Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Name? Amen. Please be seated. Good morning, everybody. If you are just joining us, my name is Craig Jarvis. I'm the lead pastor here at village church east, and it's my privilege to welcome you to our time in God's word. We are in the middle of our study in two Peter. And these last two Sundays, we're going to be wrapping up the book of second Peter. I've learned to love this book again through my time studying through it with my team, and I've really come to appreciate, especially the way that Peter wraps up this book to give you the context. Remember, Peter is in jail. He's being held captive by Rome, and he is about to lose his life. He knows how he's going to die. Jesus already told him. Jesus told him on the beach in John chapter 21, when he walked with Peter after Peter had denied him three times. And Jesus shows up with him and tells him, Peter, you've got to feed my sheep. You've got to tend to my sheep. And Peter's given this wonderful privilege of kind of being a leader among the disciples who were then scattered throughout the earth and developed this brand new thing called the church. Never existed before, not in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, it was Israel. In the New Testament, the church. And so Peter has this wonderful privilege of helping establish all these churches and feeding God's people. And the church grew. And in the first century, it grew so much that it became a threat to Rome. And Nero, the emperor at the time, was so threatened by it that he began persecuting christians. This is why, regardless of what you've been taught in your history books or retaught in your history books, this is why these christians were persecuted in the first century. They were thrown to the lions in these coliseums. They were persecuted. Nero blamed them for the burning of Rome. They were the easy pick. The easy ones to pick on. In that day, Peter was arrested because he was a perpetrator of the kingdom of God of Jesus Christ. Rome didn't like that, so they started arresting and beating and persecuting these leaders. Every one of the disciples ended up dying for their faith. Peter was not the first to go, but he knows he's about to go, and so his thoughts are as our thoughts sometimes are. My life is coming to an end. What then? Do I want those who have followed me or those that I have influenced in my life? What do I want them to know most? And the way that he wraps up this book of two, Peter is about the second coming of Jesus. This is what he wants his people to know about this is how he wants them to think as they know they're going to lose their friend.
[00:02:42] My mind goes to the book of revelation when I think about the end of the world. Does yours? Revelation is the end of the book. It's about the end of time. And it's a great study. I've done actually studies through revelation before, and we're not going to do that. But one of my favorite passages is revelation chapter five. If you want a good passage to read, I would suggest that you read revelation chapter five. Revelation chapter five is about the end of the world. It's after God talks to the churches that are there, the seven churches. You probably know this in revelation chapter one and chapter two. And he talks a little about these churches and how they need to be dedicated to him and following him and his word. But then he gets to revelation chapter five and he's about to go to the end times conversation and he starts this way in revelation five and verse one. Keep in mind the situation of the day is dire.
[00:03:37] Christians are being persecuted. Christians are being blamed for every ailment of humanity. The situation is dire. If you want to be a follower of Jesus, you're taking your life in your hands. And if you want to be baptized, even more so because people see you making a confession of faith, a follower of Jesus Christ. These guys, when they were giving their lives to Jesus, they were entering a time of persecution. Revelation chapter five has to be one of their favorite passages because for us, too, it rings a truth, a light, when the darkness gets really, really dark. Here's how it starts. Then I saw, this is John. John is actually, he is banished to the isle of Patmos, that is an island in the Mediterranean. He's banished there because Rome knows that he's the leader of the Christians. They capture him. They banished him. They don't want to kill him because they think they're going to create more martyrs or they think they're going to create more followers because if they martyr John, that will be bad. So they banish him to the island of Patmos and they think to themselves, he's not going to do any damage there. But while he's on the island of Patmos, banished, God visits him and gives him this vision. That's what we have for revelation chapter five, all the book of revelation, but especially revelation chapter five. And this is what he writes to us, to the church, about the end times. Then I saw in the right hand of him, who was seated on the throne, a scroll within and on the back, sealed with how many seals? Church always these sevens.
[00:05:07] And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the scroll and break the seals? And no one on heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it. And I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or look into it. This scroll, once it's opened, this would reveal what the rest of revelation was about. It would bring about the end times. It would release the hounds, if you want to say it that way. And until it's opened, evil will always prevail.
[00:05:41] Righteousness will always be suppressed. Darkness will always grow. Satan will always be elevated. Scoffers will always increase in numbers. And followers of Jesus will always continue to be persecuted, because until the end comes and righteousness is installed, evil continues to triumph. Even in the Book of Psalms, David had the same idea. How long will the wicked prosper?
[00:06:06] John weeps because this terrible cycle continues.
[00:06:13] Evil will keep being on the offense. The world will suffer under the weight of human sin. The wicked and the unrighteous will prosper, and the righteous will be taken advantage of. Don't you feel like you're taken advantage of if you play it according to the rules?
[00:06:27] Don't you feel like if you do what's right, if you stand up for what's right and righteousness, if you do what God wants you to do, don't you feel like you're the underdog? A lot of times, righteousness will not prevail until that seal is opened. Until the scroll is opened and the seals are broken. But no one was worthy. No one was able to open the scrolls. No one was found worthy. It can't be done by somebody that has sin in their lives. It has to be done by somebody who is righteous, who is worthy. God's chosen.
[00:07:00] And then verse five says this. Listen to this. And then one of the elders said to me, weep no more.
[00:07:07] Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals. And between the throne and the four living creatures, and among the elders, I saw a lamb stand as though it had been slain. Church. Who is the lamb that was slain for us?
[00:07:32] Finally, somebody is worthy to break open the seals and to open the scroll. And the only one worthy to do that is Jesus Christ. This action initiates the final days of this earth. This action is referred to throughout the Bible. This action of breaking these seals and opening the scroll initiates, what we call and the Bible refers to over and over again, the day of the Lord. And on that day, evil will rise up and try to vanquish God. But God will squelch it. He will crush it. He will crush it.
[00:08:10] This is a large subject. We're going to be talking about it over the next two weeks. Today is one of the.
[00:08:18] Hopefully it'll turn out to be one of my favorite messages I've ever done because I love the subject of the day of the Lord. There's certain days I look forward to. There's certain days I do not look forward to. Right. We have days like that. Right. Graduation. Is that a look forward to a day or not look forward to a day. Yeah, I look forward to a day. All right. Award recognition. That's a good day. Marriage. Skip that one.
[00:08:41] Payday. Yeah. We look forward to these moments. There's other days that I have on my calendar I don't look forward to. Dentist visits is at the top of that. Tax season. Pat is at the top of that. Finals before graduation are at the top of that. Marrying off my girls are at the top of that. No, no, I'm just kidding. Listen, how should we feel about the day of the Lord?
[00:09:07] What kind of emotions should we, as followers of Jesus Christ, experience when we think about that final day, that day of the Lord? Let's read about it. It's in two Peter, chapter 310. If you've got your bibles, you can turn there. It's on the screen. You can watch up front if you'd like to do that. Here's what it says.
[00:09:26] The day of the Lord will come like a. What church?
[00:09:30] Come like a thief.
[00:09:31] A thief doesn't put you on his calendar. You don't put the day, you're going to get robbed on your calendar. It just happens when you least expect it. The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
[00:09:53] This is not just one day. This is a descriptive term for God's day of judgment.
[00:09:58] It's a specific time period.
[00:10:02] This is not only for the end times. This day of the Lord has been referred to in the Old Testament as well. This day of the Lord actually has happened. We call them little days of the Lord that are kind of like a prelude to what the final day of the Lord is going to be. The goal of every day of the Lord is simply this. It is to punish sin. It is to reveal the faithful of God's people, and it is to establish the rightful rule of God. In other words, sin will be punished on every day of the Lord, whatever that day is like. There's smaller days in the Old Testament. We're going to talk about those in a minute. A remnant is revealed and is saved, and God's rightful rule is established. Keep that up there just for a second. In the Old Testament, we have different days of the Lord that occurred. The garden of Eden is referred to as the day of the Lord. Languages and Babel being crushed in Genesis six, the day of the Lord, Sodom and Gomorrah, Egypt and the Passover, the overthrow of Canaan, fall of Samaria to Assyria in 722 BC, the fall of Judah to Babylon is referred to as the day of the Lord. The exiles of the Jews, the death of Jesus Christ, all of these are referred to as days of the Lord because something happened on those days. To illustrate, sin was being punished, a remnant was revealed and saved, and God's rightful rule was reestablished.
[00:11:26] Every smaller day of the Lord we have in scripture is a reference to the great day of the Lord to come, which has not happened yet, but it most definitely will.
[00:11:36] The great day of the Lord. This occasion is going to be punishing sin, but it will be punished completely and forevermore. There won't be any more sin after this great day of the Lord. It will to reveal the faithful of God's people and they will be saved for eternity. And it will be to establish God's rule once and forever. Forevermore.
[00:11:57] It'll be that revelation. Chapter five moment when the seals are broken and the scroll is red, and all of those bowls and all of those judgments are released on the earth. And at the end of it, God rules.
[00:12:11] It'll be a day of reckoning. In Zephaniah 115, it says this, a day of wrath is that day. A day of distress and anguish. Look at all these different adjectives. A day of ruin, a day of devastation, a day of darkness, a day of gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness.
[00:12:28] Sin and all who revel in unrighteousness, sin and all that revel in any righteousness that exists apart from Jesus Christ will be judged on this day.
[00:12:40] The day of the Lord is culminating event of history, where Jesus returns to set up as the final judge of this world. He will avenge his name, he will vindicate his people, he will purify the world from sin, and he will renew creation so that it is brand new, something we've never seen before.
[00:12:59] But take heart, church, because in all circumstances, in all the days of the Lord, whether they're little from the Old Testament, talking about the day of the Lord or the big one to come, a remnant is always saved.
[00:13:13] We talk about the remnant because that is spoken of in scripture over and over again. God's people are revealed and they are preserved. They are saved. In the Old Testament, a remnant from Israel was always saved. In the Old Testament, God's chosen people were Israel. The church did not exist in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, and in our day today, the church is God's people.
[00:13:37] So in the Old Testament, there was a remnant of God's chosen people who he gave his ten commandments to, who he gave his apostles and his prophets to the children of Israel. There was always a remnant that was saved. There was usually a remnant that was judged, but there was always a remnant that was saved.
[00:13:55] The problem is with Israel is if you were a jewish person and you followed God, sometimes you did it at a ritual that is the Pharisees, but you didn't really watch for what God was doing or obey him.
[00:14:10] So there was always a part of Israel that would fall away. Most of the remnant, in fact, of Israel would fall away.
[00:14:17] Israel, the jewish people, were the ones that put Jesus on the cross with the permission of Rome. They crucified their messiah. So it's not like all of Israel will or has been saved. A remnant of them will fall away. Some believed God and obeyed him, some did not.
[00:14:37] But in the New Testament and in our world today, the church represents those who followed Jesus Christ, and there will not be one of them that falls away. God will not lose any of the church. This is the true church. These are not people that go to a building called the church. These are people that are a part of God's family who he refers to as the church. This is who he refers to as his bride.
[00:15:03] His whole purpose in coming and dying on the cross was to buy a bride. That's the church, to cleanse a bride so that he could present this bride, this church, spotless before God. And if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you are part of the remnant that he will never lose. In fact, Jesus said, I hold them in my hand. No one can snatch them out of my hand. My God, my father who gave them to me is greater than all, and no one can snatch them away from God. If you belong to Jesus Christ, you are in.
[00:15:33] If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you are part of the remnant. You don't have to go to a place called church. You are a part of the church. When I read articles about how church. The church burned down downtown, there's a terrible fire, and the church burned down, I always go, oh, man, that's so confusing. Because if you say the church burned down, if you're using it like God refers to the church, a whole lot of people just burned up. Right? The church building is not the church. The church building is a place you go to. This we come to as an athletic center. Right? But the church, when you leave the church is not here anymore.
[00:16:10] No follower of Jesus Christ. No part of the church will ever be lost in judgment.
[00:16:18] I believe the remnant will escape judgment. Now, before I tell you about this, I have to tell you, I told you last week, we have tier one, tier two, and tier three in our church at village. You don't have to agree with everything that I say. Isn't that liberating? Don't you feel great about that? And that's fine with me, too. There are different tiers that we have.
[00:16:38] Tier three are the things that we can disagree on, and it's fine. Tier two are the things that we can disagree on. But we're going to teach one way in our church. We're only confusing. We might teach the other ways, but we'll tell you what we think as a church. And tier one are the things that we cannot disagree on. These are things that are hinged to the gospel, like the deity of Jesus. That would be a tier one. If you don't believe that Jesus is God, you're in trouble. Right? He's just a human who died on the cross. That's a problem. He has to be absolutely sinless for your salvation to take effect. All right, tier one, tier two three. Tier three. The rapture that we're about to talk about, which is what I believe, is tier three, believe it or not. So I'm going to tell you what I think is going to happen as we get closer to the day of the Lord. You ready to go? Want to hear this? All right, here we go. Second Thessalonians one seven. When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the day of the Lord. All right.
[00:17:48] They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled among those all who have believed. Now could you give me the verse right before this verse? The one right below. All right. Look at those yellow words for a second. Who does the Lord inflict vengeance on the day of the Lord? Who does he inflict vengeance upon? Those who what?
[00:18:19] Those who do not know God. Right. So I think there's something that happens to preserve the remnant, those who are followers of Jesus Christ. Because God does not inflict his judgment directly on his people. Why would he? This is his direct judgment on those who do not obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe there will be salvation for the followers of Jesus because almost every time this destruction is talked about and his people are talked about, there's some kind of wording that illustrates that this does not affect the people of God, the church. Those who refuse Jesus salvation, those who refuse God will be judged. But those who love Jesus and his salvation, they will be saved. This is why I believe in this thing called the rapture. We'll talk about this more in just a minute. I think that God's judgment is poured out on the evil, not the righteous.
[00:19:14] Those who do not accept Christ are prepared for judgment, and those who have accept Christ, I believe, are saved from the wrath to come.
[00:19:23] Here's another verse. One, thessalonians five nine. For God has not. What does it say there, church?
[00:19:29] God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now there are some good theologians that believe there will be no rapture, and there are some good theologians that believe there will be a rapture. You know where I stand, because I just want to be completely honest with you. But I have a lot of great friends who actually I meet with every single week, hint, hint, who do not necessarily believe in a rapture. And we agree on this. If I'm right, they are going to be more happy because if the rapture happens, we don't go through the tribulation.
[00:20:05] But if they're right, we still go to see Jesus, right? Here's the point. No matter whether you believe in the rapture or not, whether he saves us from the wrath to come through the tribulation or not, we will see Jesus. There is a second coming that is a tier one that is non negotiable.
[00:20:27] The key to whether, whatever your theology is, is that every theology must affirm the second coming of Jesus Christ to judge the living and the dead.
[00:20:38] And by the way, if you think that Jesus is a sandalwear and beach rolling, kind of loving everybody, kind of peacemaking, handout, roses kind of guy. You need to know that the judge in the last day will not be the father. It will not be the spirit, the judge in the last day part of the Trinity that will judge those who rejected the gospel of Jesus Christ. The judge will be Jesus himself.
[00:21:07] That's in the gospels. He even says it himself. Let me show you a chart.
[00:21:13] If you like charts, you'll love this. Don't take a picture of this one. The next chart is a little better. This one. If you look throughout the Bible, especially in Daniel, there's always talk about the day of the Lord, this final day, the day of judgment. There's 69 weeks. After that. There's the 70th week in which we are living right now. These are not weeks like seven days. These are time periods. This time period that we are in right now started with the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And it has lasted 2000 years, but it will come to an end. God in his grace. The passage that we read just earlier in the service. God is not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. God is giving us time for people to repent, time for people to accept Jesus as their savior. We call that the church age. That's the time period we're in right now. But at some point in the church age, the rapture will occur. Jesus will not come back. He will not. His feet will not touch the planet. He will call us to himself. This is not the second coming. The rapture is, I believe again, a tier three thing. The rapture is when he calls his people, his remnant to himself and saves us from the destruction to come. Because after that starts the seven years of tribulation. Three and a half years are probably going to be peace and prosperity. We have this in the Bible where people are calling out peace, peace. And it's going to be a wonderful time. People will rally around one person who they believe will be their savior and he will be able to do amazing things. I don't know who this person will be, but the Bible talks a lot about him. And in the Old Testament, just like we have little snippets of what the day of the Lord will be like in the old Testament, there are a lot of people that they think we're the Antichrist, but there will come one who is the Antichrist, the great Antichrist, and he will be revealed in that time period. People will rally around him. I gotta tell you. Sidebar. I thought to myself, my whole life maybe this isn't true. Maybe this just every once in a while, you think to yourself, this is kind of like way out there. And so I dive into it again, and I think, well, maybe. Maybe I'm off on this. And so I look at it from all different angles. But I have to tell you this. One of my big questions is how in the world is the entire planet going to rally around one person? And then COVID hit, and everybody rallied around one idea.
[00:23:31] It didn't matter where you were on the planet or what culture you were in. All of a sudden, everybody agreed, and they all followed the same rules. And I went, during COVID I went, oh, I can see how this will happen now.
[00:23:48] One person will come, and he will unite the world. They will look at him as the wonder boy, and he will be extremely popular. But the last three and a half years of his reign, the real him will come out. And during that time period, God will release judgment on this earth like you've never seen. It will become terrible, and it will last for three and a half years. At the end of that three and a half years, that is the second coming. That is the day of the Lord finale, when God comes and his feet touch the planet. All right, could you give me the next slide there, please? That's the day of the Lord. It will last over a time period of three and a half years. It will culminate with Jesus coming back to the planet. And there will be a war where the blood will be so much that it will raise up to the horse's bridle. It says in scripture, it will be a terrible war. And God will bring back his righteous people who are in heaven, those who have been raised from the dead during the rapture, they will return, and we will wage war on sin. And at that time period, the second coming, God will establish this millennium reign that will last a thousand years. I don't want to get into all that, but that will last a thousand years. After that, sin will finally be defeated once and for all. There will be what we call the great white throne judgment, when people's works will be exposed. We read about that this morning. You do not want to be at the great white throne judgment. That's when those who have rejected Christ are cast into the lake of fire. And those who accepted Christ will be in eternity forever. By the way, I'd love to spend one Sunday on that little yellow arrow there that says eternity. That's when we get our new bodies.
[00:25:26] It'll be a lot of fun. Listen, it'll be life like you know it, except without sin.
[00:25:34] You'll have a new body. You can eat, you won't get fat. There's no chance of getting sick. Listen, you couldn't sin if you wanted to.
[00:25:42] And when we get to heaven or, well, when we get to eternity, to this new kingdom, this new earth that is going to be made for us will be something like we've never seen before, colors we've never seen before, trees and a sky. And it's going to be an amazing thing. And listen, if you're thinking to yourself, well, maybe it doesn't look like that.
[00:26:04] Park on Jesus resurrection. Why did Jesus stick around for 50 days after he was raised from the dead? He didn't have to. He stuck around for 50 days after he was raised from the dead for a couple of different reasons. But one of the main reasons was to show us what our new bodies will look like when we raise from the dead. When we receive our bodies back, we are going to have this body that looked like Jesus resurrected body. He is the only one going to have scars.
[00:26:33] We will be resurrected with a whole body because of him and for all eternity, he will be the one we look to as the only one who gave his life and bore the scars of our sin for eternity.
[00:26:47] All right, in this new kingdom, we're going to be eating and drinking and fellowshiping and fishing. We're going to be doing everything and golfing, and you're going to work the planet, you're going to work the earth and work the soil, and we're going to be fellowshiping with one another. It's going to be an awesome time period. Jesus, by the way, was able to walk through walls. I wonder if we're going to be able to do that. When the disciples were in the upper room, the Bible intentionally tells us the door was locked and Jesus appeared in the middle of them. So for some way we're going to have this ability. It's really cool. And again, I spent a whole Sunday on this. But I digress, because Peter does not talk about eternity. He does not talk about the Millennium reign. He doesn't talk about the Antichrist, he doesn't talk about the church age. He doesn't talk about any of that. Peter, when he talks about the end, he goes directly to the day of the Lord. And I think the reason he does is because he doesn't want to do what Craig is doing this morning, using it as a teaching time and getting way off base. He wants you to know one thing. You will see Jesus again, and you should be ready.
[00:27:48] You will see Jesus again and you should be ready.
[00:27:54] I call this compression.
[00:27:57] He doesn't deal with all of these other issues. Instead, he compresses it to get one point across.
[00:28:03] Your light is needed as the dark gets darker, church. Your light is needed as the darkness gets darker, because the day of judgment is coming. Look in verse twelve, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved. The heavenly bodies will melt as they burn.
[00:28:20] I don't necessarily believe.
[00:28:22] Excuse me, you can give that verse up there. I don't need that chart anymore.
[00:28:27] I don't necessarily believe we're going to get a brand new heaven and earth. I think this is more of a fire purification, that the tree that is in your backyard that you see right now has been infiltrated by sin and pollution. All the stuff that sin brings. And you're gonna see trees, you're gonna see creation as it was formed to be. The fire of purification will burn off all the sin of impurity.
[00:28:50] I believe that for several reasons. One is like it says, the heavenly bodies will burn, will melt away. But I don't think that's what that means. Because in the book of revelation, it says that the moon will turn to blood, right? It doesn't say it's gonna burn away. It says it's gonna change color. And I think. I think what happens is there's going to be a purification process that happens.
[00:29:10] Verse 13 says this, but according to his promise, we are waiting for a new heaven and a new earth on which righteousness dwells. This is what I'm anxious most about this new the idea that whatever we have in the end is going to be something that sin has never had a chance to influence. And it's going to be something we've never seen before. It's going to be something you have never experienced in a lifetime. It's going to be like brand new, where righteousness dwells and Jesus is there, but judgment is coming. It's a part of God who God is. We cannot go into eternity with our world still caught in the grip of sin. So God has to bring judgment, God has to bring a purification fire, and it will burn away everything that does not agree that God is God and that Jesus is Lord, including people.
[00:29:59] We struggle with God's justice because we fail to grasp the gravity of our own sin. Our lives lived apart from Jesus Christ is called rebellion. God gives us life so that we can find him. We live our lives giving no thanks to him. We live our lives selfishly in getting what we can in this world. And there's a price to pay for that. Look at romans two three. Do you suppose, o man, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to what church? God is good to you every single day because it's meant to lead you to repent.
[00:30:39] But because of your hard and impotent heart, you're storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath. That's the day of judgment, when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. God must judge sin. It is who he is. He cannot live with sin in his presence. It must be burned off.
[00:31:00] His patience will not remain forever. And on that day, the day of the Lord, he will unleash his wrath against rebellion and evil. There will either be on this day great vindication or great devastation.
[00:31:14] But you will be in one of those two categories.
[00:31:18] Verse eleven.
[00:31:20] God gives us his own. So what? Listen to this. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be? Isn't that great? His own. So what?
[00:31:33] What sort of people you ought to be? You ought to be living lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming day of God church. What kind of people should we be in the meantime? Holy and godly. Why? We are not earning our salvation. We are trying to save souls.
[00:31:56] The way that we live our lives, the way that our lives shine. Light in the darkness will either compel people to follow Jesus or it won't.
[00:32:09] And Peter goes right to the day of God and he says, this day of the Lord is coming. What does that mean for you? You should be a light in the darkness because everybody is going to see God someday.
[00:32:22] Number one, wrongdoing will be judged, and one day it will happen and you will least expect it. Two, people still have time to run to Jesus. Three, there will come a time when the church is not here, and then there will be no hope for. So everything you do matters now, for later. Everything you do, the way you do your homework, the way you do your job, the way you raise your kids, the way you drive your car, everything matters. My wife just said, amen. Everything matters because we are being a light in the darkness to people who will one day get to to the day of judgment when they least expect it.
[00:33:04] And we've got to be a light while we're still here.
[00:33:07] Remember revelation five?
[00:33:10] Revelation five was people crying out to God they were saying, when will evil be punished? When will righteousness reign? How long will your patience last? Your patience is too long.
[00:33:20] But Peter reminds us, this is why we're still here. Listen to this. Verse nine. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise to come again. That's the coming. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some counsel on us, but he is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that what church, but that all should reach repentance. You wonder why the day of the Lord has not come yet. Because there's still people left to come into the fold.
[00:33:52] We still have a job to do.
[00:33:55] On that day, though, the patience of God will cease. The day of the Lord will inaugurate an eternal era. The next page will turn, and an eternal era of peace and prosperity will start for those who belong to Jesus, but an eternal era of devastation for those who have rejected Jesus Christ. Verse 13.
[00:34:15] But according to his promise, we are waiting for this new heaven and this new earth in which righteousness dwells. We, the remnant. We, the remnant. Do you know how the whole Bible ends? It's like we're waiting for this moment, and we're anxious to see God again. The whole Bible ends with this. Revelation 22 20. He testifies to these things, says, surely I am what church? I am coming soon. This is how the whole Bible ends. It screams at us. You should use this time to get ready, because Jesus is coming again, one way or another. And it will either be a day of salvation for the remnant, who, those who love Jesus, or it will be a day of devastation for those who reject Jesus Christ.
[00:35:02] Everything will be made new. New heavens, new earth. And we eagerly wait for this new creation, new bodies, everything is new. Ever wonder what you're gonna look at first? Corinthians 15. Write it down if you wanna read it when you get home. But a wonderful passage of scripture about what our new bodies will be like, this present earth, eagerly, the earth itself that we stand on, groans, waiting for that day of redemption. And we do as well. I gotta tell you, every time I turn on the stinking tv, I groan, waiting for the day of redemption. Every time I hear about one of my loved ones getting sick, I groan for the day of redemption. I'm struggling with an infection right now, an upper respiratory infection. And I'm groaning for the day when I don't have these silly little sicknesses anymore.
[00:35:49] We groan and we wait for the redemption of God's people and his planet.
[00:35:57] Verse 23 of romans eight. Listen to this. And not only creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit. We groan inwardly as we eagerly wait for to the adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we are saved. This is why we accept Jesus. Because someday we will receive a new body, new planet, new everything. And we will be with those who love Jesus for all eternity.
[00:36:27] I love the fact that Jesus makes us into something new, like Jesus did at the resurrection. I love let me just read you one verse from and then I'll go to my so whats all right, one verse from one corinthians 15. Listen, this is just the hope that we have go home and read one corinthians 15. Here's just a couple of verses. Justice we have borne the image of the man of dust. Who is the man of dust here? Adam. We born the image of the man of Adam like we have made like Adam born the image of the man of dust. We shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. Who's the man of heaven? Church Jesus. Behold, I tell you a mystery. Oh, I love this. We shall not all sleep. The Bible never calls those who love Jesus dead.
[00:37:08] It just says they sleep because death is not a reality to us. We leave this life. We go directly into the presence of God. That is a promise of God. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. All right, so the Bible doesn't mean that we're sleeping death. We die, we go into the grave. But as far as us, when our eyes close here, they open in front of Jesus until we get our bodies back. All right, here we go. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. This is the day of the Lord. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body put on immortality.
[00:37:55] You looking forward to that day, boy? I am.
[00:37:59] All right. Here's some. So what's number one? Everything you do here matters.
[00:38:03] Everything you do here matters. Wake up.
[00:38:07] This is reality. Everything you do matters.
[00:38:11] How you respond to sadness, how you respond to joy, how you respond to disappointment. How you respond. Everything you do here matters. Share the gospel. Is there anything seriously worth our time? You don't get to take your car, your house, your paycheck, your bank account. You don't get to take any of that to heaven, but you do know who you get to or what you get to take to heaven. I just let it out of the bag. Do you know what goes to heaven with you? People. People.
[00:38:36] I wonder, when I get to heaven, how many people I look around and see and just know that I have helped their faith at some point in my life, the way that I lived, so that they accepted Jesus as their savior.
[00:38:55] Everything you do here matters. Play the long game. Listen, whether they're scoffers, whether they're false prophets or false teachers or non Christians in general, non followers of Jesus, play the long game. You don't know who God is working on.
[00:39:11] So be patient like God is patient, not willing that any should perish.
[00:39:17] So keep working. Pray. Pray.
[00:39:21] Show them the love of Jesus. Why do we not revile? Why do we not yell? Why do we not take vengeance? Because our vengeance is not here. Here, our hope is for their salvation.
[00:39:33] The great and terrible day of the Lord is coming, and the only ones who will stand are those who have trusted in Jesus. And so, as God is merciful with us, we are merciful with those around us.
[00:39:45] Strive to redeem everything in your circle. Let everything in your circle bring glory to Jesus Christ.
[00:39:52] Everything you do here matters.
[00:39:55] Everything you do, whether you eat, whether you drink, or whatever you do, do. All to the glory of God. Everything you do matters. Why? Because the day of the Lord is coming, and one day that seal will break. The scroll will be read, and the end will happen.
[00:40:15] Number two, come to Jesus and avoid eternal devastation.
[00:40:19] It is easy to fall asleep when life happens, as usual. Don't be like the disciples in the garden when Jesus said, the end is about to happen. I am about to die. It will happen, like, any time now. And then he said, I have to go and pray about this. And the disciples, what were they doing?
[00:40:40] Sleeping? Don't be like the disciples.
[00:40:44] Count these days important.
[00:40:48] Do life like the next moment you might see Jesus.
[00:40:52] Luke 21 34 says this. Be careful or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and the anxieties of life.
[00:41:01] And that day will close on you suddenly like a trap, for it will come on. All those who live in the face of the earth day of the Lord. Don't get weighed down with parties, stress of life, anxieties, or priorities of this world. That day will close on you like a trap and catch you unaware and know this, one way or another, you will see the end of this life and the beginning of the next.
[00:41:27] I have a friend who just passed away last week.
[00:41:31] Good friend.
[00:41:33] He was at my church in Madison. He was an inspiration to me. His name is Ed, older than me.
[00:41:41] He retired, and he and his wife decided on their retirement to sell everything that they had and go to the mission field.
[00:41:50] He was a little nuts that way.
[00:41:53] He decided that in his retirement, he would spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. So they sold what they had, and they used their money to travel the world and build satellite towers. Not satellite towers. Radio towers, so that they could distribute God's message on these little transistor radios in the languages of people all around the world.
[00:42:15] Good guy, Ed.
[00:42:17] Ed retired from retirement not that long ago. He traveled, and he did some speaking, but he couldn't do too much of the high tower work anymore.
[00:42:27] And last week, he was in his backyard, and they were cutting down trees so that they could have firewood for the winter. One of the trees was a dangerous one. He didn't know it looked like a normal tree. His wife went in to make him lunch and said, come in when you're ready, and we'll have lunch together. And she waited in the kitchen. He never came in.
[00:42:47] She went out to the backyard and found him lying there. He had passed away when he cut down the tree. It's what they call a widowmaker. Ever heard of widowmaker? It's a tree that grows with a twist in it, and you don't see it from the outside, but the minute you cut, it spins, and it knocked him in the head, and immediately he went to be with Jesus. Here's the thing, the reason why I tell you that story. Ed was a good friend, and I've had friends pass away before.
[00:43:16] And whether I meet them in the hospital or I haven't talked to Ed in several years, I know. And I always tell them that I will see them again someday, because to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. And I got to tell you, Ed is. Even though his wife and we pray for the. For the family at this great loss, Ed is in a place that he never thought, never experienced before in this life. And he got there so easily, immediately cutting down a tree, shutting his eyes, and immediately into the presence of Jesus Christ. Now, I don't believe that because I hope that. My hope is in that. I don't believe that, like, I hope that I win the lottery, because I probably am not going to win the lottery. I believe that because I have a hope in Jesus promise, and Jesus promises me. And I got to tell you, I only read a very small portion of the amount of time that God tells us in his word, there is an eternity coming.
[00:44:20] You will last. You are a soul, and your soul lasts forever. You have got to figure out where you're going to spend time in eternity. Because if you don't know Jesus Christ as your savior, you will either on this life experience the day of the Lord, or, like my friend Ed, immediately be removed from this life, and you will end up in one place or another.
[00:44:44] And the reason I tell all my friends I'll see you again someday, even though they might be on their deathbed, is because I am not. I don't have a hope that that will happen, like I hope I win the lottery. I have a hope in the belief and promise that Jesus gave. And Jesus promises are true.
[00:45:01] Not one of them will ever be broken.
[00:45:04] My faith is found in nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but holy trust in Jesus name God tells us through the entire Bible. Wake up.
[00:45:20] Wake up. Everything you do in this life matters. He has given you this life to enjoy.
[00:45:27] He has given this life to you to revel in him, to do what you're doing right now, to praise his name, to recognize who he is, and to run to him for salvation so that you can do this through all eternity.
[00:45:39] One day you will have to set down your fork, pull away from the table, and your bill will be due.
[00:45:48] One day, the one who has served you your life will appear, and the nations will see him together. And you will either be like the church that is anxious to see him again, or you will fear his coming, because you know you cannot pay that bill on your own.
[00:46:09] Jesus has died for us. He offers us salvation.
[00:46:14] Our sin that we commit, past, present, and future has been paid for. And if you run to Jesus, know this, he has paid your bill.
[00:46:28] One day when you face Jesus, I think to myself, like, what will I say? How will it go?
[00:46:35] And all I can think is when God asked me, why should I let you into heaven? I'm just gonna go, I got nothing. You know who I am.
[00:46:46] But this I know.
[00:46:48] I believe in Jesus Christ, and I confess my sins to him, and he is my savior. And I rest on his saving grace and not my own strength.
[00:47:00] And that is the answer that will get us into heaven and in eternity with God. Let's pray. Father, we are grateful for this morning, and this is a heavy duty subject talking about eternity, but you warned us. And you tell us, I mean, we would be foolish to think we're gonna live forever. Good grief.
[00:47:21] So, Father, help us to be prepared for that day. Whether it's a day of the Lord, the rapture, or we pass away before any of this happens. We will see you again someday.
[00:47:32] We are anxious for that day. But, Father, we are anxious that you would pull more into your. Into your family before that day comes. Let us be as patient with people as you are. And may you grow your family through the influence of village church east. I pray in Jesus name. Amen.
