I will never give to thee, I
will never give to thee. excellent hymns of praise. That's what hymns are for. 2 Peter chapter 3 now. 2 Peter chapter 3. If anyone does
not have a Bible, it's imperative that you follow along verse by
verse. Anybody not have one? All right second Peter chapter
three. It's hard to be. Good sound clear verse by verse. Exposition of God's work it's
hard to be. Verse by verse preaching or teaching. They wanted to say. I heard. We have looked at this together
a couple of times since I've been here. And just yesterday
or the day before, maybe, I was listening to a tape. I place no emphasis on this,
but I just had a big box of tapes. I told you, I literally have
thousands. And I just reached in that box. and pulled one out
and stuck it in a tape player while I was working over there.
And Maurice Montgomery was preaching on this passage. And I heard
the same tape ten, twelve years ago. He preached on it back in
the early eighties. I was blessed then and I was
blessed yesterday. And then I began reading it myself
and was blessed again. The title of this message is
seeing you know these things. Seeing you know these things,
written to believers. Look at verse 11. Look at verse
11. Seeing then that all these things
shall be dissolved. Verse 14. Wherefore, beloved,
seeing that you look for such things, be diligent, and so on. Verse 17. Ye therefore, beloved,
seeing you know these things. He says that several times, something
about these things. One of the brethren reminded me that our last message,
or one of them anyway, was think on these things. I didn't plan
it this way, but this is the way things are moving. These things, seeing you know
these things, seeing that these things shall be dissolved, and
so forth. All right, let's just begin in verse one. You have
several verses to cover, and let's look at verse one. Beloved, this second epistle,
their second letter, Beloved, I now write unto you. Who is
he writing to? A child. Could figure that out
from that verse. Beloved, I write unto you. Look, he says this four times
in this one chapter. Remember that four times he leaves
no doubt who he's talking to be a love it. This is an affectionate
term brother Terry you know the scene you know this is an affectionate
term reserved for God's people right the beloved of God loved
before of God be loved of God. I look back at chapter one. Now
he addresses it in chapter one to whom he is writing. Look at
chapter one. So there will be no doubt who
he is writing to and he never leaves. He always is speaking to these
people. All right, look at verse 1. Simon
Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them, I'm
writing to them, that have obtained like precious faith with us through
the righteousness of God and our Savior, or of our God and
Savior, Jesus Christ, grace and peace be multiplied unto you. through the knowledge of God,
or those who know God and Jesus our Lord, according," read on,
"...all according as his divine power hath given unto us all
things that pertain unto life," that is, eternal life and godliness,
"...through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory
and virtue." See that? "...whereby are given unto us."
exceeding great and precious prophet." You see that? He said, us, how many times? One, two, three times. At least three times. Us. Us. Got that? Who is he writing to? The Beloved of God, in which
he'll go all the way through here saying, us. All right? It's important. that we understand
that because we're going to second Peter chapter three verse nine
is one of the most abused verses of Scripture in all of the Bible.
It's got the word us in it. It's a key word. All right. All
right. Back to verse one beloved. I
write unto you beloved those who have obtained like precious
faith beloved Love of God us I write to stir up your pure
minds. He's not saying our minds are
totally pure in a sense of no sin in them or whatsoever. He's
talking about sincere. Sincere. Sincere mind by way
of remembrance. In other words, I want to arouse
your mind, stir you up. I want to stir up your memory.
That's what he's saying. I want to stir up you who are
sincere about this thing. You who are sincerely looking
for Christ, believing Christ, looking for him, looking or listening
to hear from him, I want to arouse your memory. All right? Verse
2. Arouse your memory. Verse 2. He says, now, I want you to be
mindful, remember the words which were spoken before by the holy
prophets. and of the commandment of us,
the apostles of the Lord and Savior, the commandment, the
holy prophets, and the commandment of the apostles. What's that?
That's all the Word of God in it. That's the Old Testament,
which some say we don't need, the Old Bible. We'll do away
with it. No. Peter said, I want you to
always be remembering what the Old Testament is saying, what
the prophets are saying, because if you're ignorant of what the
prophets are saying, you probably have the wrong Christ in the
New Testament. That's the reason the Old Testament is written,
is that you might know Him who can have the right one. All right? Let's talk about God's Word,
to the law and to the testimony, the law and the prophets, the
prophets and the apostles. All right? Verse 3. All right,
so here's the first thing I want to remind you. that has been
said by the prophet and has been said by us, the apostles. Look
at verse 3. First thing, knowing this first,
that there shall come in the last days scoffers, scoffers,
walking after their own lusts. Have you ever had anyone scoff
at you? A scoffer is one that When you say something, that's
a bunch of scoffer. That's what that is. Look over
at Jude, just a few pages over at Jude, just five or six pages. Jude 18. Jude 18, he says the
same thing. Paul says the same thing in his
epistles. That's what Peter is saying.
We've said it to you before. Jude 18, look at this. Verse
seventeen, Beloved, remember the words which were spoken before
the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that they told you
there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after
their own ungodly blood. Practically the same words, isn't
it? Same thing. So there'll be scoffers, he said,
scoffing. There'll be religious scoffers,
there'll be irreligious scoffers. There'll be scoffers that principally
scoff at the truth. As I've said before. The truth
of God's word listen to me now not just rambling. The truth
of God's word is so rare. In our day so very little of
the word of God truly being preached especially this verse by verse
exposition. That if you just dare to read it or just dare
to proclaim the truth claim claim truth Paul said seeing therefore
we have such hope we claim to suspect he said in second Corinthians
four five gospel be here it's not it's not here because we're
having it. He said we don't corrupt we don't
have won't take away from don't add to we just plainly declare.
Our gospel be heads heads them it's long. Well, plainness of
speech. And the truth is so rare in our
day. If you just simply proclaim the
truth, like the truth that God is God, people will stop at you. In other
words, God is in absolute control. That's what the name means. That's what his name means. You don't have a God, capital
G, unless he's God. That means absolute sovereign. You know, there used to be king,
kingdoms. There used to be monarchies,
absolute despots. People knew what that meant.
Where the word of the king was, the scripture said, is power.
In other words, exactly what the king said went. Nobody could
stay his hand because the king was the king. People used to
know that. There ain't no king no more.
This concept, or this form of rule, is so far removed, people
don't have the foggiest notion of what king he is. Scripture
says he's king of kings. It even says the king's heart
is in the hands of this king of kings. The heart! He turns
the heart with the sway of his will. That's God! He's not waiting around for anybody
to do anything. He's not depending on man to
do anything. He doeth according to his will
in the armies of heaven, and that's God. Oh, let's go on and
on with that. And just say, God is God. In that sense, the people say,
Ha! Won't they scoff at you? Why, he's just a successor. God
elected a people. Success! Right? The truth is so far gone. Just mention it, and people scoff. I was reading Isaiah 59 the other
day. You want to read something interesting?
I preached from this one time. He said truth has gone way backwards. Way backwards. Judgment's turned
away backwards. Justice and truth has fallen
in the street. Equity cannot enter. They won't
have it. Churches will not have a man
stand up in their pulpit and say, God is God. They won't do
it. I'm telling you, the most fundamental
conservative of Southern Baptist churches, so to speak, will not
let a man stand in their pulpit and say, God chooses whom he
will and damns the rest. They won't let it happen. They'll
scoff at you. Why? And they'll call this the doctrines
of devils. Yeah. The devil knows that. He's smarter
than most people. He knows God's God. He knows
even he can only do what God allows him to do. Right? That's
the doctrine the devil believes. That God's God. Truth. Truth. They'll scoff at the truth or
scoff at the gospel. We don't need this old bloody
old-fashioned bloody religion anymore. Well, we're beyond that. We don't need to preach blood
anymore. We're civilized folk. We're beyond
that. We're not heathens. We're educated,
civilized, kind and sweet, gentle. We're beyond that old, bloody,
old-fashioned heathen slaughterhouse for a living. We don't need to
talk about that. Let's talk about love. And they'll scoff at you. If
all they keep talking about is blood, Joe, they'll scoff at
you. But we've got to talk about blood every time we stand up
here. Every time we enter this place, we better be thinking
about the blood. Right? Why? Because it's the blood that
makes atonement for the soul. And it's because the blood makes
propitiation for our souls on the mercy seat right now that
God doesn't cast our souls in heaven or in hell at this very
moment. It's blood. Blood's our salvation. And when we see Christ, we're
going to see a lamb as it had been slain. But who is this that
cometh from Baja with his garments dyed in red? It's he who walked the winepress
alone. I'll tell Scott that you. All
this talk of God's sovereign grace and doctrine. And they walk after their own
lusts. You see it there, verse 3, it says, walking after their
own scoffers. scoffing at the truth, scoffing
at the gospel, scoffing at you, walking after their own lust,
or that is, their own pursuits, their own covetous... There's only one reason a preacher
will not preach the truth. Well, there's two reasons. Number
one, he doesn't know it, and he doesn't believe it. And
also, he's more interested in his own job than he is the souls
of men. Right? Because this kind of preaching
won't get you a big crown. It won't do it. It won't make
you a name. It won't make you famous. It'll
make you infamous. It'll make you infamous. Every
one of the apostles Every one of the prophets, the early church fathers, the
reformers, the martyrs. As martyrs, you say this preaching
will get your head cut off. John the Baptist will tell you. And if it were lawful today,
they'd do it again. And preachers are just fearful for their jobs.
They're walking at their own lists, their own pursuits. a name for themselves, a big
organization, money, money, money, walking after their own love.
Look at verse four. He says, and this is what they say, and
he's talking about the religious and the irreligious, irreligious,
the world, agnostics, scoffers, atheists. I really don't believe
there's such a thing as an atheist. You let a man smash his thumb,
and you hear who he calls on. But at any rate, they say they
are. And verse 4, this is what they are saying. Where is the
promise of his coming? I hear all this talk about this
Jesus coming back again. Well, where is it? Listen, just
where is it? Men have been talking about this
Jesus coming back for years. Now, where is it? Just hang around. Just hang around. Where is it? They say, since the fathers fell
asleep, or since our daddies and daddy's daddies all fell,
died, all things continue as they were from the beginning
of creation. Nothing's changed. All things continue as they were,
and things are just going to continue right on. And if they had any sense at
all, they'd see that all things are not continuing. as they were
from the beginning of creation. Things are pretty—something's
happening. How many hurricanes have we had
this season? Something's happening. If men
would just take a clear look at this world, they'd see it's
being turned upside down, it's being tossed and shaken, continuing
as they were. No, things are rapidly changing.
Rapidly changing, moving toward a predetermined end. All things have an end. We continue, in a sense, all
things do continue as they have, and that's the grace of God.
That's restraining grace of God, isn't it? He said, until the
time that Christ comes, he said, it's going to be a season. It's
not like that old wives' fable, is it, Nancy? That somehow winter
is going to be turned into summer and vice versa. No, Christ said
it's going to be spring, summer, springtime, harvest, and things
are going to go right on. Why? Because Christ is going
to come at a time when he thinks no. Things are going to go right
on. There will be two out in the
field, gathering there, and things are going to continue. That's
all by the grace of God, isn't it? Things continue. Sun, rain,
sun, rain, seasons, God's gracious promise and His design. It's
all for the elect's sake. You see, the elect is still living
here on this planet. If it wasn't for that, God would
have wiped her out a long time ago. The reason things continue,
the reason the restraint or the providential grace of God continues
upon this planet is for the elect's sake. reason the economy of the
United States of America hasn't gone under? For the elect's sake. Because none of God's seed will
ever be bacon bread. Ever. Ever. Ever. You have God's promise
on it. All right? They say, where's
the promise? All things continue. Oh, no, they don't. And yes,
they do. All right, verse five, he says, "...this they willingly
ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old,
the earth standing now that watered into one." By the word of God. He's talking about creation,
isn't he? He says, "...this they," the
key word there, "...willingly ignorant of." When you're willingly
ignorant of something, that means you will not—I will not believe
that. I won't have that. Willingly
ignorant. Refuse to believe it. Creation
is scoffed at as ridiculous, even though there are the plainest
of evidences that creation is true. Evolution. Evolution is the intelligent
theory of choice today, and this is what we have educated ourselves
to believe in. We believe that man came from
a primordial slime. Isn't that intelligent? See, we've spent—our mamas and
daddies spent thousands of dollars to send us to school for us to
learn that this amazing, marvelous creation called the universe,
and especially mankind, who is fearfully and wonderfully made,
came from slime. Isn't that intelligent? That's what I say. I stopped at that. It takes a
whole lot more faith to believe in evolution than it does creation.
You'd really have to make yourself believe in that stuff. As I've
said before, all of the actual concrete skeletal evidence for
this supposed theory of man evolving can be contained in a small box
the size of a child's coffin. Every bone, people, every bone. I didn't mean to get started
on it. But they take a jaw of something they found over in
Kenya and create the rest of it with clay. And they say this
is homo jib-jab. Three zillion years old. Man, oh man, here's more money. Find more bones. Make these fellas rich, Sam.
Digging up bones. Oh, boy. They're willingly ignorant. Scripture says, willingly ignorant. You remember that illustration
of the watch? I'll not give it again, but that's
the most ridiculous. You know, mankind, this whole
earth, just look at, just look at the simplest of things. These
aren't, well, these used to be real. They're dried up. Look
at just one leaf. of one flower, one petal. It has veins in it like we do
in our body, and blood, the chlorophyll, running to it. I'm telling you,
an all-wise, superior being made that. Ain't no doubt in my mind. Looking at that, just that. What
about me? This creature, that's what we
are, a creature created. They're willingly ignorant, willingly
ignorant. You know the reason, there's
a couple of reasons men want to disprove, men want to disprove
the Creator, a couple of reasons. Number one, if he's the Creator,
that means he owns us. Right? Whatever I create, I can
do with it what I please, and nobody can say anything about
it. Right? I can save it, or I can destroy
it. Right? Cannot I do with mine
own what I will? Isn't that what God said, Joe?
Isn't that what God said, John? Cannot I do with my own what
I will? He said yes. Yes, he's the creator. Secondly, if he's the creator
and he owns us, we're answerable to him. We're answerable to him. Just like my father, in a sense,
created me, I was answerable to him. Right? I must obey him
or suffer the consequences of not doing so. Right? Why? not Creator. So men don't, will
not have this God reign over them, so they're willingly ignorant. They make themselves believe
evolution. Find a jawbone? Yeah, no God.
There's no God. Good boy, that's just what we
needed. No God. Now we can do what we want. And
they do. They do. Willingly ignorant,
obstinate And verse six says, the world that then was being
overflowed with water perished. They're willing to ignore the
flood in spite of the clearest of evidences. And I could preach
for two hours on the flood. I really could. They have found in ancient caves
in South America, they found paintings by the Indians of a
big boat and animals getting on it. Fish fossils have been found
on top of the Andes Mountains. Fish! What'd they do, swim upstream? Fish fossils. Much of the world's
crust, the earth's crust, the outer layer is older than the
lower layer. Explain that, would you? Except
by things being shaken up, huh? We were standing, a neighbor
and I were standing out in my yard some time ago, and we were
looking at all the rocks. Oh, and I've got rocks. You do,
too. But I told somebody, I'm going
to have a rock, I'm going to advertise a rock and roll party for teenagers. Big rock and roll party. Come.
And when they all come, Sam, I'm going to have them pick up
all the rocks and roll them over the hill. Well, there's rocks
all over my yard. All over my yard. And my neighbor
said, you know, this is about, he said, that river is about
800 feet down there, and this is so many feet above sea level.
How did all these rocks get up up here? How did they rock? I
said, you reckon the flood had anything to do with it? A flood! That explained it all,
didn't it? Fish fossils. A flood. This means that they're willing
to ignore that. I won't believe—don't believe that. No, don't believe
that. Verse 7, "...but the heavens
and the earth, which are now by the same word, are kept in
store." It says God created the heavens and the earth by his
word. He said, "...let there be light." Let there be light. He didn't
do it with his fingers. That's a figure of speech there
in Psalm 8. Heaven is the work of thy fingers.
God has no fingers in that sense. He's spirit. Christ does. Christ
does. At any rate, he did it by his word, the word
of his power. He said, Let there be light. And there was light. That's how
he's created, by his word. He says, by the same word, the
heavens are kept now, kept now in store. He said, Scripture
says, John, he upholds all things. He holds up, he preserves all
things by the word of his power. He said, let there be light,
and there was light. What was that? Sun, that big
burning ball of healing. Hydrogen. Hydrogen. Sorry. A
big burning ball of hydrogen. Biggest hydrogen bomb in the
world, in the universe. Big burning ball of hydrogen. What keeps it together? What
keeps this big, huge hydrogen bomb from exploding? God says, hold it. Hold it. He said, let there be life. Big
burning ball of hydrogen. And he says, warm the earth.
Just warm it. Just stay so many million miles
away from there. Too close, it'd burn it up. Too
far, it'd freeze it. Just the right amount to sustain
life on. Warm it. Generate life. Sustain life. Let there be life. Let there be life. warm it, warm
it. In the same word, he's going
to say, burn it! Scorch it! Same word. God's going to say,
burn a little hotter, son. Burn a little hotter. Destroy life. Burn it up. He says it's going to rain fire. See that? Verse seven. reserved
on the fire, and it's the revelation. God says, OK, I will not have
you. I'm Godly man. See that? And they're without excuse, aren't
they, Terry? Romans 1 says it. of creation,
invisible things from the creation of the world are clearly seen.
His eternal power and Godhead, Paul writes in Romans 1, clearly
seen. They're without excuse, aren't
they? Without excuse. And they did not like to retain
God in their knowledge. They wanted God, so God gave
them up. He says to a reprobate mind, a mind void of judgment,
a mind that would rather believe And then it says he's going to
rain fire, and they're going to want what? But, beloved, beloved, you know these things. You've been taught these things.
Who taught you? Flesh and blood didn't reveal
them to you. You were just like them, John, weren't you? Just
like them. A scoffer, just like them. till
my Heavenly Father, our Heavenly Father, said, John, I am thy
God, thy Creator, and thy Savior. But beloved, and you are my beloved. Beloved, verse eight, be not
ignorant of this one thing. Remember this, he said. One day,
one day with the Lord is as a thousand
years, and a thousand years as one day." I love that verse. And oh, my, that says so much. I think principally what he's
saying there is that time is of no essence with God. We think, you know, fifty years
is a long time. God is timeless. being. Time is God's eternal. A day
is a thousand years. A thousand years is as big as
yesterday. I want you to turn to this, Ecclesiastes
chapter 8. I have to hurry up. I don't want to keep you too
long. Ecclesiastes 8. You need to look
at this. You need to mark it in your Bible.
This is one of the verses you may want to mark in your Bible.
Ecclesiastes 8. I've quoted this to you a few
times, but I want you to read a couple other verses with it.
Ecclesiastes 8. See, we're creatures of time,
and when things don't happen on time or according to time
we think it ought to, we think another thing will happen. Right? You know, in our time Judgment
of time, it doesn't grow much. It grows a little bit the older
we get. You know, when we're children and things don't happen
now, it's not going to happen. When are we going to get there?
Soon. Right? We think, you know what I'm talking
about, don't you, Bart? When we're a little older, we think,
be patient, be patient. We ain't much patient, are we? We're still, you know, creatures
of time, time. Well, God is not. Where is the promise of his coming?
He's coming. It's been two thousand years
since he said that. Days, a thousand years. He's
coming. He's coming. It's just been two days. To him,
right? Two days! Look at Ecclesiastes
8 verse 11. Because sentence against an evil
work is not executed speedily. In other words, since fire doesn't
fall, God doesn't judge men just as soon as they do something
evil. Therefore, the heart of the sons
of men is fully set in them to do evil. Hey, we got away with
that. Let's do this. Hey, we got away with that. Hey,
we're getting away with all. Must be no God. Sky's the limit. Let's just go. Every sin, the Scripture says,
shall receive a just recompense of reward. He will by no means
clear the guilty. Doesn't he say that? I'm not
getting by with one thing. Days thousand years. God doesn't
always pay his bills in November. Right? Look at verse 12. Though
a sinner do evil a hundred times, and his days be prolonged, it
surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God,
which fear before him. But it shall not be well with
the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, or just a shadow."
He doesn't fear God, and he's going to see that God judges, that God is. All right, back to the text.
Back to the text. Time is of no essence, and you
could go on and on with that. Days, a thousand years, you could
think about that in the spirit of prophecy. days, thousand years
and thousand years today. God created Earth in six days.
On the seventh day, he rested. This Earth would be in the seventh millennium, year 2000, or somewhere
thereabouts. That might be it. Peter might
be telling us. Don't be ignorant of this. You're going to rest. And so on and so forth. Maybe. But anyway, time is of no essence with God.
You know, if you know the end, the outcome of something, nothing
upsets you or hurts you, does it? Nothing. If you've read a book, it doesn't
matter what happens through. You're not upset, are you? If you know the end, You're not
in a hurry. If you knew the outcome, absolutely,
beyond a shadow of a doubt, knew the outcome, you wouldn't be
in any hurry, would you? It's like Stan, my dad and I,
you know, we watch these ball games, these silly games, basketball,
and we pull for a certain team. And if that team, if they're
playing live, we won't watch it. But if they win, we'll tape
it and go back later and watch it say, I'm guilty. I'm admitting
it. We'll go back later and watch
it. Well, you know, you can slow it down to tape. You slow it. Watch it. And he drives me crazy
with that. Watch this. Watch. OK, I've seen
that. Go on. But you can slow down. They might
be behind 10, 12, 15 points. Slow down. Watch this. No, let's
get to that. No, no, no. Slow down. So you're
not in any hurry. If you know the outcome, you're
not in any hurry. A day is a thousand years. Where's the promise of his coming?
You're not in any hurry. Acts 15, 18, No one under God
are all his works from the beginning. He knows when he's coming. And he ain't going to come any
sooner just because some Joe Blow says he doesn't believe
that. Well, Joe Smith, now he doesn't think, excuse me Joe,
Bill Johnson doesn't believe that you're coming. Well, I'll
show him. What? He's coming just exactly when
he said, before the time began, just exactly when he decided.
He's coming. He's coming. And look at this
though, beloved. This is good. The Lord is not
slack concerning all his promises to save a people, to give them
to Christ, to keep them, to give them eternal life—all of those
blessed promises, covenant promises. Oh my. But the promise he's talking
about here is, he's coming. I'm coming back. I come. I'm coming back. He shall so
come again. And he's going to destroy this
thing. He said it. The prophet said it. The apostle said it.
He said it. Peter said, I'm reminding you, the prophet said this and
we're saying he's coming back and he's going to destroy this
whole thing. And he's not slack concerning his promise. He said
he was going to. Here's the reason he has delayed,
or in our way we think about it, delayed his coming. Delayed
it. He's right on time. But this is the reason he hasn't
come yet. Look at verse 9. He's long suffering. Oh, my. Over there at verse 15. Oh, brethren, listen. You need
to account this. Take into account that the long-suffering
of our Lord is salvation. What if He had come, John, fifteen
years ago? He wouldn't be saved, would you,
buddy? He'd be damned. Why has He hasn't
come yet? You've got to say John Davis. Isn't that a good thought? Why
hasn't he come yet, Charles? Huh? Why hasn't he come yet,
Merrick? Why hasn't he come? Might be
he's got to save them all in Isbeth. Ah, I've got to save them all.
All my elect, they're going to... Every one that the Father giveth
me shall come to me. Every one. We don't know who
they are, do we, John? We don't know who they are. He hasn't
elected. And they're ever one going to see the Son, believe
on him, and have everlasting life. And whoever and whenever
that last elect is born and believes and so forth, that's it. That's it. You see, he's longsuffering to
us. Now who were we talking about to us? Beloved, us, us, us. Look at
verse 9 now. He's long suffering that us were
not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
All of who? Any who? Any of us? That's what he's been talking
about, isn't it? If God is not willing that anybody that is
without exception should perish, ain't nobody gonna perish, because
he doeth according to his will. Right? This is the most abused
passage in all of the Bible. He doeth according to his will,
and the armies of heaven among the inhabitants of earth, and
none can stay his hand, or so you can't do that. He's not willing
that any should perish. Who's the any? Look at that verse
again. Longsuffering to usward. Toward us. Toward us. To usward. Toward
us. Not willing that any of us should
perish, but that all should come to repentance. All of who? All
of us. All that he gave the Son. But, listen, the day of the Lord
will come. The day of the Lord will come.
The day of the Lord. Scripture is full of that. That
term, the day of the Lord. That great and coming day, the
day of the Lord. Oh, give me two hours to preach
on this. The day of the Lord. The day of the Lord, the coming
of the King. The day of the Lord. You see,
he came one time in meekness. He's coming again in absolute
power and strength. He came one time as a man. He's
coming next time as the Holy One of God. He came
the first time to die. He's coming the next time to
say, I live forever. You will die. He came the first
time despised and rejected of men. He's coming the next time
and every knee will bow. And every tongue confess, say
it! He's Lord. Every time without
exception. He came the first time riding
on a donkey. He's coming the next time on
clouds, on the wings of the wind, riding a white horse. He came the first time and he
did not cry nor lift up his voice in the street. He's coming the
next time and his voice is going to shake the universe. and men's
heart will quake with fear. The day of the Lord will come. We'll come as a thief, he said.
As a thief. Thief, that means the thief is
coming at a time when you least expect it. When you're not looking
for him. You know, if you're looking for
a thief, thieves don't come when you're looking for But as a thief
in the night, in 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 burned up, seeing
then that all these things shall be dissolved." Oh, I got it,
got it, got it, got it, got it. Seeing that all these things
shall be dissolved, what manner of person ought ye to be? In other words, this is what
our lives ought to consist of—holy conversation, or that is, spiritual
conversation, Christ-like, and godliness or God-towardness,
things of God, looking for God. That's what he says in verse
12, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day, the day
of God. Looking for. You looking forward
to it? Looking forward to and hasting.
Hasting means want. You want it to come. When you
haste something, Hastings said, come, come on, hurry, hurry. Looking for it, Hastings, and
we could go on. Verse 13, nevertheless, and the
heavens shall be it on fire, shall be dissolved, elements
shall melt with fervent heat. Verse 13, nevertheless, we, according
to his promise, Look for new heavens, that's Isaiah 65, 17. New heavens and a new earth.
God said, I'm going to create. Behold, I create, He said, a
new heaven and a new earth. The former things shall not be
remembered, nor come to pass, nor come to mind. New heaven,
and I create Jerusalem a rejoicing in my people, a joy. And there'll
be no crying, no tears. New heavens and new, and that's
what we look for. We believe he's going to wipe this whole
thing out, this whole ball of dirt, ball of wax. That's what it is. It's going
to melt. And we look for, we though, look for a new heaven
and a new earth. We, we, we. Everybody else doesn't. They're holding on to this one.
They're trying to save their mother. Save your mother. If this is your mother, you better
save her. Huh? If she's my mother, I better
say my mother. She ain't my mother. She's a
ball of dirt. That's all she is, a ball of
dirt. And the Lord's going to wrap
it up, the scripture says, like a vesture, fold it up, throw
it away, cast it aside, melt it. It ain't my mother. Who is
my mother? Christ is my father, my mother,
my husband, Seeing them, nevertheless we, according to this point,
look for new heaven. Verse 14, Wherefore, beloved, seeing that
you look for such thing, be diligent, be diligent that you be found
of him in peace without spot and blameless. That means don't
be seen with a, don't have a, don't, don't be watching, what? Don't have on the TV set when
he comes. Make sure that you're not watching
TV when he comes. Is that what that means? Make
sure that you don't have any glamour magazines on your coffee
table when he comes. What does this mean? Look at
it again. Verse 14. Found of him in peace. What's that mean? Peace with
God. How does man have peace with God, John? Christ made peace. He made peace. A chastisement. By his chastising we have peace
with God. By his blood we have peace. Without
spot and blameless. How are we going to be presented
before God? How is God going to see us as
holy, unblameable, unreprovable in his sight without spot or
blameless? So he's saying, be diligent.
In other words, Paul said, give diligence to make your calling
and election sure. Work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling. In other words, find out whether
or not you're in Christ or not. That's what that says. Be diligent. Get serious about this thing.
That's what he said. Get serious. Commitment. I wish
I had time to read that article that was in the The bulletin that I'm going to. Commitment, that's what he's
talking about. Nothing short of a full commitment is acceptable
to God. Uh-uh, there's fence straddlers
going in. Christ is all or nothing. There
are no half-secrets with God. The believer is committed body
and soul to Christ. Don't be deceived into thinking
that the Lord God will be pleased with anything else than total
commitment. True faith is only justified
by obedience to Christ, whatever the cost is to me." He said, I would that you were
cold or hot, but you're lukewarm. Well, commitment. Read on. Be
diligent that you may be found in Christ. Give diligence to
make your calling and election sure. Verse 15, account, remember
this, a long suffering of our Lord is salvation. I've got a
lot of, I need work. Oh, I need help, don't you? I
need to grow in grace and the knowledge of, I need a lot of
work. And how long must I suffer with you, he asked? A long time. And Paul wrote some difficult
things, he said, of all these things that I've spoke of, he
said, Paul wrote about them. Things hard to be understood.
And they that are unlearned and unstable, unlearned and unstable,
they don't know who God is, and they aren't settled about anything.
They rest or twist. They don't know who God is, and
they aren't settled about anything. Was God God or is he not? Yeah, you may. Is God God or
isn't he? Well, yes and no. Like one preacher
said in our Friday paper, he said, you control the one who
controls you. Well, either that's so profound
that it's beyond, it's over my head, or that's just utter nonsense. You control the one who controls
you. He said that a Baptist preacher
in his time. Unlearned, unstable. He doesn't
know what he believes. Does the blood of Christ save
or did Christ save or did He not? Well, yes, but, yet and year and night. And yes,
no. Maybe, if. Well, He could have. Unstable, right? I'm settled
on this issue. You're settled on it. Did Christ
save or did He not? Yes! Is it the blood that says, yes? Whose righteousness is it? His!
Is God God? Yes! Ain't no yea and nay to
it. Yes! All the promises of God
are in Him are yea! And amen. Oh, but they're unlearned and
unstable. They don't know which way they're coming or where they're
coming or going or where they ate last. But you, beloved, seeing
you know these things, you know these things, beware lest you
also be led away with the error of the wicked. Fall from your
own stead. What's the error of the wicked? How are you led away?
You're not forced, you're led. Good words and fair speeches
and, you know, impressive dissertations on this and that and the other. Fall from your own steadfastness.
And nobody can fall from salvation. He's talking about here steadfastness,
John. Steadfastness. You're steadfastly
holding on to this Christ, this belief, right? That is what you're
steadfastly holding on to, right? And anybody can make you waver
a little bit from that. That's what he's talking about. Not lose your salvation, you
can. because Christ had never lost sheep. All right, verse 18. But grow
in grace in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Grow in grace. It's a good thing
that the heart be established with grace. Grow in grace. This whole thing is grace. Sovereign
grace. And in the knowledge of our Lord
and Savior. Lord. He's Lord. and Savior, not hoped
to be, not wants to be, is Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory
both now and forever. Amen. And the word amen means
that's the way it is. That word amen means so be it. The word amen means I believe
that. You know the tune. Cherry, don't
come up. Just everybody stand with me. You know this tune. We're just going to sing this
one verse, and I'm going to look it up because I want to make
sure I get it right. Stand with me. Let's sing this
one. Hallelujah, what a Savior. The last verse says, When he
comes, our glorious King, all his ransomed home to bring, then
anew this song we'll sing. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Let's
sing that. When He comes, our glorious King,
All His ransom home to bring, Then anew this song we'll sing,
Alleluia! What a Savior!