I'm gonna be reading in 2nd Peter
chapter 3 What Peter under inspiration? basically sums up as the things
that will transpire in terms of the destruction of the present
heavens and earth and renewing of them and that language ought
to be something that we are both aware of and are affected by
so this will help us launch into a our last consideration, hopefully,
around the coming of Christ. And I'm gonna start in verse... I'm gonna start in verse one
and then work our way through verse 14, and then we'll take
it up from there. This second epistle, beloved,
I now write unto you in both which I stir up your pure minds
by way of remembrance, that you be mindful of the words which
were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment
of us, the apostles of our Lord and Savior. Knowing this first,
that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after
their own lusts and saying, where is the promise of his coming?
For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were
from the beginning of creation. For this they were willingly
ignorant of that by the word of God, the heavens were of old
and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby
the world that was then was being overflowed with water perished. But the heavens and the earth,
which are now by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto
fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But beloved, be not ignorant
of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand
years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack
concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long
suffering towards us, not willing that any should perish, but that
all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall
pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat, and the earth also and the works that are therein
shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things
shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in
all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hastening unto
the coming of the day of God? wherein the heavens being on
fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent
heat. Nevertheless, we, according to
his promise, look for a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth
righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that
you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found
of him in peace without spot. and blameless. So I'm gonna stop
right there and just give a basic synopsis of the chapter. The
apostle Peter is telling the church that it should recognize
and understand that things will ultimately come to an end and
that eschatology or end time studies or teleology, the consummation
of God's purposes is something that the believer must hold onto
as a central doctrine of their hope. And the reason why is there
is a tendency on the part of humanity to judge God's purposes
based on history and then draw faulty conclusions as to what
will transpire in the future. You will note that the apostle
Peter told the church He's speaking to the scattered church of both
Jews and Gentiles. He told the church that there
were men who were scoffers, who were saying, where is the promise
of his coming? Point number one, when God takes
a long time to come, men then will, in an attitude of unbelief,
question whether or not he will come at all. When God takes what
appears to be to men a long time to come, Men by nature will then
question whether or not he's coming at all This is a theme
that runs through the scriptures My lord delayeth his coming Luke
chapter 12 concerning the slothful steward Do you remember when
Moses was up in the Mount and the people didn't know how long
he was going to be there, but because he was in the Mount longer
than they thought he should be, they thought something had happened
to him and they began their own enterprise to go back to Egypt.
The mindset then on the part of limited human beings like
you and me is to fall prey to assuming that God doesn't really
mean business because he takes so long in coming. Another example
is in the days of Saul, Saul committed a ton of trespasses,
King Saul. But remember when Samuel told
him on a specific day to wait for him to show up and then Samuel
would offer a feast, a sacrifice to God. Saul thought Samuel was
late and Saul then forced himself to offer that sacrifice. And
at that point, God said, this is not my man. I'm taking the
kingdom from him. because he's taking matters into
his own hand when one of the cardinal fruits of a believer
is learning to wait on God. One of the cardinal evidences
of what it means to be a believer in Christ is learning how to
wait on the Lord. When a man or a woman does not
know how to wait on God, they don't believe God. And so here
we're talking about in time activity. And he says, these folks have
assumed that the way things were at the beginning of time is the
way things are presently. Now in science, we call that
the doctrine of uniformity. But in fact a matter what peter
said was the way things are are not the way things used to be
Let me remind you that prior to noah's day. There wasn't this
massive body of water all over the world separating seven continents
God had separated the waters from above and the waters beneath
and have helped have built a massive glorious world that was encompassed
or encased in kind of a bubble in order for mankind to enjoy
an equitable or very balanced ecology where it never rained. God brought his judgment in Genesis
6 and changed the whole ecology of the world. And so this is
what Peter says, the things that were then are not what they are
now. And then he says more than that,
he says in verse seven, but the heavens and the earth, which
are now, he's talking about post pre-Diluvian flood, post anti-Diluvian
flood rather. After the flood, he says, the
world that is presently in the state in which you and I see
it, it's preserved or rather reserved. Notice what he says,
kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment
and prediction of men. Think about that kind of worldview. Peter says, the present heavens
and earth that you and I are living in, It's under assignment
to burn up. That's what he's stating. In
other words, Peter is not saying that our present heavens and
earth are gonna go on and on ad infinitum, that the universe
is gonna stay exactly the way that it is. It's on assignment
to be burned up. And this is where he starts in
on his diatribe of explaining explicitly the details of the
consummation when he tells us in verse 10, but the day of the
Lord will come as a thief in the night. It will catch the
vast majority of the world off guard because of unbelief. And the vast majority of both
the world and the church will have fallen asleep on Jesus as
the parable of the 10 virgins underscore Matthew's 25. You
guys remember that? Five versions kept their lamps
lit. The other five allowed their lamps to go out. And when the
bride group came, they were not ready to go into the wedding
feast. Those are the warnings. And scripture has many little
vignettes that warn about either rushing in on God or presuming
that he's not coming. So the text says, in the which
the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements
shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works
that are therein shall be what? Burned up. Now mark what he does
in verse 11. This is called a conclusive clause. Then, seeing then that all these
things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to
be in all holy conversation and godliness? He believes that he
made his point with the believer that the world is going to actually
experience and the universe, a massive conflagration of fire. Fire will destroy this universe. Now, here's his argument. If
God promised in the days of Noah that he would destroy the world
with the flood, and it took 120 years for it to occur, and the
mass majority of the people did not believe Noah's preaching,
or they would have entered into the ark. Because they did not
believe Noah's preaching, they also were caught as a thief in
the night, were they not? Although Noah had preached every
day because he was a preacher of righteousness, he preached
every day with every nail, every board, every piece of pitch,
every piece of gopher skin, all that he did in the building of
the ark, him and his sons and his daughter-in-laws and his
wife was the proclamation of the gospel that God's gonna destroy
this world. Because had Noah not believed
God, he would have never built that boat. He would have never
built that boat if he didn't believe that God's word says
one day God's gonna flood this world and destroy every breathing
thing in it. And so it did happen then this
is Peter's argument and it will happen in the future with us.
You and I are simply dealing with the nature of God which
brings us to Peter's other warning argument where he says that a
thousand years for God is as a what? A day. Now don't take
that literally. Don't misinterpret that passage. That's not to play games with
chronology. It's a device to help us understand
that God transcends time. And because he does, he's not
on his own. He's not on the edge of rushing
or delaying based upon a chronological sequence of events that we call
time. God's clock is not our clock.
You guys got that. God's clock is not our clock.
Although his clock works inside of our clock, Christ came in
the fullness of time. God operates in specific timetables,
but his timetables are outside of the scope of long and short
as you and I perceive it. If you and I think a day is short
compared to a thousand years for God, they're both alike because
God by nature is eternal. And so when you possess eternality,
time is of no factor with you. So that's why God can be patient
with us because God's not sitting around saying, boy, I'm getting
tired. I'm getting tired. No, God's not like that. And this
is why for people who are bound by certain weird pay cons for,
um, for trying to determine when the Lord is coming, I always
tell them, be sure that you're not pressing your clock up against
God's heart. Because God's not paying attention
to your clock. You can set all the dates you
want, and every person that sets a date, God will have to make
him a liar before he comes. This is word says so. You don't
know the day or the hour, right? So when a man asserts that he
does, God has to let that man's clock be wrong, And then prove
that he's a liar and we've been through a lot of that in the
past I say this to say that the way that Peter closes out in
his Orthodox approach to the return of Christ and the in the
destruction of this present universe and the renewing of another universe
is what he means in verse 12 looking for and hastening unto
the coming of the day of God wherein the heavens will be dissolved
and And then it goes on to verse 13. Nevertheless, we, according
to his promise, look for a what? New heavens and a new earth wherein
dwells righteousness. So verse 13 is for the believer
in expectation. Verse 13 is for the believer
in expectation. And you can snatch that and put
that in a file and hold it in the back of your computer and
go like this. Whatever this means, what God
is stating about the new heavens and the new earth, it will correspond
typologically to our present heavens and earth. There will
be a corresponding relationship between the two so that who we
are, we will be for all eternity in a new heaven and a new earth.
Whatever that means in the fullness of the absence of sin, in the
presence of God's glorious being, in the perfections of our physical
bodies, in our capacities to operate transcending this carnal,
limited, constrained experience that we have now in our physical
bodies. We don't even know what that's like. But what we do know
is we are to look for, we are to look for a new heavens and
a new earth. And finally, what Peter says
is, our satisfaction is around this one truth, wherein dwelleth
righteousness. So this is interesting, because
this is gonna get to, this is gonna actually, address the ethical
response to the whole doctrine of Christ's return for you and
me as our final point before we go into the idea of the Lord's
return. Whenever you study the end time
doctrines as we have, looking at the several views and then
considering the fact that as we read in Revelation chapter
20 last week, verse 11, the heavens and the earth fled away and there
was no place for them and there's a judgment that God will actually
execute upon humanity There will be a horrible, horrible consignment
to an eternity in hell for those who didn't know the Lord Jesus
Christ, who didn't bow to the gospel. And then God will triumphantly
bring in the new Jerusalem. Whenever you and I think about
that kind of teaching, it always demands on our part, an ethical
response. In other words, you and I are
to make sure that we relate to the prophecy in a manner where
in our life demonstrates that we believe in that prophecy.
In other words, what is the ethical response of the believer upon
knowing that the Lord will come, destroy this present heavens
and air, start all over again after he summons the whole human
race into his presence. By the way, if you and I die
before he comes, which is a high likelihood, That doesn't change
the fact that when he comes, we won't be a major participate
in that process. We all will. So it's not like
I might die before he comes, but it doesn't matter whether
you die and stay dead for tens of thousands of years. When he
comes, he going to wake you up and you're going to be part of
the process no matter how long you've been dead. The question
will be, what did that teaching do? to shape your conduct in
this life while you are still alive. Because when you die,
everything that you did will be sealed up in a file waiting
for the day in which God will judge every man according as
his what? Words shall be. See, so the point is, the talking
about things that are so massive and cosmological in nature, like
the new heavens and the new earth, is really designed for you and
me to make sure that when we check out of here, that we have
responded in an ethically appropriate way to it. And here's what he
says. Here's what he says in verse 13 and 14. Verse 14, rather. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that
you look for such things. First thing I have to ask myself
is, am I looking for Christ's coming? Am I looking for a new
heavens and a new earth? Am I looking for God to be glorified
as he has declared that he will be glorified when he comes? Now,
here's the reason why we ask that question. Because for the
true believer who understands the gospel, your job in mind
is to always be on the side of wanting God to be glorified in
everything that he says. The motive then that should drive
our heart about his return is, When God returns, he will be
glorified. And the most important thing
in my life is that God be what? Glorified. So I told you before,
the next stage of kingdom manifestation is the glorification. Presently,
the kingdom is here, but in a very spiritual way, spiritual does
not mean ethereal, non-substantive or without influence. It's radically
influential. It's radically substantive. It's
just not visibly seen. But when Christ comes, this is
what we're about to get into with the terminology around the
coming of the Lord. It will be an imminent, overwhelming manifestation
of the glory of God to the satisfaction of everyone that loves his appearing. See, we want him to come because
we love him. and we want him to be glorified
as he ought to be as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Cause
he's not believed by everybody today. And we want him to be
believed and he will be believed on that day. Cause when he comes,
he will be so visibly ominously seen in the splendor of his glory
that all the saints will just awe at this King of Kings and
Lord of Lords. and just revel in the reality
of the satisfaction of what we've been telling people about Jesus
on this side of glory. So we are looking for his coming,
right? Wherefore, beloved, seeing that
you look for such things, here's the first ethical response, be
diligent. The first ethical response after
the mental disposition of longing for him, that's Romans chapter
eight. We hang on the tiptoe of faith, looking over the fence
of this world, looking for Jesus, but we do it with diligence.
In other words, these exhortations are calling you and me to live
a life of diligence. The antithesis or the opposite
of diligence is what? Slopfulness, which is what I
said earlier, occurs. When our faith is eroded around
long 10 years of Christ's absence and the world starts seeping
in and starts building your agenda for you. And then next thing
you know, your life is wrapped up in all of the secular carnal
worldly things. And you really are not looking
for Jesus. So this is not a question, this
is an explanation. I'm telling you the truth. So
see, daily you and I are tested with whether our love will stay passionately committed to Christ. And that's a battle, isn't it?
Because this life loves to give us assignments. loves to give
us things to do. The devil has all kinds of distractions
and goals and plans and agendas to take your heart away from
Christ. That's the temptation. So what
the writer is saying is make sure that you and I are diligent
and here is what we want to be diligent in that we may be found
of him in what? See, that's, that's cold. But
see, I'm going to show you in first John chapter two, that
John says the same thing. So the apostles had this view
that everyone will be found of Christ, but not everyone will
be found in Christ. So to be found of him is one
thing. Cause he going to turn over every rock. In fact, remember
every rock is going to get out of the way. Every mountain is
going to leave. Every hill is going to flee.
So there'll be no place for sinners to hide. He going to see you. The issue is will he see us in
peace, right? And then without spot and what? And those are characteristics
and predicates of a bride to be. Those are characteristics
and predicates of the bride of Christ, right? Ephesians chapter
five is where it says he gave his life that he might present
her without spot and blameless. So the goal of the spirit of
God, who is the resident Lord in our lives, is to make sure
the church is ready for his coming. And again, this is why you have
the parable of the 10 virgins, five wise, five foolish. And
so the ethical response to our present study is that you and
I make our calling and election sure. People hear me say that
a lot. It's really not hard to understand that concept. That
means just take the word of God seriously. It really is that
simple. What do you mean by make your call? Actually, calling
is the gospel call. You say you heard it. And if
you've been called, then you've been chosen. And if you've been
chosen, live like you've been chosen. That's simple. It's not that hard. It's just,
you know, just make sure that you don't act like you didn't
hear Jesus voice. And so the essence of what's
being stated here is, Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look
for such things, be diligent that you may be found of him
in peace without spot and blameless." So now go with me in your Bible
to 1 John 2, verse 28, and I'm gonna show you the other side
of the ethical mandate that we are to have as we contemplate
the coming of Christ. By the way, the reason for which
the coming of Christ is not taught frequently and constantly in
our churches today is because pastors are actually not committed
to this doctrinal teaching either. They don't want to put their
people in such an apprehensive state because it's advantageous
to many of our churches to keep our people on a cruise ship headed
nowhere. Always talking about many things
that are taking place on this earth, but not really preparing
them for eternity. Am I making some sense? Right.
And it's a dangerous thing when your diet is always that of carnal
earthly blessings, material blessings, what God's going to do for you
and how God's going to do this for you, how God's going to do
that for you. And fail to realize that the large majority of the
promises that God gives us are in eternity. This is what makes
the difference between the true gospel and the false gospel.
And this is what we're learning as we teach the doctrine of grace
works and what rewards. What Jesus is saying is, for
those of you who understand the relationship that you have with
me, your payoff comes largely at glory. There are, as we are
learning, temporal benefits to good works in this life, where
God takes care of us and there is a law of reciprocity that
takes place. But that's not the major bank
account, and that's not the emphasis for the believer. The emphasis
for the believer is we walk by what? That's right. And then
we finish in faith, waiting for the reward on the other side.
That's how believers live. So we wait for a paycheck that
can't be given on this side of eternity. That's right. Now watch what John says in verse
28 of chapter two. Let me see here. Let me start
back at verse 26, because I want to kind of build a context if
I can. And this has to do with the third person. Who is the
third person? the Holy Spirit. And his job is to make Christ
a reality in the hearts of the lives of all believers. So back
it up to verse 26, if you can, and let's kind of just get a
context. These things have I written unto you concerning them that
what? Seduce you. So biblical teaching is always
set in an apologetic context by which it warns us against
people who would give us a wrong gospel, a false gospel, or a
false Jesus with false promises. This is what John had to deal
with in his own church. He says, I warn you against those
that seduce you because the goal of the devil is seduction. You
guys know that, right? I've taught you guys the five
D's, haven't I? The goal of the devil is to get you off of your
course to glory and have you completely consumed by the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil so that your life can be
just overwhelmingly preoccupied with your experiences rather
than with the promises of God. Now Mark verse 27, here's how
this works. These things have I written unto
you concerning them that seduce you. And in verse 27, But the
anointing which you have received of him abideth in you. The term
anointing corresponds to the third person as the blessing
by which in our presence he works to illuminate our minds and hearts
to understand the things of the kingdom. But the anointing which
you have received of him. What did Jesus say in Acts chapter
one? Abide here in Jerusalem until you receive power from
on high and then you shall be my what? Right, because see,
that's the whole thing. It's all about witnessing for
Christ. But in order to do it, you have to have the third person.
The third person has to help you operate counterintuitive
to yourself, because the gospel is a mandate that tells the world
it's on the way to hell. And you need the Holy Spirit
to be able to tell people they're on the way to hell. You need
that because don't nobody want to hear that message. And only
the anointing can grace you to tell people the truth about their
condition and then tell them what the remedy is. And so the
apostles couldn't go out and do ministry until they were anointed
by the spirit of God to let the Jews and then the Gentiles know
that they are presently under the wrath of God as Acts chapter
17. puts it so very clearly in verse
31, that God has appointed a day wherein he will judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom he has borne record to all
men and that he has raised him from the dead. So Jesus has been
raised from the dead. That means he's Lord of all.
That means all are gonna face him in the judgment. That's a
cardinal, what we call initial presentation of the gospel. If
you and I are not letting men and women know that they are
sinners under the wrath of God, we are not presenting the gospel
correctly. We are not presenting the gospel
correctly. And so he says, but the anointing which you have
received of him abided in you and you need not that any man
teach you. Don't, we're not going to get
onto a sidetrack with this one either. When he uses this term,
John, just like the writer to the Hebrews, just like the Lord
Jesus knows that what he is stating is that salvation is something
every true believer knows for themselves. that no man can teach
you how to be saved. You guys get what I'm saying?
So what I'm doing is I'm retrieving a faulty interpretation that
will suggest that you and I don't need teachers to understand the
word of God. What the text is echoing is Hebrews
chapter eight through 10, where it says, a new covenant will
I make with them, not as I made with their fathers, I will make
a new covenant with them. I will take out the stony heart,
I will put in a heart of flesh, I will write my laws on their
hearts and minds, and I will cause them to do my statues.
Neither shall they say, come, let us know the Lord, for they
shall all know me from the least to the greatest. So the text
is teaching the knowledge of salvation is personal. No one
can save you, and no one can tell you you are saved. Only
you can know that for yourself. And upon you actually knowing
that, if you do, you are to build on that salvation foundation,
the truth of the gospel, so that your life is lived productively.
Ladies and gentlemen, did that make some sense? Right, it's
very important for you to know that you got all kind of Tom,
Dick, Harry's, Susie's and Sally's running out there talking about,
I don't need anyone to teach me. And their doctrines are kooky. Is that true? It is kooky. God has raised up teachers and
shepherds to help suddenly explain the word of God so that you and
I don't go down these rabbit trails and these labyrinths of
missing the point when it comes to serving God. So, and John
talks about teachers in the previous chapter, so he would be contradicting
himself if he were asserting by this that there is no need
for human teachers. So he goes on to say, but as
the same anointing teaches you of all things and is true and
is no lie, even as it hath taught you, you shall abide in him. See that last line? It's called
an imperative. So, he set forth several indicatives. The anointing which you have
received of him abides in you. That's an indicative. You need
not that any man teach you. That's an indicative. But as
the same anointing teach you all things, an indicative, and
it's true, and it's no lie, even as it has taught you, you shall
abide in him. That's an imperative now. Your
job is to abide under the influence of the teaching of the Spirit
of God through faithful teachers so that your soul can be grounded
in the gospel so that your life choices can be productive to
the glory of God. Did that make some sense? Very
simple. Now look at verse 28 now. Watch
the context. Here it is. Now he talks about the return
of Christ in verse 28 where then we are challenged. And now, little
children, see, now John is using the same terminology that Jesus
did with him and the disciples. Little children, these are technons. Abide in him. The imperative
is repeated, right? Abide in him. Abide in him. Who is the him? Christ. But the
only way you abide in Christ is that you abide in the anointing
that continues to teach you through faithful teachers about Christ.
is you don't get the second person without the third person. Like
you don't get the first person without the second person. Is
that true? You can't have the father without
who? And you can't have the son without
whom? And you really can't affirm that you have the Holy Ghost
if you don't have sound, faithful teachers. You cannot affirm that
you have the spirit of God if you're running around with wacky,
crazy, maverick individuals who don't show themselves disciplined
or sound in teaching and approved of God as someone for whom you
should be, as it were, committing your soul to. Very dangerous. Now little children abide in
him that when he shall, what? powerful, powerful. When he shall
appear, we're getting ready to deal with that for the rest of
the class. We may have what? So if we abide in him, as Jesus
said in John 15, when he appears, we will have confidence because
our relationship will be one of familiarity and growing longing
for him versus one of unfamiliarity and distance or apathy or indifference
and coldness or negligence, which I don't know how a person can
call themselves a Christian and not have an ongoing battle with
wanting to see him and know him more and more in their soul.
I'm ready to fight that battle in my soul. The battle of longing
to see him. As David said in the Psalms,
when will I see God? When will I appear before God?
My soul pants after God. It longs after God like the heart
longs after the water brook. When will I see God? Now that's
the new nature. Crying out for God. The reality
is, here's the reality. All of our problems are solved
when God shows up. And not until then. Until then,
we gotta live with this crazy mess. And every time we run across
a crazy situation and our head is on right, this crop will get
fixed when Jesus shows up. That's my version, you ain't
got to use it. It'll get fixed when my Lord shows up. Until
then, we gotta put band-aids on it and duct tape You don't
push it down the road a little bit. Hope it doesn't roll back
into the house. I'm talking about how life really
works. And we're doing all that because we're buying time until
Christ shows up. And we're trusting that the trials
of this life are causing us to desire him more and more and
longing for his coming. And here's the last clause that
is the drive of our ethical response, a consideration that we might
not be ashamed before him at his what? That's right. Right. So the assumption that some folks
in the church won't be ashamed that it's coming is based on
nothing because the warning is here. And if I were to spend
time to treat it, I could demonstrate it in several passages that Christ
warns. Do not let me show up and you
not be right. He warns the last text in your
Bible around being ashamed I think it's Revelation 16, 15. Can you
pull that up? Revelation 16, 15, we talked
about this and Christ himself is speaking here and he's telling
the church, even in the book of Revelation, be careful. Here
it is. Behold, I come as a what? Blessed is he that does what?
And does what? Keeps his garment. That's an
imperative. Now it's stating an indicative,
but it's an imperative. You and I have to keep our garment.
And the metaphor is to make sure that we are standing in the righteousness
of God in Christ. That's the garment. To make sure
we are standing in the righteousness of God in Christ. Now, whether
you know it or not, that's a lifelong task. For you to keep your eyes
on Jesus, and to make sure your soul is rooted in who he is and
what he has done is a lifelong task. You and I are fickle creatures. I know you figured that out by
now. And circumstances can shift our confidence from God to self
in no time, imperceptibly. Didn't we learn it last week
with David? David just went straight, did he go straight off? That's
my brother. And I'll fight battles with him
in it, but David just went straight 51 50 until the sister showed
up now a Christian can do that But God will have to intervene
like he did for David and get him back on track Are you guys
hearing what I'm saying? And he often does it by warning
us that Warning us don't lose your garment This is what Paul
meant in Philippians chapter 3 when he says all that I might
be found in him not having my own righteousness Which is the
works of the law, but the righteousness which is of God by faith in Jesus
Christ apart from works I don't want to wake up one day having
Imperceptibly begun to trust in something I did a decision
I made or some experiences I had by which I'm confident to meet
God because surely I will have exchanged his righteousness for
my own righteousness in that day And I'm gonna be ashamed.
Listen to it. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed
is he that watches and keeps his garment lest he walk what?
And they see his shame. Again, he's using a larger analogy
of a person being caught in a situation where they will be embarrassed.
And it's simply underscoring that Christ will come at a time
when people are not going to be ready for Him. And in terms
of their soul salvation, we're not depending upon Him as their
Lord and Savior. And this is why teaching on end
times like we're doing is so healthy for you and me. Let's
go to work now a little bit on the doctrine of the coming. I
want you to work with me. This may be in the earlier part
of your outline where I'm dealing with the terms Peruzia, I'm sorry,
the terms Elicitai and Erkomai. There are three comings and I
wanna make sure that you understand them. The term coming in your
Bible, yeah, you can leave it right there since the term coming
in your Bible is used several ways. And the common term that's
used is the Greek word Erkomai. and it's used 637 times in your
New Testament, which means it's the word that is prominently
used, but there are other words. So I'm gonna start right there
with that term. When we use the term coming of
the Lord, the coming of the Lord, we are talking about either two
or three aspects of his coming. We're not always meaning his
actual physical coming. So when the Bible talks about
the coming of the Lord, you have to be very careful. Point number
sub B under, he will come or return personally and bodily.
Point A, he will come by what? The spirit and the preaching
of the gospel. He will come by the spirit and
the preaching of the gospel. Now, if this doesn't resonate
with you, what this means is you have not apprehended a sound
hermeneutic. you haven't apprehended a sound
biblical method of interpretation. Because for those of us who know
that the Bible is about Jesus, here's what we know. Jesus comes
in the volume of the book. It's written of him. You guys
got that? So when I say When I say the
coming of Christ is not always a physical bodily concept in
the scriptures, it is largely a coming by way of revelation
through the prophets in the preaching of the promises about Christ.
For instance, Christ comes in the prophecy of Genesis 3, 15.
Your seed will crush his head and his seed will bruise your
heel. That's a prophecy of the coming of Christ. Then when you
get down the line, when it talks about Abraham, out of your loins
will come one who will be king over the world. That's a prophecy
of his coming. So you and I know that there
are multiple endless prophecies of the coming of Christ in the
scriptures, right? So you and I are confronted with the coming
of Christ when we read the Bible and the spirit of God gives us
proper understanding of what the text is talking about. In
fact, those of you on Sunday are seeing Jesus come in David,
aren't we? We're seeing a wonderful expose of the Lordship of Christ,
the humility of Christ, the sufferings of Christ, and the anticipation
of Him taking His throne in David. So when I say He comes by the
Spirit in preaching, look at Acts chapter 3 verse 19 and 20
with me. I'm going to show you a few verses
underscoring this point. Acts chapter 3 verse 19 and 20. Listen to how the apostle puts
it here. Very apropos text. It says in verse 19, repent ye
therefore, this is Peter talking to the Jews, repent ye therefore
and be converted, that is, be turned from your path of trust
in words, that your sins may be blotted out. When the times
of refreshing shall come from the what? Presence of the Lord.
The metaphor is the idea of a downpouring of rain. the parched soil of
the heart that has not experienced the refreshing of grace because
it's been in a venue of legal works religion and the ground
is hard and dry and What Peter is doing is what the prophet
Amos said break up the follow ground of your heart So in righteousness
so that you can reap in mercy and pray that the heavens pour
down rain on the ground so that it can actually bear for the
fruits of righteousness, which are by God. You guys see the
analogy? And that's what Peter is saying here, that your sins
may be blotted out when the times are refreshing shall come from
the, what of the Lord? Right. So the Lord sits on his
throne and pours out his spirit through preaching. And he brings
about, I want you to hear this now, a revival in the heart of
a soul. Right. 80 people in here and
the spirit of God could be pouring out right now in the heart of
one soul. Just that soul could have already
been worked on by the spirit of God in terms of breaking up
the follow ground. And the spirit of God could be
pouring the water of grace and repentance in his soul, her soul
right now. That would be what the Lord would
be doing. It's imperceptible on our part. We don't see it.
We don't know it. But God could be working that way. He would
be working that way through the church around the world all the
time. He could bring about a revival in a church. And no other churches. He could bring about a revival
in a city. and no other cities around it.
I could talk for hours about how revivals work, but when God
brings revivals, there are outpourings of the blessings from on high
to wake people up and to bring new life where death is. And
this is what Peter is praying for, for the Jews, because presently
the Jews are under the wrath of God. Verse 20, now watch this. And he shall send Jesus Christ
which before was what? Preached unto you. It's amazing. How will he send Jesus Christ?
Will he send him personally is what Peter saying that he will
send Jesus personally. No, he's saying he will send
Jesus by way of revelation through the preaching of the gospel so
that Jesus comes through the gospel to sit on the throne of
our heart and govern our lives. Let me show you how this works.
Just so you can know, go with me now in your Bible to Ephesians
is in your outline. Let's go to Ephesians because
Ephesians will underscore this in Ephesians chapter three, verse
17, and then four verse 20 and 21. Here's how Paul uses this
term about the coming of Christ by revelation. And in the preaching
Ephesians chapter three, verse 17, are you there? All right,
so this is Ephesians 3, 17. Let me see if I wanna back up
a little bit and give some context for that verse 3, 17. Let me see here. So here it is. All right, so
let me start back at verse 14. For this cause, I bow my knee
unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family
in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, According
to the riches of his what? to be strengthened with might
by the spirit where Now watch this in order that Christ may
dwell in your hearts by what see it He's saying he's praying
to the father That the Spirit of God will work in us so that
Christ would take resident in our hearts Well, if Christ is
in heaven, how is he going to take residents in our heart?
But by the Spirit of God on the inner man through the teaching
ministry of the gospel. Paul knew this, Peter knew this,
John knew this, they all knew that Christ had to become a reality
in men's hearts in order for men to say Jesus is Lord. You cannot truly say Jesus is
Lord unless he's ruling on your heart. I mean, the devils can
say Jesus is Lord. We're not talking about lip syncing. We're talking about real hearts
that know Jesus. But the only way that can happen
is if Christ does what he said in John chapter 14, where he
says, if any man abide in me and keep my commandments, if
any man loved me and keep my commandments, I and my father
will make our abode in him and I will manifest myself to him.
So we're talking about the powerful manifestation of the reality
of Christ that comes through preaching by the power of the
spirit to give a man or woman a confidence that they know the
Lord. That they know the Lord. This
is very important in order that you may that Christ may dwell
in your hearts by faith that you may that you being rooted
and grounded in love. He goes on to talk about the
implications of that may be able to comprehend with all the Saints.
What is the breath and the length and the depth and the height
and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you
might be filled with all the fullness of God. Do you see it?
What he's saying is the resident Lord in our life becomes the
seed by which the fullness of the blessings of the gospel manifest
themselves to us and actually through us. Chapter four, verse
20 and 21 will underscore this largely. So I'm going to start
in chapter four, verse 17, and then go through 21. And we're
contemplating right now that the scriptures actually teach
that Jesus comes in the preaching of the word, Jesus comes into
the heart by the power of the spirit through the preaching
of the word This is the only way you can say, you know, Jesus
is if he's been revealed to you this way now watch this this
I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you henceforth
walk not as other Gentiles walk in the what of your mind Where's
the battle at in the mind? Why the devil came after Eve
and jacked her head up verse 18 listen to it verse 18 Here's
what the apostle says. So. In verse 18, having the understanding
darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in them because of the blindness of their what? That's
crazy. Verse 18 describes what it means
to be an unregenerate person. It's a long catalog, but we can
probably break it up in four parts. Having the understanding
darkened. when a man or woman has their
understanding darkened they cannot comprehend biblical truth first
corinthians 2 says the natural man does not perceive the things
of god neither can he know them because they are spiritually
discerned and we're not talking mysticism here i have to always
qualify it because after 30 years of ministry you always have people
who want to misinterpret the simplicity of the gospel around
mystical things like some unique, opaque, specific doctrinal truth
they hold. We're talking about the gospel
here. We're talking about why men can't understand when the
Bible teaches that God sent his only son into the world, assumed
the human nature, accomplished a work of redemption called the
atonement by which he satisfied divine justice and brings guilty
sinners to himself by faith. And all of the doctrines that
fall out under that, which were true believers who are illuminated,
they are understood even though they are not fully comprehended.
They're understood. Because the Holy Ghost gives
that understanding even to our children in our children churches. They understand basic simple
truths like the doctrine of substitution. You guys follow me? That's right.
The Spirit of God is able to help kids hold the tension between
the humanity of Christ and the deity of Christ without asking
for us to explain the hypostatic union. They didn't basically
hold these two together. He's the God man. Faith is able
to do that. Did you know that faith is able
to say he's a man and he's God at the same time. And I don't
know how to explain it, but I believe it because what the, what the
soul is doing is anchoring itself by a conviction upon the propositions
of scripture. The soul is not anchoring itself
upon its capacity to unravel every proposition. The soul is
anchoring itself on the proposition of scripture. Are you guys hearing
what I'm saying? Thus saith the Lord. This is
why Paul can say, as it is written, God has spoken, therefore we
believe. And so we have what is called
the spirit of faith by which we believe what God's word says,
even though we cannot fully grasp it. Having the understanding
darkened and then being alienated from the life of God. That's
what an unbeliever is. He's separated from the kingdom.
He has not the life of God in him. He's blind and separate
from God. You guys follow the logic? That's
the unbeliever. Watch this. He's blind and separated,
alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is
in them. In other words, what continues to perpetuate his alienation
is his own willing ignorance of God. In other words, while
there are things that are endemic to his fallen nature that constitutes
him being outside of the kingdom, his volition is also geared towards
maintaining that alienation. His volition constantly drives
him against the claims of the gospel. So not only is he ignorant,
he's willingly ignorant as Peter taught us, remember? This they
are willingly ignorant of. They are willingly ignorant of
all the evidence, the empirical evidence in our world of the
flood. Because we have so much evidence,
empirical evidence that something cataclysmic happened some 5,000
years ago. There's no way you can do anything
but explain it away. And that's what our scientists
do. And our God has made it clear for those of us who are believers,
we understand how the Grand Canyon came into being. Yeah, I know
how the Grand Canyon came into being. Noah made a left on that
big old boat and some of that water went that way and knocked
a hole into the mountain side. He had that boat rolling. Okay,
I'm kidding just in case you don't know who I am. having the
understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God
through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness
of the heart. And so until the heart has the blindness removed,
people can't see the glory of God in Christ. Verse 19, here
it is, who being past feelings have given themselves over unto
lasciviousness. You see verse 19? So verse 19
teaches us that the noetic effect of sins, N-O-E-T-I-C, that's
a Latin and a Greek term that talks about the corruption of
the mind that happened at the fall. When the mind is corrupted,
now you might as well get this, when the mind is corrupted, the
will is misguided. The passions are gonna always
work themselves out in a fleshly, sensual way. When the mind is
corrupted and the will is misguided because of ignorance, The passions
of our fallen nature, our sinfulness, our sensuality, our emotions,
our psychosis, our neurosis is gonna drive us to do things that
gratify the flesh. Did you guys get that? That's
called the consequence of the fall and the sustained ignorance
of the soul when we are willingly, willingly saying no to God, because
God made us as central creatures. You guys get that? We're all
sensual creatures. For instance, let me just tap
on it just a little bit. Can I do that just a little bit,
just in case somebody didn't get it. You and I are sensual
enough to like eating. I love eating. Just in case ain't
nobody in the house. I love eating. I was with my
brother last night. Boy, I almost called him at 12
o'clock at night. It was so good. I said, nah,
I'm gonna let Randy sleep. The food was so good. It was
sweet. Hanging out with my French brothers.
eating some e-touffee. Y'all don't know what that is.
Anyhow, I'm sitting up saying, Lord, that was so good. But if I were intemperate and
I had some type of what they call addiction, I could give
myself over to eating and it would be sin because it would
amount to gluttony. And I would be using that passion
to try to fill a void that really should be filled by my contentment
with my savior. So that I eat for strength and
not always for pleasure. Are y'all hearing what I'm saying?
And when our appetites get bent in other areas, when you see
people given over to excessive drinking, excessive partying,
Excessive engagement in this that are the other thing. These
are all Evidence is that the wheel is out of kilter and people
now are trying to fill a vacuum And fulfill the lust of their
flesh to the ruin of their soul lasciviousness to work all uncleanness
with what greediness there it is excess and So there's this
drive. You can't stop it. This is a
fascinating topic to me. I'm not going to stay here. But
one of the things that just is an amazing observation to me
is how Christians don't take the doctrine of mortification
serious enough to bring their bodies into subjection so that
they can enjoy God. Are you hearing me? so that he
can enjoy God. Because you can't enjoy God when
you are yielding your members to unrighteousness. You can't
enjoy God. You can't enjoy God. You're taking
God's holy house and turn it into a whorehouse. I'm just telling
you. You're not telling the truth.
That's what's happening. And so to enjoy God, you have
to take up the arsenals or weapons of warfare that he gives you
that maintains your freedom in Christ so you can enjoy him.
You have to mortify the deeds of the body, right? You have to bring them into subjection.
As Paul says, listen, I'm free. I'm free, but I'm not gonna allow
myself to just do anything. Isn't that what he said? I'm
free. He says, I'm not under law, but also all things are
not expedient to me. I don't have to go here and there
and yonder and enjoy that. When I know those things really
don't aid in a bet, my running the race that I might finish
with Christ. I can just as easily say no. Remember the no factor. All right,
see the no factor is a wonderful, wonderful litmus test as to whether
or not you're free. The only way you know you're
free to do a thing is if you can actually say no to it. The only way you know you're
free is if you can actually say no to it and actually don't do
it. Then when you do do it, you know
you are doing it from a place of freedom and not a place of
addiction. That's good, huh? Cause it's true. It's true. Verse
20, verse 20. Here it is. This is why just
out of GP, you got to say no to folks. I mean, just out of
general principle. I know I could go. I know I could
enjoy that event. I know I can go. I'm, I'm a person
that has self-discipline because I know my calling. I know my
purpose. I'm not going to cause people to stumble. I know my
freedoms in Christ, but I'm just going to say no, just so I can
know I got my no card in my pocket. It actually still works. That
no card still works. He says, but Christ didn't teach
you that kind of lifestyle. Christ didn't teach you that
kind of lifestyle. Let us sin that grace may abound is not
the lifestyle that Christ teaches us. Now watch this verse 21. Watch this. Here it is. Here's
what I meant by Christ actually coming to you by the spirit.
If so be that you have heard him not of him, him and have
been taught by him as the truth is in what? So Paul says, Every
true believer is taught personally by Christ, by the spirit, through
sound teaching. They can hear Jesus. Are you
guys hearing me? They can hear Jesus. So that's
how he comes. This is how he comes. And so the idea of the
coming of the Lord is seen by the preaching. It's also seen
by providence too. He comes in providence. What
do you mean by coming in providence? Well, he comes in the events
of our life. Doesn't Christ rule over everything? All right, so
we would say that all things work together for good to them
that love God, right? We would also say that all things
are working after the counsel of his own will, Ephesians 1.11,
so that the things that fall out in our life, we can say the
Lord was in control of that, right? And sometimes there is
such a specificity to things happening that we know it's the
Lord. We just know I was the Lord. Nobody knows how jacked up my
thinking was, but the Lord. And so he gave me a flat just
so I wouldn't go for like 10 seconds. I was mad, right? I
was mad for 10 seconds. Then I said, Lord, thank you.
You know, you know, I was about to get in trouble. You know,
I was about to get in trouble. You had to help your rule unruly
servant get out of some trouble. So we talk about his providential
rule, Luke 20, 16, Matthew 16, 26 and 27, 1 John 2, 18, Revelation
1, 7, 2, 5, 16, 3 through 11. Now in Revelations chapter one
through three. This is where I want to take
you now because this is the dominant term or comi for his coming. And I just want you to touch
on, I want to touch on that before we move to the other two comings,
which are most important. So in revelation, when you go
to revelation, you'll see Jesus will constantly talk about his
coming, especially when he wants to discipline the church. Go
with me in your Bible to revelation chapter two, revelation chapter
two, let's look at verse five. Revelation 2 5 and it'll say
it several times to the seven churches and it's always with
the exception of two churches admonishing the church Revelation
2 5 this is a church at Ephesus Remember therefore from which
you are what and repent and do the first words or else I will
what? See that I will come Or else
I will come unto thee quickly and will remove your candlestick
out of his place except you repent. See verse 5? The Lord, who is
the high priest and king of the church, John saw him in Revelation
chapter 1, right? The one with the wooly hair,
long garment, feet of brass, sword coming out of his mouth,
dwelling in the midst of the menorah, the seven golden candlestick,
representing the church. He's the one that has the ability
to snuff out every church. If the church goes apostate,
departs from God, he'll snuff it out. He'll cut the lights
out. It doesn't mean that that church won't still have people
in it. They won't have Christ in it. That's an apostate church. Are you guys following me? So
the high priest was the one who maintained all of the articles
in the temple, including the menorah. He would keep the menorah
shining. He would keep it well oiled because
it was oiled. It was sustained by the oil of
the olive tree. Remember that? So he would, trim
the wicks and make sure that that holy place was illuminated
continually by the menorah so that the holy place being illuminated
would be able to show the showbread that was in the holy place and
then it would lead towards the ultimate holy of holies where
the Ark of the Covenant was which was a dark room. And so the candlestick
was designed to point to the showbread. And the goal of the
local church is designed to point to Jesus who is the showbread. and where we are not pointing
in the Jesus, you might as well put the lights out. So the high
priest was saying to the church of Ephesus, you guys had your
doctrine straight, but you feel way out of love with me. And
I'm telling you now, get on your knees, start praying again, because
you are operating out of position two and not position one. Y'all
know what I'm talking about, right? Those of you who have
taken my rules of engagement class, position two is both heads
forward. Neither one of us are looking
face to face. When you love Jesus, you got to look him in his face
from time to time and say, Lord, you know where I'm at, but just
to get up under the yoke and keep rolling with him. You can
find yourself like those folks in Matthew seven saying, Lord,
have we not done this, that, and the other thing. And he'll
say, but I never knew you. You never turned around and talked
to me one time. Am I making some sense? It's
dreadful. It's dreadful. Remember therefore
where you are falling and repent. do the first works or else I
will come unto thee quickly and I will remove your candlestick
out of his place." It said in the second and third chapters
of the book of Revelation over and over again, I will come,
I will come, I will come. He says it in almost every church
with the exception of Thyatira and Philadelphia because
they did not rebel. I want to show you something
before I move to our next word. Now like I said, This word, erkomai,
is used 637 times. You guys see that? 637 times. So most of the time when you
read about the coming of anyone, or he came, or they came, that's
the normal verb that's used. And I want to call your attention
to that very fact. In our text, we are dealing with
a verb. What is a verb? It's an action
word, right? It denotes doing something. So
this is what we call the act of his coming. The act of his
coming. What he says in this text, unless
you repent and do your first works or else I will come unto
thee quickly. The emphasis is on the act of
his coming. What he's warning is that I will
act against what you are doing. Okay. That's the emphasis. So
we're dealing with we use the word or come I 637 times prominently
in the New Testament prominently in the Gospels and prominently
in the book of Revelation. It is a verb and it's underscoring
him acting in the case of a situation where there's disobedience or
rebellion or he's acting in the case of coming to rescue his
people. Okay, and so It's interesting
too, in the book of Revelation, there's a uniformity in chapters
two and three. The verb tense here is in what
we call the present indicative, middle passive voice. And all
that means is this, rather than it says, I will come, it should
be saying, I am already on my way. If you don't repent, I'm
already on my way. In other words, I'm not getting
on my horse, I'm riding. I want you to know I'm coming.
I am presently on my way. And why we use the term coming
in Providence is because from his throne, God can act to change
circumstances. He can take his spirit off of
a church. He can take it away from leadership.
If it rebels against him or departs from his word or starts adopting
false doctrine and false teaching after warning that church over
and over and over again, he will leave that church to itself.
So Thyatira, now, well, so then the church that was good was
not Thyatira, but Smyrna in Philadelphia. Thyatira was rotten. Pergamos
was rotten. Laodicea was rotten. Sardis was
rotten. Ephesus was marginal. You guys
remember that? Sardis had a name that it was
alive, but it was dead. Christ said I know you think
you're alive, but I'm here the one that I'm the one that gives
real assessment to spiritual condition y'all dead now, you
know, you're deceived when everybody in the city plus you think you're
alive and Jesus have to send you a letter himself and let
you know you did You sound deceived church folk can be Because they
make their determination as to their life based on something
contrary to the word Like I tell people all the time, your church
is not alive because you got a loud band and a bunch of loud
people in your church. That's not a lively church. Just
because you're loud doesn't mean you're lively. To be alive is
to be spiritually, vitally connected to Jesus. And it has nothing
to do with noise. Do you hear me? Nothing to do
with noise. Noise is a deception. when it's
not rooted in the truth. It's an absolute deception. Make
some noise. You sound like a rock band. You
got a football game. Right. And so I'm saying all
of those tactics are deceptive tactics. And this is why Jesus
gave us the seven letters. Let those folks know their assessment
is not my assessment. And so he's using the verb form
present indicative mode. So the next two words that I
want to use for coming is now the second word that I want to
deal with. Elicit, uh, elucidate is a common, is a not so common
term. I don't want to deal with it.
I want to move to the next three terms that are in your outline,
the revelation of Jesus Christ, the appearing of Christ, and
then the perusia of Christ, the revelation of Jesus Christ, the
appearing of Christ. So in point D, what you have
in point D is by revelation of Christ. You guys see that? by
revelation of Christ. So his coming is by revelation
as well. His coming is by manifestation.
And then his coming is finally by what they call the parousia.
Let me quickly see if I can clarify this just so that we can understand
what's going on. In Revelation chapter 1 verse 1, just go back
a few pages to Revelation 1 verse 1 and notice what it says. I
just want you to grasp this. The term Apocalypse, which you
and I talked about last week, is a term that's used relatively
few times in the New Testament, but enough for us to understand
what it's getting at. Its derivative is used a lot more. Luo, which
means to unloose. In Revelation chapter three,
verse one, chapter one, verse one, listen to this. The revelation
of Jesus Christ, you guys see that? Which God gave unto him
to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass,
and he sent and signified by his angel unto his servant John.
The word revelation right there, revelation, revelation, revelation
is what Christ does to affirm his presence. When he gives revelation,
it's an act by which something that already is present becomes
manifested to you and me. Okay, that's what the revelation
is about. So like the book of the revelation of Jesus Christ
is a reality in heaven, but for the first century church, they
knew nothing about it until God gave it to John. So the first
century church were in the dark about what Christ was up to until
he gave them the revelation. When he gave them the revelation,
it's like pulling back the curtains and showing the church what God
has already been up to from the beginning of time. Now all of
a sudden we're seeing in Revelation, not only does he know about the
church, but he's dealing with the whole of the universe, angels
and devils, and we're seeing saints in glory, we're seeing
saints under the altar, we're seeing all sorts of stuff, and
it's all centered around the sovereign rule of Jesus. This
is called the Revelation. Now this Revelation is designed
to give the believer comfort. You guys got that? Give you just
one example and then I'll move to my next word. In the days
of Elisha, he had a servant, I'm thinking his name is Gehazi,
and they were kicking it at the house, and the Assyrians came
and circled his house. It was like 2 Kings chapter 5
or something like that. And he told his servant to go
out and get him a latte with a double shot. That was early
in the morning, so he'd go get me a double shot. You know, Elijah
had been up studying all night long. And he was a little weary.
And he went out and he jumped in his little Peugeot and started
driving. And he looked up and he saw the whole house surrounded
by armies. He ran back in, father, father,
the Assyrians have just completely circled the house. And he said,
calm down. Everything's all right. There
are more of them that are for us than they are for them. And what Elisha saw, the young
man had not seen. Elisha was able to see the armies
of the Lord protecting him against them when his young man didn't.
And what he prayed for was that God would open his eyes. And
when God opened the young man's eyes, he cried out, the chariots
of the Lord, the horsemen of the Lord. And Elijah said, I
already knew that. You can calm down. I already
knew who they were. That's why I'm walking in peace,
because I know that the Lord is protecting me against these
my adversaries. And then he told him to go out
there and tell them, come on in, let me fix you some food
and let me take you where you need to go. And God blinded them
and he led them right on back to their camp. In other words,
he did them good because he wasn't offended and he wasn't offended
because he was at peace because he could see God. So this is
what revelation is designed for. I'm trying to build a point so
I can close, maybe take a few questions here in five minutes.
When we talk about the coming of Christ he comes in providence
he comes in preaching but he also comes by revelation this
is why the term is used not only a revelation chapter 1 verse
1 but look at second Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 7 we were here
a few weeks ago but I want you to see it again and I want you
to see the subtlety of how they use the term it's closely associated
with his coming but it has to actually do with not the act
of his coming but the fact of his presence So I want to state
that again for the record. It's not the act of his coming.
It's the fact of his presence So when he reveals himself to
us as having already been there, we're not saying that he's coming
We're saying that he's here I'm going to show you how that term
is used with what we call the parousia or the coming of the
Lord We're gonna close out on a second. So and to you who are
troubled do what I? Rest with us when the Lord Jesus
shall be what revealed from heaven with his mighty angels now watch
this So when he comes in his perusia His perusia is another
aspect of the coming I want to talk about here by which the
curtains will be removed and you and I will see this magnificent
entourage Jesus and his holy angels y'all see that So now
this doesn't mean anything to you if you're not going through
trouble. But if you're on the brink of
trouble, you can't wait to get that revelation because you know
he coming to save you. This is how important that revelation
is. So there's another word that
I want to share with you now. It's the word his appearing. Unfortunately, the term appearing
will have different Greek words to it, but largely revelation
is apocalypses. Appearing is another Greek word
that I want you to see is called epiphany. Have you ever heard
the term epiphany? Right. And when you have an epiphany,
what you have is something slightly different than a revelation.
Can I explain that for a moment? Right. So when you have a revelation,
it's something that is largely objective. It's outside of your
immediate profound experience. You are objectively observing
an event. Okay. But when you have an epiphany,
it makes a level of impact in you that brings you into that
revelation. Let me show you what I mean by
that. So you grasp the idea of the distinction between just
the mere revelation of the curtains being pulled back and the epiphany
or the appearing of Jesus Christ, because the term is always used
with regards to Christ's glory. This is how this works. So under
the epiphany or the appearing, I want you to go with me in your
Bible to first Timothy chapter 6, 14. I'm going to run through
three verses. 1 Timothy 6, 14. Mark how Paul talks about the
appearing. 1 Timothy 6, 14, he uses this term epiphany up
this way. Are you there? So start back
at verse 13 for me, for the PowerPoint team. 1 Timothy 6, 13. There's an admonition being given
here to the church And under 13, it says, I give you charge
in the sight of God, this is Paul talking to Timothy, I give
you charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and
before Jesus Christ, who before Pontius Pilate, witnessed a good
confession. The charge here now is a burden
that Paul is gonna lay on Timothy, so that Timothy will keep his
charge of preaching the gospel. Here is verse 15, that you keep
this commandment without spot and unrebukable. You can go to
14 now, that you keep this commandment without spot and unrebukable.
So Timothy has been being told by, you can go to verse 14. Timothy
has been told by Paul how to act as a preacher and how to
avoid youthful lust and how to avoid corrupt men and how not
to get caught up with hooksters. I mean, Timothy was really fortunate
to have Paul in his life. And what Paul was doing was helping
Timothy maintain purity in his calling as a preacher. Because
Paul was seeing him collapse on every hand into immorality,
into criminal behavior. And he was saying to Timothy,
Timothy, you're not going to be crowned running this race
unless you strive lawfully. So let me help you, brother.
Don't get caught up with women. Don't get caught up with wine.
Don't get caught up with false prophets. Don't get caught up
with crooks. Don't get caught up in false, irrelevant, insignificant
debates. Don't get distracted, brother.
Watch your heart. Guard your heart. As he said
in first Timothy chapter four, make sure that you are a believer
in word and in deed and in doctrine and in purity. Take heed to yourself
and to the doctrine. In doing so, you will both save
yourself and them that listen to you. Timothy the devil has
you in his bull's-eye Are you guys hearing me? This is how
serious a faithful gospel preaching is The whole of hell shouts in
joy when a faithful minister of the gospel falls Because when
gospel ministers fall it just opens the floodgates for the
nominal Christian to live like hell And here's what he says,
that you keep the commandment without spot unrebukable until
the what of our Lord Jesus Christ? Until the appearing of Christ,
until the epiphany of Christ, until Christ comes in such a
way that his coming will be your reward. Let me show you what
that looks like in a couple other verses. Go with me now in your
Bible to Titus chapter two, Titus chapter two, verse 13. Then we're
going to come back to Timothy one more time before we close
out Titus chapter 2. Here's how it's used in Titus
under the same concept of the Lord's coming in Titus chapter
2 verse 13. Here it is. Let me start again
at verse 12 because Paul always uses these long clauses. 2-12. Let me start back at verse 11. For the grace of God that brings
salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying
ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously
and godly in this present world. You see the characteristic of
how we should live as a consequence of grace? Verse 13, looking for
that blessed hope. The what? Glorious appearing
of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ what I want to call
your attention to is the weak Position that the King James
puts the word glorious in it says looking for the glorious
appearing really is the appearing of his glory the appearing of
his glory Looking for the appearing or the epiphany of the glorious
nature of Christ meaning When Christ actually comes in his
parousia, he will also at the same time be revealing himself,
but also revealing his glory. And that's the reward that the
Christian gets. He doesn't only get Christ, but
he gets the glory that comes with Christ. And glory is the
number one preoccupation with Paul. If you listen to Paul carefully,
listen now, for him, glory is the whole game. See, because
there was a day that he was just like what he had quoted in Ephesians
four, blind, ignorant, hard-hearted, given over to his lust, a superficial
religionist who thought the claims of Christ was a farce. And his heart was so hardened
that his passion was given to murder and blasphemy of Christians
until he had a manifestation of the glory. And when God revealed
his glory to Paul, his life was changed from that day forward.
For the rest of his life, he was captured by the glory of
God. This is my point. See, that glory
changed him. It was the impact. He didn't
see a man. He saw the glory. He didn't see
a man. He heard a voice and he saw the
glory. He said it was so blistering. It blinded me for three days.
I was so impacted by the epiphany, the revelation, the manifestation
of the glory of Christ that it changed his life. What I'm getting
at is when Christ comes, The fact of his coming will be both
his person and the impact of his coming will be his glory. Now, when we get to the word
parousia, that's the last word in your outline, which commonly
underscores the actual coming of Christ. And I want to show
you two words and I'm going to close here. Since I think I made
my point around the revelation and the epiphany, I want to talk
about the parousia. It's what we use in first Thessalonians
chapter four, verse 15 and 17, when it says, when the Lord will
come, we who are alive will not precede them who have already
gone. You guys remember that, right? It's used 24 times, but
let me share the use of this term in Matthew 24. Turn with
me in your Bible to Matthew 24. We're going to look at verse
3, 27, 37, and 39, where our Lord gives us the Olivet Discourse. And there, after we look at this
briefly, I wanna just make one more observation and show you
how this term is actually to be interpreted, and we will close.
I'm in Matthew chapter 24. And notice how the disciples
established the question. In verse one, and Jesus went
out and departed from the temple, and his disciples came to him
for to show him the building of the temple. And Jesus said
unto them, see ye not all these things? Truly, I say unto you,
there shall be not left here one stone upon another that shall
not be thrown down. That was a prophetic language
along the lines of the Old Testament. As soon as the disciples heard
that, they knew Jesus was teaching judgment on Israel. They couldn't
really believe that statement, but they had heard it before
in the mouth of Isaiah, in the mouth of Jeremiah, in the mouth
of the minor prophets. Jerusalem will be laid waste.
Here comes our master saying it again and saying it in such
an incongruent way because the disciples are Celebrating the
temple and he said that things coming down Now their attention
is jarred Here's what is stated now verse 3 They left the temple. They went and sat upon the top
of the Mount of Olives. So that's a walk they had Gave
these boys time to think right? Watch this and the disciples
came to him privately saying tell us that When shall these
things be that you're talking about? And what shall be the
sign of your parousia? Do you see that? So see the disciples
are not asking a shallow question. They're asking a question inside
of a question, inside of a question. When will these things be? And
what is the sign that will precipitate or precede your coming? They believed he was coming.
They wanted a little bit of heads up. And so he gave them the whole
Olivet discourse. You guys got that? Now watch,
I want you to get this. I'm gonna close here. I want
you to get this. Not only is it stated in verse three, but
look at verse 27. I'm gonna start back at verse
26. And I told you this last week. So I'm gonna show you how
the patrosia and the epiphania and the revelation are closely
tied together in terms of The act of His coming is one thing. The fact of His presence is another
thing. And this is what we want to get
out of the parousia. We don't want to get out of the
parousia, His coming. We want to get out of the parousia,
His presence. You guys follow me so far? Here
it is. Verse 27. Verse 26, wherefore, if they
shall say unto you, behold, he is in the desert, go not forth.
Behold, he is in the secret chambers. Do not believe it. Don't believe
anybody that tells you they got a secret in on when Jesus is
coming or where Jesus is going to show up. Just lock your pockets down. OK, because what I've discovered
again in 37 years of ministry His Christians check their brains
at the door because they love listening to popular rhetoricians
who can spin a web and tell stories and mesmerize you with a whole
bunch of highfalutin nothing. Simply because we're not grounded
in the word of God solid enough to know, we can't tell, we're
not discerning enough to know when he's giving us or she's
giving us a bunch of BS. Y'all know what BS is, right?
Bologna sandwich, right? Y'all know that, right? when
you're getting stuffed with bologna sandwich in the name of revelation. Yeah. You, according to the old
Testament, you actually supposed to pick that dude up and carry
them and throw them out the dough. We do the opposite. We pay him.
He's sitting in the big old buckets around and we pay him. We pay
him the lie to us, but y'all go hear that on Sunday here.
Cause that's what we do in our country. We have a history of
paying false prophets to lie to us. As Jeremiah 5 31 says
it, the prophets prophesied falsely. The priests bear rule by their
own rule, by their own authority. And the people love to have it.
So I'm telling you now, most people enjoy being deceived by
false prophets and they pay for it. Now listen to what Jesus
says in verse 27. for as the lightning cometh out
of the east. I told you, all you need to do
is go to the south. Nobody have to tell you in the
south that there was a lightning strike. Everybody know it, everybody
saw it, and everybody felt it, right? So this is talking about
the universal, a very clear, conspicuous manifestation of
Christ, right? When he comes, it ain't gonna
be no secret. For as the lightning comes out
of the east and shines even unto the west, so shall also the parousia
of the son of man be. Verse 37, three more verses. Verse 37, this is how he's setting
it up. And what he's telling his disciples
is, you don't have to worry about the details. All you have to
do is make sure you're in an ethically sound place and that
your communion with Christ has been solid. When He comes, you'll
be happy and your heart will be ready. Verse 37. But as the days of Noah were,
so shall the what of the Son of Man be? Right, the perusi
of the Son of Man be, the presence. Now He's simply talking about
the conditions upon the earth at the time that He shows up.
The unbelieving world will not only not be ready for Him, they
don't want Him. Verse 39. I'm sorry. Yeah. Verse 39. He's
now explaining. This is called an F exegetical
verse 37, 38 for as in the days for as in the days that were
before the flood, they were eating, drinking, marrying and giving
him marriage until the day that Noah entered into the art is
what we call the normalcy principle. People will be doing things as
normal when Jesus shows up. What that means is like some
of the stuff we're dealing with around, um, Political melees
and wars and economic Fluctuations and all of this stuff that's
going on all of this will go on when Jesus come it could even
get worse But we have the uncanny ability as human beings to make
it normal We go still get married We go still go to work start
businesses because we gonna try to live life Is that true Is
it true? Just in case you didn't get it.
I just, I see these question marks popping up in your head.
I don't think you get it. Is it true that in our third
world countries where our brothers are just living under the most
horrific, horrific, horrific, just atrocious wars that they
still get up every day and go to work, that they still clean
their clothes and still fix their food and still live life because
they have nothing else to do. They're still getting married.
So, so you, you and I don't want to believe that when Christ comes,
the world is going to be in so much chaos that everybody in
the world can't wait for Jesus to come. No, it's not going to
be like that. The vast majority of what will be going on in our
world is that we will grow increasingly apathetic towards Christ. Do
you hear me? Even to the level where for Christians,
it will become embarrassing to stand for Jesus. because the
numbers will be so far on the other side. Are you guys hearing
what I'm saying? And the consequences again for
standing for Christ will be severe. Here it is, verse 39. And they
knew it not until the flood came and took them all away. So shall
the coming of the son of man be. What he's stating is the
coming will be so quick that no one will be able to be prepared
for it. If you are not already prepared
by your walk with him, So I want to close with one more text so
that I can help you understand my emphasis of not the act of
His coming, but the fact of His revelation, the fact of His appearing. And now, actually, I think the
term is better translated, His presence. And some of our translations
do this, and I think rightly so. The King James never does
it, but it ought to have, in this case, 2 Corinthians 10,
verse 10. will be the one text that I'll use to demonstrate
how the word parousia is used as presence. And I want you to
mark how Paul will use himself as an example of this. Paul is
dealing with an unruly church and he's fundamentally, by the
time he gets to second Corinthians, he's going to threaten them to
come and deal with their issues. But he now is going to explain
to them how he knows that they're talking about him. And here is
where our Greek word will be. I'm gonna start at verse eight.
For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, that is
apostolic authority, which the Lord hath given, I'm in second
Corinthians 10, eight, which the Lord hath given us for edification
and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed. Verse
nine, that I may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters. Verse 10, for his letters say
they are weighty and powerful. You guys see that? This is the
assessment of the false rulers in Corinth that says, yeah, when
Paul writes, he writes these lofty letters and they fill with
all kinds of, uh, uh, uh, theologically rich content and exhortations
and even threats. But if you ever saw that dude,
you laugh at him. So now what these false prophets
are doing is getting the people to judge after the flesh instead
of after the spirit. Which again is carnal Christianity,
is it not? It's your soul type of religion
versus your David. Head and shoulders taller than
the rest, handsome, and get hell bound. David's a little ruddy
fella, he's the one God chose. Verse 10, here it is. For his
letters say they are weighty and powerful, but his bodily
what? Is what? See the word presence? That's our Greek word, patrosia.
Wherever the word power see is used. The emphasis is not the
actual coming of the Lord But the presence of the Lord His
having already been there In other words, the Lord is not
present yet But he will be Are you guys following? Right. So
now the term revelation the term epiphany and the term paddle
see ah are all nouns They are not verbs. A verb is an action
word. A noun is a person, place, or
a thing. When we talk about the parousia of Christ, we are not
talking about an act. We're talking about a being who
will be present and we will see him in his person and in his
glory and in the full revelation and the weight of his authority
will stop every mouth. That's the next manifestation. You guys understand what I mean
by that? The term was used for the presence of a dignitary or
a royal person or a king who actually shows up among his people. And now everybody has to reckon
with his presence. And that's what the peruse is
about. It's not him coming. It's him being. Let's close in
prayer. Father, thank you for this time.
Thank you for this study. As we move back into the book
of Acts, give us grace to work our way through it and see how
the church has established itself as well. Everyone here, bless
them, Lord, with insights into this study that will also strengthen
them as they walk with Christ. Give us traveling mercies as
we go our way. Prepare us to worship you on
Sunday, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you for your
patience.