Sermon Nuggets Mon Feb 14 Coming Day
Verses- 2 Peter 3:1-9
Coming Day
First, Happy Valentine's Day. We might be anticipating some things where love is expressed. Some might be disappointed because what they expect doesn't happen. Maybe it is a special gift. Maybe someone doesn't have money to give a gift. Maybe someone forgot. Outward expressions of love and appreciation can fall into two categories-Either real or empty.
When I was in grade school each student was to bring valentine greetings by some little card to each other student in the class. Out teaching collected all of them and divided them up by names and each person received a card from everyone. To be honest I did not want to give a card to everyone. I didn't like everyone in the room. I didn't want to receive a card from everyone in the room. My heart wasn't in it.
Of course I came to realize much later than love is something greater than feelings. God sent us the greatest greeting of love in the person of Jesus Christ. And his offer to receive his love is today to all who will respond to His Message. But one day his coming will be for his own. Those who have been set apart to live with Him forever. We anticipate his coming with longing and anticipation and wonder how long it will take.
Jesus is coming again. For many the wait has been too long. It is like the little girl going fishing for the first time holding the line in the water. Finally she throws down the pole and says, "I quit" What's wrong. "It takes too long to get waited on"
We Americans do not handle delays very well. Some feel that way anticipating an end to winter and anticipation of spring like weather. Some airline delays due to weather caused ire among customers who almost acted as if the airlines had something to do with the weather.
Our culture simply does not like to wait. Yet we wait less today than men have ever waited. We travel at high speed waiting less to arrive at a distant place. Communications which formerly took months now are completed in seconds. Meals which used to take hours to cook are now done in minutes in microwave ovens. People used to have to wait until they had cash to purchase a new car or home. Now these things are bought on credit. Fewer and fewer people are willing to wait until marriage to enjoy the intimacy of sex.
The truth is men have been waiting on God all through history. Noah waited a good 100 years or so for the flood to come upon the earth Abraham and Sarah waited 25 years for the birth of the son God had
promised them. Abraham did not even possess the Promised Land in his lifetime, and it was more than 400 years until his descendants took possession of it.
As Christians we have been given insight into the future. We will be commenting on the Day of the Lord next week, as we finish up our series from 2nd Peter. But there is one thing we can say with complete confidence. The future is in God's hand and things are going to get worse before they will get better. But for those in Jesus Christ there are great days ahead. The message of the second coming is an encouraging message for those who know Jesus as their savior and Lord and a discouraging tragedy for those who don't. The key element to dealing with waiting and scoffers who say he isn't coming can be summarized in one word: "remember".
Let’s remember some important truths regarding the second coming of Jesus Christ. How does that truth affect your life differently today?
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Tues Feb 15
Verses- 2 Peter 3:1-3 1 Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.
2 I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.
3 First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.
Remember God's Word
Peter tells the readers to bring to their remembrance things they have already been taught. Reminders are good. The more you hear something, see something, and say something, the more likely it sticks. Peter reminded them in both letters (1 &2 Peter) of their need to stay close to God. God will reward and keep them secure. He also reminds them not to be surprised when trouble comes their way. In both epistles Peter encourages their hearts with the truth Jesus is coming again.
As a good pastor, Peter remains faithful to the call of Christ when Jesus told Peter to feed his lambs, feed his sheep, tend the flock. We read about that in the end of the book of John. Peter is obedient to the command that Jesus gave him. In these letters he is seeking to protect them from false shepherds, evil in character, and empty in content. He warns of their condemnation forever.
In this passage Peter wants them to center their minds on the words shared in the past by holy prophets, as well as the commands of Jesus given through the apostles. What Peter is pointing them to is the Scriptures, both the Old and New Testaments. How do you keep from being mislead by false teachers and preachers? Answer: Know your Bible. What will help you as you wait for the Lord's coming? Read and get your facts from the Bible. What will give you security when people will say the world is coming to the end? Your security will come as you act upon the truth of the Bible.
Look how Peter points to them to the Scriptures in this letter. "Grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ 1:3, know the precious promises 1:4,19 "We have the word of the prophets made more certain and you will do well to pay attention to it in your hearts. Understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by prophets own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."
He reminded them of the days of Noah and Sodom and Gomorrah, as well as the fallen angels and now brings them to the Bible to illustrate His point and show condemnation of the evil ones. He reminds them of the story of Balaam and the men that turned their back on the sacred commandments. Then he quoted two proverbs at the end of Chapter 2. Peter is constantly confirming using and pointing out the truth by looking to the Bible as His source. He reminds them to do the same. It is the used as the foundation of the prophecies of Jesus, Since all were not completed at his first coming then it just confirms that what Jesus will do as he taught at this second coming as King.
Acts 1:7 is true. It is not for us to know the times or the seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority. We cannot claim to know when and how, but with assurance of the Word of God we can know that he will return.
Jesus became the authority for the New Testament. He showed his apostles many times how the Old Testament Scriptures were to be fulfilled by His first coming. He showed how the Messiah fulfilled the promises and then completed the work for the redemption of the world. It was important that God shows us by the Word that the apostles also confirm that is what Jesus taught us too. That is truth and they in boldness preached and wrote and so the apostle teachings are the word of God. We do not have any newer revelations that would ever go contrary to the Scriptures as laid down for us by the apostles as they were to pass on what the Lord had taught them, including the apostle Paul.
False teachers and prophets will want you to believe their revelations are just as authoritative as the apostles. The Romans Catholic church will tell us the Pope is Christ's representative on the earth and just as authoritative as the apostles. Some will have visions and dreams and say these are from God and on equal par with Peter's writings. When the apostles died, Scripture had been written and that is the last word on the subject until Christ returns. We don't need anymore revelation. What we need is to believe, trust and obey what is already there.
Jesus Christ is coming again visibly, bodily, triumphantly, regardless of people's books, films, videos and crusades that may say otherwise.
Listen to what one modern preacher taught about Jesus’ return, This will not be a personal return."
These are the voices of theologians and preachers, but remember God's word, not the words of men. Of course, their desire is not to determine truth, but to justify their lifestyle.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Weds Feb 16
Verses 2 Peter 3: 3 First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.4 They will say, "Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation."5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water.6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
Remember God's World
One of the benefits of our nation is the freedom of speech. Baptist made sure people had the freedom to worship according to the dictates of their conscience, not because some ruler or government said you must believe this way. We believe that free faith is real faith. If someone makes you believe a certain way it isn't really yours. If you will take Christ at his word and believe in your heart you will be saved. If you take the faith of the church or parents, or preach or priest, but it is not your faith then it isn't real faith.
So it is easy to also see why there are so much weird and twisting thinking about God. Here Peter was addressing the rumor going around that Jesus is not coming again. Many Christians at the time were looking for his immediate return. There are indications in the New Testament that people expected it to happen within that first generation. Only careful study shows that is not what Jesus said. Peter knows that he would not live and would die before Christ's coming, but he is already hearing the mockers say, "See Jesus hasn't come yet, therefore forget it. He isn't coming".
This is an amazingly modern argument for rejecting the supernatural, bodily second coming. It simply states the laws of nature are constant and unchanging. The sun has come up and gone down, the seasons have followed each other; the tides have risen and fallen for thousands of years in perfect order. Therefore we must expect this constancy for the future, and any thought that the sky might be rolled up like a scroll and the earth purged with global, fiery judgment by the returning Christ is unimaginable and unwarranted. This is exactly the position of much modern science and there are hundreds of pastors and theologians in the churches and seminaries today who reject a physical second coming and future judgment for the same reason.
We will know the motivation behind their scoffing which is a way to soothe their guilty conscience. Remember that false teachers were guided by their own lusts, and the good apostles were guided by the Lord's word.
Peter goes back into the world history to remind them the world is not like the false prophets proclaimed. They said, "God is not involved with the world. He does not intervene. The world is the same as it has been right from the beginning of time." Look at Peter's arguments.
He says in fact the world is not a stable universe. It was created by water and destroyed by water. God is not delaying by His standards only by man's standards. He writes to them that God judged the world once and will therefore do so again according to his promise. God does intervene with judgment and will do so when moral principles are violated.
What does he mean that the world was formed out of water and with water? Apparently he is talking his thoughts from Genesis 1. “Darkness was over the face of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters." That was its beginning. vs. 6 "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." There was firmament. It was believed to be a mist like cloud. Why did things grow when it didn't rain? Why was it that people could live to be 400, 500 years old?
One hypothesis was before the flood this cloud kept people from direct sunlight and there was not the deterioration of the bodies that the sun causes now. There was atmosphere within the blanket of dew that hovered above allowing the moisture to make things grow without rain- now I'm not sure if that is true, but that is what one commentary said--but water was divided finally and separated from the dry land and out of and by and amidst it, the earth was formed by the power of God.
Peter goes on to show how it was also destroyed by waters as well. Why? Because of the moral evil and sin violating Gods laws. His anger and judgment was against the people who would ignore God's laws and live the way they wanted. Now the world is preserved for the wrath of God to be destroyed next by fire. It is the judgment for sin. So don't say that it was like this from the beginning and God wasn't involved. He was and is. Remember God’s world where there is change and there is intervention of Gods’ power to be displayed in ways that are not imaginable for mankind.
One wake up call is to see how our world has changed with massive earthquakes, storms, hurricanes, volcanoes, flooding. God is doing something. Peter says, don’t let the scoffers mislead you from truth for the future.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Thurs Feb 17-
Verses- 2 Peter 3: 3 First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.
4 They will say, "Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation."
5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water.
6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.
7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
Remember God’s Warning
Scoffers from Peter’s day did not believe in the second coming of Jesus Christ. Those who lived in opposition to the Christian truth would make fun of those who anticipating Jesus’ return. Yet, Peter, reiterates the coming of Jesus will also bring destruction to those who are not ready and judgment to those who mock the Lord.
Just like the world was destroyed by water in the days of Noah, now the prophecy from old is the next time it will be destroyed by fire. This warning is to repent and turn to Jesus by faith.
What do we know now of the earth that they didn't know in Peter's day? The earth is a ball of fire. One scientist compares it to an egg. A very thin shell or crust upon which we live that is covering a form of burning lava and volcanic substance. We also have the capabilities of nuclear war which by fire, fall-out and explosions could literally destroy this world. Fire from within and fire from without- the chemical make up and change of the molecules of hydrogen, even from water, can be explosive with the hydrogen in it I'm told. That is hard to imagine, but Peter says - God has promised to judge with fire, How he chooses to work that out we can only speculate. He used rain which they were unaware of in Noah's day. Maybe the manner will be unfamiliar to us all in his future world- but it will come.
We have many other incidences of God intervening continually in his world and in the lives of his followers. Certainly Peter and the apostles could mention several examples of God's intervention. The events related to Jesus and the miracles of Christ are the most vivid illustrations of the truth of the word and the world over the opinions by men. 587 BC God caused the Babylonians to completely destroy the temple of Solomon and the Holy City. He carted off the Israelites to another land. Then God restored them again to their territory. Inter-testimental period the Macabees fought off the Greeks and there was the miracles of lights, which is celebrated at Hanecha. In AD 70 there was the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Romans.
But listen even to unexplainable events which point to the miraculous workings of God in his world. "There was the Great Wind that miraculously came and destroyed the Spanish Armanda. There was the unusual snowstorm that brought about the defeat of Napolean in 1812. During a time of British invasion during the Revolutionary war there came such heavy fog to blind them of the stranded Americans on one harbor and when the last rescue boat came the fog lifted, so when the British were ready to attack there was no one there. There was an unusual intervention in weather and nature to bring decisive losses to the Nazi regime during WW II. We see the events that are still considered miraculous with the 6 day war of Israel against he Arabs back in 1967. You see the problem isn't that the world doesn't give examples of God's involvement, but people hearts are filled with sin and refused to acknowledge or look at God's reality around them.
(see Colossians 1:16-17)
Or Sinclair Lewis who stood in one church and said "If there is a God may he strike me dead." And since he didn't die the newspaper picked it up as if that is some proof there is no God. In that editorial one writer said, "It is like an ant crawling in the dessert of Arizona RR track proclaiming if there is a president of the RR let him come and drive me over and kill me-if such a one exist. Lewis is proud to think God would answer his prayer at Lewis bidding. Gods' time will come and that is what Peter wants them to realize. Remember God’s warning.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Fri Feb 17
Verses- 2 Peter 3: 8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.
9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
Remember Gods' Ways
Let us never be so proud as to think God is like us. God's clock is not our clock. His ways are not our ways. Lets face it friend, you and I will never understand the way God works as long as we are on this earth. But let me also add, He has given us enough of his revelation to know as much about Him as He requires us to know. "God is God and there is none like him and not one that will understand Him." That is what he tells Job when Job tries to figure out his ways and his purposes. It is enough to cling to Him and let him work out the details at his timing.
Peter is perplexed with the people that say, "See God isn't returning. He hasn't yet." Well one reason is that God looks at time differently than how we do. What is long to us is short to him. And what is short to us can be long to Him. 1,000 years as a day. Part of argument is from Scriptures Ps 90:4 "For a 1,000 years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night." He has eternal perspective. God is not limited to time. This is something of human limitation. He knows the beginning from the end. He is not bound by time.
Now many people will take this verse and make it say all types of things. Some want to spiritualize it. Others will think this becomes some secret means of interpreting God's time tables, both past and future as if it were a mathematical principle. Some are into numerology, which frankly comes from pagan religions. I would caution people that interpret through numbers like this.
You have heard it said, no doubt that the world was created in 6 days and God rested. Some will say it took God 6,000 years since each day represents 1,000 years. Or our Lord was in the tomb 2 days and arose on the third. Therefore he was to come back to the earth in the year 2,000. Some will give a few extra years depending how many hours he was in the tomb.
Friends, the very point of the Scriptures argument isn't a new understanding of interpreting God' ways, instead it is reminding us that to Him time means nothing. The point is simply that time is irrelevant to God. It was two thousands years before God fulfilled His promise to Abraham. It was at least four or six thousand years before He fulfilled His promise to the serpent and the woman bearing seed. Since God kept His promise about the first coming of Christ, we can expect Him to fulfill the promise of His Son's return!
Look at God's time table as eternity. How short lived our tears and suffering, how short lived are our heartaches and our trials. When life is compared to be a mist and a vapor quickly gone realizes that God's coming may be very soon and then it may be many thousands of years away. (Although I don't personally believe it would be that long, but it may). We need humility. God can accomplish a 1,000 years of work in one day.
Sometimes I read about the lives of great men and see how much they were able to accomplish in their lives. Martin Luther changed a 1,000 years tradition in such a short time. Charles Westly averaged 8,000 miles on horseback preaching place to place and spoke about 1,000 sermons a year. That is averaging 3 a day. Is it any wonder what God can do in our short time?
But the greatest of all things we are to remember is why God waits and delays Christ's coming. It is because of His character of mercy and kindness. He does not want any to perish, but all to be saved. The years that he has given us are for the purpose of repentance and turning to God or to be used as tool for his glory in that purpose for others.
Ezekial 33:11 "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye from your evil ways for why will ye die? " I tim 2:4 says it this way "God wants all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth." The delay is meant to lead to repentance, not to unbelief. There is coming a day when the door of opportunity will be closed.
God wants us to trust Him and look to him in faith in Jesus. He is coming again, are you ready for his return?
Pastor Dale
