{"id":18188,"date":"2020-04-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-29T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/2-peter-015-the-relevance-of-the-future\/"},"modified":"2020-04-29T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T05:00:00","slug":"2-peter-015-the-relevance-of-the-future","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/2-peter-015-the-relevance-of-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"2 Peter 015 – The Relevance of the Future"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[106],"series_event":[507],"sermon_service_type":[474],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18188","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-2-peter","series_event-2-peter","sermon_service_type-wednesday-evenings","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"2 Peter 015 - The Relevance of the Future","sermon_date":"20200429","sermon_month":"4","sermon_year":"2020","sermon_notes":7941,"sermon_slides":7944,"sermon_mp3":7953,"sermon_id":"429202232307788","series_or_event":507,"service_type":[474],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":106,"chapter_and_verse":"3:11-15a","sermon_transcript":"2 Peter #15\nThe Relevance of the Future\n2 Peter 3:11-15a\nApril 29, 2020\nDr. Andy Woods\n\nOpening Prayer<\/strong>\n\n\u201cFather, we\u2019re grateful for this evening, grateful for Your church, grateful for Your Word that does not return void. I just ask that the Holy Spirit would take Your truth this evening as we seek to teach it here and edify Your people.\n\nIf someone is listening who does not know Jesus personally, I pray that tonight's teaching through Your Word, claiming Your promise that Your Word does not return void, would convict them of their need for salvation. We\u2019ll be careful to give You all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name.\u201d And God's people said? \u201cAmen.\u201d\n\nI can hear you all heartily through the camera saying, \u201cAmen!\u201d Thank you for that. Welcome to Sugar Land Bible Church live stream. This is our Wednesday evening study here at Sugar Land Bible Church. We\u2019re continuing on in our midweek study through the Book of 2 Peter.\n\nTake your Bible and open it to 2 Peter 3:11. Believe it or not, we\u2019re reaching the very end of the book. We may even finish the book tonight. I'm not entirely sure, but we'll see how it goes.\n\n2 Peter, you\u2019ll remember, is a book written by the Apostle Peter from Babylon, or modern-day Iraq, seeking to warn his Hebrew Christian audience in the north central Turkey area of coming false teaching. That's really what the book is about. It\u2019s a book which is a warning, if you will, against false teaching.\n\nThe book has three basic parts to it. Part one is in chapter 1, which is basically a call to growth\u2014spiritual growth\u2014or spiritual maturity. There was our outline of chapter 1 that we worked through, and the dominant theme in chapter 1 is to mature as a Christian. And the reason for that is in chapter 2 verse 14 where we have learned that the false teachers prey on the unstable.\n\nIf a Christian is no longer unstable but properly developing, it's very difficult to deceive them. So that's why Peter spends this introductory chapter on a book on false teaching telling his audience to grow up spiritually. Chapter 1 is everything you\u2019d want to know about spiritual growth\u2014what it looks like, what the resources are for growth, etc.\n\nThen, from there, we moved into part two, chapter 2, where Peter lays out\u2014other than the Book of Jude, I can't think of any other single chapter of the Bible that lays this out so well\u2014the general characteristics of false teachers. So, in general, what are false teachers like? You can take Peter's list\u2014we\u2019ve worked through that list\u2014and apply it, really, to false teachers in any age. It\u2019s a tremendous way to study and ascertain what false teachers are like.\n\nThen, from there, we moved into part three, which is chapter 3, where now Peter is no longer dealing with the general or generic characteristics of false teachers; rather, he's describing their doctrine. What doctrine are they going to introduce? I've entitled this message The<\/em> Relevance of the Future<\/em> because Peter explains that one of the doctrines these false teachers are going to attack is the idea that Jesus Christ is coming back to this earth. They\u2019re going to say (verses 3-4), \u201c\u2018Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.\u2019\u201d<\/em> They\u2019re going to employ an attitude of mockery related to the particular doctrine of the Second Advent of Jesus Christ.\n\nPeter also, in those verses, explains why<\/em> they're going to teach this. They\u2019re living in lusts. And if you're living in lusts, you\u2019re basically a person who\u2019s living in denial. As they say, \u201cDa Nile is not just a river in Egypt\u201d; but it's a state of mind where you deny reality. You deny that Jesus Christ is ever coming back to this earth because you're very comfortable with your life in this world and you don't want God interrupting it.\n\nThey are going to believe in a doctrine that today has captivated the minds of probably your grandchildren, and probably your children, and probably you yourself if you went through the public school system. It's a doctrine called uniformitarianism. It\u2019s the basis for evolutionary thought, and it\u2019s basically the idea that you evaluate what happened in the past and what will happen in the future by a slow, gradual process that you can see in the present.\n\nWe've already gone through these verses (verses 5-10) where Peter's basically offered a rebuttal to this attack on the doctrine of the Second Coming even before it shows up. Peter has reason from history (verses 5 to 7). You can't evaluate the past or the future by what you can see in the present because there's some miracles that took place in the past that don't really fit into a slow, gradual process that we can see today. And there\u2019s where Peter called our attention to two events: the ex nihilo creation of God\u2014God spoke and the heavens and the earth leapt into existence; and then God spoke again and the global deluge (or Flood) happened.\n\nFrom there Peter reasoned from Scripture, where he was referencing Psalm 90:4 to describe that God is outside of time. You know, a delay in God is not a denial; in God's mind the Second Advent has already happened because He's outside of time. And the weakness of being locked into time\u2014as a finite, time-bound creature\u2014is that we have a tendency to think that our perception of things is how things work completely. And that's not how it works at all, because God is outside of time. So, \u201cDon't be shocked,\u201d Peter says, \u201cwith the sudden intervention of God in the future through His return to the earth, because for God tomorrow is already today and today is already tomorrow. Because God is outside of time.\u201d\n\nFrom there Peter began to reason from God's character (verse 9). That\u2019s where he said,\n\u201cThere's a reason God delays His coming!\u201d And that's to give as many people an opportunity to trust Christ as possible. Because God is not willing that any should perish, but He desires all to come to repentance and to a knowledge of Him. Again, don't confuse a delay with a denial.\n\nThen, finally (verse 10), Peter reasoned from divine promise and said, \u201cLook just as the floodwaters finally broke on that ancient civilization and judgment came, the Day of the Lord will come<\/em> like a thief in the night in which the heavens and the earth will be dissolved with fire and replaced with a new heavens and new earth.\n\nPeter has just done a magnificent job, as he is writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, refuting uniformitarianism. And I get the feeling that Peter graduated from a pretty good preaching school because he really follows a tremendous sermonic outline here. After he gives his doctrine\u2014as the Lord has given it to him\u2014he begins to move into application. Here he is no longer answering the \u201cWhat\u201d question, but he is answering \u201cHow does it apply to me today?\u201d\n\nIn other words, you might be reading some of these things Peter says (his response to uniformitarianism). It's possible that as we\u2019ve been talking about these things your eyes have rolled over into your back of your head because you\u2019re wondering how all of this theology relates to you specifically. But what you discover with Peter (verses 11-15) is that he tells us exactly how it applies. This would be the \u201cSo what?\u201d question.\n\nWhenever you hear a preacher, if they\u2019re any good, they're not just going to tell you what the Bible says (which is important in and of itself) but they're going to explain what it means to you personally. And if you look at verse 11 very carefully, it's very clear that Peter has moved into that section because he asks the following question. \u201cSince all these things are to be destroyed in this way\u2026\u201d<\/em> Now, what way? What he said in verse 10\u2014that the heavens and the earth are going to be dissolved by fire. So, since this is going to happen, since this is a prophetic and eschatological certainty...\n\n\u201cSince all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be\u2026\u201d<\/em> In other words, what a tragedy it is to learn Bible doctrine and tremendous theology but never really to walk away with, \u201cGosh\u2014this should be changing my life! I mean, if I have a knowledge that the Titanic is going to sink, maybe that should give me an incentive to get myself off the boat, get other people off the boat, warn other people!\u201d\n\nYou have a knowledge that the Titanic is going to sink\u2014and then you just sit down and live in denial. You sit down in the cruise restaurant there and finish your meal, you know. I mean, what good is the knowledge of the future if it doesn't create some kind of immediacy or some kind of urgency in the present? It\u2019s just data!\n\nSo, Bible prophecy is that way! God expects us to learn these truths, but then He expects us to apply these truths. What Peter does here in verses 11-15 is that he gives four points of application. But, you see, this is why this application and how Bible prophecy is supposed to change our lives. It explains why so much of the Bible was prophetic at the time it was written.\n\nOne of the things that distinguishes the Bible from all the other alleged \u201choly\u201d books out there is the Bible reveals history in advance. No other alleged \u201choly book\u201d out there does this other than the Bible, because the Bible was written by an omniscient God Who is not bound by time and knows the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end! So, that's why the Bible will reveal history in advance.\n\nThere was a man named J. Barton Payne. I have his book Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy<\/em> on my bookshelf in my library. It\u2019s a fairly thick book. By the way, he would not agree with our version of end time events that we preach here. But he just wanted to go through the Bible and make a study: \u201cHow much of the Bible predicts the future?\u201d\n\nNow some of the prophecies that he brings up have<\/em> been fulfilled<\/em>, like the prophecies related to the first coming of Christ. But his question was, \u201cAt the time those prophecies were given initially, how much of the Bible relates to the future?\u201d And what you discover\u2014what the research of J. Barton Payne revealed\u2014is that 27% of the Bible was prophetic at the time it was written.\n\nYou run into a lot of people\u2014particularly pastors, and preachers, and church growth consultants. Go to these pastors\u2019 conferences in some circles and you'll hear them say, \u201cYou shouldn't bring up prophecy in your church because that's going to scare people. That's going to divide the church.\u201d So there are many, many preachers and teachers today who will just skip over<\/em> Bible prophecy!\n\nAnd I\u2019ve run into pastors who have blatantly told me, \u201cI don't teach Bible prophecy.\u201d In fact, one pastor I heard of recently says he will never teach a sermon series\u2014ever\u2014in his church on the Book of Revelation. And my response to such a mindset is simply this: \u201cOh, so you leave out over a quarter of the Bible in your ministry.\u201d And that's a far cry from what we\u2019re called to do.\n\nWe\u2019re called to preach the whole counsel of God's Word; Paul says that in Acts 20:26-27. And if you\u2019re dedicated to teaching the full counsel of God's Word, at some point you have to talk about Bible prophecy. I don't believe, necessarily, in hobby horsing on Bible prophecy; just like I don't believe in hobby horsing on any specific area of the Bible. What I do believe in, though, is just teaching the Bible.\n\nAnd if you just systematically teach the Bible, what you\u2019ll discover is you have to engage Bible prophecy. Because 27% of the Bible was prophetic at the time it was written. And the reason God has given 27% of His Word to Bible prophecy is: if you understand it, it'll change the way you live.\n
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  1. Dwight Pentecost, my professor, in his book Prophecy for Today<\/em> says the following. I actually heard him in class make this identical statement. He says, \u201cA short time ago, I took occasion to go through the New Testament to mark each reference to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and to observe the use made of that teaching about His coming. I was struck anew with the fact that almost without exception, when the coming of Christ is mentioned in the New Testament, it is followed by an exhortation to godliness and holy living.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nIn fact, when he made that statement, I really didn't believe it; so I started to make a habit myself. Every time I saw the Second Coming, particularly in the New Testament, I tried to observe, \u201cIs it linked to daily life?\u201d Notice what Peter has done here. Verse 10 is an end time statement; in verse 11 he starts talking about daily life by way of application.\n\nSo, as you go through the Bible, what you\u2019ll see is that the return of Christ is linked over and over again to holiness, patience under trial, prayerfulness, joy in the midst of adversity. All of that to say that God has not given us prophecy just to fill our heads with interesting information; it's supposed to change the way we live. Because what we discover in prophecy is God's priorities\u2014the things that are actually going to last.\n\nWe just learned in verse 10 that this world is going to be dissolved by fire. And if that's true, then why am I so worldly? Why do I hang on so tightly to the things of this world? What we discover in the pages of God's prophetic Word is that only two things are going to last and survive this burning. One is the souls of people. Ecclesiastes 3:11 talks about how God has placed eternity into the hearts of men. And the other is what we\u2019re doing right now in His Word. \u201cThe grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.\u201d<\/em>\n\nJesus said, \u201cHeaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.\u201d<\/em> So, when you make an investment on a Wednesday evening like this (when you could be watching or viewing 20,000 other things), when you make a decision to spend an hour studying the Word of God, you're making an eternal investment. When you invest in a person<\/em> you're making an eternal investment. And I would have no knowledge concerning what investments are wise and safe and which ones are foolish unless I gave my mind to Bible prophecy.\n\nBible prophecy, Peter describes earlier in this book, is like a light shining in a dark place that we would do well to pay attention to it (2 Peter 1:19). And here's where we\u2019re discovering why we would do well to pay attention to it. Because if you understand it, it shapes our priorities in the present. We stop living for foolish things that are going to burn anyway, and we invest what little time, talent, and treasure we have left on this earth to invest in the things that are actually going to last and actually going to matter.\n\nSo this is why prophecy is that \u201cmore sure\u201d witness\u2014even than eyewitness testimony. It's a lamp shining in a dark place. The world today is in a dark place. You look at what's going on with self-quarantine and social distancing and the lockdown going on all over the world, and I think it's easy to make the case that the world is going through great difficulty. The fact of the matter is we may recover from this; maybe we won\u2019t. But I prophetically don't see things dramatically improving around the world. They won't dramatically improve in the United States.\n\nSo, we\u2019re slipping into a very dark time in national history and human history. And what is the only thing that keeps you sane<\/em> during this difficulty? It's the prophetic Word. It's a lamp shining in a dark place. It's a reminder that there's a better world coming, and God has everything under control.\n\nWith all that being said, let's move to the application that Peter has for us in verses 11-15. We have here four points of application. What should prophecy do for me personally?\n
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    1. It should create within me an incentive for holy living.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nLook again at verse 11. \u201cSince all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be\u2026\u201d<\/em> So, there's the application. Then he says, \u201c\u2026in holy conduct and godliness\u2026\u201d<\/em> Look at verse 14 which says, \u201cTherefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless\u2026\u201d<\/em>\n\nWhat he is saying here is, as a Christian, let your practice, your daily life, your daily motives, our daily speech, our daily communication\u2014let those things catch up with your position. Let your practice catch up with your position. God has already declared us to be holy as we believe in Jesus Christ, and His holiness is transferred to us at the point of faith alone in Christ alone. And if that\u2019s a positional reality, Peter is saying, \u201cLive like it!\u201d And this is what prophecy does: it creates in us a natural desire to be holy.\n\nJohn, in his little epistle of 1 John, says in verses 2-3, \u201cBeloved, 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 fixed on Him\u2026\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 What does that mean? Everyone who is thinking about the return of Jesus. \u201cAnd everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.\u201d<\/em>\n\nIn other words, you're thinking about the return of Jesus. You\u2019re thinking about the day of accountability. And God has already declared us to be pure. So what John says here is, \u201cYou purify yourself just as you already are positionally pure, just as Jesus is\u2014and always has been\u2014positionally pure.\u201d\n\nSo, this is what Bible prophecy does. Because when you think about the Second Coming, you think about accountability, you think about the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ\u2014a doctrine that we've taught on many times here at this church. And the more you think about those things, the more you say, \u201cI'm going to try to get my act together in this area of my life or that area of my life,\u201d etc. It's like understanding that you're working in an office and your boss is coming back from vacation. I mean, you want to get your act together because the boss could walk into the office at any minute and examine things and hold you to accountability.\n\nSo Peter says, \u201cProphecy produces holiness.\u201d The problem is that if you cut off prophecy from the church\u2019s diet and you cut off origins (Genesis 1-11) from the church\u2019s diet, the only thing you're left with is daily living now. That's why so many sermons today are emphasizing relevance<\/em> and practicality<\/em>; they really don't have anything to say about the future because they don't teach Bible prophecy. And yet, the fact of the matter is if you taught people Bible prophecy, it would automatically change the way people live in the present. That's why God gave Bible prophecy.\n\nOne of the things you find about the Apostle Peter in his two letters (1 Peter and 2 Peter) is Peter was really big on the subject of holiness. Not just in position\u2014which we already have\u2014but in daily conduct. In his first letter he writes this in 1 Peter 1:15-16. He says, \u201c\u2026but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior\u2026\u201d<\/em> So he's not just talking about position; he\u2019s talking about how we live. \u201c\u2026because it is written, \u2018You shall be holy, for I am holy.\u2019\u201d<\/em>\n\nSo, the God Who created us and redeemed us is holy! In fact, that's what the seraphim say (Isaiah 6) around-the-clock as they\u2019re worshiping the Lord. They\u2019re saying, \u201c\u2018Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts\u2026\u2019\u201d<\/em> And if God is holy and if our position as we find ourselves in Christ by way of faith is<\/em> holiness, then why would I think as a Christian that one of the things I should do is take sinful excursions into unholiness?\n\nOne of the things that is troubling about the evangelical church today\u2014Christianity today\u2014as it\u2019s practiced particularly in North America, is that people have the idea that God is here to make them happy, to make them fulfilled. Now, I'm not against any of those things. But the reality of the situation is that God's primary objective for our lives is not necessarily happiness\u2014it's holiness<\/em>!\n\nThink about this for minute. When was the last sermon you heard in a Bible teaching evangelical church, across the denominational spectrum, on the holiness of God? I mean, it\u2019s just a subject we don't get into quite frequently\u2014even though that's what the angels are saying as I'm speaking. The seraphim (Isaiah 6) are saying, \u201c\u2018Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts\u2026\u2019\u201d <\/em>You\u2019ll also see that there in Revelation 4:8, \u201c\u2018Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty\u2026\u2019\u201d<\/em>\n\nSo, this is a big subject for Peter.\n
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      1. First point of application: Bible prophecy produces holiness.<\/li>\n \t
      2. Second point of application (verse 12): Bible prophecy produces evangelism.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nLook at verse 12, \u201clooking for and hastening\u2026\u201d<\/em> Now, if you\u2019re an underliner, you might think about underlining that word \u201chastening.\u201d \u201c\u2026looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which\u00a0the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the\u00a0elements will melt with intense heat!\u201d<\/em>\n\nNow, we already learned about that in verse 10; that Day is coming. So that's not front page news, verse 12. What is<\/em> front-page news is little old me and little old you can do something to speed up the calendar. Look again at 2 Peter 3:12, \u201clooking for and hastening\u2026\u201d<\/em>\n\nNow, \u201chastening\u201d is a participle; it comes from that verb SPEUDO. Obviously, the word that we get from that is the word \u201cspeed.\u201d So what Peter is revealing here is that we can actually do something to speed up God's end time program which will culminate in the destruction of the heavens and earth that we\u2019re living in by fire.\n\nNow, what could I possibly do to speed up the program of God? Well, you don't have to look far to see what that is because back in verse 9 he said, \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/em> In other words, God deliberately holds up judgment to give as many people an opportunity to trust in the provision of the Savior as is possible.\n\nSo the more I make Christ public, the more I do personal evangelism, the more I support or get behind world evangelization or world missions, the more I spread the gospel, that means more and more people are getting the opportunity to respond to the message. And since God is holding things up to give<\/em> people a chance to respond, the more people that get that opportunity the faster the end times program of God can take place.\n\nNow, there is a parallel passage over in Romans 11:25. Paul says, \u201cFor\u00a0I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this\u00a0mystery\u2014so that you will not be\u00a0wise in your own estimation\u2014that a partial\u00a0hardening has happened to Israel until the\u00a0fullness of the Gentiles has come in.\u201d<\/em> In other words, God hasn't forgotten about Israel. God has a program for Israel, but Israel's program is not taking place right now because of Israel nationally rejecting their own Messiah. (Not that individual Jews can't be saved today\u2014they are.<\/em>)\n\nIsrael nationally is in a state not of hardening but partial hardening.<\/em> Partial hardening means God is not through with Israel\u2014contrary to what a lot of theologians will tell you. God still has an end time program in store for Israel! So, what's holding everything up? Paul tells us right here in Romans 11:25, \u201c\u2026that a partial\u00a0hardening has happened to Israel until<\/em> [very important word] the\u00a0fullness of the Gentiles has come in.\u201d<\/em>\n\nI understand that to mean when the very last Gentile that's destined to be reached with the gospel in the age of the church has been reached\u2014and that's a number known only to God\u2014the body of Christ will be made complete. The bride of Christ will be made complete. The church, at that moment, will be translated to heaven in what we call the Rapture. And then God, Who has not forgotten about the nation of Israel, will put His hand back on the nation of Israel during the final seven years of human history before the Second Advent of Jesus and fulfill His program through the nation of Israel.\n\nSo, what is preventing God doing His end time work through Israel right now? Well, the Gentiles in the church have not been yet made complete. So the more the Gentiles come in through faith\u2026 And they can't come in through faith unless they hear the gospel. Because Paul, a chapter earlier, in Romans 10:17 says, \u201cSo faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.\u201d<\/em> In other words, the more the Word of Christ is shared, the more people have an opportunity to believe, the more the church numbers grow to their allotted number, the faster the Rapture will happen. Then, the faster the Rapture happens, the faster God's end time program through Israel will happen.\n\nNow, this here is a perspective on why personal evangelism is so difficult. I mean, why is it that when the Holy Spirit places a burden on your heart and my heart to share our faith with a lost person (coworker, family member), why is it that we\u2019re so afraid of that? Why is it that we\u2019re so easily distracted from that? The simple answer is that it\u2019s part of the angelic conflict. Satan would have you do anything<\/em>, really, other than personal evangelism. Because the more the church gets involved in personal evangelism, the more there is the potentiality of the bride made complete, the faster the end times program can come forward, and the faster Satan will be bound during the Kingdom and then ultimately thrown into the Lake of Fire.\n\nGod has given us a lot of abilities related to what we do in terms of our time and our choices as Christians, and many of the choices that we make relate to specifically how fast the end times can occur. Right now, as I speak, we know a lot about China and Iran in terms of the diabolical regimes that sadly govern those parts of the world. We know about that from our newspapers.\n\nWe know about Iran as a Shiite Islamic dictatorship. We know about China as a communist government. What we don't hear a lot about is the conversions that are happening right now in those two parts of the world. There are mass conversions happening right now in China and in Iran. The so-called \u201cunderground church\u201d is growing exponentially as I speak.\n\nBy the way, if you're part of that underground church and you\u2019re thinking about doing missions work, we think some of you ought to come here to the United States of America. We could use a little missions work here in Houston, Texas, quite frankly. It used to be the United States of America that sent missionaries out all over the world, and now our country has become so backslidden and pagan that we think the ultimate purpose of America is the achievement of the American dream.\n\nWe\u2019ve forgotten all about evangelism, our churches are in a state of deterioration, and what we need is some on-fire Christians and missionaries to come from those places on the earth that we used to evangelize. They need to come back and evangelize here. And I think this, perhaps, is part of the reason why the Rapture hasn't happened yet; because God, in these underground movements, is giving all of these people an opportunity to trust in Him.\n\nSo, end times prophecy motivates evangelism just like it motivates holy living.\n
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        1. Now, there's a third point of application here, and that has to do with hope.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nAnd you see it there in verse 13. Peter says, \u201cBut according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.\u201d<\/em> In other words, we\u2019re told (verse 13, verse 10) that God is going to take this world and He's going to dissolve it by fire. Why is God going to dissolve it by fire? Because original sin contaminated everything.\n\nRomans 8:19-23 talks about how the world that we\u2019re living in is in a state of travail; it's in a state of groaning. And the only way God can deal with the sin problem is to completely dissolve it by fire and replace it with a new heavens and new earth. But after He does dissolve it by fire, here (in verse 13) and in the last two chapters of the Book of Revelation (in what is called the eternal state, describing the new Jerusalem) we learn that there is a better world coming.\n\nAren't you glad about that? Aren't you glad that this world is not all there is\u2014with its Covid-19 issues and pandemics? Maybe this pandemic is what one teacher called a \u201cplandemic\u201d; you know, maybe the whole thing is planned. Or maybe it's some kind of spontaneous thing. I don't know enough about the issue to know; I think both options are possibilities.\n\nBut we\u2019re living in a world with death. We\u2019re living in a world with cancer, we\u2019re living in a world with crime and drive-by shootings, and death is a reality. I mean, the mortality rate is still 100%; people die all the time. And it\u2019s wonderful to learn that we\u2019re going to enter into a new world where the curse of sin is totally repealed. It hasn't contaminated it. It is not a world in travail. It's not a world that\u2019s groaning anymore. It's a completely brand-new world!\n\nNow, think if you did not have the light of Bible prophecy. The only thing you\u2019d really be stuck with is the nasty now and now. I mean, you would think that this world is all there is! And if you think that this world\u2014with all its problems, all of its setbacks, all of its layoffs, all of its economic problems, all of its stock market fluctuations, all of the inflation and deflation, and everything that can go wrong in the world\u2014is all there is, you\u2019re a person that is living without hope.\n\nWhich is why, when the stock market crashed back in 1929, it is fact that many, many people jumped out of buildings and committed suicide and things of that nature. Why would they do that? They did that because the only thing they were focused on is here and now. So, this world with all of its problems and hiccups is their only hope. Which is fine, I guess, if everything is going well. But when things go south\u2014which they do in a fallen world\u2014you lose hope. And it's so wonderful to learn from the pages of God's Word that there's a better world coming.\n\nAnd because there's a better world coming, a lot of things can go wrong in my life. But you know what? I might be disappointed, but hope is not gone. Because my hope comes from the pages of God's Word, which doesn't promise me that everything in this world is going to get better; it promises me a brand-new world in which dwells righteousness. It promises me\u2014and it promises you\u2014a world where, according to Revelation 21:4, \u201c\u2026He will wipe away every tear<\/em> [not 80% of our tears!] from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.\u201d<\/em> And this is what prophecy does for us: it gives us hope of a better world coming.\n\nYou know the word \u201chope\u201d is kind of tricky. Because when we use the word \u201chope\u201d in English, we think it means, \u201cGosh! I hope I\u2019m going to get that new job. I hope that business deal comes through. I hope I get a good report from my doctor.\u201d So hope, when we use it, has the idea of certainty and uncertainty\u2014mostly uncertainty; it's more of a probability. And that's not what the Bible means when it uses this word \u201chope.\n\n\u201cHope\u201d is not a \u201cI hope so\u201d thing. It's what we would call an \u201cI know so\u201d thing. It's an ironclad promise from God of a better world. And what does that mean? It means you can go through all kinds of problems in this life and you never run out of hope. Because God has promised a better world coming and a better world on the horizon.\n\nWe have all these youth today that can't find themselves. They\u2019re depressed. A lot of them are marking themselves up\u2014sometimes causing damage to their skin. They\u2019re involved with all of this counseling, involved with drugs, involved with the use of alcohol. And we wonder, \u201cWhat is wrong with our young people? Why can't they just get their act together?\u201d\n\nWell, let me tell you what's wrong with our young people. They don't have any hope! \u201cWhy don\u2019t they have any hope?\u201d Well, we kicked God out everything a long time ago! \u201cCan\u2019t have the Bible in school anymore\u2014that gives people hope!\u201d In fact, in a lot of cases you can\u2019t even have prophetic truth being taught in the church\u2014which gives people hope\u2014because it runs counter to somebody's business consultant or business marketing model.\n\nSo we throw hope out of everything in the church. We throw hope out of everything in the culture. And we say, \u201cWhat's wrong with the young people?!\u201d What do you think is wrong with them??? What's wrong with the young people is the same thing that would be wrong with me and the same thing that would be wrong with you if I didn't have Bible prophecy! I would have no hope whatsoever! I would go through life very detached, despondent, depressed, because this is all there is. Uniformitarianism: you evaluate the past and the future by what you can see in the present.\n\nBut how different it is when you actually study\u2014and not just study but take to heart\u2014what God reveals concerning the future. You learn very fast that there is another world coming, a better world coming, in which dwells righteousness, and hope comes back!\n\nIt was this world that was coming that Abraham was looking for. Hebrews 11:10 says of Abram (or Abraham), \u201cfor he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.\u201d<\/em> Is that what you're looking for? That\u2019s what I\u2019m looking for! I'm not looking for some political party to rise to power and rescue us. I'm not looking for another city made by man. I'm looking for a city of God; God is the builder and the architect of that city. That is the only city that\u2019s going to last. That is the only city that\u2019s going to be significant and meaningful.\n\nSo, when we have a knowledge of this world dissolved by fire, replaced by a new heavens and new earth, we walk through life with hope.\n
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          1. Then there's a fourth point of application, and it has to do with patience.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nSo, we've done holiness (verse 11, 14). We\u2019ve done evangelism (verse 12). We've done hope (verse 13). The only verse we haven\u2019t looked at yet in this application section of Peter's letter is verse 15. Notice what he says here, \u201cand regard the patience of our Lord as salvation\u2026\u201d<\/em> I\u2019m going to stop reading there, because we\u2019re going to be going into that more next week in terms of three concluding exhortations.\n\nBut I just want to make the point here, midway through verse 15, that Peter tells us to regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. What he's telling us to do is, \u201cI want you to consider\u2014I want you to behold\u2014the patience of God.\u201d And in this chapter has not God displayed a lot of patience?\n\nVerse 9 we've already read in prior studies, \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/em> God is amazingly<\/em> patient! He holds up the whole end time program to give as many people an opportunity to believe the gospel as is possible.\n\nGod waits for us. In fact, prior to the global deluge (which is referenced in verses 6-7) God, according to Genesis 6:3, waited 120 years for those people to repent. One hundred and 20 years is a long time! That's about half the length of the United States of America\u2014going back to our Declaration of Independence in 1776. God waited half the duration of the United States for those people to repent prior to the Flood. And when you study Genesis 6, they were involved in about every sin that you could get involved in\u2014violence, corruption.\n\nThen, later on in biblical history, God told Abram that his descendants would go into Egypt. They would be in Egypt for 400 years. They would come out with great possessions, and they would come back into the land of Canaan. And we know that happened in the days of Joshua.\n\nAnd you say, \u201cWhy did God wait 400 years?\u201d He says in Genesis 15:16 that \u201cthe iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.\u201d<\/em> The Amorites were one of those Canaanite people groups who were involved in gross sin\u2014not for 120 years, not for 240 years, but for 400 years!\n\nAnd if you want to see what those people were doing, just read Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20. It's far beyond mere sexual sin and adultery and even homosexuality; you get into bestiality, incest, child sacrifice. And God is waiting on these people for 400 years to repent and get their act together and to trust in His provision. And finally, the wickedness had been made so complete that it even exhausted the patience of God.\n\nYou know from the Book of Joshua that God sent Joshua in there and slaughtered the Canaanites. But God did not<\/em> bring judgment on the Canaanites until a prolonged period of patience<\/em> had elapsed! And that's what Peter is saying in verse 15 when he says, \u201c\u2026regard the patience of our Lord...\u201d<\/em> Now, how is this an application? If God is that patient<\/em> with people, why are we so impatient<\/em> with people?\n\nThere are a lot of people in my life\u2014and I'm embarrassed to say this\u2014I just gave up on praying for them! Sometimes they are even extended family members, and I just think, \u201cWell, such and such a person will never get saved.\u201d So you just forget about them, and you don't pray for them anymore. Here's the application, \u201cregard the patience of God.\u201d\n\nI other words, if God is as patient as He is towards us, why do we give up on people so quick? Why don\u2019t we exercise a little bit of patience towards other people? That's the point of application. This is a lesson we all need to learn, because we want to move right into the judgment of God. But God doesn\u2019t want to move into judgment. God is reluctant<\/em> to judge; God is desiring all people be given an opportunity to avoid judgment.\n\nI'm reminded of this story, and this is my final set of Scripture for this evening. \u201cNow it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him.\u201d<\/em> Luke 9:51-56 (NKJV)\n\nNow, you have to understand something. Going back 700 years, the Jews hated the Samaritans and the Samaritans hated the Jews. It's a long-standing racial conflict in the land of Israel spanning seven centuries. There was nothing more than for Jesus\u2019 Jewish disciples to see the judgment of God wipe the Samaritans off the face of the earth.\n\n\u201cBut they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, \u2018Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?\u2019\u201d<\/em> I can relate to these guys! You know, \u201cBurn them up!\u201d\n\n\u201cBut He turned and rebuked them<\/em> [James and John, the sons of Zebedee], and said, \u201cYou do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men\u2019s lives but to save them.\u201d And they went to another village.\u201d<\/em>\n\nThese are a couple of the Lord's disciples. They are called the \u201cSons of Thunder\u201d for a reason. They just had no interest in the patience of God; they had no awareness of the patience of God. You know, it's interesting that the grace that we receive from Jesus we don't want to apply to other people. Isn\u2019t that interesting?\n\nThe Lord doesn't treat us with justice; He treats us with grace. And we\u2019re the first type of people to turn around and treat someone else with justice. You know, to really give them a piece of our mind\u2014rather than to be forbearing and patient towards them! So, they needed to learn this lesson.\n\nIt\u2019s sort of encouraging because one of these guys is named John.<\/em> What did John become? He became known as the \u201clove apostle.\u201d He's the one who wrote the Gospel of John, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, and ultimately the Book of Revelation.\n\nBut what is the dominant theme in John's Gospel, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John? It's all about love! In fact, it\u2019s in John's Gospel, John 3:16, \u201cFor God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son\u2026\u201d<\/em>\n\nSo, the Lord was able to change the heart of John. And I don't know exactly how the Lord did it, other than this. John keeps referring to himself as \u201cthe disciple whom Jesus loved.\u201d All the way through John's Gospel he says, \u201cthe disciple whom Jesus loved.\u201d He said that over and over again.\n\nSo, I get the impression that John was such a recipient of the unconditional love of God that he became loving towards other people. That\u2019s what Peter wants us to do here\u2014verse 15\u2014when he says, \u201cregard the patience of God.\u201d \u201c\u2026regard the patience of our Lord as salvation\u2026\u201d<\/em> Don't be so quick to give up on somebody because that's not how God operates. Back to verse 9, He is not willing that any should perish.\n\nSo, is it not somewhat amazing\u2014the applications that we gain from Peter's teaching against uniformitarianism? We hear all this and we say, \u201cSo what?\u201d Well, here's the \u201cso what,\u201d four points of application.\n
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            1. It results in holy living.<\/li>\n \t
            2. It results in evangelism because you have a desire to speed these things up.<\/li>\n \t
            3. It results in hope because you know there's a better world coming.<\/li>\n \t
            4. It also results in patience towards other people\u2014not giving up on people so quickly.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nThe next time we're together, we\u2019re going to be looking at three concluding exhortations\u2014the rest of verse 15 into verse 18. Of course, we believe that there are a lot of people that are probably watching this that normally wouldn't watch something like this. And it could be very possible that someone is watching who is not a Christian; they\u2019re just checking this out, this live stream. And God has given us an amazing ability to speak to people we\u2019ve never seen before, to speak truth into other countries. And so we would be derelict in our responsibilities here if we didn't share the gospel.\n\nThe gospel is simply \u201cgood news.\u201d We call it good news because Jesus did all of the work necessary to bridge the gap between fallen humanity and a holy God through His sacrificial death, burial, resurrection, and ascension 2000 years ago. And He says to us, \u201cI don't want you to think that you can do your own work to make yourself right before God. What I want you to do is to believe (which is another way of saying \u201ctrust\u201d) in the work that I did for you 2000 years ago.\u201d\n\nWhen a person ceases from their own religious works and trusts in the work of Jesus Christ, that's what makes them a Christian. That\u2019s what saves the soul!\n\nAnd our exhortation to anybody listening is simply to trust in what Jesus has done for them 2000 years ago. If it\u2019s something that you're confused about or you need more information on, I hope you'll email us or put a comment there on Facebook or YouTube or Twitter\u2014or wherever it is your watching this\u2014either live or on the archive later\u2014so we can get ministry moving back in your direction. Because that's what it's all about, right? The gospel of Jesus Christ!\n\nAnd those of us who are Christians, let's give ourselves to the light of God's prophetic truth and Word so that we can see these points of application realized in our own life. Let\u2019s pray.\n\nClosing Prayer<\/strong>\n\n\u201cFather we\u2019re grateful for this ancient book. It was written all the way back in A.D. 64, and yet it speaks a powerful Word about the future, telling us to align our priorities with Yours. Help us to do that as we walk with You.\n\nWe\u2019ll be careful to give You all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name.\u201d And God's people said, \u201cAmen.\u201d","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t