We are told to be, in our scripture, harmless.
We are told to be separate. We are told to be wise. And here it comes, one that we all struggle with from time to time. We are told to be kind to one another. It's really not my fault when I lose it. If somebody just kept tugging on my cape.
Excuses, excuses. Nothing about being screwy or aloof or arrogant or unkind. We're never encouraged to be those things, nor is it winked at in scripture. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of 2 Peter.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. The day of the Lord is the title of Pastor Rick's message today as he teaches through 2 Peter chapter 3. But he says, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, which we would expect. I mean, how do you blow up Mars quietly?
God's got a silencer. On this planet alone, just think about all the tunnels, all of the cables and junk on the sea beds. What does God, what do you do with that stuff? Any of you like any of your truck, your furniture, your stuff you have at home? It's all going to be burned up eventually, gone.
That's okay. You get to use it for a lifetime and it will end up though. But, see, if we knew when the rapture was coming, we would be doing goofy things. I would have a big sign outside my house, don't touch my stuff, be back in seven years. And so God says, you know, I don't want you doing that kind of stuff, what a waste of signage. Anyway, I put up a sign, in glory I'll have hair again. Unless, you know, God might say, you know, I kind of like the bald guys.
I'll keep them around for a bit. Anyhow, in which the heavens will pass away with great noise. Now where is this? That's what we've been talking about.
It is at the very end of the prophetic calendar. Peter goes right to the end. I'm not surprised that's the kind of guy he was. I don't want the details. Let's just get the fact. Get the fish in the boat, cut them, eat them, and let's move on. So that's, I'm not surprised.
It's his style. Paul would have given us a couple of chapters. Peter says, you get a paragraph. So, you can read about this new heavens and earth in Revelation chapter 20 and up to verse 21. Well, we'll take Revelation 21 verse 1. John writes, now I saw a new heaven and a new earth where the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. That's the physical earth and the physical skies gone. Terminating the millennial, the millennial reign of Christ terminates when Christ says, okay, we're done here.
We have populated eternity with all the people that are ever going to believe God of their free will. Now we can clean this place up and start fresh. And Peter is going to say, we should be longing for this kind of stuff. We should be desiring that day when there's no more curse. There's no more wickedness anywhere in us or anybody else.
And that's where his encouragements come in. It will be a cataclysmic surprise as a thief in the night and disappointment for those on the earth who have mocked the Lord. Overwhelming judgment.
Now, it has its delays. God's prophecies, they have their delays, but they happen. And there are those that scoff at the prophetic word. They scoff at the king of the word. Psalm 2 is ready for that.
Way back then, the psalmist was inspired by the Holy Spirit to say, God gets the last laugh all the time. You can scoff, you can mock, you can do your dirt, but in the end, you will stand before him without exception. Those who have rejected him will stand before him unto condemnation. And those who have accepted him will stand before him also and be judged according to our works. I plan to have a doppelganger.
That is a lookalike. Stand in for me to take the heavy stuff and then I'll take the blessings. It may cost me.
All right. How can you not have a little levity on these things? I mean, it's so much hidden from us. What God says, look, I'm going to hide a lot, but understand this is going to be glorious. You make sure you are there. And this is one of so many reasons why we who love the Lord love him. Where will you be on that day? On the day when God creates a new heavens and a new earth, where will you be? Because the soul lives forever. Where?
Well, that's up to each individual. They mocked Noah. We know the story. We have the story. So we are forewarned and therefore to be forewarned is to be for armed.
Lot. They mocked him too. They mocked the disciples of Christ.
They mocked Paul and they mocked us. That, that should not bother us one bit. It should cause us to say we have been down this road before and we know how to handle it.
We stay focused on our mission to love and honor the Lord and to preach the truth. Now we'll get to truth too. I know I'm getting out promising a lot of things. Hope I deliver. If you listen fast enough, we can get through this. The elements will melt with fervent heat.
The elements of things that are created. So there is such a thing as climate change, but it's God made, not man made. What a hoax. And if any of you are falling in for that, I do have a bridge for sale and Brooklyn can get you a good price on it. Just see me after service.
I give you the deed. Anyway, the elements and the, I'm just mostly, I think our younger generation who tried, they're trying to brainwash you to tell you this. What a way to live.
Wake up every morning. We're going to melt. We're all going to melt because of pickup trucks and cows. It's stupid, but it works for Satan.
So it's not a joke as odd as it is. Anyway, annihilation of the earth melt here in verse 10 and the Greek is to dissolve. I only point that out because the English Bibles, most of them will translate that same word melt when we get to verse 12 and there it's a different Greek word means to liquefy. The bottom line, Peter is saying everything will be dealt with. It will end up beyond ash.
You will not find evidence of it. And at the command of God, this physical universe will be, in the beginning God created the heavens and earth and in the end God will do away with the heavens and the earth and give us something new. Now these are physical. We will be spiritual. We have to understand that. When we talk about going down to Sheol, for example, that's relative to heaven, not earth. It's a spiritual realm. As far as the earth is concerned, it's not an up or down matter.
Geographically speaking and character, of course it is. He says both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up and there's the poof. Everything's gone. The eternal state begins. Let's take a few scripture verses about this eternal state that we are headed for. And you know, you certainly begin to say, well, what's it going to be like in the new heavens?
Well, you're going to have to wait and see. Be there. Isaiah 65, 17, Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth. The former shall not be remembered or come to mind.
And no protest against that. There's, as much as I like certain foods, I don't need to remember them when we are with the Lord. Isaiah 66, 22, for as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make shall remain before me, says Yahweh, so shall your descendants and your name remain. That's interesting.
That's a whole study right there. Of course, I read Revelation 21, 1, but now Revelation 21, 5. And then he who sat on the throne said, behold, I make all things new. And he said to me, right, these words are true and faithful.
It will happen. You know, when I was younger and not walking with the Lord and somebody would invite you to a party or something, or you'd invite them and you'd always say, be there or be square. We'll be saying be there or be burnt. In judgment, it is, we should not be obsessed with this. We should be focused, Christ-centered, on eternal things. Verse 11 now in 2 Peter chapter 3. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you be in holy conduct and godliness? This always comes back to our Christ-likeness, our walk with the Lord. We live in an age where a lot of Christians think that somehow the love of God releases us from the responsibility of trying to be like God, not God-like, but Christ-like in character. Somehow grace frees us from obedience. That's mockery of the very person of God.
God is pure and holy. And he does not, you know, just wink at these kind of things. And I will add to this, you are better off not thinking that way than running around thinking, because your conscience hounds you. Your conscience says, you know that's not right, but you do it anyway because you're being told. Many pulpits are preaching this. They don't want to offend anybody. The gospel offends us.
There's no way around it. When we preach, it offends the guilty part of man, of humanity. But it offers out, again, that hand, that outstretched hand of God, it offers it and says, but you can still be with me. Peter doesn't lose focus of this because when he walked with Jesus, he didn't say, I'll be right back.
I got to go steal a few things, but I've got the grace, you know, I'll be OK, right? Since we have an eternal future with an almighty savior, we should, Colossians 3, Paul says, if you then were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Well, that's purity. That's holiness to the Lord. 1 Corinthians 7, those who use this world, that's talking about Christians, and those who use this world as not misusing it. For the form of this world is passing away.
It's dying. Scientists talk about the universe winding down. All they are examining are things that God has done. They fail to see what God is doing. Now, that's, of course, the unbelieving ones, and they're missing out the greater part. He says in verse 11, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and ungodliness?
The next time you think your grace excuses you from trying to at least have holy conduct, just remember this phrase, sloppy agape. It's a sloppy love. It's not a hot love, a passionate love. It's not a love that has the interest of the one it loves at heart.
It has itself, itself as its interest. Too many of our young believers are melting away because they don't respect the holiness of God. All right, we're weak.
We stumble. God says, well, I have built in rescue mechanisms, defense mechanisms. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above that which you are able to bear, but with the temptation will also make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it.
What is that? It's grace. It's forgiveness. It's an undying love. It's a love you're not going to find anywhere else, anywhere else, at any time.
It's a love that we want everybody to know, but it's just not that easy. It's going to take committed people to be involved in this. It's going to take people who at the very least invite the Holy Spirit to take up permanent residence in their own hearts. What manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct knowing there's going to be this great judgment by this powerful God? We are supposed to be dissimilar from everybody else, not odd, not odd to intelligence and reason and sanity. When Christians are distinct, when we are dissimilar from those who live like we used to live, we begin to attract people that God is working on.
When we are odd, we repel them or attract those who just want to be odd with us. 1 Peter chapter 1, this is Peter's first letter to the persecuted church, or you could say to the beat-up church, not from within, from without. But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct because it is written, be holy, for I am holy. Now, I say this all the time when we come to this verse, either quoted or through our studies, it is the pursuit of righteousness that makes us better off and better servants as compared to if we did not pursue it. If you didn't chase it, you didn't even bother, imagine if you had a guy that could throw a baseball 100 miles an hour without ever practicing. Now that would be impressive, but what would happen if he practiced? Now he's up to 140 miles an hour, according to my story. And I'm telling the story, so I get to tell it the way I want.
And so this is the same with us. I mean, if you didn't pursue the holiness, then there's an indication there that you're really not serious about what God has said when he is serious about it. Because he was so serious about it, he died saying these things. For what good work do you want to stone me? It's not for any good work, it's because you said, you said, making yourself equal with God. The witnesses right over their heads, the Mormons, they don't understand that Christ did claim and was understood to say that he was equal with the Father. His response, of course, why is this new to you? God has delegated other things, he's called them judges, he's delegated things before. What is so strange about the Son of Man coming from heaven as a man, doing these deeds in your face, preaching righteousness and living that way? What is so odd about that? Well, they weren't interested. They wanted to kill him publicly in front of everybody as shamefully as they could. And they achieved that on his flesh because Jesus said, no one kills me.
That's why he said, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. Nobody does that. Who does that? Who can just turn themselves off?
No one. I mean, you can, but you need something to do it. He just dismissed his humanity. I'm out of here. I'm not simplifying it.
I'm just trying to make it not complicated. Well, anyway, back to the nutty, odd approach to Christianity that implies instability, which he will then later say is not something that belongs to the righteous, but the unrighteous. Would you like a seatmate on the next flight to be an oddball or just nutty or both? I don't want one like that. I mean, if you ride the subways in New York, they're there.
Sometimes they get the whole car to themselves. I'm trying to say that there are Christians that think somehow behaving like a weirdo is behaving as though you have the Holy Spirit. And as Tozier so eloquently said, the Holy Spirit is not the cause of insanity.
He is the cure. We are told to be in our scripture harmless. We are told to be separate. We are told to be wise. And here it comes, one that we all struggle with from time to time. We are told to be kind to one another. It's really not my fault when I lose it.
Somebody just kept tugging on my cape. Excuses, excuses. Nothing about being screwy or aloof or arrogant or unkind. We're never encouraged to be those things. Nor are we. Is it winked at in scripture? We are to be mindful. Verse two of Second Peter, chapter three, we are not to be ignorant. Verse eight, we are to be diligent. Verse fourteen.
And we are to be where if I can lump that one in with those others. In verse seventeen, we are to be ready to put on the armor of God, not a straitjacket. Clothed in righteousness, not weirdness. Now, if this offends you, it is your own conscience. It is your own conscience bearing witness to this truth. Don't be that.
There's no need. Just be who you are in Christ. He's given you enough.
You don't have to go look for a cherry to put on top. Just be like Christ in the simplicity of the word. He says godliness here, and that's what we're talking about.
What should he say? What should these apostles encourage us to be ungodly? It is excellence in character. None of us make it all the way there. But I think most of us who love the Lord cover so much ground in this area that we otherwise would never have covered have we remained in the world. Just think about all the things you used to do before coming to Christ, those of you who were once in the world, and you're not to do those anymore. And you may still long for some of them in your flesh, but your spirit knows better. And because your spirit does fight it out with your flesh, here you are. So it does make a difference, contrary to the lies of hell.
We must not let our view of God's love blind us to his holiness and what he wants from us. You say, but I'm always failing. So you're always getting up, too, aren't you? That ought to irk everybody in hell. Just keep doing it. Verse 12, you know, sometimes I have to tell myself these things, too. I mean, I know some of you think I'm one step from perfect. I sometimes have to say, Lord, I know you love me.
I know you care. All the Bible verses and the knowledge in the years, and still there are things I struggle with. And I either believe what I preach or I'm faking it. That is, to me, repulsive. If I fail, it's not because I'm faking it.
It's because I'm weak. But it's not because I didn't believe it. I believe everything that I preach, even when I'm wrong.
Hopefully it gets filtered and corrected. But I work really hard not to do that. As I would think you would, too, when it comes to sharing the gospel. That you've worked really hard to understand how to articulate your own faith. Verse 12, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire.
And the elements will melt and liquefy with fervent heat. Longing for, there it is. We want to be in a place where there's no more curse, no more sin. But this is stabilized, I have to add, as Jesus pointed out in his own ministry.
It's day right now and I have to work. The night is coming. There are still souls to be saved and I want to be part of it. How would you like to get to heaven and found out you've made no contribution to the population? You've done nothing but received. Now under certain circumstances it is still quite incredible, like the thief on the cross, the outlaw on the cross.
It's still quite remarkable that he got it under such difficult conditions. But what if he had the gospel, believed his whole life, and just never did anything with it? Those of you who serve in a church, you're contributing to the work of the Lord. That's why it is called ministry. It is what he is doing in a locale and you're part of it.
And it matters. Because if we stop having servants that did so much here, some of you don't know how much work goes on into making the bride of Christ attractive every time we assemble. Just last week two of our ladies came in and shampooed the entire carpet in this room. And every other room in the building that has carpet. And we have so many servants like this that step up. In every ministry, the ushers, the love and care, the kindness you get in the chapel store. They even give you candy for free, which really burns me up.
Why do they do this? It's all Jesus. In the world you have to do things for that paycheck.
You have to have the money. But the righteous soul understands this will go into the war chest. This helps me stay healthy so I can work, serve the Lord, raise my children under Christ and do whatever it is I'm doing. So maybe God will send somebody my way and says to me, What makes you distinct? What makes you different? Why aren't you like us? Why don't you want to go in the back and have a joint together? That's putting up a building, right?
You know, this joint that everybody can go into. Peter, in writing this 12th verse, he's repeating the things he has said earlier in verse 10. That's all we have time for on today's edition of Cross Reference Radio. You've been listening to Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia, as he teaches through the Book of Second Peter. If you'd like to listen to more messages from this series, or if you'd like more information about this program, please visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never have to miss a program. Just search for Cross Reference Radio in iTunes, Google Play Music, or your favorite podcast app. It's a great way to keep God's Word with you wherever you go. We hope you'll tune in again next time as Pastor Rick continues studying through the Scriptures, right here on Cross Reference Radio.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-03-24 12:46:14 / 2024-03-24 12:55:27 / 9