Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith.
Some people view the future with fear as violence and chaos overtake the world. But would you fear if you knew the ultimate outcome? Bible prophecies detail the end of time as we know it, and the signs suggest that those times might, in fact, be our times today. Why it's important that we understand Bible prophecy from the Moody Church in Chicago. This is Running to Win with Dr.
Irwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Erwin Lutzer is in a series on seven signs of Christ's return. Today's message comes from Second Peter chapter three. Pastor Lutzer, does this chapter answer the question why study prophecy? Dave, I think it answers that question more clearly than perhaps any other passage, and the reason is as Peter discusses the end time.
The fact that this earth and all the things that we see are going to be burned up, he says, "What manner of people ought we to be in all conduct and faith?" And then he goes on from there. In other words, if eternity really is the basis of our values, it forces us to ask, "What am I living for? For the world that is, or the world to come?" I'm holding in my hands a book entitled "When Jesus Returns." The general editor is Jan Markell of All of Ministries, and what she has done is collected a group of authors, each of whom has written a chapter on various aspects of prophecy. And the purpose of the book is not necessarily to give us an outline. This will happen before that.
Although this book also contains such references, but rather to focus on specific issues. And I think it'll be of help to you even as you evaluate your own life. Very quickly, you can go to rtwoffer.com or call us at one eight eight eight two one eight. 93:37. Following this message, I'm going to be giving you that contact info again because this book will help you to focus on the future and not just on today.
Peter says the first reason is because he says the Lord counts time differently, but secondly, he says the Lord wants people to repent. That's another reason why He's delaying it. It's there in the text. We're reading verse nine. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promises.
Some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
So you see, the scoffers, rather than saying, "Oh, you know the delay," there they go at Moody Church again, preaching prophecy. The Lord isn't going to come back. Wait a moment, you scoffer. The fact that he hasn't is because you still have time to repent. Because after he does, it may be too late.
Don't you dare misinterpret the slowness of God. He's tardy. That's our view. His view is, hey, I'm being extra gracious. Adam and Eve sin.
In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. They die spiritually; they do not die physically. The process of death only begins; it doesn't end there. Why? Grace.
If they had died the moment they sinned physically, they would not have had a chance to be redeemed. But because they lived, God was able to provide clothes of animals, and He was able to give them some lessons on the atonement. And I assume that Adam and Eve, responding to the Lord God and His generous offer of forgiveness, received it. And so you see, God delayed their death because He is gracious.
Now, of course, this text has some problems theologically, because you know there are other texts that clearly tell us that God decrees the destruction of the wicked, and and this verse should not be interpreted to mean that everyone will be saved. It simply means that God does not delight in the death of the wicked. God is not the kind of person who enjoys seeing people lost, and so in this sense, He does not want them to perish.
Now, if you look at His eternal purposes, that's another story, and I won't even begin to get into that in this message. But the simple fact of the text is true and must be believed: that God does not delight in the death of the wicked, and therefore He's giving people time and opportunity to repent.
So, you skeptics out there. You who are saying, "Where is the promise of His coming?" Another conference on prophecy. Wait it, wait a moment. He hasn't come because of people like you. You have an opportunity yet to repent.
Well, God schedules it, and now I want you to notice the scoffers laugh at it. God schedules it, and God accomplishes it, and now is time for us. To have our breath taken from us. Look at what the text says as to what is going to happen. Verse ten: But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.
The heavens will disappear with a roar. The elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. Notice that day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.
But in keeping with His promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. Wow. When the apostle Paul says that the heavens will disappear with a roar, it's the only place in the New Testament where that particular Greek word occurs. It occurs frequently in secular Greek for things such as the crackling of fire.
Somebody translates this quite accurately: that the heavens will disappear with a crackling crash. Boom! It's gone. Going to be destroyed by fire. And when it says that the elements will melt.
With fervent heat, how hot do you think it has to get for the elements to melt? With fervent heat, now listen. This isn't just the elements you know that you memorized back in the days when you took chemistry. Clearly, by the next verse, what he's talking about is all of the heavens. I mean, we're talking about trillions of stars.
We're speaking of the sun, the moon, the planets, and it will be so hot that they will melt with fervent, unbelievable heat. And they will be gone. And when he says the earth and all of its works will be laid bare, that's very obvious. Obviously, if everything is going to be destroyed, why then indeed the earth will be destroyed as well. But what he means is that it will be laid bare.
There will be no place to hide. That's the impression.
Now you see, I believe that when Jesus Christ comes to Earth, the Earth will not be destroyed at that time. There will be a period of great tribulation. There will be a millennial reign yet of Jesus Christ upon this Earth. But after that period of time, before you begin the new heavens and the new Earth, and before eternity officially begins, there's going to be this total, unbelievable, cataclysmic judgment.
Now you say, well. That's unbelievable.
Well, you scoffer. Thank you for coming here today. I'm just reading the text. It is incredible. I do have to say.
Now, is that a big problem for God? Apparently, this earth was so cursed by sin that the whole universe, God says, is contaminated. I don't understand why the whole universe is contaminated, but God says I'm going to deal with the whole thing, and then He says. We're talking here in verse thirteen. We are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth.
Well, friends, remember we are talking about God.
Okay, that means He can destroy the present universe by fire. It also means that He can create a new one in a moment of time. Wow. Was just reading this morning in preparation for this Genesis chapter one. I believe it was on the fourth day that the stars were created.
This is incredible. It goes through what God did on the fourth day. He did this and he did this, and then, by the way, he created the stars also. All in a day's work. Isn't that amazing?
Ex nihilo, out of nothing. Boom. May the stars appear, and billions respond to his word.
Now, why study prophecy? Why study prophecy? Three life-changing, eternal lessons. Number one: prophecy gives us some lessons regarding God's judgment. It gives us some lessons regarding God's judgment.
What it does is it shows, for example, that for God, judgment delayed is not judgment denied. That may be true about man. We sometimes say that, not about God. The fact that God delays His judgment does not mean that judgment is not going to come with meticulous accuracy and swiftness. There's a verse in Ecclesiastes that's translated in the paraphrased version, and I'm giving you only a paraphrase of the paraphrase.
But the idea is this: that because God is sometimes slow to judge people, they think it's okay to do wrong. You see, they misinterpret the patience of God as the leniency of God. And what this passage of Scripture is teaching us is: just because God delays His judgment, it does not mean that it isn't coming to Him—a thousand years, or like two days, or one day. And so you see, they think it's all right to do wrong, my dear friend. Prophecy teaches us that judgment is coming, and it teaches us that the judgments of the past are small, painted on a very tiny canvas in in comparison to the judgments of the future.
You look, for example, of the the judgment of God and the destruction of the flood. We say that was a terrible judgment. I saw a discussion on this on television by some rather liberal people, and they were saying that that the flood makes God look bad. Look at what a meanie he is, my dear friend. The flood is nothing, nothing in comparison to what is coming, and and the prophecy will teach us that.
We're going to talk about judgment. It's sobering, sobering. We don't want to hear it, but it's in the scriptures. There's a second lesson that prophecy teaches us, and that it teaches us something about values. Values: the earth and all of its work shall be burned up; the elements will melt with fervent heat.
Wow! Let's take a tour. Let the tour begin in the Louvre in Paris. I was there 30 years ago. I know some of you probably.
Think that I wasn't able to walk thirty years ago, but I was hanging on to my mother's hand. You understand? No, I was able to be there on my own recognizance. I just remember hallway after hallway after hallway. Don't ask me what I saw.
I have no idea what I saw, but a hallway after a hallway after hallway of paintings. Beautiful works of art, famous works of art, protected works of art, suddenly, someday, gone. Nothing, no ashes even left to say they once were here. Then we go to Rome and we see its opulence and we see its marvelous history and we think of the years and the generations and the hundreds of years it took to build that civilization and to build all of those marvelous, marvelous works of art and wealth and churches and and all of those things gone. Then we go over to India and we go to the Taj Mahal and some of the beautiful things built there, and gone.
Then we go to the Far East and we see all of the various temples that have been built to worship the different gods. Gone, gone, melted with fervent heat. And then we come to the United States, and we look at Washington with all of its history, and all of its monuments, and all of its greatness, and all of the desire of some presidents to make their mark in history. And it's gone; nothing left. Then we walk into your home, and before we get into the home, we stop at the garage and we look at that car that you liked so much.
You would not buy a secondhand car; that was beneath you. You said, "I want this one, even if I have to borrow money to get it." And you went into debt over that thing, of all things, and it's gone. And you think back over to the first time it had a scratch in the Jewel parking lot, and how upset you were about the person who backed into that car. Hey, does it matter now? Big deal now?
Uh-uh, it's gone. Then we walk into your house and we see the beautiful furniture and all the things that you were kind of proud of. You even had some neighbors over after you got your house renovated because you wanted to show it off.
Well, my friend, the furniture is gone, and then you go to the computer. Parents will be glad to know this. It's gone, and the internet, and it's gone, and the books that have been written. Lord, gone. Help me, help me.
Gone. Nothing to show for it. No ashes left to say it was once here. The earth and all of its elements, and the whole universe. Burned up, gone.
You say, "Well, Pastor Luther, what is going to survive the fire? Is anything going to come through?" Yeah, yeah. Listen, let me ask you a question. You make a promise to me before I tell you what I'm going to tell you. Will you promise me that if I tell you what's going to survive the fire, that that will become your consuming passion till the day you die?
Because is it not true that value is based on permanence? If I can tell you what it is that's going to go through the fire and come out okay on the other side, is that to which you are going to yield your life and say, "So help me God, these are my values." It only makes sense. You're a sensible person. You wouldn't be here today if you weren't. Occasionally, we've had some.
Well, never mind. Let me show you what's going to come through the fire. Number one, the Word of God. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away. All flesh is as grass, and the glory of man is the flower of the grass.
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Wow! The word of God is going to make it through the fire. People are going to make it through the fire. Because whether saved or unsaved, at that point they will all have indestructible bodies that will not be consumed by fire.
Because they shall live forever, either in hell where there is judgment commensurate with what they knew and what they did with what they knew, or in the glories of heaven. For it says that we shall be with him for ever and ever. People will make it through the fire. People matter. Of course, the angels and the demons will make it through the fire.
God will make it through the fire, and then there's something else. You say, "Well, will every work be burned up when the Louvre is gone and the Chicago Art Museum is gone, and when the books are gone, and when all of the things that you worked on are gone, and the CDs are gone, and the..." Is there anything that's going to survive that we've done? Yes, yes. The acts of kindness done in the name of the Lord—they'll survive the fire, because the Scripture says that the things that we give and so forth, we can have treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves cannot break through and steal, and where fire does not melt those good things with fervent heat. It's really true.
I know it's a little, little jingle that we sometimes say very lightly, but it is really true. Only one life twill soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last. Everything else gone. Those antiques that you worried about.
Those that you argued with your brothers and sisters after your parents died—what difference does it now make who had them? Because it's gone. It's gone. Why not live your life depending on that which is going to come through the fire and come through successfully? And finally, there's a third lesson.
There's a lesson about judgment. There's a lesson about values. There's a lesson about holy living. Notice it says, verse twelve. As you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming, that day will bring about the destruction of the heavens and the earth.
Actually, I meant to read verse eleven. What kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives. We don't even like that word holiness because it's. It's so contrary to what we experience, and yet there should be no burning passion that is greater than that to say, "I want to live a holy and a godly life" in light of the fact that all these things will be destroyed.
What manner of men and women ought you to be? Verse fourteen. Then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with Him. Why? Because nothing else really matters.
That's why nothing else will survive the fire. There was a film that was made about the return of Christ that someone told me about. I don't think I saw the film, but in this film. Apparently, there was a house that was burning, and it was on fire. And there were no fire engines around.
The fire was just roaring on the one side of the house. On the other side of the house, in one of the apartments, people were—they were renovating, and the fire was roaring. And they kept painting. And somebody was on a step ladder and needing some help to put up some wallpaper. And Somebody else, you know, was scrubbing the floor because they wanted to put in new tiling, and the place is on fire.
My dear friend, I want you to know, the fire is coming. You say, "Well, Pastor Lutzer, don't get too worked up, as of yet, we don't smell smoke." No, we don't smell the smoke. But remember, the Lord is a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. And He may come in the next hour from His standpoint; it may be a long period of time from ours. But the point is that the fire is coming, the place is burning.
All that the problem is, we don't know exactly when it's going to get to us, but it's happening. And in light of that. What manner of people are we to be in all manner of conversation and godliness and holy living? And that's why you study prophecy. I can conclude no better than to quote one of the favorite verses of D.L.
Moody. He said that one of his life verses was, "The earth passes away, and all of its lusts." But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. Only what comes through the fire really matters. A lesson about judgment, a lesson about values, and a lesson about holy living.
Some of us should go home this afternoon and get on our knees and stay there for an hour or two. Until we've been cleansed by God, ready to live in light of the final hour, will you join me as we pray, our Father? Today, we want to thank you for your Word, which is so, so awesome in its scope, so arresting in its teaching, so sobering in its truth. And we always fear that we hear things that we walk away from and aren't changed by. Help us in these moments, Lord, to be changed by Your Holy Word.
To believe that indeed, because You are King and God, and You are returning, help us to live in light of that. We ask and make whatever changes in our lives need to be made for Your glory and honor. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. My friend, this is Pastor Luther.
Nothing is more sobering than the recognition that we shall live for all of eternity, and how short time is in relationship to it. Let me ask you this question: When it comes to prophecy, I'm frequently asked, "Do you believe in the rapture?" Well, of course, I believe in the rapture. I hope that you believe in the rapture. The question is not whether or not the Bible teaches the rapture. The question is what is the sequence?
Where does it fit? I'm holding in my hands a very special book entitled "When Jesus Returns," and the editor is Jan Markell, who I came to know many years ago, and she has compiled a list of authors. Who have written about the rapture? Yes, but about many different aspects of prophecy. Very quickly, for a gift of any amount, we're making it available for you.
Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at one eight eight eight two one eight ninety three thirty seven. Let me give you that again: rtwoffer.com or call us at one eight eight eight two one eight ninety three thirty seven. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life. Pastor Irwin Lutzer has concluded a message on why study prophecy.
The first in a series on seven signs of Christ's return.
Next time on Running to Win, we look at the first sign: the rebirth of Israel. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Irwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
