Eyewitness Testimony of Christ’s Glory

Transcript

GR1960
07/17/2016
Eyewitness Testimony of Christ’s Glory
II Peter 1:16-18
Gil Rugh

We are going to 2 Peter chapter 1, the Apostle Peter writing his last letter, writing it in the face of his imminent death as that is exactly what it says. Verse 14 of chapter 1: “I know that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent,” could happen at any time.

It tells you something of the dire circumstances in which Peter is writing this letter. Tradition says he died at the hands of Nero so when he writes to encourage believers he is writing out of his experience as the Spirit of God is using him as a spokesman. He’s encouraging them, exhorting them, reminding them of the provision God has made for them in verses 3 and 4 and in all of this Peter is well aware that this sovereign God who has brought such great salvation enabled him to become a partaker of the divine nature, has the power to intervene in what humanly speaking is such a disastrous situation with such a godless man as Nero, bringing such suffering and hardship to believers and being such a vile man that even his own people are going to turn against and drive him to suicide but Peter is writing to encourage the believers.

He is not in any way morose, sad, disappointed, discouraged because I am going to be martyred soon but rather he is reminding them of all God has given them in His grace. He is encouraging them in verses 5 to 7 “Continue to grow and mature in those character qualities” and as they do so they are assured of a glorious entry into the glorious kingdom that Christ shall someday establish on the earth.

So with the power and might of Rome and the vileness of the leader of Rome, Peter doesn’t lose perspective. God is sovereign and someday He will establish His kingdom on the earth under the rule of His Son and we will enter that kingdom. So be growing, be maturing, and be developing in your godly character in every way.

He told them he is going to continue with whatever days he has remaining. You know when God says your death is imminent, you don’t know whether it is days, weeks, will it stretch to months? You live every day expecting this may be the last day but he says “Whatever time I have I will continue to remind you of what God has done for you in Christ, of these foundational truths so that after I am gone they have been so built into your life, filling your mind that I am not here continuing to remind you. You won’t forget.” He talked about the importance of this. We fill our mind with the Word, we go over it again and again and again so as so to speak it becomes second nature for us to respond Biblically, to think Biblically.

Now, that being the case, what he is going to do is turn their attention to the foundation that he is continually reminding them of, the truths of the Word of God. Everything that he is saying is premised on the fact God has revealed Himself, God has made Himself known. Talk about His Word is truth, “heaven and earth will pass away, My Word will not pass away,” Jesus said. God has put His very character behind His Word that He is the God who cannot lie so every detail of everything He has said must come true but the question always comes, how do we know for sure this is so?

Peter you are writing this, you are reinforcing this, you are emphasizing this. How do we know for sure it is true? And really he is going to complete the chapter by giving you two evidences, two foundational pillars to assure them that this is indeed the Word from God. The eye witness testimony of the apostles, particularly here Peter, and then the testimony of the prophets that have gone on before. The Word is seen as being fulfilled, having been fulfilled. These are confirmations that this indeed is God’s Word.

He doesn’t argue on the basis of his personal experience in the sense, well, you asked me how I know He lives, He lives within my heart and there is an internal confirmation but many people give testimonies out of false religions. I met a man who had one time professed to be an evangelical Christian who had converted to Roman Catholicism and he is giving testimony of how my life is so much richer and deeper and my relationship with God is so much greater now that I have Mary as my representative. Well that testimony is not a testimony of truth!

So we want to be careful of our testimony. We share our testimonies and God uses are testimonies but that is not the foundation of why we believe the truth of the Word of God. There is an objective truth that stands outside of us. Peter is not going to give the testimony of his own conversation as proof and how God has worked and changed his life and brought him to this point. He is going to come to something objective that he testifies to that he has experienced in that sense but it is an experience that is objective and outside of himself where God’s revelation is made clear because the first thing that he is saying is, “Our faith is established on the foundation of the apostles.” And Peter is an apostle. “What I am writing about Jesus Christ stands true because I was an eye witness of these things. They happened in time in history. It is not a subjective, inner experience I went through. This is objective truth and God has made it known to me.”

Come back to Ephesians 2. We mentioned this is our last study, the book of Ephesians chapter 2. I was thinking I might do a study of the book of Ephesians but I noticed that two or three of you are going that in Sunday School. So since you are out ahead of me and I don’t like to be corrected I am going to pick a different book maybe so we will see.

Ephesians chapter 2, verse 20: “Having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone.” That is what we are building upon as we will see the revelation of truth given to the apostles and prophets so Peter is going to give testimony as an apostle, the truth God has made known to him.

Come back to Peter and the first evidence is the apostles are eye witnesses of some of these things that confirm that Jesus Christ is indeed the Son of God. So we pick up in verse 16. You will note we begin with that preposition ‘for.’ This is connecting to what he has said in verse 15: “And I will be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind. I am going to be continually reminding you,” verse 12 and 13 “so you can call them to mind.” Why? “For the one who was the eye witness will be gone but the record that he has left will remain.” And that is what we have. We don’t have eye witnesses anymore but we have the record that God has directed the eye witnesses to record, the recipients of special revelation to record.

So we did not follow cleverly devised tales. The word ‘tales’ we just bring it over into English is the word ‘myths,’ tales, myth, something that is not real. We are talking about something that was made up, a fictional account and they were already cleverly devised fictional accounts circulating around.

In chapter 2 he will talk about the false teachers who introduced destructive heresies. In chapter 3 he will talk about in verse 3, “in the last days mockers will come and they will have twisted things and Christ isn’t coming back again.” And well, all these lies are just made up tales, created in men’s minds but Peter is saying “We didn’t follow these cleverly devised tales.” And these tales, these myths, these fictions that take the truth and twist it and what can become confusing to believers as we often talk about is, there is truth in what they say but the error is so mixed in that it is a lie and the truth is undermined, not supported. That word ‘myth’ is used a number of times to refer to things that Christians ought to avoid.

Come back to I Timothy, chapter 1, I Timothy chapter 1 and verse 3. Paul said he left Timothy in Ephesus, the end of verse 3: “So that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines nor pay attention to myths.” It is the same word as ‘tales,’ these fictional things that men make up. Where do these things come from? They come from the imagination of fallen men. They come from demons influencing the mind and thinking of corrupted individuals but here you have to have Timothy there in the church at Ephesus to put a stop to teaching truth that has been fictionalized, corrupted. Some of it by Jewish teachers who claim to have believed in Christ and believed the Gospel but also have added their own things to it, continues to be the pattern of the devil as we will see as we move further in to this letter.

“You must instruct them not to teach strange doctrines, not to be paying attention to myths, endless genealogies, those things which really hinder growth. They don’t enable you to continue to go forward in your faith and walk with Christ.”

Look in chapter 4 of I Timothy. The chapter opens us, “The Spirit says ‘that in the latter times some will fall away from the faith paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrine of demons.’” What a scary thing. These are people who have claimed to be believers and now depart from the faith, turn away from the faith.

Down in verse 6: “You point these things out to the brethren to be a good servant of Jesus Christ. They are nourished on the words of faith, of the sound doctrine, healthy teaching which you have been following. Have nothing to do with worldly fables.” Another word that translates that is the same word we are talking about, the word we have as myths. It is a fable. It is a tale. It is a myth but don’t be deluded into thinking this is something obvious because it is corrupting.

Some people are going to fall away by going after those things that have really added fiction to truth. We often talk about you add a little bit of poison to a gallon of milk, the milk is poisoned. You put the right poison in and it can have disastrous effects. We underestimate the seriousness of it and the importance of being faithful to truth.

“Have nothing to do with these worldly fables, myths, fit only for old women.” Now that is not a put down of old women. I happen to be married to one but they are grandmother tales you know like a grandmother would sit down and tell a story to a grandchild like you know, our Briar Rabbit story or you know those kinds of things and now we have the little books and they are little stories that entertain children. That is what he means here.

Paul puts it in that kind of category. You know when you have done this with the Word of God all you have is a made up story. You have corrupted the Gospel of grace. You have made it worthless. Don’t have anything to do with it. Would you have to tell them that? You do. Christians are constantly, it seems, drawn to the new and the novel. I mean that is why we have endless new ideas for the church and what the church ought to be and how the church has to change. What is that all? We are entrusted to communicate the unchanging Word of God. It is not a different program than Peter had. Otherwise we are saying the Spirit of God was wrong. Peter needed to realize that the next generation is going to be looking for something different than he was doing but God’s plan doesn’t change from generation to generation; 2,000 years later what are we doing? We are trying to understand and grasp the Word of God as He gave it not looking for the inventions of men to supplement it, to alter it. It takes discipline. That’s why he goes on to say here, “Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.”

Come to 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 3. He encourages Timothy to be faithful with the Word and then verse 3: “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.” The word sound is the word ‘healthy.’ Words like we get hygiene. Healthy, the word doctrine, is the Greek word for ‘teaching,’ healthy teaching, spiritually healthy, so sound doctrine. Not a bad translation. They want to have their ears tickled. Now note. There is a time when people won’t want to hear sound doctrine. You know I have heard that all my life. Give me something more helpful, more alive, shorter for sure and what are we looking for? They won’t endure. They won’t put up you know. We encourage our teachers to teach the Word faithfully but if people don’t come and listen you know what happens? It dies out.

I have shared with you in previous messages in England in the latter part of the 1800’s the preachers that we are still reading today were preaching. Now understand you can be a mega church in England if you have 300 people in an evangelical church. What has happened? People just lost interest.

You know he is writing here regarding believers. “The time will come when they will not endure healthy teaching.” Well the world never did endure it. Who is he talking about? The people of God losing interest. We see that exemplified in Israel in the Old Testament when they just didn’t want to hear it from the prophets. They just lost interest. So God was going to send a famine of the Word of God so warning. “They accumulate for themselves teachers” and you come to verse 4. “They will turn away their ears from the truth, will turn aside to myths,” same word. We see it translated ‘tales,’ ‘fables,’ ‘myths;’ this adulteration as the angels of God look and they must be dumbfounded. Here the people of God should be growing in the Word of God and they are looking for somebody to make up stories for them.

There is a whole line of preaching now to help you be a better story teller because stories ae what people respond to. So we want story teaching, preaching. Not too far from what we are being warned about. Don’t sit for made-up stories. Now they would say “Oh, we are just learning to communicate the Word of God in a more interesting, helpful way” because people aren’t seriously interested to be grappling with the truth.

Having taken it into their minds you have to think, you have to concentrate, you have to focus. Why do you have the old woman’s tales, the grandmothers telling the stories to the kids because they are not interested in detail and they are not ready for that and now God’s people, you know, I just want to go and be able to relax and find something helpful to me presented in maybe a memorable way and interest is lost. You know what? It doesn’t matter who comes to this pulpit and how faithful he is in teaching the Word after I am gone. If nobody comes the church will close, right? It will just be, well, he was preaching but he was preaching to the walls. Nobody showed up. That is why most churches don’t have Sunday night services; nobody comes and when nobody comes you close it.

A relative was a pastor on the West coast, a Bible teacher, 3,000 people on Sunday morning he says, “Gil, you know how many I have on Sunday night, 100.” So they closed up. Now I wonder, we keep backing up because you know church interferes with life if you are looking at it from the worlds prospective and Sunday is the day we do everything now. All the athletic things for the kids moving to Sunday; everything going. Pretty soon, let’s push it back to Saturday night. If we can fit it in where it doesn’t interfere with life how are we going to seriously grapple with the Word of God? How are we going to fill out minds with this and be struggling with it to understand it better and work through it? I just don’t have time for that. Well the devil doesn’t have to have you want to do something in and of itself that is bad, just fill our lives with things we don’t have time for that and I don’t like to read and I don’t like to concentrate on things like that. Where do we go? “The time will come when they will not endure healthy teaching.”

I have been blessed to be able to minister the Word in the context of the day when people have responded to truth, when believers have responded to truth. I wonder about the next generation if the Lord doesn’t come. Who are those Bible teachers going to teach? Empty churches soon close. So warn them, “They will turn their ears away from the truth. They will turn aside to myths but you be sober, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” “They will turn aside to myths.”

One more while we are in these Pastoral Epistles, Titus chapter 1, verse 14. Verse 13: “This testimony is true.” This is to Titus who was in Crete trying to get the churches established and focused on what they ought to be. Verse 13: And the testimony about the failures of the believers in Crete he says are true. “Reprove them severely so that they may be sound in the faith, not paying attention to Jewish myths, commandments of men who turn away from the truth.”

They had a great problem in the early church as you are aware were Jews who came in and they had all this knowledge of the Old Testament and when they made a profession of Christ and now were saying that “when we bring the Law into this and have the mixture of the truth concerning Christ and the requirements of the Law then we have… That is what Paul is saying, “that is a myth, that is a fable.” Now error always has a certain appeal. What do you say? False teaching has a way of grabbing on to people. So the warning.

Come back to Peter. These are cleverly devised myths. I mean don’t underestimate the devil. Don’t think he is not able to delude and trick. You see how adept he was with Scripture when he tempted Christ. When Christ quoted the Scripture to him Satan could come back with a Scripture and the less knowledgeable Christians are the more susceptible they will be. This is why Peter is hammering this and says, “I am not going to stop repeating myself and reminding you.” The devil is clever and he is relentlessly clever and pretty soon adjustments are made.

“We did not follow cleverly devised myths” in verse 16 of 2 Peter 1 “When we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” “When we made known to you,” and that is another word. That is used often in the New Testament to refer to revelation from God. Making something known is revealing revelation from God so we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was telling them the truth that God had revealed to him concerning the coming of Christ.

Come back just see this word in Romans chapter 16, Romans chapter 16. Now remember while he is doing this is so they will have confidence in the truth that will be left with them. They will have the letter, the second letter of Peter for example along with the first letter to hold on to, to make copies of, to pass on recognizing this is revelation from God, “Came one whose testimony is one as an eyewitness.” In Romans chapter 16 Paul in verse 25 talks about “Now to Him who is able to establish you according to My Gospel, the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery.” This is truth revealed from God that had not been revealed before. So the mystery is it was kept secret in long ages past but now has been manifested and by the Scriptures of the prophets according to the commandment of the eternal God (now note this) has been made known to all the nations.” Now God has added to the revelation of the Old Testament and through the apostles and New Testament prophets has been made known. There is our verb again that Peter uses, “made known to all the nation’s leading to the obedience of faith.” That is why we limit ourselves to the Word of God. We don’t need the cleverness of men. We are called to proclaim the truth that has been made known.

Come over to Ephesians. If I don’t preach the book of Ephesians I will just refer to it in every sermon. Ephesians chapter 1, here is the work of God and we will just pick up with verse 9: “He made known to us the mystery of His will.” There it is, that mystery, that new truth being revealed, He made it known, revelation being given that now as it is recorded by Paul in Ephesians, it is being made known.

Chapter 6 of Ephesians, verse 19: “Pray on my behalf that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the Gospel.” This is truth that has not been revealed before in its fullness. We now have the New Testament which completes God’s revelation. Paul said “Pray for me that I can make clear,” (be clear) “in making known,” there’s our verb again, to make known, giving forth. That is what we are doing. We don’t have anything new to tell. We are making known what God has revealed. Men don’t need new truth, additional truth, they need to have the truth that God has given passed on to them. Make it known to them. Let me tell you the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I want to make it known to you because men live in ignorance; they live in darkness when they don’t have the revelation from God.

Colossians 1:27 uses the same verb: “To whom God will to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you the hope of glory.” It has been made known and now we are making it known. It has been made known so now we just continue to share it with others who have yet to hear it but it is the truth that God has revealed.

So come back to Peter, “To make known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” And that power and coming refer to that one event so some would translate it, “The coming in power of our Lord Jesus Christ.” And you see what happens here. When Peter talks about the Gospel he includes in it the overall picture of the culmination of the work of Christ on the cross. It is to bring salvation which will culminate in what? Him coming back to earth to complete what He accomplished. The provision of salvation is complete but the implementation of what He provided by His death and resurrection is a yet future event. I will make note of that in a moment. He has moved here to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We talk about the Parousia. We just bring the Greek word over and use it because that is the Greek word here. It is the Greek word ‘para’, to be so it is to be present with, alongside of. Para is alongside of with, so it is the coming of our Lord when He will be present with us; so the Parousia. It refers to Christ coming to earth in glory. It is a common word for Christ’s return. That is why we talk about it today. He is talking about the return to earth. Then what he connects it to is when he was an eye witness. He talks about, “We were eye witnesses of His majesty.”

So we didn’t follow cleverly devised tales. We didn’t make this up so that the story would have a more appealing ending. Christ died on the cross. Well you can’t you know, where is this going. So he didn’t make up a fable, a fictionalized account. Well everybody likes a happy ending. No. The ending was revealed to me and to others. “I was an eye witness of how it will end,” he says.

So “we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We were eye witnesses of His majesty.” And that word Parousia, we are not going back but it is used several times in chapters like Matthew 24 where Jesus on the Olivet Discourse gives that prophetic account of when He will return, when He is coming again in power and great glory. Peter was saying we were eye witnesses of that, of His majesty.

So this is not a tale made up. This is his divine splendor. We saw it, really a preview of the coming of Christ. When did this occur? “For when He received honor and glory from God the Father such an utterance as this was made to him by the majestic glory.” God Himself, we are referring to His majestic glory. “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.” When did this occur? Well it happened on the Mount of Transfiguration and there a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.” Now that beloved Son, His position as Son is a Messianic title connects Him to the Old Testament and the promises to rule and reign.

Come back to Psalm 2. We have studied this Psalm together. Pick up at verse 7: “I will tell you the decree of the Lord. He said to me” (now here is the Father addressing the Son.) “You are my Son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of Me and I will surely give you the nations as Your inheritance, the very ends of the earth as Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, you shall shatter them like earthenware.” You see the difference there, “You are My Son.” In that position He will receive the kingdom. In Daniel’s vision he saw one “Like the Son of man coming before the Father’s throne to receive a kingdom.”

So this One as God’s Son connects Him to Old Testament passages and Peter is saying we had a preview of the coming in power of our Lord Jesus Christ back in 2 Peter 1:16 and we weren’t making this up or following someone else’s tale. We were eye witnesses of His majesty when God gave that preview

This was on the Mount of Transfiguration. There are three times recorded in the Gospel when God spoke audibly from heaven regarding His Son. Let’s look at them; Matthew chapter 3. The first one is at the Baptism of Christ when He begins His public ministry. Matthew chapter 3 and a fascinating passage because here you have in a physical way that touches the physical senses each person of the triune God present. Verse 16 of Matthew 3: “After being baptized Jesus came up immediately from the water.” Here you have the second person of the triune God, Jesus physically present. “The heavens were opened and He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and coming upon Him.” Here you have a physical, visible manifestation of the presence of the Spirit of God who is the third person of the triune God and then you have a voice out of heaven, verse 17 saying, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” You have God the Father speaking audibly from the heaven. That is the first occasion we have. The third occasion, we will come back to the transfiguration is in that occasion, the baptism of Christ is recorded in all three synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke.

In John chapter 12, the last week of John’s earthly ministry you have this third occurrence in the time sequence. It is only recorded by John. In John chapter 12 and we are in the last week. The chapter opens up six days before Passover and Christ is going to be crucified at Passover so we are here in the last week of His earthly ministry. Come down to verse 27, Jesus is speaking. “Now My soul is become troubled. What shall I say? ‘Father save Me from this hour?’ But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name. Then a voice came out of heaven. ‘I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.” Some of the people thought it was thunder. Others thought an angel had spoken to Him but Jesus said, “It was for the benefit of those who did hear.” That would include His disciples.

We are in the context where some Greeks came and wanted to see Jesus and this is an indication of what? That by His death salvation now is going to be provided for those outside the nation Israel. So it leads to this discussion and this visible confirmation from the Father of the Son but Peter is referring to the event that occurred between this first and third occasion.

Come back to Matthew chapter 17, Matthew chapter 17 and I want you to see the context. And some commentators blow right by this. Look at the end of verse 16. Remember there were no chapter, no verse divisions when the Bible was originally written. They were added later for our benefit to help us, you know, move through here and identify portions and so on. But the end of chapter 16: “Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are here who will not taste death until they see the Son of man coming in His kingdom” and some who don’t believe in a future, earthly kingdom say ‘well, that was fulfilled’ when Jesus died, was raised from the dead. Now we have a spiritual kingdom because those who were alive are going to see it so it is not the earthly kingdom that the Jews were expecting, it is a spiritual kingdom.

But we read the next verse: “Until they see the Son of man coming in His kingdom. Six days later Jesus took with Him Peter, James and John his brother.” He didn’t say all of them would not taste death till they see the kingdom but there are going to be some who will have a special preview. “He led them up to a high mountain by themselves, Peter, James and John. He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun. His garments became as white as light.” Moses and Elijah are there talking to Him and verse 5: “A voice comes from heaven saying, ‘this is My beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him.’”

What are they saying? They have seen a preview of Christ’s coming in His kingdom when He will come in power and great glory. He is undergoing a metamorphosis here that of His very character now which was veiled in flesh is now being allowed to shine through. You get a preview of what it will be like when Christ returns to establish His kingdom. His face is shining like the sun, His garments white as light; Moses and Elijah with Him. He is going to be part of that kingdom established on earth. It is a preview of the kingdom.

Peter was saying, “I was there. I was with Him. I saw it. I heard the voice from heaven.” This is truth just not an emotional experience I had or not some thoughts I had. This actually happened. That is the confirmation.

So when you come back to Peter and we may come back to Matthew if you didn’t lose it. You note what he says in the end of verse 16 of 2 Peter 1: “We were eye witnesses of His majesty.” Verse 18: “We ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.” The utterance recorded at the end of verse 17: “This is My beloved Son.” So we saw His transfigured appearance. That is why it is called the Mount of Transfiguration because of the transfiguration Christ went through. “We heard the Father’s confirmation.”

Well we say, “I might believe it too if I saw it.” Well, too bad. That is not the way God works. He confirmed it to eye witnesses, these three apostles. They bear testimony and record it; you reject it at your own peril.

God is not required to do the same thing for everyone. He has graciously revealed His truth to appointed witnesses. Now that truth is passed on but it is just as much God’s Word as it was for those who first heard it. They were assigned to record it. He didn’t do the same thing for all the apostles. On the Mount of Transfiguration it was just Peter, James and John. In the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact is confirmed. They were there to see it. They were there to hear the voice. Besides people don’t reject it for lack of evidence, they reject it because their heart is hardened to truth but this is confirmation to believers. Be settled on it.

So now we have had this record preserved for us for 2,000 years. I don’t know what account I would give to God if I depart from teaching the truth to teach other things. It might result in larger crowds, assuming I had the ability to be the kind of speaker some could but what would I say to God? I gave My truth. I confirmed that. I had it preserved and written for you and I told you to make it known to others. How could you get off track? Well, Lord, I thought I had some good ideas and besides they were as interested as they used to be.

I have shared with you what one man that I respected said to me very early in my ministry here. “Gil, they are breaking down the doors to get in and you are teaching them the Word of God. The test will be if they stop breaking down the doors to get it in, will you would still be teaching the Word of God.” I never forgot it, my teaching the Word of God.

Back in the 70’s, back in the 80’s it was popular. You had to get here early to get a seat. A few of you in your aged condition, having been here a long time, can remember when I used to say, “Now, be careful that everybody move to the left in the bench but don’t push the person, the far left off the edge because we have to get more people in because there are people waiting to get a seat.” What were we doing, teaching the Word. People would say, “What are you doing?” I am clueless. I don’t know what is going on. I get up and say, “Turn in your Bibles to, we will pick up where we left off” and people are getting here a half hour early to try to get a seat.

You preach the Word in season and out of season. I am not saying that the Lord is not blessing the Word today but there are differences and the responsibility doesn’t change. We want to be the core of people committed to truth to draw others to salvation in Christ and model by our lives the importance of pouring ourselves into the truth because just passing familiarity will not do.

We are not going to look at the other passages. There are a number of them related to the Second Coming. I think it is crucial to see how Peter puts this all together because he is going to go here in chapter 3. The Second Coming of Christ as in integral part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am not saying you have to understand everything that is involved to be saved but you begin to corrupt the Gospel when you deny the reality of the truth that God has made known regarding what Christ came and died to accomplish. Peter includes it in the Gospel that he is reminding them of, the completion of what God was accomplishing with His Son on the cross.

Come back to Romans 8 and we are done. Romans chapter 8 he is talking about what we have in Christ. I referred to a verse out of Romans 8 this morning, verse 8: “Those who were in the flesh cannot please God.” The unredeemed person never does anything that is pleasing to God.

When you come down talking about the fact “we are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” in verse 17 and “we suffer with Him that we may be glorified with Him.” Verse 18: “I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is revealed to us and all creation is anticipating the time when the effects of sin of creation will be lifted and we will revealed fully as the sons of God.” That will take place at the second coming of Christ and the establishing of His kingdom. That is in integral part.

People will say, “Eschatology, we don’t need to spend time talking about that.” Don’t become God’s editor. I want to be an expert in everything God has revealed and made known to us and people don’t realize the importance of that because the devil begins to unravel the theology beginning at a point he says, “I don’t think it is that significant.” As soon as you have decided something God has said isn’t that significant you have begun the unraveling process and then how far are we going to unravel and it never stops because the devil is never done and the unraveling continues. Believers become more confused and less discerning and pretty soon they are denying the Lord who brought them. We say, “How did they ever get to that point? “

So we have a Word that has been confirmed by eye witness testimony and we place our faith I the truth that God has given.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for the riches of Your Word. How blessed we are to be together this evening gathered around as a family that You have redeemed by Your grace. Lord You have called us to Yourself. You have given us Your Word. You have given us Your Spirit to continue to work of enlightening our hearts and minds so we can understand more fully and more deeply, more completely, the truth You have known concerning Yourself, concerning Your purposes, concerning our future. Lord deepen our hunger to know Your truth better so that we might know You more fully so that we might serve You more faithfully we pray in Christ’s name, amen.