In this sermon, Pastor Joe Babij begins examining the final chapter of 2 Peter and the apostle’s teaching there on the soon, future return of Christ. In part 1, Pastor Babij looks at 2 Peter 3:1-10 and outlines three established facts that, when remembered, will aid you in being ready for Christ’s coming:
1. The Word of God Announced It (vv. 1-2)
2. The Mockers Attack It (vv. 3-4)
3. The Lord God Affirms It (vv. 5-10)
Full Transcript:
This morning we’re looking at 2 Peter 3. Let’s take our Bibles and turn to some passages in the Old Testament and the New Testament. Look at the text yourself in your Bibles. If a dignitary were to come to your home and say to you, “I’m coming into your area, please allow myself and some of my officials to stay in your home for a few days.” But for security reasons the representative of the dignitary could not give you the day or the month they were coming, but only the year. What would you do next? The only wise thing to do is to get ready immediately for their arrival and to stay ready for the arrival of this guest.
The point we are making this morning is that you need to be ready and continually prepared. In other words, practice living each day in the presence of the Lord Jesus before the eyes of God because we know Jesus is coming back again. First for His Church and then He will return with the saints to establish His Kingly reign on earth as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And then He will come again to bring judgment.
From Scripture we know that life and history are heading somewhere. We Christians know that we are living in the last days, the Messianic era. The Last Days started with the first coming of Jesus and will continue until the end of the age. Christians are looking for the blessed hope, the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
My father used to have a sign in his office that he pointed to whenever he had a conversation with someone under his charge. From time to time he told them no and if the person proceeded to push back, my father would point to the sign on his wall which read, “What part of ‘no’ don’t you understand?”
Someone I had read suggested in the case of false teachers you could point to a similar sign with a slightly different question, “What part of remember don’t you get?” Even though it has been 2,000 years since the Apostle Paul has penned these words, the admonition remains the same as when he first penned them. Be ready and don’t forget. God’s time table is not ours. Until then we must be ready and press on to live for the Lord.
As the Scripture was read this morning in Matthew 24:44 it says:
For this reason you must be ready as well; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.
That means people are not ready, but the Church ought to be ready. The Apostle Peter wanted the recipients of his letter to have their remembrance of Christ’s Second Coming to be uncontaminated by the seductive influences of their own senses and by the subtle attacks of the mockers of Truth. In order to get the truth about the Second Coming to stick in our minds, the Apostle Peter reminds all who would hear in his two letters that Christ will come because there are three established facts.
The first one is that the Word of God has already announced it. The second fact is that the mockers will attack it and thirdly, the Lord God Himself affirms it. So let’s look at this in our passage this morning. If the facts stick in your mind, they will aid you in your readings to never forget that Jesus is coming again. Live with that on your mind every single day of your life, 7 days a week, month by month, and year by year.
The first established fact is found in 2 Peter 3:1-2 which shows that the Word of God announced it. Notice what it says in the first verse where Peter gives his audience a rousing reminder.
This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles.
Now the two letters were written to the saints to stimulate them to remember what they already have been taught by the Scriptures. Recapping a teaching already taught was a common practice among God’s people throughout redemptive history and still is a common practice by teachers today. You have to repeat things sometimes six times before a person actually gets it. 2 Peter already has given us three implications of remembering sound teaching.
The first implication is that remembering sound doctrine always leads to holiness and godliness never to sinfulness or free living. Also remembering restrains our increasing in godliness. Notice in 2 Peter 1:12 it says:
Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you.
So Peter is acting like a father here and is giving fatherly concern for the well-being of his spiritual children to remind them of what truly is important so that after his death, they can easily remember what was taught. Peter wants it to be stuck in their minds. A second implication also in 2 Peter 1:13-14 is to remember sound doctrine that leads to holiness. It says:
I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder, knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.
He wanted to arouse their passions so they would not forget what he taught them. Peter wants his readers to remain immovable in the truth and that was already available to them, which is the teaching of the prophets and apostles. Why did Peter remind them not to be negligent in something they already knew and were firmly established in? Well because he wanted to reinforce what he taught in their minds. In 2 Peter 1:15 it says:
And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind.
He’s very concerned that they just not forget. People don’t need new truth, but only to regain a clearer understanding of the eternal truth that God has already revealed in the Word of God. So what is most important for us? It is to be able to navigate the winding road of life on the strong foundation of objective reality and truth while on our journey home to the eternal city to look forward to the new Heaven and new Earth. Why should we do that? So that the eternal substance of the eternal Word of God would stick in our minds and we would not forget it or let anything try to jettison from our minds.
There is repeated truth now of Jesus parousia, which means that Jesus is coming. It is a future event when Jesus the Messiah returns to the earth. With truth being taught, the readers would come to a pure and sincere understanding of health doctrine that leads them to live a holy life while they are here, which is the opposite of the leaky and distorted thinking, twisted morality, and perverted spirituality of the scoffers and mockers.
A judgment will come on the mockers and deniers when the coming of Christ happens and the final judgment of God falls upon the ungodly of this world. So false teachers spoken of in 1 Peter 3 are again manifested by their denial of Christ’s coming who are denying that it will happen. They are denying God’s final judgment which allows them to stay within their free living thinking to justify hater lifestyle.
Now who could let himself or herself go into immoral excess, habitual sin, if they really believed that the Lord is at any moment ready to judge at any time. If someone really believes that, they will not live anyway they want carelessly. They will mindfully that God is coming and that judgment is coming. They will live mindfully of the gospel of Jesus Christ that Jesus took that judgment for us already. We are now to live for Him until His plan works out and be faithful no matter what our circumstance is.
Moral laxity is always to be found in false doctrine in some form or another. The Apostle Peter clears up this false teaching not by presenting something new, but by stirring up their minds to remember something already taught. Peter says in verse 1 that he is stirring up their sincere minds by way of reminder. A sincere mind is one that is free from wrong considerations. He supports the doctrine of the second coming of Christ, with Scripture.
I said that the first point is that the Word of God has already announced the coming of Christ and already set the stage on the circumstances that are going to surround the end times and the coming of Christ. So what does he say here? in 2 Peter 3:2 says:
That you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles.
The defense he uses is that in the Old Testament, God has spoken of the Messiah coming to bring judgment on the earth. But the circumstance that surround usually by those who do not believe always seems to ask a question of what God is doing. The question is not wanting to now more information but of doubt. They doubt that the Word of God is true, that Jesus is coming again, that there will be a final judgment, etc. The question always is framed in a way that questions the character of God. Just by way of example from passages in the Old Testament, look at Isaiah 5:18-19:
Woe to those who drag wrongdoing with the cords of deceit, and sin as if with cart ropes. Who say, “Let Him hurry, let Him do His work quickly, so that we may see it; And let the plan of the Holy One of Israel approach And come to pass, so that we may know it!”
The words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets were not only about the Second Coming but the circumstances or the mindset of people that question God. What they’re really doing is they’re questioning God Himself. How come it is taking Him so long if you’re saying this, Isaiah? Their evil hearts are always questioning God. What they do is they reverse what is actually true and good. Now look at Isaiah 5:20:
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
Do you see what is going on here? That is exactly what is happening in our day from the top levels of government all the way down. People are saying what used to be good is now evil and what is evil is now good. Everything is getting mixed up and twisted. That happens when people don’t have a confidence and truth because they don’t believe there is a truth. Or they believe whatever is in themselves and it is not tested by anything outside of themselves.
So we had sincere minds which are ready to receive the message of the prophets. Another passage of Scripture is in Jeremiah 17:13-15, 18 to see that the question always comes up. It’s not a question of faith but of doubt. It says here:
Lord, the hope of Israel, all who abandon You will be put to shame. Those who turn away on earth will be written down, because they have forsaken the fountain of living water, that is the Lord. Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for You are my praise. Look, they keep saying to me, “Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come now!” Let those who persecute me be put to shame, but as for me, let me not be put to shame; let them be dismayed, but let me not be dismayed. Bring on them a day of disaster, and crush them with double destruction!
Again that question is where is the Word of the Lord? We go to Malachi and get the same thing. Where is God’s justice? We come to Daniel 7:13 and see:
I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven one like a son of man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him.
This gives us a picture of the circumstances yet when we look at the prophets and see them, they are prophesying a coming day called the Day of the Lord which I will explain more next time. Peter was saying that this is already taught in the Old Testament what they are going to say and question. It’s always a Satanic method because he asked Eve, for example, if God really told her that about the tree. They get people to question the truth.
The second thing Peter says in 2 Peter 3:2 is basically to remember what the New Testament says. Of course we know when we come to the New Testament that it becomes clearer about what it says of the coming of Jesus Christ. So he says in this verse:
Remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles.
Now we’re saying not only the Old Testament has defended it but also the New Testament. Look now in Jude 1:14-15 because Jude foretold the coming of the Lord and it says here:
It was also about these people that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord has come with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
Jude is saying that the Lord is coming with judgment. Jesus Himself told us in Matthew 25:31:
But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.
When Jesus was talking to His disciples before He went back to Heaven in John 14:3:
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will take you to Myself, so that where I am, there you also will be.
He enforced to them that the plan wasn’t finished yet and that He would be coming back. Luke says in Acts 3:20-21:
That He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things, about which God spoke by the mouths of His holy prophets from ancient times.
We see the same thing in the epistles when Paul says in 1 Timothy 6:14:
Keep the commandment without fault or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
When Jesus was going back to Heaven and finally leaving this earth after speaking to the disciples for about 50 days, He said in Acts 1:11:
Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.
Jesus is definitely coming as told by the Old Testament and the New Testament. So as we think about that, the first thing that Peter wants to enforce upon our minds to establish the fact that Jesus is coming is that the Word of God has clearly announced it. Secondly, the mockers will attack it. Look at 2 Peter 3:3:
Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts
The mockers’ strategy is verbal slander and the very fact that mockers will come on the scene in the Last Days with their false teaching and ridicule that Christ will return is a sign that the end is indeed is coming and is near. Their activity affirms the truth of prophesy that Christ is indeed coming and they ridicule not only by their words and teaching, but also by their very behavior. It says in the text that following their own lusts is what drives them. Neither the truth nor the Word drives them, but their own inner passions for sin.
They connect their religious systems to what they are doing to allow them to live any old way that they want to live. So what is their illogical argument? Look at 2 Peter 3:4:
Saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.”
This is the same strategy as in the Old Testament. They don’t see Him coming or any signs of it so they assume that the universe has continued as a stable and unchanging system from the beginning. This represents what we call a uniformitarian view that denies any divine intervention into human history and they are simply saying that God will not come because He has never intervened before.
So this is a traditional formula for expressing skepticism. Scoffers maintain that God’s promise is unreliable and that God’s universe is stable and unchanging system where events like the parousia, the coming of Christ, just don’t happen. So these false teachers’ arguments ignore a good deal and omit what God has done because they have always denied the Creator, the Word of God, and the promises given by the prophets and apostles.
The only thing left then is to deny their own imaginary conclusions and confusions. They refuse to be ruled by Scripture and to use it in a manner that would make allowances for their own sinful agendas. False teachers have their own realized eschatology that says God has turned this world over to His creation and is no longer involved in the affairs of this world to intervene in judgment against His own creation. In philosophy, the universe can be understood as a closed system that operates on a cause effect basis. Thus any sort of divine intervention is eliminated.
On the other hand, Christian philosophy would articulate a controlled system which acknowledges a cause-effect relationship that allows the possibility of divine intervention anytime God wants to do it. So we could ask the question, “Why would the heretical teachers take such a cavalier view of how to live life?” We know that they claim to allow their religious system allows them to worship God in any way they choose.
These false teachers are influenced by epicurean thought, which means one who makes a living at picking up scraps. These philosophers were known as seed pickers, pulling various aspects of pagan and Christian teaching and synthesize them into some new syncretistic kind of religion. They pick what they like and exclude the judgment of God and the Second Coming. They wanted to hear new teaching so they picked and chose what they wanted to keep and reject.
The epicureans rejected any idea of the providential intervention of God and believed the world was ruled by chance. They believed in the unchanging nature of creation. It says in 2 3:4:
All continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.
So they believe that there would be no future judgment or a just end to the world so they concluded that human beings were free to pursue their own desires and live the way they wanted. They thought the sins of the body remained within their body and that God would never call them to account for their earthly sins. All of that is twisted and false teaching and does not line up with Scripture at all.
So false teachers said God no longer intervenes in this world and if there is no divine intervention, no coming again of Jesus or judgment, you can just live like you want to and still be religious. That will soothe your conscience to help you feel like you’re doing something right. So the Scripture fills in the blank of the historical reality that we live in and that the false teachers twisted, misrepresented, and omitted truth that must be addressed.
The third established fact that Christ will come is that the Lord God affirms it in 2 Peter 3:5-10. So now a defense is made by the fact of past happenings in world history. The Lord God has always been in control of this world and its history and it is God that created the world and then sent a worldwide cataclysmic food to destroy it. The question here to the false teachers is what about the worldwide flood? That’s what Peter says in 2 Peter 3:5-10:
For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
Somehow that got out of these false teachers minds that they missed that God did this cataclysmic thing. How does such a huge event escape their notice? Well it could be that they thought it was just a mystical story. More clearly by sinful choice, they put out of their minds to the whole history of creation and the flood and willfully chose to close their minds to the overabundance of evidence even to this day. We’re gaining more and more evidence about a worldwide flood. The evidence is overwhelming to anyone who wants to look at facts.
There is found a sequel account of the flood of Genesis in a book called the Epic of Gilgamesh, which was dated about 2,000 B.C. which has many similarities to the Biblical Genesis amount. However, once the flood account was mixed with Babylonian polytheism and it was mixed with other unrelated information and then passed down as myth. In fact if you go back and look again at this particular document you will see it talks about a cosmic flood in the setting of polytheistic myths which is many gods.
In fact the following similarities are found in connection to the Biblical account of Genesis and here’s some of them. A divine degree to create is revealed in this document. A boat is built according to careful measurements and sealed with tar. A family and many animals entered it and the flood rises and birds are sent out three times which includes a dove and a raven.
It sounds like an awful lot like the Biblical count of Genesis. The similarities in the narrative detail together with the inclusion of the cosmic flood suggest the possible survival of reports and memories of the Genesis flood after it happened. It actually affirms and support Scripture. However when true stories are mixed outside material, the narrative becomes corrupt and then it slips into the category of legend and then myth and then fables which are just stories.
Remember the Apostle Peter did tell us in 2 Peter 1:16:
For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.
Cleverly devised tales are always used in the negative sense in myths, legends, and fables. These fables were far-fetched stories usually of a religious nature about the gods of the nations’ wood pagan practices. So false teachers just thought it was a story, a myth. But they willfully rejected any kind of truth connected to it. These false teachers are so locked into the present pleasures of this life that the thought of God’s future coming Kingdom was blurred to their greedy hearts and corrupt desires with their clouded minds, the Second Coming of Christ seemed to be to them like a made up story, that kids should read in their books.
It is a historical fact that the whole world was covered by the flood waters and that the world that existed then was destroyed by a the very waters out of what the earth had original emerged at God’s commanding Word. His Word that creates also destroys and that’s what it says in our passage here that God created the world with water and destroyed it by water.
In fact the Word of God even tells us where the water went afterwards and what God did to put boundaries around it. There would not be a worldwide flood again. Take your Bibles and look at Psalm 104:6-9, just a quick gander at what the Word of God tells us about this event. It says:
You covered it with the deep sea as with a garment; the waters were standing above the mountains. They fled from Your rebuke, at the sound of Your thunder they hurried away. The mountains rose; the valleys sank down to the place which You established for them. You set a boundary so that they will not pass over, so that they will not return to cover the earth.
He is saying that once that flood took place, God set boundaries on water that will ensure there will never be a worldwide flood like in the days of Noah again. Then He gives us the rainbow as a promise. Jesus is Lord, Savior, and Ruler over God’s creation and Judge. False teachers said God no longer intervenes in this world and Peter says that is not true. There are many proofs that God has and will intervene in world history. Creation is one of them and the worldwide flood is another one. He sent His Son to accomplish redemption by dying, shedding His blood, rising from the dead, and ascending back into Heaven.
Let me just tell you this: He is coming again at the end of the world as an end time Judge. It will happen because God is true and we can believe every word the Bible says because of His character and because He is the Author of the Word as He moved on holy men to write the Scriptures. The Lord is Sovereign and has always been in charge of this planet. He knows when He wants to create, curse, drown, restore, destroy, and completely replace it with a new Heaven and earth where righteousness dwells.
We’re looking at our future hope. There will never be righteousness in this world at the level of the New Heaven and earth. The more you listen to the news, the more you realize how unrighteous this world is and how corrupt it is at every level and every place in the world. It is taking over everything.
God is in charge of the world and we cannot save it. No green new deal is going to save this planet. We’re called to subdue it and to enjoy it and to use the supply that come from the earth for our own needs and to give God honor and glory because someday He is going to get rid of this disposable planet.
The fiery judgment is anticipated in the judgment by water in Noah’s day. At one time, water brought judgment but this time fire shall do it. Fire will alter both the heavens and earth completely. Look again at 2 Peter 3:7:
But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
There is a promise for you and I that God will do what He says. Fire shall do it, shall alter both the earth and the universe. I will say more about that next message. But I do want to move from God being sovereign over the earth to the second character. He is also outside of time. Look again at 2 Peter 3:8:
But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.
While it is true that God created a time space world, He Himself is not bound by its time and limitations. False teachers fail to grasp the eternality of God. He is not bound by the constraints by time signatures such as past, present, and future. He is the eternal now. He is the God who is outside of time. A thousand years is like yesterday to Him. He is not constrained by all those things.
However to the false teachers, because the Second Coming has not yet occurred especially within their concept of time, to them it serves as a verification that the idea of the parousia, or the coming of Christ, is unfounded. They think that if it hadn’t happened already, it is not going to. God remains the Lord over time and the eternity of God is a great topic to study if you ever get a chance.
But not only is God Sovereign and outside of time but He is also on schedule. Look at 2 Peter 3:9 again:
The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
The false teachers don’t understand who God is so they fail to consider the gracious ways of God. In relation to time, it does seem that things are moving slowly and are taking a long time to pan out. Because of this delay, one may conclude that all remains the same and nothing really changes. Time and life will go on like it aways has gone on. They also may think that God has forgotten or changed His mind. The mockers were accusing God of being slow asking what is taking so long.
But there’s the wonderful thing about our Lord, He has not left us to speculate the reason for His delay. Understood from God’s perspective, His delay goes to the heat of what God desires for humanity from the beginning of creation to the end. That is His delay is evangelistic. This is the reason He is not acting quickly, so that all the chosen will come to repentance; that lost souls will have a change of heart to turn from sin to serve and believe and live for the true and living God. The loving nature of God has led to His patience, desiring more time for more people to repent of sin and come into the fold of His sheep.
The patience of God is mentioned in the context of salvation. We think of 1 Timothy 1:16 where He says:
Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost sinner Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.
In Romans 2:4 it tells us:
Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and restraint and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?
See the parousi has been delayed due to God’s patience in seeking the redemption of His sheep. Not everybody has been saved by that’s why He is waiting. Aren’t we all praying for unbelievers in our families? So if He came today what would that do? It would mean they would never be saved. See we pray and ask God to save people because there are those who are not yet saved and not yet brought into the fold but are going to be saved. Of course if you are wondering, the passage does not say that literally everyone will be saved.
In other words, God is not willing that any of His elect would perish. It may be read as follows in 2 Peter 3:9:
The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
Will all the chosen come to repentance? Yes! God is waiting. He may be waiting for some of you here to come to repentance and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. In reality, we are not guaranteed tomorrow. The Lord may not come tomorrow but we may die tomorrow, right? The sad thing sometimes when you’re watching movies and you say that everybody in the movie is dead, it’s weird. Even people who you knew were alive and are now dead, it’s weird! Death does not belong anywhere in this universe, which is why God is going to banish it.
So God is waiting for you to come if you haven’t come yet. Believe in Jesus Christ because today is the day of salvation! This Greek word that means God is patient to you is a word that means macro. God has a huge amount of restraint that He is displaying to contain His anger against the ungodly that He will pour down the world so people will come and be saved.
That leads to 2 Peter 3:10 which I will finish explaining next week.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
So teaching of the last things has a practical significance to it. It will help us wait in patient trust. In God’s time, He will work out His plan. We’re living in an exciting time! There are a lot of depressing things too but do you realize that 30 years ago, people read the Scriptures saying they don’t know if that is going to happen. It didn’t happen in any other generation and it’s happening a little too fast for my sake but it’s happening! It hasn’t changed God’s plan. We may be persecuted and lose our lives for the faith but so what! It’s not the end for us.
In the midst of all difficulties of life, we must continue to meditate upon the future life. In this life, God permits His people to be troubled and pray like Dave prayed this morning. He permits them to be troubled with chaos, wars, crimes, or all kinds of other injuries, diseases, and pandemics. He allows those things to happen and many of those things bring people to faith. It’s when things are going good, they don’t think about God. But when the bottom gets dropped out all of a sudden you start thinking about and ask the right questions. You wonder where you’re going to go when you die and where you stand before God.
Where you’re ending up should cause some fear. The Bible’s answer is through Jesus christ. Through these things God sets before us how unstable and fleeting all the goods and the things are in this world. So we must always be ready to contemplate life in the age to come. Such contemplation transforms us and helps God’s people live according to the teaching of Christ. Aways considering ourselves as strangers and pilgrims on the earth who seek the joy and the peace of God’s future Kingdom, where righteousness will dwell. So thinking rightly about the revelation of Jesus Christ thinking rightly and about the Second Coming it will bolster your faith. It will bring comfort in the midst of trials especially to those who endue trials for the sake of the gospel.
It also has a very purifying effect on our sanctification. 1 John says it clearer than any other passage of the Bible where it says in 1 John 3:2-3:
Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope set on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
This is what I started out with, that true teaching and doctrine leads to holiness and to a pure, not perfect, life. So get ready because Jesus is coming and is returning. What are we to do between now and then? Increase in the knowledge of Jesus Christ because that will lead you to stability, holiness, godliness, and a life that honors God which maintains joy and peace in the midst of God’s Church.
Let’s pray. Thank You this morning in Your kindness in giving us this Truth. We walk around as special privileged people. Not everybody knows the things I spoke of today. Only believers, God’s people, do. Enable us to live with the thought every day that You are coming. I pray that those results I mentioned are effective in our lives and that we give You all the praise and the glory and the honor for what You have done and what You will do. I pray this in Your Name, Amen.