back to indexBerean Community Church Wed Bible Study 11/30 2 Peter 3:11-13
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that we're going to be starting in just two minutes. 00:07:07.120 |
It definitely is missing something without the cajon. 00:08:33.120 |
Heavenly Father, we want to thank you and praise you. 00:08:40.120 |
spending time with family, but also making sure 00:08:42.120 |
that we are mindful of all that we have in Christ, 00:08:49.120 |
considering all that you are, that you have done, 00:08:52.120 |
and all the work that, God, you have done in our lives, 00:08:54.620 |
that our hearts will be overflowing with gratitude. 00:08:57.120 |
And God, although the weeks and days go by quickly, 00:09:00.620 |
and although our weeks may be filled with various-- 00:09:03.120 |
both responsibilities, distractions, burdens, 00:09:05.620 |
and more, in every season, God, we want to give you thanks. 00:09:09.120 |
And particularly tonight, as we think about your word, 00:09:12.120 |
our fellowship in the scripture, and the opportunity 00:09:18.620 |
Father, we want to lift this time of praise to you, 00:09:47.620 |
(SINGING) Create in me a clean heart, oh, God, 00:10:43.120 |
Cast me not away from thy presence, oh, Lord. 00:12:11.120 |
Cast me not away from thy presence, oh, Lord. 00:17:53.620 |
So just in case you guys are kind of wondering 00:17:58.120 |
about the schedule again, December 14, Wednesday, 00:18:03.120 |
That last study is going to be a wrap-up summary. 00:18:08.120 |
And then soon, we're going to be starting our sign-ups 00:18:13.620 |
And then next week, we're going to have a time 00:18:25.620 |
So please take time to just prepare your heart, pray, 00:18:37.620 |
ready to participate on the special service, OK? 00:18:40.120 |
All right, at this time, please go ahead and go 01:03:53.880 |
All right, if we can have the people in the rooms come back out. 01:04:59.880 |
All right, if we can have the people in the rooms come back out. 01:06:08.880 |
of the passages that we're going to be looking at 01:06:14.880 |
and then we have one more week next week, and then the week, 01:06:17.880 |
the final week is basically going to be a wrap-up study. 01:06:20.880 |
Okay? And so the wrap-up study is important because 01:06:23.880 |
we don't want you to just finish the study and 01:06:26.880 |
kind of like, "Oh, we went through the text," but we want you to be 01:06:32.880 |
"Chapter 3, 2 Peter," like, "What's it about?" 01:06:35.880 |
Right? And if somebody brings up a subject like, 01:06:38.880 |
"Is there a book that I can study on the last days 01:06:41.880 |
or about false prophets? What's a book that you would recommend 01:06:44.880 |
or what's a chapter?" And so you can flip over to that 01:06:47.880 |
and then you can kind of, you know, recollect some of the things 01:06:50.880 |
that you studied. So it's not just something that you just have a notch 01:06:53.880 |
under your belt that you did. That's something that you can actually 01:06:56.880 |
use, practically speaking. Okay? All right, so let me pray 01:07:05.880 |
continued grace and love. We pray that your word 01:07:08.880 |
would truly speak to us. And we know, Father God, 01:07:17.880 |
for life of godliness that you've given to us in the knowledge of his Son. 01:07:20.880 |
And so we pray, Father God, that you would bless this time, 01:07:29.880 |
but for purpose of sanctification. In Jesus' name we pray. 01:07:44.880 |
Right after this, he gets arrested. According to church tradition, 01:07:47.880 |
he gets arrested, he gets martyred, and he gets 01:07:50.880 |
beheaded. Right? And he gets beheaded and that's it. And he 01:07:53.880 |
knows this is coming. We saw that in the letter. He mentions it. 01:07:56.880 |
Right? He knows that the end is coming. So, this is 01:07:59.880 |
the last section of the last letter that he's writing. 01:08:05.880 |
letter to a bunch of your disciples and this is the very 01:08:08.880 |
last thing you're going to say to them and they know that trouble 01:08:11.880 |
is coming, obviously he's going to die because of persecution 01:08:14.880 |
coming. And they're not going to just come after 01:08:17.880 |
Peter. They're going to come after Peter's disciples. They're going to come after the churches. 01:08:23.880 |
of the last letter he writes before he gets beheaded. 01:08:26.880 |
Or not beheaded. Sorry. He gets crucified upside down. 01:08:29.880 |
Paul is the one who's beheaded. Nobody said anything when I said 01:08:35.880 |
kind of, you know, like consider the weightiness of what he is 01:08:38.880 |
saying. So, he's wrapping up what he is saying, 01:08:41.880 |
right, in the three chapters and basically telling them 01:08:44.880 |
like, remember this. If you forget everything, 01:08:53.880 |
is since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what 01:08:56.880 |
sort of people ought you to be? And this is sort of the conclusion 01:08:59.880 |
of everything that he's saying. So, he wasn't just trying to give them 01:09:02.880 |
information, but through the information to do what? 01:09:08.880 |
They would not be afraid that even if persecution 01:09:11.880 |
comes and even if they end up dying for their faith 01:09:20.880 |
how should you live? Not simply how should you think, 01:09:23.880 |
but how should you live? You should think this way so you can 01:09:32.880 |
to understand what the Bible says, it actually does 01:09:38.880 |
who are not walking right with God, filling them 01:09:41.880 |
with more knowledge actually causes you to be 01:09:47.880 |
proud. So, proud people, you add more knowledge, it actually does 01:09:50.880 |
more damage. So, at the end of the day, Peter is 01:09:53.880 |
not trying to get more information into them. The information 01:09:56.880 |
has practical application. Right? So, the question that we need to ask 01:09:59.880 |
ourselves is, how does your life get affected 01:10:02.880 |
by the text that you're looking at? Other than the fact 01:10:05.880 |
that you have to study and then you have to study next week and the week after that. 01:10:08.880 |
Outside of that, how does it affect? And so, one of the discussion 01:10:11.880 |
questions that we'll have at the end is, specifically, how 01:10:14.880 |
does the end times, the thought of end times, does that 01:10:17.880 |
have any practical effect on your life? Okay? 01:10:20.880 |
So, this is what Peter was trying to get at. Right? 01:10:26.880 |
considering the destruction that's coming? Right? The 01:10:29.880 |
judgment that's coming. So, in the previous week 01:10:32.880 |
where I was in here, in verse 10, just as a review, 01:10:35.880 |
it says, "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief 01:10:38.880 |
in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the 01:10:41.880 |
elements will be destroyed with intense heat and the earth 01:10:47.880 |
In other words, everything that you're concerned about, everything that you're 01:10:50.880 |
worried about losing is going to be destroyed. 01:10:56.880 |
Don't be afraid of losing whatever it is that you're working 01:10:59.880 |
so hard to get because in the end it's going to be burned up anyway. 01:11:05.880 |
Christ comes, all things are going to be made new. 01:11:11.880 |
holy conduct and godliness? So, what is the difference between holy conduct 01:11:17.880 |
inductive Bible study, hopefully you are asking these questions, right? 01:11:20.880 |
What's the difference between the two? These are the questions that you 01:11:26.880 |
Can somebody, did you find anything, the difference between 01:11:41.880 |
some time to look it up, right? These words. Holy conduct 01:12:31.880 |
is reference to our whole conduct. Inward and 01:12:37.880 |
Holy conduct is specifically the way that you are behaving. 01:12:40.880 |
Right? So, can you have one without the other? 01:12:54.880 |
a certain way and change your external behavior without 01:13:21.880 |
Right? Because godliness is reference to your whole being. 01:13:30.880 |
external behavior but in everything else, right, 01:13:45.880 |
since you are looking for these things. So, over and over 01:13:57.880 |
I'm trying to figure out if you are afraid to speak or you didn't do it. 01:14:16.880 |
Your inner being of what you're thinking about 01:14:19.880 |
the future. Hoping. Hastening is reference to 01:14:26.880 |
In your word study. If you just go back and look up 01:14:29.880 |
the words, this is what it says in the dictionary. 01:14:35.880 |
Greek dictionary. That's one of the key things that you want to have when you're 01:14:38.880 |
doing inductive Bible study. Right? So, when you look it up, 01:14:41.880 |
it's hoping. So, in your conduct, in your godliness, 01:14:50.880 |
the day of the Lord, day of God, day of Christ, 01:14:59.880 |
who will tell you, well, day of Christ means this, day of God means this, and day of the 01:15:05.880 |
verses and how it's used, typically it's used interchangeably. 01:15:14.880 |
right, if you're not hoping, you're not going to be hastening. 01:15:21.880 |
right, if you're taking action without hoping, 01:15:34.880 |
Right? You're changing your behavior but your 01:15:37.880 |
inner person is not changing because your motivation 01:15:46.880 |
You're outwardly being motivated. So, that's why he says 01:15:49.880 |
considering the destruction, considering that all things are going to be 01:16:07.880 |
Because the coming of the day of God is coming. 01:16:16.880 |
believes, Christian or non-Christians, believe the end is coming. 01:16:27.880 |
Whether you think it's going to come because of war, 01:16:30.880 |
right, some people may say maybe we're going to have 01:16:33.880 |
World War III and nuclear bombs are going to go off and 01:16:36.880 |
there's going to be an end. So, everybody's afraid of 01:16:42.880 |
who say that because of climate change, right, 01:16:45.880 |
and some alarmists are saying that this is going to happen 01:16:48.880 |
in the next 10, 15 years if you don't change the course of 01:16:51.880 |
time, you know, the earth is going to burn up so the end is going to 01:17:00.880 |
California is going to hit earth one day and then we're going to blow up 01:17:03.880 |
and we're going to disappear. Or maybe the aliens 01:17:06.880 |
are going to come, you know, and they're going to take over. 01:17:09.880 |
Or maybe AI is going to come and they can take over. 01:17:12.880 |
So, the talk of the end, depending on who you talk to, 01:17:33.880 |
what's going to end up happening? You're going to get really into politics. 01:17:36.880 |
Right? You're going to say, "What's America doing? 01:17:39.880 |
What's China doing? What's Iran doing? What's Russia doing?" 01:17:42.880 |
And so you're going to be paying very close attention to that because 01:17:45.880 |
you're afraid that if something goes wrong here 01:17:54.880 |
opinion may be, thinks that the world is going to end 01:18:00.880 |
fossil fuel and all this stuff. And so we have political 01:18:03.880 |
ideas on that and some people are doing crazy things 01:18:06.880 |
because they think the world is going to come to an end. 01:18:12.880 |
is going to be some kind of an end. That's why there's all this money being spent 01:18:15.880 |
trying to get to Mars, right? Why are you going to Mars 01:18:18.880 |
if you're not afraid? People are thinking about going to Mars because 01:18:21.880 |
they think at some point there's going to come an end, right? 01:18:24.880 |
So, depending on what you think is going to bring an end, 01:18:27.880 |
that's where you're probably going to spend your energy. 01:18:30.880 |
So, he's saying as Christians, we are told the end 01:18:42.880 |
And this end isn't by accident. It's not simply because 01:18:45.880 |
we're driving cars or riding planes. It says it's 01:18:48.880 |
going to be a deliberate judgment from God, right? 01:19:06.880 |
If you think it's climate change, you have to change the climate. If you think it's nuclear war, 01:19:09.880 |
you have to get rid of nuclear weapons. If you think it's 01:19:12.880 |
aliens, find them and destroy them first, right? 01:19:18.880 |
the end is coming, your natural response to that is, how are we going 01:19:27.880 |
that these ends come. In fact, if we look at these texts, 01:19:33.880 |
he started the first letter this way, "Therefore, prepare your minds 01:19:36.880 |
for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely 01:19:39.880 |
on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." 01:19:54.880 |
small snippet of, remember when we were going through Revelation, 01:20:00.880 |
a whole book of Revelation is a reminder to us, 01:20:03.880 |
it gives us a visual picture of how this is going to end. 01:20:09.880 |
Seven, seven, seven judgments in the book of Revelation. 01:20:12.880 |
What is the first set of judgments that come? 01:20:15.880 |
The seal judgments, and then the seventh seal 01:20:21.880 |
Trumpet judgments. And then on the seventh trumpet, 01:20:27.880 |
So, if you remember, as we were studying, the judgment gets much more 01:20:33.880 |
is right in the middle of that, the trumpet judgments. 01:20:36.880 |
And this is how it's described, "For I consider that the sufferings 01:20:39.880 |
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the 01:20:42.880 |
glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious 01:20:45.880 |
longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing 01:20:48.880 |
of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected 01:20:51.880 |
to futility." Sorry, this is, I'm going to get to the other verse. 01:20:57.880 |
subjected it in hope that the creation itself also would be set 01:21:00.880 |
free from slavery to corruption into the freedom 01:21:03.880 |
of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation 01:21:06.880 |
groans and suffers pains the child were together until now." 01:21:12.880 |
studied this passage before, but the Bible says 01:21:18.880 |
man is under judgment because we were created to 01:21:21.880 |
be the subduers of the land. So, when we were corrupted, 01:21:24.880 |
the Bible says that the earth also was corrupted. 01:21:36.880 |
remember what he said what was going to happen? 01:21:42.880 |
they're going to bear thorns and thistles. Meaning 01:21:51.880 |
see the corruption of creation and we're trying to fix it by 01:21:57.880 |
But the Bible says the creation was corrupted along with us. 01:22:00.880 |
And it's eagerly waiting for the sons of man to appear. Meaning 01:22:03.880 |
restoration to happen to us so that the creation 01:22:09.880 |
not be restored until what's taken care of. Not 01:22:21.880 |
to what God intended, He will restore us back 01:22:36.880 |
In Revelation 8, 7, 3, this is the trumpet judgment. 01:22:42.880 |
and fire mixed with blood and they were thrown to the 01:22:45.880 |
earth and third of the earth was burned, burned up and the third of 01:22:48.880 |
the trees were burned up and all the green grass was burned up. You notice 01:22:51.880 |
how much he says burning. The second angel sounded 01:22:54.880 |
and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea 01:22:57.880 |
and a third of the sea became blood. Third of the creatures which were 01:23:00.880 |
in the sea had life, died and the third of ships 01:23:03.880 |
were destroyed. The third angel sounded and a great star 01:23:06.880 |
fell from heaven burning like a torch and it fell on the third 01:23:09.880 |
of the rivers. And again, over and over again, here 01:23:18.880 |
he says because of which the heavens will be destroyed 01:23:24.880 |
passage that we're talking about is in reference to this and the 01:23:33.880 |
asking the question why is the heaven in plural? 01:23:42.880 |
Okay, I don't know if you had deep theological discussions about the 01:24:03.880 |
If you want to get technical, you could technically say 01:24:09.880 |
that is not physical. So you can say it's plural 01:24:12.880 |
for that reason, but if you look up the dictionary it just simply 01:24:15.880 |
says that's just the way it's used sometimes. 01:24:21.880 |
again, if you want to distinguish the heavens by burning the elements 01:24:24.880 |
basically you probably heard that statement heaven and 01:24:27.880 |
earth, heaven and earth. Right? Heaven and earth basically 01:24:36.880 |
Right? Not just a particular part. It will all melt away 01:24:45.880 |
your car, your house, everything material will burn 01:24:48.880 |
away. Everything that is not material, the things that you're 01:24:54.880 |
Your honor, your glory, all of that is going to be burned. 01:24:57.880 |
That's basically what it's saying. So everything 01:25:03.880 |
sleeplessness, all of that is going to be gone 01:25:15.880 |
If everything is going to be gone tomorrow, how will it affect 01:25:21.880 |
your value system? According to the promise, looking 01:25:30.880 |
statement here, new heavens and new earth, is 01:25:36.880 |
Right? And this language is all over. If you looked it up, you 01:25:45.880 |
new heavens and new earth, and the former things will 01:25:57.880 |
just as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make 01:26:00.880 |
endure before me, declares the Lord, so your offspring in your 01:26:06.880 |
the old heavens and the old earth will be destroyed. 01:26:09.880 |
Right? It's no longer going to be here, and then 01:26:12.880 |
the new heaven and new earth is where we're going to be dwelling 01:26:18.880 |
obviously different people have different opinions on this, 01:26:27.880 |
you have the tribulation. Some people have different opinions 01:26:30.880 |
about when we're raptured, whether it's before or after. But you 01:26:33.880 |
have the seven year tribulation where all those judgments take place. 01:26:39.880 |
that the millennial kingdom will come. That's where all the 01:26:42.880 |
promises that He made to the nation of Israel is fulfilled. 01:26:45.880 |
And the genuine believers are there as co-heirs 01:26:51.880 |
thousand years Satan is bound, and then he will 01:26:54.880 |
be released again to deceive, and then the judgment 01:27:03.880 |
is a description of the new heavens and the new earth. 01:27:09.880 |
of that drama, after the millennial kingdom. So new heaven 01:27:12.880 |
and new earth is after the millennial kingdom, 01:27:15.880 |
the final state. And He says, "Then I saw a new 01:27:21.880 |
millennial kingdom is in chapter 20. Chapter 21 01:27:27.880 |
"Heaven at first, earth passed away, and there is no 01:27:30.880 |
longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, Jerusalem, 01:27:48.880 |
in the sky where you close your eyes and you imagine this heaven. The Bible 01:28:03.880 |
Okay? And the reason why it's better is because the presence of God 01:28:09.880 |
shine even brighter, right? And the Holy Spirit 01:28:15.880 |
"And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven 01:28:18.880 |
from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. 01:28:21.880 |
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the 01:28:24.880 |
tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among 01:28:27.880 |
them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among 01:28:39.880 |
heartaches that come from things that we hope 01:28:48.880 |
friendships that didn't last. How much of our tears 01:28:57.880 |
He said, "When we get to heaven," right? New heaven 01:29:00.880 |
and new earth, "every tear from their eyes, and there will be no 01:29:03.880 |
longer be any death," because we will be in our final state. 01:29:21.880 |
brought the curse, and the curse is reversed, 01:29:27.880 |
and be said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.'" 01:29:33.880 |
words are faithful and true. Then He said to me, 'It is done. 01:29:36.880 |
I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the 01:29:42.880 |
Where else did you hear that in a different form? 01:29:51.880 |
why we said that, remember we talked about the last days? 01:30:00.880 |
death and resurrection, because everything that was needed for this 01:30:03.880 |
to happen has happened. The only difference now 01:30:12.880 |
sinners to come to Christ, and we'll get to that next week, right? 01:30:15.880 |
"I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give 01:30:18.880 |
to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without 01:30:30.880 |
going to fight and you beat somebody? What does it mean 01:30:51.880 |
this repeatedly in Revelation to the churches, 01:31:06.880 |
"He who does not give up." It's not the person who starts, 01:31:21.880 |
salvation comes from perseverance of the saints. 01:31:24.880 |
If you really believe, you will persevere, right? 01:31:27.880 |
You will inherit these things and I will be His God and He 01:31:36.880 |
kind of wrapped this up. In fact, the next passage kind of continues this thought 01:31:42.880 |
kind of warns them or encourages them to pay attention to 01:31:48.880 |
before he says his final goodbye, which will be next 01:32:09.880 |
somebody disappointed you or you didn't get the job you wanted and it's like, 01:32:12.880 |
"Oh, you know, in heaven." It's almost kind of like your 01:32:18.880 |
you kind of want to escape and go to heaven. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about your 01:32:34.880 |
when you have good health and your bills are paid 01:32:37.880 |
and your relationships are good, how does the 01:32:40.880 |
second coming help you? This is the reason why it says it's hard for 01:32:43.880 |
a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven because a rich man 01:32:58.880 |
whole conclusion of Peter's letter is, "What kind of person 01:33:07.880 |
So what is it about the new heaven and new earth that you look 01:33:19.880 |
What kind of actions do you take? Not just internally, 01:33:22.880 |
I'm hoping for this, but how does that affect you? And this is related to number 01:33:25.880 |
three. How does looking for and hastening the coming of the 01:33:28.880 |
day of God affect the following specifically? 01:33:37.880 |
two things that you can tell what people value, 01:33:43.880 |
true. How you spend your money, how you spend your time. 01:33:49.880 |
So wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be also, right? 01:33:58.880 |
So how does it affect your money? How does it affect the way you 01:34:01.880 |
budget? How does it affect the way you spend, right? How does 01:34:10.880 |
knowing that all this is going to be gone, the way you view 01:34:16.880 |
Do you see it as a temporary thing? Like if I get a good 01:34:19.880 |
job, I get to get money. And so is it just temporal? 01:34:22.880 |
Is the excitement of getting a new job your next 01:34:25.880 |
paycheck or good retirement? Or is it beyond that? 01:34:31.880 |
So how does it affect your career? The way you view relationship, 01:34:37.880 |
How does the coming of Christ and destruction of the 01:34:40.880 |
old heaven and earth and new heaven and earth coming, 01:34:46.880 |
Do you have non-Christian friends that you have never 01:34:49.880 |
shared the gospel with, right? If you knew that 01:35:01.880 |
How does hanging out with other people who believe the 01:35:04.880 |
Bible, how does hanging out with other people who 01:35:07.880 |
believe this, right? And if you're hanging out with 01:35:10.880 |
people who profess to believe this and all you talk about 01:35:16.880 |
That's something we need to consider, right? How does it 01:35:22.880 |
How does it affect the way you spend your time, right? 01:35:25.880 |
When you have a chunk of time, like you got a vacation 01:35:34.880 |
Where am I going to go? What am I going to eat? What am I going to do?" 01:35:37.880 |
Is that the first and only thing that you think about? 01:35:46.880 |
I would think the more we are consumed with this 01:35:49.880 |
thought, that the more it would have a direct 01:35:55.880 |
The way you raise your children. Some of you guys 01:35:58.880 |
who are raising your children. Are we raising our children 01:36:16.880 |
or are we really raising them with eternal things 01:36:19.880 |
in mind? Are they also preparing for the end? 01:36:25.880 |
give you guys some time to discuss these things, 01:36:34.880 |
disappearing and new heaven and new earth coming. 01:36:37.880 |
Let me pray first and then I'll let you get into your small group. 01:36:57.880 |
Help us, Lord God, to examine our own hearts, 01:37:36.880 |
would be righteous, that we would learn to be gracious 01:37:42.880 |
truly live up to the calling that you've given us. 01:37:45.880 |
So I pray that you would bless this time of discussion, 01:37:48.880 |
may it be fruitful and may it cause us, Lord God, 01:37:51.880 |
to be sharpened. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.