IF HE DOESN’T COME
#309 IF HE DOESN’T COME
Scripture II Peter 3:3-10, NIV; Hebrews 10:35-39, NIV Orig. 9/18/1966
Rewr. 7/24/1981
Passage:
II Peter 3:3-10 3Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4 They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” 5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.[a]
Hebrews 10:35-39 35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. 36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
37 For,
“In just a little while,
he who is coming will come
and will not delay.”[a]
38 And,
“But my righteous[b] one will live by faith.
And I take no pleasure
in the one who shrinks back.”[c]
39 But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.
Purpose: To conclude a three-part series on the second coming sharing with my people the posture of the Christian while waiting for the return of the Lord, in light of the confusion brought on by scoffers and doubters in a secular age.
Keywords: Christian Life Revival Second Coming
Timeline/Series: Second Coming
Introduction
It was another news story out of Southern California. It was not the first, nor will it be the last. There can be little doubt that the fantasy world of Hollywood induces people to engage in the spectacular and the dramatic.
It was early morning, near Los Angeles, and a group of people were gathered together on a roof-top. They were robed in white bed-sheets that were being whipped by the wind. They were waiting to greet the Lord, who was coming on a time-table that they had computed.
They had accomplished a very successful PR job because a number of reporters were on the scene. One newspaper had even set up a camera and had it directed toward the eastern sky. They were not there to record a happy reunion, but rather a dismal failure. Another weird group of people had declared somewhat about the return of Jesus What’s-His-Name, and nothing has come of it. Wow!
They probably were sincere. After waiting through much of morning, then one by one the aspirants of the return of Jesus began to slip away.
Then the reporters found out from the leader of the group how they had come to believe that this was to be the day. He had multiplied his age by the number of his children, then added 666 from the Book of Revelation, and then had divided this sum by the number of puppies in his dog’s new litter, and in this way had derived the date.
It is no wonder that the unbelieving world scoffs at any mention of the second coming. Again and again there have been such groups who, for whatever reasons, have laid the foundation for such ridicule by abusing what we are clearly taught in scripture relative to His coming.
Mark 13:32, But of the day or that hour knoweth no one, not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.
Luke 12:40, Hold yourselves ready, then, because the Son of Man will come at the time you least expect Him (NEB).
I. As Our Lord Delays His Coming, We Must Respond with Vigilance. V9, The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness; but is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
Too many of us as Believers act as if we wait for some kind of escape. TS Eliot1 speaks of an inherent danger. “Hell is one’s self; there is nothing to escape from and nothing to escape to.”
We have a Biblical parallel of the danger of one’s attitude as he begins to think too strongly of his own personal safety Psalm 141:10, Let the wicked fall into their own nets, whilst that I withal escape. The Bible likewise gives us the correct believing stance, John 10:10, I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. John 14:18, I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you. Colossians 3:4, When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
Understand that what we wait for is the return of Jesus, and this waiting must be with vigilance.
We are not just awaiting the fulfillment of prophecy. David foresaw a day when Messiah would reign over Jerusalem. Psalm 24:7, Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up ye everlasting doors; and the king of glory shall come in. Malachi closes the vigilant Old Testament with such a message of hope (Malachi 4:2), But unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings.
What we wait for is the fulfillment of the promise of Jesus. John 14:1-3, Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also.
Many of you came to this place from other farms where your Father and Mother just barely managed to eke survival out of marginal cotton land. Those farmers had to surrender the land to pasture and forest. But here, the promise is in the soil and the climate and every spring you begin with renewed vigilance the wonderful challenge of harvest. Even so spiritual vigilance.
II. It is a Time Also for Vision. Vv10-11, But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, the heavens . . . shall pass away . . . ; the elements . . . shall melt . . . ; the earth . . . shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be . . . ?
Vision requires knowledge of the Word. We will never understand the TIMES unless we understand the WORD. Habakkuk 1:2, How long, O Lord, have I cried to thee, unanswered? I cry, violence, but thou dost not save. Why?
His question—Why doesn’t God do something about the human leeches who live off of the blood sucked from God’s saints? Habakkuk agrees, however, to wait in a posture of vigilance and vision. 2:1, I will stand at my post, I will take up my position on the watch-tower, I will watch to learn what He will say. . . . Then God gave Habakkuk His answer, V3 “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie; though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry long.” And Habakkuk concludes 2:20, “. . . The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth be hushed in His presence. 3:2 . . . In the midst of years thou didst make thyself known, and in the wrath thou didst remember mercy. 3:19, The Lord God is my strength, who makes my feet nimble as a hind’s feet as he sets me to walk upon my high places.
That word tells us all that we shall ever need to know of His coming. Acts 1:11, This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner from heaven. Philippians 3:20, Our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 10:37, Yet a little while, and he that shall come will come and will not tarry.
Our day is beset by the sudden and unexpected happening. On a quiet October morning 5 or 6 years ago a ship crushed a ferry crossing the river in New Orleans. Over 60 dead. Just before Christmas a year later, a grain elevator exploded and collapsed on the block house. 37 dead. I watched from Ochsner Foundation Hospital. A soft summer dance in Kansas City and 111 dead, 108 injured. [Survivor stated], “I kept asking mother, is it a dream?”
III. This Time of Delay—This Time of Vigilance and Vision—is a Time of Victory. Hebrews 10:35, Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward, 37 For yet a little while and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
For the believer, there is victory in death. If Jesus chooses to tarry through our life time, it will be to the end that others say be saved. John 1:11-12, He came unto his own and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the children of God, even to them that believe on his name.
For the believer, there is victory in a life cut short by the return of our Lord. He will come during the lifetime of some of us or of our children, or of our children’s children. Only then will we acknowledge this life to be what it truly is. The world’s picture is that death is unacceptable. This is life, and death is the void of life. But in reality, this place where we now live is the land of the dying, and that ruled over by Christ is the land of living.
Make no mistake, our victory is in our vision and our vigilance as we live out our lives in this, the land of the dying, waiting for the glorious reckoning of our Saviour’s kingdom.
Closing
Dr. Wayne Ward, in one of his books, tells of a trip to the Holy Land. While walking on the Mount of Olives, he came upon a man in the garb of an Arab who seemed to understand the place where they stood. Being a teacher of Hebrew and Aramaic, he greeted the man. But strangely, the man answered, “Howdy!” Dr. Ward questioned the man about his homeland. He was told, “I’m a Holiness preacher from Kansas City. I live in that shanty right over there. I intend to be Johnny-on-the-spot when Jesus comes.” You don’t have to live in a shanty on the Mount of Olives to be acceptable to Jesus when He returns, but you do have to be ready.
1 Eliot, T. S. (1988b). The Cocktail Party: A comedy. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Eliot: https://fleurmach.com/2013/03/27/t-s-eliot-the-cocktail-party-1949/
Dr. Ward: https://www.christianitytoday.com/1961/03/gospel-of-jesus-christ/
“YOU CAN IF . . .”
#752 “YOU CAN IF . . .”
(The Answer to the Question, “Can I Believe the Bible?”)
Scripture II Peter 1:19-21 NIV Orig. 8/17/1979
Passage:
19 We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Purpose: To call my people to a high and holy awareness of the greatness of the Word of God, and to increase their awareness of its total truth.
Keywords: Belief Bible Word of God Redemption Christ
Introduction
It was 10 years ago this week. A killer storm raced ashore in southern Mississippi. Nearly 300 people were killed. Some 400 others were injured. The stories that broke out of the darkness of that night, and into the wire-services are legend. The combination of wind, water and darkness brought an unknown dimension of fear into the lives of the thousands who had chosen to stay and ride out the storm.
Unquestionably, sufficient warning had been given. The warning of land-fall, the intensity of raw power had been stated. Many people, however, felt that they had a hedge about their lives, and that the storm could not touch them. Some of them arrogantly planned, and invited their friends to, a so-called “Hurricane Party.” At least fifteen people lost their lives even though they had taken security inside the sanctuary of a church.
Many of those people listened carefully to all of the reports. They heard the forewarnings relative to land-fall and intensity. They allowed themselves, in blissful ignorance, to interpret the meanings of those storm warnings in any way they chose. Having interpreted wrongly, they suffered the ultimate indignity of a wasted life, a needless death.
The eternal God chose, through the pages of a book we call the “Bible” to give us the forewarnings of the dimension of the storms which occur when man tries unsuccessfully to live together in society. Many people continue to raise an age-old question, “Can I believe the Bible?” I would simply endeavor to answer that question this morning. “You can if!” And I would remind you at the outset that the Bible is not on trial here, we are. We can believe the Bible . . . if!
I. You Can Believe the Bible if You are Willing to Accept the Whole Bible. II Peter 1:21 “Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
The Bible is no Book of bits and pieces. It is a book of completeness. To deny any portion of it is to disclaim confidence in all of it. (Paul Harvey The Rest of the Story.)
The purpose of the Word has always been to heighten the intensity of man’s faith in God’s intent to make Himself known. It was a prayer that David prayed in Psalm 119:18. It was a prayer that his faith would not be chained in slavery to his doubt. “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of the law.” When I Peter 1:21 was written (“21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God”), there was no New Testament. In Luke 24 Jesus joined himself to those disciples on their way home to Emmaus. “We thought it would be he who would redeem Israel. But he was crucified. Even though those women went to the grave and found it empty.” Jesus replied, “You are so foolish. Why are you slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have said?”
Then, as God make Himself known, He determines to make His Word known. In a long ago dismal day, God’s people were under heavy siege in Jerusalem. The Babylonians were about. God’s principal prophet, Jeremiah, was in prison. Not at the hand of the Babylonians, but due to his own people. King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah. “Is there any word from the Lord?” (Jeremiah 37:17). Even then, there was a mandate from God. If they would believe, and if they would heed, the outcome would be different. They did not like Jeremiah’s message. They chose one more to their liking.
Voltaire wrote “God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.” God has given complete freedom, freedom to deny, to dispel, to disclaim. Jeremiah 34:17 “So now, I, the Lord, say that you have disobeyed me. . . . Very well then, I will give you freedom: the freedom to die by war, disease, and starvation.”
II. You Can Believe the Bible if You Are Willing to Accept it as a Book about God’s Redemption. “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.”
This is not principally a book of history. Certainly, it contains history. It is accurate history. It is interesting history. It is unbiased history. But [it is] a great deal more than history. Its purpose is not primarily philosophical, though it contains the highest ideals, the principal virtues, supreme social consciousness. It is not a manual of grammar, a textbook on sociology. It does not stand as a proof-text on the biology of creation, or the pathology of man.
It is the story of God’s loving effort to redeem man. It is, then, from the very first, an admission of man’s sin and his lostness. Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” But it is the great, good news that God has done something about that lostness, when man could do nothing.
Word of God, across the ages comes thy message to our life;
Source of hope forever present in our toil and fears and strife;
Constant witness to God’s mercy, still our grace whate’er befall;
Guide failing, strength eternal, offered freely to us all.
III. You Can Believe the Bible if You Believe that it Points from Old Testament or New Testament to Jesus. II Peter 2:1, The damnable heresies of those who deny “the Lord that bought them.”
The ultimate message of the Old Testament is that God is going to bring His Redeemer in to the focus of man’s understanding. Isaiah 11:10, And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious. Hebrews 4:1, Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
The supreme revelation of the New Testament is that the Old Testament message is fulfilled in Christ. Galatians 3:16, Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, “And to seeds,” as to many; but as of one, “And to thy seed,” which is Christ.
Story of man’s wondrous journey from the shadows of the night;
Garnered truth of sage and prophet, guiding forward into light;
Words and deed of Christ our Master, pointing to the life and way;
Still appealing, still inspiring, ‘mid the struggles of today.
IV. You Can Believe the Bible if You Remember to Love, Worship, and Obey God Rather than a Book. II Peter 1:4, Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature.
Believing the Bible is not our goal. Believing the promises of God is our goal. The Bible is the instrument through which we discover the capability of God to communicate with man on man’s own level.
In the tongues of all the peoples may the message bless and heal
As devout and patient scholars more and more its depths reveal.
Bless, O God, to wise and simple, all thy truth of ageless worth
Till all lands receive the witness and thy knowledge fills the earth.
Word of God, Across the Ages: https://www.hopepublishing.com/find-hymns-hw/hw3904.aspx