Christ will return. Now, in our
day, there is quite a bit of thought given as to when Christ
will return. You can't go more than a few
days without seeing some television show dedicated to the end of
the world. When Christ will return, what will happen when the world
ends and Christ returns. It seems like most of the movies
today, many of them, that Hollywood makes are about the apocalypse.
causes people a lot of anxiety, and what will happen? Well, by
the time we leave here tonight, if you'll listen to me, you will
know the moment that Christ is going to return. You won't have
to have any anxiety about it. I've got your attention now,
don't I? Let's look at verse 1 of 2 Peter chapter 3. This
second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you in both which
I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance." Now, Peter
says he's writing to people with pure minds. He's making it pretty
clear he's writing to believers, isn't he? Only believers have
pure minds. Only someone who's born again,
been given a new mind and a new birth has a pure mind. You've
got the mind of Christ, a mind sprinkled with the blood of Christ.
It's a pure mind. Only a believer has that. But
this word pure also means sincere, and only believers have a sincere
mind without hypocrisy. You've renounced the hidden things
of dishonesty. You're not walking in craftiness.
You're not handling the word of God deceitfully. Your mind
is sincere. Before God, you're sincere. A sinner seeking a Savior, seeking
forgiveness, seeking forgiveness only in the blood of Christ.
Your faith in Christ is sincere. It's not pretend. It's sincere.
Your love for Christ, it's unfeigned, it's sincere. Your worship is
sincere. You have a sincere mind. But
now even believers with a pure, sincere mind, we still need to
be stirred up, don't we? We need that mind to be roused
up by the word of God. And there's about three reasons,
there's probably many more, but there's three I'll give you,
why we need to be stirred up and reminded. Believers have
a pure mind, don't you? But we're still in this body
of flesh that's so forgetful. You know, it seems like no matter
how hard I try, I can't forget the bad things people done to
me. You know, somebody hurt my feelings. Somebody said something,
you know, somebody did something. No matter how hard I try, I can't
forget that. I've got to be reminded of what Christ has done for me.
That's why we observe the Lord's table. This do in what? Remember. to remember the sacrifice of
Christ for his people. We need to be reminded. Secondly,
we have to be reminded because the cares of this world choke
out the word that we just heard preached. You won't get to the
end of Hurricane Road tonight and the world will start plucking
at the message that you've heard preached. That's the way it is. We have to be reminded. And thirdly,
we have to be reminded because no matter who you are, You're
in need of spiritual growth. We all need spiritual growth. It doesn't sink in all at once.
In this body, you can't take it all in. So we're always going
to be in need of spiritual growth. It takes time to learn. It takes time to grow spiritually. And we have to be reminded. That's
the way we learn. That's the way we grow, by being
reminded. And I'll tell you what stirs
up that pure mind. It's the Word of God. What we
need to be reminded of is not church doctrine and some sort
of, you know, mantra or something. We need to be reminded of the
Word of God. Look at verse 2. That you be
mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets
and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and
Savior. Now, Peter says be mindful of the words which were spoken
before by the holy prophets. Well, what words are those? It's
the Old Testament. What the Old Testament prophets
wrote. Well, what did they write? Did they write the law? Did they
write history? Did they write poems? What is
it that we're supposed to be mindful of? They wrote of Christ. That's what we're to be mindful
of. Our Lord said everything that was written in the law of
Moses, in the prophets, in the Psalms, concerned him. We're all about him, all told
of him, all pointed to him. Well, Peter says, you remember
those Old Testament prophets? And then you remember the commandment
of us, the apostles. What's the commandment of the
apostles? The commandment of the apostles is the gospel, the
commandment to believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You see, the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles,
they have the exact same message. Their message is Christ. They
wrote of his person and his work. They wrote of his sacrifice,
his grace, his mercy. They wrote of the saving power
of Christ, the keeping power of Christ. They all wrote of
Christ. That's what we need to be mindful
of and be reminded of. It's Him. Now, believers love
that. I mean, you all just eat that
up. You love it. Love to be reminded
of Christ. But a rebel hates that. Look
at verse three. Knowing this first, that there
shall come the last day scoffers walking after their own lusts,
And saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the
father fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the
beginning of the creation. Now, the last days that Peter
writes here, you all know this, are all those last days from
the day our Lord ascended back to glory to the time of his coming
return. Those are the last days. We're
in the last days, have been ever since the Lord ascended back
to glory. And when he ascended, he gave
us a promise. I'm coming back. The angels came and told those
disciples, standing there with their mouths hanging open, looking
up, said, that same Lord you saw sin in the same manner. He's going to come back. You
wait and watch for him. He's coming back. Now, all during
those last days, there's been those who do not believe. They
scoff. They scoff at the gospel. They
scoff at this promise. They scoff at God's sovereignty
and salvation. They scoff. That means total
depravity. They make fun of sin. They make
it a light thing. They scoff at it. They scoff
at limited atonement. That Christ just died for his
people. Christ didn't die for everybody that ever lived. He
died for his people. They scoff at that. They scoff
at faith. You believe someone you've never
seen. They scoff at that. They scoff
at the love of a believer whom, having not seen, you love. They
scoff at that. That's crazy. How can you love
somebody you've never seen? They scoff at sovereign grace.
They scoff at what you love, what a believer loves. And they're
so bold, they even scoff at the spoken promise of the Lord Himself. They say, now you fellows say,
He said He's coming back. Where is He? Show me. Where is
He? The promise that you say was
made was made to the fathers. Every one of them is dead. They
never saw it. This never happened. Now, they're
scoffing at these things because it doesn't make sense to their
human logic. They're walking after their own
logic. They're walking after their own lust. They're not walking
by faith, after the Word of God. They're following what they can
understand with their human logic. That's pretty pitiful, isn't
it? We can't understand much with our human logic. But they
say, now this is just logical. After all this time, Christ has
never returned. Well, then he never will. If
he hadn't returned by now, he's not going to because nothing
ever changes, they say. The world keeps spinning on its
axis, just like it always has. The earth keeps rotating around
the sun, just like it always has. Seasons keep changing. Babies keep being born. Old people
keep dying. Nothing ever changes. And this
isn't going to change either. The wars will keep going on like
it is until it might maybe go out of its orbit and go into
the sun or something. But this is never going to change. Now
that's using human logic. And using that logic, they say
Christ hasn't ever returned, so he never will. Now my friends,
that's just dumb. I mean, I'm sorry, but that's
just stupid. The reason these scoffers, there's several reasons
they scoff like this, and the preeminent one is this. They
hate Christ. They hate him. What are they
scoffing at? Where's the promise of his coming? It's about him. That's what they're
scoffing at. Their problem is with the crown
rights of Christ. If he comes back, like God's
word says he's coming back, they're in trouble because he's coming
as king. And they scoff at his crown rights.
They're rebelling against his crown rights. You know, it's
fine to think Elvis is going to come back or Jimmy Hoffa is
going to appear, but they scoff if you say the Lord Jesus come
back. That's human logic. Secondly, or thirdly, they operate
this, they say this because of human logic. They hate Christ.
And thirdly, the reason they think this is this. They're willingly
ignorant. Look at verse five. For this
they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God, the
heavens They're willingly ignorant. It's not that they can't know.
It's that they are willingly ignorant. They refuse to know.
It's not that they can't read the Bible and understand what's
said. They're willingly ignorant. They don't want to know. And
they're willingly ignorant of the glory of Christ in four ways.
The first one is what we see here in verse five. They're willingly
ignorant of the glory of Christ in creation. Now, the Lord Jesus
Christ is the creator. The Lord Jesus is the one who
created everything you see, everything in this universe. Christ is the
word of God. And it was God spoke the world
into existence by his word. In the beginning was the word.
The word was with God. The word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. And all things were made by him. Without him, not anything made
was made. All things are created by him and for him. And by him,
all things consist. By him, all things are held together. Now, Christ created the world,
spoke it into existence. And from Adam until Noah, it
was Christ who held that creation together. And these fellows,
these scoffers are right, nothing changed. I guess the only thing
that changed is man's actions grew more and more and more sinful.
But everything was created and held together. by the power of
Christ. Now, that's glorious. I mean,
I love that. I've been studying this this
week. I just love that. That's glorious. But a scoffer
is willingly ignorant of that, of the glory of Christ in creation.
You think of the glory of speaking this world into existence. Let
there be light, and it was so. Let the dry land appear, and
it was so. Let the animals appear, and it was so. The glory of Christ
in creation. They're willingly ignorant of
that. Second, they are willingly ignorant of the glory of Christ
in the flood. Look here at verse 5. For this
they are 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 then was, being overflowed with water,
perished. Oh, everything is not the same as it always was. The
earth has had to continue like it always is. I'm always amazed
how many these, I see them on the History Channel, the Discovery
Channel, how many times people are spending lots of money to
go investigate and just to disprove the flood, try to prove everything
has always been the same. But they can't do it. Everything's
not been the same from creation until now. At one time, God destroyed
this entire world with the flood, the whole globe. At one time,
water covered the entire globe. from the highest mountaintop,
everything was covered. And every living thing in the
earth died because of sin. Everything! Except for everyone
who is in the Ark. The glory of Christ rings forth
from the flood of Noah. Noah and his family and all those
animals were saved in the Ark, which is given to us as a picture
of Christ. Now, God is God. He's eternal. He's unchanging. That changed
from then till now. God's going to punish sin. He's
going to destroy sinners from the earth. He did it once. And he's going to do it again.
And his word says the second time it'll be final. God's holy. He must punish sin. But God's
also merciful. And God's merciful to sinners
by putting them in Christ, just like he put Noah in that ark.
God's merciful to sinners by punishing Christ as their substitute
instead of them. And Christ will shield everyone
who's in him from the wrath of God against their sins. Christ
will bear all that wrath and his body on the tree and shield
them from it. Christ died. as the sinner substitutes
so that his people, everyone in him, will have eternal life. That's what God gave us a picture
of in that ark that carried Noah across the floodwaters. And these
scoffers, they could know that if they wanted to. Well, I just
told you, any person in this room can read that in the Bible
and understand that's what that's saying. These scoffers could
know that if they wanted to, but they're willingly ignorant.
They're ignorant of the glory of Christ in the flood because
they don't want to know. Third, they're willingly ignorant
of Christ's glory as He preserves and protects the world today.
Look at verse 7. But the heavens and earth, which
are now, by the same word, are kept in store. You ever just
look around the world and think, it's got to be as bad as it was
in the day of Noah. It's got to be. The wickedness
of man is great on the earth. Every imagination of the thoughts
of his heart is only evil continually. Why didn't God destroy it again?
What's he putting up with this for? Why didn't he just wipe
out the world again? Because of covenant promises. Promises. God destroyed the earth with
water once. And he told Noah, when Noah got off that ark, God
promised Noah, I won't do it again. I won't do it again. God
promised Noah, but these are covenant promises. God also is
not going to destroy the world again with water for Christ's
sake. The reason this world right now
is still standing and not destroyed, it's for Christ's sake, because
of covenant promises from the Father to the Son. Christ came
to this earth as a man, and he suffered, and he died to redeem
all his people from their sin. Every last one of them must be
saved. They must be. Not one of them
can be lost. God's justice demands it. They
cannot perish. Well, now, some of them haven't
believed yet. And you know how I know some of them haven't believed
yet? The gospel is still being preached. Some of them, some
of God's elect have not believed yet. The Lord had sent the gospel
to them. He hadn't called them out of
their sin and out of their rebellion, out of their darkness yet. Well,
the world can't be destroyed until those people believe because
God gave him to his son in the covenant of grace. Christ came
and died for them. Wayne, they can't perish. They
can't because of covenant promises. Some of those for whom Christ
died aren't even born yet. Well, the world can't be destroyed
until those people hear the gospel and believe Christ. Isn't that
glorious? I mean, that's wonderful. The
sacrifice of Christ that ratified God's covenant promises is so
powerful, the world cannot be destroyed until everyone for
whom he died is saved. I mean, that's the glory of Christ.
Right now, Christ himself is holding back God's wrath on this
whole world because of covenant promises for those that he died
for. They're willingly ignorant of
that. They could read that in the book and know it if they
wanted to, but they don't want to. The fourth thing scoffers
are ignorant of is this, the glory of Christ in judgment.
Verse seven, 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. God promised
Noah, I'll never destroy the world again with water, but he
will destroy it again with fire. Everything that sin has touched
is going to be destroyed by fire, purified with fire, wiped out
and made new. And that will happen when Christ
returns. When He returns, He will return in His glory and
the whole earth will see Him as He is in His glory. Now, listen
to me. What you see in the media and
things and everybody's caught up in all these events, Wild
things, you know, people speculate will happen at the end of the
world. The main event at the end of the world is not all these
events of the apocalypse we see in movies. The main event at
the end of the world, when God's ready to wrap this thing up and
put it away, is seeing Christ as he is. I'm telling you, in
his glory, seeing him, he's the main event. This is the glory
of Christ in judgment. And at that time, when he returns,
all sin is going to be destroyed. Everything that sins touch is
going to be destroyed and it's going to be made new. Every sinner
that is in his rebellion and unbelief is going to be cast
into hell for eternity. Now, that sounds scary, doesn't
it? When I was a child reading these verses, I'm telling you,
it frightened me to death. To think about the world burning
up in the fire and the heavens are on fire and the elements
are melting with heat. I mean, it frightened me to death.
Look at verse 10, "...but the day of the Lord will come 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,
and the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned
up." Look at verse 12, "...looking forward, 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." Well,
I didn't read it wrong the first time. That still sounds pretty
frightening, doesn't it? But do you want me to tell you
something that will take the fear of all this away? Take away
the fear of the fire burning up the world and the elements
melting with the great heat? Do you want me to tell you what
will take all the fear of that away? It's the glory of Christ
crucified. The glory of Christ crucified.
Christ is coming again. And when He comes, He's going
to judge the world in righteousness. All sin is going to be put away.
Rebels are going to be cast into hell for their unbelief. And
the earth is going to be purified with fire. It's going to be made
new. Now listen to me. Here's the comfort in Christ
crucified. That fire, I believe it's literal, will not touch
one person for whom Christ died. If Christ had your name on his
heart as he was crucified, that fire will never touch you. Because
you're hiding in burnt ground. He already burnt for you. He
endured the fire of God's wrath for your sin already, and there
is therefore now no condemnation to them which end Christ Jesus.
He satisfied God's justice for you. That fire will never harm
anyone for whom Christ died. Well, then all fear is gone,
isn't it? All fear is gone because Christ bore our sin away. And that fear is gone so completely
We actually look forward to that day. I know that sounds frightening,
but I look forward to the day of Christ's return. And you do,
too, if you're in, because there's no fear in that. But these scoffers,
now, they're willingly ignorant of Christ's glory in these things.
But, beloved, don't you be ignorant. Now, you be well taught. Look
at verse eight. But, beloved, be not ignorant
of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand
years, and a thousand years is one day. Now, just because the
Lord hadn't returned after all these years, don't think he's
forgotten his promise. Don't think he's changed his
mind. Now, you know, these scoffers are right. During the whole history
of the earth, Christ hasn't returned for a second time. But that doesn't
mean God's word's wrong. Our experience never makes God's
Word void. Did you get that? Just because
we haven't experienced something that God's Word says, doesn't
make God's Word wrong. Our experience does not make
God's Word void. Now, this verse may give us some
indication that the last of the last days is here. It may. And
when people say that, this is where they get this from. I don't
want you to be ignorant of this. God took six days to create the
world, didn't he? On the seventh day, he rested.
His work's finished. Well, one day is with the Lord
is a thousand years, what we just read. Well, man's time,
so far on this earth, from the time Adam was created until now,
is roughly 6,000 years. So that could mean God's purpose
with his first creation is almost finished, about six days. Could
be he's getting ready to make it all new, rest from his works.
I don't know. Maybe it does mean that. But
I'm sure This verse means this. Time means nothing to God. I'm a slave to it. I'm an absolute
slave to time. I've got a schedule. Everything's
got to be done on schedule. I mean, I just, I'm a slave to
time. Time's nothing to God. What's
that to God? He dwells outside of time. To
us, it seems like it's a long time. since Christ promised to
return and send him back to glory. That doesn't seem like a long
time. Damn, it's about two days. You know, it's just Monday. And
all that time, what is a lot of time to us, does not mean
Christ has forgotten his promise. It doesn't mean he's changed
his mind. He's waiting to accomplish his purpose. Now, one day is
a thousand years to God. You think about every minute
detail that happens over the course of a 24-hour period in
all of God's creation. Every one of those minute events
is directed personally by the hand and will of God Almighty. Now, that's a lot of events.
I mean, most of them to us go unnoticed because they're so
minute. They're not minute to God. He's hand-directing every
one of them. If we knew all of those events
that happened in a 24-hour day, if we knew the number of them,
we'd think, boy, it'd take me a thousand years to accomplish
all that. It just takes God a day. What's time to God? God dwells
outside of time, so a thousand years to Him is just like a day.
But yet a day is also like a thousand years. They're both the same
to God, because He dwells outside of time. And the point is this.
What has time had to do with the purpose and promise of God?
Absolutely nothing. You cannot judge God's faithfulness
by the time that he takes to accomplish his purpose, because
he dwells outside of time. Now, if I haven't fulfilled a
promise to you, maybe it's been many years, I made a promise
to you, told you I'd do something, and I haven't done it. Well,
my case is slackness. Either I'm lazy, I'm slack, or
I forgot, or maybe I wasn't able to perform my promise. But you
can't say that about God. It's not slackness. He's waiting
the appointed time to accomplish His purpose. God cannot be judged
by time that it takes to accomplish His will. Now look at verse 9.
Isn't that just what Peter's saying? The Lord's not slack
concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but He's
long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance. Now, brethren, don't be ignorant
about this verse. be well taught. This is a very
misused, misunderstood verse in God's Word. This verse is
not teaching us that God's not willing that any son of Adam
should perish. It's not teaching us that it is God's will that
every son of Adam come to repentance. That's not what this verse is
teaching. If it was God's will that no son of Adam would ever
perish, none of them would. They would not perish if that
was God's will. And if it was God's will that every son of
Adam come to repentance, I promise you, every one of them would
come to repentance because God always accomplishes his will.
So we know this is not the case. It's God's will. No son of Adam
perish. Every son of Adam come to repentance.
If that was so, it would happen. Well, then what does it mean?
Well, what promise is Peter talking about here? You know, it'll do
us good to remember this. Whenever you read scripture,
you have to read every verse in its context. You can't just
read one verse of scripture and pull it out of there and say,
that's what that means. You have to read it in context.
Peter is not talking about some fictional promise of God that
he's going to save every son of Adam. He's not talking about
that. Read it in context. What promise
has Peter been talking about? He's been talking about the promise
of his return back in verse four. They scoff or scoff and say,
where's the promise of his coming? Well, that's what Peter's talking
about, the promise of his coming. Well, who is this talking to?
Who is Peter talking to when he says he's long suffering to
us were not willing that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance? Who's the us word? Who's the
Indian? Who's the all? Who's Peter talking
to here? Well, again, it'll do you a lot of good if you remember
this. The Bible is written to specific
people. You can't take any verse of scripture
and apply it to yourself until you find out, do you fit the
description of the person to whom this is written? Well, who's
Peter writing to? He's writing, this is a letter
to a specific, when you write a letter, don't you address it?
I mean, today, I guess it's an email, but don't you address
it? Peter wrote a letter and he addressed it. Look back at
chapter one. Let's see who the us were. and the all is here
that Peter's talking about. It's the people that he's writing
to. Chapter 1, verse 1, Simon Peter, a servant and apostle
of Jesus Christ, I'm writing to them that have obtained like
precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and
our Savior Jesus Christ. Peter's writing to those who
have obtained, who've been given precious faith in our Lord Jesus
Christ. We looked at that a few weeks
ago. He's writing to those who have been made righteous through
the imputed righteousness of Christ. Peter is writing to people
who have been born again, who in the new birth have been made
partakers of the divine nature. Look at verse 4, whereby are
given unto us, see this is us that he is talking about, whereby
are given unto us, exceeding great and precious promises,
that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature. That is
who Peter is writing to. If you look at verse 10, he is
writing to God's elect. Wherefore, the rather, brethren,
give diligence to make your calling and election sure." Peter's writing
to those who are the elect of God, who God has called to Himself. And he's writing to those, those
people who God loves. Chapter 3, verse 1. The second
epistle, Beloved, I now write unto you. Verse 8, But Beloved,
be not ignorant of this one thing. Peter's writing to the beloved,
those who are beloved of the Lord. The Father loved them. In eternity past, He loved them
and He gave them to His Son. In Christ the Son, He loved them. He came and died for them. He
came and suffered and died for them. Now, the Lord's not willing
that any of those should perish. Any of His elect. He's not willing
any of them should perish. He's not willing that anyone
he loves perish. He's not willing that anyone
that he's given faith to, that he's caused to be born again
and may partaker of the nature of his Son, he's not willing
that any of those should perish. And brethren, they won't. Not
one of them. Because that's God's will. And
it's God's will that all of his elect Everyone he calls, everyone
he loves, everyone that he's put in his son will come to repentance. And you can bank on it, they
will. God's going to see to it. Look
in Isaiah 46. Every last one of God's elect,
they're going to repent of their sin and they will never perish
because that's God's will. Now, if God's God, that means
something if it's according to his will. Look in Isaiah 46,
verse 9. Peter talked about remembering
the things that those Old Testament prophets wrote. Well, remember
this. Verse 9, remember the former
things of old, for I am God, and there is none else. I am
God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning,
and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying,
My counsel shall stand, I will do all my pleasures. calling
a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executes my counsel
from a far country, yea, how is all this going to happen?
I've spoken it. I'll also bring it to pass. I've
purposed it. I will also do it. They shall
never perish because it's God's will that they don't perish.
They'll repent. They'll come to Christ because it's God's
will. He'll accomplish His purpose. And the only reason the Lord
has not returned at this moment It's all of his elect have not
come to repentance and faith. Now, Earl, they'll perish without
repentance, they'll perish without faith, isn't that what the word
says? Well, then the Lord can't come yet because he's not willing
that any of them should perish and he won't return until they've
all come to repentance and faith. Now, I told you I'd tell you
when the Lord's going to return. You want to know? I can tell
you the exact moment that he's going to return. He's going to
return at the hour, at the moment that He has set from all eternity. That's exactly when He's going
to come. And you and I can forget about predicting that hour or
knowing when that hour is ahead of time. No man can ever know
it. And I'm going to show you this
before I'm done. That's all right. It doesn't matter when He's going
to come. Now, you remember that. I'm going to make good on that
in just a minute. It doesn't matter when He comes. Now look
back at Matthew 24, the portion we read to open the scripture. No man can know this hour that
the Lord has determined he's going to come. Verse 36, but
of that day and hour knoweth no man. Know not the angels of
heaven, but my Father only. Look at verse 42. Watch therefore,
for you know not what hour your Lord doth come. Now hold your
place there, because we're going to come back to that in just
one second. Look back in our text, verse 10. The Lord's going
to come at the moment that he's set from all of eternity. And
I tell you, it'll be the moment we least expect it. Look at verse
10. But the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass
away with a great noise, the elements shall melt with fervent
heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein shall
be burned up. That day is going to come as a thief in the night. Now, the thief came in, took
everything the house owner had because the owner didn't expect
the thief. He wasn't expecting him to come. If he expected the
thief, he'd have been prepared, wouldn't he? He'd have locked
the doors. He'd have gotten him a dog. He'd have been prepared.
He'd have got Winston. He'd have been prepared if he
was expecting the thief. But he wasn't expecting him.
And he came and took everything he had. Well, the Lord's going
to come in the same way when nobody's expecting him. Isn't
that what he said in the back of Matthew 24, verse 42? Watch
therefore, for you don't know the hour your Lord doth come,
but know this, that if the good men of the house had known in
what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and he
would not have suffered his house to be broken into. Therefore
be ye also ready, for such an hour as you think not, the Son
of Man cometh." Now, you know things happen to us. Like a thief
in the night. Something unexpected. You get
a phone call you don't expect. And it's bad news. Something
happens to you and your life turns on a dime. You never saw
it coming. Like a thief in the night. Brethren,
don't let those things shake you. Now they're going to happen.
But don't let them shake you. God's on the throne. God is on
the throne. We didn't expect it. But it happens
according to His eternal sovereign purpose. Every event of our life
happens according to God's eternal purpose to save His elect and
bring His elect to repentance and faith. And when every last
one of God's sheep is brought into the fold, all these events
are going to cease. All the trials and troubles,
they're over with. All the, every event, what we
think is good, what we think is bad, all those events are
over with. They're going to cease when Christ
returns. So in conclusion, here's the
point. The point of the return of Christ
is not when he's going to come. The point is not all the wonders
that we see if the heavens are on fire and elements are melting. That's not, that's not going
to matter. The point is who His coming. And if you're in Him,
none of the rest of it is going to matter. None of it. When I
finish my notes, I always look back and see if I preached on
a passage before. I look at my old notes, see if
I had something good I might want to use. And years and years
ago, I taught this portion of Scripture, Bob Coffey's Sunday
School class, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th graders. kind of thing he did, if everybody
clapped for him, you know, he'd give them a little miniature
candy bar. Well, I wanted to one-up on old
Bob, and I told him, everybody give me a standing ovation, I'll
give him a full-size, king-size Hershey bar, king-size. I was
going to, you know, Bob's little miniature, and I had nothing.
Every one of them, every one of them gave me a standing ovation,
and I counted them, and I said, all right, I'll be back with
two candy bars. I went out of the study and closed the door.
I sat out there for about 10 or 15 minutes. Holly was in there. She was in fifth grade. All those
kids, where is he? What did your dad do? What's
going on? I don't know. And then suddenly I threw the
door open and I was there. You know all they cared about?
That they have their candy bar. How long it took me, why it took
me that long, none of it mattered. Do you have my candy bar? When our Savior returns, it's
not going to matter. These trials, these troubles,
these heartaches, it's not going to matter. Lord, why take you
so long? We're not going to ask. Who cares? We have him. We see him in my
Lord here. None of the rest of it matters. I don't care. Honestly, if we've
got him, you will not care. And as we wait. For his return,
what's our comfort? What's your comfort as you wait
on his return? It's the finished work of Christ.
A couple of weeks ago, I read this article by Don Bell. He
wrote an article about this religious saying, only one life will soon
be passed. Only what's done for Christ will
last. I've never heard that saying before, but I imagine it's popular
in religion. There's no comfort in that. I
mean, I guess it's a cute saying, but there's no comfort in that.
Only what's done for Christ will last. I find no comfort in that
because I have never done enough for Christ. What are you going
to do worthy of his glory? What are you going to do worthy
of his sacrifice for you? What are you going to do worthy
of his love for you? I've never done anything worthy of him.
I'll tell you what the comfort for the believer is. It's not
what's done for Christ will last, it's what's done by Christ for
His people will last for eternity. Well, then I can wait in perfect
peace for His coming because my comfort is His finished work. It's going to last for all of
eternity. And I don't care how long it
takes for Him to return. The work of Christ for His people
is all we'll need and it will be our only plea. in that day,
and it will be enough because of Him, who He is, and His finished
work for His people. Well, I hope I'll be a blessing
to you.