(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Amen, right, well we're in the last chapter of the book of 2 Peter. Like I said, I'm going to try to finish this book tonight and we'll move on to another book. But there's a lot of great stuff in both these books and a lot of great doctrine, a lot of great equipment to equip us in living the Christian life and also just what we're supposed to be warned from. Because I mean he writes this second epistle, he tells us why he does it and we'll get into that but let's look down at verse number one. The Bible says, the second epistle, this second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. So he tells us right here, this is the reason why I wrote this unto you is in both which to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. And I kind of already went into another sermon where I went into about the reason why he's talking about stirring things up and how we need to just be taught doctrine over and over again. We need to come back to it full circle just like you don't read the Bible just one time, you read it over and over again, right? So you're going to remember the things that are in the Bible. And the Holy Spirit helps you to understand and remember things when you need a verse. Sometimes you'll be out soul wanting, maybe that's not even a verse that you have memorized, but all of a sudden it'll just come to your mind when you're out preaching or whatever. But he wants to stir up our pure minds. Now I think this is an allusion to the new man because our minds aren't always pure, are they? But the pure mind of the Spirit of God, that new man in you is pure, and so he wants to stir up the saved mind. He wants to stir up the saved mind by the way of remembrance. So he's kind of just encapsulating everything he's written into this last chapter here. And so in verse 2 it says that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets. So do the things that the holy prophets say in the Old Testament, do those matter to us now? Yeah, because it's the New Testament, right? He's saying be mindful of the words. And it's all the word of God that God gave to the prophets, right? But he's saying the holy prophets, so he wants us to be mindful of those things. He wants us to study those things and understand those things that were spoken by the holy prophets. And of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord, of the Lord and Savior. So the apostles of the Lord and Savior were of course the 12 apostles. Judas was, you know, the betrayer of the Lord and he went to hell, obviously, and he was replaced by Matthias. And then of course Paul who's mentioned in this last chapter of this epistle, I personally believe that's the one who God picked, you know, the disciples picked and Matthias was the one that the lot fell to. I'm not saying that, you know, they just were doing what they thought was best, but I personally believe that the apostle Paul was that replacement. And, you know, it's obvious that the apostle Paul was an apostle and he wasn't with the original 12. And so anyway, the apostle Paul compared to, and we're not supposed to, I know, compare ourselves amongst ourselves, but I mean that's the last time you see the name Matthias, I'm pretty sure, in the New Testament. And the apostle Paul writes half the New Testament, so it's pretty obvious that God picked him. But anyway, that's not what I'm preaching about tonight, but it says, knowing this first, that there shall come, verse three, in the last days scoffers walking after their own lust. And so he's like, remember what the prophets told you, remember what the apostles of the Lord taught you, and the first thing he brings up is scoffers. Now a scoffer is like a skeptic, someone that is scoffing at God's Word, they're skeptical, they want to downplay it, they want to mock Christianity, they want to call God the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and all this other garbage, you know, it says that they're walking after their own lust. See, they want to downplay the Bible, they want to downplay Christianity because they want to prop up what they are purporting, what they want to believe in, because ultimately, and this is what it says, they're walking after their own lust. It's not because they, you know, God isn't reasonable to them, they just, there's some men just want their sin, and they don't ever want to turn from their wicked ways, they don't want to get saved, and so they scoff at the Bible and try to put it down because it's easy for them to just say, well, the imaginary sky daddy doesn't, you know, means nothing and all this other stuff, because they want to mock and ridicule something so that they're not accountable to God. They don't want to be accountable to God, and so the Bible says that knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers. So these people love to scoff at the Bible and mock the Bible and mock Jesus. I was thinking about this on the way over, that you can't even really get any wholesome entertainment for your kids because every single Christian cartoon basically has Jesus with long hair to dress on. Every single one. So you either got The World, which sings a bunch of worldly, you know, nursery rhyme songs, those types of, that type of programming or whatever, and then you have the quote unquote Christian stuff, which always has Jesus in a dress, always has Jesus with long hair, and if you can find something that's not showing that, then it's good, but like even just the stuff that even modern day Christians purport, they want people to put, why do they always want to put Jesus in a dress? Like, what's the deal with that? Why do they always want to give him long hair? Because they want you to think that he's some effeminate, you know, fragile, lily-livered preacher that just never would want to do anything judgmental, because that's really, you know, what they like to say. They'll sit there and mock God. They'll mock the Bible. They'll call our imaginary sky daddy, and then when you say something back to them, they're like, Jesus wouldn't act like that. It's just like, you just called Jesus an imaginary sky daddy, and then now you want to tell me how Jesus is? I don't think so. That's not how it works. You don't get to just say whatever you want. You know, yeah, we do have freedom of speech, but, you know, that freedom of speech is going to cost you something when it comes to God. So he didn't write the Constitution, all right? So the Bible says, every idle word that a man shall speak, he shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment. So you can, yeah, you can say whatever you want in America, unless you're a Christian, that is, that wants to, you know, go against the modern day perversions that are going on in this world. You know, you're censored by big tech. You're censored by, you know, all these different outlets and news media sites. I mean, I saw a thing where some, some protesters in San Antonio were, they care, you know, it's breaking news. Protesters, anti-protesters or whatever for this drag queen Santa story time or whatever down in San Antonio, and it wants to make sure to let you know that they were carrying guns. Well, pretty much everybody in Texas carries guns as far as I know. Even liberals, I think, might carry guns there. So like, but you know, you notice that no, there was no major news article saying how all these people stood out in front of Pastor Jones' church and threatened to turn it into Club Q last week. Nobody ever said anything about that. Have you seen any news reports about that? Has that come across your Twitter feed? Has that come across, you know, your any social media that you've seen? No, and you know, obviously that's just how it works, but one day they are going to give an account for the things that they say, and these scoffers that walk after their own lusts are going to be called into account for the things that they say. And here's one of the things that they like to say, where's the promise of his coming? Verse four, where is the promise of his coming? He said he was going to come back again, but where is he? See, the Bible's just not true, and Peter's going to explain to us why he's not coming yet, why he's holding off on that, but you know, and it says where's the promise of his coming? What coming are they talking about? Because he came in Bethlehem's manger 2,000 years ago, right, and you know, he changed the world in a lot of different ways. He changed time. He changed a lot of different, I mean, it's 2022 for a reason. It's not because of Muhammad. It's not because of, you know, all these other religions. It's Jesus Christ changed the world and has gone throughout the world and around the world multiple different times, and obviously days are waxing worse. Evil men and seducers are waxing worse, and you know, we're living in a time that's unprecedented. You know, even me just not even being 50 years old yet, a lot of things have changed. I'm sure a lot of old-timers that are dead and gone have said the same exact thing. Well, times sure have changed, but they're not ever changing for the better. They always seem to be changing for the worst as we draw closer to the time that Christ is going to come back, but these scoffers, this is one of the things that they'll say, well, where's the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. So they're saying just like the world always has, it's been spinning around for all these years, the sun comes up, the moon comes out, all these things are still continuing as they were from the beginning, and obviously they don't believe in the creation, but since the Big Bang happened, and you know, billions of years later, everything's still, you know, that's what they'll say today, but there was a time when people actually did believe that God created the earth, and it was most people believe that, but now we're not there. So most people think that the world is billions of years old, which is ridiculous, but so let's turn over to Matthew chapter 24. Keep your finger here. Turn over to Matthew chapter 24, and I want to have you keep your finger there also, and we'll come back. I just want to read one verse, and then we'll jump back into our text here. Matthew chapter 24. So what coming are they talking about? Well, they obviously are talking about the second coming, right? So because He's already come once at the time of this writing, so what coming are they talking about? Well, the disciples asked about the coming of Christ when they went to show Him all the things of the temple. Look at verse number three. You know, Jesus tells them in verse two, see all these things. Barely I say unto you, there shall not be left one here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. And then it says in verse three, and as He sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately saying, tell us when shall these things be and what shall be the sign of thy, what does it say there? Coming, right? And of the end of the world. So they're asking them specific specific questions, and Jesus does answer their questions in this chapter. It's 51 verses long, but they specifically ask about the sign of His coming. Second, go ahead and turn back to second Peter, but keep your finger here in Matthew chapter 24, but second Peter chapter three says, saying where is the promise of His coming? So the same, this same disciple asked in Matthew chapter 24, you know, they were asking Jesus this question, so what what coming do you think Peter's talking about here? He's talking about the second coming, okay? That's pretty obvious. So that's a very important doctrine that we believe is that Jesus is coming again, but when is He coming again? Is He coming back at any moment? Like the before the end of this church service, He could actually come again because there's nothing stopping Him from coming back. There are things stopping Him from coming back, and what's stopping Him from coming back? Well, not all the prophecies in Matthew chapter 24 has been fulfilled that need to be fulfilled before He can come back, all right? So, but when they say, and we'll come back to this thought in a little bit, but I just want to kind of show you that the coming of Jesus Christ they're talking about is the second coming where He comes and He rescues those that are alive and remain, and then that day is also called the day of the Lord. It's the day of Christ. It's the day that we get rescued, but it's a bad day for everybody else. It's the day of the Lord. Now the day of the Lord is a day of judgment, and it's not just one specific day. It's talking about this time when the Lord is going to rebuke the world for their wickedness and, you know, this coming judgment that's going to happen. So it's good for us, but it's bad for the rest of the world. So people are going to ask, where's the sign? Where's the promise of His coming? And, you know, He's waiting for a reason, but, you know, when they say all, you know, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation, you know, what would those things be? Nature, seasons of life, death, marriage, all these things are still happening. Time, days, sun, moon, and stars, all the stuff is still, you know, happening every day. People just take for granted the fact that we are, you know, that God just provides everything for us and everything is great, but man just messes everything up. So they want to explain everything away, even rainbows. They want to explain rainbows away and act like, well, that's just some scientific thing. This is the reason why it happens. No, it's not just some scientific thing that just happens for no reason. It's a promise that God made every time. When you see rain, you know, we see rain a lot here, but when the sun comes out, what do we see? We see the promise that God promised not to flood the world again like He did in the days of Noah. He's going to judge the world in a different way this time and it's going to be through fire. So look at verse five. It says, for this they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water. But that term willingly ignorant, and Ken Hogan always tells this joke or whatever, but it's like it means in the Greek dumb on purpose. I think that's actually a pretty funny joke, but they are willingly ignorant. See, ignorant just means that you don't know something. It doesn't necessarily mean that you're an idiot. It doesn't mean that you're stupid. You just don't know. That's what ignorant means, but they are willingly ignorant. So that means that they are not knowing on purpose. They don't want to know the answers. They don't want to know what the truth is. They just want to mock the things of God. They want to scoff at God's word and say, you know, it's just a book written by men, a bunch of, you know, bronze age goat herders and all this and that, but they really want to scoff and mock God's word because they don't want to be accountable to a holy God that will place judgment upon them and, you know, they think that they're just going to escape by dying and feeding the worms or whatever. They can say whatever they want, but ultimately I think a lot of people that say that they're atheist or say that they're agnostic or say that, you know, they just don't believe. They believe in a higher power. They just don't want to believe in God. They don't want to believe in God because it terrifies them to think that someone's going to judge them for the things that they do in their life. So they just like to make excuses and hide things. You know, Adam and Eve hid when they were sinful and they covered themselves with fig leaves and made up, made their own outfits and even those outfits, they were still naked. They're just, they just made something that they thought was good enough for them, but they didn't realize that they now need the righteousness of God to cover them. They need to put on the robe of righteousness and so God had to kill some animals so that they could be clothed properly. It's a picture of being clothed in the righteousness of Christ and unless you have that on, you're going to be found naked and ashamed. You know, in Matthew chapter 25, it talks about, you know, about the guy that all these people came to the wedding and then one guy's like there, he's just chilling, they're like what are you doing here? And he's just like, and it says he was speechless. He didn't know what to say because if you try to get into heaven without having the righteousness of Christ, you're doomed and then it says he was cast in the outer darkness, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. But they don't have on the righteousness of Christ. Anybody that does not have the righteousness of Christ is going to be wailing and gnashing of their teeth. So Peter, you know, he's just, he's explaining why, you know, that there's all these scoffers out there. They're willingly ignorant and they are mocking and scoffing and saying where's the promise of his coming? He's not coming. Y'all said he was going to come back, but he hasn't come back yet. Yeah, he hasn't come back yet and you should be really afraid of the fact that if you're living on this planet when he does and you're one of the wicked people, you're in for a bad road ahead. You're going to be born into a time that it's going to be the worst time on this planet's history when it comes to being God's enemy. Because there's going to be a time of tribulation that was not seen since the beginning, no nor ever shall be. We have to go through that as Christians if we're here on this earth at that time. We're going to want, you know, the Christians are going to have to go through the hardest time, but then guess what? The day that we get rescued, the day that those that are alive and remain get rescued, guess what? It's going to be the worst rest of their life for the last years of their life too, but it's actually not going to be cut short. It's going to be lasting for 42 months. The judgment and wrath of God is going to be abiding on people and they're going to be afraid. So and basically this whole thing where it says they're willingly ignorant. So they're willingly ignorant. They don't want to believe that the word of God is how the heavens and earth were created. They don't want to, you know, they don't understand the flood. They don't understand it. They don't understand the judgment of God. They don't understand that there was a flood that wiped out everything on this earth and killed everybody. It says whereby that the world, verse six, that then was being overflowed with water perished. The first earth, which I'm not saying we have we're on a second earth, but the first, you know, that created earth, God wiped out everything and everybody on it except for Noah, his family, and the animals. But just water, you would think well how could water do all that? Water is very destructive. You ever had a leaky roof? One little pinhole leak on your roof can blow out your whole ceiling in your front room or in one of your bedrooms. You know it's very important to have a roof over your head, food on the table, right? So and you don't want a leaky roof because the water damages everything. So if the whole world is underwater for months and months and months, it's going to do a lot of damage. It destroyed everything that was built at that time. Nothing is lasting from it. It was a complete destruction and people were like oh yeah the Grand Canyon was carved by this by the Colorado River over millions of years. It's like how about, you know, some seconds, you know, when the flood waters broke forth then that that could have washed out in a few minutes. They just people just don't realize when they look at this world they think it's beautiful. You know brother Tap was saying how I've never been in a place more beautiful than than here and I agree. The place where we live is beautiful but it has to get rained on for nine months out of the year to see that beauty sometimes, right? So you know but what people don't understand is it didn't rain before Noah's Ark even happened. It was just like a lush, you know, probably tropical. The the water was that that was there misted in the morning and watered all the all the trees and everything. It was a different world. You know things lived longer animals lived longer they got bigger. I mean they find fossils in the earth of these creatures and we haven't seen those in recent history how big they are. Well how did they get so big? Well the world was different then and so they're like well how the the the dinosaurs get so big because dinosaurs never stopped growing. You know I mean lizards never stopped growing and if they live to be hundreds of years old they're going to get pretty big aren't they? So we find all this stuff we find the destruction of the flood how do we find it? Well how about millions and millions and millions of scenes worth of coal all throughout the world that people mine up and what is coal? It's it's it's wood or earth organics that has been pressed together and crushed and then now it's become coal. You know and brother Bill knows all about coal he's from that area there's a lot of coal miners over there huge seams of coal why why is it such a big deal there because that's where the biggest coal seams are I think in the United States is that true? And in the Rockies okay so but it's a little harder probably to mine in the Rockies than it is over there I don't know but you know now all that stuff all that stuff that we find in the earth you know how how is all this stuff made well how how do we get fossil fuels how do we get that? Well a lot of animals and humans and and and these big dinosaurs or whatever were crushed to death in this flood and buried rapidly with mud and so how do you how do you find oil? Well when all the oil was being found around the world when oil started to become a big deal what were they doing they were digging in the ground and finding it and then what would shoot up out of the earth because it's under all this pressure. You know have you ever seen the Sinclair gas stations what what is their symbol you know and it says slowly mellowing after millions of years or something was like they're yeah I mean the not just the dinosaurs but just everything that died now fuels our vehicle so you know another funny joke that he says your great great great great grandpa is now going into your fuel tank or whatever pretty funny but you know the destruction of the flood was huge and immense and people just like they're willingly ignorant of the fact that our world was completely destroyed by a worldwide flood that destroyed every every animal and human and look there was a lot of vegetation that got destroyed they become coal seams a lot of creatures died and now because now they get us from a to b so we we know how to drill it out we know how to get it out but people just don't realize that it came from the the flood of Noah's ark so they're ignorant of this they're willingly ignorant of it verse seven but the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store reserved onto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men so there's still a coming destruction of of this earth here and it says that they're by the same word are kept in store the same word of god that kept in store the waters of Noah's flood and destroyed the whole earth you know the great fountains of the deep broke forth that's how part of the flood happened so you know now that store is what fire and I don't know where you know obviously there's fire underneath us there's lava and all that stuff underneath us but the bible talks about the heavens being on fire so but just some really a lot of this stuff we might not know exactly what it's talking about but it does say that the there there's a judgment that's being stored it's being reserved onto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men so there's another judgment of this world coming and it says in verse 8 but beloved be not ignorant of this one thing that one day is with the lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day so they're like when's the promise of his coming to god so two thousand years two days to god I mean we we do a lot and two days go fast for us the weekend doesn't it always why does the weekend always go so fast and the work week always lasts so long well because part of it you're enjoying and the other part you might not be so much enjoying it you know work is work it's not called fun right so obviously some people can like their work but anyway so basically you have this this judgment that is in in is reserved for the day of judgment of these ungodly men and we might think well why is it taking god so long to to get this done you know why is it taking so long for jesus christ to come back well don't be ignorant of this beloved that a thousand years to god are like a day and so jesus christ died two thousand years ago literal I mean this is just another way of saying that god time means nothing to him to us it seems like a long time but you know it's not really that long when you consider you know and it's not going to be long for us when we're in eternity it's going to seem like our lives on earth were really just a blip and that's what the bible actually says it's like a vapor of smoke you know it's it it passes away really quickly our lives we think it's long but it's really not that long so um so it says we shouldn't be ignorant of that and it says in verse 9 it's a great bible verse here the lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness but is long suffering to us word not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance now of course the repent of your sins clowns will say see you have to repent it's what it says right there is this talking about that every he's not willing that anyone should perish but that all should repent of all their sins is that what he's saying no because this repentance is talking about in is in context to salvation and when it comes to context of salvation when it's talking about repentance it's saying whatever you believe that's wrong you gotta you gotta not believe that anymore and you gotta believe on christ that's repentance and so why is it taking god so long to come back why what's the where's the promise of his coming that these clowns want to talk about the sky dead he's never coming back and all this other stuff and it's just a mockery of god it's a mockery of his word but you know what they're ignorant they don't understand and really what god's doing is something for them he's hoping he wants he's not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance he's not willing that means he doesn't want anybody to not be saved he wants everybody to be saved you're like well pastor thompson that's the opposite of what you've been preaching about no it's not there's just some people that are past that point that's all i'm saying god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son but he's not willing that anybody should perish he's long suffering you know if anybody has a long suffering it's god we don't have long suffering like god does and maybe some people have that spiritual gift of being long suffering and merciful towards people but most christians don't you know they have a limit we have a limit and you know we're i think a lot of people in this room are long suffering to people they're merciful to people but nobody's as long suffering and merciful as god is i think a lot of us would lose our patience if we had control of this situation we'd be like done and i and i feel like that sometimes people might you know think that someone's past the point of being saved when you know god is a lot more long suffering than we would be we just kind of write people off sometimes and like wow they're never going to get saved you know so whatever but that's just not true sometimes people it takes a long time i mean who's gotten someone that's who's gotten someone's 40 years old saved in here who's gotten someone's 50 years old saved in here who's got someone that's 60 years old saved in here who's got someone 70 years old and saved in here who's got someone that's 80 years old and saved in here who's got someone 90 i've got i think i want to say that there was somebody was 89 or or somewhere close to that yeah brother gary was it they were 89 yeah someone said so yeah and there's there's hey god is long suffering there's some people out there that are just waiting for the person to come by and give them the gospel and they'll get saved he's long suffering to us where do you know what we need to be long suffering to people too obviously if they give clear signs that they're reprobates like they say they hate god that's a clue for you hey i hate god okay well then you're a reprobate you're scum get away from me and don't ever come back to my church again that's what i mean because if someone hates god if they truly hate god they are a reprobate aren't they if they're a flaming flamer homo sodomite they're done god's done with them if they're a false prophet god is finished with that person so there are people we can check off the list there's some people that are more long suffering than god though and those are you know holier than thou christians that don't think that god ever judges anybody and that jesus would never judge anybody because he's too long haired and too dress wearing there are more they would you know there's those clear verses in the bible like john chapter 12 we'll get there but john chapter 12 clearly shows that some people god just doesn't want to get saved anymore he's done just like we have our our threshold of patience and mercy god has his threshold of patience and mercy also so let's turn back to matthew chapter 24 actually no don't go there yet wait hold on stop pause so god is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance that's why he's waiting he's waiting for the last people to get saved whatever time you know he has a certain timetable just like he had a timetable of when he was going to come right he there was an appointed day when he came guess what there's going to be an appointed day which he comes back and that appointment's going you know when when he comes back a lot of people are going to be happy a lot of people are going to be scared so it says uh but the day of the lord in verse 10 but the day of the lord will come as a thief in the night into which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise there's your big bang right there so we have our big bang is different than their big bang isn't it the great noise that it's talking about it says and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up so what's the judgment that's coming forth it says the day of the lord's going to come like a thief of the night so what is the context of what it's talking about right here this burning up these elements and this this heat this great noise well it's the day of the lord it's the day that the lord starts to judge this world now back to matthew chapter 24 keep your finger here matthew chapter 24 verse 29 we're not going to read the whole chapter we don't have time for that but verse 29 says because remember it's talking about when is the promise of his coming when is he coming back well the bible tells us that too verse 29 it says immediately after remember in verse in chapter 24 verse 2 and 3 they're like when when are you coming back here's what he says immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall not give her light and the star shall fall from heaven and powers and the powers of the heaven shall be shaken then shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn and they shall see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory so when is jesus coming back well it says immediately after the tribulation you're going to start to see these signs in the heaven what did peter say well the day of the lord is going to come like a thief in the night and what's going to happen next well things are going to start burning up things are going to start melting there's going to be judgment with fire what do you see in the book of revelation a lot of judgment with fire don't you what do you see when the devils let out for just a short season at the very end you see fire come out from god from heaven and destroys this huge host of people that are trying to come at the people of god so and then the new heaven and new earth come so the new heaven the new earth come after that big fireball where all these people are burnt up look at verse 42 and 43 it says watch therefore for you know not what hour your lord doth come but know this that if the good man of the house had known and what watch the thief would come he would have watched and would have not and would not have suffered his house to be broken up so jesus christ is the one that says that he's going to come like a thief all right and a thief what what do they would do they wait for you to not be paying attention to steal from you right when someone breaks into your house who's had their house robbed before i have it's very violating feeling when someone else has come into your house and just takes all your stuff and it really you know you're like you think back like what could i have done to not allow this to happen well you know the thieves wait until they know you're not looking or they know you're not home and then they bust it and do it jesus is saying hey we need to watch and pay attention to what's going on you know he doesn't want us to just get saved and live our lives and get our fire insurance card and just not serve him not pay attention to what's going on obviously there's signs that he said we're going to come signs he said we're going to happen but obviously and i don't have time in the scope of this sermon to go into all those details but i just wanted you to see that he talks about it so what peter is also talking about that the day of the lord will come as a thief so a lot of people don't realize this but the day of the lord and the day that christ comes back are the same day he comes back at the same day he rescues everybody that's alive and remain those that are dead in christ shall rise first and then we will be with the lord forever and then you know if you read the book of revelation in chapter six that's when the last seal is open and then you see the sun and moon being darkened and the stars falling and all that stuff so this isn't just going to be some light thing it's going to be everybody will see him there's no secret rapture you know jesus just you know appearing and nobody else can see him but the people in church or the people that are you know the the christian airplane pilots that all their clothes drop to the ground and like where did everybody go it's not going to happen like that folks people are going to know who's there they're going to know that jesus christ has come and when all the when all the the plagues start to start to start happening in succession they know who it is they're not stupid they just still don't like him turn to first thessalonians chapter five first thessalonians chapter five see because people you know these people that like to say well i don't see it as believing i'm not going to believe in jesus unless he comes and shows himself to me he's never going to do that buddy he's not that's not going to happen until this time then you'll get to see him and then you're going to be wishing that you had not said those things that you said before because now you're going to be scared first thessalonians chapter five look it says but the times of the seasons brethren you have no need that i write unto you for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the lord so cometh as a thief in the night isn't that what jesus said isn't that what peter said and this is what paul is saying the day of the lord cometh like a thief in the night and when they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape so the day of the lord bad for mankind the day of christ good for us it's good for the for the saved but they're gonna be like peace and safety it wasn't i think that that might have been like the slogan of the roman empire i'm pretty sure it might have been but i'm sure that's like a slogan just of mankind's government in general you know we're gonna give you peace we're gonna give you safety you know in star wars the emperor was giving every peace and safety in the galaxy by crushing everybody and being these this mega maniacal ruler or whatever those things are just pictures for us to see what you know this is the the devil wants to to lull people to sleep with peace and safety but in reality it's the sudden destruction that's coming upon them as a woman with the you know that's about to have a baby you can't you can't escape that you know once the once the birth pangs start happening and you ladies in here have children you know exactly what i'm talking about i don't know because i've never experienced it i just see what happens and you can't escape no matter where you want to try to go you're like i can't do this i'm going somewhere else i'm not but no you're not you're having this baby brother jason's wife had a baby in a truck you know their last baby was born in like his truck so he was trying to be like pastor robinson or something but the baby's going to come but once once jesus comes then there's nothing stopping the day of the lord happening they're not going to escape so all these people and all their speeches and all the things that they said about god how much they hate him how much they despise the god of the bible they're going to be wishing they never said that stuff it says but ye brethren are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief you're all the children of light and the children of the day we are not of the night nor of the darkness so that's not going to happen to us because we're saved we're not going to we're not going to be in that having that issue it says therefore let us not sleep as do others but let us watch and be sober because there are christians that are asleep at the wheel right now there's christians that just you know they just don't care i forget somebody was telling me i think it was brother josh was telling me that there was a guy he had he got saved and he was like trying to get him to go soloing with him the guy was like you know i just i just want myself to be saved and that's pretty much it you know i i don't want to i don't i don't really care to do this part of it it's just like that's a wicked attitude to have you don't care about other people but look at how many christians have that attitude there's a lot of christians that have that attitude when you bring up someone they're like country club but they want to they don't want to have to do work they don't want to have to go knock on people's doors they don't want to do what god says so you know they're the ones that jesus is talking about are asleep look at revelation chapter 16 verse 15 revelation chapter 16 verse 15 in case you're wondering it's the last book of the bible 16th chapter good night revelation 16 verse 15 what's the bible say and if you have a red letter edition this is the only red letter verse in this whole chapter but it says behold i come as a thief blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame you know christians shouldn't just bury their head in the sand he does expect us to be paying attention to what's going on and be watching for him now obviously we know he's not going to come right now during the middle of the sermon that's a bunch of garbage the bible says you know the apostle paul said in thessalonians he said let no man deceive you that the day of christ is at hand so there are things that have to happen first and mark says you know what i say into what i say to you i say to all watch it's not just for the jews it's not just for the time of the jews by the time of jacob's trouble we are jacob we are spiritually we are jacob so there is no you know nation quote-unquote of israel that's actually god's people at this moment so unless you're counting everybody that's saved in the world then there's a nation but they all belong to different nations so look back at second peter chapter 3 verse 11 it says seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation that means your lifestyle and godliness so he's saying see all these things are going to come to pass on these people and look what they're going to get because of it they're going to get destruction they're going to get fire they're going to get flames they're going to get you know tortured and how so how should we be as christians well it's saying that we should have holy conversation like a holy lifestyle to us and godliness we should you know people should look at us and go that's a christian people should know that we're christians by the way we act maybe the way we talk maybe the way we interact with people we are supposed to be different look at verse 12 looking for that for and hasting unto the coming of the day of god wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved so it adds to this and saying that the heavens are going to actually be on fire is that what it says it shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat so it's going to be pretty hot right it's going to be hot this judgment now i don't have time to turn all these but if you want it on your own just study these out isaiah chapter 34 verse 2 through 4 talks about it revelation chapter 6 i will have you turn there revelation chapter 6 while you're turning there i'll just read isaiah 34 verse 4 it says and all the hosts of heaven shall be dissolved and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll and all the hosts shall fall down as the leaf fall off from the vine and as the falling fig from the fig tree so isaiah alludes to this and in the context it's talking about the indignation of the lord being upon the nations and his fury upon all their armies revelation 6 12 says and i beheld when he had opened the sixth seal and lo there was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair and the moon became his blood this is what jesus is talking about in matthew chapter 24 see a lot of people they're like oh yeah the book of revelation they don't even understand that the the tribulations over at chapter 6 because that's isn't that what it said matthew chapter 24 after the tribulation these things are going to happen there was a great earthquake sun became black as sackcloth of hair and the moon became as blood verse 13 and the stars of heaven fell onto the earth even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind so the stars are falling onto the earth and the heaven departed as a scroll when it's rolled together and every mountain island were moved out of their places this is a huge earthquake it's so huge and so devastating that every mountain and island are moved out of its place in the whole world it's pretty bad right there's another one that's great at the end of revelation also but it says that the uh the the heaven is departed as a scroll when it's rolled together so when a scroll is spread out you see whatever's written upon it well if you look at that's just a picture of the whole heavens and then all of a sudden that that's gone that's going to be pretty freaky people are going to be wigging out and freaking out and it says in verse 16 and said to the mountains and rocks oh excuse me verse 15 i'm sorry and the kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the mighty and the chief captains of the mighty men and every bondman and every free man hid themselves in the dens and of the rocks of the mountains see they they used to make us hide in the dens and the rocks of the mountains according to hebrews chapter 11 but now they're hiding see everything that they did to us god is bringing back on them they used to burn people at the stake well guess what they're going to be burned up too so it says they hid themselves at the dens in the in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him that seteth on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of his wrath has come and who shall be able to stand so this is when the wrath of god happens it's it's at the same time when jesus comes back right now turn back to second peter chapter 2 verse 13 so second peter chapter 2 verse 13 says nevertheless we according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness so peter's talk he you know he's bringing all these end times concepts into the end of this chapter but he's even saying that there's going to be a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness revelation chapter 21 go to revelation chapter 21 it says in revelation chapter 21 verse 1 and i saw a new heaven and a new earth and the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea and i john saw the holy city new jerusalem coming down from god out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband so the bible in revelation chapter 21 tells us that there's going to be a new heaven a new earth peter in second peter says there's going to be a new heaven a new earth and you know all the former things are going to pass away so everything gets good for us when jesus comes back i mean if you think about that there's nothing nothing's bad happens to us after that because even through the millennial reign of christ we're ruling and raining with christ and yeah i mean we might have to do some stuff that we might not like but we're going to be saved we'll have the mind of christ and so we probably actually will not mind doing what god says because we won't be able to sin and so all those thoughts of confliction won't come to our minds you know the bible talks about in zechariah how in that time period that if someone's even a false prophet in their own family even their own parents will thrust them through so i mean it's going to be a different world so let's let's close let's close out this chapter here let's go back to verse 14 it says wherefore beloved so this is like basically the final words of this epistle verse 14 says wherefore beloved seeing that you look for such things be diligent that you may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless so is he talking to all christians in this epistle yes or no remember at the beginning of second peter the first chapter it says that he's writing it to all saved people basically so this verse is talking about it's saying wherefore beloved who's he talking to he's talking to save people seeing that you look for such things be diligent that you may be found it of him in peace without spot and blameless so it's not just pastors that have to be blameless is it it's also christians so just everything pastors have to do christians should should be doing or at least trying to do obviously you don't have to meet all the qualifications to be a christian you just have to be saved but to be a christian but to be blameless is a little bit different isn't it and without spot well obviously without spot that means you're saved because if you are without spot if you're sinless no one's going to have sinless perfection in this life as far as that you're never going to do anything wrong in your flesh that's not what it's saying but if you have that righteousness of christ upon you the lamb of god covers your blood or it covers with his blood your sins so you are without spot and being blameless is just you know living a life that's pleasing obviously to god and uh you know nobody's going to be perfect but what's he saying he's saying hey if you know all these things are going to be happening you know the best thing you can do is live a godly life because if you're trying to reach the people in your family you're trying to reach other people you know the best thing you can do is live a good christian life and that's going to be a good i mean obviously i'm not so lord not lordship salvation what is it called uh what am i thinking of here when you're trying to evangelize without actually evangelizing this lifestyle evangelism thank you the lifestyle evangelism i mean there is something to be said about living a clean life in front of people but that's not the only way we do things but if you're just like the worst heathen on the block you're the one that's you know having like domestic abuse problems in front of all your neighbors that you're trying to like the next day you're like hey you want to get saved you're like not by you you know if your neighbors are living a more godly life than you are it's pretty tough to probably get them saved if they can see how you're living anyway look at verse 15 says an account that the long suffering of our lord is salvation even as our beloved brother paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto so now peter's mentioning paul now remember paul and peter had kind of like a a lot a real lively conversation where paul had to get in his face and tell him he was wrong but you know peter's not not saying anything bad about him see a godly christian is going to make a little thing and and or a big thing and and try to minimize that and you know ungodly people will take a small thing and just blow it up into something that doesn't need to be but if you're spiritual you're not going to be like that now and that's written in the bible that paul had to get on to peter but paul did things that he wasn't supposed to do too and luke wrote those things down in acts like why is he shaving his head and having the nazirite vow why is he going back to you know jerusalem when he's teaching salvation by grace through faith and doing things that he no longer needs to do so you know paul he he wasn't perfect either he even said that multiple times but when it came to salvation and then thinking that you have to you know do the things that the jews said to do he had to get he had to get on to peter about those things but peter is saying nice things about him look at verse 16 it says and also in all his epistles speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to be understood now some of the things that paul said might be hard to understand for some people but it says some things not everything paul said was hard which they that are unlearned and unstable rest as they do also the other scriptures unto their own destruction there's a lot of people that are on learn that are trying to teach the bible and they don't know what they're talking about there's a lot of people that are unstable and they're trying to rest that means like just take scriptures and just twist them and make them say something that they don't it's kind of like the nephilim doctrine i mean nephilim just means giant there were giants in the earth in those days but people take those scriptures and they say you know the the angels which are the sons of god apparently the fallen angels are the sons of god and they come down and marry human women because they're pretty and then they have these nephilim these giants these giant babies right but like they're just totally just reading into that the sons of god are people that are saved that's what the bible said you know it's consistent throughout the bible so they're just taking a scripture and running with it there's all these videos on youtube about you know giants being 450 foot tall and just the nephilim doctrine and you know they just want to they did that's that's all they care about or if they're flat earthers they just want to just preach the flat earth and how how you're stupid if you don't believe in the flat earth and i'm trying to save your soul by teaching you about the flat earth it's like how's that going to save anybody's soul you know what saves people the gospel saves people it's not it's not this these twisted scriptures that people want to rest unto their own destruction and so the things that are hard in the bible people are always going to try and twist those things and lead people astray with them but what's he what's he really getting at here he's saying yeah i mean paul writes about this stuff too and really throughout this whole series i've i've gone back and forth with some of the things and paul agrees exactly with peter on doctrine they're in one accord they're both apostles they're both taught by jesus so they're going to come up with the same doctrine and so now he's even referencing paul and saying hey our brother our beloved brother paul it's not like he's saying anything bad about him he's just saying some of the things he says are hard to be understood some of the things are tongue twisters when they come out when you read the scriptures right some of the things paul said paul you know paul was a smart guy and he wrote in a way that sometimes might be hard for people to get but most of the stuff he said is pretty easy the main thing about paul is that he wanted to make sure that people got the gospel the simple gospel the crystal clear gospel so when he's before kings and things like that he's not teaching them all these difficult concepts and things about the end times what's he teaching them about well he's teaching them about according to acts chapter 24 you know and if you want to turn to acts 26 i'm going to read acts 24 24 through 26 it says and after certain days when felix came with his wife drusilla which was a jewish he sent for paul and heard him concerning the faith in christ and he reasoned with of righteousness temperance and judgment to come righteousness temperance and judgment to come so getting right with god you know living a godly life and judgment is coming so these are the things that he said and then what does it say felix trembled the power of god's word the power of the gospel through the apostle paul made a man tremble and and answered and said go go thy way for this time when i have a convenient season i will call for thee you know that song all almost persuaded it kind of says something i think in in one of the one of the lyrics of the song it says you know some more convenient day right so this guy felix he trembled at god's word but yet didn't get saved but look i mean just the power of what paul had to say very simple things paul wasn't like you know what did he say he said he preached christ crucified and he paul preached a simple easy to believe salvation which is the only way that there is easy believism right so look at acts 26 22 it says and this is before another like you know royal king or whatever it says having therefore obtained help of god i continue unto this day witnessing both to small and great saying none other things in that which the prophets and moses did say should come that christ should suffer and he should be the first that should rise from the dead and should show light unto the people and to the gentiles and as he thus spake for himself festus came or said excuse me with a loud voice paul thou art beside thyself much learning doth make thee mad and this is what people will say about you as a christian too what are you talking about you're crazy none of this stuff is even real it's all just false that's not that's it's not false you know people think that we're crazy but we're actually just seeing things that are absolutely true look what it says in verse 25 but he said i'm not mad most noble festus but speak forth the words of truth and soberness now paul might have said some things that are hard to understand in the scriptures but when he's talking to the unsaved the people that are going to get this judgment to come he's being very focused and very simple on what he's saying and he said and you know they're like you're paul you're crazy you know you used to be this pharisee and you were one of us and now look at you you're teaching all this crazy stuff and he just got done saying all i'm teaching you is what moses said all i'm teaching is what the prophet said isn't that what peter said at the very beginning of this chapter that we're supposed to listen to what the prophets say and the things that are built upon the apostles right so it says in verse 26 for the the king knoweth of these things before whom i speak freely for i am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him for this thing was not done in a corner everybody saw what was happening everybody saw what happened with jesus you know there was people alive at this time that saw jesus and were with jesus and so it wasn't done in a corner of the story of paul was very famous i'm sure throughout all that area at that time it's like this guy that used to you know kill christians is now saving them it says king agrippa believeth thou the prophets i know that thou believeth then agrippa said unto paul almost thou persuadest me to be a christian what was the apostle paul all about he was about saying the simple gospel so the people would be saved that's and you know his his writings might be hard for some people to understand but if you're saved and you actually study the bible you're going to figure out the harder things of the bible let's finish up in verse 17 and 18 here it says you therefore beloved seeing you know these things before beware lest you also being led away with the error of the wicked fall from your own steadfastness so peter like what's the point of this what's the point basically of the whole epistle is that he wants us to be stirred up in our minds with the knowledge of god he wants us to understand that judgment's coming why is it taking so long why are we going through all these things what's what's the deal what is the judgment that's going to happen and he kind of explains it all to us in this chapter but you notice he's like you know he focuses on false prophets you're like pastor you talk about this too much the bible talks about it i just picked books to go through and like chapter two that whole chapter was about false prophets was it not you know paul when he left the last thing he said to the ephesians was hey there's going to be some grievous wolves coming in you know he was weeping he told them night and day weeping telling them this is going to happen but yeah people just won't won't they just won't understand they just won't get it because they don't want to get it but he's saying don't be led away with the error of the wicked and fall from your own steadfastness see we're supposed to be steadfast in christ we're supposed to be unmovable so nothing should be able to move us from our faith in christ and you know sometimes in reality the things that really move us are ourselves we're not learned enough in the scriptures we don't know what we're talking about you don't pay attention in the sermon you don't pay attention when you're reading the bible and no wonder you're going to get led away with the error of the wicked because you're not paying attention what's going on around you and really this whole chapter he's just really focusing on the fact that we have to understand that these concepts they have to be brought and stir our minds up with remembrance of the things that we've been told before like i already heard this pastor thompson yeah i know we're gonna tell it to you again and again and again and again and again you're like well i'm just not going to come back well then don't but you know what the bible is exhorting you to stay with the faith to be steadfast don't be led away by the errors of the wicked what are the errors of the wicked the ones that paul he was talking about that people like to rest under their own destruction pastor thompson's not loving share foundation baptist churches are loving they don't really love people they just say this whole soul-winning thing just to get people into their cult or whatever that's i mean i've heard it all well look what it says in verse 18 but grow in grace grow in grace and in the knowledge of our lord and savior jesus christ to him be glory both now and forever amen so how do we grow in grace well didn't peter already say that you need to take the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby how are you going to grow in grace if you don't read your bible how are you going to grow in knowledge if you never read it you never study it if you never just take the time to actually care are you just trudging through the bible because it's your checklist off the day or do you actually just take time sometimes and go hey i really need to study this doctrine out why do i believe what i believe what is pastor talking about when he preaches this well why don't you just be like a barian and take some of this stuff home that you don't understand and go you know what hey i might not understand this god but i want to grow in the knowledge and grace of you will you help me understand it you know what god's going to help you understand it if he feels like you're ready for it he's going to help you understand so this is what we need to focus on and not to fall from our own steadfastness like if you want you know like we well all you're ever talking about is fags and the and the and how you know the false prophets are going to come that's not all i talk about maybe that's what people tell you that that's what we focus on but you know what we have to focus on it somewhat because our world is being turned upside down we're being called hateful because we preach the truth and we teach what god what's going to happen in the end times you know what it's not it's not a good bedtime story and then you know hey if you don't get saved guess what honey you know god's going to come down and melt everything he's going to melt you with fire the end people aren't going to tell that story to their kids they don't want to hear that stuff but that's a fact these people would rather tell their kids mother goose stories than bible stories anyway i got to be done that's second peter chapter three that's the end of this book let's pray heavenly father we thank you lord so much for the bible lord i pray that we would all stand and be steadfast lord pray and help us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our lord jesus christ lord some of these things are hard to understand but lord it's just you've kind of left it up to us to study it i pray lord that people would be and have a heart for the scriptures here at our church or they just wouldn't go through the motions and that we would just lord that we would focus that we'd be a church that literally is focused on growing and having knowledge of the bible because there there's coming hard times and lord we know that you're going to come and rescue us at some point but there are hard times ahead and lord i pray that you just help us to to just take everything and and lord hold it into our hearts hide it in our hearts that we would know the bible we would know what's true that way we could not be led away by the error of the wicked in jesus name we pray amen