Living In The End Times - [2 Peter 3:1-7]

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Imagine there's no heaven. It's easy if you try. No hell below us.
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Above us, only sky. Imagine all the people living for today.
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Imagine there's no countries. It's hot, hard to do. Nothing to kill or to die for.
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And no religion too. Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.
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I hope someday you'll join us and the world will be as one. The fool has said in his heart, there's no
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God. The fool has also said in his heart and everyone he can find, there's no
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God, there's no judgment, there's no second coming of Jesus. I met a visitor today and he was concerned about certain teachers teaching heretical things and I said to him,
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I'll give you $10 today if you can find any heresy in my sermon. That first illustration doesn't count.
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That was a negative illustration of what's going on. People these days are scoffing.
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They're mocking Christianity. They're ridiculing Christianity. Jeering at Christians.
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Jeering at God. God's where your judgment. If God's real, then I hope a lightning bolt will strike me and prove that He's real, but He didn't.
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Proverbs 29 says that scoffers set a city aflame. And the bad news about scoffers, they don't just scoff to themselves.
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They want to evangelize. They want to tell other people. They don't have good news, so it's not true evangelism, but it is a proselytization.
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They want people to buy into what they're selling. How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers.
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Now maybe some of you don't know what scoffers mean. These days, I had to look up since I'm older, what is an
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Influencer? Capital I. I now know what Influencers are. And an
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Influencer is someone that has a power to affect what people buy or wear or think.
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And they're on social media a lot. I found some of the top Influencers in the world, and they are in order.
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Ariana Grande, Dwayne the Rock Johnson, Selena Gomez, Kylie Jenner, Kim Kardashian, Neymar Jr.,
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Justin Bieber, and Taylor Swift. And I want you to know this morning, as clueless as those
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Influencers are, so too are the scoffers that the Bible predicts will say there's no
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Jesus and He's not coming back. Live the way you want. Please take your Bibles and turn to 2
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Peter 3. 2 Peter 3. Peter's a really wonderful under -shepherd.
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He wants to shepherd the flock of God. And Peter, as he shepherds the flock of God that he was given a commission to guard and to protect, he now shepherds our soul.
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Peter knew what it was like to receive shepherding from the Lord Jesus. He knew that the shepherd, the good shepherd, laid down his life for Peter and for all those who would believe.
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He also knew that there was a great shepherd and Jesus proved that He was a great shepherd because He rose from the dead, confirming and validating everything
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He said, confirming that the Father sent Him on the mission and that mission was accomplished. And that Jesus is the chief shepherd.
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He owns this church. He's purchased it with His own blood. And Peter knew that people need to be shepherded, especially when there are competing voices, whether other fake shepherds, false shepherds, false teachers.
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And this chapter, 2 Peter 3, is going to remind us that Jesus keeps
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His word and that we need to have our minds protected against people that say, do you know what?
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Jesus didn't come back yesterday. He didn't come back the day before. He's not going to come back in the future. And therefore, let's live the way we want to.
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Now, if you're new to the church, we're just going chapter by chapter, paragraph by paragraph through this great book.
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This must be a message number nine. And if you look at chapter one in review, it kind of ends where 2
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Peter 3 picks up. It says in verse 16 of chapter one, we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our
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Lord Jesus. Talking about His return, and we got a preview of His return because we saw His glory through Peter's words and the transfiguration.
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Verse 17, when He received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was born to Him by the majestic glory.
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This is my beloved Son with whom I'm well pleased. And chapter one is about the faithfulness of God and that Jesus is going to come back.
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Chapter three is about the faithfulness of God and how He's going to come back. So what do we have in chapter two?
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Remember chapter two? I read a commentary this week and I thought it was just, it was good to try to relate to chapter two this way.
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The commentator said, I like to think of the book of 2 Peter as a bologna sandwich.
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I thought I'm going to read on. That's highly technical theological talk there.
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Okay, bologna if you must. Chapters one and three are the bread, positive exhortations, and the middle chapter about the false teachers is the bologna.
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And I thought, that sounds exactly right. And the more I thought about it, I thought, you know, I want to know how they make bologna because I want to know if it relates to false teachers at all.
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And basically you have the worst part of the pig and you have skeletal membranes and you have heart, kidney, liver issues, muscular tissues.
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It's the stuff that they call undesirable. So the stuff that you throw away, instead of throwing away, take it and emulsify it, make it into small particles, actually you turn it into a liquid and then you put it in casing and then you bake it.
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So it's liquid goo, undesirable, with some protein and a lot of fat.
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And of course chapter two is like the spiritual bologna that the false teachers are trying to sell.
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And chapter two is they, they, they, they, they. But this is a letter written to the church. Those who have obtained a faith of equal standing by the righteousness of our
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God and Savior, Jesus Christ. And it's written for Christians. And we're just to know, yes, Jesus is gonna come back.
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There are gonna be people who say, you know what, that's not true. Scoffers will scoff, mockers will mock.
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And then chapter three, we move back to where chapter one was finishing, that Jesus will return.
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I know dear congregation that you believe that Jesus is the eternal son. That's an easy one to take.
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I know dear congregation that you believe he was conceived. It was a virgin conception, virgin birth.
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And that he never sinned on earth. He perfectly obeyed. I know you buy that. I don't mean buy derogatorily, you believe that.
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I know you believe that Jesus died on the cross and was raised from the dead. But there's something about the second coming that's difficult for us, even as Christians, because everything you own and everything you see is going to be burned with fire at the second coming.
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It's all gone, including every person you know. The only safety we have is if we have someone to intercept that wrath and someone who's an advocate, someone who can come alongside as a defense lawyer who says, well,
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I will receive that judgment that these people deserve, but I will take it as their substitute, as their last
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Adam. Those people, dear Christian, you are safe. But it's hard to take this doctrine when you know everything else except Christians is going to be gone and completely burned in judgment.
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So even that can play into your, well, you know what, I believe in Jesus, but this whole,
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I mean, utter destruction thing is very difficult. So how do we live knowing that Jesus will return?
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What Peter is after is he's after that you're trusting that it's going to happen and that you live a life commensurate with that knowledge.
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In other words, the false teachers say, live it up. Hey, there's no judgment. Just don't get caught.
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Live it up. Just don't do something that you're going to have to go to jail for, but anything else is fair game. The opposite is true.
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If heteropraxy comes from heterodoxy, then orthodoxy leads to orthopraxy.
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Got it? Let's close in prayer. Right thinking leads to right living. Wrong thinking leads to wrong living.
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And this shepherd, under shepherd Peter, wants us to think rightly about the second coming.
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He's pastorally concerned about these people. So here's what we're going to do this morning. We're going to go through 2
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Peter 3, 1 -7. You can probably see that paragraph in your Bible. We're going to look at verse one to start, and then
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I'm going to give you the outline that follows so you can have some pegs in your head to kind of work through for an outline.
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So we're going to look at verse one. That will provide the outline's emphasis, and then the actual outline will be in verses two through seven.
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2 Peter 3, verse one. Now this is the second letter that I'm writing to you, beloved.
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In both of them, I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder. Here's what he wants to do.
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He's talking to these dear people. He calls them beloved in chapter three, verse one, in verse eight, in verse fourteen, and one other time,
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I believe, after verse fourteen, verse seventeen. And he's pastorally concerned, and he wants them to use their mind, a pure mind he wants.
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Here's what he wants. I'll tell you the whole sermon right now. Don't have your mind sullied by the adulterating words of the false teacher.
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Keep your minds pure by thinking what the Bible teaches about the second coming. They're going to try to dirty your mind and to sully your mind, and you keep a pure mind, an unmixed mind, thinking about biblical things, thinking rightly.
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And we need this because there are false teachers saying things. I've got a mini false teacher living inside of me. My flesh, politicians say things, pundits say things.
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We need to be reminded to have a sincere mind, not a skeptical mind, not a pessimistic mind, not a lethargical mind, but a pure mind.
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He says, I'm going to remind you, verse one. He said that in 113 to refresh your memory. He says, this is first of all something important that you have to understand, verse three.
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He said the same thing in chapter one, verse twenty. Above all, I want you to understand this. And this is his second letter.
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What do you think the first letter was? Second Peter is the second letter. What do you think the first letter was? Well, unlike all liberal scholars, you would be right.
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They have five different letters and false letters, and Peter didn't really write it. Chapter one through three of the second letter is pretty close to chapters one through five of the first letter because chapter one of the first epistle, the first letter, is talking about fixing your hope completely on the grace to be given to you at the return of Christ.
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So he says, I'm writing another letter and I'm stirring you up. Do you see? Stirring you up by sincere mind, by the way of reminder.
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Do you know what that word sincere means? It's a really neat word. It means sun judged, S -U -N judged.
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So you've got a piece of pottery and you're at the Brimfield Fair and you're trying to search for something really wonderful and it looks like it's a 2 ,000 year old vase, vase, and you're like, is this real or is this fake?
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One of the things you could do is hold it up in the sun and let the sun judge it because if it's got a bunch of wax that have taken care of the cracks and put it back together again, you'll see the sun through the wax.
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Matter of fact, our English word sincere means without wax. And so he says, I want you to have a sun judged,
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S -U -N judged mind, literally now for us theologically, a S -O -N judged mind.
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I want you to make sure you're thinking rightly and dear Christian, we're in a society that doesn't hardly think at all.
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We don't read. We don't think. We think that we think, but he wants us to use our minds.
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There's a book by Henry Blamars called The Christian Mind. Here's the thesis of chapter one.
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In his book called The Christian Mind, thesis chapter one, there's no longer a Christian mind. The mind's just gone.
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I mean, if it feels good, do it. We just, you know, what do the polls say? Jesus wants you to think critically, biblically, abstractly.
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What's the most important commandment of all? Jesus answered, Hear O Israel, the
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Lord our God is one Lord and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and all your strength.
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No wonder Sinclair Ferguson said, how we think is one of the great determining factors in how we live.
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That's right. How we think is a determining factor in how we live. And the false teachers know it. If Jesus isn't going to come back, there's no judgment day.
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Universalism, Unitarianism, and the whole rest. But if you're thinking rightly, it changes everything.
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Not only do you live a godly life, but you have a motivation to live a godly life. And when
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I think that God, his Son not sparing, when I just think about that, sent him to die,
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I scarce can take it in. That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing, he bled and died to take away my sin.
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And then that affects the way you live. It affects the way you praise. Then sings my soul, my
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Savior God to thee, how great thou art. In Pilgrim's Progress, the second part of the book, where Christiana, Christian's wife gets saved.
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She said something, I reread this week, it's rocked my life this week. It makes my heart bleed,
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Christiana said, to think that he should bleed for me.
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Oh loving Jesus, oh blessed Jesus, Jesus you have bought me.
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You deserve to have me all. Though you Jesus paid for me ten thousand times more than I'm worth.
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And if a God would do that for me, if Jesus would do that for me, what is my response?
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My response is obedience with gratitude and with delight. When I survey the wondrous cross, when
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I think about the cross, when I process the cross, when I'm using abstract, logical thinking about the cross, doesn't make a good song for Isaac Watts, but I'm just elaborating.
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When I survey the wondrous cross, love so amazing, so divine, what
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I think then determines how I live, it demands my soul, my life, my what? All.
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So the way we think is very, very important. Prepare your minds for action, 1
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Peter chapter 1. And so today our outline is going to be simple.
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Five fortifiers, five theological boosters if you will, to make sure you can keep an unadulterated mind, so you think rightly.
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The world is selling something, don't buy into it. How do we do that? Peter the shepherd, the under shepherd of the
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Lord Jesus, the great shepherd, the good shepherd, the chief shepherd, gives us these five reminders and they're all tied into your mind.
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How do you keep a sun judged mind during the last day craziness? Fortification number one, remember the
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Old Testament predictions about end times. Remember the Old Testament prediction about end times.
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So what we do at this church, especially with these epistles, the epistle contains the outline, it has the thought, it has the sermon.
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My job is to understand what it says. The point of the passage is the point of the sermon and the point of the sermon is the point of the passage.
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You don't want new novel or anything else, you want faithfully proclaiming what's in here and so therefore it should not surprise you that the first outline, fortification is found in verse two, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets.
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I find that fascinating. There are unholy scoffers, there are ungodly mockers, there are profane godless people running their mouths, big mouths.
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Here, I want you to remember, Peter said, the predictions of the holy prophets.
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What prophets is he talking about? The Old Testament prophets and you've got prophets from Moses all the way to Malachi.
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Remember the Old Testament, that's what he's saying. Be students of the Old Testament. These people run their mouths,
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Jesus isn't coming back. Well, what should I study? I need to study the Old Testament. By the way, that's why we have
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Old Testament readings here and we try to teach through books of the Bible from the Old Testament. Nahum was our latest book from the
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Old Testament because it reminds us many things including that Jesus is going to come back.
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The original language here underlines how authoritative these prophetic words are and how permanent they are.
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They're still abiding. The Old Testament prophets predicted the second coming of Christ.
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Now listen, but they also predicted that there'll be scoffers to the judgment. There should be no shock to us.
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Oh, Jesus is coming back. Is that important? Well, you know what? Maybe God didn't know about this, but in the
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Old Testament, He predicted that Jesus would return. The Old Testament prophesied of the second return of Christ and it also prophesied or predicted a sinful, scoffing response to any of God's judgment.
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Zechariah 14 talks about the soon return of Jesus, His ultimate return. Behold, the day of the
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Lord comes. Then the Lord shall go forth and fight against those nations as when He fought in the day of battle.
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And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east.
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And the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west. And there shall be a very great valley.
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Half of the mountain shall remove toward the north and half of it toward the south. And the Lord my God shall come and all the saints with Him.
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And the Lord shall be king over all the earth. In that day shall there be one Lord and His name one.
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Well, I start buying into these influencers theologically and I think, well, wait a second, that doesn't make any sense. I see in the
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Old Testament Jesus is going to return. Why would I buy in to what they're saying?
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But also the Old Testament predicted that there'd be scoffing mockers regarding this judgment.
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I mean, this is amazing. How about this? Jeremiah 5. They have spoken falsely of the Lord and have said,
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He will do nothing. God's not going to do anything. Do whatever you want. He does nothing. He's kind of a grandpa.
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I think I've told the story at least 10 times that I remember I'd go to one grandpa and grandma for Monday, Wednesday, Fridays and then the other grandparents on Tuesday, Thursdays as my mom and dad both work when
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I was a young kid. And so we'd either go to Grandma Abendross, Grandma and Grandpa Abendross or Grandma and Grandpa Up the
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Hill we called them because they lived in a valley. But they were called Grandma and Grandpa Up the Hill and they lived up this hill.
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And grandpa was a drunk so he didn't really care what I did. And grandma was all talk.
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And so she had those yardsticks you can get free from, at least you used to be able to get them free from the hardware store.
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And she kept saying, If you do that again little mister, you're going to get that on your backside. And I thought, You know what, this lady, she loves me and she's just all talk.
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And so the next time she said that I went over and got the yardstick. I broke it over my knee and handed it to her. And she still didn't spank me.
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I don't know if grandma and grandpa are supposed to spank but if I were that grandma, He will do nothing.
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She will do nothing. There's going to be nothing. God's like this senile grandpa in the sky.
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That's in the Old Testament. Malachi 2. You have wearied the
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Lord with your words but you say, How we weary Him? Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the
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Lord. That's what you say. That's how you do evil. Or you ask this question, Where's the
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God of justice? Where's the God of justice? God doesn't judge anybody. That's scoffing.
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That's from the Old Testament. Well not only that, there's another fortification for your mind. Be a man, be a woman, be a child that knows your
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Old Testament. Furthermore, remember the New Testament commands about end times or in response to end times.
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That's a little bit more interesting. You might think this is just the New Testament equivalent of such.
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But it's not quite that. You should remember the predictions of the Holy Prophets.
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But now this is interesting. He changes it. And the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles.
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Now before we break that down, first of all, the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles on equal ground, equal authority, right?
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Somehow the New Testament isn't under or less valuable. The Old Testament isn't under or less valuable than the
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New. But the Old Testament, like the New Testament, breathed out by God. All Scripture, old and new, is inspired by God.
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I also find it interesting that he talks about the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
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Jesus is Lord. He's Savior. He's the God -man. And now it's through the apostles. Apostle means sent one.
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And so Jesus leaves the earth and He leaves the disciples with the Holy Spirit, one just like Him.
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And that Holy Spirit not just illumines the Old Testament for these apostles, but also reveals truth to them as they're writing
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Scripture. Inspiration is there. But what about the commandment? That's the question. What do you mean the commandment?
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I thought this is a fact. Jesus is going to come back and I need to wait for His return. Oh, there's the clue.
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What's the command in regard to the second coming? To buy into scoffers, to be sleepers, to be taking naps, to think, you know what,
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He's never going to come back so I'll do what I want. There's a command and that command is to wait.
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That command is to watch. That command is to use your mind and be sober in your thinking.
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To be ready. Listen to what Jesus said. So it'll be no surprise that His sent apostles would say this.
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Concerning that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father.
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Is there a command Jesus for me to do? Yes. Mark 13 .33 Be on guard. Keep awake.
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Be on guard from false teachers. Keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. It's like a man going on a journey.
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He leaves home, puts his servants in charge, eats the fruit of his work, commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore, is there a command from New Testament apostles?
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It shouldn't surprise us because Jesus, the leader of those men, said stay awake. For you do not know when the master of the house will come in evening or at midnight or when the rooster crows or in the morning, lest he suddenly come and find you asleep.
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I say to you all, here's a command, stay awake. Turn with me to 1
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Thessalonians 5 if you have a Bible. Let me show you a direct commandment from the
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New Testament apostles that Peter is talking about. What's the commandment about Jesus returning?
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Let's go to 1 Thessalonians 5. Jesus is going to come back. Yes, we should trust that. We should believe that.
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Of course, the Lord doesn't lie. But is there anything we're supposed to do in spite of this? Just be guarded against the false teachers or is there anything kind of proactively and does it affect our mind at all?
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1 Thessalonians 5, verse 1. Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you.
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For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord, that's a technical designation for the Lord's return, will come like a thief in the night.
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While people are saying, there's peace and security, I mean, there's no judgment, false teachers, never going to be judged, we're not going to be judged now.
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That's what the people say. They keep on saying it. Then, sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman.
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They will not escape. But you, not in darkness, brothers, you've been redeemed by the blood of the
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Lamb. You've been given the Holy Spirit. For that day won't be a surprise to you like a thief.
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For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. What's a commandment by the
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New Testament apostles in light of the soon return of Jesus? Verse 6, So then, let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.
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It's hard to think when you drink too much alcohol. Thinking rightly, to be sober, to think critically.
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For those who sleep, sleep at night. Those who get drunk are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober.
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That's talking about how you think. Putting on the breastplate of faith that is faith in the risen
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Savior and of love. I know that I'm guarded because I've been guarded by the righteousness of Jesus and I am in Him, united with Him.
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I can never be separated from His love because He's redeemed me and saved me and loved towards other
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Christians and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. You ever think about that? The helmet of the hope of salvation.
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I remember the Ephesians 6 stuff that kids could get at Christian book discounter.
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I used to call it CBD but we can't call it that anymore up in Peabody, that book retailer, Christian book distributor.
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And you could buy things and it's like a little plastic sword and then you have a helmet and you have a breastplate and all that.
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Here it says, the hope of salvation is your helmet. You ever think about that for a second?
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Well, what does a helmet do? Now, when I'm on a bicycle, I wear a helmet. And the more light your helmet is, the lighter it is, the more expensive it is.
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And if you want little screens put on those air holes, it costs more. The good news is if you have little screens, when a wasp comes to fly into your helmet, you don't have to do the bicycle shuffle.
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And here's the shuffle. I've got the wasp in my head under the helmet and then you have to just be calm about it.
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Okay, glasses off, earbuds out, unbuckle the helmet, begin to take it off and that's where they sting you.
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Right? You're like, I was so close. You're like, well, just might as well sting away. Just like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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This is like, I'm just gonna crush this thing. One time when the wasps flew into my mouth, I cannot believe I did not have enough mental gumption to just crush it with my teeth before spitting it out.
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I simply spit it out. What does this have to do with anything? Well, this is hard truth, so I'm just trying to get you distracted for a second.
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Laugh a little bit because here comes the next point. What protects our thinking?
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Our minds have to be protected. So what protects our minds is a helmet.
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And what's that helmet? It's not a real helmet. I mean, Paul knew about soldiers, that's for certain.
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But it's the hope of salvation. They're saying Jesus isn't coming back. We're hoping for it.
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They're saying the exact opposite. I know when God starts something, He finishes it. I know when
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He promises His first coming, He's coming the second time. I know those angels said in Acts 1, you see the way
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He goes up into heaven? He's coming back. This is all just a big lie.
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It's a farce. Verse 9, For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our
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Lord Jesus Christ who died for us. You can trust Him so that whether we are awake or asleep, we might live with Him.
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Therefore, knowing that Jesus is going to come back. Here's something interesting.
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Here's a command from an apostle of the New Testament sent by Jesus. What do you do in the end days?
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Go to the roof of your house and just wait for Jesus to come. End time living should be what?
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Living where you, verse 11, encourage one another. Isn't that amazing?
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In light of the soon return of Jesus, be an encourager. Build one another up just as you are doing.
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Now let's go back to 2 Peter chapter 3. We have to make sure our minds are right.
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And so that's Old Testament students. That's New Testament students. Number 3, the third fortification is, remember or know that scoffers were predicted in the
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Bible. I made reference to it but I'm going to make it explicit. Here's the neat part.
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Let me read verse 3 and I'll explain it. Knowing this first of all that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing following their own sinful desires.
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Now at first blush you might not say oh that's so encouraging. But it is encouraging because Jesus is going to return and one of the ways you know that He's going to return are one of the signs of His soon return.
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Knowing how eminent it is and how close it is and how certain it is. People are going to come along and run their mouths like scoffers.
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And now people have come and they've run their mouths like scoffers and you know what I say? Scoffers you're wrong but you were predicted in the
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Old Testament and the New. Jesus must be close. It's to be comforting. Scripture tells us it's to strengthen our faith knowing these are going to come.
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We're in the last days between the first coming and the second coming. We're in these last days.
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God's not taking off guard like oh I didn't see that coming. Didn't know. Too busy with everything else.
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By the way do you see what motivates these people? False teachers are motivated by their own sinful desires.
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That's why they're unholy. That's why they're not holy prophets. Sinful desires. That's why they scoff.
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They probably feel better if you buy into it because then they're not alone out there scoffing. One writer said the adversaries who denied the second coming were themselves a proof of Christ near return.
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That's exactly right. Number four. Remember history.
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Remember history. That is biblical history and history in general. Let me read verses four, five and six.
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Keeping a sincere mind in these last days knowing that Jesus is going to return is fortified by the Old Testament strengthened by the
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New Testament predicted by all the Bible. And now number four. What about history?
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Verse four. They say, where's the promise of His coming?
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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 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 these means the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.
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Here's what they're trying to do. They are saying, you know what? We know all of history.
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We have complete view of history, an adequate view of history, a sufficient view of history, and an inerrant view of history.
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We know all of history. All you have to do is go, okay, let's see, does God intervene in history?
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Hmm, creation, judge in the flood.
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But they're trying to come across like they know everything. By the way, that's a horrible argument.
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If you took a logic class and you say, I'm trying to win a point and you say, well, you know what? Where's the promise of His coming?
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Would never make it in any kind of logic debate class and it shouldn't make it here. Their view of history isn't complete.
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They are not omniscient and they think, you know what? As yesterday was, so tomorrow will be.
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That's kind of true with certain situations in the last at least thousand years. I mean, we haven't had another flood or 2 ,000 years.
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But that doesn't mean there's not going to be a flood coming, a flood of fire. They are not omniscient.
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And when they mock, they're mocking their own selves. Where's the promise of His coming?
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Ever since the fathers fell asleep? I mean, Abraham's dead, Isaac's dead, Jacob's dead, Malachi's dead,
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David's dead, Moses is dead. Hey, even recently, Stephen's dead. You think Jesus would come back then, don't you?
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Man is born, man lives, man dies. Here's the tricky part.
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They're not atheists. They're deists. A deist says,
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God starts everything, winds it up, and now we're on our own. He doesn't intervene at all. There's no incarnation, nothing close.
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Where's the promise of His coming? I mean, that's a horrible argument. That's like playing to your emotions and to your view of current events.
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Jeremiah 17, where is the word of the Lord? Let it now be fulfilled. God, you be on our timetable or we won't believe you.
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Scoffer, Psalm 79, where is
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Israel's God? You'd think He'd intervene. Micah 7 .10, where is
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Yahweh your God? The screed and the taunting of these false scoffers.
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I mean, God exists, but not the Bible's God. I mean, how many times do you have to deal with that in your own life when you're talking to somebody and they use the word
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God, but you know they're not talking about the God of this book, God of this revelation. They deliberately...
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Look at verse 5. They can read Genesis. They can read Creation, Flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, but they deliberately overlook this fact because it doesn't fit into their paradigm.
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How are you going to argue that history is uniform and naturalistic and not with a
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God who intervenes and who will judge if you read the Old Testament? You cannot do that, so you have to pick and choose.
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They deliberately overlook this fact. Hmm, Genesis 6 -8, Genesis 1, Genesis 3,
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Genesis 19, Sodom and Gomorrah, Creation, the Flood, Creation, ex nihilo.
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They just forget it. Dear Christian, I want you to know that if the
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Flood didn't happen, Peter's a liar and he has no argument. I wonder, by the way, if Noah experienced any scoffers.
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Can you imagine that guy? I'm going to call him poor Noah, but he wasn't poor at all. 120 years building that ship.
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Do you think there were scoffers then? Do you think there were mockers, people jeering? Hey, it didn't rain yesterday.
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See how environmentally stable everything is? Uniformitarianism, naturalism.
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We're going to live lawlessly. But did the scoffing of the people at Noah stop the
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Flood? That's the question. And now finally, number five. Remember, the
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Word of God both creates and destroys. Remember that the Word of God creates and destroys.
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God intervenes in this world and He will intervene. It says in verse seven, but by the same
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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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The same Word that created the universe, God said, let there be and there was.
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The same Word that by divine fiat, God said and it became into existence. That Word also says there's going to be a judgment.
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Why would I take the one and not the other? It is by the
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Word of God judgment falls, both in Noah's day and in our future, maybe soon future.
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This is an attack on Jesus because Jesus preserves and then judges.
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All things are held together by Him, Colossians chapter one. Even back in verse six, and by that means of these, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished, overflowed.
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It's where we get our word cataclysm. It was awful. He intervened before,
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He will intervene again. Not by natural disaster, but by His Word. I don't know about you, but I love rainbows.
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How many people here love rainbows? How many people are tired of people that hijack rainbows?
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Okay, more. I see that hand. If I say rainbow, what pops into your mind?
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Maybe if you're Irish, you'll say, well, on the other side of that rainbow is a pot of gold. And if I'm lucky enough to find it and get past that leprechaun guard in that pot of gold, might find it.
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Did you know that in Bulgaria, there's a legend about rainbows that if you walk beneath the rainbow,
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I mean, this is like so timely, it's not even funny. You walk beneath a rainbow, you will change genders.
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Save a lot of surgery, I guess. If you're a man, it says, you'll begin to think like a woman. And if you're a woman, you'll be able to think like a man.
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That would solve most relationships at the church. But then we think the opposite still. In Australia, some aborigines would think that rainbows are like giant malevolent serpents who can go between sky and ground.
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But when you see a rainbow, what do you think of? I hope you think lots of things.
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I hope you think the word of God is true. God is kind. God makes promises. It's a covenant.
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Genesis 9, I've set my bow. It's called a warrior's bow. When you see a rainbow, it's a bow and arrow, a warrior's bow, a bow of destruction, but it's not pointing toward the earth, is it?
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Because God has made a covenant that he's not going to judge the earth with water. I've set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of a covenant between me and of the earth.
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I will bring clouds over the earth, and the bow is seen in the clouds. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it,
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God says. Language of accommodation. And remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.
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God intervenes. God promises. God rescues. And the same God that promised,
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I'm going to judge, and I'm going to rescue, is the same God that said when it comes to the second coming,
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I'm going to judge unbelievers, and I'm going to rescue believers. The flood is coming back, but it's not a flood of water.
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It's a flood of what's verse 7 say? Of fire. Everything is going to be burned up.
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Happy Earth Day. That was my sermon for next week, but I needed it this week.
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There might not be a next week. You just look back and you go, how does
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God intervene in the life of his people? Signs and wonders in those days?
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Providentially today? He judges. He judges sin. Every sin that's ever been committed on this earth will be judged by God and His wrathful fury either on His Son at Calvary or on you forever in hell.
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And so for you Christians, no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, but I don't want to have my mind sullied by all these people that could actually play to my flesh, play to my greed.
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I've got a pet sin over here. I want to sin a little bit. Well, you know what? I'm going to maybe even change my eschatological position.
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Maybe I'll, you know, instead of being premill or amill, I think I'm going to try to be postmill now because then that will allow me, hmm, you know, more time for the earth to get better.
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People do all kinds of things. I'm not saying everybody who's postmill believes that. That's not my point.
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History is not circular. It's linear. Jesus has promised that He's going to come back and it's going to be a day of judgment for the unbeliever and a day of rescue for the believer.
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Chapter 2 was very, very clear and so wonderfully clear that He knows how to rescue and to keep us, the righteous ones, from trials and from judgment.
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So we have to protect our minds. I'm going to start trying to do what this great
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Scottish writer would do. Maybe you can do it with me.
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He'd wake up in the morning, Horatius Bonar. He lived in the 1800s. I think he was a better theologian than hymn writer, but he was a great hymn writer.
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He'd draw the curtains at night and say, Perhaps tonight, Lord. And in the morning, he'd draw open the shades and say,
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Perhaps today, Lord. And when you think like that, the way you respond changes.
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I mean, the Lord has been so good to us. I think of Thomas Cramner and he needed to remind
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Christians of comfortable words. And he would regularly at communion give
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Christians four comfortable words in the middle of all the chaos and their own sin and other sin.
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I give you comforting, comfortable words that are fourfold.
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Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
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The sane is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.
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And the fourth word is, If any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins.
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And a God that loves us so will help us even think rightly. Bow with me, please. Thank you,
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Father, for your word. Thank you for even a hard issue. We want our loved ones to be saved, so will you give us boldness to preach the gospel and would you be merciful to them like you are merciful to us.
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Would you help us, knowing that your Son will return to abandon any pet sins or ungodly behaviors we have that we know we should stop and yet somehow we delay.
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And so if the morning comes and we say, perhaps today, Lord, that will affect our life. And if we say, perhaps tonight,
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Lord, that will affect that as well. So help us. We're so thankful that you've saved us and that you've rescued us.