Eschatology #1 - God of Judgment
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YouTube upload date: 2024-04-16
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[00:00:11] All right, good morning, everyone,
[00:00:13] and welcome our students this morning,
[00:00:16] Fire and Grace School of Ministry.
[00:00:19] We are now into our first classes of the second semester.
[00:00:25] And so this is block five,
[00:00:28] and this is eschatology class one.
[00:00:32] So eschatology class one.
[00:00:35] And hope everybody can hear,
[00:00:38] everything's going good out there.
[00:00:39] We'll give you a second, everything looks good.
[00:00:41] All right, anyway, we're gonna have,
[00:00:45] just got a couple of slides this morning,
[00:00:47] and then we're gonna get into the scriptures
[00:00:50] and go through this.
[00:00:51] This will be an introduction to eschatology.
[00:00:55] And so for those of you who may wonder
[00:00:57] what that big word is there,
[00:01:00] there it is, eschatology class one.
[00:01:03] It just means really kind of the study
[00:01:05] and the theology of final things.
[00:01:09] Here's the definition, eschatology noun.
[00:01:13] And here's the definition that says the branch of theology
[00:01:17] that is concerned with such final things as death
[00:01:21] and last judgment, heaven and hell,
[00:01:24] and the ultimate destiny of humankind or mankind.
[00:01:28] So let's read that again though, eschatology,
[00:01:31] the definition so you understand
[00:01:32] what this class is all about,
[00:01:34] branch of theology that is concerned
[00:01:37] with such final things as death,
[00:01:40] the last judgment, heaven and hell,
[00:01:42] and the ultimate destiny of mankind.
[00:01:45] So this is kind of this study of God,
[00:01:50] not only being a God of mercy and love and forgiveness,
[00:01:53] but also that He is a God of justice and judgment
[00:01:58] and that there is a final judgment to everything.
[00:02:02] There is a heaven, there is a hell,
[00:02:03] there is a final destiny of mankind.
[00:02:07] And so this class is going to touch on
[00:02:12] a little bit of everything.
[00:02:14] We're gonna mainly deal with Bible prophecy,
[00:02:17] how the end will come about,
[00:02:21] but this morning is an introduction.
[00:02:23] We're just gonna get into just the aspect
[00:02:26] of the balance of God's character,
[00:02:30] that He is both a God of love and mercy,
[00:02:34] and that He is also a God of judgment.
[00:02:38] He will not tolerate wickedness forever.
[00:02:40] So we're gonna start in a very familiar place this morning.
[00:02:42] So let's go to the Gospel of John chapter three,
[00:02:46] verse 16, John 3.16.
[00:02:49] So let's read this this morning.
[00:02:51] So there can be no doubts about how God feels about us,
[00:02:56] about mankind.
[00:02:58] He did create us in the beginning,
[00:03:01] made Adam and Eve,
[00:03:03] and then we'll get into more about that later,
[00:03:06] but He blessed them, put them in a wonderful place
[00:03:12] in the Garden of Eden.
[00:03:15] And of course, He gave them some consequences though,
[00:03:19] if they disobeyed, if they sinned.
[00:03:22] And so again, even the Garden of Eden shows the balance.
[00:03:24] But let's read this,
[00:03:26] probably one of the most famous passages in the Bible.
[00:03:30] This is Jesus speaking.
[00:03:31] He said these words here for God so loved the world,
[00:03:36] that He gave His only begotten Son,
[00:03:38] that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish,
[00:03:42] but have everlasting life.
[00:03:44] I'll just read that again.
[00:03:45] For God so loved the world,
[00:03:48] that He gave His only begotten Son,
[00:03:50] that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish,
[00:03:55] not shall not, but should not perish,
[00:03:59] but have everlasting life.
[00:04:01] So just to point out again here,
[00:04:03] we're gonna look at the nature of God.
[00:04:05] Does God love everyone?
[00:04:07] Absolutely.
[00:04:08] He's loved every person that's ever been born.
[00:04:12] He loves the people that are alive right now,
[00:04:15] even the wicked.
[00:04:17] He loves all of us so much
[00:04:20] that He gave His only begotten Son.
[00:04:21] And of course, that whole revelation there
[00:04:24] is just mainly for us,
[00:04:27] but we know that the Bible says God became the Son.
[00:04:31] He became a man so that He could pay the price
[00:04:36] for our sins by His death on the cross
[00:04:39] and His resurrection from the dead.
[00:04:41] So He has shown that He loves us.
[00:04:43] And so we're gonna go through a few scriptures about that.
[00:04:45] Let's go to, let's go to Romans chapter five.
[00:04:52] Romans chapter five, just to establish this truth.
[00:05:05] And we'll start reading,
[00:05:08] oh, let's just start reading from verse one.
[00:05:10] So this is Romans five, verse one.
[00:05:14] It says, therefore, being justified or made righteous
[00:05:18] by faith, we have peace with God
[00:05:21] through our Lord Jesus Christ,
[00:05:22] by whom also we have access by faith into this grace,
[00:05:26] wherein we stand and rejoice in hope
[00:05:29] and the glory of the glory of God.
[00:05:32] And not only so, but we glory,
[00:05:37] my page turn here, we glory in tribulations
[00:05:39] also knowing that tribulation or trouble, trials, tests,
[00:05:43] work with patience and patience,
[00:05:45] experience and experience hope,
[00:05:47] and hope maketh not a shame
[00:05:49] because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts
[00:05:51] by the Holy Ghost, which He has given to us.
[00:05:54] For when we were yet without strength in due time,
[00:05:58] Christ died for the ungodly.
[00:06:00] For scarcely for a righteous man will one die,
[00:06:02] yet per adventure for a good man,
[00:06:04] some would even dare to die.
[00:06:06] But God, verse eight there,
[00:06:08] but God commended His love toward us
[00:06:11] in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
[00:06:16] Much more than being now justified by His blood,
[00:06:19] we shall be saved from wrath through Him.
[00:06:22] For if when we were enemies,
[00:06:24] we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,
[00:06:27] much more being reconciled,
[00:06:30] we shall be saved by His life.
[00:06:33] Now, let's go over, I wanna look at another passage too.
[00:06:36] Let's go to 2 Peter, chapter three.
[00:06:42] And this is a good passage here to give the balance here.
[00:06:47] So we're gonna read,
[00:06:51] and I'll tell you what,
[00:06:52] we're just gonna read from verse one.
[00:06:55] We're just laying the foundation this morning.
[00:06:57] Again, God is a God of love,
[00:06:59] but also a God of judgment and justice
[00:07:02] or consequences, final consequences.
[00:07:05] And that's what we're talking about the word eschatology,
[00:07:07] meaning final things, final judgment.
[00:07:11] All right, so let's read this.
[00:07:13] This second epistle, beloved now,
[00:07:15] write I unto you in both which I stir up your pure minds
[00:07:18] by way of remembrance,
[00:07:20] that ye be in mindful of the words
[00:07:21] which were spoken before by the holy prophets
[00:07:24] and of the commandment of us,
[00:07:25] the apostles of the Lord and Savior,
[00:07:28] knowing this first,
[00:07:29] that there shall come in the last days scoffers,
[00:07:31] walking after their own lust
[00:07:34] and saying, where is the promise of his coming?
[00:07:36] For since the fathers fell asleep,
[00:07:37] all things continue as they were
[00:07:39] from the beginning of creation.
[00:07:41] So there's always gonna be people
[00:07:42] who are not gonna believe that there's a final judgment,
[00:07:46] that there is an end,
[00:07:47] that there is a day of reckoning or consequences,
[00:07:51] that the God of love finally turns into
[00:07:54] the God of wrath and judgment
[00:07:55] where he is finally done with lukewarmness,
[00:07:59] sin, wickedness, lies and so forth.
[00:08:03] But let's keep going, verse five.
[00:08:05] He says, for this they willingly are ignorant
[00:08:09] that by the word of God the heavens were of old,
[00:08:11] the earth standing out of the water and in the water,
[00:08:14] whereby the world that then was
[00:08:16] being overflowed with water perished.
[00:08:19] So he's talking about the judgment of Noah,
[00:08:22] that they should know.
[00:08:24] And we're gonna go back and look at that too
[00:08:26] in just a minute, but that mankind should know
[00:08:29] by the flood of Noah that happened,
[00:08:33] the judgment of God that he will not put up
[00:08:36] with unbridled wickedness in mankind forever,
[00:08:41] that he will judge.
[00:08:43] And that was one of the end things there,
[00:08:46] the flood was an ending of an era
[00:08:49] and the beginning of a new one.
[00:08:50] But anyway, he goes on,
[00:08:53] verse seven, but the heavens and the earth which are now
[00:08:56] by the same word are kept in store reserved
[00:08:59] unto fire against the day of judgment
[00:09:02] and perdition or the destruction of ungodly men.
[00:09:05] So here God says the heavens and the earth
[00:09:08] that are now are kept in store, they're being reserved
[00:09:13] and that there will be a final day of judgment and wrath
[00:09:17] and the destruction of the ungodly men.
[00:09:20] And he particularly says it won't be by water
[00:09:23] this next time it's gonna be fire, all right?
[00:09:27] So again, the warning that there will be an end of things,
[00:09:30] eschatology, there will be a final judgment,
[00:09:32] there will be a reckoning day for the wicked.
[00:09:36] And this is what even most of Christianity wants
[00:09:39] to ignore now, the weak watered down,
[00:09:41] lukewarm, megachurch Christianity ignores this.
[00:09:45] Certainly everybody wants to talk about God
[00:09:47] being the God of love.
[00:09:48] And then you got all these fake Christians
[00:09:52] and all these United Nations people
[00:09:55] that oh, God is just love, it's all about love,
[00:09:58] it's all about social justice,
[00:10:01] it's all about helping your fellow man
[00:10:03] and blah, blah, blah and it doesn't matter
[00:10:05] what you believe about Jesus or the Bible or God,
[00:10:09] whatever God is to you and I mean there's all this stuff
[00:10:12] because mankind, and again mankind believes
[00:10:15] is believing the lie of Satan
[00:10:17] that all of this is gonna create this world peace
[00:10:21] and utopia and now because of transhumanism
[00:10:25] and the advances in microchips and biotech
[00:10:30] and all these nanotechnology and everything else
[00:10:32] that we're going to and quantum computing
[00:10:35] that we're gonna, man's gonna figure out
[00:10:37] how to have eternal life without God,
[00:10:41] that we're gonna figure that out.
[00:10:45] And so again, mankind does not want to face
[00:10:50] or believe or acknowledge that God Almighty of the Bible,
[00:10:54] the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
[00:10:56] our Lord Jesus Christ, the name above every name,
[00:10:59] they don't wanna believe that the day of reckoning is coming,
[00:11:04] they just don't wanna accept it.
[00:11:06] But the Bible's very clear that it's coming
[00:11:10] and that's why he says here about this,
[00:11:13] verse seven, let's read it again,
[00:11:15] we'll start from verse seven again.
[00:11:16] But the heavens and the earth which are now
[00:11:19] by the same word are kept in store,
[00:11:21] reserved under fire against the day of judgment
[00:11:24] and perdition of ungodly men.
[00:11:27] But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing
[00:11:29] that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years
[00:11:32] and a thousand years as one day.
[00:11:35] Says the Lord is not slack concerning his promise
[00:11:38] as some men count slackness,
[00:11:40] but is long suffering, that it means patient,
[00:11:44] means he puts up with us for a long time.
[00:11:49] He is not slack though concerning his promise,
[00:11:52] but is long suffering to usward,
[00:11:54] not willing that any should perish,
[00:11:57] but that all should come to repentance.
[00:11:59] Now can I pause on that for just a minute?
[00:12:01] Again, this establishes the balance
[00:12:06] in the character of Almighty God
[00:12:09] that he is not willing,
[00:12:11] he does not desire for us to perish.
[00:12:14] He doesn't want us to die and go to hell
[00:12:17] and be separated from him forever.
[00:12:19] But again, he will not violate his laws and principles
[00:12:23] that he has established now of course under the new covenant
[00:12:27] and he's made it very plain
[00:12:29] that he will not tolerate practicing,
[00:12:33] even among believers,
[00:12:34] he will not tolerate the habitual practice
[00:12:37] of wickedness, of sin,
[00:12:40] spelled out in the new covenant.
[00:12:42] And he spells it out in Galatians 5 and Ephesians 5,
[00:12:45] 1 Corinthians 5 and 6, Revelation 21.
[00:12:47] I mean, it goes down the list,
[00:12:48] fornication, adultery, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
[00:12:51] idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
[00:12:54] emulation, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
[00:12:56] drunkenness, reveling, partying.
[00:12:59] I mean, he lays it out.
[00:13:00] Homosexuality, pedophilia, bestiality,
[00:13:04] all the sexual perversions and immorality that's out here.
[00:13:08] He lays it out.
[00:13:08] Anyone who practices those things habitually,
[00:13:12] it's a lifestyle.
[00:13:14] They don't ever confess them,
[00:13:16] ask for forgiveness, repents,
[00:13:17] turn away and stop doing them.
[00:13:19] He says right there that God's laid out a principle.
[00:13:24] He will not have the wicked
[00:13:27] and those who practice wickedness and evil
[00:13:30] with him for eternity.
[00:13:32] That he just spelled it out.
[00:13:33] He said in Galatians 5,
[00:13:35] if you do these things, practice these things habitually,
[00:13:40] you will not inherit the kingdom of God.
[00:13:43] So the Lord says here,
[00:13:43] look, the Lord is making it plain.
[00:13:46] I don't want anyone to perish.
[00:13:48] I don't want anyone to die
[00:13:50] and then go to hell and spend eternity in the second death,
[00:13:53] which just means separation from God forever
[00:13:56] in the torments and the darkness and the evil of hell.
[00:13:59] I don't want that for anyone,
[00:14:02] but there has to be repentance.
[00:14:04] There has to be a change of mind
[00:14:07] and a change of actions,
[00:14:09] the change of the way you live
[00:14:11] because he's not going to tolerate wickedness forever.
[00:14:15] There is a judgment.
[00:14:16] There is an end of things.
[00:14:18] There is a final judgment
[00:14:21] and part of that will be where you will spend eternity
[00:14:24] in heaven or in hell with God forever
[00:14:26] or separated from him forever.
[00:14:29] And you will live forever in one of those two states.
[00:14:32] You will live in heaven, paradise
[00:14:34] and the earthly kingdom as well will have it all
[00:14:38] as believers who were faithful to the end
[00:14:41] or we will have hell and eternal damnation
[00:14:45] and the smoke of our torment will rise day and night forever
[00:14:48] and we'll live in eternal regret
[00:14:52] and damnation for our choices.
[00:14:57] But the Lord does not want that for anyone.
[00:14:59] So again, this establishes the balance.
[00:15:01] And any time we get too far to one side,
[00:15:05] we're in error.
[00:15:06] If we get too far to God loves everybody
[00:15:09] and it doesn't matter how you live,
[00:15:11] that's an error.
[00:15:12] If we get over here and say,
[00:15:13] oh, if you do one thing wrong or you mess up one time
[00:15:17] or you're just, you know, you fail,
[00:15:19] there's no hope for you.
[00:15:20] You're damned, you're going to hell.
[00:15:22] That's wrong, okay?
[00:15:24] And we see both sides of that error there.
[00:15:28] But the Lord is not slack.
[00:15:29] Verse nine, let's go back to that.
[00:15:31] The Lord is not slack concerning his promise
[00:15:34] as some men count slackness,
[00:15:36] but his long suffering to us
[00:15:39] were not willing that any should perish,
[00:15:41] but that all should come to repentance.
[00:15:44] But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night
[00:15:47] in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise,
[00:15:50] and the elements shall melt with fervent heat,
[00:15:53] and the earth also in the works that are therein
[00:15:55] shall be burned up.
[00:15:57] So Peter is clearly declaring by the Holy Spirit,
[00:16:00] by the gift of prophecy,
[00:16:02] the spirit of prophecy flowing through him,
[00:16:05] he is declaring that the day is coming,
[00:16:07] that everything we see,
[00:16:08] there's going to be a judgment of fire
[00:16:11] at the end of this age,
[00:16:13] at the second coming of Jesus.
[00:16:15] And he says in verse 11,
[00:16:17] seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved,
[00:16:21] dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be
[00:16:24] in all holy conversation?
[00:16:26] And the word conversation there means behavior.
[00:16:29] What kind of persons ought you to be
[00:16:30] in all holy behavior and godliness,
[00:16:33] looking for and hastening unto the coming day of God,
[00:16:37] wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved,
[00:16:39] and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.
[00:16:44] Nevertheless, we, according to his promise,
[00:16:46] look for the new heavens and the new earth,
[00:16:48] wherein dwelleth righteousness,
[00:16:51] wherefore beloved, seeing that you look for such things,
[00:16:54] be diligent that you may be found of him in peace,
[00:16:57] without spot and blameless.
[00:16:59] So what do we see?
[00:17:01] I mean, it's pretty crystal clear here, isn't it,
[00:17:03] that we see that God says he doesn't want anyone
[00:17:07] to perish, he loves us.
[00:17:09] He came, took on a human body, died on the cross for us,
[00:17:12] paid the price for our sins
[00:17:14] so that we could be reconciled to him,
[00:17:16] our sins could be washed away,
[00:17:18] we could have peace with God,
[00:17:19] we could have relationship with him.
[00:17:21] He made the way for us to escape the final damnation
[00:17:27] and separation from him called hell
[00:17:29] and the final judgment, but that's up to us.
[00:17:33] He said he's patient, he loves us,
[00:17:36] but we have to repent.
[00:17:37] Repentance is absolutely required.
[00:17:40] Repentance and holiness, and let's look at that
[00:17:44] because there's a verse here
[00:17:48] that talks about holiness and a lot of people don't like it.
[00:17:52] Go to Hebrews, go to Hebrews chapter 12, verse 14.
[00:18:00] This is a strong verse right here.
[00:18:04] Hebrews 12, 14, it says,
[00:18:05] follow peace with all men.
[00:18:08] Paul said Romans, as much as lieth in you
[00:18:10] live peaceably with all men,
[00:18:11] sometimes it's possible, sometimes it's not.
[00:18:14] He says try, follow peace with all men
[00:18:17] and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord.
[00:18:22] Now let me tell you something.
[00:18:24] If you're a Christian that thinks
[00:18:25] you don't have to live a holy life
[00:18:28] and stay away from the sins of the flesh,
[00:18:31] the works of the flesh that I mentioned a minute ago,
[00:18:33] Galatians five, Ephesians five,
[00:18:35] Revelation 21, Romans one.
[00:18:38] If you think you can live in those as a lifestyle,
[00:18:40] habitually practice those sins
[00:18:43] and you don't have to be holy,
[00:18:45] you don't have to repent and separate yourself
[00:18:47] from those things to the best of your ability
[00:18:52] and that you should pursue righteousness and holiness
[00:18:55] and in the new covenant.
[00:18:57] If you don't believe that, listen,
[00:18:59] then you are an antinomian.
[00:19:00] You are against even the very basic
[00:19:04] new covenant law of Christ.
[00:19:07] But this verse ought to scare some of that hell out of you
[00:19:13] because it's pretty clear.
[00:19:14] Let's put that verse back on the screen for me.
[00:19:16] This is an important verse here.
[00:19:18] Follow peace with all men and holiness
[00:19:22] without which no man shall see the Lord.
[00:19:26] So if you don't have holiness in your life,
[00:19:29] you will not see the Lord.
[00:19:33] So that's a pretty strong passage there.
[00:19:37] And that's exactly what Peter's talking about.
[00:19:39] Let's go back to 2 Peter again.
[00:19:42] Let's go back to 2 Peter talking about, again,
[00:19:44] the end, the final judgment.
[00:19:46] He's warning, just like there was a tremendous
[00:19:49] severe judgment upon wicked men in the days of Noah.
[00:19:53] As Jesus said, as it was in the days of Noah,
[00:19:55] so will it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man
[00:19:58] when he returns.
[00:20:00] And so Peter's warning here, that day's coming.
[00:20:03] The day's coming that's going to melt the elements
[00:20:07] and everything in the earth's going to be burned up
[00:20:09] and the elements are going to melt with a fervent heat.
[00:20:11] And the wicked and ungodly men are going to be judged.
[00:20:15] They're going to be destroyed.
[00:20:16] They're going to be the destruction of the ungodly
[00:20:19] and the wicked's coming.
[00:20:21] Again, God doesn't desire that for them
[00:20:23] and that's why he's given such warnings for so long
[00:20:27] and he's been very patient.
[00:20:29] And then he says here though,
[00:20:30] but let's read again, let's read verse.
[00:20:33] I want to read it, I don't know.
[00:20:35] This is just for some reason important this morning.
[00:20:37] Back up to verse nine,
[00:20:38] we're going to read from verse nine again through these
[00:20:41] because again, that's what this class eschatology
[00:20:45] is all about.
[00:20:47] Verse nine, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise
[00:20:50] as some men count slackness,
[00:20:52] but is long suffering to us were not willing
[00:20:55] that any should perish,
[00:20:56] but that all should come to repentance.
[00:20:58] But the day of the Lord will come as a thief
[00:21:00] in the night in which the heaven shall pass away
[00:21:02] with a great noise and the elements shall melt
[00:21:05] with a fervent heat and the earth also the works
[00:21:07] that are there in shall be burned up.
[00:21:10] Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved,
[00:21:14] what manner of persons ought you to be
[00:21:16] in all holy behavior?
[00:21:19] See how that goes along with what we just read
[00:21:21] a minute ago in Hebrews 12, 14,
[00:21:27] without holiness, no man will see the Lord.
[00:21:29] He says, seeing that you know
[00:21:31] that this judgment is coming,
[00:21:32] that this end of all things,
[00:21:35] that this day of reckoning is coming
[00:21:37] to the earth and the wicked,
[00:21:39] you ought to consider what it means
[00:21:42] to live holy and godly.
[00:21:43] Looking for and hasting unto the coming day of God,
[00:21:46] wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved
[00:21:50] and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.
[00:21:53] Nevertheless, we, although what does he mean?
[00:21:55] We Christians, those of us born again
[00:21:57] that love Jesus, that surrender to his Lordship,
[00:22:01] that believe in his atoning death and his resurrection,
[00:22:03] that have forsaken this world to follow him,
[00:22:08] taken up our cross to follow him.
[00:22:11] What does he say?
[00:22:13] He says, nevertheless, we, according to his promise,
[00:22:15] look for a new heavens and a new earth
[00:22:17] wherein dwelleth righteousness.
[00:22:18] What's gonna dwell there?
[00:22:21] Righteousness, not wickedness, not ungodliness.
[00:22:25] Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things,
[00:22:28] be diligent, that you may be found of him
[00:22:31] in peace without spot and blameless.
[00:22:34] What is without spot and blameless mean?
[00:22:37] Not living in sin, not living recklessly, carelessly,
[00:22:41] not living in lusts, truly washing the blood
[00:22:45] and truly not practicing wickedness.
[00:22:50] We cannot be practitioners of wickedness sin.
[00:22:55] You know, Kevin and I were just talking
[00:22:56] before class started this morning.
[00:22:58] And one of the things I think that's gonna be a shocker
[00:23:03] to most, to a lot of Christians,
[00:23:07] they're gonna find out that, you know,
[00:23:09] Jesus said you can't serve God and money, mammon.
[00:23:13] And I mean, he didn't say, you know,
[00:23:18] I know you're gonna struggle with that.
[00:23:19] And he said, you cannot do it.
[00:23:21] And there are a lot of Christians
[00:23:23] that are gonna stand on Judgment Day.
[00:23:25] And they're gonna say, Jesus, Lord, Lord,
[00:23:28] gonna call him Lord.
[00:23:30] And he's gonna look at him and say, no, no, no, no, no.
[00:23:33] I was not your Lord.
[00:23:34] Money was your Lord because you made every decision
[00:23:37] of your life based on money.
[00:23:40] You compromised, you didn't,
[00:23:43] you even persecuted other Christians.
[00:23:45] You didn't, you betrayed other Christians.
[00:23:49] You didn't take a stand, you know,
[00:23:51] when it came down to maybe even losing your job
[00:23:54] or losing, you know, a contract or whatever,
[00:23:58] and you had to compromise to keep it, you compromised.
[00:24:01] Can't serve God and money.
[00:24:02] Idolatry is one of those sins that are under death.
[00:24:06] And I'm gonna tell you right now,
[00:24:08] the greatest idol in the world is money.
[00:24:14] It's gonna be a rude awakening.
[00:24:16] That was just a little free addition there.
[00:24:19] But, so Peter is saying here, you know,
[00:24:22] there's gonna be an end.
[00:24:23] And so, again, let me just reiterate.
[00:24:27] Peter's message here is beautiful.
[00:24:29] I mean, it's truly, of course,
[00:24:30] it was inspired and given to him by the Holy Spirit.
[00:24:33] And he wrote as the Holy Spirit moved upon him.
[00:24:36] And that's why it's so beautifully in order.
[00:24:38] But he's showing God loves us.
[00:24:41] He's not willing that we perish.
[00:24:45] But he doesn't pull punches.
[00:24:47] He doesn't say, it doesn't matter how you live your life.
[00:24:51] You're once saved always, and you're eternally secure
[00:24:54] no matter how you live.
[00:24:55] That's not what he said at all.
[00:24:58] He said, you know what?
[00:24:59] There's a day, there's an end,
[00:25:02] there's a final judgment.
[00:25:04] There's a heaven, there's a hell.
[00:25:06] There's a day of the judgment of the wicked
[00:25:08] and the ungodly.
[00:25:10] You better make sure that you're living in peace with God,
[00:25:14] in relationship with God.
[00:25:16] So again, when you preach about,
[00:25:17] when you talk about eschatology,
[00:25:19] you're talking about dealing with these things.
[00:25:22] Eternity, final judgment.
[00:25:26] Let's look at just so you see, of course,
[00:25:28] where Peter says here, you know,
[00:25:30] the Lord's not slack concerning his promise,
[00:25:33] but his long suffering.
[00:25:34] Let's look at an Old Testament passage.
[00:25:39] Go with me to the book of Ezekiel.
[00:25:42] Ezekiel chapter 18 is where we'll go next.
[00:25:48] This just passage just kind of popped in my head this morning
[00:25:52] as I was getting ready to come up here to the church
[00:25:54] to do this class.
[00:25:59] And I know when those verses like that,
[00:26:01] that I haven't read in a long time,
[00:26:03] pop up in my mind.
[00:26:04] I know the Lord is giving them to me.
[00:26:06] But let's look at verses.
[00:26:10] So we'll go to Ezekiel 18.
[00:26:13] We'll just read verse from verse 21.
[00:26:19] Because again, I think we again,
[00:26:21] just show the heart of God in this matter of judgment,
[00:26:27] that his love is there all the time.
[00:26:32] But again, he's not a God that's going to forever tolerate
[00:26:37] continual rebellion, wickedness, sin,
[00:26:42] even in his own people,
[00:26:44] much less the wicked who deny him.
[00:26:47] Well, let's read this.
[00:26:48] This is Ezekiel 18, 21 is where we'll start.
[00:26:52] But if the wicked will turn from all his sins
[00:26:56] that he has committed and keep all my statutes
[00:26:59] and do that which is lawful and right,
[00:27:02] he shall surely live.
[00:27:03] He shall not die.
[00:27:04] Now, of course, God's not talking about
[00:27:06] he would live eternally as a physical human being
[00:27:09] because no one does that, right?
[00:27:12] He's talking about eternal life.
[00:27:16] And of course, prior to the new covenant,
[00:27:19] prior to Jesus going to the cross,
[00:27:22] God just pretty much looked at people
[00:27:24] as righteous or wicked and if they sought him
[00:27:27] and tried to live a godly, righteous life,
[00:27:31] he looked at that as good and he would give them life,
[00:27:34] even if they weren't perfect.
[00:27:35] I mean, you look at people like Abraham,
[00:27:37] he wasn't perfect.
[00:27:38] And David, Moses, so on and so forth.
[00:27:41] Moses murdered a man.
[00:27:43] David committed adultery.
[00:27:45] I mean, both of those sins under the,
[00:27:47] if they were strictly under the law at that time
[00:27:51] would have been, should have been stoned to death, right?
[00:27:55] But that wasn't the case.
[00:27:58] God is, still showed mercy, even in the old covenant.
[00:28:03] But he says there, he says,
[00:28:04] but if the wicked will turn from all his sins
[00:28:08] that he has committed and keep all my statutes
[00:28:10] and do that which is lawful and right,
[00:28:11] he shall live and he shall not die.
[00:28:14] And all his transgressions that he has committed
[00:28:16] shall not be mentioned unto him.
[00:28:19] Isn't that interesting?
[00:28:20] The same words of the new covenant,
[00:28:22] if we're repent and we're forgiven,
[00:28:24] our sins will not be remembered.
[00:28:27] Beautiful, right?
[00:28:28] God is merciful.
[00:28:30] He doesn't want us to die in our sin.
[00:28:32] So verse 22, he says,
[00:28:34] all his transgressions that he has committed
[00:28:37] shall not be mentioned unto him
[00:28:38] and in his righteousness that he hath done,
[00:28:40] he shall live.
[00:28:41] Look at verse 23.
[00:28:42] Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die,
[00:28:46] sayeth the Lord God,
[00:28:48] and not that he should return or repent
[00:28:50] or turn away from his ways and live?
[00:28:53] So the Lord's saying there,
[00:28:54] do I have any pleasure in a person who,
[00:28:59] you know, do I have any pleasure that,
[00:29:01] you know, having to judge
[00:29:04] and make that second death,
[00:29:05] that eternal separation from me
[00:29:07] as a person refuses to repent and stop being wicked?
[00:29:11] Do I, God's saying,
[00:29:13] I don't have any pleasure that the wicked should die.
[00:29:16] It's not what I desire.
[00:29:17] No, that's the, and I'm bringing this out
[00:29:19] because I want you to see the consistency
[00:29:22] from the old covenant even into the new.
[00:29:25] It's the same, God's heart toward people.
[00:29:29] He, again, he doesn't want any to perish.
[00:29:31] He doesn't want anyone to die in their sins
[00:29:34] and experience the second death
[00:29:35] of being separated from him forever.
[00:29:38] That in itself,
[00:29:39] even if there was no punishment or torment to hell,
[00:29:43] just being separated from your creator
[00:29:46] who is life forever, you know,
[00:29:49] because let me tell you,
[00:29:50] if you've experienced anything about God,
[00:29:52] you know you felt his peace,
[00:29:53] his love, his presence.
[00:29:55] To be separated from that forever,
[00:29:57] it would be hell.
[00:29:58] It's enough for me.
[00:30:00] But of course we know
[00:30:02] there's much more to hell than that.
[00:30:04] But just wanted you to see that.
[00:30:06] Now, of course, mankind,
[00:30:08] even among the people of God,
[00:30:12] they get a little, you know,
[00:30:14] we get attitudes and there's a verse.
[00:30:16] I want everybody to turn to this.
[00:30:18] I want you to turn to Ecclesiastes
[00:30:21] chapter number eight and verse 11.
[00:30:28] Now, this is the problem in the world.
[00:30:34] God has patience.
[00:30:36] He's long suffering toward us,
[00:30:37] not letting that any should perish,
[00:30:40] but that all should come to repentance, his patience.
[00:30:42] Remember it said a day with him.
[00:30:44] Peter said a day with him is like a thousand years.
[00:30:46] A thousand years is like a day.
[00:30:48] God is very patient
[00:30:50] because time is irrelevant to him.
[00:30:56] It's not the same to him as it is to us.
[00:30:59] But mankind many times mistakes his patience
[00:31:07] and his long suffering
[00:31:10] and his giving plenty of time
[00:31:13] to mankind as weakness
[00:31:14] or as if, oh, God's not going to do anything.
[00:31:19] Let's read this verse.
[00:31:25] This is Ecclesiastes 8.11.
[00:31:29] It says here,
[00:31:30] because the sentence against an evil work
[00:31:32] is not executed speedily,
[00:31:35] therefore the heart of the sons of men
[00:31:38] is fully set in them to do evil.
[00:31:43] Oh, see he's saying there,
[00:31:45] God is revealing, speaking through Solomon here,
[00:31:49] he's revealing that the true nature of mankind that,
[00:31:53] you know, if God executed his judgment quickly,
[00:31:57] they'd say, oh, God's impatient.
[00:31:58] He doesn't love us.
[00:31:59] He's not loving and kind, right?
[00:32:03] And they still try to say that now.
[00:32:04] They talk about, you know,
[00:32:06] they've got people saying there was a different God
[00:32:08] in the Old Testament than there is in the New Testament
[00:32:10] because God was so quick to judge.
[00:32:12] But really even in the Old Testament,
[00:32:14] he wasn't that quick to judge.
[00:32:15] I'm going to show you.
[00:32:17] But either way, it is amazing.
[00:32:20] Mankind's heart nature is so wicked
[00:32:23] and it really doesn't matter which way God goes.
[00:32:25] If he judged, you know,
[00:32:27] if the sentence against an evil deed was executed quickly,
[00:32:30] they would say, well, God's not loving.
[00:32:31] He's not patient.
[00:32:32] He's not kind.
[00:32:33] He's not, you know.
[00:32:35] But then if he waits, it says here, as this verse says,
[00:32:38] if the sentence against an evil deed is not executed
[00:32:42] speedily, then what does men's hearts do?
[00:32:44] It says the men's hearts,
[00:32:46] the hearts of the sons of men's fully set
[00:32:48] in them to do evil.
[00:32:50] So they think that God is somehow by not judging them
[00:32:55] or nothing bad happening to them immediately
[00:33:00] that they're getting away with something.
[00:33:01] And then they begin to think,
[00:33:03] well, maybe God's okay with what I'm doing.
[00:33:06] Like the homosexuals are now
[00:33:08] or the transgenders or whatever.
[00:33:10] Maybe God approves of this.
[00:33:12] You know, the Methodist Church is getting ready
[00:33:14] to approve all this
[00:33:16] LGBTQ, TRS 45, 68, 105, you know,
[00:33:24] gender thing, I don't know.
[00:33:26] But you've got these churches now, why?
[00:33:29] Because look, look, there's been a long time
[00:33:33] since there was a flood
[00:33:35] and since there was Sodom and Gomorrah judgments like that.
[00:33:38] There's been a long time.
[00:33:41] And so what's happened?
[00:33:41] The hearts of the sons of men
[00:33:44] are fully set in them to do evil
[00:33:46] and they've begun to believe,
[00:33:48] they've begun this thing.
[00:33:50] Where is the God of judgment?
[00:33:52] He doesn't really exist.
[00:33:53] Look at this, let's go to Malachi chapter two.
[00:34:05] See the Torah heads would say
[00:34:07] that Pastor Dean hates the Old Testament.
[00:34:08] I love it.
[00:34:11] You just have to teach it in context with the new.
[00:34:17] But there's so much truth
[00:34:18] and so much revealed about the character and nature of God.
[00:34:23] We got to take it all.
[00:34:27] But we got to understand what covenant we live under.
[00:34:30] That's for sure.
[00:34:31] But Malachi chapter two,
[00:34:34] this was dealing with the people of God
[00:34:37] and it says that Judgment Day was near
[00:34:41] but they didn't believe it.
[00:34:44] Let's read this.
[00:34:45] And I just want to read this one verse
[00:34:47] at the end of Malachi chapter two verse 17.
[00:34:51] When he says this here, he says,
[00:34:54] "'Ye have wearied the Lord with your words,
[00:34:59] "'yet ye say, wherein have we wearied him?
[00:35:01] "'When you say, everyone that doeth evil
[00:35:04] "'is good in the sight of the Lord.'"
[00:35:06] Boy, is that not where we are right now.
[00:35:10] What was her name?
[00:35:10] The dagle?
[00:35:12] What was her name?
[00:35:13] The singer.
[00:35:14] Dagle, Lauren Dagle.
[00:35:17] What is she saying now?
[00:35:17] Homosexuals are good.
[00:35:19] Homosexuality's fine.
[00:35:23] And God says it's an abomination.
[00:35:24] He hates it.
[00:35:25] It's sin, it's evil, it's wickedness.
[00:35:29] And so though he says,
[00:35:30] "'Ye have wearied the Lord with your words,
[00:35:32] "'yet you say, wherein have we wearied him?
[00:35:36] "'When you say, everyone that doeth evil
[00:35:38] "'is good in the sight of the Lord,
[00:35:39] "'and he delights in them.'"
[00:35:42] Or, where is the God of judgment?
[00:35:46] Oh, where is the God of judgment?
[00:35:53] See, go back to our verse if you can, in Ecclesiastes.
[00:35:58] Where is the God of judgment, they say,
[00:36:01] because the sentence against an evil work
[00:36:03] is not executed speedily.
[00:36:07] Therefore, the heart of the sons of men
[00:36:09] are fully set in them to do evil.
[00:36:13] See, it happened to the Israelites,
[00:36:17] and guess what?
[00:36:17] It's happened now in the church.
[00:36:21] Even the people of God get affected by this.
[00:36:25] If God doesn't bring his judgment and wrath
[00:36:30] and his sentence against evil quickly,
[00:36:33] seems like people's hearts just get even more set
[00:36:37] to do evil.
[00:36:40] So the Lord, I think, he decided some time ago,
[00:36:45] I'm gonna drop back here,
[00:36:49] and I'm gonna let this thing just ride itself.
[00:36:53] Let mankind just take the reins, man.
[00:36:58] Take the reins, mankind, let's see how you do.
[00:37:01] Let me tell you how it's gonna end up.
[00:37:05] Mankind will have a world government,
[00:37:08] tyranny, an antichrist,
[00:37:11] the persecution and the murder of Christians,
[00:37:15] true Christians.
[00:37:17] They will have a false religion
[00:37:20] that brings all religions together,
[00:37:22] but throws out the one that says Jesus Christ
[00:37:24] is the only true God and the only way
[00:37:27] to be forgiven of sins and the only way to eternal life
[00:37:30] and the only way to escape judgment and damnation
[00:37:32] and the wrath of God.
[00:37:36] Because when mankind takes the reins
[00:37:41] and they go any direction away
[00:37:43] from the creator, the God of the Bible,
[00:37:46] it's gonna end badly.
[00:37:49] And you know, really, to tell you the truth,
[00:37:52] as bad as it can be, when you think about the flood,
[00:37:55] God wiped out everybody except Noah,
[00:37:58] his wife, his three sons, their three wives.
[00:38:03] When you think about that,
[00:38:05] that sounds horrible, of course,
[00:38:07] and it is that that had to happen.
[00:38:09] But what would have happened to mankind had it not happened?
[00:38:16] Satan would have eventually made normal human beings
[00:38:20] created in the image of God.
[00:38:22] He would have made us extinct.
[00:38:25] And so God had to intervene.
[00:38:28] So when God does intervene,
[00:38:29] even though it's bad for the wicked,
[00:38:31] it's good for those who follow him.
[00:38:35] Amen?
[00:38:37] Amen.
[00:38:38] Now, having said that, let's go back.
[00:38:41] Let's go look at a few things here.
[00:38:46] Well, first, I'll tell you what,
[00:38:47] before we go look at that,
[00:38:49] I wanna go look at,
[00:38:52] Dennis, I want us to go to Psalm 50, though.
[00:38:57] Psalm 50.
[00:39:10] Psalm 50 is one of those scary Psalms.
[00:39:12] Let's start reading here.
[00:39:14] Let's see.
[00:39:17] Oh, it's almost, it's so good.
[00:39:22] I hate to even cut it short.
[00:39:27] Let's just start at verse 15, though.
[00:39:29] Keep from reading the whole thing.
[00:39:32] So the Lord here first is speaking to the righteous.
[00:39:37] And he says,
[00:39:38] Call upon me in the day of trouble,
[00:39:39] and I will deliver thee,
[00:39:41] and thou shalt glorify me.
[00:39:43] Well, that's a good word right there.
[00:39:44] Call upon me in the day of trouble.
[00:39:45] And let me tell you, the day of trouble is coming.
[00:39:47] The great day of trouble,
[00:39:49] the great tribulation has come.
[00:39:51] So the Lord says to the righteous,
[00:39:52] to those that love him and are following him,
[00:39:55] that have Jesus truly as Lord of their lives,
[00:39:58] and have taken up their cross and followed him.
[00:40:00] He says, Call upon me in the day of trouble,
[00:40:04] and I will deliver thee,
[00:40:05] and thou shalt glorify me.
[00:40:07] But unto the wicked, God saith,
[00:40:09] what hast thou to do to declare my statutes,
[00:40:13] or that you should take my covenant in your mouth?
[00:40:17] Lord's saying to the wicked,
[00:40:18] how dare you even speak of me
[00:40:20] if you want to live in sin and wickedness?
[00:40:24] And yet, how many people though?
[00:40:26] I mean, we got homosexuals saying,
[00:40:27] oh, we're gonna go to church.
[00:40:30] Let's go to church and praise God.
[00:40:33] Let's go to church and teach Sunday school classes.
[00:40:37] Let's, oh, here's a better one.
[00:40:39] Let's become the pastor of a Methodist church,
[00:40:41] or an Episcopal church, or a Lutheran church,
[00:40:43] or a Presbyterian church.
[00:40:45] How dare these wicked people
[00:40:48] take God's name and his covenant
[00:40:51] and his words in their mouth?
[00:40:52] And that's what he's saying here.
[00:40:53] He's like, oh, let's just read this again, verse 15.
[00:40:58] He says, Call upon me to the righteous.
[00:41:00] He says, Call upon me in the day of trouble,
[00:41:03] and I will deliver thee,
[00:41:05] and thou shalt glorify me.
[00:41:06] But unto the wicked, God saith,
[00:41:08] what hast thou to do to declare my statutes,
[00:41:11] or thou shouldst take my covenant in my mouth?
[00:41:14] Seeing thou hatest instruction,
[00:41:16] and cast my words behind me.
[00:41:20] Oh, well, what words?
[00:41:22] Now, remember, he just got through saying,
[00:41:24] you take some of my words in your mouth,
[00:41:27] but some of my words you're casting behind your back.
[00:41:30] Oh, what does that sound like?
[00:41:33] That sounds like editing God, doesn't it?
[00:41:38] Remember I said, you're either a Bible believer
[00:41:40] and follower, or you're a Bible editor.
[00:41:44] And so these wicked, oh yeah, they'll take God loves me.
[00:41:49] They'll take John 3.16,
[00:41:50] God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
[00:41:53] God loves me, has a wonderful plan for my life.
[00:41:57] Oh, but you mean I can't be a practice in homosexual
[00:41:59] and go to heaven?
[00:42:00] Let me throw that one behind.
[00:42:01] I don't believe Romans one.
[00:42:03] Let me throw that behind my back.
[00:42:08] You know, the Lord, you know,
[00:42:11] this Psalm was written around 1000 BC.
[00:42:16] And yet, talking about us today,
[00:42:19] why is mankind, the nature of man never changes?
[00:42:24] But he says, again, let's read verse 16.
[00:42:27] But under the wicked God said,
[00:42:28] what hast thou to do to declare my statutes?
[00:42:30] Thou shouldst take my covenant in my mouth,
[00:42:33] sing thou hatest instruction and cast my words behind you.
[00:42:37] When you saw us the thief,
[00:42:39] then you consented with him.
[00:42:42] You have been a partaker with adulterers.
[00:42:45] You give your mouth to evil
[00:42:47] and your tongue frameth deceit.
[00:42:50] You sit and speak against your brother.
[00:42:52] You slander your own mother's son.
[00:42:55] These things have you done and I kept silence.
[00:43:03] You thought that I was altogether such as one as yourself,
[00:43:08] but I will reprove you
[00:43:10] and set them in order before your eyes.
[00:43:13] Now consider this ye that forget God lest I tear you
[00:43:16] in pieces and there be none to deliver.
[00:43:21] Now I wanna back up here.
[00:43:22] What God is saying here,
[00:43:24] you take my words in your mouth,
[00:43:26] my covenant in your mouth, you talk about me.
[00:43:28] Now there's certain words in my instruction
[00:43:30] you throw behind your back.
[00:43:33] You consent with a thief.
[00:43:36] You partake with adulterers.
[00:43:37] You give your mouth to evil, deceit and lies.
[00:43:42] You sit and you slander people.
[00:43:45] He says, these things you've done and I kept silent.
[00:43:54] You know what?
[00:43:54] That's God saying, I'm not gonna say a word.
[00:44:03] And he said, because I kept silent,
[00:44:05] see, this is their biggest,
[00:44:07] this is mankind's, one of mankind's biggest
[00:44:09] misconceptions of God.
[00:44:11] He said, you thought I was like you.
[00:44:17] Oh, no.
[00:44:22] He is not like us.
[00:44:26] He does not have weak human emotions.
[00:44:32] No.
[00:44:33] See, and this is why he can be perfect
[00:44:36] in love and mercy as well as he is perfect
[00:44:41] in justice and judgment and consequences for the wicked.
[00:44:49] I mean, think about it this way.
[00:44:51] There's people that don't like to think of God as a judge.
[00:44:56] But if you think about it this way,
[00:44:59] the way he thinks about sin.
[00:45:01] See, we all get in an uproar.
[00:45:02] We talk about pedophiles, people with molest children.
[00:45:05] Oh, that's terrible.
[00:45:06] That's wicked.
[00:45:07] That's evil.
[00:45:08] Yes, it is.
[00:45:09] But to God, fornication is evil and wicked.
[00:45:13] Adultery is evil and wicked.
[00:45:14] Homosexuality is evil and wicked.
[00:45:17] Drunkenness is evil and wicked.
[00:45:20] So God has his standard and he's not changing
[00:45:24] about what he calls wickedness, right?
[00:45:28] For mankind.
[00:45:29] Your basic moral morality that he's established.
[00:45:34] But see, I hear people all the time,
[00:45:41] what they'll start to say is when you start to preach like,
[00:45:44] or you start to talk about the final judgment
[00:45:46] and even that they're gonna be Christians,
[00:45:48] born again Christians who are gonna hear God say,
[00:45:50] depart from me, he cursed it into everlasting fire.
[00:45:54] You're gonna say to the wicked and the lawful servant,
[00:45:56] you knew, I gave you what you needed.
[00:45:58] You knew, take from him what he hath,
[00:46:00] cast him into outer darkness.
[00:46:02] That would be weeping and asking the team.
[00:46:04] You see, they knew, right?
[00:46:07] So but you have Christians and people that say,
[00:46:10] no, no, no, God, God is like us.
[00:46:13] Would you ever take your son or your daughter
[00:46:15] and cast them into outer darkness or into hellfire?
[00:46:19] And God said, your problem is you think I'm like you.
[00:46:24] I'm not like you.
[00:46:27] He is the eternal wise one.
[00:46:29] He is the one that knows the end from the beginning.
[00:46:32] He is the one that knows everything you're gonna do
[00:46:35] and choose to do.
[00:46:38] So when he judges you, he does it from perfect knowledge
[00:46:41] of everything you've ever done, thought, said,
[00:46:44] and what you will do in the future.
[00:46:49] That's why he is the righteous judge.
[00:46:53] That's why he's the only one that can judge
[00:46:56] and determine where a person will spend all of eternity.
[00:47:01] And he's made it pretty clear in his word what that means.
[00:47:07] But right here, he says, you know, you did all this.
[00:47:09] You took my covenant in your mouth.
[00:47:11] You talked about my covenant.
[00:47:12] You talked about God loves me.
[00:47:14] Jesus died for me.
[00:47:15] My sins are forgiven past, present, and future
[00:47:18] while you live in adultery, fornication,
[00:47:20] drunkenness, homosexuality.
[00:47:23] He said, but certain of my words,
[00:47:24] yo, you cast them behind your back.
[00:47:29] And he said, you know, you did all this
[00:47:30] and I didn't say anything.
[00:47:31] I just kept silent.
[00:47:33] I let you think you're getting away with it.
[00:47:40] And in the process of that, me being silent,
[00:47:44] the Lord said, you thought I was like you.
[00:47:47] Wrong.
[00:47:50] Well, that preach right there, won't it?
[00:47:56] Don't ever misinterpret the silence of God
[00:48:00] for his approval, weakness, or weak human emotions.
[00:48:07] He is going to judge.
[00:48:10] Now, if you don't think so, let's go look at,
[00:48:12] I wanna look at a verse.
[00:48:14] First of all, let's look at 1 Peter chapter four.
[00:48:26] And can I just say, while we're turning
[00:48:27] to 1 Peter chapter four,
[00:48:32] when you hear a message like this,
[00:48:33] and we're gonna put this on YouTube later,
[00:48:39] when you hear a message like this,
[00:48:41] teaching like this, a lot of people out there,
[00:48:45] you know, they immediately go,
[00:48:46] well, you know, that's just too strong.
[00:48:52] You know, that's just too much.
[00:48:53] That's just too strong.
[00:48:56] But what it should produce in you,
[00:48:59] it should produce a fear of God and a humility,
[00:49:03] especially if you are living in habitual sins
[00:49:08] that are unto death,
[00:49:11] that can separate you from God.
[00:49:12] That should cause you to follow in your needs trembling
[00:49:17] and ask God to forgive you
[00:49:19] and for you to help you repent and turn from that
[00:49:23] and become a true follower of Jesus Christ.
[00:49:29] And no longer a lukewarm Christian
[00:49:31] or a mega church Christian or a Methodist
[00:49:33] or a Baptist or a Presbyterian or whatever,
[00:49:36] you call yourself, none of that's gonna work.
[00:49:38] You're not gonna stand before God
[00:49:39] and say, I was a Lutheran.
[00:49:41] I was a Methodist, God.
[00:49:44] I was a Catholic, a Presbyterian
[00:49:45] or I was a Pentecostal God.
[00:49:50] All he's gonna say was,
[00:49:52] were you following me, walking with me,
[00:49:57] taking up your cross?
[00:50:00] Were you trying to live holy and obedient with me?
[00:50:05] Or were you just living in wickedness
[00:50:12] thinking that I was like you
[00:50:18] and I was like some weak human being
[00:50:19] that's gonna let you get away with it?
[00:50:24] First Peter chapter four,
[00:50:28] this is to the Christians first,
[00:50:30] verse 17, the time has come
[00:50:33] that judgment must begin at the house of God.
[00:50:37] And if it first began at us,
[00:50:38] what shall the end be of them
[00:50:40] that obey not the gospel of God?
[00:50:44] And if the righteous scarcely be saved,
[00:50:48] where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
[00:50:52] Well, these verses right here ought to make you tremble.
[00:50:57] What shall the end be of them
[00:50:59] that obey not the gospel?
[00:51:02] I'm telling you the time has come.
[00:51:04] And the sign that judgment is at the door
[00:51:08] of the church of the West
[00:51:11] is the fact that now they're ordaining homosexuals
[00:51:14] to be pastors.
[00:51:17] That's your sign right there.
[00:51:20] Right before Rome was destroyed,
[00:51:23] the Roman Empire completely collapsed.
[00:51:27] It was due to the fact homosexuality became rampant.
[00:51:30] Pedophilia was rampant.
[00:51:32] Adultery was rampant.
[00:51:34] A divorce was rampant.
[00:51:40] The idolatry of money was rampant.
[00:51:44] And the Roman Empire,
[00:51:46] from the strongest and greatest empires
[00:51:48] the world's ever produced, collapsed
[00:51:50] under the weight of its own sin.
[00:51:55] It's coming to the West, to England, France, Germany.
[00:52:01] And you talk about Denmark, Amsterdam, Sweden,
[00:52:04] all those countries are just so eaten up
[00:52:06] with sexual immorality.
[00:52:08] And don't think I'm pointing the finger
[00:52:11] because America is just as bad.
[00:52:14] You go to cities like New York, Chicago,
[00:52:18] New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta.
[00:52:24] It's horrible, horrible.
[00:52:29] But these verses are pretty clear
[00:52:30] for the time has come that judgment must begin
[00:52:32] at the house of God and if it began at us,
[00:52:35] what shall the end be?
[00:52:37] What shall the eschatology be
[00:52:40] of them that obey not the gospel of God?
[00:52:44] And if the righteous scarcely be saved,
[00:52:45] where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
[00:52:48] Let's go to 2 Thessalonians chapter one.
[00:52:56] See these things should not be odd to us.
[00:53:02] Let's read this from verse one.
[00:53:05] Paul and Silvanus and Timothy
[00:53:08] under the church of the Thessalonians
[00:53:10] and God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
[00:53:13] grace unto you and peace from God our Father
[00:53:16] and the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:53:17] We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren,
[00:53:21] as it is meet because that your faith
[00:53:22] groweth exceedingly and the charity or love
[00:53:25] of every one of you, of you all toward each other abounded.
[00:53:30] So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God
[00:53:33] for your patience and faith and all your persecutions
[00:53:37] and tribulations that you endure,
[00:53:39] which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God
[00:53:43] that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God
[00:53:45] for which you also suffer.
[00:53:47] Seeing it is a righteous thing with God
[00:53:50] to recompense or repay tribulation
[00:53:53] to them that trouble you.
[00:53:55] And to you who are troubled rest with us
[00:53:58] when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven
[00:54:01] with his mighty angels in flaming fire,
[00:54:04] taking vengeance on them that know not God
[00:54:07] and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ
[00:54:11] who shall be punished with everlasting destruction
[00:54:14] from the presence of the Lord
[00:54:15] and from the glory of his power
[00:54:18] when he shall come to be glorified in his saints
[00:54:21] and to be admired in all of them that I believe
[00:54:25] because our testimony among you was believed in that day.
[00:54:28] Now you read this right here.
[00:54:30] In this right here, he's talking to these Christians
[00:54:33] in Thessalonica that were being persecuted
[00:54:36] and suffering under persecution.
[00:54:38] And he reminds them the Lord's gonna repay trouble
[00:54:42] to those who are troubling.
[00:54:45] He says, there's a day coming when the Lord Jesus
[00:54:47] shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels
[00:54:50] in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them
[00:54:54] that know not God.
[00:54:57] Oh boy.
[00:54:59] Now see, we don't like, I'm telling you,
[00:55:01] 99% of churches, 99% of Torah people,
[00:55:06] 99% of, hey, don't talk about this kind of stuff.
[00:55:11] No, no, it's not comfortable.
[00:55:18] Jesus is coming back in flaming fire,
[00:55:22] taking vengeance on those who know not God
[00:55:24] and those who do not obey the gospel.
[00:55:28] That's pretty strong.
[00:55:31] There is an end.
[00:55:31] And that's my point this morning,
[00:55:33] the beginning of this class introduction,
[00:55:35] is we're gonna be talking about Bible prophecy and stuff
[00:55:38] and all the things that the Bible showed
[00:55:41] through Daniel and Revelation and other prophets
[00:55:45] and the apostles in the New Testament,
[00:55:49] the things that would lead up to the final judgment of God,
[00:55:53] the final big judgment that would precede
[00:55:57] the second coming of Jesus.
[00:55:59] And so we're gonna get into that in depth.
[00:56:04] But today, I just wanted to give this introduction
[00:56:08] that we need to understand that God is both
[00:56:11] a God of love and mercy and forgiveness
[00:56:13] and willing, not willing that any should perish,
[00:56:17] but that all should come to repentance,
[00:56:20] but that He's also the God of judgment.
[00:56:22] And there is a day where His mercy and patience is over.
[00:56:28] And sometimes that's in the life of an individual.
[00:56:30] Sometimes that's in the life of a church.
[00:56:31] Sometimes the life of a nation.
[00:56:34] But it is coming now, we're in that time
[00:56:36] that it's coming for the whole world,
[00:56:39] for the culmination of this, I guess you would say,
[00:56:45] this season of world history.
[00:56:53] And what's shocking is how many people are blind to it.
[00:56:58] Come on.
[00:56:59] It's like it's a train just,
[00:57:02] they're standing on the tracks, man,
[00:57:04] and it's barreling down the tracks,
[00:57:08] blowing the horn, and they have earphones on,
[00:57:10] and they're looking the other direction.
[00:57:12] No idea what's coming.
[00:57:16] Now, just to show you this before we close out,
[00:57:21] I know we're not gonna go too long today
[00:57:23] in this introduction, but just to show
[00:57:26] that there's been these seasons,
[00:57:27] let's go back to Genesis.
[00:57:34] Because Jesus said it too.
[00:57:35] He said, as it was in the days of Noah,
[00:57:38] so shall it also be in the days
[00:57:39] of the coming of the Son of Man.
[00:57:41] So let's go look at what it was like
[00:57:43] in the days of Noah.
[00:57:44] Go to Genesis chapter six.
[00:57:48] And it came to pass when men began
[00:57:51] to multiply on the face of the earth,
[00:57:53] and daughters were born into them,
[00:57:54] that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men,
[00:57:57] that they were fair, and they took them wives
[00:57:59] of all which they chose, and the Lord said,
[00:58:01] and this is what I really wanna point out.
[00:58:04] We'll get onto the subject of the Nephilim,
[00:58:08] and the Giants, and that whole thing,
[00:58:09] in more depth in the spiritual warfare block
[00:58:13] in the days ahead.
[00:58:14] But I wanted to point out here,
[00:58:16] more than anything else, this verse three,
[00:58:18] where the Lord said, my spirit shall not always strive
[00:58:21] with man, for he is also flesh,
[00:58:24] and yet his day shall be 120 years.
[00:58:28] And let's just skip to verse five.
[00:58:30] He says, and God saw that the wickedness
[00:58:33] of man was great in the earth,
[00:58:36] and that every imagination of the thoughts
[00:58:38] of his heart was only evil continually.
[00:58:45] Now, remember, again, everybody, it's funny,
[00:58:49] back 30, 25, and 30 years ago,
[00:58:52] people didn't talk about the aspect of the Nephilim,
[00:58:56] the Giants, the hybrids, and stuff like that.
[00:58:58] They didn't talk about that as being part
[00:59:01] of the days of Noah, and being part of the days
[00:59:03] of the end.
[00:59:05] Now, it's kind of the opposite.
[00:59:07] That's what you hear a lot about,
[00:59:09] the Nephilim, and the Giants,
[00:59:11] and the whole alien deception that's coming,
[00:59:12] and that's all part of what's happening,
[00:59:15] and going to happen, but we forget this part,
[00:59:19] that one of the reasons that God brought
[00:59:21] this great judgment of the flood upon the world,
[00:59:23] and listen, the judgment of the flood
[00:59:26] is in 270 different ancient accounts
[00:59:32] from different parts of the world,
[00:59:33] different cultures and groups,
[00:59:36] Chinese and, I mean, just everything, Native American.
[00:59:40] I mean, the flood is probably one
[00:59:43] of the most well-documented things that ever happened,
[00:59:46] and two, when 70% of the rock that exists
[00:59:51] was laid down by water and has fossils in it,
[00:59:56] ought to let us know, right?
[00:59:58] Fossils in rock are created because of water
[01:00:01] and sediment settling quick, all right?
[01:00:06] So the flood is both scientifically,
[01:00:09] geologically documented that it happened.
[01:00:12] It's documented in history and cultures.
[01:00:17] Some of them, almost exactly, eight people, a boat.
[01:00:20] God was angry with the wicked
[01:00:22] and brought judgment on wicked mankind
[01:00:25] that a bird left the boat and came back.
[01:00:27] I mean, it's amazing how those accounts
[01:00:29] went down through many, many, you know,
[01:00:35] centuries into all those cultures,
[01:00:38] had stories of this great flood
[01:00:41] and several, only few people surviving
[01:00:44] and God being angry and so on and so forth.
[01:00:47] But the reason for that judgment,
[01:00:50] that end thing there,
[01:00:54] to end that season at the start anew
[01:00:57] with Noah and his family was because God, verse five,
[01:01:00] God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth.
[01:01:05] Now think about this, and that every imagination
[01:01:09] of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
[01:01:17] I think about right now with pornography
[01:01:20] being so prevalent and easily accessible
[01:01:24] that I can tell you that probably most men
[01:01:30] can't ever think about anything else.
[01:01:34] And then you have men
[01:01:35] that are constantly thinking about money
[01:01:38] or power or whatever.
[01:01:42] And I just think about where we are.
[01:01:45] It sounds like the days of Noah, doesn't it?
[01:01:49] And verse six, it says,
[01:01:50] and it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth
[01:01:56] and it grieved him at his heart.
[01:01:59] And so the Lord said, I will destroy man
[01:02:01] whom I have created from the face of the earth,
[01:02:03] both man and beast and creeping thing
[01:02:05] and the fowls of the air,
[01:02:06] for it repenteth me that I have made them.
[01:02:10] But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
[01:02:14] Now these are the generations of Noah.
[01:02:16] Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations.
[01:02:18] And Noah walked with God.
[01:02:22] And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Jeffeth.
[01:02:25] And the earth was corrupt before God
[01:02:27] and the earth was filled with violence.
[01:02:30] And God looked upon the earth and behold,
[01:02:32] it was corrupt for all flesh
[01:02:33] had corrupted his way upon the earth.
[01:02:36] And God said unto Noah,
[01:02:37] the end of all flesh has come before me,
[01:02:39] for the earth is filled with violence.
[01:02:42] Through them and behold,
[01:02:43] I will destroy them with the earth,
[01:02:45] make thee an ark of gopher wood,
[01:02:47] the brooms thou shalt make in the ark,
[01:02:49] thou shalt pitch it within him without,
[01:02:51] and so forth and told him how to make the ark.
[01:02:55] And then Noah did it,
[01:02:57] and God brought the animals that he wanted to save,
[01:03:02] and then the flood came.
[01:03:03] The windows of heaven were opened,
[01:03:05] the fountains of the great deep broke up.
[01:03:08] But between the time that God told Noah this,
[01:03:11] Noah started building the ark,
[01:03:13] God yet gave mankind
[01:03:15] another 120 years to repent.
[01:03:22] And the Bible says that Noah,
[01:03:24] and so the book of 2 Peter says
[01:03:26] that Noah was a preacher of righteousness,
[01:03:30] meaning that Noah preached that 120 years.
[01:03:34] That Noah spoke and witnessed the mankind around him,
[01:03:40] tried to warn them that God was angry,
[01:03:43] he was tired of the wickedness,
[01:03:45] the violence, the evil.
[01:03:49] And they didn't listen.
[01:03:52] And that's why Jesus said,
[01:03:54] as it was in the days of Noah,
[01:03:57] so shall it also be in the days
[01:03:59] of the coming of the Son of Man.
[01:04:00] This is where we are.
[01:04:03] And Noah's building the ark,
[01:04:04] and what does the Bible say?
[01:04:06] They were marrying, giving in marriage,
[01:04:09] just going on with life as normal.
[01:04:13] And you gotta remember at that point
[01:04:14] the Bible says it had never rained.
[01:04:18] So I guess they were wondering,
[01:04:19] how in the world,
[01:04:20] what's this Noah talking about?
[01:04:21] There's never been a flood.
[01:04:22] Is he talking about water from the sky,
[01:04:26] water from the great deep?
[01:04:27] I don't know if he told them those things or not,
[01:04:29] but you can imagine again,
[01:04:31] mankind's another one of mankind's terrible faults
[01:04:34] is trying to figure out things with their own reasoning.
[01:04:39] God says he's gonna flood the earth with water.
[01:04:42] You best be repenting, humbling yourself,
[01:04:48] dealing with your sin and wickedness,
[01:04:50] turning back to him,
[01:04:51] having a respect and fear of God,
[01:04:55] or you better get to building a boat.
[01:04:56] I don't know, right?
[01:05:00] And you know, it wasn't just the boat, folks.
[01:05:01] I know a lot of people focus on the boat,
[01:05:03] the ark that saved Noah,
[01:05:05] but let me tell you,
[01:05:06] if God didn't hold the ark together
[01:05:07] and keep it from tipping over and all that stuff,
[01:05:11] I mean, as David said in one of the Psalms,
[01:05:14] I can't remember if it's Psalm 31,
[01:05:17] he said, the horse is prepared for the day of battle,
[01:05:19] but safety's from the Lord.
[01:05:22] So I don't know,
[01:05:25] some wicked people could have built a boat too,
[01:05:27] but the Lord would have made sure
[01:05:29] it turned over or sunk,
[01:05:30] because it was about wickedness and repentance
[01:05:34] is why the judgment came, not just water.
[01:05:39] So we see that and we see, of course,
[01:05:41] the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.
[01:05:45] Matter of fact, it's important.
[01:05:46] Let's turn there.
[01:05:49] I wanna cover these in my introduction
[01:05:51] because all of these things,
[01:05:53] I mean, you think about it,
[01:05:55] that when we talk about the second coming of Jesus,
[01:05:57] and we go to Genesis 18,
[01:05:59] when you talk about the second coming of Jesus,
[01:06:01] the final judgments, the great tribulation that's coming,
[01:06:04] all the things we're gonna be talking about
[01:06:05] in Bible prophecy leading up to the second coming of Jesus,
[01:06:09] and the judgment and the wrath of God,
[01:06:13] God mentions, and even the Lord Jesus,
[01:06:16] when he was doing his earthly ministry,
[01:06:18] spoke of it being like the days of Noah,
[01:06:21] and he said also, like the days of Lot, right?
[01:06:27] And you know what I'm gonna do,
[01:06:28] I'm just gonna paraphrase this anyway,
[01:06:30] because you can read,
[01:06:34] and I want you guys, matter of fact,
[01:06:35] this will be your assignment tonight,
[01:06:36] reading Genesis 18 and 19,
[01:06:41] and tell me why you thank God
[01:06:46] that what was the final straw
[01:06:48] for God to rain fire upon and completely destroy,
[01:06:52] not only Sodom and Gomorrah,
[01:06:53] but three other cities of the plain,
[01:06:55] that whole region there near the Dead Sea.
[01:07:00] But that's gonna be your homework too.
[01:07:03] Just write, I don't care if it takes you a paragraph
[01:07:05] or two or three paragraphs,
[01:07:08] but tell me why you think, what was the final straw?
[01:07:12] But you see what happened, I mean, the men were wicked,
[01:07:16] there was great wickedness, the cry of Sodom went up,
[01:07:19] and we found out there
[01:07:21] that there was just great sexual perversion.
[01:07:24] So homosexuality was rampant,
[01:07:27] and not just homosexuality,
[01:07:28] but militant homosexuality.
[01:07:31] I mean, when the men of the city gather around your house,
[01:07:33] because they wanna rake two angels that visited you,
[01:07:38] you got a problem, right?
[01:07:40] Sodom and Gomorrah had a problem,
[01:07:42] and that wasn't their only problem,
[01:07:44] but that was one of them.
[01:07:47] But you see in that story,
[01:07:50] the very mercy of God telling Abraham,
[01:07:53] and Abraham knowing that Lot, his nephew lived there,
[01:07:57] and his family, and so Abraham,
[01:07:59] being concerned for his family, begins to pray.
[01:08:03] Lord, will you destroy the righteous with the wicked?
[01:08:08] And the Lord was like, well, I'll tell you what,
[01:08:10] this is the mercy of God and the love of God.
[01:08:12] Knowing how wicked and terrible Sodom and Gomorrah
[01:08:15] and those five cities of the plain were,
[01:08:18] that God said, you know what,
[01:08:19] if I find 50 righteous in there,
[01:08:21] I won't destroy the city.
[01:08:22] Now think about that, right?
[01:08:27] To me, that's mind-blowing,
[01:08:29] knowing the great wickedness going on in Sodom and Gomorrah.
[01:08:35] So God says, I'll tell you what, Abraham,
[01:08:37] if I find 50, and then of course,
[01:08:40] you know the rest of the story,
[01:08:40] well, what if it's 45 or 40?
[01:08:47] Okay, and of course, Abraham got him down to 10,
[01:08:52] right, the Lord said, okay, you know what,
[01:08:54] if I can find 10 righteous in Sodom,
[01:09:00] I won't destroy it.
[01:09:03] Now, you know it's bad when you have five cities
[01:09:05] and you can't find 10 righteous people.
[01:09:08] That's bad, this is horrible.
[01:09:10] It's just rampant, evil, wickedness.
[01:09:14] And finally, the Lord sent the angels in
[01:09:16] to pull Lot and his family out.
[01:09:19] His whole family didn't make it out,
[01:09:23] but he pulled out Lot,
[01:09:26] and then it says, he rained fire in brimstone
[01:09:30] and destroyed them all.
[01:09:32] And then the book of Jude says
[01:09:34] that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah
[01:09:36] not only suffered that judgment,
[01:09:38] but they are suffering the vengeance
[01:09:40] of eternal fire forever, hell,
[01:09:45] because of wickedness, because of evil,
[01:09:48] because of stubborn wickedness.
[01:09:51] And listen, they had Lot there.
[01:09:53] They knew they had a righteous witness.
[01:09:54] In fact, Lot tried to talk them out of it.
[01:09:57] Remember, and they were like, shut up,
[01:09:58] don't tell us how to live.
[01:10:00] Wouldn't that sound familiar?
[01:10:03] And Jesus said, just like it was in the days of Lot,
[01:10:06] the same day that Lot went out of Sodom,
[01:10:09] it rained fire and brimstone and destroyed them all.
[01:10:11] He said, that's the way it's gonna be
[01:10:14] in the day the Son of Man comes.
[01:10:16] The same day Jesus returns and takes his people up,
[01:10:21] which I believe is the last day,
[01:10:25] he's gonna rain fire and brimstone
[01:10:27] and destroy them all.
[01:10:28] That's gonna be the final day.
[01:10:31] And that's what's coming.
[01:10:32] And it's coming whether you believe it
[01:10:35] or you don't believe it.
[01:10:37] It's coming because of the testimonies.
[01:10:39] You know, there's been archeologists
[01:10:41] that found multiple archeologists
[01:10:44] that found the site of Sodom and Gomorrah.
[01:10:47] There's plenty of evidence that it was destroyed by fire.
[01:10:52] And there's an unusual thing there that they discovered.
[01:10:55] And there was these little sulfur balls
[01:10:58] that are 95% pure sulfur.
[01:11:01] Now, the best sulfur you can get in the world,
[01:11:04] if you dig up sulfur,
[01:11:06] the best natural sulfur you can find
[01:11:09] is like 60%, I think, 50, 60% sulfur.
[01:11:15] But there's these unusual 95% sulfur balls.
[01:11:18] Pastor, what are you talking about sulfur for?
[01:11:19] Because the Bible says that God rained down fire
[01:11:23] and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah to destroy them.
[01:11:29] Brimstone is sulfur.
[01:11:33] So some of the sulfur didn't burn up
[01:11:36] and was preserved as a witness
[01:11:40] that God sent down pure sulfur.
[01:11:44] Not earthly sulfur, pure sulfur from heaven
[01:11:50] that he made special just for Sodom.
[01:11:56] And I would say that the 5% of it that's not pure
[01:11:59] is probably just because it's been sitting there
[01:12:01] for several thousand years in the dirt, right?
[01:12:05] But it's still 95% pure
[01:12:08] versus the normal sulfur that we would dig up
[01:12:11] being about 60% pure.
[01:12:16] So we have evidence of Sodom and Gomorrah.
[01:12:18] We have evidence of the flood
[01:12:20] and we have a history book that tells us all about it.
[01:12:25] Tells us that it happened, tells us where it happened.
[01:12:28] In detail, tells us why it happened.
[01:12:32] And you know, those are warnings he said.
[01:12:36] The Word of God said that the flood
[01:12:40] and the evidence of the flood
[01:12:42] and the historical record of the flood,
[01:12:43] not just in the Bible but in these 270 different accounts
[01:12:47] of different cultures across the world,
[01:12:50] the discovery of Sodom and Gomorrah,
[01:12:51] the site of the five cities of the plain
[01:12:54] that it was destroyed by fire
[01:12:55] and there's these unusual pure sulfur balls there.
[01:12:58] He said these things are testimonies
[01:13:02] to the truth of the Word of God
[01:13:04] and what is coming really I believe
[01:13:09] after studying the Bible for over 30 years
[01:13:12] that we are in the last of the last days
[01:13:14] and that that final day of judgment and wrath of God
[01:13:18] against wickedness and unbelief and evil
[01:13:21] and rejection of Jesus as the Messiah,
[01:13:27] God in the flesh, the Lamb of God,
[01:13:30] the one who died for sin and rose from the dead.
[01:13:33] That that, those sins, that rejection,
[01:13:36] that rebellion is becoming so rampant
[01:13:39] there's such an antichrist spirit growing in the world
[01:13:43] that the final judgment is very near I believe.
[01:13:46] The final years of this dispensation,
[01:13:51] this age of this season,
[01:13:52] with God an end doesn't mean an end.
[01:13:55] Like it means an end of something
[01:13:59] and the beginning of something new
[01:14:00] and that's why Peter said we who are
[01:14:05] looking for these things,
[01:14:07] look for a new heavens and a new earth
[01:14:09] where in will dwell righteous
[01:14:10] and so God's going to,
[01:14:11] he's gonna make a new heavens and a new earth.
[01:14:13] He's gonna wipe out the wicked in wickedness and evil
[01:14:17] and he's gonna bring about a new heavens and a new earth
[01:14:19] and those of us that were faithful to the end,
[01:14:23] that followed Jesus, believed him and walked with him,
[01:14:27] we will inherit the heavens and the earth,
[01:14:30] the new heaven and the new earth.
[01:14:31] So I hope you were blessed today.
[01:14:35] Hope you students got this.
[01:14:36] We're not gonna have a,
[01:14:38] I'm gonna just end this introduction eschatology class one,
[01:14:43] a little shorter than normal today
[01:14:44] but you get a good overview.
[01:14:47] I think this was a good overview
[01:14:50] to understand what eschatology means,
[01:14:53] the study and theology of final judgment,
[01:14:57] death, heaven and hell,
[01:14:59] and what's coming and why
[01:15:01] and that God is both a God of love and mercy
[01:15:05] but he will not tolerate
[01:15:06] persistent ongoing wickedness and evil.
[01:15:09] There has to be humility,
[01:15:11] repentance and faith in what Jesus did on the cross
[01:15:15] and a change of life.
[01:15:16] Repentance is a change of life.
[01:15:20] I can honestly say and this is the truth,
[01:15:24] before I repented,
[01:15:26] I was pretty much an alcoholic.
[01:15:29] I mean, I drank nearly every day.
[01:15:31] I did drugs all the time.
[01:15:33] I was in reveling partying,
[01:15:36] drunkenness, fornication, you name it.
[01:15:40] I was practicing those and I was a lifestyle
[01:15:43] that I lived in.
[01:15:45] But when I came to understand repentance
[01:15:48] and the fear of God and what holiness meant
[01:15:52] and righteousness meant under the new covenant,
[01:15:55] I knew I had to repent.
[01:15:56] I had to walk away from those things.
[01:15:58] And again, it's not works to stop fornicating.
[01:16:03] It's not works to stop being a drunkard.
[01:16:05] I didn't have to,
[01:16:08] it's not something you, it wouldn't work.
[01:16:12] And so I remember when that revelation
[01:16:15] and you know it's a revelation from God
[01:16:17] when you know you got a fall on your knees,
[01:16:21] on your face, whatever,
[01:16:23] and say, God, I've been wicked, I've been a sinner.
[01:16:26] Even if you're a Christian backslider,
[01:16:28] you're a prodigal, you were in the father's house
[01:16:31] but you left and went and lived in the world
[01:16:32] and the pig pen, the riots is living.
[01:16:36] That right there, you got to get up and get out of it.
[01:16:41] I had a discussion the other day
[01:16:43] with somebody who believes that once saved, always saved.
[01:16:46] No matter how you live or unconditional eternal security
[01:16:49] or whatever they call it.
[01:16:51] And I brought that up.
[01:16:52] We brought up the prodigal and said,
[01:16:53] yeah, well, yeah, he started out in the father's house
[01:16:56] but he went home.
[01:16:58] I said, yeah, but he had to choose.
[01:17:00] He had to choose to leave the foreign country, the pig pen.
[01:17:05] He had to choose to leave his lifestyle of riotous living
[01:17:10] and go back and humble himself to his father.
[01:17:13] And so that's what we have to do,
[01:17:16] whether we're a believer or not,
[01:17:19] we have to humble ourselves
[01:17:21] and repent and take God seriously,
[01:17:24] even if it's a period where he's being patient,
[01:17:29] even if it's a period where he's not sentencing
[01:17:31] your evil deeds immediately.
[01:17:38] Better not take that for granted
[01:17:40] if he's being patient with you.
[01:17:42] Now, I know this has been a teaching really
[01:17:44] for our students, but I can say,
[01:17:45] we're gonna put this on YouTube
[01:17:48] because I believe it's important message to get out.
[01:17:51] But the final judgment is coming.
[01:17:54] Yes, God is a God of love.
[01:17:56] He loves you.
[01:17:57] He doesn't want you to die in your sins
[01:17:58] and go to hell forever for eternity.
[01:18:01] He separated from him.
[01:18:03] That's not his desire,
[01:18:04] but he is not going to tolerate ongoing,
[01:18:09] sinful, lustful, worldly behavior forever.
[01:18:15] You're gonna have to make up your mind
[01:18:17] what side of the fence you're gonna be on.
[01:18:19] So anyway, let's pray and we'll close out
[01:18:22] this first class of eschatology today.
[01:18:26] Father in heaven, we thank you, Lord, for your word.
[01:18:28] We thank you for your truth.
[01:18:31] We thank you, God Almighty,
[01:18:33] God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
[01:18:35] We thank you that you are merciful.
[01:18:37] We thank you, Lord, that you are loving,
[01:18:40] that you love us so much.
[01:18:42] You've made the way for us to be forgiven
[01:18:44] and our sins to be washed away.
[01:18:47] You've even promised to give us your Holy Spirit,
[01:18:50] to give us power, to walk obedient and holy lives
[01:18:53] in this new covenant you've given us
[01:18:55] through the blood of Jesus.
[01:18:57] Lord, I ask you, Lord, to help brothers and sisters
[01:18:59] out there maybe and even unsaid people
[01:19:02] that are struggling.
[01:19:03] Maybe a lot of people that think they're Christians
[01:19:05] because they said the name of Jesus in a prayer one time,
[01:19:09] but they never truly repented
[01:19:11] and began to and started a walk
[01:19:15] and a relationship with you.
[01:19:18] Obeying the gospel, obeying the new covenant commands
[01:19:22] the law of Christ.
[01:19:23] So Lord, I ask you, if there's anybody like that,
[01:19:27] I don't care if they're prodigals,
[01:19:28] I don't care if they've never really been saved,
[01:19:30] that today they will surrender, bow the knee,
[01:19:33] admit their sins and stop living in lifestyles
[01:19:36] of wickedness and evil because you are also
[01:19:39] not just a God of love and mercy and forgiveness,
[01:19:43] you're a God of judgment and wrath
[01:19:45] and final destinations, heaven or hell.
[01:19:51] So Lord, we ask You to make that real to them.
[01:19:56] And it's not a matter of You trying to be mean
[01:19:58] or threatening, it's just when this ends,
[01:20:02] this time period ends, this age,
[01:20:04] this dispensation, when this ends,
[01:20:08] we will either be with You and living with You,
[01:20:12] or we'll be with the enemy and living with Him.
[01:20:15] And we pray, God, that anybody that hears this
[01:20:18] will finally bow the knee, confess their sins,
[01:20:22] ask for forgiveness, repent, turn away from them,
[01:20:25] surrender to the Lordship of Jesus,
[01:20:28] let the blood of Jesus wash their sins away
[01:20:31] and take up their cross and follow You.
[01:20:34] And I pray this today in Jesus name.
[01:20:39] God bless you.