[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfredo, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word.
[0:14] You don't know sometimes the guys that God allows to stand in your pulpit and preach. Kevin grew up in what was our home church for somewhere in the neighborhood of 19 or 20 years.
[0:27] And Kevin grew up there, got saved, played football, was offered a scholarship to play in a college, turned all that down because he wanted to preach.
[0:38] More than that, he went into a part of South Africa where white men don't go. He went to the Costa-speaking people. He went where everybody would be afraid to go. He walked in, he learned their language, and by the power of the Lord Jesus, was able to carve out from among those people two churches, see people saved, lives changed, preachers trained.
[1:01] And this is, as his wife said, a silent hero. He'll never say any of that to you. He'll never let you know who he was, never let you know what he's done. But I can promise you this, you're about to hear from one of my heroes.
[1:12] Brother Kevin, you come and preach to us, please. All right, you can take your Bibles and turn to 2 Peter 3. Brother Gardner asked me if I was going to preach 10 minutes, 20 minutes, or 30 minutes.
[1:29] So I've left a legacy here last time I preached. I think he wasn't here, and I preached about 10 or 15 minutes and closed it down. So if I don't think you're listening, unless you don't like church, I will close my message out.
[1:46] 2 Peter 3, and we'll begin reading verse number 1. This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you, in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, that ye 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, knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, where is the promise of his coming?
[2:21] For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.
[2:41] But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word, are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
[2:52] But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
[3:16] But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth and all and the works that are therein shall be burned up, seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved.
[3:34] What manner of persons art ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
[3:49] Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot and without blameless, and account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation.
[4:09] Let's pray. Lord, we love you. We thank you for this time together tonight, Lord. I pray that you'd use me to preach your word and to encourage the believers here tonight, Lord, and all these preachers and missionaries that are in training.
[4:21] God, all of us, God, that you would just minister this word to our hearts, God. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen. I'm hoping that this is not a book that your pastor's going through right now, so you won't be comparing my messages to his, and you won't know the context of this passage.
[4:36] First Peter, Peter is trying to help the believers with problems outside the church, all the persecution, trials, and troubles that they're dealing with, and there are many, and probably ours look ridiculous in comparison to theirs.
[4:52] In 2 Peter, it's problems and difficulties that will come inside the church, and he's warning these believers about this. And if you want to underline a verse in your Bible, there in verse number 11, it says, Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, this phrase, what manner of person are ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness?
[5:16] And I want to preach about that phrase there tonight as we look at the entire chapter, and I'm going to trick you out and preach a topical message, but what kind of person should you be?
[5:28] What kind of person should you be? Peter says, In light of all that I've just said, the day and time that we live in, what kind of person should I be?
[5:39] Now, I can't answer all that, and I don't think Peter meant to give us all the answers to that, but he gave us some very important things here. Number one, he says, I want to stir up your minds, and I believe that we need to be people that have our minds constantly stirred up.
[5:55] He said in verse number one, In both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. Man, I don't know about you, but one of my biggest problems is forgetting things.
[6:07] My wife knows that I forget everything. That's probably one of the blessings of our marriage, that I can't remember anything. Of course, my wife probably doesn't do anything wrong, but I cannot remember any of her mistakes.
[6:20] I forget everything. And man, one of the biggest problems I have in my Christian life, and I believe that our problems are very similar, is I forget. And I don't just forget nonsense, but I forget a lot of important things.
[6:35] You know, as Christians, this Christian life and being a person, it boils down to some very basic things. And one of the things that you and I have got to realize is that one of the most important things that will help us in life is remembering things, not sitting around and learning new things all the time, but remembering all that we've been taught, all that we've read.
[6:58] And I think there's probably some people in the room that don't know some biblical truth and some of the main tenets of our faith, but for the most part, I think many people in this room know a lot.
[7:11] And your problem is not knowing. Your problem is forgetting. And just like Peter, I think tonight we need our minds stirred up by way of remembrance.
[7:22] You know, you go to the Cracker Barrel or whatever and you get a glass of tea and maybe you're on a diet or you can't take sugar or whatever and you get that glass of sweet tea and you put that sweetener in it or whatever.
[7:33] If you don't stir it up, all that sinks to the bottom and you get none of that taste. And we can put all the truth that we want to in our minds. And we can hear it day after day.
[7:43] We can come to church faithfully. We can open our Bibles and read it throughout the year. But if we don't constantly have our minds stirred up remembering these things, having it at the forefront of our minds, it's going to do us no good on a daily basis, on a practical level.
[7:59] When trials and troubles and difficulties come into our path, we won't have that wisdom available to help us make those decisions. And many Christians fall.
[8:10] Many Christians make unwise decisions because their minds are not stirred up to remember the things that they've been told. Especially what he says here, the words spoken by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior.
[8:27] The Word of God. He says, have your minds stirred up to remember and basically the Bible that you have. Man, get into it.
[8:38] Most Christians are asleep in this world. Even stronger terminology, drunk with the cares and affairs of this world. Man, we've been lulled asleep with all the different noise and things, the fillers that the devil passes into our lives.
[8:54] And when this one's used up, we go on to something else. Another idol. And we're asleep in this world. And Peter says, man, wake up. Wake up.
[9:05] Have your minds stirred up to remember these important truths that will change your life and keep you on the right path. My question to you tonight, has all that sunk to the bottom?
[9:17] My question to you tonight is, those things that radically changed your life and those truths that, man, when you first heard them, it was like light coming into the darkness. Man, it shook you.
[9:29] It stirred you. It brought you to life. It brought purpose into your life. Has something, have you allowed that stuff to just sink behind the scenes?
[9:40] And it's not where it should be in your life. I think your pastor tries to stir your mind. I think the preachers try to stir your mind. I think the idea behind missionaries come up here is to stir your mind.
[9:51] But man, you've got to do it on a personal level also. Mind stirred up. And I know that God wants you, God wants me to have our minds stirred up on a daily basis.
[10:03] That goes for men, women, fathers, not full-time ministers. You're the priest in your home. You're the mother of your children. You are a Christian. And it's your duty, your individual duty.
[10:15] You don't get a free pass. All of us, all of us, have the priest or the believer, all of us, will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. All of us will see our King.
[10:26] I teach my children that this is not a fairy tale. That Jesus, though President Obama is our president, though there's potentates and emperors and kings all over this world and men with titles, our King is the King of Kings and all power on this earth has been delegated from that ultimate power.
[10:45] Jesus is my children's King. Jesus is my King. And I need to have my mind stirred up to that every day of my life. He says, these men will come in and says, that knowing this, why do you need this?
[10:58] Because He says, know this, that in the last days, scoffers will come. And it's not just, it's not just people on the outside now, but it's people coming in Jesus' name.
[11:10] Walking after their own lusts, saying, hey man, I like what you're doing. Pat you on the back, because they're asleep too. Because they don't care either.
[11:21] In fact, they're probably not saved. And they're going to mock the very things that get us excited. What is that? The most important thing. He says, saying, where is the promise of His coming?
[11:34] This is a blessed hope. This is not just some Christian terminology, man. This is the return of our Savior. This means that Jesus is going to start His kingdom.
[11:46] This means that judgment is coming upon this world. Where is the promise of His coming? They're going to mock the very hope that you and I believe. The reason that you and I live as strangers and pilgrims and aliens on this earth.
[12:00] That purpose, the reason we go into the darkness. Because of the King of Kings and His return to this earth. They say, where is the promise of His coming? Surely, we're over that.
[12:11] Surely, we don't still believe that. Surely, we don't really believe that He's coming back again. That's fairy tale. That's myth.
[12:22] That's things that, it's a story you can tell your kid at night before he goes to bed. Where is the promise of His coming? They say, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.
[12:32] God created the earth, but then He took His hand off it. He has nothing to do with this world anymore. And it says, because they are willingly ignorant of the fact that God has already sent a judgment upon this earth once before.
[12:45] The holy prophets, the Old Testament, tells us of the judgment that came upon this earth. The one that is mocked today where God destroyed this earth because He said, the imaginations of men's hearts are only evil continually.
[12:59] I'll start again. Only next time it's not going to be about water. And man, we have even a beautiful picture of His promise in the skies every time it rains in South Africa.
[13:10] We get that rain and we get that rain We want signs. There it is. This is a sign of I will not destroy this earth anymore by water. But one day, I'm coming again.
[13:23] One day, there will be a final judgment. And they're willingly ignorant of this. The Word of God says so. They choose to believe a lie. And they will mock you.
[13:35] And they will love the fact that you don't really believe that either. That that has not radically changed your way of living either. We should have our minds stirred up to remember these things.
[13:48] It says, but the heavens and earth that are now in verse 7. And I'm going through this verse by verse. So, it says, but the heavens and earth and the earth which are now.
[14:00] But when you go outside and you see the building that we sit in, the foundation that it rests upon, the earth that it sits upon, the earth which is now. This one. Not some fairy tale.
[14:11] This one. He says, by the same word are kept in store. The word whereby God created the world. The word whereby God brought judgment upon this world the first time.
[14:26] This same earth, this same earth that we sit in now, by the same word God is going to do what? He has reserved. He says, are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
[14:41] He says, man, have your minds stirred up. I have earmarked this earth for judgment. All the ungodly men, all their wicked works, I have reserved it for judgment.
[14:55] In other words, this world is condemned already. All the people on it that are born into it and the earth itself is going to have God's righteous judgment unleashed upon it one day.
[15:09] And man, as Christians, God help us to have our minds stirred up to remember these things. You don't get saved to sit in a building. You get saved because the King is coming one day and you want to be a part of bringing people to Christ because you know this is not it.
[15:24] This is not it. This is not it. This is not it. Have our minds stirred up to remember these things. And then secondly, you should not be ignorant.
[15:35] It says in verse number 8, But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.
[15:47] Must be a pretty important thing if he says don't be ignorant of this. This one thing. What is he teaching us here? He's teaching us that God's timing is not the same as our timing.
[15:59] God's planning is not the same as our planning. And though we may look at an hour and a month and a year as a long time and get impatient, God looks at that as just a twinkling of an eye.
[16:09] It is nothing in the eyes of an eternal God. He says a thousand years is as one day. Jesus died a little over two thousand years ago so only two days has passed since our Savior died and was buried and rose again from the grave.
[16:25] And men mock and say where's the promise of His coming? Our fathers have passed on all these Christians that believe this joke of a truth have died believing the same truth.
[16:38] Are we still going to believe this? Because so much time has passed. Surely we don't believe this anymore. Surely we're going to go with the intellectuals now. Surely we're going to go with the skeptics now and believe that this is all a joke or this must be some kind of figurative language.
[16:55] But as you as Christians and Bible believers we need to realize that God's time and God's schedule and God's clock doesn't work the way ours does. One day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years is one day.
[17:10] And then look at verse number nine a very important verse. I heard a Calvinist preach this verse and I'm not going to offend anybody but he said if I had time I would get to the real truth behind this scripture.
[17:24] But since I don't have time I'm just going to preach it at face value. He said the Lord is not slack concerning His promise as some men count slackness.
[17:38] So God has promised that same word God has promised that judgment's coming. He has reserved this earth for fire and judgment. He is not slack.
[17:50] That means He's not negligent. He's not careless. You know you and I we tend to think of God the same way we think of men. And anybody in this room that's ever done business knows that men fail us.
[18:03] You know my dad's building in Harrison, Tennessee for a millionaire right now and nobody's on time and nobody keeps their word and the house is behind schedule I think a year now.
[18:15] It's ridiculous because promises are not kept. And you know there's some promises that are legitimate. If I could not make this service tonight and I said Brother Gardner we had a terrible accident we're at the hospital Brother Gardner would be reasonable and understanding and probably would skip out on service and meet me at the hospital.
[18:33] If I was deathly sick and I couldn't be here tonight it would be understandable. You know there's some things that are legitimate excuses. But can I tell you tonight can I tell you tonight that there is not anything there's not a blown engine there's not a sickness there's not a death there's not a war there's not a bomb there's not a man there's not a power there's not a country that will keep our God from keeping His promise on the exact schedule that He has promised to keep it on.
[19:08] We don't know that day we don't know that time we don't know that hour our job is to be ready and to keep our minds stirred up and not to be ignorant of God's time schedule He says the Lord is not slack concerning His promises some men count slackness and get this but is long suffering to us when you doubt how kind God is and you doubt how loving God is you need to go read this verse again so why is God waiting He's long suffering what does long suffering mean it means God's patient God is patient when God has every right to send fire down out of heaven when God has every right to open up a crevice in this earth and swallow up all of us when God has every right to judge wicked men because they've broken every one of His laws spit in His face said He doesn't even exist when God has every right and is justified to judge men not a thousand years from now but right now
[20:12] God is long suffering to us words why is this because He's not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance and we don't need to be ignorant of this our God is not is not slack He's simply long suffering because of us not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance He says in verse number 10 but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up He goes right back to the fact that but don't misunderstand me judgment is coming God is long suffering and God's not slack concerning His promise
[21:14] God does love you and Jesus did die for you and God's not willing that any should perish but my friend understand that one day judgment will come upon this earth and God's judgment is going to be so vast and so incredibly powerful that it's going to destroy everything by fire fervent heat that will melt away even the elements whatever that means I mean to the particles of the air everything God is going to destroy purge with fire there will not be a hint or a tinge of sin or the curse of it left on this earth He's going to totally purify it sanctify it if you will and we don't need to be ignorant of this because if we really really really have our minds stirred up to remember these things and are not ignorant of God's timing there is no way unless we are just not right in the head there is no way that we can continue to live as normal people this is not your home this is not your home you should not be ignorant he says this you should be looking for the coming day of God so we should have our minds stirred up we should not be ignorant we should be looking for the coming day of God he says there in verse 11 and 12 again seeing that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of person ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness he says looking for and hasting unto the coming day of God wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat in other words we should be anticipating his coming every day doing his will every day living for him and fulfilling his commission every day until he comes and he says in verse 13 nevertheless we according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth that's what we're doing we're looking for his coming we're looking for the coming day of God for when our king rules this earth we're looking for his judgment to come upon this earth and working in light of that and we're looking for the new heavens and the new earth that's where our life is and he says this in a beautiful phrase wherein dwelleth righteousness wherein dwelleth righteousness in other words righteousness is not at home in this world but it will be in the one to come
[23:51] I tell my people in South Africa I said man if there's a button I believe Christians true born again Christians if there was a button that we could push that would take away all lusts and all temptations and every evil thing that if there was a button we could push we would all run to push that button we can't but one day our God will and we'll live in a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness where there'll be no more sin where there'll be no more sickness where there'll be no more rudiments of the effect of the fall and Satan and all these wicked things it'll all be gone and we'll live in a place of righteousness but until then we're looking for that one we're anticipating that one we're living toward that one we're investing in that one until he comes again and then he says in verse number 15 or 14 he says wherefore beloved seeing that you look for such things be diligent that you may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless be diligent be diligent be diligent till he comes be diligent till he comes don't slack off go forward be diligent till he comes and then this and I'll leave you with this and he says an account that the long suffering of our
[25:02] Lord is salvation an account that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation what's he saying he said if he doesn't come today just account that God's still saving people if God doesn't if the coming day of God doesn't happen tomorrow or next week just tell yourself and know that God is still saving people God is his long suffering is still going God is still allowing people to be saved and tell your children because they're going to think well dad you keep talking about Jesus coming you keep talking about that there's judgment coming you keep talking about the fact that Jesus is going to be king there's going to be a new heavens and a new earth God so much time has passed so many days so many months so many years dad you're an old man now why do you keep believing these things son it's because our God is long suffering and he still wants to save people but one day son like a thief in the night this thing's going to be over and judgment's going to come and all that we see all the works of men even this building that we sit in everything that we have on this earth all the visible things will be gone and we're looking for that new heavens and that new earth in our king wherein dwelleth righteousness what kind of person should you be my prayer to you for you is that your mind would be stirred up and you'd not be ignorant and that you'd be looking for the coming day of God this message was recorded at vision baptist church in alfred georgia for more information log on to www.visionbaptist.com where you can find our service times location contact information and more audio and video recordings from to the most things but you