BIG IDEA:
THE WORD OF GOD WILL DELIVER ON ITS PROMISES IN ACCORDANCE WITH GOD’S TIMETABLE —
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IT ALWAYS HAS
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IT ALWAYS WILL
2 Peter 1:4 “He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises”
so that we might live holy lives
John 14:1-3 “I will come again and receive you to Myself”
we will not be homeless; we are pilgrims now
John 14:18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you”
we will not be lonely; bereft of family
John 14:27-28 “I will come to you” — we should be filled with peace and joy; not fear and anxiety
Acts 1:11 “This Jesus will come in just the same way “
2 Peter 3:1-9 Raise your hand when you hear: (shows the emphasis of the passage)
“Word of God”
“Commandment”
“Promise”
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INTRODUCTION:
One important aspect of being a good Dad is keeping our promises. Our goal is to model as best we can the relationship of our Heavenly Father to His children. If we break our promises, we wreck that picture because God never breaks His promises. Sometimes things happen that are out of our control that make it impossible for us to keep a time commitment. But with God, everything is in His control and He always comes through and keeps His Word.
At Issue in this passage: THE PROMISE OF THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST
Piper: “In chapter one, verse 16 Peter had already taken the offensive against the denial of the second coming. He said, ‘We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.’ That is, Christ certified to us that he was indeed going to return in bodily glory, by revealing to us the glory of his transformed body in a preview on the mount of transfiguration.”
THE WORD OF GOD WILL DELIVER ON ITS PROMISES IN ACCORDANCE WITH GOD’S TIMETABLE —
– IT ALWAYS HAS
– IT ALWAYS WILL
I don’t usually like to give away my Outline at the beginning; I like to keep you in suspense. But today I am going to give you my 5-point Outline; I have something for you to hold on to; when I ask you to, you need to raise it high in the air so that everyone can see it and remember that outline point;
1) Stuffed Elephant
2) Stuffed Mocking Bird
3) Globe
4) Matches
5) Alarm Clock
I. (:1-2) THE WORD OF GOD DESERVES OUR ATTENTION
(ELEPHANT)
(THE PRIORITY OF THE WORD OF GOD AND ESPECIALLY GOD’S PROMISES) —
Review
A. We need to be stirred up to remember all that God has promised
– remember the picture of stirring up the hot chocolate?
– we tend to be a forgetful people — Christian Amnesia
B. God’s message is clear and consistent as it has been delivered down through the ages:
– by the holy prophets — the writings of the OT prophets
– the commandment of the Lord and Savior Himself
– the communication of those same promises by the apostles
(the Second Coming was a favorite theme of the apostle Peter — cf. 1 Peter:1:5,7,10-13; 4:7,13; 5:1,4)
Are we giving God’s Word the Attention it deserves?
Are we stirring up our memories to hold on to the truth despite false teachers?
Ritchie: “Peter says his ministry to these Christians in Asia Minor is one of ‘stirring up [their] sincere minds by way of reminder.’ He is reminding them of truth they already know, stirring up their pure minds about the things of God. Imagine the apostle stirring up a pot of thick soup, scraping up the bottom so that the chunks of meat and vegetables are mixed in with the broth. In the same way he is for the second time writing to stir up these believers’ minds to remember truth they had already been exposed to. These people were living in a corrupt society. They had just abandoned corrupt mystery religions, and now they had to contend with corrupt teachers who introduced destructive heresies among them, and mockers who held there would be no second coming of Christ. Peter’s response to all of this is to remind them of the word spoken by God about such people.”
II. (:3-4) THE WORD OF GOD COMES UNDER CONSTANT ATTACK
(MOCKING BIRD)
(spend most of our time here)
Peter does not want us to be surprised by such attacks
“in the last days” = the time period that began with Christ’s First Coming
so that now we are eagerly awaiting His return at any time
don’t lose the force of this
“mockers following after their own lusts”
physical appetites: gluttons = eat to much; drunkards = eat too much; perverted in how they act;
also follow after the lust for material possessions (greed)
the lust for power and honor
the connection is always there between immoral living and false doctrine;
these people have no fear of God and live ungodly to fulfill the lusts of the flesh;
have no expectation of the Lord coming at any time to hold them accountable;
no self-control; no Holy Spirit restraint
present themselves as very sophisticated; very intelligent;
believe that man determines his own destiny and is in control of his own life; independent of God; progressing on the path of social evolution — getting better and better
“Where is the promise of His coming?” — making fun of the promises of God
Where’s the Beef?
Show me the money?
You have warned my about my immoral living and coming judgment; but I don’t see it happening
cf. How they mocked Jesus at His trial and when He was on the cross
You say you are the King of the Jews — save yourself!
“since the fathers fell asleep” = those to whom the promise had been made in the past;
goes all the way back to the OT patriarchs like Abraham;
cf. Heb. 11:13 “All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth”
kosmos = a system where order prevails
UNIFORMITARIANISM = everything stays the same always;
the foundation doctrine for any type of world view that likes to leave God out of the equation:
the present processes of nature which we can observe are all there is to reality both in the past and in the future
1) The World View of the Evolutionist and the Secular Scientist
No Creation; no special significance to man; no ACCOUNTABILITY to God
cf. Dating methods are based on this view
2) The World View of the Secular Historian
God has no plan for History; there is no second coming of Christ; no kingdom plan; no new heavens and new earth; History is heading nowhere; No URGENCY vs. “His Story”
3) The World View of the Environmentalist
let’s devote our life to protecting the natural resources around us; we are one with Mother Earth; this is a world that is reserved for destruction by fire!
God is not so concerned that we defend His Word against all these attacks
(sometimes that is appropriate and necessary)
God is always concerned that we believe His Word and Rest on His Promises
Application: Where do we tend to doubt God’s promises?? Importance of testimonies
What He’s done for others He’ll do for you
Hoke: “[Uniformitarianism] is a closed-system model of the universe which does not have room for divine intervention in the space-time continuum. It is the result of the prideful thinking of man without God. It has no room for a creation, for supernatural or miraculous occurrences, or for a Second Coming and judgment which brings history, as we know it, to a close. Prideful thinking exalts the intellect. Next we need to see that prideful thinking makes judgments without all the facts. For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the . . .”
III. (:5-6) THE WORD OF GOD HAS PROVED ITS SUPERNATURAL POWER IN THE PAST
(GLOBE)
mockers don’t want to allow for the intervention of God or the supernatural into any aspect of their life; they shut their eyes to the bare facts of history:
(talk about having your head buried in the sand)
A. CREATION — THE POWER OF GOD’S WORD IN CREATION AND BLESSING
the universe was created by the Word of God — that blows away the lie of Evolution
B. NOAH’S FLOOD — THE POWER OF GOD’S WORD IN JUDGING AND DESTROYING
God is not so removed as to allow this world to continue on unchanged; He has already destroyed the world once with water
No possibility of local flood view here
Lesson: this is a moral universe; sin will not go unpunished forever
TRANSITION:
you don’t find any mockers in the day of Noah as the flood waters are rapidly rising; as the torrential downpour refuses to let up; as people cling to the tops of trees waiting their inevitable fate; You won’t find any mockers when Christ returns in Judgment; instead every knee will bow and every tongue will confess the truth of God’s Word and the Lordship of His person — but it will be too late then
IV. (:7) THE WORD OF GOD WILL BRING CATASTROPHIC JUDGMENT IN THE FUTURE
(MATCHES)
“reserved for fire”
THE WORD OF GOD WILL DELIVER ON ITS PROMISES — you can count on that
fire and brimstone preaching never outdated; cannot be just an aberration of the stern Puritans;
V. (:8-9) THE WORD OF GOD WILL SEE FULFILLMENT ACCORDING TO GOD’S TIMETABLE
(ALARM CLOCK)
the mockers might miss the boat and overlook the obvious, but the beloved need to understand the facts:
“slack” — idea of tardiness — cf. Getting here late on Sunday morning
God created time — His perspective towards time is different than ours; He stands above it
The present delay is not due to any failure on God’s part (not due to lack of power or laziness), but rather to His mercy and grace
In fact it can only be called a delay when viewed from our limited perspective — certainly no grounds for doubting the fulfillment of the promise
The Word of God will Deliver on Its Promises —
– It always has
– It always will
that’s one reason the Promises of God are so Precious
Hold up our outline symbol objects:
1) Stuffed Elephant
2) Stuffed Mocking Bird
3) Globe
4) Matches
5) Alarm Clock
Benediction: 1 Thess. 5:23-24
“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is FAITHFUL, who also will do it” — despite what the mockers of this age might like to think — AMEN