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Should we continue on with Second Peter 3 then?
I would suggest perhaps beginning with verse 8.
Is that alright? Maybe verse 7?
Second, Peter 347 But the heaven and the earth, which are now by the same word, are kept in store, preserved into 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 of 1000 years and 1000 years, as one day the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness. But his long-suffering to us were not willing that any should perish, but at 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 fervent heat.
The earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seem that ye look for such things. Be diligent, that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot and blameless.
An account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you, as also in all his 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 other Scriptures, unto their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing you 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.
Well, these next verses remind us of that which we have to remember constantly in the things of God, and that is that God lives and moves in eternity. And if He has in that sense created time and He has created it, and if he has created this world and He has created it, then he has his purposes to be worked out, but he works them out in His time and in His way. And so we are used to thinking in terms of time, and we're used to thinking in terms of having things done in a certain way.
And man often judges God by those terms, doesn't he?
But here we find that.
1000 years is just one day. Well to me I'm 1000 years is a long time and I believe God in his wisdom saw to it that no man ever lived quite to those thousand years. Methuselah came pretty close and Bob was drawing attention to it this morning that.
In the days of the patriarchs, the lifespan was much longer than it is today.
But no man made it quite to 1000 years. He didn't even live in that sense. One day in God's sight.
And so God lives and moves in eternity, and everything that He has in his purposes is being done within that framework. And so we don't need to be afraid that somehow things aren't going to work out. On the other hand, it's a very, very serious thing for man whose thoughts and whose whole being is bounded by time to try and judge God who lives and moves in eternity. Yet that's what's happening, isn't it? Man who is a created being and who is bounded by time. He can't get beyond it.
His proposing to judge God, whose purposes are being lived out, and rather worked out, I should say, in eternity.
And so the Lord calls that to our attention, and then, as we get in the following verses, proceeds to show us reasons why there is a delay in the carrying out of that awful judgment, a delay that has only the good and blessing of man.
At heart rather than his destruction.
Sometimes we become impatient with God. We like God sometimes to work a little faster in our lives, maybe in connection with our families, our young people, sometimes in connection with loved ones we've been praying for that aren't saved. Sometimes in connection even with His coming. But I think it's good, as you say, to realize that God operates outside the realm of time. Thank God He has put us in time. We with physical limitations and so on. We can't yet. We're not in a sphere of things or a state of things where we can operate outside of time. We will be.
In the in that eternal day. But I think this helps us to have patience with God in that way. You know, this is a day of everything being instant and instant answers and remedies to everything. And I know some of those things are helpful and needful to survive in the business and work a day world in which we find ourselves. But brethren, you know, there's a as I say, an instant answer and remedy for everything, an 800 number, a Google site, a search engine, a self help book, all these kinds of things. But God doesn't always operate that way in our lives. And so.
00:05:24
Maybe there's someone here and you've been praying for the restoration of a loved one, someone who's gotten away from the Lord. You said, I just wish the Lord had come in and there'd be fruit and blessing. Maybe you pray to the salvation of a loved one. You say the Lord doesn't seem to come in, but in everything, whether it's his purposes in connection with this world, whether it's in connection with his full manifestation in the coming day and his church associated with him, or whether it's right down to the details of your life and mine. God has the timetable, and nothing frustrates the timetable of God. But remember, I say again.
He doesn't always work as quickly as we would like, and God is far more patient and gracious than we are. Well, in that matter, just consider the promise that was made to Abraham and how long it took for Abraham, Sir, to have a son. And if you, you know, want to talk about it in our human terms. But I couldn't help but think, brother, we just have a faint grasp of the vestments of this universe and we read the opening verses we need and turn to it. We all know it. In the beginning of John's gospel, in the beginning with the word and the word with God, nothing was made.
Now man has through the years progressed in their technical achievements through astronomy and so on, and they look at these distant galaxies and they try and predict the distances or describe the distances between this and that. What do they use to describe light years? Now what is a light year? A light year is the time at place we know on a circular measurements for light to travel using our measurements of time.
And distance. And that's the time it takes for light to travel in 1000 years. And so they said these stars are 50,000 light years apart.
That's just mind boggling to think of that in any terms of distance that we know. That's how great our God is as we read this book and he tells us everything He wants us to know. We can't do anything but just vow and acknowledge His greatness and His power. It is just vast, this universe, all the elements of the universe, by the way, you know, the astronomers can see, They can see by the frequencies of the color of the light.
What those elements are out there in the start of the, uh, same as they are here on Earth? That's his creation. Isn't that marvelous?
I just said too, that we may not see the development of everything or the fruition of everything in time either. It's really going to take eternity to see time in its proper perspective. Just another little practical example. I've often thought of Moses and his his parents. You know, Moses parents on mother only had him for a very short time. Then she had to send him off to the palace in Egypt to be schooled in all the learning and wisdom of the Egyptians. You realize it was 40 years before there was some fruit from her labor. It was 40 years before Moses came out and out for the Lord and took a stand for the people of God.
Was she alive to see it? Scripture doesn't tell us. And if she was, that was a long time as a mother.
To see some fruit of the seeds that she had sown when Moses was very young. And so again, I, I think we have to, we're going to have to wait until eternity to see many of the purposes of God that he had for us in our lives and even to see if purposes and fruition in connection with this world and so on. And the counsels of God in the full exaltation of his Son. We read about it by the Spirit of God. We have some understanding and enjoyment of it. But brethren, what is ahead is far, far more wonderful and glorious than we can ever anticipate now.
Well, just if you don't mind another observation.
We sow seeds the gospel, we tell somebody, others may water by giving the word or other events, but God gives the increase and He does it in his time. And so we can be faithful seed sowers, we can be faithful in walking in the light of the truth of the fruit of his work in our lives, but God gives the increase in his time.
The word of God, the glory to the return of the Son. We, we mentioned earlier on our brother mentioned about how the world have scoffer and how the world really do not want to accept the idea of this. And some of the reasons perhaps is this. If the world accepted the fact that there is a coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, that the world have to accept the fact that Jesus came into this world as a Savior. That Jesus was rejected from this world and that Jesus did suffer, did believe he did die of the cross and that this world would have to accept the fact that he rose from the dead.
00:10:09
And he conquered something that we as men is dreadful of, which is death. So here the word of God repeatedly tell us that and we find in this book we have in our hands there he repeatedly tell us the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Old Testament sings knew about that. There's a king to come. We talk about the Sun of Righteousness. We fine tune that in our hand with a New Testament. It's interesting to see too that we have 27 books in the New Testament. And I believe almost every book mentioned of the Lord's return, say five we find in the book of Ephesians, it did not talk about the Lord's return.
For the reason that we are viewed as heavenly citizens. We're there positionally. We find that in the book of Galatians. I believe it didn't mention that because they were in such bad states that they needed to understand the basic fundamental of the gospel truth, which should speak to our hearts too. And perhaps sometimes what we don't value the Lord's soon return. Is it because of our own state? Is it because we haven't fully comprehended what our Lord Jesus has done for us? Is it because that we need to learn more?
As the world would put it, let's get back to basic to understand that Jesus died and he suffered for our sins. And that's why I got a conference as such. We have the gospel meeting where we can preach Christ crucified. We find that in the book. I believe in the book of Philemon, he didn't mention it for the reason that that book was more written, uh, on behalf of a slave to his master. And I believe there's two more books in, in John's epistle where it was written personally.
For sure of that are the five books, 22 books in the New Testament, all repeatedly warning us, encouraging us, telling us the importance of the Lord's return. We have taken up the book of Thessalonians and their every chapter, Isn't it? Our brother reminded us of the Lord's return. How precious. And to think that, yes, we do know that we wait for his time, and we sometimes think that we wait for his time. So shall the night all ends in blissful days.
Here men do not understand because we don't want to understand. We only want to benefit, but we don't want the responsibility. So how precious here that is reminded, as our brother reminded us this morning, through the three worlds, the two that was before us.
I should say the one that was before wise, the one that we're in, in the world to come. And what beautiful picture as we had on the Mando Transfiguration as we're reminded this morning. There we saw the Lord showing himself in full power and glory, and we constantly reminded of that. There we see one who was translated, one who died. We saw Moses, he gone through the article of death. He was there with the Lord in glory. We saw one Elijah, who didn't, who didn't go through death.
What a picture that we will remind of this morning that we too are waiting for that blessed hope. Maybe we don't have to go through that. And then those that are around us watching what blessedness we have here, waiting as the world may mark. But we should rejoice.
Oh, it's a wonderful thing to think that God has allowed the day of grace to go on so long. And we don't want to be sticky about this. But if we look at the various ways in which God has dealt with man down through the ages, if we look at what might conventionally be called the dispensations, and there are different ways of looking at them, but I don't think anyone would argue that this day of God's grace, I believe, has already continued on longer than any other one.
Wonderful. You would think, humanly speaking, that God would have put men under testing longer than that. And I suppose if you group everything together in the Old Testament, that's true. But in each particular way in which God tested man.
The result is shorter than what we have already in the day of God's grace. What does that say? Oh, that just underscores, doesn't it, what we have here in verse nine that the Lord is long-suffering, not willing that any should perish. Well, what a serious thing then for men to take up that long-suffering and grace and use it as a handle to try and deny that God is going to judge the world. And to say in scoffing, well, everything is just continuing on the same way it always has been. We don't need to worry too much about judgment. God isn't really going to deal with things.
It's a little bit the spirit of what we get in the Psalm there where it says the fool has said in his heart there is no God, not particularly. And in every case denying the existence of God, although it can include that, but operating as if God wasn't going to take account of the situation.
Or bring man into judgment. But God is going to do it, but he's waiting and longing. And so we shouldn't be discouraged in giving out the gospel. Sometimes it is difficult and as we see it, turning away from God, especially in North America and Western Europe where there were.
00:15:10
Bright gospel testimonies and years gone by no, let's not be discouraged. Let's not give up because the Lord is continuing to work and if he's left us here, it's because there are still souls to be saved the time of judgment that's just ahead. The Lord himself said in Matthew 24, it is the most awful judgment that will ever fall on planet earth. And I think if we would realize how awful it is going to be during the great tribulation period, the plagues, the slaughter, the slaughter, the.
The terrorism, I mean, we had some terrorism here in the United States, but, uh, what's gonna happen in the great Tribulation period? I, I, I try to think of it sometimes. I, I wonder if the United States is gonna be one of the worst places to have to live after the rapture. I, I really believe it is because the people here in the United States are pretty well armed. And you can imagine when there's no more food supply entering the big cities, what's gonna happen? It's gonna be off just awful. And no wonder God is waiting for people to come to repentance. He knows how awful it's gonna be.
There's somebody in this room that has not accepted the Lord as their Savior. We ask you right now, think seriously about it. There's still time. God is waiting in patience for your souls to come to repentance.
So it's a serious thing. On the one hand, it's encouraging to realize what Bill said, that God is lingering and waiting, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But it's a solemn thing too, to realize that he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. There is an appointed time, and nothing is going to frustrate God's timetable. Sometimes our timetable gets frustrated, sometimes our timetable gets turned around and delayed. But God has a perfect timetable and nothing will frustrate it. And so in the days of Noah, he said, My Spirit shall not always strive with men.
God waited and Noah preached righteousness while the ark was being prepared, I suppose for about 120 years and you know he only had eight, He only had seven converts, seeing little fruitless, didn't it? 120 years preaching and he only had 7 converts and they were all his own household. But he was a man of faith. He prepared an art to the saving of his house. And God tells us what he thinks of Noah. By the world's estimation, that wasn't a very good track record for a preacher. But God, God tells us what he thinks of Noah and gives us his estimation. And that's just a little aside, but I think it's a very serious thing to realize. Yes, God is waited, but when iniquity comes to its full, and that's one re another reason he hasn't come yet.
For the Lord hasn't come yet iniquity. God doesn't judge till iniquity comes to its full. We say, can it be that iniquity hasn't come to its full? It will it, it's going to wax worse and worse, but when it comes to its full, God is going to come in in judgment. I do want to notice one little word before we pass on in this ninth verse. Sometimes we quote this verse like this. Now this. Listen carefully. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but his long-suffering not willing that any should perish.
That's usually the way we quoted in the gospel, and certainly that's right.
But there's another little word here that has been a tremendous encouragement to me. You know, I grew up in a home where, uh, for four or five generations there's been predominantly believers in the family and so on. And I wasn't used to close relatives and in laws and so on that weren't the Lords. But I married a girl who didn't come from a Christian background. She's praying for her father to be saved. You know, God is not only long-suffering to her father, he's long-suffering to my wife.
And maybe there's someone here and you're praying for a loved one, someone, a family member, someone at work that you're close to, maybe a neighbor that you'd like to see saved before the Lord comes. God is long-suffering to that person, but he's long-suffering to us. Word. He hasn't come because he knows you're praying for that person. He knows my wife is praying for her Father. He knows you're praying for a loved one. And so he hasn't come yet. And I think that's a great encouragement for us to keep on praying for those ones to keep on living Christ and being what testimony we have opportunity to be to those ones.
Rather than he's long-suffering to us, word to those of us who are praying and working with loved ones, not willing that those loved ones should perish, that ought to encourage us to press on.
We know too, that the Lord, there's the both sides of it, isn't it? The Gray side that he weighs, and that the other side we're reminded from the story of Lot. There the Lord waited as if it were impatient. He waited given the more chances. Even when the angels came to a Lot's store, he gave them another chance to go talk to his son, his daughters and son, sons-in-law. Law. But then it comes that time.
When judgment has to come, if you picture a lot, lot wasn't ready to go. Just like many of us in this world, there are enough attachment and attraction we have that we're not set to go. But what did the Lord do to a lot? The angels grab a hold of his hands, his wife's hand as you read, and his daughter's hand. And I can picture this as if they were just taken out, ****** out of that scene because the judgment we're about to be pronounced in that world.
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So Redmond, we think about ourselves here as they him. We sometimes think, have I an object, Lord below? And then I believe that him right will go on and say, is there a hope, however dear, that would defer thy coming? Lord? I don't think our hearts and thoughts can defer it truly. But in our own hearts. Are there things that in our hearts we say, Lord, Please wait. We know that it is long-suffering, isn't it? What is our heart? And I believe what was mentioned earlier on that the way our hearts is.
Our action would translate to that.
And I'd like to point out something that's always spoken to my heart at the end of this verse 9 says.
God is not willing that any should perish. That is, He doesn't determine, He doesn't will that any should perish. That's John 316, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. So the way is open to whosoever will, he does not determine beforehand.
The hell was not made for man, it was made for the devil and his angels. But for those who refuse that wonderful author of God, His desire that they should believe and be delivered from judgment, where else can I go but to that place of perdition? So I just like to point out that that word God is not willing that any should perish, because if God will something, it will occur. He has absolute power. Oh hey, we were made all mankind in his image and likeness.
So that we might spend all eternity with them if we have that question of sin. So when his lobby tells us in this book completely about it and how it can be taken care of and how he can be righteous and forgiving us and so on, that whosoever.
Believeth is him should not perk not willing that any should perish. I just think that's an important point to make that he doesn't determine any man, no matter what they consider us raised in the ghetto and I didn't have this or that or my current for that. Every person will stand before God and he knows exactly what they were raised with and their difficulty, but I come back to a simple thing. The heavens, the Chlor Claire is anywhere all men are responsible to come to him.
And he has a way of salvation for them. And when we present the gospel, that's what we've got to point out. God doesn't determine you're gonna go to hell. That's a lie of Satan. Somebody will say, well, I'm this way and God let me grow up that way. No way. If you turn to God, he cast you not out, you can come to him. So if there's somebody here who said I had committed too many sins, I'm a hopeless case. You are not. God is not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance and be safe.
He's made salvation so accessible to all that nobody can say they didn't have a chance.
He's not willing. I'd like to present another thought too, in connection with the long-suffering of God. Umm, it's umm, his patience and not judging, uh, because he's doesn't wish to judge, uh. Another thought that I've enjoyed is in connection with the parable in Matthew 25 of the pounds.
Where the uh The uh.
Uh, trapped men that traveling into far countries, dispenses the pounds and then charges each of the servants to occupy while he's away. It's a picture of the Lord going into heaven and giving his servants, those of us here on earth, something to do for him. And that uses that word after a long time. I find that very interesting. Usually we think the Lord speaks of His return.
And, and as a short time, umm, but that's one place he says after a long time. And it's beautiful to think in connection with our verse, the long-suffering of God not willing that any should perish. Not only in the sense that he doesn't want the unbeliever to perish in his sins, but he also gives us as believers a long time to serve him, a long time for the gospel to go out to occupy with what he's given us. Uh, granted, some people get saved late in life and don't have a long time, but.
God has waited a long time and so I like to think of it in that way and I found that challenging to us too our.
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It isn't we just sit back on our chairs and say God's long-suffering. But brethren, we have. He gives us a long time to serve Him. If He does so, then let's get busy. Let's be at it. There's a reason for us to be left here, and it's with this in view.
Hmm, because wanna just point out that Mister Darby's translation in French, he uses this word in verse five. He says for this, uh, they willingly ignore it's a, they ignore the word of God. And then he says here in verse 8, but beloved.
Umm, don't ignore this one thing. Don't ignore it that one day is what the Lord is 1000 years and 1000 years is one day. And I believe it just gives us the sense in our souls, uh, the encouragement that, uh, he's gone for two days. Perhaps that you, you might put it a long two days, he's gone, but, uh, he's left us here, uh, for those two days. And we're to have a sense of the brevity of time because he says in verse nine, and I'll just, uh, I like this the way it's put in the French Derby translation, He says, the Lord is not going to be late concerning his promise.
He's not going to be late. He's going to be right on time. And yet while he's still on time, he still gives us a sense that he's going to be on time. We can count upon his word. Men may scoff at his timing, may scoff at his word, but he says he's going to be on time and he is long-suffering. He's patient, not willing that long-suffering to us. We're not willing that any should perish at all, should come to repentance. And so it's the patience of God that has a limit. It's not infinite.
Patients, there is a limit. See a beautiful picture of AI believe that in the life of Mordecai in the book of Esther, how the timetable that God uses there and the salvation of that people of the Jews and their destruction that was so imminent. Beautiful to see that God gave a little picture of what's to happen in the future. I believe, Hmm, let's just read a verse to a couple of verses in Jose in this regard as well. And Hosea chapter 6, because I think this verse in connection with a day with the Lord is 1000 years and 1000 years is one day. It's perhaps a nice little key to us understanding certain prophetic scriptures. Now, brethren, let me make it very clear.
And preface my remarks by saying that we never want to set a date in connection with the Lord's coming. As we have stressed already in these readings, there has never been anything to hinder the Lord Jesus coming for his Saints at any moment. From the apostle Paul right down, the brethren have been encouraged to be looking for the Lord Jesus to come every day. Often told about a young man who had that little motto hanging on his bathroom mirror. Perhaps today he wanted to be reminded every morning when he got up and looked in the mirror that this might be the day of the Lord's return. And that's a good attitude. But.
Let's notice, uh, some verses in Hosea chapter 6 and verse one. Come and let us return unto the Lord, for He hath torn, and he will heal us. He has smitten, and he will bind us up. After 2 days will He revive us. In the third day we will write, He will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. Then shall we follow. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord, And so on. But all this looks on to a future day, a blessing for Israel, when they are raised up and revived and live in His sight.
It will take the tribulation to bring them to the end of themselves before He can reveal himself to them. That's what it's going to take. They've been through some circumstances in recent time, but it's going to take that to bring them to the end of themselves. But it says after two days and the third day, perhaps it corresponds to the prophetic character of the marriage of Canaan of Galilee, where the third day there was a marriage in Canaan of Galilee and the water turned to wine. It prophetically typifies the millennial blessing of Israel in a coming day.
When they enjoy the presence of the Lord Jesus amongst them and they recognize who he is and the water is turned to wine. But I was thinking here particularly of how he enumerates this two days after two days, doesn't say specifically in two days, but after two days and the third day, they will live in his sight. Now I would just say this, brethren, that we sometimes say the period of grace, the dispensation of the grace of God, or however we want to word it that Bill was Speaking of at the beginning of the meeting. We often say it's about 2000 years.
And I believe that's an accurate statement. It's about 2000 years. But what's been interesting to me is to notice when it talks about two days and so on, there's always a little variable thrown in lest we set a date. In fact, I believe that God has allowed our the the date of our calendar to be a little bit clouded. And there's some controversy about when it act what the actual date is. I believe God has allowed that lest we set an actual date. But let me just give you an example when the Samaritan was brought to the end.
00:30:01
The man brought that brought him there. When the man was brought to the end, the, uh, Samaritan took out 2 Pence and he said to the innkeeper to take care of him. And here's the payment. Now we know that a penny a day was about a day's wages in those days, again bringing in the two days. But then he says, and I love this, and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. In other words, he says, if I don't get back right when I think I will, and there's a little bit of extra I owe you, I'll repay you.
In other words, a little hint that perhaps things will be extended and as Doug said, some more work for us to do, some more souls to be brought in the long-suffering of God and, uh, allowing the gospel to go forth. But he says if there's any delay, if I don't get back as soon as I, I, I intended, I'll repay you. So I, I just say, when you read about the two days and the two pence and those little hints in Scripture, there's always a variable thrown in. And brethren, aren't we thankful for that? Aren't we thankful for the long-suffering of God? We get maybe a little impatient for the Lord to come.
And we'd like to see things write it in this world too. And the Lord Jesus come back and have his rightful place. But let's enter into the patience of the Christ. Let's realize what God is doing. How long has the Lord Jesus been waiting for things to be set right? How long has the Lord Jesus been waiting to have his people? And so on? He's been waiting 2000 years plus. He's waiting patiently. And He wants our hearts to be LED into that patient understanding and appreciating his long-suffering and grace.
Well, if we go on to the next, I'm sorry brother, you had to come up. Well, I just wanted to share something.
We had Albert Hayhoe come to our home where we had the meeting in New Jersey some years ago and he shared with us some thoughts and hearing the tools mentioned and so on. He pointed out that based on Usher's studies, USHER, it was approximately 4000 years from Adam until the birth of Christ. And we were then, this was about 2025, thirty years ago. Oh, more than that now as I think about it, Uh.
Approaching 2000 years after Christ and God's perfect number was seven and the go, the book of the Bible was very plain that there would be 1000 years of the Millennium. So he was just pointing out that the approach of Millennium would have to be close. And he gave him a number of remarkable examples in the Scriptures of the number 7 and the UH-5 and the two and so on. And I just, uh, thought I'd share that with you because I have a tape of it. It was, it's a terrible type. You couldn't hardly understand it, but I still have it.
Of that lovely address that he gave us and I'll just point out and, and, and that was really what our brother, uh, Jim just said about there's always a little space in there. So we are now in the year 2000, right? So, uh, we've had 2000 years since Christ. We had 4000 years before. So that's six. And if there's gotta be 1000 more for the Millennium.
We're right around the edge of that with some variation here.
No, it doesn't have an interesting thing to consider.
Differently than the way the outcome time, even we as men, we count time differently. And perhaps I'll use this illustration before I go on. I remember mentioning how part of a day is a day in the Jewish system. And being Chinese, we do the same too. In fact, we used to look at a baby's age of a baby was born the day before the new year, the day after the new year. You would say this child is 2 years old because he was born last year and now this is this year. So we have to understand that. And remember talking to brother Bob Bauman one time, he said, oh, we do this. He said when people go, go serve those weekend sentences.
He said, well, what they'll do is they'll go in Saturday evening at 10:50, just before 12:00, then they can say, well, they were there for Saturday. They serve Sunday, part of Sunday while there is the weekend. They leave the next morning. He said, we do that in the system and we'll find a word of God often. Look at it that way. Part of a day is a day. Uh, so it's really difficult to count day as the way we like to see the exactness of numbers. And in the case where, uh, in Hosea, when, when, uh, Jim quoted after two days, you'll find that interesting because in, in, in relation to what you said, we'll find it in Lazarus when the lower team, the Lazarus, he said, he said to him, he's been dead 4 days already. He's thinketh by now. You remember that passage?
Well, I believe the four days is a picture of the 4000 years. There's men's history that God put men on this earth tested man for 4000 years. What's the result of that? Please think it by now, that's the result of man. Well then the 2000 years, what is this 2 days? Well we'll find Israel of old have lost the nation at 606 BC. Well depending on which captivity you look at, the first captivity was 606 BC, the 3rd and the last great captivity was 587 BC.
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Israel ceased to be a nation until 1947. Am I correct? 48 In fact, a few days ago, last week, they celebrated the 90th birthday. So we find for them 60th. I'm sorry. Thank you.
That's why you have become part of the date.
And and we find that for them, this is a little over 2000 years. The Lord said to them up to date after two days, I shall revive you. We'll see that the nation in a sense is almost revived, but they're waiting for that for that third day when they would truly be restored in the Lord's sight. And then we find it in the word of God of what we have here. When it comes to, I believe under the great time of grace, time is very difficult to measure. As we already mentioned, it's a long-suffering. But then when it comes to judgment, we'll find that God's time is different. We won't have time to go into it. But if you were to look in the book of Daniel, you'll find the time is very precise is no longer actually, we can look at it very briefly.
And with a very little explanation, and perhaps it's something that we can encourage you to study on it. I know many know it well. Daniel Chapter 9, we find that in the 9th chapter of Daniel, Daniel knew.
From God verse 2470, weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city. It's not 69. It's not 75. It's not. Maybe we'll stretch it to 92.
Is precisely 70 weeks. And we find that Daniel in another place mentioned that he learned that. I think it's in the 9th chapter, how we learned that from the books of Jeremiah. There were 70 weeks to be determined on them. They didn't wreck the land for 490 years. There is the 70. We find this various reasons why the law determined the 70 weeks. And brother Bob gave a talk on that already how the 69 weeks has been fulfilled to the latter. In fact, it's interesting to see that the first seven weeks, if you have time to go through it, uh, carefully and count the number of dates to it. By the way, scriptures here, you have to count 30 days.
See, here's another thing our wisdom tells us, wait a minute, we're very scientific. It's 31 days and 30 days. It's 365 days a year. The word of God in prophecy, prophecy doesn't look at it that way. In fact, some of us think we're wiser. We might even go and say it's 365 and a four a day in so many seconds. But the Word of God referred to 360 as a year. These precisions in this, because we're talking about judgment. If you count the number of dates by using the 30 days, you'll find that.
The end of the seven years gone or the end of the 49 years, The seven weeks would take you right to the end of Malachi. Isn't that interesting? And at the end of the 69 years, as our brother mentioned, it takes you right to the time where our Lord Jesus enter into Jerusalem as that perfect Lamb of God. In fact, if you want the precision, it's on the 10th day of that month, because we know that the Passover lamb is to be chosen on the 10th day of the month and to be kept between the evening until the 14th day. And we find that the Lord our Lord Jesus.
Was sacrificed between the evenings on the 14 day precision there.
And you'll find the rest of the chapter talk about the last, the the time and chocolate, less time and so on. We talk about the last week of Daniel. You wanna see more precision in Word of God, We'll find that. The first half of the year we talked about how, oh, I should say the beginning of that was that when that man, that man of sin made a covenant, he challenged us on that. In the middle of the week, we find numbers become very important. Again, if you were to turn to the 12 Chapter of Danielle, just so you can see that in verse seven, it talked about it shall be halfway through that it shall be for time, times and a half, so 3 1/2 Times.
For 3 1/2 years and you go down to verse 11 and perhaps young people can pick this up better than we can and from the times of the daily sacrifice shall be taken away. We know that halfway through the the tribulation sacrifices will be taken away and the abomination that make a desolate set up there shall be 1290 days is that precision the word of God put those numbers in 1290 days.
Wait a minute, we said the second-half for 3 1/2 years. Some of you are doing your mathematics in your head. 30 days, 2 1/2 years should be 12160 days. So we see that it's longer and the Word of God already prolonged some of that. At the end of the 12190 days, that's when the Lord would appear. Oh brethren, when his judgment, God does not wade, but the time of grace is different. And that was set up in a sense, to the stage of the next verse, what we can now understand when the Lord's gonna come.
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The first time he came into this world, he was despised and rejected, and even till now men still want no part of God or of our blessed Savior. Now we're talking about that time when he's gonna come, that the day of the Lord will come at the 12190 days after the middle of that week. No ifs, no buts, no lateness. He will come. In fact, at the end of the last meeting, I'll say this now stop, someone said to me. Here's a quiz for you.
I don't know about you when someone say that I freeze when they say that the quiz, the question was when does the day of the Lord begins? And I hope I passed the test with that brother. And I'll leave that que as an open question back to you, because I think if I leave it as a question, we'll learn it a little bit better.
I hope I'm not alone in this because it's slightly different, but I think it may be of interest to the brethren. How many years will the goose in Babylon 70 was it not? So we know seven in multiples of seven are got kind of testing. This is something in our current era and I don't think people, Christians have thought about how long was the Soviet Union, atheistic country who said that they were, there was no God, they were gonna change, uh, train their children. And so how long were they in power, believe it or not?
70 years almost like travel and it was over at the Iron Curtain fill and I just think that's just a little bit of interest because of our interest in the word 70. So you know you might want to think about that. Not that it's scriptural, but I think it's a very important thing that's great atheistic monolith that went on for years started in the 19 teens ended 70 years later. I I'd like to make a confession on.
I think that was the one that makes make mention of that question. I was delighted to hear brother Bob mentioned that the, the day of the Lord begins at the end of the tribulation because many Christians, uh, think that the Book of Revelation is the day of the Lord. It is the tribulation, it's man's day. And Bob made it very clear that the, uh, the, uh, the day of the Lord begins when the Lord takes it in his power to bring things into all into subjection unto himself. But I was thinking just to comment on this word, repentance here.
We've been talking about the tribulation, talking about the day of the Lord and their fierce things. And he said, well, there's nothing like it. Well, there's something worse than the day of the Lord and that is eternal health. Now the word of God brings in here repentance. I guess we, we could jump past the tribulation, past the awful, uh, day of the Lord to realize that there is a judgment that lasts for eternity. And I was listening to some preachers different times preach and I've heard a preacher preach all, all the whole sermon and, and on sinners, but never mentioned.
That man is a lost center. I've always made it a practice since I've been exposed to that, that if I'm talking to someone about Aerocenter, we could use the word lost, alienated from God. And I, I, I believe that's the, the thought here that we, we in this company today where all of US1 heartbeat away from eternity. And I, I can't think of anything worse than going out of this life into a crisis eternity, whether it's eternal darkness.
The worm dies not the far is not quenched. Now, if you want to see something of the awfulness of the eternal hell that awaits those who go out of this life without salvation, look in the book of Matthew. I mean, I, I went through it one time and you'd be surprised how much the Lord Jesus speaks of that eternal hell. And that's the sad thing to think. There could be somebody in our company right in this room that is one heartbeat away from something worse than the great tribulation, worse than than the day of the Lord is coming on the world as an eternal hell. And it says repentance.
I think that kind of it brings us a little bit of past the tribulation, the day of the Lord to realize that it's incumbent upon us to repent and I'm not gonna be like that. A preacher one time said, and he sent all these people home and said you go home and think about it. Well, I don't think we should do that. I think repentance comes right now at the time when you have what repentance mean, brother, what does repentance mean? Well, basically I can see the change of the mind, but a change of the mind is certainly it results in the change of conduct. Would you say that?
Definitely it's important, isn't it repentance, Uh, what saves is faith in Christ. But the Lord Jesus said very clearly in Luke's gospel, except ye likewise repent, ye shall all likewise perish. So repentance is very important. It simply means repent in Spanish Pennsylvania pensaris to think. It means to change your thinking. You think you can just believe in the Lord Jesus and continue on in your sinful lifestyle.
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You need to change your thinking. You need to repent. Yeah, it doesn't work. Without repentance, there is no salvation. And there's too much of this gospel. Just accept Jesus and not addressing the issues of sin and the importance of repentance. And I just wanna say this, I think, remember Gordon Hayhoe made quite a point of it that those of us who have been raised in Christian homes need to.
Know what it means to repent. I must say for myself, brethren, I was raised in a Christian home, brought up in assembly meetings, and I remember looking back that I thought, well, I'm just not quite as bad as the rest of the people out there. I just never gotten off into all that messy stuff out in the world.
And thank God I was protected, but I had to repent to realize I was just as lost as anybody else. Naturally speaking, change your thinking. Think God's thoughts serious. Sin is serious with God. God took it serious. He gave his only Son to, uh, resolve that question. And so he's not going to play around with sin. If you think sin is something you can play around with and get away with it and believe in the Lord.
I say you need to repent. You need to change your thinking.
So it's repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And when we present the gospel to the lost, we need to present both, don't we? There has to be that change. Man has said his will against God, and man's thoughts toward God are not right. They're wrong. They're usually opposite to what they ought to be. And so there needs to be that repentance. But then there's faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And both are important. But as we go on with these verses and we embark on the fact that the day of the Lord will come and judgment will be brought in.
In God's According to God's timetable, I'd like to make a comment or two in connection with judgment from God's perspective. First of all, it's important to realize that God never judges without doing two things. He always gives a warning, and He always makes a way of escape. There will be nobody in a lost eternity or anybody left behind for the judgment of God who will be able to blame God, who will be able to say they didn't have opportunity. In every age of the history of man on the earth, God has given some kind of testimony.
And we see this over and over again in the Old Testament. We spoke of the flood, but before the flood came on this world.
NOAA preached righteousness for those years while the ark was preparing. The very fact that He built an ark was a testimony in itself to the world that judgment was coming. God didn't judge without giving a warning, and there was a way of escape, albeit only eight souls went into the ark. There was a way of escape for those who would avail themselves of God's refuge at that time. When God looked down at the sin of guilty Nineveh, he pronounced judgment and He said that Nineveh was going to be overthrown. But He sent Jonah to give a warning. And I know Jonah had some experiences, but he eventually went with that warning and the whole city got saved.
The judgment did fall, though a generation was spared. But about 120 or some years later, you read the book of Naam, the judgment did fall. When God pronounces judgment, He's not fooling around. But I say again, it's a principle with God that He never judges without giving a warning or without making a way of escape. I might just say this too, in connection with repentance. Those who are left behind, who've had opportunity to be saved, when the Lord comes, there will be no repentance. The goodness of God is working in man's heart now to bring them to repentance if they refuse that.
They will have remorse. They'll cry for the rocks in the mountains to fall on them and hide them from the wrath of the Lamb.
The face of him that sitteth on the throne in the in the lost eternity in hell, there will be remorse, weeping and gnashing of teeth and wailing and so on, but you don't read of them repenting. It's the difference between a child being truly sorry he did what he did and being sorry he got caught. There's a child that's just sorry he got caught isn't really repentant. And so I, I just say that in passing, but I would like to just say this about judgment as well, that it is God's strange work. He does not delight in judgment.
He must judge because of His holy character, but it is His strange work. And it's very significant to note that when God judges, He always delays the judgment as long as possible, and then He gets it over as quickly as He can. I've been impressed in reading Revelation and seeing that even before the most awful judgments fall, there's that hush in heaven for the space of half an hour. And I know there's other thoughts, but one thing to my own soul is just as if He puts it off as long as possible.
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But then he gets it over with as quickly as he can. You know, the living beast God's got that represent God's governmental ways in the earth. Their swiftness connected with them. They fly and they're they're swift in their character. God gets it over. The other thing is in judgment, God never allows one ounce more of judgment to fall than it's absolutely necessary to accomplish his ultimate purpose of blessing. And in judgment, that is what he desires in the end, you know, the blessings of this world.
Are going to come out of the JA as a result of the judgment of God. You know, before the judgments fall in revelation. There's a an rainbow around the throne. It's like unto an emerald. It's gone the Lord looking on beyond the judgment looking on to the ultimate blessing of this earth. So I think these characteristics of God acting in judgment are very helpful and overall again, they show us his long patience, his long-suffering is patient and his desire for blessing after such a terrible crime as the way they treated God's son.
He's waited, like Bill said, longer than any time.
God would have been just to wipe the globe clean of every human being. But God is love and God is patient. And it's been close to 2000 years since his son was crucified and he continues to wait because of his patience. But then it'll be seven years and he'll wrap the whole thing up. It's, it's awful to think at that time that's coming. It is awful, especially the last 3 1/2 years that are called.
Great tribulation, unequaled judgment in that day.
And that's just ahead for the person who does not accept the Lord Jesus as his Savior.
So as we've mentioned here, the day of the Lord, it was mentioned in the Old Testament, wasn't it mentioned many times in the Word of God. And just so we understand it correctly, the day of the Lord, I agree with what's been said. It begins when the Lord appears. The great tribulation, strictly speaking, is not the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord is when Christ appears in this world again in order to execute judgment and as we've had brought out.
God doesn't spend a long time over judgment.
However, it's important to recognize that the day of the Lord begins when Christ appears at the end of the Tribulation. It includes all the judgments preparatory to setting up the Millennium. It includes the whole of the millennial day. And it includes the judgments at the end of the Millennium that usher in the eternal state. So that it includes that judgment that God will bring down through Christ on those who rise up in rebellion against the Lord Jesus at the end of the Tribulation, when Satan is loosed for a little season.
It also includes the great White Throne judgment. Why is that? Because God, as it says in another place, commits all judgment unto the Son. And so the day of the Lord is a phrase that is used to describe not only in that sense, the carrying out of what we might call.
I suppose a sessional judgment, that is where we could say a courtroom atmosphere prevails. It includes the judgments that will occur during the Millennium when there is deliberate and willful opposition and rebellion against the Lord. Then we know that God every morning will judge the wicked of the land. And we have more than one Scripture that tells us that. But on the other hand, there's a positive side to it. Why? Because God is going to vindicate his beloved Son in the world that cast him out.
This world has dragged God's glory in the dust his brother Dave was mentioning and it's a good analogy. Man dishonored God for 4000 years.
So that the awful smell of that evil heart of man rose up to God and then he topped it off, if we could say it reverently, by crucifying the Son of God. Now the Lord says, I am going to put my beloved son in that position of lordship. I'm going to vindicate my holy character in the very world that cast out my beloved son. And he is going to reign as Lord until he's put down all rule and all power and all authority. That's First Corinthians 15. And so that's why.
As it says here, the heavens shall melt with a great noise, and the earth shall pass away with a great noise.
And the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also, in the works that are therein, shall be burned up. That doesn't take place until the end of the Millennium. But it's all part of God dealing with that whole first creation in order to bring in new creation that nothing can spoil. And so it's important to see that the day of the Lord will be an awful time. And well might we shrink back from seeing the awfulness of it. But on the other hand, it speaks in Second Timothy, four of those that love his appearing. Why? Because our blessed Savior.
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Will for the first time.
In this world have the place that belongs to Him, and have the honor and the glory.
And that is wonderful for us. The last time the world saw him was hanging dead on a cross. Thank you. The next time they see him is when heaven opens and he rides out on a White Horse to conquer and to reign supreme. And the word Lord simply means the one who has the authority and he has it. And in I think that's why you see in the Book of Revelation before the judgments begin.
You have chapters four and five in which both those chapters have a throne mentioned and it mentions the throne before it mentions the one that sits on that. Why is that? It's because it is establishing the grounds upon which God will impose judgment on this world. In chapter four, He imposes it because He is creator and in chapter 5.
It is redemption, the grounds upon which he will take the reins of power in this world. Every earthly authority is going to be replaced. I don't think we realize. We think we're in an election year today and this year. We are so used to that way of thinking and that I don't think we realize we're getting close to a major change in the government of this world. Major changes are just that.
Just one more comment too, in that same connection, and that is that the Millennium.
This is again reaching into the past. But Brother Harry used to say even the Millennium is not perfection. It is only God's front porch to the eternal state. I love that expression. Why? Because the Millennium, as we've often been reminded, it says in another place, righteousness reigns. He must reign, it says in First Corinthians 15. But what does it say here in verse 13?
A new heavens and a new earth wherein?
Dwell righteousness. And so when it says in verse 12, looking for, and perhaps more accurately, not hasting unto the coming of the day of God, but simply looking for and hasting the day of God or the coming of the day of God.
And not wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and so on. We don't find that happening in the eternal state. It should read there by reason of which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved. That is the judgment in the final essence of burning up this first heavens and 1St earth is part of the judgment that God will bring down on the old creation when He's finished with it, when it's accomplished His purposes.
He'll get rid of it, and so then he'll usher in a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. And that ties in with what we've had brought before us because Brother Dave was bringing out. God has a finite, clear, definite time frame for judgment. It's finite, but the grace, the love of God goes on for all eternity. This quotation is an original with me, but I've added a bit to it.
The Millennium is necessary for the public vindication of God's holy character.
But the eternal state will be for the everlasting satisfaction of God's heart. And so God will vindicate himself in this world, the same world that rejected His Son. Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. Man says we will not have this Mandarin over us. God, and we say it reverently, says, yes, you talk like that, I'll show you. And the Lord Jesus is going to reign and cripple this world, bring it to its knees, and then God's going to bring in blessing that the world has never seen since the Garden of Eden.
But even that isn't God's final story. He's going to burn this world up and says now, now that that's all through, I'm going to usher in an eternal state, new heavens and a newer, and you'll never be able to spoil it all on the basis of the finished work of Christ.
If we address the problem of the judgment that we face the judgment seat of Christ now, we think that Him, Death and judgment are behind us. Grace and glory are before us. All the villains rolled on Jesus. There they spent their utmost power.
We're talking about early on in the meeting that, uh, the judgment must first begin at the House of God and the first, first begin at us and so forth. And we know that the Lord disciplines every son whom he receiveth. Not only that, but he scourges them. So, but we are Speaking of judgment, perhaps just a word on, we still as Christians face the judgment seat of Christ. Is that correct? Well, it would be a big digression, but I think one scripture, I think clears it up. Uh, and.
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2nd Corinthians 5 perhaps?
By the way, if you want a bigger digression on it, read The Christian for this month.
2nd Corinthians 5 and verse 10 It says, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that He hath done, whether it be good or bad. Now here it is. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest unto God, and I trust also are made manifest.
In your consciences.
Yes, there is the judgment seat of Christ and God looks at it in this chapter or the apostle looks at it in its broad character. All must come into judgment before God and for the unbeliever. Oh, the terror of the Lord is Bob was bringing out. How can we think of it or describe it? To have to stand before God with the nakedness that's referred to earlier in this chapter in verse three. Being found naked before God is, I believe, a term that is used of the unbeliever.
Who has nothing to cover his sin in the sight of a holy God. What an awful judgment he faces. That's the terror of the Lord. What about the believer? He stands before God, so what's the difference? Oh, it says we are made manifest unto God, the judgments behind us. As far as condemnation, the judgment seat of Christ is the thought of manifestation. And the old analogy I don't think can be improved upon. That is of a judge who evaluates something we'll say at a fair.
A science fair? A competition of some kind?
He's not judging the people, he's judging the work. And so it's our works that are going to be brought in there. And as we've often had referred, what a wonderful thing it will be to have everything cleared up before the Lord. What a wonderful thing it will be for the first time to realize how much he bore for us on Calvary's cross, the debt that was paid on our behalf. I don't, I don't realize it now, but I will in the coming day. And what a wonderful thing that He will reward the little bits of things that I have done for him down here.
I don't believe there will be any Christian there that doesn't have something that can be rewarded. And so I believe in that sense the two are tied together here.
The terror of the Lord for the unbeliever, but for the believer, it's not himself that is being judged. That's all over with at the cross, but simply his life is going to be passed in review. If we could use that sense. Is that, is that correct way of looking at it? Wonderful thing that the same person that Boris sends on the cross is gonna be on the throne at the judgment seat dealing with us there. And we, we know it's gonna be well for us then, don't we? Uh, just simply because of that, I would like to go back and, uh, in connection with, uh, we've had a lot about times and years and dates and, uh, and the judgments of God.
And, umm, something that's been helpful to me recently in thinking of this God's timetable, we, we believe as this verse says, the day of the Lord will come. Now that obviously is 1000 years, but it's also gonna begin with one day. And I believe, as the brethren have correctly said, God has already that has that Tim timetable and that day is determined and it can be counted by events, uh, in this world.
God gave us a key to some of this in the seven pieces of Jehovah of his timetable too. It began with the Saturday and an inmate with the Saturday representing the 7000 years that we've spoken about. It's all there in the Old Testament. Just recently I noticed something new that God uses two different beginnings in those accounting of those seven feasts. I don't wanna digress long, but I'm going to glean from what I've enjoyed and I think it applies to us here.
As to the Earth.
God has his times and seasons and it it begins with when God began dealing with Israel and so on. And throughout the months of the calendar, the lunar calendar year that they observed those seven feasts. You remember where, where, what began the counting of that calendar was there being taken out of Egypt. This month shall begin to you the beginning of months. That was God's beginning of God's counting of time with Israel.
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But it's very interesting that the second and third fees do not follow that lunar calendar. There's a key to the, uh, there's something of interest for us brethren in this. That is, the Feast of the Wave Sheaf and the Feast of Pentecost were not counted by that calendar. What was it that started?
Those two feasts, when did it begin? It doesn't tell what month it was.
They are a picture of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and of the gathering together of.
The people of God to present them to Him as a people in the feast of Pentecost. The two wave loaves. Those two feasts began the Morrow after the Sabbath, the first Sabbath after they brought the 1St.
Uh, first fruits of the harvest as an offering to the Lord. It's a picture of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and I believe that's where we fit in, brethren today in the calendar system.
We fit in as a part of the new creation.
That we that wave sheath. There was a picture of the Lord Jesus in resurrection and that's a new calendar if you please. That's a new time schedule and it's outside of the other. It has nothing to do with it. And so where we fit in today in this day of grace is in new creation. That's why the times and season don't apply to us because we are new a part of the new creation. When you get saved, you enter into that new creation. You're born into a new family of God.
Your deal with God no longer as to earth and its things here and times and seasons. You are already a part of the new creation. That's your time schedule. That's your calendar. It all began when Jesus rose from the dead, and it's gonna end when we're caught up to glory too and made like him. And so that's the how God fits all this together in the times and seasons in connection with us as a people for himself. MMM. We've had some expressions in connection with what constitutes the day of the Lord.
But I was thinking too, in connection with what Bill said earlier, God often takes things up in contrast. And would you agree that the day of the Lord is in contrast to the present time, which in First Corinthians chapter 4 and verse three, if you notice your margin or Mr. Darby's translation, he calls it man's day. Today is man's day. Man is asserting his rights today. I know God is still in control, but man is asserting its rights today. And when has there ever been a day when human rights have been glorified and asserted like the day in which we live?
This is man's day, but the day of the Lord, in contrast to that, is a day in which the rights of the Lord Jesus are going to be outwardly and publicly manifest and asserted. Brethren, we seek man living for himself. Today we see every man doing that which is right in his own eyes. But there's a day when it's not not going to be. So the Lord Jesus is going to assert His rights. And in the Millennium, as was mentioned, if there's open sin and rebellion, is it going to be allowed to go on?
You know, now, because evil against an evil work is not speedily executed, it's thoroughly set in the heart of man to do evil. And God lets that go on to a certain degree. But there's a day coming when sin is going to be judged morning by morning. Man openly rebels today. He's going to be judged the next. The next morning, the Lord is going to assert his rights. And what a wonderful thing it is because as Bob said, the last glimpse that this world, God of the Lord Jesus, was hanging on a cross of shame and they had cried.
Way with Him crucified him. They said we have no king but Caesar. They questioned his right. And the last glimpse they got of him was crowned with a crown of thorns. That which was part of the result of the curse, that was their estimation of their Messiah. That was the estimation of their King when he came the first time. But brethren, he's coming. Who's right it is. And when the heavens open up to reveal him the next time, he's not coming crowned with a crown of thorns.
He's coming crowned with many diadems. The word is a little different there than the word that's usually used for Crohn's and crown in the New Testament. And that thing again is Mr. Darby has this comment. It's that which is worn by right and title as by royal birth. Brethren, he's coming. Who's right? It is. And when the world looks up and he's revealed and manifests wearing those items, is anybody gonna question his right then if they do, outwardly they'll be cut off and judged. No, he's going to be owned then as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Brethren, God ought to thrill our hearts to think of, and that ought to encourage us.
To follow him in his rejection now, knowing that there's a day coming when he's going to have his rightful place. What encouraged David's men to follow him in his in his rejection? To sleep in The Cave of Adela, To flee with him when he fled for his life. They knew that if they associated with him in The Cave, they'd be associated with him in the palace. They were looking. They understood, perhaps, that there was a day coming when the rightful king would take his place. Brethren, are we willing to follow him now in his rejection?
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Knowing that when He takes his place and when heaven bursts open to reveal Him crowned with many crowns, that we're going to come and be associated and He's coming to be glorified in His Saints and admired in all them that are about him. In that day when the world looks up and they see Christ, they're going to see perfectly reflected in every St. every heavenly St. the glories of Christ as well. I and the children whom God has given me. I say, if that doesn't encourage us to follow the Lord Jesus in his rejection. Now, Jonathan could have been in the palace.
But he didn't follow David in his rejection. Brethren, are we willing to associate with him now? I'd like to, uh, just make a comment or two in connection with this chapter. It seems to me that the burden of Peter in the chapter here is that the believers he writes here to those he calls beloved, he's concerned that they are going to be taken up with the thinking that permeates society in general. And though that day, he speaks of it as the last days. And so we can apply this for ourselves.
And he says he's concerned that the, the scoffers in their attitude of where is the promise of his company coming are going to affect the believers. Then he gives 2 examples of the word of God and what happened in connection with the Word of God that was spoken and how it was done. That is what we have in versus and versus, uh.
Five and six verse 5 referring as it was commented on this morning.
To Genesis one and verse six. To the flood in Genesis 6 verse 6 here, whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished. Does God mean it when he says something?
Yes. And so it took no a long time to build the ark, but judgment came and, uh, fell on the earth. Now it says then it says after this in umm, verse 7, the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store, reserved under fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men, because God kept those judgments that he told about because the word.
Says that that's what he was going to do and that's what he did in the past. We can be assured that that is what is going to happen in the future by the same word that the earth is going to come under the judgment of God.
Then Peter goes on to say in verse 11, Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness?
Because I know these things to be the truth, what effect does it have on me in my daily life? Conversation here refers to a manner of life. We hear these things spoken of in the meeting. But what effect is it going to have on me when I leave this place and I go back home again and I'm among the scoffers in the world that go on as if the world is going to go on like this forever. You know, mankind, they just believe the world is billions of years old.
And it went back billions of years, and it's gonna go on for billions of years. And there's gonna be all these changes in society that take place. It's not the case. And God is going to judge this world now because of that, Peter says. What effect does it have on us, brethren in our lives? I think that's a burden that Peter has in this chapter.
Very day of grace.
I think that's sometimes we forget it and like was mentioned before.
Today, people get away with murder.
Uh, I mean, it's, it's incredible with what happens in this world. It's a, it's, it's a, it really makes you angry to see what people do and make others suffer. But in that day, the millennial day, and it's interesting to go back to the book of Isaiah. Don't have time to do it now, but the many times it talks about that day, it's gonna be a day of blessing like man has not known. But it will not be a day when evil will be tolerated.
Somebody's sins.
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They're gone. The next day they're gone. That's it. No appeals, no court cases. That's they're gone. That's it.
And people will learn that we can't play around with this authority. And it's, it's, it's gonna be so totally different than the life that we know today. I would like to just read in Isaiah 2. It, it's so beautiful the way it speaks about this day when the Lord is going to take his place of authority. Uh, notice in verse 10, enter into the rock, hide thee in the dust for the fear of the Lord.
And for the glory of His Majesty, the lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon everyone that is proud and lofty, upon everyone that is lifted up, and he shall be brought low. So in that day it's gonna be the Lord that is gonna be exalted today. So often men exalt themselves in one way or another. Brethren, man's glory is to be dependent and obedient, and in that day it will be so. The Lord alone will be exalted in that day.
Thing #162.
But I just make that comment I was going to make brother before we sing that hymn because it ties in with what we've been taking up.
What Brother Dave mentioned I think is very important, and in this chapter we have three separate comments relative to our state of soul and our walk. We have one that we've already looked at in verse 11 based on the awfulness of the judgment that is coming into this world or coming on this world. We have one in verse 15 which is based on future blessing. So God exercises us both ways.
By bringing before us the awfulness of judgment and by bringing before us the wonderful blessing, as Bob was saying, if man will be cut off in the tribulation or I'm sorry in the Millennium immediately for open sin and rebellion.
And if God is going to insist on righteousness, righteousness reigning, you and I have been brought into the light. Are we going to be guilty of less, a lesser standard under grace than will exist under the rule of righteousness? I hope not.
But then there's one final appeal in verse 17. 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.
We won't take time. Our time is gone. But just a quick comment on that.
I suggest that the error of the wicked here and falling from our own steadfastness.
Is becoming overcome by the condition of things that we see around us. We can go on steadfastly as long as we have a little support, as long as there are others going on with us, as long as things are going well.
But how many times I say it to my own heart, is there a tendency to give up, to let my own life slide because I've suddenly seen that it's all right? No, because of what others are doing, because of the condition of the world around me, or, sad to say, because of what's going on in Christendom. And we're part of it. Let's be aware of all of that. God looks for you and for me to walk before Him in a way that is pleasing to Him. First of all, with reference to the awful judgments that are coming.
Secondly, with reference to future blessing, but thirdly with reference to himself and himself alone.