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What to Do Until the Lord Comes Back - Part 1
2 Peter 3:1-9
Sermon by Rick Crandall
Grayson Baptist Church - April 21, 2013
*Have you thought about the Lord coming back lately?
-- We really should, you know, and not just because of what's going on in our world.
We should be thinking about Jesus coming back, because He wants us to think about it.
*And one of the most important questions we can ask is this: "What should we do until the Lord comes back?" Tonight let's look at four answers from the Word of God.
1. First: We should stir-up our minds with Scripture.
*In vs. 1&2 Peter stressed this great purpose for his letters:
1. Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder),
2. that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Savior,
*In vs. 1, Peter tells us that he wrote these letters to "stir up" our minds.
This purpose was important to Peter, and we know this because he said basically the same thing back in chapter 1.
*The original word for "stir up" primarily means "to fully wake somebody from a sound sleep."
It's the same word translated "awoke" in Mark 4:37-38.
In that Scripture, Jesus was asleep in the boat with His disciples.
37.
And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling.
38.
But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow.
And they awoke Him and said to Him, "Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?''
*How do you think they woke Jesus up?
Do you think they whispered, "Pssst, Jesus?
It's time to wake up."? -- No! -- They cried out, "Jesus!
Master!
Teacher!
Wake up! Don't you care?
We are about to die!"
*This same passion was in Peter's heart when he tried to wake us up with God's Word.
Peter knew how profitable God's Word is for our lives.
2 Timothy 3:16 tells us that: "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness."
*Alton Coleman gave us a good summary of how God's Word is profitable for us:
-In James 1:22-25, the Bible is profitable as a mirror to see our spiritual lives.
-In Ephesians 6:17, it's the sword we can use to fight spiritual battles.
-In Psalm 119:105, it's a lamp to guide and direct us.
-In Matthew 4:4, God's Word is spiritual bread to strengthen and nourish us.
-And in 1 Peter 2:2, it's spiritual milk for growth and development.
*The Word of God is also profitable because:
-In 1 Peter 1:23, we are born again by the Word.
-In John 15:3, we are cleansed by the Word.
-In Psalm 19:7, we are made wise by the Word.
-In Psalm 19:11, we are warned by the Word.
-And in Psalm 119:103, we are satisfied by the Word.
There the Bible says, "How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" (1)
*What should we do until the Lord comes back?
Stir-up our minds with Scripture.
2. And don't be sidetracked by scoffers.
*In vs. 3-6 Peter said we should be:
3. knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts,
4. and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming?
For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.''
5.
For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water,
6. by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.
*Here Peter is warning us not to get side-tracked by the scoffers in our world.
The scoffers of Peter's day at least acknowledged that God created the universe.
Their great error was in denying God's judgment on the world by the great flood.
*The scoffers today have gone much farther, even denying that the world was created by God.
Atheism has certainly been on the rise in our country over the last few years.
Some of the best-selling books of recent years were written to promote atheism.
*Some of the titles include:
-"The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins
-God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything" by Christopher Hitchens
-"Deconverted: A Journey from Religion to Reason" by Seth Andrews
-And "Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists" by Dan Barker, Richard Dawkins (2)
*James Merritt gives us this insight on the scoffers: "The last days are going to see people who will laugh and mock at those of us who take seriously the Word of God.
They will make fun and call us 'flaming fundamentalists,' and 'Bible thumpers' who live our lives according to the fairy tale of a book that is out of date, old fashion, and obsolete."
*One reason why the scoffers refuse to believe in Christ's second coming is because they deny the fact of creation.
James Merritt explained that "this world has concocted all types of elaborate evolutionary theories, replete with big bangs, primordial explosions, and even invasions from outer space to try to explain this world.
But the Bible says very simply God spoke and this world came into existence."
Hebrews 11:3 puts it this way: "By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible."
*But the scoffers refuse to believe.
And James Merritt shows us "something very interesting about these people who would prefer to believe the fable of evolution, rather than the fact of creation.
Peter makes it plain in vs. 5 that they 'WILLFULLY forget' that God created this world.
In other words, theirs is not primarily a problem of the head.
-- It is a problem primarily of the heart. . .
*You see, if this world is a created world, then there must be a Creator.
If there is a Creator, then there must be an absolute standard of what is right and what is wrong, and therefore you cannot 'walk according to your own lusts,' you must walk according to His righteousness.
*And that is exactly what people do not want to do.
(They deny God), because as one great philosopher once said: 'Without God, anything is permissible.'"
(3)
*Stephen Hawking is a brilliant theoretical physicist, and one of the most famous scientists of our day.
Sadly, he has been severely crippled by Lou Gehrig's disease for 50 years.
But infinitely sadder is the fact that Stephen Hawking has rejected the reality that the universe was created by God.
*Last Tuesday, Hawking explained his atheistic view of the universe at Caltech.
People lined up for a quarter mile to hear him speak.
But no matter how popular their false ideas become.
We must not be sidetracked by these scoffers.
(4)
*There are a couple of ways scoffers could side-track our walk with the Lord.
One is they could get us to buy-in to their disbelief.
*This is a big danger for our young people as they are saturated with the false science of evolution, not only in school, but also through virtually every science-related show they will ever see on TV.
And the greatest danger seems to be when they run into the ultra-left professors who hold so many teaching positions in our colleges.
*If the scoffers could only see how blind they are to the truth.
Famous unbeliever Robert Ingersol once visited Henry Ward Beecher and there saw a beautiful globe picturing the constellations and stars of the heavens.
"This is just what I'm looking for," the skeptic said after examining it.
"Who made it?"
*"Who made it?"
replied Beecher in pretend astonishment.
"Why Colonel, nobody made it, it just happened."
(5)
*We must never buy-in to the scoffers' disbelief.
And we must not be overly discouraged by their disbelief.
These scoffers are tragic beyond measure, and the influence they have over our young people is abominable.
But God is in control, and He always will be.
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