Fourndations of Faith: The Kingdom of God 2

Welcome to Delight in Grace. The Teaching Ministry of Rich Powell. pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Second Peter 3:13 says, According to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. One day All things will be made new.

all the brokenness, injustice, wickedness, The worldly systems of thought will dissipate. and Jesus will make all things right. As Christ followers, what does it look like to wait for that day? How does knowledge of that coming day transform the way we live right now? Pastor Rich answers these questions in this message titled, The Kingdom of God.

I have a problem. I thought I was going to get an amen out of that one, but. I have myopia. Means I'm nearsighted. I wish you could see what I see right now.

Y'all are just a bunch of blobs. But there's an app for that. Voila clarity. Beauty.

Well, at least in most cases. The false teachers of this world want us to stay myopic. The flesh demands. That we stay myopic, that we are so nearsighted that all we see is just what's right near us. But let us this morning take the lens of the Word of God.

And apply that lens of the Word of God to expand. our perspective to expand our horizons. to see reality for what it is. It is a broken world. And we all feel that.

But there is one who said. I make all things. New. In our text today, 2 Peter chapter 3. We're going to be looking Starting at verse 13.

But according to his promise, we are waiting for a new heavens and a new earth. in which righteousness dwells, the promise of newness. According to his promise, we are waiting. The kingdom of God is what we're talking about today. expanded horizons and then The kingdom, we looked at the revelation of God, we looked at the nature of God, the character of God, we looked at the judgment of God.

Today we're looking at the kingdom of God. And that kingdom is going to be launched in what the scriptures call the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord when God manifests. His sovereign authority is In retribution and restoration. He is a holy and just God.

But he is also merciful. And gracious. And he will. Establish righteousness. in the earth.

day of the Lord, this promise of newness, That he has made in the Old Testament. We see it in the promised in Isaiah. Chapter sixty five Matthew 16, Matthew 19, John 1. Revelation 21. Just to name a few examples.

But it is the promise that we are waiting, we are awaiting a new heaven. New heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

So there's two sides of that. There's the end of darkness, and then there's the new creation. The end of darkness. As he says, verse 10: The day of the Lord will come like a thief, when the heavens will pass away with a roar, heavenly bodies, the elements, will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. That's what we covered last week, then today.

Here's the point, all right? Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness? waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the elements, the spiritual elements, will melt as they burn. But according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

So. Let's begin today with the end of darkness. All these things are thus to be dissolved. That's good news. Everything that makes this world broken, everything that makes this world evil, All of it will dissolve.

It will disappear. This Loved ones is a promise of God. Mm-hmm. Let's hold on to that. The elements The heavens set on fire and the elements melt.

Let me just review a little bit why I'm using the word elements instead of heavenly bodies. The ESV is the only translation that translates that heavenly bodies. All other translations are elements, as used, for example, in Colossians chapter 2 and verse 8. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world. and not according to Christ.

The elemental spirits of the world. And then again, in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 2, in which you once walked. Following the course of this world, following, here it is, the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. I believe that is what Peter is referring to as he's speaking here in what the ESV translates heavenly bodies. I think he's talking about the prince of the power of the air.

powers of darkness That rule this earth. In other words, the forces of darkness that make the world worldly. As John says, 1 John 5, verse 19, the whole world lies under the sway or the power of the evil one. That is truth. What makes the world worldly.

Intrigue, pretense, manipulation, hostility, selfish ambition, greed. Fraud, deception, comparisons.

Now I'm stepping on toes. Envy. All of that. You know, the American, I heard it said a long time ago, I remember the song I was a youth.

Somebody said, What makes the world worth? We in America are especially good at that. We spend money we don't have to buy things we don't need to impress people we don't like. All of these things, this list that I just went through, all of this is the character and influence of the father of lies. That is the force those are the forces of darkness.

And this present darkness and evil is right now the element in which we find ourselves, and that is the element of brokenness. The groaning creation, groaning under the weight of that brokenness, but also groaning in the sense of anticipating and longing for the newness and the righteousness that is in Jesus Christ. That groaning creation. All of this, all of this will dissolve in the consuming fire of Jesus Christ's holy presence on the day of the Lord. And then all of it will dissolve.

John got a glimpse of that. And this is how he began as he was writing the book of Revelation. He says, And one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest, the hairs of his head were white like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters.

And in his right hand, he held seven stars. From his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. And what did John do when he saw Jesus? What did he do? He fell down as if he was dead.

That's our king. And he's coming back. And he will establish righteousness. He will establish righteousness.

So that will be The end of darkness. It will be the end of darkness. And he promises a new creation.

So he's talking of starting about back in verse 10. A new creation. Waiting for and hastening, verse 12, the coming of the day of God. He says, verse 13, but according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Jesus said this very thing in Matthew 19: he says, In the new world, the actual Greek word that is used is in the regeneration.

When I make all things new, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne. That day is coming.

So go back to Revelation now that the Apostle John wrote and he was given this vision, Revelation 4, and then in Revelation chapter 5, he's given this, he records this vision that he has of the throne room of heaven. And there is one sitting on the throne. He's like a lamb that has been slain. And this image that he gives of the throne room of heaven would give the people in the ancient world a reminder of the throne room of Caesar. But Caesar's not on the throne.

The lamb is. The one who came to redeem, the one who gave his life. He is on the throne. And God's throne. Not Caesar's or any other head of state stands.

at the center of reality. At the center of reality. And I like what Carmen Joy Imes writes in her book published this year, Being God's Image, the truth that God's throne stands at the center of reality, according to that vision of Revelation chapter 5. She writes: This truth should unsettle any illusion we have about earthly kingdoms as the answer to the world's problem apart from God. She continues with regard to being a Christian, to being a follower.

Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in Him. the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at ten AM.

Okay.