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We sing #3.
#3.
Oh God, we see.
In the rain.
Who gave our whole heart?
Come on, Grace, I come all the time.
Great.
Our God and Father, we thank Thee again for such a time to be together like this. Knowing of Thy love and Thy goodness and mercy to us, we can sing this hymn that tells us that we see Thee in the Lamb.
We thank thee that we are thine fought with the blood of Christ, thy beloved Son.
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We're reminded now of.
What this world has to offer mid scenes of confusion.
And the address we had of the need to overcome these things.
We're so thankful.
That thy son could say, I have overcome the world.
And now like those ones in Nazareth and Nehemiah that gather together as one man.
Lord, that thy word might be opened up to us in such a way that by Thy Spirit each one of us here with our hearts prepared and our ears opened, or that we could take these things in.
And as we consider him abiding in us, that we might walk in them as he did.
And so we asked the.
For help now, Lord, to provide a portion for us.
Lord, that might encourage us.
To press on and to encourage one another.
To occupy until let us come.
And that we might do it in a way that would be pleasing to thee, and that we might give thee all the glory and honor that's due.
While we wait to hear thy voice calling us home to be with thee.
To be reminded that the joy of our Lord is our strength. And so we just pray for this now. We thank thee for Thy.
Love to us and bringing us here together. Thy name we pray, Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. Amen.
Wondered, brethren, if we could read Second Peter chapter 3?
We're living in days when things are developing in this world that are unprecedented in quite a few ways, and I think it's just important to.
Keep in view.
Two days that are mentioned in this chapter, the day of the Lord and the day of God.
And its moral implications for us today. I suggest that.
Idea help?
Is there something else that needs to be taken up?
I would heartily second that suggestion, Brother Bob. I think as you say, it's most apropos in the day in which we live and.
The exhortations that go with it are very necessary.
Two Peter chapter 3 and verse one.
This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you, in both which I stir up your mind, your pure minds, by way of remembrance, that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandments of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior. Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying, Where is the promise of His coming?
For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 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, whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water, perished. But the heavens and the earth, which are now by the same word, are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as 1000 years, and 1000 years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but as long-suffering to us word not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with urban heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
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Seeing, then, that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought to.
To be in all holy conversation and godliness.
Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved.
And the elements shall melt with urban heat. Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent, that you may be found of Him in peace, without spot and blameless. An account that the long-suffering of our Lord and Savior of our Lord is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given unto Him, hath written unto you.
As also in all the epistles, speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to be understood.
Which they that are unlearned and unstable rest as they do also the other scriptures.
Unto their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being LED away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever. Amen.
It's helpful to realize that this second opinion, this second epistle was written to the same ones, the same brethren that he wrote the first epistle to and so you can find this in first Peter chapter one verse one he's there addresses them. Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered or the sojourner scattered throughout Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Cappadocia Asian Bystinia elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit.
And unto obedience and the sprinkling of blood by Jesus Christ.
Unto you and peace be multiplied. So the two epistles are often written in connection with a breakdown, and here it's really a breakdown in the days that Peter was writing a breakdown of godly order in the testimony. And so practical righteousness was necessary. And here he brings out this.
Exhortation, you might say, this purpose of his writing. I right now write unto you in both, which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, that you may be mindful of the words.
Which were spoken before by the holy prophets and the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord Jesus of the Lord and Savior. So he brings in the Old Testament, the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and then the New Testament, the epistles that were already written, and the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior. So it's a whole word of God that's necessary for us. And Peter stirs up the brethren.
To read and to be engaged in understanding and knowing all of the scriptures.
We need the Old Testament scriptures just as much as the New Testament scriptures.
And so there's that balance that he brings in.
Maybe you can give us Brother Bob enlarge a little on your exercise about suggesting this chapter.
Well, I just if you go to.
First Corinthians chapter 4. There's an expression that comes out in Mr. Darby's translation that I find very interesting.
First Corinthians, chapter 4.
And the apostle says in verse 3, and I'm going to read it in Mr. Darby's translation.
But for me, it is very the very smallest matter that I be examined of you or of man's day. That's the day we're living in.
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Man's day Man is at the center of his world.
You do what you like. That's democracy. You have your rights and it's become such a focus.
That more and more God is being left completely out of the picture. It is shocking where we are going and I think brethren, we need to feel it.
The question of abortion, it's a political issue and we don't need to get into politics, but we need to feel it. All those little children that have been.
Killed.
Do we feel it?
Yes, we should feel it, brethren, but this is man's day.
Like I said to the young people sometimes.
Go to Burger King.
And they're saying is have it your way.
OK, That's indicative of the day we live in, man's day. And I don't think, brethren, we realize how much we've been affected by that way of thinking. I think our best.
Place is to admit it and to confess it to the Lord and ask him to help us to overcome it, because it is permeated.
In Christian thinking and when I go between Latin America and North America quite often.
I ask myself, what is it? Why in my time frame when I first went to South America, there are only assemblies in Peru and Bolivia. In South America it is spread across the continent and is not my anything I've done.
It's the Lord that's working. And when I compare, why is there a decline?
In North America and in South America, the thing has spread.
I have to say, brother, it's the principle of self pleasing. We like to do what we like to do. Yes, I'm a Christian, but I like to do certain things. I like to have my food a certain way. And brethren, it's killing the Christian testimony and we need to have our minds stirred up about these things. We're living in man's day, but we're coming fast towards a time that's talked about in verse 10.
The Day of the Lord and then of course in verse 12, the day of God did The Lord begins at the end of the great tribulation and runs through the whole Millennium.
The day of God is eternity. I find that so fascinating to try to think about it. I just find myself totally limited and DML to understand.
Eternity. What? We're going there, brethren, doesn't it interest you to know about where we're going? It does mean tremendously. One other thing I'd like to mention before we get into detail in this chapter is that there are three worlds that are mentioned and it helps us to see it. Notice in verse 6.
Talking about the world of creation, it says whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished. That's at the time of the flood. The world that then was that there was a world before the flood.
Verse 7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, this is the ones we live in.
The 1St 13 says nevertheless, we according to his promise, look for.
New heavens and a new earth, completely New South. I'd just like to leave that as kind of a brief.
Maybe outline just to get into the chapter.
Maybe somebody else has something to comment on that.
Too.
Well, we might mention too, just in connection with Peter's ministry as an outline.
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That he tends to emphasize the House of God and the conduct in the House of God and God's ways of government with those in the house. And so is Robert has already pointed out it has a Jewish flavor because Peter was the apostle to the Jews, but nevertheless.
It's good for us too, because as I said a moment ago, the emphasis is on the House of God.
And in the first epistle we might say we find the House of God in relative order, but then there's been a decline, as we've had just mentioned. And then the second epistle, things are not going so well. And so there is an emphasis in the first chapter on God's government among his own when things are in disorder, but then eventually in the second and third chapters.
God's government with the world with a view to bringing everything into.
Line everything into the realization of God's purposes and counsels, and that of course, will all be found in the day of God, which is is is the eternal state which is mentioned toward the end of the chapter. And so this last chapter is very solemn, very serious, and yet most necessary.
And if Peter could write it in the day in which he were living, how much more it is needful for us in this day and age.
It's good to remember as well that Peter doesn't bring in the rapture. That's not his ministry. He's Speaking of the appearing of Christ and that it's interesting to notice in this chapter that he says that God has intervened before in this world and he will intervene again. And that's really his concluding ministry is concluding thought you might say. And so we might just point that out in verse five. It's this they are willingly ignorant of that. By the word of God, the heavens were of all.
That's before Genesis one and two.
If there was a bull, there was a creation, and when God acted, it says that the earth was standing out of the water and in the water.
And so there was perhaps a time when the Lord intervened, God intervened in the creation. Perhaps this was at the time that Satan was cast out of heaven.
We're in the earth that was brought into a state of chaos, perhaps as a because of judgment, and so says in Isaiah that he created it not void and without form. And then the second time he intervened is in verse 6, whereby the world that then was.
Being overflowed with water perished. So he says, well, God intervened another time.
He says the flood came and Noah and his family and so on were spared. But then he says there's another intervention coming and the Lord will intervene in this world. It's not going to continue just the way it is. The heavens and the earth, which are now by the same word, are kept in store, reserved. There's a reservation under fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. So Peter's saying God is going to intervene. So if we read these passages, this passage of Scripture, and remind ourselves that what Peter is very saying, very solemnly.
Is that God is going to intervene and He's going to bring the whole system under judgment. Our brother spoke of the world system. This is Speaking of the world system. We know the end. We know the battle plan. We know what God is going to do, and it's going to be for the glory of His Son that he's going to deal with this. He's going to cleanse this scene by judgment.
Another comment that I found very helpful years ago some brother made was that first Peter speaks of the Kingdom of God or God's government in the House of God, whereas second Peter takes about talks about the government of God in this world and that has been a help to me. So if you go back to the first chapter of the 2nd epistle.
You notice that Peter exhorts them in verse five to give all diligence.
To add to their faith. And then there's seven things that he exhorts them to add to their faith. Virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and brotherly kindness.
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Charity and then he says if these things be in you notice verse nine, he that lacketh these things.
Verse 10 If you do these things, you shall never fall.
Verse 12 Wherefore I will not put you negligent, to put you always in remembrance of these things.
Verse 15 Moreover, I will endeavor that you may be able after my deceased to have these things also always in remembrance. He's referring to those seven things. Brethren, we need to be stirred up in our remembrance of these things. And sometimes we say, well, the brethren keep on going over those things. There's a reason for it.
And Paul says in the book of Philippians.
To write the same things to you, to me, is not grievous, but for you it is safe. And so it's good to be back and hear it again and again. Lord help us, brother.
So in verse one of our chapter he says this second epistle. Beloved, I now write unto you in both, which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance.
Oh brethren, we have been called to glorious things. Let's not neglect them. We live in a world that is changing fast, but there's something that does not change the precious truth of God.
The consistent testimony of Old Testament prophetic scriptures. The object is Christ, of course, but consistent testimony of the Old Testament scriptures and of the epistles, as well as the Lord's ministry, points on to the end that everything is going to in this world.
And so we might look around and become flustered, upset.
Why can't we change things? Why can't we, you know, put our efforts into setting things on a different course? We need to stop this in intrusion that's happening in the the decay of Christianity on and on, whatever it might be, injecting ourselves to support.
Certain political factions in this world, but the scriptures have told us already.
Where everything is going and so he takes up both Old Testament.
That which was spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles.
Of the Lord and Savior knowing this verse and what does he point out the character of the last days that there are going to be scoffers coming. When we have Daniel and we look at the visions of Daniel and we see the success of Gentile empires and what are they characterized by those four beasts that are raised. We have laid before us what the Gentile powers in this world are going to act like, what their character is going to be.
And what's the end?
Or the Son of Man is given a Kingdom and groans are set, and he destroys those beasts and brings that to an end. And so we shouldn't be surprised.
At the character of the Gentile powers that God has been pleased to give the sort of government to in this day. It's fully laid out in the word of God shouldn't be any surprise to us. But we can get surprised and we can get upset and we can wring our hands. And I think the apostle says, I want to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. Remember what the prophet said.
Remember what we the Apostles have said.
Our testimony is consistent. This is where everything is going.
His brother Bob said we should feel things like the massacre of babies in our country and around the world, and it's understandable why young Christians, or any Christian for that matter, feels an impulse to do something about it. This subject came up at John Levin's camp two years ago, and a lot of the young people were talking about this.
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Into the night and I had the privilege of sitting there and being part of that conversation. My question was, when has it ever worked?
When has it ever worked?
When have Christians gotten themselves involved in in politics and done that? Outside of maybe very short term kinds of things? When it has ever worked, it hasn't. It does not work. It's like when the Peter picked up his sword and cut the man's ear off.
The Lord said put it away and he healed the ear. We're not fighting this way anymore.
That's Old Testament. They were told to take the sword and fight, but in the New Testament.
We don't fight like that and Peter didn't know what to do and we don't fight that way because it doesn't work in our day, it cannot work and it will never work.
I think that these first few verses present to us the way the modernist thinks, maybe down to verse six or seven.
And the modernist judges everything by what he can feel.
Or no right now.
And so he thinks about this judgment that supposedly coming. He says there's nothing to that. Maybe he looks to creation. And he says no, no, no. The scientists tell me this.
Geology tells me this, and so I'm going to judge everything by what I know now through something that he can see or feel.
And what Peter tells the Christians in that day and what he's telling us today is don't succumb to the modernists, young people. You're going to college and you're going to run into people who are brilliant, brilliant minds. And they will try to trick your minds into thinking that you have to judge the word of God by what you can see and feel and what what scientists tell you is right or wrong. Don't fall for it. The only thing that you need.
Is to know that you be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and the commandments of us, the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Lord and Savior, that's it.
Don't get into a battle of the wits with the modernists. Come back to what God said. What did God say? He said there's going to be judgment. There's going to be judgment. He said there was a creation. There was a creation. He said it happened in seven days. It happened in seven days.
If we try to get into a battle of the wits trying to make the word of God more palatable.
To the modernist who doesn't have life, you'll never win. There were men a little bit different context near the end of this chapter, taking the Apostle Paul's writings, it says which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction. If we seek to twist the Word of God to make it more palatable or more argumentative, it's not going to work. We have to come back to what God has said. And if you're ever confused as to what a scientist is telling you or a modernist or anyone else, just read the Bible. Take up what the Word of God says.
And find that from from the.
Beginning to the end, there is consistent see through it all and rest on that alone.
Verse two, when it says to be mindful, it means to pay attention to this. Pay attention to the word of God.
And so, as I said, he brings in the Old Testament scriptures which unfailingly presented Christ as coming into this scene, being born to the nation of Israel. The prophetic scriptures told us where He would be born, how He would be born, and that He would be rejected. So it spoke of the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow. So always presents, and very consistently presents the Lord Jesus as the.
Really, the key figure and the purpose of God is to exalt Him.
That's really Ephesians chapter one, verse 10. We might just read it to be clear.
As to what the purpose is that God has in view. This is the end that he has in view. Ephesians one verse 10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of times. That's really the Millennium that he might gather together in one all things in Christ or in that Christ which are in heaven or in the heavens and which are on earth even in him. So Christ is the center of all that God has purpose for and so.
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There's two different groups here that are mentioned, those that are mindful of those scriptures of the Old Testament scriptures, mindful of the teaching, the apostles and two of the gospels, I believe they're included here, and then the others that are scoffers.
A scoffer berates the word of God and he really scoffs and denies publicly ridicules the word of God as not being really practical for the a man to believe. But by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God says in Hebrews Chapter 11. So there's they're scoffing, they're ridiculing the word and then morally.
Their path, their walk is consistent with what they say.
And so they're morally corrupt, walking after their own lusts. So we can identify that there's a giving up of moral truth, what God has established in the creation for the blessing of man, and the distinction too, in the day that we live in between the man and the woman. And so there's male and female that's under attack in this world. And then it says saying, where is the promise?
Of his coming. So a denial that God is going to intervene. A denial.
That he will hold man accountable in this world. Man accountable for how he treated his son.
That blessed one man accountable for how he ridicules the name and the glory of Christ and ridicules his precious word. God is going to hold man accountable and this is what Peter says. You can count those three things go together. They scoff, they walk after their own less, and they question the veracity of the prophetic scriptures and the glory that God has said that He will bestow upon His beloved Son.
Sadly, the world has always done that, but sadly today many who are Christians are doing the same thing. They scoff. Whether it's the rapture or the coming of the Lord, just about anything about prophecy is beginning to be scoffed at and even mocked openly on the Internet and other places that if you believe in that, there's a turn going on amongst believers, amongst formerly barely fundamentally evangelical. So this attacks is not only from the world, but from people who claim the name of Christ.
Verse five says they are willingly ignorant.
Interesting. That's because they want to walk after their own lusts. So man accommodates. Since we're living in man's world, Man's day. Man accommodates his own desires to what he wants to believe.
But they are willingly ignorant. I think it's important to realize that when people.
I can't believe the gospel that there is a will in the picture. Notice a verse in John 5 and verse 40, the Lord Jesus speaking.
Says.
And ye will not come to me that ye might have light. It's the will that's in the fiction. And you know, in a certain way, when you come to the Lord Jesus, you surrender.
You own him not only as Savior but as Lord, and that means you own his authority. That is so important in Christianity. People think, Oh yeah, I'll accept the Lord, but I want to do my life my way.
Listen to what scripture says.
In Romans 10 and nine says, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. So it's recognizing Jesus as Lord, you are surrendering your life to Him, and that's important. I found it interesting in that case to look at the last verse of John 3.
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In the Darby translation. I'm going to just read it here just to look at. I found it quite interesting.
John, 336.
He that believes on the sun.
As life eternal, and he that is not subject to the sun shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him, so that includes that matter of.
Surrendering to the Lordship of Christ. Tremendous to think about. Is there some young person that has never came come yet to surrender?
To the Lord Jesus He gave everything for your eternal blessing.
And you're going to reserve something in your life that is not subject to his authority.
Think it again, that's not the right way to go.
Surrender to Him.
Their willingly ignorant. They have their own will about the matter. You've got to surrender your own weapon.
I know, I remember your father-in-law used to say it had this little expression that he used to tell us as young people and you no doubt heard it often times yourself. Young person, when you got saved, you gave up your right to choose. You gave up that right, that authority. You addressed the Lord Jesus as Lord. You own Him as your Lord. You allowed Him now to choose. He has authority in your life.
He directs things in his the way they should be. So not there's not two of us that can manage life. We relinquish our our, our rights, you might say, and we've become the Lord's freed men. We were once bonds men to sin and slaves to sin and to the enemy of our souls. We heard in the meeting before, but now we're the Lord's freedmen. Now we own this authority and we delight to own his authority. And that's a path of obedience.
Thought of the example of Saul in Acts on the Road to Damascus.
Chapter 9.
And the Lord Jesus all saw Why persecutest thou me? In verse 4, verse five, he said, Who art thou, Lord?
So he acknowledged them, and the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecute us, it is hard for thee to kick against the fricks. And the trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? So he surrendered himself to the direction of the Lord, didn't he? The Lord told him then to arise and go into the city. And you see in verse 8.
And Saul arose from the earth, and so on.
Well, we need to remember what we've just had mentioned though, that our hearts were no better naturally, were they?
And we do recognize, and we have a need to recognize, and that's why Peter emphasizes all this. And he does not particularly bring in, in this chapter, the preaching of the gospel. But what he does bring in is our walk. And that's later on in the chapter. We'll get to it. But I just mentioned it. Our walk, our character, our outlook.
That will have a strong effect on this world. And again, it bears on what Brother Bob was saying earlier. If the world sees that it's reality with us and not merely outward show. When they look at you and me, they say, is his Christianity? Is her Christianity real? Do they believe what they say? Does their lifestyle reflect that?
Very, very important. And so here there are pretty strong words used in this chapter.
Concerning the way the world is going, and as we've had mentioned, it was always that way.
But it gets more blatant, doesn't it? As time goes on and the world may appear outwardly to be reasonably friendly, reasonably tolerant. We see that interact with people sometimes we can bring in the Lord's things and there's a tacit agreement to what we're saying in a general way. But I believe the Lord put it right on the line. And I think it's John Chapter 7 and verse 7 when he said.
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But me and Heda, because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil.
And if we bring Christ in and his claims, and the fact that no matter how you work it, the works thereof even of the moralist on the clean side of the Broad Rd. his works are evil, that is going to arouse the animosity and hatred of the world and it will come out.
And so the scoffer attitude may not always appear to be right on the surface, but if we are faithful, it will eventually appear. There is a Christian testimony in North America, and we can be thankful for it, thankful for what's left of it. I was just in a hotel on the other side of the United States a few days ago. Had a need to have something to eat. And I mentioned venture to give a gospel tract to the girl who was waiting on our table.
From my table, herself alone at it. It turned out to be a believer and we had a nice conversation.
Wonderful. In the midst of all this breakdown and things that we're reading in this chapter, we can be thankful for it. But deep underneath in this world, that scoffer attitude is there. And what will bring blessing into their lives is the character that you and I display if they see that it's real.
It's a challenge. It's a challenge nowadays in.
If you're given a test.
And all the.
All the answers, but then I wrote across the top of the page. I said.
I know that my answers are not really true.
And I handed in the test.
I didn't get much Flack back except for the TA kind of had a word with me.
What do you mean by this? And that was the inscription he put on the top. What do you mean by this? Well, he knew full well what I meant by it and.
But.
The education system, how are we really going to tread?
In a higher education, and that's a challenge, and each of us have to handle it by ourselves. There's no, there's no one way to.
To answer that.
You can just you can close your mouth.
You can put the answers down that they want and hand it in that way.
Or you can have a talk with the.
TA there might be many ways of doing it, but it was.
Not exactly funny, but it was kind of interesting. What do you mean by this?
They knew full well exactly.
Young man who did an internship in Florida, raised in the meeting, raised by a father who loved his son. And he knew he wanted to go to college, so he prepared him a bit. And he told him, he said, you're going to run into things from professors and people in college that you don't know the answer to, but there is an answer.
And his faithfulness in college resulted in a student who watched how he responded.
You mentioned testimonies and got saved because what there are actually some answers to these things that are not just in the book. And I know that when the professor figured out he was a Christian, I don't think he went after him aggressively, but he would pick at him a little bit and his responses were kind of along that line. He would say, well, do you want the answer from the book or do you want the truth? You know, and those conversations took place.
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In front of a body of students. Well, they found out that there was someone. He did. He was very gentle in his manner and way, and he related to me how that those things proceeded. The professor didn't document his grade, although there might be some, but the result was that someone actually came to know Christ as their Savior because they heard that there were answers that were not in the textbook.
Might be helpful to read the fifth verse and the new translation, similar to the verse that Bob previously alluded to in John's Gospel. For this is hidden from them through their own willfulness, that the heavens were of old and earth having its subsistence out of the water in the water. So the point is this. For this is hidden from them through their own willfulness. There is a consequence to willfulness.
In the governmental ways of God, you find in the Scriptures oftentimes that there was.
Blindness, spiritual blindness as a result of willfulness. And so here you have.
They're willingly ignorant, they're willful. And Mr. Darby made a helpful comment in his writings. He says ignorance is bold because it is ignorance. Ignorance is bold because it is ignorant, Mr. Kelly also said in his writings several times.
Says the spirit of error is not to hear is to refuse to hear. Pardon me. The Spirit to refuse to hear is the spirit of error. And so May God help us to relinquish our own will for the will of God. It's interesting and very helpful to read in the Gospel of John and to read how the Lord Jesus time and again spoke of doing the will of the Father. Maybe we could just, if you don't mind, I would just point those things out and John's gospel, chapter 4, verse 34.
We'd be well advised to read these scriptures and to bow through the truth that we ought to do the same. Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work. And then in chapter 5, verse 30, he says partway through, well, let's read verse 30. I can do, I can have my own self do nothing as I hear I judge my judgment is just because I seek not my own will.
But the will of the Father, which has sent me, and then a little later on in Chapter 6.
38 I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And then I think that there's another one in chapter 8. Yes, verse 29.
He sent, he that sent me is with me, and the Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please Him. And it says in Romans that for even Christ pleased not himself. What a happy course, isn't it? You know, Brother Gordon Hale used to often remind us again of young people that there are two things that go together, obedience and happiness. And you cannot be happy if you're disobedient to the Word of God. It's not possible.
Your conscience will never let you rest.
I apologize to come back to verse one and two for a moment. I'd like to point out four interesting things.
In our German Bible, it's a little bit easier. In first one it says keep or make clear that people don't get sleepy, stir up. So that means there's a danger for us as a child of God to get sleepy, at least to fall in sleep. That's a dangerous situation for us. When you look into the Acts, there's a situation with a young boy sitting in a window and he did fall asleep.
And he did make a deep.
The second what is important is that it says remembrance. Why? Because we are so forgettable.
My wife can tell me something four weeks ago I can't remember. It's with spiritual things, no difference. We need remembrance because we are forgetting and by that reason that the Lord knows that we are forgetting. He started very, very early with the prophets.
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The first prophet who did talk about what we just read this chapter today was the 7th of Adam Eno. He was the first who did make clear there will come a church and there will be judgment very early. We should never forget why. The reason is very simple. Brother Bob Tony did already mention it in the beginning.
The day of the Lord Jesus is his public day of glory and honor in this world from which we had heard this afternoon. In this world, whatever this word means, it is in everything His public day of glory and honour. It's necessary that we get remembered, that we don't forget. This one who was rejected will come again.
And that's what the Apostle Peter has in front here. He has this wonderful person. We should never forget what happens and what will happen. And it comes at least.
To when it says.
Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days. What are last days?
We are in the last days.
The days started with the leaving the Lord this earth, and now we are in the last days.
People change the Lord never.
Could I go back just to make a practical comment on what Brother Bruce mentioned to us, and that is?
As young people getting an education, you may still end up having to take a course in which you find things taught that you find contrary to the word of God.
And of course, sometimes the attitude can be well.
If that's what you have to study, you shouldn't be taking that course. Get into something else. But it doesn't always happen that way.
I had Bruce's experience 60 years ago at the University of Toronto and I answered on my exam paper the same way he did.
And all the professor wrote after my answer was really question mark. But I still got a good grade in the course. He must have had some respect for what I said. Don't ask me why I expected to get a thorough trouncing for it, but it didn't happen that way. And so I just say as an encouragement to young people, if you find yourself in that spot, I don't believe you will ever lose.
By honoring the Lord and trusting Him for the result.
This world outside of us sometimes needs, as Brother Jurgen was mentioning, if we need to be stirred up not to fall asleep, so does this world. They that are asleep, they that sleep, sleep in the night. We read in Thessalonians. And sometimes a joke like that is what the Spirit of God can use to bring a soul into realization that as we've had, there are answers and there's a way out of this mess.
Because I don't care who you are, if you believe the theory of evolution, you have to turn the blind eye to so much evidence that makes the whole theory so absolutely ridiculous that if it ever had a lake to stand one, which it never did, it certainly doesn't today. And they're having to reinvent it to somehow make it work. But it doesn't work. And so I just say this, that trust the Lord, honor him.
And I don't believe you'll ever be the loser.
That is really.
The last days really began with the apostles, didn't it, in the apostles day. And it really speaks of a class of unbelievers that scoffed and it's really the beginning of apostasy. And So what we have really now is the spirit of apostasy growing in a like a snowball going down a mountain. It's the.
Momentum is becoming very.
Unreversible, you might say. And so we're living. Peter could say he lived in the last days and that these things would happen in the last days. Paul speaks of the last times and John speaks of the last hour. And so John's ministry takes us right to the last hour and we're in those days, brethren, if there's not going to be any recovery, it's we're not going to have another revival. And the truth was recovered, as already mentioned.
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Meetings and now the admonition, the directive, the energy of the Spirit of God is to energize us and to give us to have a responsible attitude and to hold that fast which we have and to strengthen the things that remain. And that's really what the apostle here was doing. He was reminding them so that they would not forget those principles that he had brought before them in spite of the apostasy already beginning.
I just wanted to make a comment in regards to what you were saying. Bill from evolution. And I I agree that evolution doesn't have a leg to stand on, but that isn't the only reason why it's ridiculous. The primary reason is because it's contrary to the word of God, and so there might come a time when scientists can present what looks like irrefutable proof that evolution is real.
I don't believe that they'll be able to, but let's say that they can do this.
Let's say that they are able to find some sort of fossil record that as of right now is not not there, and they're able to show what seems like irrefutable proof that this is real. Is it real? No. Why? Because God said otherwise. So even if something is does have seemingly a leg to stand on from outward appearance, if it goes contrary to the word of God, don't believe it, only believe what God has said.
I agree with that, Joe. I was just to make it clear. I was really referring to what your testimony and mine and the effect it might have on an unbeliever who perhaps somehow is trying to believe. And we don't need to get hung up on evolution. There are a lot of other things. But somehow I was trying to believe it and yet deep down inside realizes that the proof is utterly lacking from his point of view. But I heartily agree.
Whatever man may present to us, if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no life in them.
What he says about evolution, the.
First, being a brother once told me that when you're dealing with evolution, it's a theory. So if you actually find irrefutable proof that shows it's wrong, they simply look at you and say thank you, we'll adjust our theory to fix your facts. And so you can never actually ever win the point that we can just adapt to your facts now.
Turning to our chapter, one of the things that they use to support the fact that or not the fact, but they're they're stopping is that what we have in verse 4, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation and what is underneath that? That's exactly what they say. All things continue according to the same rules, according to the same principles.
It never changes, and what's underneath that is that unwillingness to acknowledge that.
Is outside and greater than his creation and he does do miracles and he does go against the rules of creation as science season. And so underneath that there is a choice to be ignorant and there's a choice to choose not to allow God to be God. So it's right here in this portion what is very common today in the whole debate, and that is God is not allowed.
According to mad thinking to change his rules or work outside of his rules.
So all things do not continue, do they? From the beginning of the creation, God judges sin, and that's what happened at the flood. The earth was filled with violence and corruption.
Bridging somewhere recently and, it was suggested, the main cause of death before the flood was murdered. There was no government.
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There is no capital punishment.
And so the earth was filled. Don't get in my face. You'll suffer if you do. And so they took things into their own hands. It came to the point when God intervened and God judged this world.
A universal judgment of this world system and on the 8 souls.
Were saved. They're ignorant of that. They deny that so how solemn to think that you don't get away from God and when God says the wages of sin is death. That's exactly what it is. That's what's going to happen. You sin willfully, the result will be death. You don't escape that no way.
Like Ben mentioned, the will is the major thing.
Bob brought it up.
Bill Gates recently said that DNA is a computer code.
He doesn't believe in God.
What else would you say? If it's a computer code, somebody wrote it. He doesn't believe in God. That's the win. Refusing clear evidence. Just refusing.
It says in Genesis chapter 6 verse 11 it says.
The Earth, I'm going to read it in a new translation, but it's the same. Essentially. In the King James, the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was full of violence. So God himself mentions corruption first. And so I think his brother Clarence London used to say that moral corruption is the harbinger of governmental overthrow.
I'll repeat that.
Moral corruption is the harbinger of governmental overthrow. So you have corruption first and it sets in and the moral corruption of the Western world, we look at it, we say it's thorough, but the the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. God is waiting and he will judge when the matter is complete. When it's thorough, the corruption is thorough. But what we are seeing now?
With the corruption that began perhaps in the 1950s, and with rock'n'roll and the drugs and all those things that went on in the hippie movement and so on, the moral corruption, what we're seeing now is the violence.
And moral corruption is a sin against God, but violence is a sin against man.
Man against man, yes, it's a sin against God, but it's a sin against man himself. And so we don't need to be surprised what God has said. The order is corruption first and then violence and it's not going to recover, but God by his grace will preserve us in this scene isn't wonderful to read these words and to recognize the grace of God, our responsibility, but he will preserve us and he mentions that the word of God by the word of God.
And it's not changing, is it?
We sink 200 and 42242.
I love to go.
See, without breathing and swallowing.
The water and my God will do.
It for me just worries favorable.
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Cancel and spread the word.
Below or you? Come on.
And I stand there.
The rest of the sun from the treasure.
Here without the eternity.
Plan. There will be none of my people.
All our falls shall not be bigger and.
For your dream, completely complete and wisdom.
Could we also sing the last two verses of #141?
141 verses 3:00 and 4:00.
And when the day of glory.
Shall burst upon this sea.
Every eye shall see.
I reinforced.
I wish I could continue.
Born in the brackets. Boring.
And I upon God.
I will be crazy.
Our hearts ceaseless, praise God.
Right, our gracious thoughts, loving Father, we.
Thank you so much for time we've been able to spend over thy word and consider these last days in which we are living.
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Moral darkness.
Here and deepening, and yet, our God, we thank Thee for the encouragement of Thy Word.
Give us to understand these things are not to be a surprise to us, or they're not a surprise to be without us. Have a path for us even in this Dark World, and we can sing as believers.
Knowing where our path will end and that glory that is ahead, Lord Jesus will now have thy place and will be with thee. And we pray to encourage our hearts.
As we wait that moment that our lives might be more suitable to the we just thank you so much for this time in the past before that continued blessing, giving you thanks and thy precious name, Lord Jesus, Amen, Amen.