2 Peter 3, he says this second letter, Beloved, I now write unto you, those who
have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness
of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Beloved of God, foreloved, foreknown,
loved of God, chosen of God, redeemed by Christ beloved. That's who he's writing to. That's
who the us are. Us, we, those who do not know
him, are the they and the their and the them. He's longsuffering
to us, but to them, wrath. This is to believers to
remind us, he said, I want to stir up your memory. that you
may be mindful, that you may be thinking of these things.
We need constant reminders, don't we? We need to be reminded that
everything in this world is vanity. John prayed that. Lord, You know
our frame. You know how weak we are. You know how we're flesh.
He does know our frame. We need to be reminded. So that's
one of the reasons we come here. We come to worship. We come to
give thanks. We come to hear from Him. We
need to be reminded, though, when we go out in the world,
when we get caught up in the world, and things worry us and
trouble us, and things we hear and see, we need to be reminded
again that there's one thing. This is the thing needful. Everything
else is vanity. That what you see out there is
temporal. It's just temporary. This is
eternal, these things. We need to be reminded that all
men are liars. They're lying to you. God of
this world is deceiving you. The riches are deceiving you.
Everything in this world is perishing and temporal and is lying to
you. Religion is lying to us. We need to be reminded of that.
God is true. God's Word is true. Every man
is a liar. He's in it for his own lusts.
That's what he said in verse 3. We know in this verse that
come in the last days, scoffers walking after their own lusts
or evil desires or whatever their hidden motive is. He said, I
need to remind you of the words spoken by the prophets, the words
spoken by the apostles. raised up some men. Holy men
spake as they were moved by the Spirit of God. Prophets of God.
What the prophets said then is still relevant today. Everything
they said to their generation is relevant right now. Right
now. Because men haven't changed. Generations haven't changed.
God destroyed the world by flood thousands of years ago because
it was just like this one, just like this present evil world.
And God told us through Christ, as in the days of Noah. Noah
was a prophet, a preacher of righteousness. All these prophets
warned their generations of God's anger and wrath. And you just
don't hear that today, do you? But God has not left himself
without witness in any generation. The truth is known throughout
every generation. And the true preachers today,
just like Noah, just like Isaiah, Jeremiah, just like Hosea and
all of them, warned their generation. John was one of the last. He
said, Who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Do you
hear any modern preachers saying that? Well, I'm a modern preacher. Your dad's a modern preacher.
Your brother, he's a preacher today. There's still some men
saying this because it's still vital. This is the message. They laughed back then. Boy,
did they laugh. But they're not laughing now. Everybody that laughed then is
not laughing now. They said they will come in the
last day scoffers. And the reason I believe this
is the last of the last day, well, there are many, too many,
not enough time to tell it. But the just simple reason is
that there are more people now than ever. The whole earth, like he said
right before the flood, he said, the whole earth world has corrupted
my way. It's full of violence. Doesn't
that describe 2014? No fear of God before they're
out. None. This message was one born of
anger as I read And I can't help but read the
things that are being printed and said in our modern world. Comments. This is the day where
everybody can spew out their words and their thoughts and
their comments, and they're there to be read. Most of the time,
I wish I hadn't read them. I've never heard such blasphemy
as I'm hearing now. I'll just give you the context. I was reading about this gay
marriage thing. And someone was rightly condemning
it. Well, I just thought I'll read
some of the comments by those that read it down below. You
know what I'm saying. Everybody can give their comment. I wish I hadn't. They were calling
our Lord gay. And it just angered me. Angered me. Angered me. And it broke my heart. People hate God. It's true. They hate holiness. They ridicule and mock everything
that's right and true and just and righteous and precious and
pure. Don't they? Hate it. And God loves righteousness and
hateth iniquity. God can't love filth. We just sang it, holy, holy,
holy. The long suffering of God's salvation. I wouldn't have put up with this
world this long. I wouldn't have put up with me. But he waits to be crucified. Scoffers. Mocking. People mocking
mercy. Scoffing at the truth. Those
who tell the truth are their enemy now. Paul said to them,
I've become your enemy for telling you the truth. Tell them you're
going to perish. They laugh and ridicule and set
you up as the evil one. Isaiah told his generation, warned
them, said, you're going into captivity. A hundred years before
it happened, he said, you're going to be overtaken and overcome
and in more misery than you've ever known. And they stopped
at him and they mocked him. And the king Ahab then, just
like our present ruler, said, he's troubling Israel. No, what
Isaiah was saying is Israel's in trouble. They're in trouble. Big trouble with God. And he was trying to tell them
the way out of trouble. The only way. And our generation is openly
defiant. This is why I believe we're in
the very last days. Openly defiant. They declare
their sin as Sodom. Openly defiant in God's face. Now, you tell me how long God
will tolerate that. They didn't. But Sodom made them
an example. We, us in here this morning,
and some others here and there in little places like this, we're
just like Noah and his family sitting in that ark. Yes, we
are. We're a strange group, a cult. Nobody believes like you. Nobody
believes that God is angry. Nobody believes that God is going
to pour out His wrath, that the sky is going to rain down rain
or rain down fire. Nobody believes that like you
all. Look at it. It's a beautiful day. And there
you sit in there talking about judgments coming. And that you
must get in Christ. You must be in Christ like we
are. There you sit in that ark. It's a beautiful day and not
one drop of rain has fallen. You're a bunch of fools. Nobody
believes like that. We're just like Noah and his
family. Here we sit by faith, believing
all that is written in the Prophets and the Apostles. All that our
Lord Jesus Christ said about his return. We're waiting. We're
waiting on the Lord to return and the fire to fall. And we're hopeful the door of
the ark is still open. We're so hopeful for our children,
our grandchildren, our friends, our loved ones, our neighbors
and all that the Lord still has a people out there He's looking
for and He's going to find them and bring them into the ark with
us before that door shuts. While the world, it goes by like
they did to Noah, and scoffs and laughs both on dry land. And I don't want to be guilty
of what I've been guilty of in the past, just getting angry
at people and mad at people and self-righteous over people. But
I want to pray for them and mourn for them and beg the Lord. Lord,
have mercy on them like you did me. He brought me in the ark. He didn't have to, but you did
of your great mercy. You revealed yourself to me.
I was blind just like my son, just like my daughter, my granddaughter. I was blind just like them, Lord,
and you had mercy on me. Would you do that again, please?
For your great name's sake, for your son's sake, would you reveal
Christ? Would you open their blind eye?
Lord, open the eyes of the young man that he may see. Put him
in the ark before it's ever less than too late. Where's the promise of His coming? That's what they said then. They
scoffed. Where's the promise of His coming? You know who's at the center
of this great division and controversy, if you will? And you know what
this is all about? Jesus Christ. They can't ignore Him as much
as they would like to, as much as I would have liked to. Can't ignore Him. He came. He worked. He spoke. Turned the
world upside down. And 2,000 years later, brother,
it's still talking about it. It's still divided over it. I
looked at Barnes & Noble the other day, and Time magazine
sitting there, had a picture of that supposed to be Jesus,
you know, that picture that somebody has some depiction of, they think
looks like Jesus. It's an idol. Nobody has a clue
what he looked like back then. But anyway, this long-haired
fellow with a beard, wow, Bill Hickok. Looked like General Custer,
you know. Had that picture of him on there,
and the caption was this. And I thought, how? How? How
appropriate. Who do you think I am? Two thousand years later, if
he was a nobody, there'd have been men come and gone. No. There'd have been leaders, great
leaders. Nobody's talking about Alexander the Great. They don't
care. They don't care. Nobody's talking
about Genghis Khan. Adolf Hitler, he's dead. Nobody's
worried about him. But if they can't quit talking
about him, quit trying to fight him, quit fighting him, you don't
have to fight a myth. You don't have to make comments
about a myth. But somebody that troubles you, Our Lord said this in Revelation,
that I am alive, I am He, I was dead, but I am alive, and you live because I say so. Who? Jesus Christ, whom men crucify. Jesus Christ, whom everybody
is so divided over. That's what this is all about,
brotherhood. Where is the promise of His coming?
And today, you say, He's coming. If you don't believe Him, why
do you worry about Him? Huh? He's coming. He's coming. Where is He? Where
is He? Let me tell you this. If He's
God, and He is, everything He said is absolutely true. If he's God, and he is, everything
he warned about, buddy, you better be eating it right, I mean right
now. Whatever he warned about, you
better listen real carefully. Whatever he said to do, you better
be doing it right now, right now, now. And he said he's coming again,
and he said like a thief in the night. You don't know when. He said, I'm coming. He said,
you better watch. Watch. Call. Call. And so we did. I did. Let them call me a fool. Let them call us a fool. Be a
fool for Christ's sake. And that's why we come. They're
willingly ignorant. Verse 4, 5 says they're willingly
ignorant about creation. God, by His Word, spoke the heavens
into existence, the earth standing out of the water and into water.
Here's just one note about the creation of God, talked about
water, water, water of life. Water is the key to life. There's
no other planet in all of the universe, in all of the exact
galaxies, not one, not one that has water on it. This is called the blue planet.
It's the most glorious planet of them all. The rest of them
are dark and desolate and dusty. You can't live on it. Why? Water. And God, in the beginning, said,
moved on the face of the waters. He said, let the dry land appear,
the blue water, and a firmament full of water. Water, water,
water. Water everywhere. Water. Just
like a greenhouse. Water. life, and only an utter,
complete idiot, ignoramus, fool, would look at this glorious planet
and think it just evolved and happened. I'm not even going to go into
that. They're willingly ignorant. That's
what the scripture said. Romans 1 says they hold the truth,
suppress the truth and unrighteous. But water, the world was overflowed
by water. Do you realize how fragile this
earth is? These, where we live, how fragile
it is. The water is all around us. Two
thirds water on the face of this earth. Your body's made out of
water. Christ said, I'm the water. Listen to this. Jeremiah 5, he
said, Do you not fear me? This is the Lord speaking. Do
you not fear me? Will you not tremble at my presence?
Me, who have placed the sand for a bound of the sea by perpetual
decree, it cannot pass. Water can't come so far. Sand. God made sand all around where
we live, sand and the water, the raging ocean. This ocean
that's deeper than any mountain on the face of the earth. Powerful. Keeps coming so far and stops.
Every now and then God will go, boom! And wipe out the whole
town, the whole people, everything. The blast of his nostrils went
just once. Show them. Oh, covers them. Wipes them all
out. They die. But then it keeps coming. Water.
He said, won't you fear me? Why won't you fear me? He said,
I give the rain. The rain keeps coming. Without rain, we die. We'll die. I send the rain, he said. You
won't fear me? Water, life-giving water just
falls out of the sky. No, we'll listen to men, wise
men, fools, utter fools who hate God. Who hate God, love money,
want your money. Tell us that there is no God.
Like that, what's his name? The fellow that everybody thinks
is brilliant? I forget. I'm glad I forgot.
But anyway, they say there is no God. No, it all just happens. And then he said, the same world
by water overflowed. And he said now in verse 7, the
heavens, the earth are now kept by the same word, by the word
of God, by the command of God, of Christ, are kept in store,
waiting reserved unto fire. Fire. Fire and brimstone. Who said that? Who said that? Jesus Christ. It wasn't some
wild lunatic. It was Jesus Christ. So remember that when people
make fun of that and they talk about some preacher preaching
fire and brimstone, that's Jesus Christ. You better not laugh
at the Lord Jesus Christ. Same world. against the judgment
and perdition of ungodly men without God, but beloved. Verse
8. Beloved, be not ignorant of this
one thing. They say, where is the promise
of His coming? Well, He did promise He's coming, and He will, but
not when you expect Him. He will, but not because you
think He ought to or when you think He's going to. No, no man
knows. He knows. Don't be ignorant of this, verse
8. Beloved, believer, don't be ignorant of this. One day is
with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
In other words, God is of no time constraints or restraints
at all. We are creatures of time. We
are totally bound by time, aren't we? We are creatures of time. We think about time all the time. Except when you're preaching,
you forget the time. But we do, don't we? We plan ahead, and
we hope when we run out of time, and time goes by slow, time goes
by fast. You know, we're creatures of
time. We want it to hurry up, we want it to slow down. Time,
it just controls us, just bothers us, but not God. A thousand years. There's no hurry. No hurry. Nothing compelling
him to hurry. Well, he's a Terrian. He's Terrian. He's late. Oh, no. He's already
purposed everything. It's right on time. A thousand
years. It's one day to him or one day
to a thousand. It makes no difference. When's
he going to work? In his time. And men say, well, he's not coming
because why? Because look, at the time. Well,
you don't have a clue what time it is. You don't have a clue. The Jews think it's 1980 something. You know what? We think it's 2000. We don't
have a clue. When did time start? We know this at least 6,000 years
ago. It wasn't six billion. Who in
the world would believe that? You know why they believe that?
They've got their own tests. You can make up your own tests
and say, this is it. This is how we know. Well, who
came up with that? We did. We're experts. This thing is
a billion years old. How do you know? This is how
our little test says. Oh, you're a scientist. It must be so. Blind or they suffer fools gladly.
Pay us money and we'll tell you all this. Where am I? Oh, time. One day
is a thousand years, a thousand years is a day. I memorized this
scripture when I was a very young man, Ecclesiastes 8.11. It really
impressed me. Ecclesiastes 8.11 says this,
because sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed. In other words, people do things
and they get away with it. They think so. Men sin and just
do anything and God does lightning. Maybe lightning strikes men.
They taunt Him. He doesn't. He doesn't. Because sentence against an evil
work is not speedily executed. Therefore, the hearts of the
sons of men are fully set in them to do evil. See? No God. I can shake my fist in
his face. No God. He that sits in the heavens
laughs. I told you about my little worm
farm, and I think everyone in here needs to have one. It will
remind you of what we are. It will remind you of what this
earth is, a ball of dirt, and what men are, living in a ball
of dirt. In darkness, levers of darkness
rather than light. Feeding on dead things. They'll
only eat dead things. They won't eat living things.
Worms won't eat living things. They'll eat dead things. Rotting
things. Corrupt things. I go down there
all the time and I feed them. I water them. They need water.
They'll die without water. I feed them. I water them. And
every now and then I'll take a bucket full of them out. A
whole big ball of worms out. and transplant them, move them
down to my garden, and the rest of them don't think a thing about
it. Go right on. Go right on groveling. Groveling. Roll over one another. Now, I've
never had one of them yet. I looked down on them at all
to see if there were any that did understand. Any of them that
say that, hey, your life is in my hands. Hey, I'm feeding you. I bought you. I brought you,
I house you, I take care of you, I could cast you all out right
now. I don't need you. Not one of them has ever said,
hey, thank you. Not one. And that's us. But God, but God, some of these
worms. And every time I go down there,
and I take that lid off, there's a whole bunch of them trying
to get out. Trying to get out, and I tell them, if you get out
of here, you're a goner. I'm talking to worms. What a fool, I'm talking to worms.
And every time I look at that, I want to cry. Because that's
mean. The only way, let me go ahead
and say this, the only way that I could possibly get through
those worms is if I became a worm. And go down there and say, listen,
I've come to reveal something to you that you don't have a
clue about. I'm from above, you're from beneath. Isn't that exactly
what the Lord Jesus Christ did? Psalm 22, I'm a worm and no man. Jacob, hear not thou worm, Jacob. He came down here. See, he's
not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness.
He's longsuffering to us. Oh my, I count that the longsuffering
of my Lord is my salvation, that he waited to be gracious to me.
He didn't come in 1974 and 5 and 6 at the height of my rebellion.
He didn't come. I would have perished. But yet
He came for me in the gospel. Bless His holy name. Revealed
Himself to me. Now here I am, waiting. He's not willing that any should
perish. Salvation by the will of our
God, who worketh all things unto the counsel of His own will.
And whoever he is not willing should perish, they won't perish. Thank God he wasn't willing that
I should perish, that some of you should perish, but that all
should come to repentance. Every one of God's people will
come to repentance. Repentance means to have your
mind changed. You think about God. You didn't
give any thoughts about God. My thinking about God. Have your
mind changed the way you think about yourself. That's what you
think about death and judgment. A new mind, a mind of Christ.
It's to have a new heart given to you. Old heart. Everything's
changed. A new heart. A new heart. Have your life given. Life given. Whereas you once
walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the fire and the air, children of darkness even as
others, children of wrath, But God, rich in mercy, not willing, change. Turn. Why will you die? Turn. Turn. Give Him a new heart. Open
His eyes. Send His Holy Spirit through
this right here, preaching the gospel. Open His eyes. Open His
ears. Give Him a new heart. Change. Give Him life. Change His walk. Turn Him around. Bring Him to
me. That's salvation. All come to repent. And it's
a lifelong change. These worms are going to change
someday. These worms groveling. Look how
we grovel here below. Fond of these earthly toys. Look
how we're fond of dirt. Look how we're not conscious
all the time. Look how we look down and don't
look up. Look at this. Someday it's going
to change. Someday it's going to put us in a coffin We'll come
out and fly. Our souls are going to fly away. After that day will come, verse
10, as a thief in the night, everything is going to be dissolved. Why would we be so caught up
with things that are going to dissolve? I say we. Verse 11 says, What manner of
persons ought we to be in holy conversation and godliness? Now, let me just say this about
that. You look at somebody who's dressed
in black and touch not, taste not, handle
not. Do you think there's a godly person? If you do, you got it
all wrong. All wrong. The Pharisees, that's
the way they dress. They outwardly looked godly to
everybody. Jesus Christ came, and they said,
He's a wino and a glutton. And these Pharisees, who our
Lord said are full of extortion and excess, whited graves, whited
sepulchers. Everybody looked at them and
said, what a godly man. You see, that's not godliness. That's not Godliness. Holiness?
Being separated from the world? Ho, ho, hold on now. He was in
the world, though he wasn't out of it. Can you be in the world
and not out of it? Oh, yeah. That's what holiness
means. But holiness and Godliness is
not what most people think it is. It's sure not to be self-righteous. If somebody's trying to keep
the law to be accepted by God, that's not a godly man. That's
a self-righteous person. And God hates self-righteousness
more than a harlotry. That's right. He said it would
be easier for the harlots in judgment than Pharisees. Go learn what that means. Men and women don't know. Holiness
and godliness is not to be self-righteousness. Self-righteous is not to be so
strict and so legalistic and miserable all the time and judgmental,
touch not, taste not, handle not. It's not what you wear on
the outside, but it is what you wear on the inside. It's not how miserable you can
be and make others. The Lord ate and drank with sinners.
John lived alone, and they said they both were lost and rotten. Religious people, you know, are
unholy and ungodly just as much or more so than the streetwalker. They didn't understand then.
Let me tell you a little bit what holiness, holy conversation,
and godliness is. It's to be wise. Have wisdom from above. It's to worship God. It's to
worship God. Have communion with, walk with
God. You can live in this world. You
can even look like it to a degree. Dress, you know, and so forth.
You know what I'm saying, not provocatively or sensually, but
just common dress and still be walking with the Lord. It's not
to be involved with the things of this world. A holy conversation
is to have your thoughts, your mind, your affections set on
things above. It's not to be taken with. The
politics of this world, the issues of this world, the causes of
this world. We've got to save our planet. Oh no, we don't have
to save our planet. It's just not my planet. It's
not my planet. I'm looking for a new place.
I'm not interested in saving this planet. Never mind, you're
not trying to pollute it. Come on now. Oh, we want to live as long as
we can. I don't. If you don't have anything to
look forward to, yeah, you better do all you can. But let me tell
you this, you're not going to live a day past the day that
God has ordained for you, no matter what you put in your body
or don't put in your body. You know that doesn't mean we're
to abuse ourselves. Wisdom justified for children,
but it's not to be taken up with the causes of this world. It's
to think on God. Think on Christ. Think on eternity. Talk to God. Walk with God. Walk with Christ. Hear Christ's Word. Love His
truth. Seek His truth. Seek His mercy. Seek His grace. Be like Christ. Be merciful. Be gracious. Be
kind. Be forgiving. Be loving. That's godliness. It's not the
way you look or what you don't do. It's what you do. And it's
what you know you don't do. This is godliness. Be like Christ.
Think on God. The world doesn't think about
God. It's to be not like a dog or
a worm, but like the Son of God. Higher.
Higher than that. That's Godliness. Is that the
little clue? Holiness. Christ came into this
world made like unto us without sin. Holy, separate, undefiled
God. But nobody can tell the difference
except God's people. But His life, His thoughts, His
heart, His walk, His speech, His attitude was like God. And so, and here it is in verse
12 says, see there's a comma behind verse 11, looking for.
That is our conversation, our life in the heavens looking for
the coming of our God. What are you all doing down there?
Playing church? Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no. This is not about music. This
is not about just having a good old time. This is not about,
you know, fellowship dinners and all that. Oh, this is all
about getting to know Jesus Christ. Worshipping Him. Growing in the knowledge of Him.
We want to know Him. We're waiting on Him. That's what we're doing.
We're waiting on Him. Because it's all going to dissolve. Read
on. Brethren, verse 14. Beloved,
seeing that you look for such things, be diligent, watchful,
that you're found of Him in peace without spot and blameless. How are you going to be without
spot and blameless? Would you mind telling me? Those
that are unstable, rest Christus. See? Better keep yourself. How? How are you going to be
found of God in peace? What does the rest of the book
say? He is our peace. What did Paul say in Philippians
2? Oh, that I might win Christ and be found in Him. And I would have it my own righteousness. He cleaned up his act long before
he knew the Lord, and he was filthy in God's eyes. Filthy.
And then Christ came and with one word, cleaned him. Said he's
clean. Justified from all things. Peace
with God by the blood of His cross. That's how. without spot
and blameless. Jude said, Now unto Him that
is able to keep us from folly and present us faultless. You can't make yourself without
spot. You can't present yourself blameless. But I tell you who
can. If you're found in Him, He's going to present you blameless
for the presence of His glory. Be diligent now. Don't leave
this Gospel. It's the only one that will present
you Not unless without spot. Be diligent now. And Paul, he
says that in every one of his epistles, things hard to be understood,
they rest. Beloved, verse 17, you know these
things. You know these things before.
You've heard them before. Beware, lest you also be led
away. Led away, mind you. Not forced,
not led. He's subtle. Religion is subtle. Covetousness, materialism is
subtle. Sin is subtle. It's all luriness,
wooiness. That's how Satan led Eve. Led her. Don't be led away. Don't
be led away by the error of the wicked in religion or in the
world. Materialism, the deceitfulness
of riches, that's what he entices. Don't be led away and fall from
your own steadfastness. Where are you safe? Where are
you sure to be found of God in that day when Christ comes? Holy
and unblamable, unrepentant. Where are you sure to be accepted? Where are you sure? Where can
you be sure that God will receive you when he sends Christ to come? Where? In Christ. In the Beloved. Steadfast. The beginning. Hold
steadfast, Brother John, to the end. Your confidence. Hold on
to it. What's your confidence, John?
What's your confidence, John? What's your confidence, Stan?
I want to hear it. Women? Cherry, go ahead. Louder. What's your confidence, Ron?
Huh? Joseph? That's a sure hope, buddy. Don't
leave. Don't go anywhere. Grow in grace. It's a good thing the heart be
established with grace. Oh, let your heart be established,
it's by grace you're saved. And be gracious in the knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, to him be glory, who loved
us, washed us from our sins in his own precious blood. What a treasure. Amen. Okay. Brother John, what's we... 152. 152? Sir. 152.