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Thank you, Bible. Turn to the book of 2 Peter, Chapter 3, 2 Peter, Chapter 3. The second Peter chapter three talks about several places about the promises of God. Remember in chapter one it talks about the divine promises, the precious promises of the Lord. See there in chapter one, just look at that verse where it talks about the precious promises of the Lord. and there’s a precious faith and there’s a divine power and in verse 4 whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises.

Now one of the greatest promises that God said would take place is the one that He is coming back again. You see there in verse 4 where He says in chapter 3 and saying where is the promise of His coming. In other words, even the world knows that Christ promised to come back. They’ve heard it all over the place. Christ is coming. Somebody told me today that Christ came back and raptured out some church. So there’s always somebody. But remember, when Christ comes and takes us out of here, it will be quite a deal.

But anyway, He’s talking about the promises of the Lord. Where is the promise of His coming? He calls the promise He’s coming back. But the Bible tells us these are precious promises, great and precious promises. Now He kept the first promise about Him coming just like He said. Now He says He’s coming back again. But He says there’s going to be scoffers in the last eight mockers making fun that He’s not going to come. But Jesus is coming back and he could come back at any time.

He could come back today. And the Lord has designed this in such a way that we would always be thinking about him coming back at any moment, any moment. So if you don’t believe he could come back at any moment, you have something wrong in your theology. He is and he did promise. But now notice what he said. Here in verse four, where is the promise of his coming? I also want you to take your Bible, look there in 2 Peter chapter 3 and look in verse 13, nevertheless, we according to, and here’s those two words again, his promise, his promise.

We’re supposed to believe the promise of God because what we believe about his promises makes a difference on how we live. That’s why he says in the last part of that one verse, verse 11 chapter 3, seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness? What kind of a person should we be in this life because of his promise? But when you lose sight of his promise, you lose the motivation for living godly.

You have to believe that it’s true. I am going to stand to the judgments of the Christ. That is a truth. That’s a promise. And that I’m gonna have to give an account. That’s a promise. So we have an appointment and we’re going to keep it. I was at a restaurant yesterday and I Had this waitress come up there and I was eating a little bowl of oatmeal I like the old mill. Old Mill is good for you. At least once a day.

Anyway, she came up to the table and I I says ma’am I says um I’m going to be looking at you about a little over a thousand years from now. We’re going to be seeing each other again. And she looked at me. I said, in about a little over a thousand years, we’re going to see each other again. And I said, Nitza would really, really help me out. Because I’m going to have to give an account of why I never told you how to have eternal life.

And I said, it would only take a minute. I said it would really take a burden off my shoulders. She said, I got a minute. So they had a little thing there with all the sugars in it. You know the sweet and the load on that. I said, let this represent sin. And I went through and explained the gospel. When I got through, I said, does that make sense? She said, yes, it does. I said, will you trust Jesus Christ right now as your Savior?

She said, yes, I will. I said, boy, you have really took a load off my shoulders. I really appreciate this. Thank you so much. So anyway, it was just an way of opening the conversation because you know, you don’t know how much time you’re going to have. It’s because you got some promises in the word of God that it’s gonna be worth it all It’s gonna be worth it. So anyway, he says what kind of a person is supposed to be so we know there’s promises that God is made There’s people that don’t believe the promises, but you and I are supposed to he says watch out for the mockers Because they’ll cause you not to believe the promises of God not to believe what God’s word said So look there in verse one.

He says in verse one the second epistle beloved I now write unto you and both what I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance.” See, like I said before, sometimes the preacher doesn’t have to give you something new all the time because anything that you learn has already been in the book for 2,000 years. So any great truth you learn from the word, it’s already been there 2,000 years old. But we’re supposed to be reminded. So the preacher likes to take the pot and stir it, stir it up your mind, trying to get you to think about the things that are important.

Otherwise, did you know that if you didn’t go to church and Sunday school and study the way, did you know you drift a little bit, but you don’t even know what’s happening? You drift slowly and you have to what you don’t even know where you are. You don’t know what you’re doing. You don’t know what you stand for anymore. You don’t know what you believe anymore. Stay faithful. So he says in verse two that you may be mindful of the words you see there in the one word The mind stir up your remember the mind is where the battle is There is a battle for the mind And so whenever a false teacher gives you a false message.

He’s trying to get your mind The Lord is trying to get your mind Look there in 2 Corinthians in chapter 10, I want you to see this, this is a very good verse, 2 Corinthians in chapter 10. Look there in verse 3, verse 3. 2 Corinthians 10, verse 3 says, for though we walk in the flesh, or it means in the body, we do not war after the flesh. He says in verse four, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, mighty through God to the pulling down of stronghold.

But where are these strongholds? Look what he said in verse five, casting down imaginations up here in your mind, casting down imaginations and get to every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. So the reason you study the Word of God is because you can’t trust your mind, you can’t trust the way you think, you can’t trust your logic. And a lot of people got that. Everybody’s got opinions, they’re like Harlan Pitts, everybody got them, they all stink.

Then you have the Word of God, so So you study the word of God so that the word of God can find all of these imaginations and these strongholds that lead you astray and it can take all of those things and cast them down. Look what he says. Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. If it’s against the knowledge of God, you don’t want to walk that way. You don’t want to believe that way.

Get this. bringing into captivity every thought that’s your mind. In other words, to capture my mind, to capture my thoughts. Where I can think about the things that God wants me to think about so that I candetail the thing God wants me to do and get what he says in the captivity, every thought to the what, obedience of Christ. So we study the Bible so that we can get this other junk out of our mind and think about what God wants us to think about so that we can have victory in our Christian life.

Bring it into subjection. Let’s see what he said in verse eight. And having an a readiness to revenge all disobedience. How do you revenge disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled? You see, when you do what is right, warr you just took vengeance upon your disbelief, upon everything and every thought that was againstioxid, your obedience to God takes its revenge against that which is wrong.aughtered. So that’s why your mind is so important. Go back here to 2 Peter chapter 3.

So we know that he says, I want to stir up your mind. In verse two, that you 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 day scoffers walking after their own lusts, mockers, people that will make fun of you. Now, if you try to witness on the job, you’re going to have people that’s going to mock you a little bit and make fun of you.

Some people can’t take the heat so they stay out of the kitchen. Some people just revel in it. You know, there’s two things I never argue about, and that’s religion and politics. That’s all there is. One’s how you think, and one’s how you live. That’s religion and politics. You might as well just jump into it and have yourself some fun. But no truth, and always battle with truth. Remember the Bible says that Paul disputed with them? argued disputed with them Paul did So he says here and verse 4 and say and this is what they say Where’s the promise of his coming?

For since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the evolution Is it creation? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it does say that All things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creator. In other words, nothing’s changed. Everything’s the same. Nothing’s going on. All of his promises, don’t believe him. But he says, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Did I make a promise back there with a man named Noah that there was going to be a flood?

And it’d be 120 years that there’s going to be rain, and I was going to destroy everybody. wasn’t in the art, did I keep my word? I kept this word. So you see, they’re ignorant, willingly ignorant of truth. We got people like that today trying to rewrite history because they don’t like the way our founding fathers laid out the Constitution. Now they’re trying to find everything wrong with our founding fathers so that we don’t have to believe the Constitution because it’s just a piece of junk.

It is not a living document. It was written. It’s stated. It’s solid. It doesn’t have to be messed with. But we have people today that don’t like that because it grants to us freedoms. And they don’t like us having all the strength. See, government don’t trust you. They don’t trust us. So they got to control us. That’s why they don’t want you really to be educated in school. They want to teach you what to think, but not how to think.

Because see, you can control animals and herd cows and so forth like that because see, they don’t think. Well, you got to get people and you got to dumb them down where they can’t think for themselves. They don’t know the Constitution. They don’t know their rights. They don’t know when you’re ignorant, you’re easy to enslave. You cannot enslave free people that are intelligent, that no truth. Because they know truth and they could spot it. But there’s other people that don’t know.

So he says here, all things continue. He says in verse by for this, they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of God, the heavens were of old, the earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the world that then was been overflowed with water perished. When he says, where by the world that then was, that’s past tense. But the heavens and the earth which are now, that’s present tense. By the same worder kept in store, reserved under fire, that’s future.

So you have past, present and future. God knows what he’s doing. And God keeps his word and God is not slack concerning his promise as other men count slackness. In other words, time doesn’t mean that much with God like it does with us. In other words, we think of a thousand years ago, a long time. God says this just like that. See what he says in verse 7, but 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 in perdition of ungodly men.

word the first time, gonna keep his word the second time. But you gotta believe the promises of God. So in verse 80 says, but be leaven, be not ignorant. Now they up there, they’re willingly ignorant, but he says to his brother, don’t be ignorant. He says this one thing that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. This is why some people believe that there’s a good possibility that from Adam and Eve to the flood, you know about 2,000 years and from flood to the cross of 2,000 years and it’s been almost 2,000 years since six days.

And we know that the millennial rain upon the earth is going to be a day. That’s the Sabbath day. You got six days, rest on the Sabbath day, 6,000 years, you got seven. And so it’s a day of rest. So you’ve got a week and there’s a lot of truth probably to it. But if it is true, we are living at the end of the sixth day, which means that Christ is supposed to come back very soon. See the tribulation period, the seven years tribulation period is part of the sixth day.

The seventh day is totally separate period of time. But anyway, he says he that this world is being reserved because there’s going to be a fire at the end of it. Is there a fire coming? God’s going to renovate this earth by fire. It’s going to be one big old ball if I go and burn everything up. It’s everything in this world is going to be consumed. Everything can burn up. And talking about global warming. Now I have no idea where Al Gore is going to be at this time.

I don’t know. But anyway, look what he says here in verse 8, but beloved be not ignorant of this one thing, one day is with the Lord is a thousand years and a thousand years of the day. So time is not the same as it is with us. It looks like a long time for us. When God says, I’m coming back, we say a thousand years, we’ve been waiting two days, two thousand years. That’s a long time. He says, but God is not slack concerning the promises.

God will keep his word. Let’s see that in verse 9. The Lord is not slack concerning in his promise as some men counseled. But his long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repent. God wants every person to change his mind and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to have eternal life. God given us a chance to reach as many people as we choose to reach. Wouldn’t it be great if we could reach the world from this church right here?

Look there in verse 10. Verse 10 says, but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. Now this day of the Lord I believe is a reference to the tribulation period because he’s talking here about the thief and the night. The thief at the night is when it comes for the rapture. That’s when it comes in the night. See we are children of the day, church age. The night is the tribulation period. What separates two days a night.

And so when Christ comes and takes us out of here, the thief in the night, the specific day of the Lord. Now get what he says to him. He says, “‘Which the heaven shall pass away with a great noise in the element shall melt with fervor and heat? Now you have going from one of where we are to what’s going to happen. All this is based on the promises of God. There’s going to be the thief in the night.

When Christ comes back and judges the earth, then you’ve still got a thousand year reign. Then He’s talking about the renovation of the earth by fire. It’s kind of like in one verse, all the things that are coming. He said, I just want to stir up your remembrance because I want you to live godly. And so he says here, and the elements shall melt with fervor and heat. Now many believe this is talking about the cracking apart of the atoms, the loud noise, the fervor and heat, the cracking apart, the melting, all that stuff.

The earth also and the works that are there in shall be burned up, burned up. So that doesn’t happen right there at the end of tribulation period, but it does happen whenever God brings down fire and the earth is renovated by fire. We’ll see you in verse 11. See and then that all these things shall be dissolved. Talk about the earth itself. What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy behavior? That word conversation refers to also not what you say, but also what you do, your manner of life and godliness.

So God says that we should live a separated life, we should be godly because of His promises. He is coming back just like He said He’s coming back. Now He’s going to take us out of here. And I think we ought to live like we believe He’s coming back soon. He says in verse 12, the way you live is because of what you’re looking for. See, look, looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God. in the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, the element shall melt with fervent heat.

Nevertheless we, according to his promises.” Look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. So we’re looking beyond this life. We’re looking beyond the tribulation period. We’re looking way beyond the thousand year reign upon the year. We’re looking past the great white throne judgment and lo and behold, there it is. The new heavens and a new earth. See, we’re kind of like cheating. We’re looking at the end results. We’re looking at where we’re going. Now, can we believe the promises of God and how that I live my life?

life and then on is going to affect what I have when I get there. You see, trusting Christ is Savior gets you there, but it doesn’t give you anything there. Rewards must be earned. Position must be earned. You’re doing that by how you handle all of your individual problems today. And remember this, you’ll be judged according to your faithfulness in your position that God gave you. God is going to reward you accordingly to your faithfulness to him. And you may have a position that some man down here thinks he’s going to have him.

He may be down on the bottom. I mean, we’re all in heaven, but you don’t have the same position just like he said about the stars. They all glory with different glory. In other words, they’re all stars, but they don’t have the same radiance, but they’re all stars. And so how God’s going to do all of that? I have no clue. I don’t really care. I’m only telling you what He said He’s going to do, and that it will be worth it.

See what He says there in verse 13? Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, you ought to underline those words, His promise. Look for new heavens and a new word. What? Because He promised. Now we should always sometimes get folks upon what, you know, the promise of some little promise down here. You know, he’s going to give me this and give me that and take it, take it that. Remember, with Israel, God promised them wealth of the land and help in the land.

Put none of those diseases upon them. God didn’t promise that to us in the New Testament. You see, in the New Testament, God has promised us all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies. So, see, we look at something different. Now, we can apply a lot of the Old Testament principles to our life, and it can improve the quality of our life. But there’s many of the promises God made to them that does not apply to us. Now not all of them, but you have to look at them and see what they’re talking about.

And I believe that you can kind of figure out some of the things. Just like when he says, if my people, which are called by my name shall humble themselves and call upon the Lord and forsake their evil ways, I will heal their land. Now that’s a promise that God made to Israel, but He made it to Solomon when Solomon was praying about the dedication of the temple. Now we can apply that, but God didn’t apply that to America.

That doesn’t mean if we do this, then God will spare America. We have no promise of that, but I can apply that and say that we ought to do it anyway, whether He delivers us or not, we ought to do right. Get what He says. He makes a statement here in verse 14, where for it, 11, seeing that he look for such things. And you’ll notice the words, we keep coming, look, look, look. You see, what you’re lookingvelope depends on what you consider the validity of the promises that God made.

He said, be diligent that you may be found of him in peace without spot, spot and blameless. That ain’t perfect, but when you do something wrong, you correct it. You do something wrong, you believe you correct it. Don not do something wrong and keep going wrong. As a child of God, we can always correct things. In verse 15, an account that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation. The reason that God is so long suffering and it seems like it is taken forever is to give us opportunities to win more people to Christ.

And yet we may not be taking advantage of that opportunity. Isn’t that they were able to reach the known world in Christ’s day. And here we have everything and we still can’t do it. Still people that have languages, never have been reached, never have heard the gospel. So this is why it’s so important. When you trust Christ as your Savior, God saves you. From hell gives you eternal life and you’re going to heaven whenever you die. But when you trust the Lord, let’s see, you trust the Lord as your Savior today.

Well, God may not take you to heaven yet. He might leave you here for another 10, 15, 20 years. So there’s things in the word of God that God wants to teach you of what He wants you to do. Why did He leave you here? And so God says it because of how I want you to live and which I want you to live for. In the last part of verse 15, even as our beloved brother Paul, also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you.

As also in all his epistles, speak unto 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 to other scriptures. But with their own destruction. In other words, there’s some things in the scriptures that’s hard to understand. But when you don’t study the word of God, you don’t become strong enough. You never understand some great truths. And it’ll affect your life. That’s why you want to study as much as you possibly can.

Now look at the last two verses very quickly. He says, ye therefore be loved it. So he’s talking to those who know the Lord. Seeing ye know these things. I’m trying to stir up your mind. You know these things before. Be where, lest ye also, be led away with the air of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. So you don’t fall from salvation, but you can fall from your steadfastness, and you can be led away. Can a Christian be led away?

Yes. Can you get to the place where you’re not as faithful as you used to be? You’re not as stable as you used to be. Yes, it’s possible. And so the devil has his ministers, God has his ministers. You better pick wisely. Who you choose. It’s not necessarily the best church to go to just because a preacher is real nice. I’d rather be mean and tell the truth than to be nice and tell a lie. I’m nice though instead.

But I’d want you to believe the scriptures because it’s really what the Scriptures say so that you can be strong like God wants you to be and get to being led away with the era of the wicked. So a Christian, a believer, can be led astray what they call backslide. Now generally the word backslide is a reference in the Old Testament like to the nation of Israel. Most Christians have never gone far enough forward to slide back but most people believe that backsliding means you now you’ve lost your salvation, Now you’re going to hell.

No, I don’t believe that. The Scriptures don’t teach that. But once you trust Christ as Savior, you can fall from your steadfastness, but you’re still His child. God may have to chasten you. Whoop you a little bit, but you’re still His child. Look in verse 18, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Growing in grace, that means learning how to be merciful. Wasn’t God merciful to you and I? Didn’t God show us grace when we didn’t deserve it?

Growing in grace is whenever you can show mercy to other people, not vengeance, mercy. And you can bestow grace upon other people. Doing things for people that then would deserve it, that you do it anyway. And when they wrong you, you can show them mercy. Grow in that. That’s That’s a sign of maturity. But if you’re one that’s always got, I’m gonna get even if it’s the last thing I do, you’re not growing too strong in grace. You’re just growing in meanness.

Wouldn’t that be pathetic? For God to let you live. And all you did was grow up to be a mean old man, or a mean old woman. Let’s pray, shall we? You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing toll free 1-800-576-3771.

That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our homepage. If you’re in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 1030 and at six o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org.

Thanks for joining us on Bibleline and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Hot up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon and just keep looking up.