Address—R. Thonney
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Well, that's saying #170.
Lo, he comes.
From heaven descending.
Once for favorite sinners slain, 1000 thousand Saints attending swell the triumph of his train. Hallelujah, Jesus comes and comes to reign.
In Titus 213 it tells us looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God in our Savior Jesus Christ.
As we sing this hymn is 6 verses long, you'll notice that.
Five of the six verses relate to the second part of that verse, the glorious appearing. We're all acquainted. I trust that the Lord's second return is in two parts. The blessed hope is what we call the rapture.
And the glorious appearing is also known as the Revelation.
Or the manifestation when Jesus comes.
And as it says in Revelation chapter One, every eye shall see him.
Rather than it's just thrilling to my soul to think that that is probably one of the most glorious events in the history of planet Earth.
No event like it when God introduces His Son whom the world last saw hanging dead on the cross, introduces Him in power and glory as He comes back to take the kingdoms of this world. We really believe that moment is getting close.
And I just feel increasingly my own soul, the need of being stirred up. Brethren, we tend to get sleepy spiritually.
And if there's anything that stirs us up, it's the thought of his coming again.
Let's sing this and keep in mind 3 verses or one verse deals with the blessed hope, the rapture. All other 5 verses deal with the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. I'm not going to tell you which verse that is. I think you'll see it as we sing it.
Lo, he comes from heaven, descended once for favor. Sinners Swain.
2410 3012 A Troy unlocked his train.
You know I live for y'all. Kill them and come to the rain.
Let's figure it out.
Nsnoise.
00:05:06
Nsnoise.
Worshipper.
Nsnoise.
You will pray down, thou bring, hold him, hold praise and magnitude.
Now it's all green. Now in the glory.
Shall for their prayers I thine of me.
UH Annualized 10-4 90, 10-4 900-0000 Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh 10-4, 10-4, 90, 10-4 oh 10-4 oh 10-4, 10-4, 10-4, 10-4, 10-4, 10-4, 10-4 oh 10-4.
All the time in the world.
Like to turn to Second Peter chapter 3 please.
Second Peter, chapter 3.
Beginning with verse one.
This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you in both which I stir up 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 Father's 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.
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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 promises. Some men count slackness.
But his long-suffering to us were 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 fervent heat.
The earth also in 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 in 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, brethren, seeing that ye 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 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 those of these things in which are some things hard to be understood.
Which they that are unlearned and unstable rest.
As they also, as also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing that ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being LED away from the air 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. Beautiful.
Chapter from a man who was supposedly an ignorant fisherman.
Oh, brethren.
When I look at this chapter, I'd like to.
Follow two threads through this chapter, perhaps the first one not to speak too much about, but to mention it for your, uh.
Meditation, you have three different worlds mentioned in this chapter. I don't know if you noticed it as we read through it, but notice in verse six it says the world that then was. That was the pre flood world before the flood came and destroyed the world that then was.
Denver 7 But the heavens and the earth, which.
Are now there is the ones that we live in today.
The heavens and the earth which are now, but now look at in verse 13. Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. So you have three different worlds.
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I don't know if you call them civilizations. Civilizations tend to come and go. You look at the Egyptian civilization that built those tremendous pyramids that people can't figure out how they did it. To this day. I've heard that some believe that the Great Pyramid, some think that it was built even before the flood. I'm not sure why they believe that.
Some people do, but there are tremendous structures and tremendous engineering that went into them. It shows us that before the flood they must have had tremendous knowledge. You know, man with his idea of evolution, thinks that things are evolving. I tend to suggest, brethren, that given sin in this world, things are devolving. They're going downward.
And before the flood, we know.
That people lived up, some of them close to 1000 years old.
Interesting. Even Noah, who survived the flood in the ark, lived to be 950 years old.
You know, people talk about young people.
When I look at that, I don't know where to draw the line. Who are young people and who are not.
I can say this year, brethren, I'm exactly 900 years less than Methuselah was when he died. So that's make me a young person. I kind of feel like I'm still a young people when I think about that.
Brethren, a day with the Lord is as 1000 years and 1000 years is one day. Time seems like something big to us sometimes, but with God, who inhabits eternity?
Doesn't matter whether it's a day or 1000 years, it has no meaning. An eternity where God dwells.
But he puts us in the spheres of time, and we have to think in this sphere. And so we think in relative relation to time. And so we call some people young people and other people old people.
I don't know if I'm an old person yet or not.
I'm not gonna worry about it too much, but I found that a person that enjoys the things of Christ, you know what, they're always young in spirit, and that to me is so beautiful to see and experience. Still remember being with Brother Chapter Brown out on the West Coast before he went to be with the Lord.
His mind was failing as to natural things.
And when I greeted him, I could tell he didn't have a clue who I was. That was all right. But when we touched on spiritual things, the Scriptures just flowed through his mind and he quoted one scripture after another. It impressed me that those things that deal with our Lord Jesus Christ, our eternal, and they never get old. They never do.
So the world that was before the flood was an interesting world, and I think we have to recognize that they were.
Pretty intelligent after 900 years of life. They knew what they were doing and think of Noah who constructed that ark.
I've tried to think of how he must have engineered that it would take some big Timbers to build such a huge building or such a huge boat. 150 meters. Well, I say it's about 300 feet long a football. Let's see. Am I saying that right? It's 450 feet long. 450 feet long, I think it was.
Tremendous sized boat that he constructed and he built it so steadily that even though it was on the sea for over a year, there was absolutely no leaks that evidently sprung in that huge boat with all the animals in it. So let's not think that we are so specially intelligent in today's world.
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I think they were fairly intelligent then too. It was a totally different world and we live in verse 7, the heavens and the earth which are now, and those heavens and those, the earth that you are now.
Contrary to the old world, which was reserved for a flood.
Are reserved unto fire. God's next judgment will be by fire.
Lord Jesus, when he comes from heaven, will come in flaming fire.
In vengeance upon those that know not God and.
That obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. So that's the world that is now but then we have verse 13 the new heavens and the new earth were in dwells righteousness. This is God's eternal day it's called.
Verse.
12 Yeah, the day of God. It's the day when God will be All in all. You know, it says in Second Corinthians chapter.
Five, If any man be in Christ, I'd like to quote it the way it's quoted in the new translation. There is a new creation, old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new, and then the next statement is and all things are of God.
New creation, Everything is of God, and the day of God is when new creation is complete. It's the day when everything is of God, and in that day righteousness doesn't say it rains. In Isaiah chapter 32, it says the king shall reign in righteousness. Reigning is necessary in a world where sins, sin still exists.
But in this eternal day there will be no mark of sin anywhere.
No, there will be no need of righteousness reigning. Righteousness will dwell. Beautiful, beautiful picture of God's eternal day. You know, not much is said in the Scriptures about the eternal, eternal day. I think there's three or four mentions of it in the New Testament, and sometimes I've asked why.
So little sad about eternity, that eternal day.
And sometimes the explanation has been given is that we understand everything by comparison. If I'm going to explain something that I know that you haven't seen in South America, I explained it in terms that you can compare it with something that you know, and therefore you can understand it a little bit.
But when we're talking about that eternal day, it's so beyond our comprehension that God doesn't say much about it. One brother gave me this though, that I have really enjoyed. He said the Millennium is the anteroom into the eternal day. I can put it this way. We're going to go into this beautiful.
Elegant palace. But before the palace there's an anteroom you go into, and as you go into the anteroom, you see something of what lies beyond.
The millennial day is the anteroom into eternity. That place we will be with our Lord Jesus in the Father's house forever. Wonderful. Wonderful to think about it, at least try to think about it, brethren. But I'd like to go back and talk about in this chapter as well. Another threat is the different days that are mentioned. We've already mentioned the day of God.
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In verse 12 and verse 10 speaks of the day of the Lord.
And then there's another day in the first verses of this chapter.
That is not mentioned its name, but it definitely fits the picture. It's called Man's Day. And just to give you a reference, let's go back to First Corinthians chapter 4.
First Corinthians, chapter 4.
And verse.
Mm-hmm.
Three and four we'll read.
But with me, the apostle Paul is speaking to the Corinthian believers.
Because they had kind of judged the Apostle Paul and they didn't like some of the things that he said. But he says with me, it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you.
Or of man's judgment. And if you look in your margin, if you have a margin, that word judgment in the margin is man's day. Yeah, I judge not mine own self, for I know nothing by myself, yet am I not hereby justified? But he that judgeth me is the Lord. So here we have man's day. That's the day we live in today, brethren.
And it's the day when there are scoffers that call in question the word of God, the ones that say where is the promise of his coming that try to get us to doubt God's word. You know, in man's day, everything centers on man. And it is really impressed me brother, and how much we have been affected as Christians.
By that particular philosophy of life.
People do what they wanna do, and don't you judge me because I have a right to do what I wanna do. That's the attitude of Man's Day.
And it's scary where it is going because you know what? If I am the judge, If I am the point of reference to everything that takes place in my world.
I have no firm foundation. You know what If we reason from ourselves, the way I reasoned 20 years ago is different than the way I reason today. Because I've changed. My point of reference has changed somewhat.
And that's what's happened in the United States of America and in this world system at large.
People make themselves the point of reference. I like it this way. I want things done my way, OK?
So you think you're right?
Well, who are you to tell me that I'm wrong?
This is the point. If it is a matter of me and you, brethren, who is better qualified to judge? It's not a matter of me and you. When we come to the Lord Lord Jesus Christ, we have surrendered to one who is Lord of all, and that is no longer what I want. It is what He wants in my life if He is Lord.
Then he must be Lord of all.
If I have the right to determine certain section of my life that I want it this way?
Then, brethren, let's be frank, Jesus is not Lord of all, and I find it a tremendous challenge to put that into effect practically.
You know, I've recognized Jesus as Lord, but I am in a current of things in the United States of America that is extremely strong. And I recognize, brethren, I've been affected by that current of things of self pleasing. I like things the way I like him. Yeah, I like him too.
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But that's not Christianity. And you know what? That principle of self pleasing is what has done.
More damage to the Christian testimony than anything else.
It's not a matter of what I like, what I dislike, it's a matter of the Lord Jesus Christ, it says in Second Corinthians chapter 5, quoting again. The love of Christ constraineth us.
Or I better read it.
Bear with me while I read it rather than.
2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 14 For the love of Christ constraineth us. Because we thus judge, we form a judgment that if one died for all, then we're all dead.
Notice the result of that judgment he forms in verse 15, And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto them which died for them, and rose again.
In other words, if he died for all, it means really that we were all dead.
OK, we accept that as Christians that he died for us. OK, now that I have my life.
And I enjoy the fact that I'm saved by the grace of God. Is it to live the way I want to live? No, that's not Christian living. It's to live unto him that died for me and rose again. It's completely changed the point of reference.
In man's day, I am the one that determines what I like and what I will do. And don't you judge me. That's man's day.
But for a Christian, you're called to go against the stream. And I suggest if you're living to please yourself, you're a young person, or dear older ones too, because we're all in this picture.
You are not living the life that was given to us by the Lord Jesus. You are living a life of man's day, and I suggest that you're going to find yourself empty.
At the end of your life, to me it is no greater tragedy.
Go into a nursing home and find somebody that was tremendously prospered in life.
As wealth beyond what anybody would expect.
But there he sits in a wheelchair, he's lost his mind, and he has absolutely nothing in front of him if he doesn't know the Lord Jesus.
What robbery. He lived only for this world that's reserved under fire. Are you living that way? Are you living with a purpose of amassing things down here? That's why we have in the United States of America so many young people that are totally empty.
They haven't found reason for life. Tremendously sad to think of it. I was driving.
The other day through Vincent's Indiana, it's close to home and sometimes go there to do some shopping that's going down the street.
Here's two young men walking down the street, one heavily dressed in black.
And another one who you can see was in the current of rebellion against culture as it stands. And I, Washington, I drove past them. I said, man, I need to go back and at least give them something of the word. And so I circled around the block and got out a pocket calendar and a gospel tract. And I pulled up and I said.
Here I have something for you, and I gave it to them. We've got the answer, brethren, And here these young people are floundering around. Even young people that sometimes they're sitting in these meetings are floundering. They don't know what is the reason of life, brethren, if it's only what we have here and now, it's going to end in fire.
Man's day is going to come to an end and we are seeing.
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The ruin of it today in our culture, it's terrible the way things are going terrible.
Notice verse 10.
But the day of the Lord will come. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that tremendous? The day of the Lord will come. When is the day of the Lord?
The day of the Lord begins with the Lord Jesus coming.
In power and glory, like we sung in that hymn.
All the verses of that hymn except verse five speak of that.
Coming that second part of His second coming called the appearing, sometimes called the Manifestation, sometimes called the Revelation. When it's used those 3 words connection with his second coming. It's not talking about the rapture, it's talking about.
His coming in power and glory to judge this world in righteousness.
You know when you look at Scripture, Old Testament and New Testament?
Are full of this coming?
This part of the second coming, I should say.
When it's the Rapture, there is just a few portions of the New Testament that speak of his coming to take his bride home, to be with himself, his redeemed people.
There are no verses in the Old Testament that deal directly with the rapture. There are figures, yes, but not like Enoch, who with God and what not. That's a picture of the rapture of the church, but it's not taught directly. It was not known in the Old Testament. It was a revelation given to the apostle Paul, and so he says in First Corinthians, First Thessalonians 4.
This we say unto you, by the word of the Lord. In other words, he received a special revelation.
About that.
But when it comes to the revelation or the appearing of the Lord Jesus.
The Old Testament and the New Testament are full of it. Tremendously beautiful to read through the Old Testament in Isaiah.
And all those Old Testament prophets, and one way or another they speak of this.
Part of his second coming.
You know there was even a man before the flood that knew about the appearing of the Lord Jesus. His name was Enoch. The first prophet that there ever was at least is the first that we know about.
But it says in Jude that he prophesied so necessarily he was a prophet. How in the world did Enoch know about the Lord's coming?
There was number even any Bible in existence in that time. You know I like to think about and I stand to be corrected, but I believe this may be true.
That Enoch walked with God, and on those walks with God, God communicated because God is a communicating God. And he probably said one of those times he was on a walk with Enoch. Enoch, you know, I want to tell you about something that is in the future that is extremely glorious, and Enoch tells about it in Jude's epistle.
Behold, the Lord cometh with the 10 thousands of his Saints.
To execute judgment upon the unrighteous. You know the word is not 10,000 is really in the original. I think it is the myriads. Can you think of the myriads of the redeemed that are going to we're going to come back with him in glory in that day? I don't know. I don't have any way of knowing, but I would guess we're not mistaken in saying that when the Lord comes with his Saints in that day, it will be billions of.
His redeemed ones that will be accompanying Him in that day, Tremendous to think of it, not only the myriads of His Saints, but it tells us in Second Thessalonians chapter one. But He's going to come with His mighty angels as well.
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Oh, the armies of this world that are going to go out to fight against him, that sets on the horse.
Are not going to have a chance. They can fire their missiles at him, but since he comes in a dimension they don't know anything about, they will have absolutely no effect in the Lord Jesus with the sword of his mouth is going to knock one king after another after another to the ground with the sword of his mouth.
So wonderful.
I can't grasp it like I need to.
How can we get so involved in this present age and what it involves and leave the Lord's things to oneself? No wonder.
Peter exhorts us to be stirred up by way of remembrance.
We are called to heavenly glory. We are called to eternal glory.
And you think you want to involve yourself in something down here that's going to be tremendously profitable?
Oh, I wish I could communicate you, dear young people, the older ones too. Something of the vision of glory that will make your life completely different.
Then this world wants it to be.
Lord help us, brethren, the day of the Lord will come.
The day when the Lord Jesus comes in power and glory at the end of the Tribulation.
To reign supreme.
As I say, Scripture speaks a lot about it, but Revelation 19?
John looks up and he says, Behold, I see he saw the heavens opened.
And behold, a White Horse, and him that sat on that horse was called holy and true. And in righteousness he judges and makes war. Isn't that astounding? The Lord Jesus, that humble, that meek Lamb of God is going to make war. Do you tell me? Yes, that's what Scripture says. That's the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Things are not going to go on the way they are going on today. God is going to draw the line and say that's enough.
And Jesus is coming back to intervene directly in the affairs of men and establishes his reign. He's going to put his enemies under his feet. He's going to trample the wine Press of the wrath and judgment of Almighty God, and he's going to sit on the throne of his glory, and all nations are going to be gathered before him, and he's going to judge.
As a shepherd, As a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.
And he's going to reign supreme for 1000 years. This is what scripture speaks so clearly about.
The day of the Lord will come.
Just want to say it says here as a thief in the night whenever you have his coming as a thief it is talking about.
His appearing when he comes to judge.
If I would ask any brother here Brother Al.
You expect the Lord to come?
Do you want him to come? OK, I'm going to ask you another question. Would you like a thief to come to your house? Do you expect a thief to come? No. So when we're talking about the Lord coming as a thief, it's not to believers he's talking. It's to this world that doesn't want him to come and doesn't expect him to come, that he will come as a thief. At the moment they at least expect.
Doesn't matter if they want it or not, they're going to call the kills and the caves of the earth to cover them.
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In the face of him that sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.
Oh, the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. Now notice there is a semi colon there and then what follows in the witch in that day of the Lord. The day of the Lord lasts for 1000 years to the end of time, in the which the heavens 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's the end of the millennial day, but it's still the same day of the Lord that this world and all the works that are in it, you know, they do some tremendously interesting things, tremendous engineering, some of the buildings that are built.
Some of the things they were able to do. A few years ago I was in Europe and went through a tunnel through the Swiss Alps. I forget how many kilometers long that was. It was maybe 3040 kilometers long a tunnel right through the Alps.
And we decided we'd take the tunnel instead of going up over the mountain, which is quite a bit less time. It's tremendous to think what they can do. But all those works are destined to be burned up, to be dissolved. Remember speaking with brother Jimmy Smith, who was an engineer. I think he was a civil engineer. And he decided when he.
Saw what we're talking about today.
He decided to dedicate himself to the, uh, publication of the gospel and a booklet that would be for the edification of God's people. But he said when he talked about these verses, this describes an atomic explosion. It's the dissolving of this present world that we are so acquainted with.
It's gonna be dissolved, everything.
But notice now verse 11. There's an exhortation in view of this.
Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness?
Looking for in hastening.
Unto in the new translation is omitted, hastening the coming of the day of God, where in the day heavens being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat so.
Brethren.
What then, if this is the case? Should be our life down here?
Oh, I want to encourage you to live with the Lord Jesus as the object of your life unto him who died for us and rose again. No longer do I figure as to what I like, what I want. But you know, we live in that current of things and we get caught up with it. I think rather than the best thing we can do is.
To recognize it and to confess it to the Lord and ask the Lord to help us to judge it, that those things would not be characteristic of our lives. Lord, help us in that.
Just there's such a struggle, I have to confess it, but.
We need to recognize it and ask the Lord that we wouldn't be characterized by that kind of living.
You know, so often a young man feels led to ask a young lady to marry them. They want their hand in marriage. It's a beautiful thing.
And I like to notice how often we like to go to weddings because.
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There, a woman gives herself entirely to one man.
It's a beautiful thing. It's what Scripture calls the beauty of holiness separated to one man.
But what would you think if the young lady, when the young man proposed marriage, would say, yes, I'll accept your proposition for marriage. But you know what? I'd like to have about 5%.
For somebody else, my own self or somebody else to do my own thing.
You know, that would not be acceptable in any way. If she sees that he's not interested in that, she UPS that percentage or just 99%. I'd like to have at least 1% to do my own thing, to do what I like.
Everything or nothing, you know, that's the way it is.
And now, how do we treat the Lord when it's evident? When the Lord asks us to remember Him in His death, what do you do with His word?
When the Lord says don't neglect the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, what do you do with that? Do you say, oh, I got That's the part I I have to ask the Lord to forgive me because I'm I'm not gonna be able to do that.
Brethren, the Lord help us in that, I really believe.
We have.
Become.
What shall I say?
Unresponsive to His word, the Lord help us to judge it and to give Him the place He so deserves in our life. We're not going to be here much longer. We're going to be ruptured into His presence. We're going to see Him face to face. We're going to see those wounds in His hands and His feet and in His side.
And I suggest, brethren, that any measure.
That I have wanted to do my own thing. I wanted a little bit of reserve to do what I wanted. It's going to be a shame to me in that day.
Lord help us, brethren, the day of the Lord will come. It's getting close, brethren. We don't know exactly when it is. You know, for the rapture, there is no sign to be looked for. But for the appearing, there's a lot of signs. And you know what? Some of the signs, we're starting to see the beginnings of them today. That means we're getting close.
A lot of what you read there, you're seeing beginnings of it in today's world. We're getting close, but now just before we and we've already spoken a bit about the day of God.
Verse 12. Looking for and hastening.
The coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.
And then verse 14 the.
Implications of this precious truth. Wherefore, brethren?
Seeing that ye look for such things.
You look for those things.
Are you sure about it? You know what? When I look at these things, I sometimes have to stop and pinch myself. Do I really believe this? Is this really true?
President, I can't come to any other conclusion, but it is true. Either you accept it as true or you have to throw the whole book out. Can't do that.
No, it's true. It's gonna happen.
Seen he looked for such things. Be diligent. What is diligence?
I don't know if I can explain it totally, but I tell you what, it's not laziness, that's for sure.
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It's being diligent is putting your attention to it, your primary attention to it, and Peter talks a lot about diligence.
To be found of him in peace.
Brother and I see a tendency sometimes to pick points with our brethren to the point that we think we can't walk together anymore. Brother and let's be diligent to walk in peace.
Without spot and blameless, there are so many things that are spots on the Christian testimony. At a moment's notice, we're gonna be called into the presence of the Lord Jesus.
You know, it's a reflection he's not going to give us. And they say this sometimes to the brethren in Latin America, I say.
What if the Lord had said, I'm going to give you 5 minute notice that I'm coming?
To rupture you.
And that five minute notice was given to you. What would you do?
Said that once to a young man, he said. Boy, I'd have a lot of things to repent of.
You know what brother? It's not going to be a 5 minute notice one moment to the next.
Maybe I get angry at somebody and a bunch of words fly out of my mouth.
And at that moment, I'm caught up to meet with the Lord in the air.
They were running down the street, busy with my own business, and I put up my leg to take another step and instead of stepping on the ground, I step under the cloud into his presence. It's going to happen at a moment's notice. Be diligent to be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless.
Then he speaks of Paul Because Paul's doctrine is so important, brethren, don't lose sight of it, even though there are things hard to be understood.
But then I just want to end up before we close with verse 18, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Grow in grace and in the knowledge. How are you going to grow? To grow, you have to eat good.
Are you feeding on God's Word on a daily basis? Do you pick up this book and read at least a few verses? You know it doesn't take that long to read a chapter. I've often find myself in 5 minutes. You can read most chapters, sometimes even less than 5 minutes. Don't tell me you don't have time to read the Word of God, something that is so important. Grow in grace. To grow you need good food, but you need exercise too.
But it's growing in grace.
And in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we'll never get done learning more about Him and all His glory. Brethren, that's what life is. Brother David, read to us those verses in Colossians chapter 3. When Christ, who is our life, that's our life up there in the glory. Our life is not what we see down here in this world.
Our life is up there.
That's our life and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him the glory both now and forever. Amen.