00:00  music by.
00:21  Well, my friends, welcome back for another week of the Bible Classroom, and I'm your host, Reid Ashbaucher.
00:27  We've been talking about, for the last several weeks, about false teaching, about cults, religious cults in particular, and defining those, what they believe.
00:38  And for the past year, in Season 1, we tried to lay a foundation for correct Biblical thinking, Biblical doctrine, Biblical teaching.
00:49  So, today, I found a piece of scripture that I think sums up everything we've been trying to talk about for the last several weeks, found in 2 Peter, Chapter 3.
01:02  And I think what we'll do is, I will read through this chapter, and make some comments and commentary about what's being said,
01:12  and how it fundamentally applies to everything we've been discussing for the last several weeks.
01:19  2 Peter, Chapter 3, reads like this,
01:22  This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you, in which I am stirring up your mind by way of reminder,
01:31  Know this, first of all, that in the last days, mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying,
01:52  Where is the promise of his kingdom, for even since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.
02:03  For when they maintained this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God, the heavens existed long ago,
02:12  And the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water.
02:23  But the present heavens and earth, by his word, are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
02:36  Now that's interesting, let's talk a little bit about that.
02:39  For when they maintained this, in other words, the mocking, the when is Jesus going to return,
02:46  When all of this is going on, it escapes their notice that the word of God existed, heaven was created long ago,
02:55  From what? Out of water and by water.
02:59  What does that mean?
03:00  Well, during the creation time, there was, before the flood, there was a water envelope around the earth.
03:08  It's what created the tropicalness.
03:10  That's where all the water came from when the flood came.
03:14  There was a water envelope, the scripture says, around the earth.
03:20  And so, we were formed, in essence, out of water, the earth.
03:26  And then, when the floods came, by water means when the floods came,
03:31  Then the rains also shaped the earth, as we know it today, with your cannons, and gullies, and oceans.
03:41  And through all of this, and through all this time, and through that destruction,
03:46  Comes the concept that the heavens and the earth are all formed by his word.
03:54  God created and spoke it all into existence.
03:57  And he's reserving this earth for a final judgment, and the judgment will come by fire.
04:05  And it is reserved, this judgment, for the destruction of the ungodly men.
04:11  Who are the ungodly men?
04:13  They are all the deniers.
04:14  They are all the people that reject Jesus Christ.
04:18  They are all of the people that mock the truth of the scriptures, and say,
04:24  Oh, where is this Christ?
04:26  Christ isn't really Christ.
04:28  God and the Bible isn't really true.
04:31  And all of the mockers, and all of the false prophets, and all the false teachers that lead men down a road to destruction.
04:40  And so Peter goes on and says,
04:43  But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved.
04:47  That with the Lord, one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day.
04:53  A lot of times we take that out of context as saying,
04:56  Well, they try to take that verse and say,
04:59  Well, see, that proves that the earth wasn't made in six solar days,
05:03  because with God, a thousand years is as one day.
05:08  And so we think that the earth was formed over time, over thousands of years.
05:15  When reality, if you take this in context, that's not what's being said here.
05:20  It is simply pointing out the fact that the people are mocking the scriptures because they have proclaimed that Jesus is going to return.
05:29  And because he hasn't returned in these few thousand years, and it could be another few thousand years, or it could be tomorrow, no one knows.
05:38  But because of this long period of time that has passed in the mind of men,
05:45  that God is simply saying, with the Lord, one day is a thousand years.
05:52  And so, technically speaking, only a few days have passed in the mind of God.
05:58  With men, it's been thousands of years, but with God, it's just been a few days in perspective of time.
06:04  And so, don't be deceived simply because a long period of time has come and Jesus hasn't returned.
06:12  The Lord is not slow about his promise.
06:15  In other words, he promised Jesus would come back.
06:17  Jesus promised that he would return in John chapter 14, John chapter, and in Acts chapter 1.
06:24  The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward who?
06:31  You.
06:32  Not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
06:38  So, why is there this long period of time going on, and why has Jesus not returned?
06:45  because God is waiting for the conversion of his creation. He has put out a message of the good news that Jesus came who loved you, who died for you, who wants you to come to the saving knowledge of him through faith, and he's waiting off his judgment and his destruction that he promised would come.
07:07  And so Peter goes on and says, but the day of the Lord will come like a thief. What is the day of the Lord? Well, the day of the Lord is not a particular day. It is a time period. It is the time between the rapture of the church or the start of the tribulation period until the end of the millennium.
07:31  And so it's a stretch of time.
07:34  But the day of the Lord will come like a thief in which the heavens will pass away with a roar of the elements destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
07:48  When is all that going to happen? Well, this is part of the day of the Lord. It's not talking about the tribulation period.
07:54  It's talking about the end of the millennial period when the great white throne judgment happens, and the earth is then passes away and will be remade into new heaven and new earth.
08:07  But just before them, there is a great judgment called the great white throne judgment.
08:12  And this is the time period in which he's talking about.
08:15  And then he goes on and says, let me see, I left off. Let's go back to verse 10.
08:20  But the day of the Lord will come like a thief in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements with the destroyed with intense heat.
08:29  And the earth and its works will be burned up.
08:32  Verse 11, since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness?
08:43  Looking for and hasting the coming of the day of God, on account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning and the elements will melt with intense heat.
08:56  But according to his promise, we are looking for a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
09:03  And so he's giving a warning.
09:05  He says, look, what sort of people should we be?
09:09  We should be holy.
09:10  We should be conducting ourselves in godliness, looking for this final destruction of the earth as we know it.
09:18  And it will be remade and remade and it will have a new heaven and a new earth, which is where the final resting place of God's creation that has accepted him as the God of the creation and Christ as the Messiah and Lord and Savior of the world.
09:39  And this is where all righteousness ultimately in the end will dwell.
09:44  And then he goes on in verse 14.
09:47  Therefore, because of these facts, therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard and patient of our Lord to be salvation.
10:03  So the Apostle Paul has spoken to these exact same things.
10:20  Scripture supports Scripture.
10:23  The Apostles support one another.
10:25  If biblical truth is true, it must agree with all other biblical truth.
10:29  And here you have truths of both the Apostle Peter and the Apostle Paul come together to testify to each other that what is being said here is true.
10:39  And then goes on and says,
10:42  Let's go back to verse 16.
10:46  So he's talking about false teachers, false prophets, people who testify against the Scriptures and tell you they're not true, testify against Christ and say he is a false God.
11:15  And that they are God and that there's nothing else but humanity.
11:21  Man will solve his problems.
11:22  That's humanism.
11:23  Other religions say, well, we have other prophets.
11:27  We have other books and writings.
11:29  And God is simply saying here that ultimately, in the end, take heed.
11:35  Because God's destruction and judgment is coming for them.
11:39  And goes on to verse 17.
11:42  You, therefore, you who believe, you, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard, lest being carried away by error and by unprincipled men,
11:55  You fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
12:04  To him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity.
12:08  Amen.
12:10  And so we're giving a warning that in the end, the earth is going to be destroyed and all of its evil works.
12:18  All the evil deeds of men will be finally destroyed, will be judged.
12:24  And in the great white throne judgment, it says that all of the evil and ungodly souls will be pulled from hell.
12:32  And then the final judgment will be given and they will be cast in the lake of fire.
12:37  You find this in the book of Revelation.
12:39  And then, in this case, as we read the scriptures here in 2 Peter chapter 3,
12:46  And you, therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, knowing all of these facts, knowing the scriptures,
12:51  knowing the things that I've just covered in the last year and talked about Bible doctrine,
12:57  to have sound doctrine, to know what the scriptures actually are teaching,
13:01  you know all of this, be on guard for false teachers, false prophets, false religions, religious cults,
13:09  because they will come and try to carry you away in error with unprincipled men.
13:14  You fall from your own steadfastness.
13:17  In other words, stay steadfast.
13:19  Stay in the word of God.
13:21  Stay in the truth.
13:22  Don't fall away from that, lest you be carried away.
13:26  But grow in the grace and the knowledge of God.
13:30  How do we do that? The Holy Spirit is going to work with you and teach you the scriptures because that is the knowledge base. The knowledge that we know about God comes from the scriptures. It doesn't come from a newspaper. It doesn't come from a preacher preaching his opinions. It doesn't come from false prophets. It doesn't come from demons. It doesn't come from Satan. It doesn't come from other churches or other denominations.
14:00  Or any denomination. It comes strictly through the word of God. The scriptures. And we have those incomplete in its entirety. 66 books. There's an 1189 chapters. Which all of those verses and chapters were added. Historically were added. They were not in the original text. Those were added so we could find things and reference things. And they were added somewhere around.
14:30  I believe the 15th century. I think with the Geneva Bible. Maybe just before that. But in the end that was just before the King James Bible.
14:40  So with Peter's admonishings and testimony of Paul's writings. We're going to leave it there. I think next week we've been talking enough about false teachings and false prophets and spiritisms and all of the various false teachings and groups that want to proclaim truth when they're actually proclaiming lies and proclaiming works and things that have been written.
15:07  Not by men who are inspired by God or by God himself but by men trying to lead people astray.
15:15  So what we're going to do in future podcasts is we're going to start in the book of Genesis.
15:20  And we're going to start working our way through the scriptures or 66 books.
15:25  And we're not going to do verse by verse like J. Vernon McGee does.
15:31  Five year Bible study.
15:33  Which is a good program.
15:35  J. Vernon McGee is deceased but had an excellent program and goes through the scriptures in five years.
15:41  We're not going to do that.
15:43  What I'm interested in doing is just pulling out scripture in various books in different places in the Bible and just talk about their concepts, the truthfulness about what they're trying to say so that you know what the scriptures teach when it comes to biblical and doctrinal principles to live by.
16:04  If you understand what the scriptures teach, then when you hear something out there taught by whomever and it doesn't line up with what the scriptures is saying and what it's teaching, then you know that it's false.
16:19  And how do you know that?
16:20  Because the Holy Spirit will help you understand that what is being said in the scriptures is true and getting a correct handle and interpretation of those things will help you understand correct Bible doctrine.
16:34  And it is correct Bible doctrine that we live by that brings stability in our life.
16:41  Stability comes through the obedience of the correct interpretation of the word of God.
16:47  Many times we get an incorrect interpretation and we think we're following something that God said.
16:53  In reality, it's out of context.
16:55  And you know that anything taken out of context is really not what's being said.
17:01  And so then the concept and principles you think you're living by is all messed up.
17:07  And you wonder, well, why is God not honoring his word?
17:12  Well, God isn't honoring his word in your life because you've got an incorrect interpretation.
17:17  of what God had said.
17:20  God's willing to honor his word, but it's his word, not what somebody else thinks his word is.
17:27  So it says to study, to show ourselves approved, the scripture says, rightly dividing the word of truth.
17:35  And if you want to have a successful Christian life, if you want to have less ups and downs and a little more stability in your life with Christ, then it takes effort.
17:55  And you need to read the word of God and you need to pray and ask God to reveal the truth and the correct interpretations.
18:02  And hopefully that's what we're going to try to accomplish here.
18:08  Correct interpretations, correct insights.
18:11  God will hold me accountable and God will hold you accountable.
18:15  And the Holy Spirit will be both our teachers and hopefully we'll learn together what it is God is trying to say and tell us as we walk through the scriptures and the next coming podcast.
18:30  So, now may the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
18:45  The music you hear at the beginning of this podcast is through freshpiano.com.