just say, well, you're a
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Christian now, you're on your own. No, He gives you the power to say no to sin and yes to righteousness, and He begins working in your life, not just for salvation, but He sanctifies you.
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And Peter says, you know, these are important words. Jesus is going to come back, and I'm on my deathbed, and you need to know that false teachers are going to come, and it says in chapter 2, verse 1, does it not, they bring in secret and destructive heresies, denying the
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Master who bought them. There are going to be people coming along and say the exact opposite of Jesus.
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Christ said something, these people say the opposite, anti -Christ. Don't you believe it?
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Peter says, I know a little something about denying Jesus. Don't believe these deniers.
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Peter had a temporary denial, these people are fixed in their denial. And he says at the end of chapter 1, you can either take the scoffer's words for it, or if you pay attention to Scripture, you'll be safe.
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Verse 20 of chapter 1, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.
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For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried away, that's a nautical term, along by the
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Holy Spirit. And so it's really a battle of the words. You can either pay attention to Peter's words, or the scoffer's words, but you will pay attention to someone's words.
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You say, well, I don't understand all the details in theology. That's fine, I mean, who does?
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One of my greatest moments is when I think to myself, God is infinite, and I'm finite. God is holy, and I'm sinful.
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And the gap between the triune God and me can either produce praise, that's the right way, or despair.
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So for us as Christians, while we might not know every single detail, and even in chapter 3, Peter says, you know what, some of Paul's writings are hard to understand.
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Nobody said amen to that? That is true. But what we do have, we can understand, and the
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Spirit of God lightens our minds, illumines our minds, so we can understand. Here's what we're going to do this morning.
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I'm going to read verses 1 through 7 of chapter 3, and then we're going to look at a
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God -centered perspective in verses 8 through 13. So let me read the first seven verses to give us context, then we'll get into the outline.
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This is now the second letter that I'm writing to you, beloved. You can hear Peter, the under -shepherd.
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He's been shepherded by Jesus, and he now wants to do the same to the people that the Lord Jesus has purchased.
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In both of them, 1 Peter and 2 Peter, I'm stirring up. Think about coals and a fire that need to be stoked sometimes.
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And here, instead of a stick or a poker, it's the Word of God, your sincere mind, your unadulterated mind, by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the
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Lord and Savior through your apostles, both Old Testament and New. Knowing this, first of all, that scoffers will come in the last day with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.
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They will say, where's the promise of His coming? For ever 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
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Word of God, and that by means of these, the world that then existed was deliberately deluged with water and perished.
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But by the same Word, the heavens and the 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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I try to give outlines in epistles because it's easier for you to follow and it gives our mind some pegs to set things on.
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Let me give you today the end times, who, not when, and we're going to look at four particular aspects of who
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God is. God's perspective, number one, God's patience, number two, God's promise, number three, and God's people, number four.
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I don't always alliterate, but today it worked out just fine, and all the Baptists in the back row said
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Amen. God's perspective, God's patience, God's promise, God's people. Notice I didn't say when, the exact details, 2022 reasons why
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Jesus is going to come back next year. Maybe I could make a lot of money for that. But you know what, then
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I'd give most of it to the church, and so that would maybe be the reason for it. No, no, everything needs to be from the perspective of who
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God is, not the specific details of dates. We are involved in this world, we're not monks, and we want to make sure we live the right way.
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So how do you live in a day and age where it seems like a long time ago
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Jesus promised to come back, He hasn't come back. Are the scoffers right? Number one,
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God's perspective. Will Jesus ever come back? Make sure, dear congregation, you have
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God's perspective, not your own. Verse 8, God's perspective, not your own.
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Verse 8 of 2 Peter 3, Do not overlook this one fact. Don't forget it. It's a command, by the way, an ongoing command.
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Keep this in your mind all the time. Don't 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.
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I mean, the scoffers, right now, make it happen right now. Where is Jesus? First thing we have to remember when it comes to the
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Lord's return is God is not on our time schedule. That make sense?
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First thing, we don't have to say, well, you know what, scoffers, they're saying Jesus isn't going to come back.
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What does Peter do? Did you know he's referring to Psalm 90 here? Here's what
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Psalm 90 says, Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.
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Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting
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You are God. You return man to dust and say, Return, O children of man, for a thousand years in Your sight, or but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.
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How does God see the world? Is He late? Is He on time?
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Are things too crazy for Him to control? Chaos we see, unbridled we see, frenetic, frantic we see, uncontrollable, but from God's perspective, everything's right on target.
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Remember the old days, maybe you remember Thomas Watson, he said if you look at a rug, a homemade rug, and you flip it over, you see yarn every way, which way, and zigs and zags, and knots and ties, and just kind of like this,
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I was going to say panoply or cornucopia of yarns going every way, and then you flip it over and it looks perfect, right?
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That thing perfectly, it's a legitimate rug.
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We're looking at things from our perspective, and the first thing Peter does is says, you know what, make sure you see things as God does, and God doesn't measure time in the same way.
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We're thinking about, you know what, what does God think of time? What is it to God when it comes to time?
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A thousand years, it doesn't say is a day, and it doesn't say a day is a thousand years, but it's like, it's as.
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The propaganda from the scoffers ought to be rejected. This is quack theology from these fake doctors.
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What if God promised something a day ago? Would he fulfill it? What if he promised it a thousand years ago? Would he fulfill it?
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What if he promised it two billion years ago? Would he fulfill it? Looking at the perspective from God helps us.
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Now I know sometimes I with you, dear congregation, struggle with your sins, and I struggle with them too, but in this particular one,
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I think you've got the problem and not me. I'm rarely impatient. I mean, it's our flesh, is it not?
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We are by nature. You know, we can't, you know, if somebody is in front of me at Hannaford grocery store and they have 11 items in the 10 item thing, we need a good talking to.
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Don't let the scoffers' impatient, bad theology influence us when we're already thinking, you know what?
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Oh man, come on. It's just like, will you ever come back, Lord? Driving kids across country, or even to the
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Agawam Park, what's it called? Six Flags? Are we there yet?
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Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? If you say are we there yet one more time, we'll be there all right.
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Peter quotes the psalmist who compares the eternity of God and a short human life, and now
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Peter says the eternity of God with our expectations where we want everything right now.
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So just relax. God's doing things for reasons, and they're way past our pay grade.
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We ought not to, as one writer said, trespass into the mind of God. Oh God, why haven't you come back yet?
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That's not how we talk. God is not limited by my day timer.
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He's wise, I'm not. He's just, I'm not. Now in one sense,
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God is above time, right? He is a timeless creature. He is eternal. But remember, God works in time.
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Some think incarnation. He does act in time. But when
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He acts, He does it powerfully. I know you can do all things, Job said, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
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It's not will He ever come back. It's who's made these promises, and that's why we move to number two.
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How do we deal with end times chaos? Who should we believe? Let's make sure we have as a congregation
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God's perspective, verse 8. And now, let's remember God's patience, verse 9.
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God's patience, verse 9. Why hasn't
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Jesus returned? Maybe He's busy. Maybe He's senile. Maybe He doesn't have enough power.
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Maybe He's not sovereign enough. Maybe we're just not faithful enough to get Him to come back.
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The answer, for all those who may it never be, the reason why Jesus hasn't returned yet is
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God is patient. Now before we look at this verse, because there are some issues in our understanding of the verse, let's just put it this way.
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I was saved 31 years ago. What if 32 years ago Jesus came back?
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What would be my lot? My eternal lot. Paying for my own sins. When did you get saved?
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What if a year before you got saved, that was when Jesus comes back with all His furious vengeance.
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Not the first time like He came as a humble meek child, the Savior, but He comes back the second time as a judge.
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What if Jesus came back as judge before you became saved? Aren't you glad He waited?
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I mean, I'm very glad that the Lord waited. He could have come back at any time and yet He did not return in 1988.
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Thank you, Camping or whoever wrote that book, 88, because I would have been dust. I got saved in 1989.
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Why? What's the answer for this? The answer is God's patient. Now let's just think theologically for a second.
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And this is fun to do, although it stretches your mind. There's a pre -Genesis 1 .1
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meeting, as it were, with the Father and the Son and the Spirit was there as well. And the
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Father gives the Son a bride to go rescue. In time, that bride is going to be sullied and dirty and sleazy, sinful.
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But the Father gives the bride to the Son and eternity passed, and He says, by the power of the Spirit of God, I want you to go live for the bride, die for the bride, redeem the bride, wash the bride, cleanse the bride, nourish the bride, and then make sure the bride gets all the way to glory.
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So in eternity past, there's a group called the bride, called the elect. Not everyone.
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He could have picked everyone, but He didn't. He could have picked no one, but He didn't. He picked some. He picked what we call the elect, the bride of Christ.
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Did you know that every single person that the Father sent the Son to go redeem is going to believe?
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Then the Lord returns. So let's look at this text a little bit as I explain what's going on here with the patience of God, that He is not going to come back until every person that the
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Father gave Him believes. And you say, that blows my mind. I hope it does in a good way.
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Can you imagine if you're a Christian and eternity passed, pre -Genesis 1, pre -sun, moon, stars, that the
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Father gave you as a love gift to the Son, that the Son might go live for, die for, redeem, cleanse, and then on that great day of glory hands you back as the gift back to the
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Father. So what's going to happen in the middle of all this is if we think to ourselves, that happens in time, that eternal promise is going to flesh itself out in time, and we are going to wait to see what
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God does. Why is God patient? Because there are still people that God has chosen who need to believe.
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Now one of the things about the patience of God that I think we don't often talk about patience, it's odd to me, because we talk about His wisdom or power,
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He's holy, He's sovereign. But one writer said, but the glory of His patience itself shines forth on almost every page of Scripture.
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Certainly it is that we lose much if we do not frequently meditate on the patience of God.
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The Lord is full of compassion. He's patient. And so back to the verse again.
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The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise, as some count slowness. Who's count slowness?
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Back in verse 4, where's the promise of His coming? Slow, slow, slow. He's not ever coming back.
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He's so slow you can just kiss it goodbye, as some count slowness.
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But He's patient toward you. You want to know who the you is? You can go back to chapter 2, chapter 1, verse 1, and find out who that is.
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It's the people of God. He's patient toward you. And He's not wishing that any of you to perish, but that should all reach repentance.
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Boy, there's so much in here, and I don't want to get down to the details that we lose the big picture. But I will say this, this does not teach universalism.
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God wants everybody to be saved, and He gets what He wants, everybody will be saved, because there is a hell.
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This passage does not teach that God wants people to be saved, but the people are so strong,
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God doesn't get what He wants. Does God always get what He wants? Obviously, He gets what
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He wants. God cannot be thwarted by anyone. The scoffers are saying,
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God isn't true. He's not coming back. And Peter says, His delay is gracious. His delay is merciful.
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His delay is for you. I could put it this way. If you've got a loved one that you really, really love, and you're married to, or you've got a child, a wayward son, and you say, well my life is really, really difficult now,
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I sure wish the Lord Jesus would come back. Don't we kind of want that? Wouldn't it have been good to have Jesus come back last year in the midst of all these troubles?
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Michael, don't you think so? Yes, of course. It would have been good for Him to come back.
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He's trying not to smile. But what would have happened to your loved one if Jesus came back last year?
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This is the mercy of God. This is the patience of God. We're on God's timetable now, and we're saying, okay, they say
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He's not going to come back because He's impotent, and we're saying He's not coming back yet because there's more people that the
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Father has given to the Son, and that the Son has died for, that the Spirit is making alive, and causing to be born again, and believing.
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It's not God's inability. Remember this, this would be more me.
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Luke 9, when the days drew near for Him to be taken up, He set His face to go to Jerusalem. And Jesus sent messengers ahead of Him who went and entered a village of the
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Samaritans to make preparations for Him. But the people did not receive Him because His face was set toward Jerusalem.
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And when His disciples, James and John, saw it, they said, Lord, do You want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?
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Hey, these people aren't going to believe. Burn them. But Jesus turned and rebuked them, and then went on to another village.
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Why? Because there are people who are not believers yet, and they need to be believers, and there's only one way you become a believer, and that's
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God makes you alive. He causes you to be born again. That's Ephesians 2 language, 1
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Peter 1 language, and your response is, I believe. If you want a theological concept, here it is.
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There are unbelievers who need to believe, and God's waiting till they all believe. Now, He's not passively waiting.
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He's working everything together, but He's waiting until they do believe. Or, if you're a theologian,
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He's waiting for all the unregenerate elect to believe by actually giving them faith.
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He's not slow. He's not late. He's not tardy. He's not somehow unpunctual.
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It's not that He doesn't care. God is on time, and we, sometimes, are like the sons of thunder.
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Rain down fire and brimstone on this nation, God, because it's going to hell quickly.
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But the Lord's patient. He's been patient to you. This is right from Habakkuk 2.
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If it seems slow, wait for it. It will surely come. It will not delay.
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The Lord's going to come back. He's going to come back. He hasn't forgotten
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His promise, but He's patient. The delay is gracious. Now, if you'd like to study this, because people love to argue about this verse, and what does it teach, and what does it not teach, if you want to look at verse 9, the
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Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you. The you is found in chapter 1, verse 1.
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Those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours. Not wishing that any of you, that's the point, should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
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R .C. Sproul, what is the antecedent of any? It is clearly us. Does us refer to all humans, or does it refer to Christians?
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R .C. Sproul, God does not will that any of us, the elect, perish. What's the point to everything?
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You say, Pastor, you're getting down into the details here. I need to know the issue. Jesus isn't going to return until every person the
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Father has given Him will believe. And so we want to be patient, because God is patient.
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Peter Lewis said, the delay of Christ's second coming to salvation is not, after all, the failure of God's plan, but rather the condition of success.
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That's right. We're saying, where are you, where are you, where are you? We're like, failure, scoffers say.
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Where are you, where are you, where are you? I'm saving people, I'm saving people, I'm saving people, and when the fullness comes, we're gone.
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Does this sound familiar to you? Our Lord Jesus said in John 6, I'm the bread of life, whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
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But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me
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I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me, and this is the will of Him who sent me, listen congregation, that I, Jesus, should lose nothing of all that He has given me, but raise it up on the last day.
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This is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise
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Him up on the last day. Do you see what He's saying there? It's so wonderful. Jesus said, everybody that the
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Father gave me, they're going to come to faith. I'm not going to lose one.
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Can you imagine? He wouldn't be a good shepherd if He lost some. And I think it would be fair now if I looked at you at the congregation.
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Most are believing here. Most are trusting in the risen Savior. But one of the reasons if you're not a
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Christian that you should repent and believe right now is this is exactly how
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God has set it up. That you have time. God's been patient with you. God should have sent you to hell the first time you sinned, unbeliever.
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How many times have you sinned, unbeliever, over and over and over and over and over? The fool has said in his heart, there's no
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God. And by the way, that's been all of us when we were unbelievers. We did the exact same thing, and yet God, we can testify.
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Can we not as a Christian congregation God has been patient with us. He's been kind to us.
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We weren't running to God. We were running away from God. But God intercepted us, and God made us alive.
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I remember thinking to myself, I never asked for this. I wanted to maybe feel good, maybe to alleviate my problems.
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But God captures His people. No purpose of God can be thwarted.
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The point of this verse is not universalism. The point is not God somehow is thwarted by people's wills.
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The point is, God is compassionate and patient. Remember in Jonah, why did
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Jonah get so mad? Verse 3 of chapter 4, I knew that you were a gracious and compassionate
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God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.
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I knew it, God. I knew that you're going to use my preaching to save people.
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Happy evangelism, by the way. We'd always say to our kids, you know what, if they didn't look happy, we'd always say, send a missionary to your face.
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Well, Jonah was the missionary. I can't believe this.
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Dear unbeliever, God has been so patient with you. Do you not realize,
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Romans 2, God's patience and kindness towards you should lead you to repentance, to think rightly about your sin?
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That's what repentance is. Repentance is how do we think about sin? Belief is in the object of the risen
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Savior. You don't have a syndrome, unbeliever. You don't have a disease. You don't have an illness. You don't have an affliction.
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You're a sinner. That's what you are. You're a sinner. I preached the wedding in California a while ago for my daughter, and many of you were there and helping and been involved with the life of my daughter.
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I really appreciate that. And I preached the gospel at the wedding.
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And first, before the gospel, comes the bad news, the law of God that requires perfection, and then we talk about Jesus who lived a perfect life and died for our sins, those things that weren't perfect.
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And so I talked a little bit about sin, and a guy came up to me afterwards, and that's always kind of a scary thing, like if you come up to me after the sermon and you want to talk, that could either be something good or something maybe not.
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We've had both, but that's why I have bodyguards like Bob Muto here. He said, thanks for talking about sin at a wedding.
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He said, you know, I was 21 years old before somebody told me I was a sinner going to go to hell unless I believed.
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And while people don't really want to hear it, and you never want to hear I have cancer, then you can do something about it afterwards.
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And so thanks for telling me that I'm a sinner. If you're an unbeliever, you're a sinner, and you need to be saved.
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And the only thing that's keeping you out of hell right now is the patience of God. I'm glad God waited for me.
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I'm glad God is waiting for other people. Will Jesus ever come back?
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The question isn't when, it's who. And God has got a perspective on this.
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God's patient, and now verse 10, God's promises. You see the promise of God in chapter 1, and now here in verse 9, and verse 10, and verse 13,
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God made a promise. The day of the Lord is promised. While He's patient, there is going to be an end to His patience.
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Verse 10, but the day of the Lord will come like a thief. He's patient, He's patient, He's patient, but when that fullness of time comes, and every person that God the
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Father has given to the Son has believed by the power of the Spirit of God, then He's going to come like a thief.
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When you're not ready, and the heavens will pass away with a roar, the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed, including every single unbeliever.
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Believers are rescued. We don't have to worry about the second coming, because even in chapter 2, we've learned that God knows how to rescue the godly.
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But the day of the Lord will come. It's a promise. He'll come like a thief in the night.
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It will be unexpected, it will be sudden, but this day of the Lord that was promised back in the Old Testament is going to happen.
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It's the day of days. Remember Luther said, I have two days on my calendar, today and that day, and that day is judgment day when
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Jesus comes back. And when Jesus comes back, three things Peter says happens. One, the heavens will pass away with a roar.
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Even that language, if you ever have a super hot fire with tons of wood, and your loved one says, don't put so much wood on there, we want a small fire, but you being the man that you want to be, put on all that extra fire, and all that gas, and every other kind of spontaneous combustible thing that you can find, and you just feel it all, you're 15 feet away, and you can feel it, but you can also what?
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Hear it. Roar. That's the roar. The fire is so intense, there's this whizzing sound, this rushing sound, this hissing sound.
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It's a great noise, because it's a great day, an awful day. Jesus said, immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken, and the son of man will be coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.
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Well, that's not all that happens when Jesus returns. It says here, the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved in the
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ESV. Literally, the elements will be dissolved. The stoichia will be dissolved.
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Now, when I was in chemistry, I failed out really quickly, probably because I didn't know what the word stoichiometry even was.
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How many people here know what stoichiometry is as a chemist? Some do, you nerds.
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Stoichi means element. Stoichiometry, metron, means to measure. You measure elements.
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It's this thing we had to do in chemistry. The elements of the world, fire, air, water, the earth, all the elementary principles, things that are made of, which of course would lend itself to the
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ESV saying, the heavenly bodies are going to be burned up and dissolved, are melted.
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So when Jesus comes back, it's going to be the end of everything. That's why people say, well, you know,
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Jesus came back in 70 AD when the temple was smashed, and he came back then.
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No, no. Everybody's going to know when he comes back. Calvin said, what afterwards follows
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Christ's return, respecting the burning of heaven and earth, requires no long explanation, because it's gone.
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It's over. Purged. And then thirdly, it says the earth and all that is in it, or the deeds that are in it, will be what?
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Exposed. Now there's different manuscript evidence here. It could be burned, but exposed is probably the right one.
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What do you mean exposed? Scoffers who say Jesus isn't going to come back, guess what their life will be?
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Exposed. Every false promise about the personal work of Christ Jesus, Everything that unbelievers do that they hope nobody finds out about at nighttime, exposed.
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Everything that they've said and done, sinful, has been exposed. When Jesus comes back, there's going to be a reckoning.
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Expose what's going on. I think there's probably something in all of us where we think, you know, just justice, if it would be done in this earth, well, it's going to have to start with exposure.
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Of course, we as Christians, He's not coming back for us. He's already saved us, and we're
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His children. But for the unbeliever, total exposure. Judgment of God.
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God will find them out. And then finally, verses 11 through 13,
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God's people. God's perspective. Let's think like God does. From His perspective, everything's on time.
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The delay is not impotency, it is patience, verse 9. God's going to keep His promise, doesn't matter how long ago
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He promised. And now, how do we respond? How do God's people respond?
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What should we do that this is going to happen? Should we go to Israel and sit on a roof and wait?
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Verse 11, since all these things are thus to be dissolved, are loosened, since it's all going to end, what are we going to do?
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And then He says, it's just so fascinating, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of godliness and holiness?
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Waiting for and hastening the day or the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolve and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn.
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But according to His promise, here's some good news for the Christian, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
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Why do we study eschatology, the study of end times? So we know when Jesus is going to come back, so we're reading current events, so we're saying, you know what, this is the mark of the beast and what's happening with all these things?
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That's not why we study. We study because there's an ethical response, that is a response that says,
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Jesus is going to come back, I should live in a godly way, out of gratitude, showing evidence of my salvation.
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First John 2, and now little children abide in Him, so that when He appears, the second coming, we may have confidence and not shrink away in shame at His coming.
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Warren Wiersbe said, it's unfortunate when people run from one prophetic conference to another, filling their notebooks, marking their
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Bibles, drawing their charts and yet not living their lives to the glory of God. I don't want to see charts, in other words, of when
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Jesus is going to come back, we want to live holy lives. You see it again, verse 11, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness?
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First of all, if Jesus is holy and Jesus is godly, and He saves you and pays for all your unholiness and ungodliness, which
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He did for me as well, then what do we do? We're not like those false teachers who run back like a dog to its vomit, like a sow that goes back to its own mire, we don't do that.
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If Jesus is holy, we ought to be holy. First Peter, it even says that. Since God is holy, we're to be holy.
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What sort of people ought you to be? It doesn't take a theologian to figure that out. We should live a holy life, that is separate, set apart, pure, and godly, not ungodly.
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Jesus is coming back. So what? So what?
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So we should live a godly life. What sort of people ought
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Bethlehem Bible Church to be? This is a necessity, this is a moral obligation in light of our salvation.
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What manner of person should you be? And then what He does here, you can't tell in English, but in Greek, in holinesses, plural, lots of holiness, and godlinesses, lots of godliness, in every area, work, school, home, etc.
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First Peter, the first letter that Peter wrote, says, but like the holy one who called you, be holy yourselves in all your behavior, because it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy.
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One writer said, given the massive investment of contemporary Christians in nationalism, materialism, and pleasure -oriented western culture, this passage should serve as a wake -up call.
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When the day of the Lord comes, one's retirement fund will not be important, but rather what one has invested in the kingdom of our sovereign
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Lord. What else should we do? Verse 12, how do God's people act?
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Well, they want to live a holy life, Spirit of God is dwelling in us, we're able to do it, Christ for pardon and for power, but also waiting for and hastening.
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So let's look at the first one, looking for, or waiting, expecting. I put a little envelope, at the window by my bed, and I did what
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I said last week, that I encourage you to do, by Horatius Bonar, perhaps today Lord, could the
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Lord come back today, perhaps tonight Lord, we're to wait for it, we're to look for it, looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of our great
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God and Savior, Jesus Christ, the God -man's coming back, we're going to look for that. Peter wrote in his first letter, gird your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you, at the revelation of Jesus Christ, He's coming back.
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I get the waiting part, but how about the hastening part? This is weird, or is it?
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Hastening. How can you speed up the second coming? How can you accelerate the second coming?
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How can you hasten the second coming? Let's close here, we'll pick that up next week. Remember when
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God talks to us, He uses language of accommodation, even this whole
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Bible, as hard as it might be, the Reformers would say, it's like God's talking baby talk to us, because the finite mind cannot understand the infinite, but we can understand many things.
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The day is set that the Lord Jesus will return, it's fixed. But from our perspective, as we evangelize, and pray for people to come to faith, and one more believes, and one more repents, and one more comes to faith in Christ Jesus, it's like a hastening, it's like an acceleration.
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That day is fixed, we believe that. God has a decree when His Son will come back, and only
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He knows it. But from our perspective, we're living holy lives, and the way we hasten, the way we're zealous for, the way we accelerate, as it were, is by evangelism.
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So this is from the human perspective, and only the human perspective. The coming of the day of the
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Lord. And then it says, because of which the heavens will be set on fire. That's pretty good motivation for evangelism.
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I've always said, the best motivation for evangelism is, remember you were going to go to hell, and God saved you?
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You're like, oh, then I could be forgiven by sovereign grace. And then secondly, to know every person that I know that doesn't trust, they're going.
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That's a good motivation. And while it's not talking about hell, hell will be after this, but the judgment on earth is with fire, and dissolving, and melting, and a loosening, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn.
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Not out of existence, not out of annihilationism, but a cleansing, a purging. You see that word, dissolved?
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If you've got the ESV, dissolved, dissolved, dissolved, dissolved. That word means to loose.
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And I want you to turn our final passage, to Colossians chapter 1, and we'll end on this, high note on the
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Lord Jesus, and we need to stop after that. Although there's no second service, who needs to stop?
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I get to preach 90 minutes every Sunday, so here we go, part 2. Hey, let's just finish the book.
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Dissolved, dissolved, dissolved. It's a word that means to loosen. It means to just like, okay, we're just going to kind of let this thing go.
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I'm going to read something from Colossians chapter 1, and here's what the end time is going to be like when
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Jesus comes back. Right now, Jesus has the whole world in His hands. Do you know
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He's got the whole world in His hand? Do you know He's got you and me, brother, in His hand?
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Do you know He's got the little tiny babies in His hand? Do you know He has all the elements of the world in His hand?
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Do you know He has all the stoichia in His hand? Do you know He has the heavens in His hands? Do you know He has the earth in His hands? Do you know
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He has everything in His hands, and He's holding it together? But on that day,
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He loosens it. And that's exactly what Colossians is going to teach us. Colossians 1 .15
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Speaking of the preeminence of Jesus, the one who saved us and gave His life for us.
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He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.
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All things, including this earth, were created through Him and for Him.
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Jesus, the architect. Jesus, the builder. Jesus, the goal of the universe. In Jesus, all the eternal plans of the universe.
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In Jesus, He builds it as it were. In Jesus and for Jesus.
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It's for His glory. Verse 17 And He is before all things.
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He's first. He and no other. He is at the first place of everything. Everything else is excluded.
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Total claim of sovereignty. Total claim of dominion, authority, majesty.
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He's before all things. He's preexistent. He was there with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Before all things.
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Jesus is not a created being. He existed before anything was created. In the beginning was the Word, and the
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Word was with God, and the Word was God. He's from everlasting. The eternally begotten
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Son of the Father. Begotten, not made. And in Him, here's what
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I want you to think of when it comes to the day of the Lord, loosening and dissolving. And in Jesus, all things hold together.
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How is this world held together? What is the cohesive force behind the world, not just going chaotically, spun out of control and exploding?
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He, Jesus, is that one. He creates. He preserves. And when preservation is no longer needed upon His return,
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He dissolves. He loosens. He brings together.
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He collects. He holds together. He is the cause. He is the powerful one. And He holds them together by His powerful right hand until that day, and then it's over.
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He lets go. And then He doesn't have the whole world in His hands.
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The whole world's out of His hand, and He's going to judge it. But for us as Christians, according to His promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
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I'm thankful for that. That's right from a promise of God. In Isaiah 65, I will create new heavens and a new earth.
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The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. Well, we're back together as two congregations, it seemed like, back into one service.
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And so I'd like to make an announcement today that some of you may agree with and some of you might. Let me tell you the exact day when
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Jesus is going to return next year. See, it's all wrong.
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It's not when. God's perspective is what I need. That's why I need the Scripture.
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God's promises, God's patience. Then I say I respond as a people. And so if this kind of message doesn't make you so thankful that you get to go to heaven based on the work of another,
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I don't know what else will. And if this message doesn't make you as an unbeliever say, I am going to die, and I'm going to stand before God one way or another.
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I want to push you by faith to the Savior. And also as a congregation, people need to hear the message of a risen
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Savior, do they not? Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for our time. We praise you, we bless you.
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We're so thankful that we can have a refuge and advocate the
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Lord Jesus. I'm thankful that you didn't come back in 1988.
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I'm thankful that you haven't come back even today because there's probably somebody sitting today that needs to repent and believe.
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Would you grant them saving faith? In Jesus' name, Amen. This has been a first -by -verse exposition of the
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Sacred Text. Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6.
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We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org