[MUSIC PLAYING] God isn't really
something to worship. He's just waiting to
destroy all of us. [INTERPOSING VOICES] I guess there's a God
out there somewhere. I hope there is a God. God isn't really
something you worship. God, Allah, Buddha. [INTERPOSING VOICES] God is everywhere. Turn in your Bibles
please to II Peter-- well, just II Peter. We're going to
begin in chapter 3, but we're going to look at some
sections of the entire book in a message I'm calling
Are We in the Last Days? When I was a little kid, one of
the prayers my mother taught me to pray-- let's see if you've ever
heard of this prayer-- "Now I lay me down to sleep--" Pray me-- --"I pray the Lord
my soul to keep." What's the next phrase? If I should die-- "If I should die
before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take." That's a pretty heavy
prayer for a five-year-old. [LAUGHTER] Here's a five-year-old
being taught the possibility of the imminence of his death. If I should die before I wake. At the same time, however, it's
a possibility for any of us, every person will have
an end of their life. And just like every
person has an end, this world will have an end. This world, this
universe, this earth, will someday come to an end. But when will it come to an end? Well, people have made
predictions about that. One well-known Christian said,
"The last days are upon us. Weigh carefully the times. Look for Him who is above all
time, eternal and invisible." What's interesting
about that quote is it was not given by a
modern-day prophecy expert. It was spoken in 110 AD by a
church Father named Ignatius. He said that we're
in the last days. A church father named
Hippolytus in 236 AD, wrote that Christ
would return by AD 500. In the 1500s, Martin
Luther, the great reformer, wrote, and I quote,
"We have reached the time of the white
horse of the Apocalypse. This world will not last any
longer than another hundred years," end quote. And then a little-known fact
about Christopher Columbus-- did you know that he was a
student of Bible prophecy? He even wrote a little volume
called The Book of Prophecies, where he predicted the world
would end in the year 1656. And he even wrote,
"There is no doubt that the world must
end in 155 years." A question that Christians
have asked for every generation is, are we in the last days? When will the world end? It's not a new question. It's not a new curiosity. Even the followers of
our Lord Jesus Christ were curious about that. On the Mount of Olives,
they came to Him and said, what will be the sign of
your coming and of the end of the age? So it preoccupied
their own thoughts. Are we in the last days? Is this it? And it seems that
every generation has its authors, its
prophets, its prognosticators. And they get us
thinking about that. I remember in the 1970s a very
popular book by Hal Lindsey was put out, called The Late
Great Planet Earth-- sold millions of copies. It got people thinking
about Bible prophecy again. And then in the 1980s-- I still have the
booklet in my office, called "88 Reasons Why Jesus
is Coming Back in 1988." Of course, 1988 came and
went, followed by 1989. And Jesus hadn't showed up. So the author revised his dates,
and Jesus didn't show up then. He revised it again and
didn't show up then. And finally he just
sort of went away. In 1996, another
popular set of books was called The
Left Behind series. Not only was it a set of
books, it became a set of films as well. And then do you remember
just before the year 2000 the fervor about Y2K? This is it. All the chips are
going to melt down. This is Armageddon, right? So what we're dealing with is an
area of study that is called-- in theological parlance,
it's called eschatology. Eschatology is the
study of last things. It comes from the Latin word. That means that last things or
last events or end time events. Now we've been
doing a series here on the weekends called 2020. Seeing Truth Clearly. And essentially it's been
a course on theology. We've looked at theology,
the study of God, the nature of God,
the attributes of God. That was followed by christology
the person nature and work of Jesus Christ. That was followed by a
few weeks on pneumatology, the study of the Holy Spirit-- the work of the Holy
Spirit in the world, the work of the Holy Spirit
in the life of the believer. We did a few weeks
on soteriology, the study of salvation. How is a person saved? What does salvation entail? We even did a week on
angelology, the study of-- angels. --angles. Way to go, class. [LAUGHTER] And then demonology, the
study of Satan and demons. And then for three
weeks we looked at ecclesiology, the church. We talked about how the
church is essential. We looked at Jesus
praying for, anticipating certain characteristics of his
church out of John chapter 17. Now we turn to another section,
and that is eschatology, the study of end-time events. What I want to do today is look
at the last days generally. Next week I want to
consider Jesus' promise to return for His church. And then we're going to
look in the third week at the second coming of Christ. So I'm going to try
to piece together sort of a calendar of
end-time events the best that I can during that time. Now, I think you'll agree
that the study of prophecy can be good, but
can also get weird. That there are some people who
have an unhealthy preoccupation with prophetic things. That's all they're about. That's all they study. They look for signs. They see signs in everything. There's a flower by
the road-- that must be a sign of the end times. I mean, it can become an
unhealthy preoccupation, but it can also become
a healthy occupation. It can engender hope. And it's something that the
church has had for 2,000 years. Ever since Jesus taught
the church to pray, thy kingdom come, we have
been looking for that kingdom. We've been anticipating it. So what I'd like to
do is look at five hallmarks of the last days,
five hallmarks of the last days, and try to answer the question,
are we in the last days? Now, I asked you
to turn to II Peter for a very important reason. The theme, or at least one of
the themes, or at least a sub theme, a major sub theme
of the book of II Peter, is our theme, the last days. That's what Peter is
talking about, talking about features of the end
times, of the last days. So I'm going to begin with
you in chapter 3 of II Peter. And I'm going to give
you these five hallmarks. And the first is that the last
days are foreseen by scripture. They're predicted. They're talked about. They're written about. I want to take you to chapter
3, beginning in verse 1. And I'm going to read
down a few verses because I want you to see
the phrase that's in here. "Beloved, I now write to
you this second epistle, in both of which I stir up your
pure minds by way of reminder, 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, knowing this first-- that scoffers will come
in the last days--" there's the phrase,
the last days-- "walking according
to their own lusts." Now, I'm going to get back to
the meaning of those verses in a minute, but let's
just think of that phrase for a moment, the last days. It's a phrase that shows up
five times in the New Testament, five times. Once by Luke in the book
of Acts, once by Paul in 2 Timothy, once by James in
that little epistle he writes, once in Hebrews, and then once
here in II Peter chapter 3. So five authors in
the New Testament use the phrase the last days. Now the Old Testament speaks
of the same period of time generally, but under a
different designation. Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Hosea, and Micah use the term "the latter days." Daniel calls it the end. Also, Daniel calls it
the appointed time. Also, he calls it
the time of the end. And finally, Daniel
designates it the end of days. Back to the question--
are we in the last days? Here's my answer-- yes, we are. But we've been in the
last days for 2,000 years. Now I want you to get this. Because according
to the scriptures, we have been in the last days. If you look at all
of world history from the beginning,
whenever that beginning was, the beginning, the time between
the first coming of Christ and the second coming of Christ
falls under the designation, the last days. So let me show that to you. In Hebrews chapter 1, the
author begins by saying, "God, who at various
times and in various ways spoke in times past to our
fathers by the prophets--" listen-- "has in these last
days spoken to us by His Son, whom he
made ear of all things, and through whom also
he made the world." These last days. Then you remember Peter
on the day of Pentecost. On the Day of Pentecost,
you know it happened. The church gets
together, and they are filled with the Holy Spirit. They begin to speak in tongues. The people in Jerusalem don't
know what to make of this. And so the best they can come
up with is, these Christians are drunk, right? Remember that? And so Peter gets up and
says, you men of Jerusalem, "these are not drunk,
as you suppose, since it's only the
third hour of the day." Guys, it's only
9:00 in the morning. They're not drunk. He says, "But this is
that which was spoken of by the prophet
Joel--" who said, and he quotes the prophet Joel. Da, da,da, da, da da, yeah. "It shall come to
pass in the last days, I will pour out my
Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and daughters
will prophesy." So he's saying, this,
what you are seeing, is a fulfillment of
what the prophet said that in the last days
this is going to happen. So according to Peter, he
was living in the last days. So to answer your question,
are we in the last days? Yes, we are, but so was
Christopher Columbus, and so was Martin Luther,
and so it was Ignatius, and so was the apostle
Paul and Peter. Now, having said
that, obviously, when you're dealing with
the 2,000-year period, some parts of that are much
later than other parts. And so we are much further along
2,000 years than Paul or Peter. But Paul taught the church
to anticipate the return of Christ, to look for it. In Titus chapter 2, Paul
writes, "Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of
our great God and Savior Jesus Christ." Did you know that the early
church had a greeting, a one-word greeting? I wish we'd bring it back. I love the greeting. It's a word maranatha
a single word. It's an Aramaic term. It shows up in the old
King James translation. But it was a word
that even replaced the common greeting,
shalom, peace. Christians would see each other,
and they would say, maranatha, which means the Lord is coming. It's a great word. It's a great reminder to say
to one another, maranatha. The Lord is coming. In CS Lewis' The
Chronicles of Narnia-- I know I've quoted that a few
times the last few weeks-- in one of the volumes called
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, there's a conversation
CS Lewis writes about Aslan, this
Christlike figure lion, who has a conversation
with little Lucy once again. And Aslan says, do
not look so sad. We shall meet soon again. And she says, please, Aslan,
what do you call soon? And Aslan says, I call all times
soon, and then he vanished. Are we in the last days? Yes. Is Jesus coming soon? Yes. You say, yeah, that's
sort of an easy way out. No, it's not. It really is true. We are in the last days. And we were given signs
about the very end of days. And Jesus said,
when these things start to happen,
lift up your head, for your redemption draws near. There are indicators. We'll look at those later on. With this thought
in mind, go back to chapter 1 for just a moment. We haven't started there. So let's look at chapter 1. And I'll take you
to a couple verses. I'm going to begin with you
in chapter 1 and verse 16 because what Peter
is going to do here is talk about the
coming of the Lord based upon an experience he
has already had with the Lord. Verse 16, chapter 1-- "For we did not follow
cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the
power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were
eye witnesses of His majesty. For he received from God the
Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him
from the Excellent Glory--" and here's the voice--
"this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And we heard this voice which
came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. And so we have the prophetic
word confirmed--" or as the authorized
version puts it-- "we have a more sure
word of prophecy. And so we have
the prophetic word confirmed what you do well
to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until
the day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart." Now, Peter's telling them of
the fact that Jesus is coming, but the prediction is based upon
an experience he has already had. And do you remember what
that experience was? It's called the--
it begins with a t-- transfiguration,
the transfiguration. It mentioned in
three gospels when Jesus appeared or was changed
in front of them, transformed miraculously with a bright
light, along with Moses and Elijah. What Peter, James, and John saw
at the transfiguration of Jesus is what they call in
the movie industry a trailer, a preview
of coming attractions, a clip, if you
will, a highlight. Do you guys remember the days
when there were movie theaters, and people went
there and saw films? Well, at the beginning
of those, just to refresh your memory,
at the beginning of movies they would show
previews of other films that would be released. And what I have
often discovered is that those trailers are
actually better than most films in their entirety. You're seeing the best
parts put together. What Peter saw was a clip,
a trailer, a preview, highlights of an event
that is described in detail in Revelation chapter
19, the second coming of Jesus Christ-- Jesus coming in his glory. What Peter is saying in these
verses is, I saw with my eyes what the scripture
predicts will happen and is confirmed by the
Old Testament writings. And if what the prophets
predicted of his first coming happened, then what they
predicted of a second coming is sure also to happen. So are we in the last days? Yes, we are. But what is the focus
of the last days? Is the focus of the last
days mark of the beast? Is the focus of the last days
the European common market? No. Nor is the focus of end-time
prophecy the Antichrist. The focus of prophecy or the
end days is Jesus Christ. And that gives us the second
hallmark, as seen by Peter. Not only are the last days
foreseen by the scripture, but they're focused on Christ. Now go back to
chapter 1 verse 16. "We did not follow
cunningly devised fables when we made known
to you the power and the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses
of His majesty." This is the transfiguration. "For He received from God
the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to him
from the Excellent Glory-- this is my beloved Son in
whom I am well pleased." Now let me tell you
about what happened. You know it because
you've read it. But at the
transfiguration, we are told that Jesus took
Peter, James, and John, took them to a
high mountain where he was transfigured before
them, and they saw him in glory. And we are told that
Peter, James, and John had fallen asleep. And then they woke up, and
they see this glorious vision of the transfigured Christ. And Peter starts talking. And you remember
what Peter says? He says, let's build three
tabernacles here-- one for you, Jesus; one for Moses;
and one for Elijah. And the Bible says Peter said
this not knowing what to say. You know what it is? You wake up and you're just
like just the word just come, whatever words. So these are Peter's words. And what Peter
records that God said was God interrupting
Peter's interruption. Peter said let's build
three tabernacles. Essentially, the idea is I'm
placing Jesus Moses and Elijah all on the same level. And so God spoke
from heaven, saying, this is my beloved son in
whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him. That's a very important
message in what Peter learned and he is recounting here. God is saying, I put Jesus,
my Son, on stage center when it comes to Bible prophecy. He is the star on center stage. He is the focal point
of Bible prophecy. He is the capstone
of the last days. In fact, you could take-- and
I'll make it even easy for you. You want to sum up the whole
Bible, all 66 books written by 40 authors over 1,500 years? You could sum the
entire Bible up by saying it's about one
person and two events. It's about one person
and two events. Jesus Christ is the one person. The two events are his first
coming and his second coming. His first coming,
to deal with sin; his second coming
to rule and reign with people who have been
forgiven of their sin. That's the whole
Bible in a nutshell. So he is the focal point
of biblical prophecy. That's why we talk about the
scarlet thread of redemption. You can follow it all
throughout the scriptures. When Jesus had died and
risen from the dead, we are told that He appeared
with two unnamed disciples who were walking from Jerusalem
to Emmaus one day. It's recorded in
Luke chapter 24. These two guys are
walking down the road, and they're talking to each
other about what happened. They don't know Jesus
has risen, and they don't know that the stranger
that comes walking up to them is Jesus. So they start talking
to this stranger. And He goes, what are
you guys talking about, as if He doesn't know? [LAUGHTER] Oh, we're talking about
this guy named Jesus. Haven't you heard the
things that have happened? And the stranger, Jesus,
says, what things? So they start telling Him about
the things that have happened. And then at a certain
point, Jesus says this-- "oh, foolish ones and slow
of hard to believe all that the prophets have written. Ought not the Christ to have
died and enter into His glory?" Now listen to the next part. "And beginning at Moses
and all the Prophets, He expounded to them
in the scriptures all the things
concerning Himself." If there was ever a Bible
study I wish it was transcribed or we had on mp3, it's that one. What did Jesus tell them? He expounded to them
in all the scriptures all the things
concerning himself. I imagine he began with Genesis
chapter 3, the first prophecy, the seed of the woman. And the child is
going to be born to crush the head of Satan. I imagine he
mentioned Genesis 22. Abraham almost sacrificing
his son on a mountain called Mount Moriah, which is
the very same exact mountain Jesus died on years later. And the angel said to Abraham,
in the mountain of the Lord, it shall be seen. He made sense of that for them. He probably stopped off
at Exodus chapter 12, the Passover, the
blood on the lintels and the doorpost of the homes. He no doubt brought up
the Levitical sacrifices, the tabernacle and how
that speaks of him. He probably mentioned
the scapegoat prophecy in Leviticus chapter 16. No doubt He would have said, and
what about Psalm 22 and Isaiah chapter 53? He may be even unlocked for
them Daniel 7 and Daniel 9. For it says, beginning at
Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them all the
things concerning Himself. No wonder then
does the angel say to John in the
book of Revelation, for the testimony of Jesus
is the spirit of prophecy. You probably have a smartphone,
or you could have a dumb phone, but you have a device. But the device typically
has a code, right? It's locked. Nobody can get in and hack it. I hope you have that code. And you know it, and you
type it in, and it unlocks. But once it's unlocked, if
you want to get into any app, you have to have a password. If you want to get
onto any platform; you want to buy something,
you need a password. And I don't know
about you, but I struggle with just, what's
that password again, right? Or how do I manage
all my passwords because a combination of
letters or numbers and letters and figures will unlock
that platform or app. Well, that's the way it
is with Bible prophecy. To unlock Old Testament
Bible prophecy, you need the right letters-- J-E-S-U-S. When you put Jesus
in the midst of those Old Testament prophecies like the
apostles did, it's like, ah, now Isaiah 53 makes sense. Now Psalm 22 makes sense. Now Genesis 22 makes sense. So just as the planets
revolve around the sun, so all the prophecies
of the scripture revolve around the Son
of God, S-O-N, Jesus. So then, the last days are
foreseen by the scriptures. They are focused on Christ. Here's the third hallmark. They will be filled
with apostasy. Now, if you don't know
what that word means, it simply means a
defector is an apostate. Someone who had a position and
left that original position, somehow. They drifted away from it. They walked away from it. Look at chapter 2,
II Peter chapter 2. Peter says, "But there
were also false prophets among the people,
even as there will be false teachers among
you, who will secretly bring in destructive
heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them,
and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow
their destructive ways, because of whom the way of
truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness,
they will exploit you with deceptive words;
for a long time their judgment
has not been idle, and their destruction
does not slumber." Time fails us to do it today,
but the entire second chapter, if you were to
look at all of it, the entire second chapter
from beginning to end is devoted to apostates,
deserters, and false teachers, or deserters who
become false teachers. And get this-- it all comes
from within the church, not from the outside, all
from within the church. So in the last two
days, this is the voice of the religious world. In the last days, according
to the scriptures, there will be a falling away
from historic biblical truth; what we would say is
historic Christianity. Now Peter is not the only
guy who mentions this. Paul mentions it. Jude mentions it. When Paul wrote to Timothy
in his first letter-- listen to how plain this. 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 1-- "the Spirit expressly says
that in the latter times some will depart from
the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits
and doctrines of demons," or better put, demonically
inspired teachings. Many will depart from the faith. That's apostasy. That's drifting away. That's walking away. That's deserting. It's leaving an
original position. Now I'd like you to see
another one that Paul wrote. Turn in your Bibles
to 2 Timothy. Take your Bible and turn in
it to 2 Timothy chapter 3. Verse 1-- "But know this--" and
any time Paul says, know this, he's going to lay
some heavy on us. "But know this, that
in the last days," here's the prediction,
"perilous times will come. For men will be lovers of
themselves, lovers of, money, boasters, proud, blasphemers,
disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving,
unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal,
despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers
of pleasure rather than lovers of God--" boy, this
is not a good list-- "having a form of godliness
but denying its power. And from such people,"
writes Paul, "turn away." So the last days will be
marked by a drift, a drift away from biblical truth,
replacing that truth with deceptive ideas. So Peter writes
about this apostasy. Jude writes about this apostasy. Paul writes about
this, and so does John, the Apostle John,
the apostle of love. In 1 John chapter 2, listen
to how explicit he is. He says, "Little children,
this is the last hour; and as you have heard that
Antichrist is coming, even now many Antichrists
have come," which is how we know it
is the last hour. "They went out from us,
but they were not of us; for if they had been
us they would not have left us" or
gone out from us. So all of these are talking
about the same thing. In the last days, you
can expect deception. And the deception
will rise, even among believers, so to
speak, or at least people who claim to be believers within
church assemblies themselves. Even Paul said to the
Church of Ephesus, I know that after my
departure savage wolves will come in destroying the flock. Among your own selves,
he says, they will arise. So deception, which is one
of Satan's master tools, will be employed
in the last days. I suppose then if
you want to know what stage of the
last days we're in, this is a pretty good indicator. There's always been defectors. There's always been in
every age apostates. But I think there is a
proliferation of that. I found an interesting
little study that was done, a survey, that revealed that
52% of evangelical Protestants believe that salvation, which
is as basic as you can get, salvation comes by a
combination of faith and works. So 52% means over half, which
means, technically, most. Most evangelical
Protestants believe you get to heaven by believing
and by working for it, trying to earn it, Even? Though the Bible
says you only get saved by faith alone, in
Christ alone, by grace alone. More than half, most,
evangelical Protestants will say, no, I think you get
to heaven by believing in Jesus and working hard for it. Only 30% in this survey
say it's by faith alone. Now that's an anecdotal
piece of evidence. Let me give you another. A few years ago, two authors
named Daniel Dennett and Linda LaScola wrote a piece called--
listen to this title-- "Preachers Who are Not
Believers," "Preachers Who are Not Believers." So they did a study. And there were chronicled
five different preachers who, over time,
entertained, accepted, listen to heretical
teachings about Christianity and today have fallen
away from the faith. Today these pastors are either
pantheist in their worldview or clandestine atheists. The most disturbing
thing about the study is that these preachers
maintain the position as being pastors of Christian churches. So their congregations
are wholly unaware of their
pastor's spiritual state. Pastors don't believe they're
pantheistic or atheistic, but they're teaching
people to believe in Jesus. And the article is
called "Preachers Who are Not Believers." Now, if you don't
believe apostasy is real, go read Revelation
chapter 2 and 3, where Jesus writes seven little
postcards to seven church groups. And in each of those
little letters, he notes that all seven
of them, except for one, have fallen away from
an original position. And he says, I have
something against you. He writes to all of them
because they had fallen away. So in the very least, let this
be a warning to us as a church and a warning to
us as individuals. There is such a thing-- I call it spiritual entropy. I'm using a term from physics. Entropy, the second
law of thermodynamics, is that energy is lost in
a closed system over time. But I use it simply to say
there's a degradation that naturally happens. There's a declension that
naturally happens over time. That unless you are feeding
energy into the system, stoking the fire of
your soul, so to speak, it's easy, like Jesus said
to the Church of Ephesus, to leave your first love. I have this against you. He said, you've left
your first love. So we need to be inputting our
lives with truth, Bible study, prayer, fellowship, et cetera. In Hebrews chapter
2, we are told let us give the
more earnest heed to the things we have
heard, lest at any time we drift away from them. So the last days
then are foreseen by scripture focused
on Christ, but they will be filled with apostasy. Let me take it another step. The last days,
according to Peter, will be framed by skepticism. Now go back with me where
we started in chapter 3. We just looked at the
phrase the last days, but we neglected to
really unlock the passage. So let's look at that. II Peter 3:1,
"Beloved, I now write to you this second
epistle--" he wrote I Peter. This is II Peter-- "in both of which I
stir up your pure minds by way of reminder, that you may
be mindful of the words which were spoken before by
the holy prophets--" those are all the
Old Testament guys-- "and the commandment of us,
the apostles of the Lord and Savior--" that's
the New Testament guys-- "knowing this
first-- that scoffers will come in the last
days, walking according to their own laws
and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the
fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they
were from the beginning." Now get this--
just as apostasy is the mark of the religious
world in the last days; the mark of the secular world
in the last days is mockery. That's what scoffing means. The word scoffer means
one who treats lightly what should be taken seriously. So it's somebody who
ridicules the truth. And you should know this--
that the Old Testament guys, the prophets, when they
spoke in the Old Testament, they had scoffers around them. You may on your own want
to read Isaiah chapter 5, Jeremiah chapter 17, Ezekiel
chapter 12 and Malachi chapter 2. All of them mention mocker
scoffers in their age, in their era. Now, I just read this
text to you, 11 Peter 3, out of the version that I teach
with every week, the New King James version. It's just a version
I've used for years. And so I've stuck with it. And there are various
translations, all of which are good. Let me read one of
these verses to you out of a very different
translation called the Message. And listen to this-- "First off, you need to
know that in the last days mockers are going
to have a heyday. Reducing everything to the
level of their puny feelings, they'll mock." Such a colorful translation. It's as if Peter
anticipated social media. Everything's just reduced
to the puny little feelings, and so they mock. The response is mockery. Have you ever shared your
faith with an unbeliever? When you get to the point about
heaven and hell and judgment, they just disconnect. It's, pfft, really? You believe that? And especially if
you mention the fact that Jesus is coming again. Ha, you're going
to hear that a lot. Ha, you believe that? My grandmother taught me that. My great grandfather
believed in that. Jesus hadn't showed up yet. Sounds like verse 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." Now, you need to
know why they scoff. Here's why mockers mock. Here's why haters of
Christianity hate. It's because they want pleasure
without accountability. I didn't make that up. Look at verse 3. "Knowing this first-- scoffers
will come in the last days, walking according
to their own lusts." There it is. They want pleasure
without accountability. They don't want you or
Jesus or anybody else telling them what to do. It's all about what
they want to do and all about their pleasure
and their own lusts. So that's one of the
marks of the last days. It's going to be
framed by skepticism. I want to give you a fifth
hallmark now of the last days. And of all of them,
this is the best. And that is, the
last days are going to be faced with hope
because there's not always just apostates. There's not always
just scoffers. There are true believers, a
remnant of true believers. And they're going to face the
same future with great hope. No matter what happens,
they have hope, and they respond in obedience. Go down to verse
10 of chapter 3. "But the day of
the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in
which the heavens will pass away with a great
noise, and the elements will melt with fervent
heat; both the earth and the works that are
in it will be burned up." God created the
heavens and the earth. God will one day uncreate
the heavens and the earth. This is the uncreation. This is the destruction of it. It's going to end. "Therefore, since all these
things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought
you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking
for in hastening the coming of the
day of God, because of which the heavens will
be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will
melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we,
according to His promise, look for new heavens
and a new earth in which righteousness dwells." Peter's pretty logical
in this whole book. If you look at chapter 1
2 and 3, in a nutshell, here's his appeal. He says, if the Bible clearly
predicts the last days-- which it does-- and if the Bible, in
depicting the last days, describes it as being full
of spiritual apostasy-- and it will-- and if
also in the last days, it will be filled
with secular mockery-- and it will-- then for those
of us who are believers, it should evoke
a godly response. What manner of persons
ought you to be in holiness and in godliness? It's a good question. How should we live? How should we then live? What manner of persons
ought we to be? If the world is going to be
burned up, what kind of people should we be? First of all, not
too materialistic if it's all going to burn. Number two, we shouldn't
be mockers like skeptics. We shouldn't scoff at it because
they're scoffing at the fact that Jesus said He's
going to return, but He's going to return. So you don't want to
be on the mockery side. Your response should be a
godly response filled with hope as you anticipate his coming. I'm going to sum it up this way. The Bible's Revelation of
the world's consummation should evoke godly motivation. That's something
you can write down, or you can just
commit it to memory. The Bible's Revelation of
the world's consummation, its ending, should evoke
among true believers godly motivation. So I want to leave
you with three things that I think are the right
response for believers living in the last days. Number one, be careful
of spiritual entropy. Be careful of it. Be careful of the tendency
to just let things slide, to drift away from
things, to decline, to leave our first love. Be aware of that. Be careful of that. Second, be confident
in spiritual truth. That's why we need
to get into the word, read the promises of scripture,
believe all the things Jesus said about His coming, more of
which we'll look at next time. So be careful of
spiritual entropy. Be confident in spiritual truth. Third, be consistent
in spiritual activity. Be consistent in your commitment
to your God, to your family, to your church, to your friends,
to your place of employment. Be consistent because
that's the healthy balance between waiting for
Jesus to show up and being engaged
in our culture. You know what it's like? It's like when a couple
goes to the doctor, and the doctor tells the husband
and wife, the young couple, she's pregnant. You're going to have a baby. So now they got nine
months to prepare. Well, maybe by the time
they hear, eight months. But they hear, they find out,
OK, we're going to have a baby. So they start getting
really jazzed and psyched. They're preparing for
the coming, his coming or her coming. And so they start
picking names out. They start thinking about
colors for the room, buying furniture for the room. They're preparing
for the coming. But at the same time,
they still go to work. They still pay the bills. They still fix things
around the house. They still stay engaged. So that's the balance as
we wait for the coming. Jesus said, occupy until I come. Stay busy until I come. So for the believer
living in the last days, keep your eye on the sky and
keep your hand to the plow. Keep your eye on the sky. Jesus could come back
any time He chooses. Could be tomorrow, could
be before 2021 ends. God willing, I'm ready. But until he come,
whenever he comes, I'm going to keep
my hand to the plow. I'm going to keep serving Him,
stay engaged, stay faithful all the way through as
we wait for His return. Lord, you taught us to
pray, thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on
earth as it is in heaven. You taught us to pray that. So we do. We do it often. Your church has for
2,000 years prayed that. For 2,000 years we
have looked forward to the fulfillment
of Christ ever since he told his
disciples, "and if I go, I will come again and
receive you to myself. That where I am, there
you may be also." [MUSIC PLAYING] Paul calls that
the blessed hope. And how thankful we are
for the blessed hope. Lord, I pray that, as
we live in these days, and we don't know what
2021 is going to hold, but we know who holds 2021. You do. Because you hold it and because
you control what goes on in the world, because you
are sovereign, we trust you, and we move forward with
great confidence in you-- not only confidence but
joy rather than anxiety. Strengthen us. Strengthen your people. Strengthen marriages. Strengthen bonds between
parents and children, employers and
employees, friends. May forgiveness flow. May love be lavish. And may your joy
mark us as we march into 2021 confident in not
just the coming of Christ, but in all the things we have
looked at in this series. In Jesus name we ask, Amen. We hope you enjoyed this special
service from Calvary Church. We'd love to know how
this message impacted you. Email us at
mystory@calvarynm.church. And just a reminder-- you can
support this ministry with a financial gift at
calvarynm.church/give. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from Calvary Church.
