Greetings, friends, and welcome
to another broadcast of the Old School Primitive Baptist with
Elder Don Martin, Sr. Stay tuned for another Gospel
message of God's free and sovereign grace. All of the devices that have
been invented to men, I don't care whether it's medical science,
MRI machines, or whether it's tractors and farm equipment,
agriculture, or whether it's space exploration devices and
shuttles and so forth, but in all the things that men have
invented, and of all the books that have ever been compiled,
written by man, in this time realm of history especially,
let's just focus on that a minute. I know that Brother Mike has
been a historical studier of the Civil War times and early
American history and so forth. But you know, of all the books
of history, of all the books of churches, we have in this
book here compiled in the Bible, these books of the scriptures
we have, we have the histories of the seven churches in Asia
in the book of Revelation. But in all the books that have
ever been written by men of history, and how important it seems to
be to some people more than others and how they really just focus
their whole mind on history and how things come about and how
things went and of course how things have changed. But I was
thinking about the end time to come. In the day of the Lord,
not one book written of men, not one device made of men, shall
mean nothing. for all things in this world
as we know them in the material aspect and in the books and in
the records of the record that men have kept throughout the
ages of time shall be eliminated from existence. You ever thought
about that? I never really focused and thought
about that much until I drove up here this morning. I was thinking
that all the things about some, for instance, the old Baptist. I know some brethren that just,
their life is just ate up with focusing in on the beginnings
and the historical aspects and the petitions and all the things
of the old Baptist. when they evolved and where they
come from, where they branched off from, and who were some of
the founding fathers and so forth. And that's nice to know to some
degree, but really, once you know it, what good is it? Huh? Well, what good is it? It's just
like this time world that we know right now. What good is
it going to be when the Lord Jesus comes back? What good is
it going to be with all of the books, history, recordings, all
the inventions of men, all the devices and things that we have
and of course we enjoy and we've been blessed to have? we're seeing
to begin to erode away from what we experienced 20 years ago,
30 years ago. Brother McLeod, and Daniel, and
John, all you brothers and sisters here, Brother Tim, we have seen
the best of the best in the American lifestyle. We have been to schools
as young children where school meant something and teachers
were serious about what they were doing. And we have seen
morality where it meant something and integrity meant something
to people, but not anymore. Morality don't mean anything. If you want to live with someone,
go ahead. That's nice, man. Ain't no commitment. You just take your suitcase and
you go in and sit down. And she welcomes you with open
arms with a couple children and needs a little money, too. And
you got a place to sleep and some food to eat, somebody to
fix it for you. And if it don't work for you,
you just take your suitcase and you just head on out the door.
So it just don't work for me. This ain't gonna work. That's
the way the life is today. It's that way everywhere. it and i see it happen in time
again uh... were what what god moves in and
he lives with some some gal with a kid a child or two and uh... next thing you know uh... his
car's gone his truck's gone and i wonder what happened he gets
sick he died what happened oh no he just got tired of living
there and moved on next thing you know a month or two later
there's another car there I mean, I see these things. I'm living
in a retirement area on a lake community that's of old folks.
But the young folks that are around, I mean, you can see things
that are happening. But I mean, we've seen the best
of the best in years past. and seeing how it slowly eroded
away as a rushing flood of water runs down a hillside and erodes
the soil into the tributary of the river and down the stream
it goes. We've seen morality go away and
be eliminated. You talk about the killing of
children. This is a terrible thing! It's
a terrible thing! How do you come for twenty 20
parents of 20 children, 6 through 10 years old that have been shot
more than some 11 times by a killer. How do you comfort them? The
only thing you can say is how sorry you are. But Christ is
the only one that can ever give any peace in a situation like
that. He is the comforter. He is the great comforter. And
He sent it to us which are blessed to believe. And to every one
of those parents that are blessed to believe, I believe that comforter
shall be granted them as well. But to those that don't have
a comfort nor a hope, oh, what do they have? They have heartache,
heartbreak, tears, anguish. And let me tell you something.
Some of those mothers and some of those children shall never
be the same. Don't never get over it. I knew
a fellow I worked with in the trades years ago and he was a
superintendent and his son, only son, went to Vietnam and was
killed. And they've come and they knocked
on the door and went and visited the home and said that we're
sorry to tell you, Mr. So-and-so, that your son is deceased
in the service in Vietnam. And she emotionally totally fell
apart. And from that point on, that
day on, she had been to psychologists, psychiatrists, She'd never been the same. She
hardly spoke. She'd become a sort of a recluse.
She never got over the death of that son of a mother. That's
how the death, the emotional trauma of something like that
can touch some people. And whereas others, they can
seem to have the strength and inward ability to deal with it
and to be able to be consoled with it, whether they be Christian
or not. I mean, non-Christians, they
can deal with death and suffering. I've seen it. You've seen it.
They do it in the service. They do it in war. how everything that we know in
this time world, and have learned in this time world, apart from
the Word of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is going to
be meaningless, and I'm going to take by this Scripture, if
God permits, and I'm going to prove it to you. Now if you'll
turn with me, if you have a Bible, and turn with me to 2 Peter.
2 Peter chapter 3. This chapter here is going to
give us a clear picture of what's going to happen to everything
in this world when the day of the Lord occurs. I don't care
whether it's a motorcycle or a freight train or a jet plane. When this day occurs, nothing
will mean anything. except Jesus Christ and His righteousness. I'm going to read chapter 3,
2 Peter chapter 3. This second epistle, Paul writes,
excuse me, Peter's writing here. Peter writes his second epistle,
and it primarily starts off about the coming things, to occur. These are a revelation that Peter
had been given by the Spirit of God and the teachings of Jesus
Christ in his public ministry. And Peter, writing here in the
second epistle, he says, Beloved, I now write unto you in both
which I may stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance."
I hope you have a pure mind this morning. What do I mean by pure
mind? In other words, a mind that is
a mind that thinks upon Godly things, virtuous things, things
that are true. He says that, "...that ye may
be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy
prophets and the commandments of us, the apostles, of the Lord
and Savior, knowing this first, that there shall come in the
last days scoffers walking after their own lusts." We've got scoffers
everywhere. Scoffers that are criticizing
Christianity, criticizing Christ, criticizing... I mean, this Christmas
season, of course, is really a time where a lot of them are
focusing in on it and they're scoffing Christianity. I mean,
I'm not a Christmas person. I mean, I'm not going to get
into all the historical background of it, but I'm not a Christ's
Mass celebrator. It's Christ's Mass. It's a Catholic-originated
holy day that had come about that has been adopted into this
nation and has become a tradition. That's what it is. You know, you take your little
baby Jesus Christ in these nativity scenes and take him out of the
picture and nobody's interested in it. But you put that little
baby back in there and oh, isn't that sentiment wonderful, isn't
that sweet? But you know something? It scoffers. People who have
said, and as they said in Peter's day, they said in verse 4, Where
is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep,
all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are 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 then was, being overflowed with water, perished." Now, I
want to stop right there just a minute and say a couple things.
Well, I better not because in the next couple of verses it's
going to be the key text and then I'll back up and I'll explain
to you something. It says, But the heavens and
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. Verse 7. Verse 8, But beloved,
be not ignorant to this one thing. In other words, don't be ignorant
But listen up, and hopefully gain some knowledge about this
situation which Peter is speaking about. He says, listen up. He
says, listen up. He says there's one thing that
you need to be listening to, and that is that one day is what
the Lord is a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day.
The Lord is not slack. So concerning his promise, as
some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to usward. I'm going to stop right there. There's a comma right there. It says that he is long-suffering
towards usward. Now, as far as I know, there
is two places in the New Testament that the word usward is used. It's used here and in Ephesians
119. And both places it's referring
to those to whom the author of the epistle is writing to, Paul
in Ephesians, Peter here in Peter. It is writing to the brethren
in Christ Jesus of whom it is addressed to in the first chapter. It's not writing to the world,
it's not writing to everybody in general, but to us-ward. Us-ward. We that believe on the
person of Jesus Christ. We that have been called by grace
into a relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ.
God is long-suffering to usward, listen now, not willing that
any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Now,
how many times have you heard a preacher preach and say, well,
God's not willing that any perish, but that all should come to repentance,
trying to get people to make a decision and to come and believe
upon the person of Jesus Christ. I have heard it over and over
again over my 38 years of being among Christian people and reading
from this book and hearing preachers say that. Oh, but God is not
willing that any should perish. Now, okay, here's your opportunity. He's given you the opportunity.
Now it's up to you. Let me tell you something. This
Bible says in here, that God is longsuffering to us. We're
not willing that any of us Us who believe, who've been blessed
by free and sovereign grace to believe upon the person of Jesus
Christ as Savior, Lord, and Master, and Redeemer. We are blessed
by God, and He's long-suffering towards us-ward, that none of
us is going to perish, but that all of us is going to come to
repentance. And I have never met a born-again
believer yet that has never come to repentance. They've all come
to repentance because repentance is an evidence of salvation.
It is a work of grace. It's by godly sorrow man is brought
to repentance. And that godly sorrow is brought
about by the spirit of the living God. And so, when you hear that
proclaim, God's not willing, and he should perish, but all
should come to repentance, he's talking about those particular
in this text, the brethren in Christ, Jesus. Let me go on and
get to where we're talking about in the last day, in the day of
the Lord, when I said nothing is going to mean anything. Books
and knowledge and all that we've gathered in our minds and in
our thinking and in our studies over the period of a lifetime
is going to be meaningless. Listen to what it says here.
It says in verse 10, But the day of the Lord shall come as
a thief in the night. That means unexpected. The thieves
come out at night, at least most of them. They're getting brazen
now where they go out in the daytime. They just put on a mask
and take a gun and go into a convenience store, and they rob places right
in the midday. I mean, Orlando is a daily thing.
I get my news out of Orlando. It's a daily thing, at least.
If there's not one or two or more in daytime robberies, it's
unusual. But anyway, the Bible says that
the day of the Lord is going to come as a thief in the night.
In other words, kind of an unexpected time. But in which the heavens
shall pass away with a great noise. There's going to be a
great noise, I think, but possibly there may be that trump of God
that Paul talked about in Thessalonians 4. When the Lord himself shall
descend from the heavens and And he's going to have the voice
of an archangel and the trumpet of God and he's going to come
with a shout! And it's going to be heard by
the whole world! And as the lightning flashes
from the east to the west, so shall it be on the coming of
the Son of Man. I don't believe in a secret rapture
business. I believe in a visible scene
of the world coming of Jesus Christ and it is going to be
a day that will be like none other. And the Bible says, looking
and hastening unto the coming of the day of the Lord, wherein
the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, listen now, and
the elements shall melt with a fervent heat. Verse 11, I skipped
over that one. Seeing then that all these things
shall be dissolved to what manner of persons ought ye to be in
all holy conversation and in godliness. All these things that
we know right now are going to be dissolved with a fervent heat. Because the Bible says that all
things are going to be dissolved and the elements shall be melted
with a fervent heat. Nevertheless, we according to
his promise look for a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth
righteousness. Everything in this time world
is going to be as an element totally extinguished and burnt
up and eliminated in a fervent heat. And so I ask you, what's it all mean? It only means that it is usable for just a
short season in our lifetime. And no matter what men write
about, as far as history goes, when we have gained the knowledge
of that history, in our studies because of our interest in it,
and our bodies are laid down in death, the history goes with it, that
we had in our minds. It's like a man that was brought
up as an apprentice carpenter. and was taught the trade in over
a period of four or five years or so before he worked up to
become a journeyman. And then he goes on and becomes
more of a superintendent position and so forth. But all that he
had learned in coming along as a tradesman in the trade, when
he dies and goes to the graveyard, he takes all that he's learned
with him. And that was one thing that I
thought was good about some of the apprenticeship programs. It took young people and taught
them trades from older men who had come up through the hard
ways and taught them how to do things. They didn't have to learn
it. Each generation didn't have to learn it over and over brand
new again, Brother Michael. You didn't have to teach the
next generation how to take and use a miter box because he was
taught it from the preceding guy that was in the trade. But
in the day of the Lord, all of these things are going to be
meaningless and they will all be taken and will be obliviated
from our minds. and will be obliviated from the
earth as we know it. All things shall pass away with
a great noise and the elements shall melt with a fervent heat. The earth also and the works
that are therein shall be what? Burned up. All burned up. Oh, you mean that book that I've
been keeping that is such a treasure to me? Oh, how about my diary? Some of you ladies may have been
keeping a diary all your life. What good will it be in that
day of the Lord when all things are burned up? I've kept all
these treasures and tools in my workshop and I've got welding
machines and drill presses and I can do all these things. Is
that going to be in a day of the Lord, brother? They're going
to melt like in the fervency of the heat of God's almighty
judgment and will mean nothing. Oh, it says that nevertheless,
verse 13, we according to his promise, you cannot lie. Look for new heavens and new
earth wherein growth righteousness. Verse 14. Wherefore, beloved,
seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye be
found in him in peace without spot and blameless. What manner
of people are we to be? people who are seeking to walk
by the power and might of Jesus Christ in us, causing us that
we might walk in such a way that we would be found with peace
in heart, without spot, and blameless before him. And in verse 15,
an account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation, even
as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given
unto him has written unto you. As also in all his epistles,
Peter respected Paul. And all those epistles that he
wrote, because he knew that it was the truth. He knew that it
was Spirit-given revelation that the Apostle Paul wrote the epistles,
as well as Peter and the authors of this book, as the old men
of old were given understanding and revelation and penned these
words by the unction of the Holy Spirit of God Almighty. And the
Bible says, Yes, these things that Paul had written unto you,
verse 16, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of
these things, in which are some things hard to understand. Which
they that are unlearned and unstable rest." In other words, they wrestle
with it because they don't understand it. The natural man never will
understand it. But the natural man can discern
if not the things of the spirit, neither can he know them. That's
what Paul wrote into the Corinthian church. The Bible goes on to
say, they'll rest with these things. And then as they do also,
the other scriptures unto their own destruction. Oh yes, those
scoffers, they rest with these things because they don't have
a spiritual mind. They haven't been made born of
the spirit. They don't have the mind of Christ
within them to understand the truth of the matter. And the
Bible says, Seeing ye know these things before,
beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked,
fall from your own steadfastness." There's a warning there. That what you have learned, be
careful that what you have learned, that God has shown you that you
fall not from the truth of the matter. But he goes on to say,
in conclusion, verse 18, the last verse of the chapter. But
grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and our Savior Jesus
Christ. To Him be glory, both now and
forever. Amen. Don't be ignorant in these
things that are set before you. But to grow in the grace and
the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, how do you do that? There's
only one way that that's accomplished, and that is if God, by grace,
says grow in the knowledge of grace, grow in the grace or the
unmerited favor of Christ. What I'm saying here to grow
in the grace of God is to proceed to increase your understanding
of His favor towards His people and His sovereign mercy on His
elect church of whom He has called and chosen before the foundation
of the earth. grow not only in grace, but in
the knowledge of our Lord Jesus, of our Savior,
in the knowledge of Him. Grow in the favor of Him and
the knowledge of Him. Now I talked about what is the
knowledge referring to. I believe that the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ is His character, is His character. is his, like I said earlier,
his omnipotence, omniscience, his omnipresence, his almighty
character. That as you grow in the knowledge
of his character, by the grace of God and through the Spirit
of Revelation, we have such a wonderful peace and comfort. As Paul said, peace has understanding. And by growing in the grace and
knowledge of Christ, you have a joy unspeakable. A joy that
comes about that you don't know how to express it. Because He,
and He alone, is the one that has called us from a life of
sin. He is the one and one alone that
has sought us in a time when we were in despair of sin and
depravity. The Bible says that we have been
sought of God and brought by a way which we knew not. We did not know the way, neither
could we have found out the way, unless God by His Spirit and
sovereign mercy had shown us the way, set us on that path. as Pilgrim was set, as he was
taking that book, had taken that book that he had acquired, and
he held to it. And he wandered around there
at the home, home place. He wandered around the community
there. Oh, he didn't know what to do
with it, what he read in there. He didn't know how to deal with
it and what was going on in his heart. As you know, and as you've
been taught, that his wife thought he was a man losing his mind. His children thought that he
was beside himself. The community began to look down
upon him, thinking this man had just gone beside himself in this
religious deal. Oh no! What he found in this
book, oh, was a treasure. A treasure that shall never be
lost. All things, this world shall
pass away with that pervert heat in that day of the Lord. But
this thing that the pilgrim found shall never be lost by the temptation. Because it's salvation, it's
forgiveness, it's redemption. It is that wonderful work of
God's grace brought about by His sovereign mercy to undeserving
sinners. Seeking them and saving them
by His grace and favor. Oh yes, the appointed heirs of
God, the chosen in Christ Jesus before the world began. They
shall never lose that experience, for it is life eternal we have
acquired in Christ that we have within us. Christ in us, the
hope of glory, is life eternal. We have eternal life within us.
That's what causes us to keep on keeping on. That's what causes
hope to be a continual reality. That's what causes it to be that
substance of things hopeful. Let me tell you man, when I talk
about substance, I'm talking about something I can... A substance
is not a pie in the sky. It's not a mirage in the desert. A substance of things hoped for
is the definition of faith, and faith and hope are inseparable.
You can't have one without the other. You've got faith, you've
got hope, you've got hope, you've got faith. And the things that
we have in Christ Jesus is all by sovereign free grace. I close
with these few comments. Without faith it's impossible
to please God. The gospel being preached, not
being mixed with faith, is to no profit to the hearers. If
I've stood here before you these past few minutes, spoke to you
about Jesus Christ, and about the day of the Lord, and His
coming, that the elements of this earth shall be burnt up
with a fervent heat, and that salvation is by none other but
that by Him and His precious blood that was shed on Calvary's
cross, and a person has not got ears to hear that, then Without faith being mixed with
the word as it is preached of the gospel of Jesus Christ, it
is of no effect at all. And they that be of God, hear
God's word. And they that be not of God,
hear not the words of God, and neither can they know them. But
they that be of God will hear the words of God, and it will
be a blessing to their heart and their soul. And this will
ever change their understanding of their self and of God. Of their self as being an unworthy
sinner. Of God as the only means of salvation
and redemption and the hope of eternal glory. To Him be the
praise and glory forever is my prayer. I thank you for your
kind attention. your loving prayers in days past. I thank God that I'm able to
be here today. I praise him for his mercy towards
an undeserving sinner such as I. May God be with you and bless
you.