The Power of the Day of Judg..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Brothers and sisters and friends, I'm going to invite you to open up your Bibles, please, to the second letter of Peter. And in this opportunity, we're going to have the chance, by God's grace, to start chapter three.

And what I want us to do this afternoon or this evening, beloved of Christ, is to address the topic of the power of the day of judgment, the power of the day of judgment. And I want us to meditate about that from what the apostle says there in chapter three, in verse four, in which the false prophets, the false teachers of the first century will question, will challenge the day of the Lord. It says, where is the promise of his coming? So beloved of Christ, I want us to meditate together about the power of the Day of Judgment. For Peter, this Day of Judgment is also called the Day of the Lord, or the Day of His Coming, or the Day of God, or the Day of Destruction, or the Day of Eternity.

Those are all terms used by the Apostle to speak of the same reality. The Day of Judgment, he calls it the Day of the Lord, or the Coming of the Lord, or the Day of God, or the Day of Eternity. Those are the words that the Spirit of God gave to the Apostle Peter, so that he will instruct us about the day that is to come. And by God's grace, I want us to meditate upon that. The power of that day, the Day of Judgment, the day of the Lord, the day of God, the day of eternity, the power of that day for those who by grace through faith have been inserted into the person of Christ today.

And we're going to be doing that from those verses there in chapter 3 from verse 1 to verse 7. But as we always do, we're going to be reading together an extended portion And the purpose for which we are reading an extended version today is so that you will be able to see, in the words of the Spirit of God through Peter, how this day of judgment, how this day of the coming of the Lord, how this day of God, or this day of destruction, is the same in the mind of the Apostle, as he started speaking about it in verse 9 in chapter 2. The Beloved of Christ, I'm going to invite you with much reverence and paying attention to each one of the words that you have there in front of you in your Bibles to read together all chapter 2 and all chapter 3, paying careful attention to the words that the Spirit of God has given us in the Scripture pertaining precisely to this topic of the Day of Judgment. Day of Judgment. This is the Word of God, and this is chapter 2, 2 Peter.

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who brought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their centrality. And because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed, and in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation, that is the false prophets, their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned by casting them into hells and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness, to be kept until the judgment, If he did not spare the ancient world but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly, if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly, and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked, For as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over the lawless deeds that he saw and heard.

Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment. and especially those who indulge in lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong at the weight of their wrongdoing. They counter pleasure to revel in the daytime.

They are blots and blemishes, rebelling in their deceptions while they feast with you. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice and steady souls. They have hearts strained in greed, accused, accursed children. forsaken the right way.

They have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was redeemed from his own transgression. A speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness. These are waterless streams, mist driven by a storm. For them, the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved.

for speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is a slave. But if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last estate has become worse for them than the first. But it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness, that after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.

What the true proverb says has happened to them. The dog returned to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire. This is now the second letter that I'm writing to you, beloved. In both of them I stir up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions, or the words, of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing these, first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, Where is the promise of His coming?

For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the Word of God. And that by means of this, The world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved.

that with the Lord one day is a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. The Lord is not as slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, And then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burnt up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn. But according to His promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for this, be diligent to be found by Him without a slaughter, blemish, and a piece, and count the patience of our Lord, as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable tweet to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures. You, therefore, beloved, Knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

May the Lord bless the reading, the exposition, the hearing, and the proclamation of His Word. Beloved of Christ, brothers and sisters and friends, I really hope that with the eyes of your spirit, moved by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, you can hear, spiritually speaking here, the urgent call of the Apostle Peter to the Church. I beg you, my supplication, I plead with the Church not to be carried away by false teachers, by false prophets, a pleading, an urgent supplication that it does not come from the heart of the Apostle, but rather that comes from the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ, a pleading with the people of God not to be deceived by the erroneous teaching of men like the faithful husband, pleading with his wife not to be taken by a man, not to be taken into idolatry and adulterous relationships. The heart of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the power of His Spirit, is speaking through the Apostle Peter, not only to the church in the first century, the beloved of Christ, to the church until the day of judgment, that we will not be followers of men. but rather that we will be followers of the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ.

That those who by grace through faith proclaim to be united to Christ might have Him as what they desire in their heart, and not the deceitful teachings of men. So this apostle, knowing that his days on earth are about to come to an end, from his soul, from his spirit, is pleading with the church in the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, telling them that this is the second letter that now he's writing to them, urging them to remember, to be stirred up in their mind, that they may remember the words of the Holy Prophet, and also that they may remember the commandment of the Lord Jesus Christ given through the apostles. The Lord that spoke to us in other times through the prophets, now He has spoken in these last days through the Son, Jesus Christ, and His apostles. The heart of Jesus Christ in the heart of the apostles for men and women who are in Christ not to be carried away by the deceitfulness of false prophets. How silly we would be, beloved of Christ, if we just think that this that is written here, it was only applicable to them in the first century.

The same pleading of the spirit is the spirit pleading for the church on this day. Not to be carried away by the idolatry of intellectualism. Not to be carried away by the deceitfulness of good works. Not to be carried away by the charisma of men or women. Not to be carried away by the system of a church.

not to be carried away by the deceitfulness of Western Christianity, but rather in the same Spirit that has saved them, to open their eyes and their ears to hear the One who has saved their souls. Beloved of Christ, never ever think that when we're speaking about false prophets or false teachers, we're speaking about the Jehovah's Witnesses or the Catholics or the Seventh-day Adventists or whatever other clearly opposed group of people against the truth of Scripture. When the apostles were pleading with the Church, they were speaking about people that would be within the context of the Church. People who would seem to be genuine in what they say, yet their hearts are utterly taken by love for money, sexual immorality, pleasures of the flesh, secretly worshiping themselves instead of worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Bible tells us if we overcome the destruction here.

Be with me, beloved of Christ. Be with me. The same spirit is speaking, the same spirit is speaking to those brothers and sisters in the first century It's the same spirit, beloved Christ, that speaks to us on this day. Never think that just because Christianity has prevailed through history, and somehow Orthodox Christianity has reached many countries and places, that we are less exposed to the danger of false prophets and false teachers. Never, ever think that.

And the power and the deception of false teachers goes beyond the words. It is rooted in their behaviors. It is rooted in what they say, and more importantly, the things that they do not say. And all of those things shape and form those who give themselves to hear them, to follow them, and to follow their ways. And the Bible is very clear that there is destruction that is reserved and kept for those people, just as destruction and darkness, gloomy darkness, is reserved for those who follow them.

That is the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, beloved. We are never to be satisfied with plain Christianity. We are to never be satisfied just with doing religion every time that we come together. But we are to seek the Lord in truth by His Spirit and through His Word, that your heart indeed may be the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. and that the burdens of God may be the burdens of your soul, just as the burden of the Apostle Peter here is the burden of the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Many will be taken and carried away by the deceitful teachings of these false prophets. And just as we have spoken extensively about the nature of these false prophets and the many deceptions that they will teach and have taught through the ages, Now we come to a section in this book in which we are presented with another deception of false teachers. And in this case, that deception is in regard to the Day of Judgment. And as I tried to show you there with the reading, the Day of God, the Day of the Lord, the coming of the Lord, the Day of Eternity, the Day of Destruction, all of them synonyms in the mouth of the Apostle Peter to speak about the same reality. And the Apostle, by inspiration of the Spirit, says that these false teachers, who love themselves above God and above the Church, will bring the deception about the Day of Judgment.

And the pure, simple definition of what the Day of Judgment is for the Apostle Peter is very clearly given to us there in verse 10. It says, but the day of the Lord, or the day of judgment, or the day of God, or the day of eternity, or the day of destruction, verse 10, but the day of the Lord will come like a thief. And then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burnt up, and the soul, and the earth, and the works that are done on it, on the earth, will be burnt up or exposed. Like a thief. Destruction.

Sudden destruction on the day of the Lord. And the most terrifying thing is that the things that are passing away, they will indeed be burned up. That which is temporal will not endure the fire of the day of the Lord. That which is in the flesh and man-made and does not belong to God will be utterly exposed. or burned up.

The day will come in which the Lord will open the books, and that which is truly in our hearts will be put through the test of the fire of the Lord. Everything exposed, the things that we have in our hearts, the things that we have in our minds, the things that this world has built, the things that this world has accomplished, everything to the mercy of the consuming fire of the Lord on that day, a day that no one escaped. You either die and see the Lord yourself, or the Lord comes and we have to face Him together. The day of judgment, the day of the Lord, the day of destruction, everything exposed in which the Lord Jesus Christ will be the one that is standing, dividing the nations, dividing men, the powerful, the one that has reputation, the one that has power, not choosing or selecting according to what they know, or who they are, or how much money they have, or the power that they have accumulated through their lives, but separating the nations and the people according to one thought, who has looked upon the grown serpent. Who has looked upon Jesus Christ?

Who has received the gift of salvation? It does not matter how powerful the man is, or who it is. It is the king of the nations, or it is the ruler of the nations, all of them, separated. Some of them thrown into hell to pay for their sins because they have rejected the gospel and the Lord Jesus Christ and some others by the grace that has been given to them. Invited into the eternal rest of glory.

Come into this eternal rest by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a scary day, beloved of Christ. It's a scary moment. And the scariest thing is that from among those who will be thrown into hell, many of them will come to say, Lord, Lord, Didn't we prophesy in Your name? Lord, Lord, didn't we cast out devils in Your name?

Lord, Lord, didn't we do mighty works in Your name? Lord, Lord, didn't we do this and that in Your name? And it will not be, beloved of Christ, a stronghold or a strong door that has been built with stones and iron and with powerful items, the one that will stop them from accessing the heavens. It will be the same Lord Jesus Christ, the one who will say to them, Depart from me, you workers of inequity. I never knew you.

Beloved of Christ, the reason why I want to speak about the power of the day of judgment is because we live in times in which the judgment of which I'm speaking does not produce anything in your heart. It's powerless. Because we have allowed ourselves to give our hearts and our minds and our thoughts to the things of this world many times, so that we are not sensible or sensitive anymore to the things of this period. Because according to the Scripture of the love of Christ, there is great power in the day of judgment. A power that is not only going to be manifested on that day, but a power that is meant to be manifested in your life even now.

vital part of the Christian life and vital part of the heart of the believer, the power that is found in the day of judgment, of knowing and having certainty that the Lord will come, that the Lord indeed will come. Because when we go, beloved, of Christ through Scripture, we found that these false prophets are going to challenge and are going to question the coming of the Lord. And Joseph is given in Scripture the example of the questioning or the challenging of the coming of the Lord or the Day of Judgment is what is happening in our day. Beloved of Christ, the Scripture speaks in two ways to the challenging or the questioning of the coming of the Lord. There are two ways that are exemplified in Scripture on how false prophets will question the coming of the Lord.

There are two forms, two ways, or two methods in which false prophets throughout the ages, in first century and throughout the ages, will question, will challenge the coming of the Lord. Two ways. And the repetition is so that you will remember. Two ways in which Scripture speaks of the challenging and the questioning of the false prophets to the coming of the Lord. The first one, The first example is found in 2 Thessalonians, if you come with me.

And by understanding these two ways, we will be able to understand what 2 Peter says there. If you come to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, we have the first way in which all teachers, all prophets that are within the context of the Church will challenge, will question, the Day of Judgment, the Day of the Coming of the Lord, the Day of God, the Day of Eternity, the Day of Destruction, all of those synonyms that are used by the Apostle Peter in 2 Peter and extended throughout the Scripture. The first way, as we are going to read it now, it is by saying that the coming of the Lord has already happened. You read there in 2 Thessalonians 2. Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to Him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us, the apostles, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come."

The church of the Thessalonians were facing circumstances like this, in which there were, as we read there, spirits, spoken words, or even letters, that seemingly were coming from the apostles to the effect that the day of the Lord has already come. Perhaps when the Apostle is writing to Timothy in 2 Timothy, he's speaking of the heresy of Hymenaeus and Philetus, that they were saying that the resurrection had already happened. Perhaps it's a similar thing. But I want you to pay attention to the answer of the Apostle there in verse 3. Let no one deceive you in any way, for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first.

And the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things?" And the apostle continues. The apostle is saying, brothers and sisters of the church at Thessalonica, Do not be deceived in your minds if you hear a spirit or a word, a spoken word, or even a letter that is seemingly coming from us that is telling you that the coming of the Lord has already happened. But, then the answer of the Apostle is, the day of the Lord will happen when these signs that will take place.

So in this case, the Apostle, or better, the Spirit of God, is calling the church through the Apostle to discern the day of the Lord because and through the signs that still need to happen. You can see that there, right? So he says, verse 3, let no one deceive you in any way, for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first, and then a list of different things that ought to happen before the day of the Lord comes. Here we have the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ through the Apostle calling the Church not to be deceived with the false teaching of false prophets or false teachers who were saying that the coming of the Lord had already taken place, but rather wait for the signs. Because if those signs take place, or if they haven't taken place, that means that the day of the Lord has not arrived yet.

Paul, by the Spirit, points them to the signs. Observe, loot, witness. The type of challenging that we have in a computer is different. Because if you return to a computer, now the challenging of the false prophet is not about the coming of the Lord has already taken place, right? But the challenging of the false prophet is one of future uncertainty.

False prophets challenge, or question, or go against the teaching of the Day of Judgment, the Day of the Lord, the Day of Eternity, the Day of Destruction, by doing these two things, either by saying that the Day has already taken place, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, or what the false teachers do here in 2 Peter chapter 3. In verse 4 we have, where is the promise of His coming? Where is the promise of His coming forever since the Father fell asleep? All things continue the same, even from the very beginning of creation. Where is His coming?

Where is that promise? These are not questioning the Day of Judgment by saying that has already happened, but rather bringing uncertainty about something that is going to take place in the future. You can see that, right? Very important that we see that beloved of Christ, because even as I am speaking now, there are false prophets throughout the world that are deceiving Christians in those two ways. By either saying that the day of the Lord has already taken place, and many of them saying that they are the Lord Jesus Christ.

Perhaps you have not seen this in the Western world, but it happens very often in South America. That they are Jesus Christ, and that they had already come, and that the kingdom is already established. Millions of people, not tens or hundreds or thousands, millions of souls that will come to a day in which they will have to give an answer before the Lord, and the millions of these souls following a man who has said that the day of the Lord has already taken place, and in the worst case scenario, that he or sometimes she is Christ. And many, many others are also attacking the Church by doing what is here. Where is the promise of the coming?

Or what is the promise of His coming, the coming of the Lord? Everything that we see and we observe from the time that our fathers fell asleep continues to be the same. Everything continues to be the same from creation. We are to address this by the help of the Spirit and with faith, beloved of Christ, to understand what we have here in front of us. I want to point your attention to the type of challenge that we have now here in 2 Peter 3.

And I want us to study it carefully and to receive by faith and to understand what is the substance of this teaching here that we have in 2 Peter 3. The first thing that I want you to pay attention to the text that we have in front of us is that this is a prophetic utterance of the Apostle Peter about things that will take place in a particular time frame. He says there in verse 3, knowing these first of all, that scoffers have come, no, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires, and then the future tense is kept in verse 4, they will say, This is a prophetic utterance of the Apostle Peter, speaking about matters that he considered that were going to take place, primarily, I suppose, after his death, because he knew that he was going to die very soon. But he's prophetically speaking by the Spirit of God, that there will come, they will say. It's a prophetic utterance of the Spirit of God through the Apostle Peter, speaking of these last days.

And from these last days, He is going to, of course, speak about the last day, which is the day of judgment, the day of God, the day of eternity, or the day of the Lord, or the day of His coming. This is what He is doing here. It's a prophetic utterance of something that is going to take place. The second thing that I want you to see carefully in this utterance of the Apostle, of course by the Spirit, without error, without mistake, speaking prophetically of things that indeed will take place, is that the nature of the questioning of these false prophets of the Day of the Lord is one that tells us that these false prophets were not only within the context of the Church, as I have said many times, but also that they acknowledged many things that Christians will acknowledge. It says, this is the nature of the questioning, where is the promise of His coming?

For ever since the fathers fell asleep, speaking about the fathers of the faith, perhaps Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, All things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. They acknowledge the fathers who have fell asleep, and they acknowledge also that the beginning of all things is based on, or in, creation. These are people who are within the context of the Church, who, as I have explained many times, are uttering and speaking words of Christianity. uttering and speaking words and teachings that will be sometimes even in alignment with what Scripture says. That's why it's so difficult to differentiate.

That is why it's so difficult in the flesh to discern, because this is not the Pope, or this is not whoever false prophet clearly we can see. But this is a person, or these are people who are within the context of the Church acknowledging this. And now, beloved Christ, more importantly, I want to call your attention to the answer of this, or better, the explanation of the Apostle. Because he has already formulated the challenge, you know, the question, or the question, yes, of these false features. Where is the promise that he's coming?

All things continue to be the same, even from our fathers when they fell asleep, from the very beginning of creation. And then the Apostle will give us the explanation, which is the answer to that dilemma, to that challenge, which is found there in verse 5. But now, very importantly, and this is perhaps the most important thing that I want to share with you, that in a very different way to what Paul did with the Thessalonians, The Apostle Peter will take a different direction. Paul, with the Thessalonians, when we read chapter 2 there, when the day of the Lord was being challenged, when the day of the Lord, when the day of judgment was being questioned, though even said that had already taken place, the Spirit of God through the Apostle pointed the church to the signs that are to come. When this happens, when that happens, when that happens, when that happens, then you will know that the day of the Lord will come.

Wait for these things to happen! The Day of the Lord will not take place until all of these things that are in the future will take place. The same Spirit of God, by the inspiration that He has given to the Apostles, is going to answer another challenge in the Day of the Lord by doing something different. He says here, the Apostle Peter in verse 5, speaking of these false teachers, for they deliberately overlook, or they willingly are ignorant of this one fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water, and through water by the Word of God. And that by means of this, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.

But by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly." Many words, repetition of words, that might make it a little bit complicated for us to see and to follow the argument there. But beloved Christ, the Spirit of God, through the Apostle Peter, is explaining the situation with the false teachers by speaking or by connecting two events that took place in the past with the event of the Day of Judgment that is to come in the future. The Apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians Chapter 2 instructs the Church to wait for the signs that are leading towards the Day of Judgment, or the Day of the Lord. But Peter, by the inspiration of this period, is now pointing the mind of the believers of these churches and throughout the ages of the churches to events that have already taken place.

And those events that have already taken place are, first of all, creation, second, the flood, and these connected with the Day of Judgment. You have creation, and you have to bear with me because I need to show you this from the text. Verse 5, it says, that the creation is explained there in verse 5. It says, "...the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God."

That is, speaking of creation. Verse 6, now moves to the floods. And that by means of these, the world that then existed was deluged, if that is the way that you pronounce that word, or overflowed, or flooded. with water and perish, that is the flood. And then he connects those two things that happened in the past with the future, but by the same word, the heavens and earth, that now it seems a historical fire being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

Now bear with me as we analyze this information that is given to us here at the Library of Christ. Two events that take place in the past, creation and the flood, Now, being connected with a future event that is going to take place, of course, in the future, has not taken place, the Day of Judgment, the Day of Destruction, the Day of the Lord, the Day of Eternity, and all these synonyms that the Spirit gives to Peter in this epistle. First thing that I want you to see from the three events, the three events, according to the words of Peter, are cosmic events. That it is, that involves the world in its entirety. The three events, creation and the flood, and the Day of Judgment, are events that are cosmic in nature.

That is, that comprehend or extend to the cosmos, to the world. And the words that are used by the Spirit to give us that is heaven and earth, or sometimes the world. So it says, speaking of creation, in verse 5, that the heaven existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the works of God. This is speaking of creation of the cosmos. It's speaking of creation of the world, heavens and earth.

Then when it moves in verse 6 to the flood, it's also speaking of a cosmic event. It's speaking of, again, the world, in verse 6, and that by means of these, the world that then existed, heavens and earth, was deluged with water and perished. Speaking of the plot, a cosmic event, something that comprehended or involved the heavens and the earth. And then when he moves to the third event that is in the future, it was in verse 7, but by the same words, the heavens and the earth, speaking of a cosmic event, heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the Day of Judgment. Three events in the mind of the Apostle.

Three events that are cosmic, if you allow me to use that word, in nature. Cosmic in nature. The whole world, the heavens and the earth. God spoke and the heavens and the earth were created. Creation of the whole world.

The Lord God of Israel came in judgment to the then existing world, and through water He judged the heavens and the earth of the world. And then the day that the Lord comes. the day that the Lord comes to La Boca. Cosmic event. Cosmic event.

That is a word right in English. Cosmic event. The heavens and the earth. He then speaks about being burned up and all that. Cosmic event.

Second thing that I want you to notice just from the text, just simply from the text, that the Lord brings about those events through means. Two means. One physical, one spiritual. One that is physical and observable, and the other one that is spiritual and not observable. Each one of those events, creation and the flood, and the day of the Lord, or the day of destruction, or bring about, they take place through means.

And those means, that you see them there in the text with the word, through or by, are one of them physical, namely, that you can see, observe, that you have experience, and the other one is spiritual, that you have not seen, not touched. Do you see them there? Verse 5, speaking of creation, that the heavens existed long ago, and that the air was formed out of water, and through water, by the word, of God. You have the physical element there, and you have the spiritual element in bringing about this cosmic event of creation. The world was created out of or through water by the Word of God.

Verse 6, and by means of these—and you have the pronoun there in the plural—these, speaking of water and the Word of God, and that by means of these, or you will have By means of this, the world that then existed was diluted with water and perished. The flood took place through water and also through the words of God. And then when it comes to the Day of Judgment, it says, but by the same words, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for no water, but fire. being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the engagement. Now, reason with me, beloved Christ, and see this in the text.

Pay attention to what is said here. False prophets are coming to question the promise of the coming of the Lord. These men are uttering with their mouths that the future is uncertain. Why? Because when they open their eyes in the present, they observe with their eyes the things that are physical, and they see that the world that now exists is the same from the very beginning of creation.

When they are thinking about the promise of the Lord of the coming judgment, they open their eyes And they see the temporal aspect of their lives, and they question that which is to come. The Apostle starts his exhortation, or his accusation, in verse 5, by saying something very important. They deliberately overlook, and the ESV adds a very important word, this fact. For they deliberately overlook this fact, and then he'll leave. This event that we have already spoken about.

Pay attention to this, beloved Christ. What was the substance of the challenging of what is birth? The substance of the challenging of the false teachers and false prophets throughout the ages of the day of judgment that it is to come? as simple as this, that they do not have in and of themselves the ability, spiritual ability, to have a spiritual certainty of the things that are to happen, not because of what their eyes see and observe, but rather because God has said so. As simple as this.

Both creation and floods are events that were beyond the life of these people. The only testimony that you and I have about creation and about the floods taking place is what is written in this book. So even if that was in the past, for me, in the flesh, it's equally uncertain as is what is coming in the future. Both creation, the floods, and the day of judgment are to be understood and believed by Spirit-given faith. That's why people do not comprehend and do not understand in the flesh creation or floods.

Why? And in the worst case scenario, they deny them because in their intellect and in their flesh, they cannot hear nor comprehend the spiritual Word that comes from the Spirit of God. And the glorious Word that explains their condition is in that verse 5. They deliberately overlook or they are willingly ignorant. Sometimes it's related that they are prevented from observing The translation of that verse, as I have explained in the past, is so complicated.

If you put on your table ten different translations from ten different languages, you will have that they will say things in different ways. Why? Because what the Apostle is trying to communicate here is not so much the hypocrisy of the false teachers, which is very true throughout the letter, but also there is spiritual inability to understand the events that Scripture says that have taken place and that will take place by faith. I don't need to explain anything to you in grammatical terms or in languages. Just go to Romans Chapter 1.

When you go to Romans Chapter 1, you will have this description of the heart of the false prophet that challenges these events. Romans Chapter 1. We could read from verse 18, but this is something that we've read in the past, so I'm just simply going to point you to the verse that I have already pointed to in the past when I had the opportunity to refer to this. This is the spiritual reality of the heart that cannot acknowledge the truth of the Scripture as the Word of God. Verse 28.

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up for others to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. Because, beloved Christ, these people have chosen themselves Because false teachers and false prophets have chosen themselves instead of God. Because they have chosen their wisdom beyond the wisdom that God has given. God has done something that is horrifying for every single soul. They have been given up to their natural behavior.

the hands of the Lord, the merciful hands of the Lord, that sustains us, all of us, they have been removed, so that the minds of these people will be given over to seek their own pleasure, as the Apostle Peter says in 2 Peter chapter 3, and they will never understand the things of the Scripture, because, beloved Christ, the things that are spiritual are only understood according to the Spirit of God. These people question the coming of the Day of Judgment because they have never heard the voice of the Lord when said, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. They have never heard those words. They have read them. They have heard them with their ears, with these physical things.

They have never been spoken by the Lord as the Creator. They have never been spoken from the heart of the Lord as the one who judged the world through water and cleansed the world from the external unrighteousness. They have never heard the voice of the Lord coming from the heart of the Lord. And therefore, given over to their sensualities and to their minds, they are strong enough to question the future of the Lord, the future of the day of judgment, beloved of Christ. If I had the ability, I don't have it, to pass my heart into yours and my mind into yours, so that we will together see, beloved of Christ, that apart, apart from God speaking His Word unto our hearts, there's nothing that we can understand, there's nothing that we can obtain.

God does not speak in any other way than through the spiritual way, and that is done and accomplished through faith. It is only when we hear the voice of God that is through faith that we can have the spiritual certainty of the things and the promises of the Lord. That is faith. Faith is certainty, assurance of the things that you do not see, And faith is the certainty and assurance of the things that you hope for. So, either when you go and see to the past, or you see to the future, you have equal spiritual certainty, because your certainty is not derived from external manifestations, but rather, it's established to unbind the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ into your heart.

Now, beloved, You say amen, and you say all of these things, but beloved of Christ, we live in times in which our hearts do not have the faith that is necessary to believe what she says. Because if she says that there is a day in which she's going to come with fire to burn everything, our hearts will be moved in very different directions. We live in times in which it's an urgent necessity for all of us to indeed fill our heart and our soul with childlike faith that recognizes and acknowledges that apart from God speaking to us, we are utterly powerless. And we will just be simply just walking in our own devices and giving to our own simple pleasures. Let me just show you something from the Church of the Thessalonians, perhaps.

Go to the Church of the Thessalonians, Thessalonians chapter 2. I say to you that what I wanted to share with you, beloved Christ, was the power of the Day of Judgment. The power of the Day of Judgment. The Day, in and of itself, has no power. The Day, in and of itself, in the future, has no power.

The Day of Creation, in and of itself, or the Days of Creation, in and of themselves, they have no power. believing that on a day the Lord judged the world by water, in the old days, that day does not have any power. What has power, what does have power, is that you acknowledge, spiritually speaking, that these are the words of God. And when it seems so foolish, and so against, the flesh, that you still can have the peace, that you trust the Lord because it's written and because He has said so. So you can have confidence about the past and about the future as when you open your eyes and you say, today is Sunday.

Because the life that we live in the flesh, we live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us, and gave Himself for us. We don't live by sight, we don't live by external things, but rather, we live by the faith of the Son of God. And that faith, beloved of Christ, is what brings the power of the Day of Judgment to the present. Have we been called to see the signs? Of course we have!

Of course we have been called to see the signs and the times, to discern that which is coming. We have been instructed to discern the signs and the times. but if the heart of the discerner of the signs, but if the heart of the discerner of the signs of the times, but if the heart of the one who is an expert in understanding the times and interpreting this and that, if the heart of that man or that woman is absent from the Spirit of God and from the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, all the interpretations of the signs, all the interpretations of the times, will be empty and perhaps even deceived. We cannot look outside if we don't have Christ in our heart ruling and enthroned by faith. That is the power of the faith of the Lord.

2 Thessalonians chapter 2, before, 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, before He came and addressed the church there in chapter 2, is speaking about these false prophets. You remember that that's the way that it started, right? That these false prophets, that question, or not better, that they say that the coming of the Lord has already taken place. Sending letters, or sending words, or all of these things. I want you to see how the Lord, or how Paul better here, of course the Lord, is going to connect the spiritual reality that was taking place in the hearts of the people of the Church of Thessalonica with the coming of the Lord.

starting from verse 1, Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, praise to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought always, said the apostle with the others, we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters, as he's right, because your faith is growing abundantly. And the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God, for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring." Okay, beloved Christ.

Church in Thessalonica, enduring persecutions, afflictions, and as they are enduring afflictions and persecutions and all these difficulties, abounding in faith and abounding in love. He continues, verse 5, This is evidence, this is evidence, their enduring through persecutions, this is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering, since indeed God considers just to repay with affliction to those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well to us, When? When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, inflaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might. When He comes on that day to be glorified in His saints and to be marveled among Marvel at, among all who have believed, because of our testimony to you was belief, and continues, and continues, and continues.

Your suffering, and your enduring, and your persecution, and your abounding in faith, and your abounding in love in the present, is an evidence of the judgment of God that is to come. That when it comes, it will be to repay those who have afflicted you, but it will be to give you also peace and rest from your afflictions. Because when the heart of the Christian is taken captive by the beauty of Christ, empowered by the Spirit, and filled with the Spirit-given faith, the certainty of the coming of the Lord is one that is produced in this right, perfect moment. Endurance through tribulation, through difficulties, because the hope of the person enduring all of those is not set in the present and the circumstances that they face, but rather is set in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ that is going to be clearly manifested once the church is taken up in glory, or once that person is taken with the Lord. Beloved of Jesus Christ, have certainty about the Day of Judgment.

It is a certainty that in the present gives us the strength, spiritual strength that is needed to endure persecutions and tribulations, and to endure the mocking of parents, and fathers, and daughters, and husbands, and wives, and friends, and sisters, and whoever is close to us. Because then the reward that is set for us is greater than the persecutions and the trials that are before us in the present time. And then I can just simply take you to 1 John, in which the apostles clearly speak that the hope that we have in the day that is to come, that the hope and the certainty that we ought to have now, in the day that the Lord comes, and when we see Him as He is, you know what He does to the soul? He purifies the soul. 1 John 3 verse 3, that the hope that we have in the day of the Lord is meant to purify us in the present time.

That that day is of benefit, a spiritual benefit to us today. Because when your heart is filled with the expectation of seeing the Lord face to face, then you don't have any other option but to desire to be like the Lord Jesus Christ. The same apostle says in 1 John 2, verse 28, that when we expect, when we have the confidence that the Lord is going to come, that we abide in Him. That we abide in Him now, so that when He appears, we will not be ashamed by the appearing of the Lord, but rather we will have confidence in the appearing. How many Christians are fearful for the coming of the Lord?

Not because of what the Bible says, but because their lives are going to be exposed. How many Christians, professing Christians, are fearful of the coming of the day of the Lord, because when that day comes, the books are going to be opened, and who they really are is going to be exposed. Fleshfully feared. The spiritual fear that we are called to have is brothers and sisters, the expectation that the glory of God is going to be manifested. And apart from the grace of the Lord, we will be punished and sent to hell.

But because of His grace that has saved us, has redeemed us, and keeps us and preserves us until the end, when the glory of the Lord is manifested, then the Christian and the one who bide rest through faith have been inserted in Christ generally. Has the Spirit given an empowered joy of saying, the Lord has come. The Lord has arrived. Take my soul, O Lord, to be with you. The time in the still premission is over.

The time in the flesh is over, but beloved of Christ is that your heart. Beloved of Christ, the power of the day of the Lord. manifested in the present, in the heart of each one of the believers. and in the context of the Church. A militant Church that is rooted, empowered by faith.

A faith that when sees to the past is fully confident that the Lord died upon the cross and that by dying upon the cross we have access to Him and there is nothing that can remove us. But with the same certainty that we look to the past to see the cross and see that it has consummated and finished, with the same hope we see to the future that the Lord is going to come to take His Church and come to His bride. And He's going to judge the living and the dead. And the reason why we do not receive the judgment that we truly and genuinely deserve is because what He did in the past is what upholds the future. And because His Word is that what sustains everything throughout the ages.

And when the ears of the Christian hear those words by faith, when the false prophet comes and says, where is the promise of His coming? Where is the promise of His coming? All the things continue the same as from the beginning of creation. What is the promise that this Lord of you is going to come and is going to do this and that? The promise of His coming is here.

It's stored by faith in here. And why? Because it has been written in my heart and in your heart because of what the Lord has revealed to us in the Scriptures. So that when our eyes see and observe the things that continue to be in a way as they were from the very beginning, We have confidence in the future, as we have confidence in the past. But we don't need a person or a scientist telling us why creation is creation, and why the flood was a flood, or why the day of the Lord will come.

We need the Word of God. Because when He speaks, then the saints believe. All of that because one person. His name is Jesus. Jesus Christ, the one who makes accessible the knowledge of God to the heart of the sinner, the one who makes the words of the Lord residing and dwelling in the hearts of those who are totally unable to hear the words of God, the one that makes the wisdom that is threshed up in the heart of God available, powerful, and impactful to the hearts of the sinners, that apart from Him deserve only the judgment that comes from above, times in which all of us and the church, and each one of the souls, not only here, but within the sounds of my voice, silence in which we are to come before the Lord and ask, Lord, help me, my unbelief.

Because apart from faith, beloved Christ, we will never apprehend this truth. Amen?