FTGC-48 – God Explains The End Of Everything & What Happens To America In Prophecy 2 Peter 3

FTGC-48

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FTGC-48 – God Explains The End of Everything And What Happens To America In Prophecy 2 Peter 3

Welcome to 2 Peter chapter 3. I can’t believe we’re at week 48. It’s just counting down until we’ve had our whole year together. If this is your very first time coming to our 52 Greatest Chapters, I’m John Barnett, and right over there behind the camera is my wonderful wife, Bonnie, and we’re, you that are watching and Bonnie and I, on a yearlong journey going all the way through the Bible using the 52 Greatest Chapters. I have taped right here in the front of my Bible the course plan. If you go to our website, discoverthebook.org, you can get this how to do the study and the complete list of all the chapters, the passages, that we’re covering. I’ve just printed those off and taped them in the front of my journal.

The materials you need for this study, if you’re just joining us, is your Bible that you can mark in, underline as you’re reading, and make little notes in the margins. Then you need some kind of notebook. I use a Moleskine notebook and I write down everything I find. We’ll talk about this more as we go through this lesson. Another resource and you can read all about this down below in the description of this video, I strongly encourage you to get your own copy of the MacArthur Study Bible. This is the product of the Master’s Seminary that worked together with Dr. MacArthur to put all that he’s ever taught, as he’s taught through the whole Bible, into one study Bible with 25,000 notes and you can see them at the bottom. You have the scriptures with little references down here to the study notes, all kinds of charts and maps and introductions and everything.

Why this is so important is that for the rest of our lives, we are going to all be faced with false doctrine, false teachers, and people coming up with crazy ideas, and they say that it’s in the Bible. You go, wait a minute. I’m going to be like a Berean Christian. Do you remember the Berean Christians? I’m going to remind you of that, writing it over here, because that’s the whole reason for this course. I want you to be like the Bereans in Acts 17:11, who examined the scriptures. They checked the Bible to see if what they were hearing taught from Paul matched up with the scriptures. Whatever you hear whether it’s here on our channel, or whether it’s at your local church, or reading some book, or in the news, always measure whatever you’ve heard against the scriptures. We’re going to sharpen you and that’s our prayer as we go through this course.

Look down at the slides and I’m going to show you what I mean. We’re here on week 48 of our 52 week journey through the Bible. The passage we’re studying is 2 Peter 3. Here is a clip I pulled off the internet of the end of the world as scientists would imagine it. Look at this title; God, the reason we say God is because He’s the one who inspired the Bible, Explains, and only He can do this because He’s the one that knows everything has seen everything, The End of Everything. What I mean by that is 2 Peter 3, this passage that we’re covering. Think about this and just let it soak in that only God was able to give us an accurate record of how the world began. In other words, creation. Only God gives us a flawless, accurate account of how everything will end because this is the Word of God. This is God speaking. This is God’s truth. This is the inspired record. Okay. Back to the slides.

God explains the end of everything. That immediately prompted questions because when I teach, Bonnie and I teach in Bible institutes and seminaries and classrooms, I always get these two questions. Number one, where is America in prophecy? Number two, why is America not in prophecy? Look up. What a great question. I’m glad you asked those, so I wrote them over here. We’re looking at 2 Peter and I envision I’m sitting on this side of the table and all of you are joining me. You’re either at Panera or Starbucks or Chipotle or we’re sitting in a small group in someone’s living room, and we all have our Bibles and notebooks. I’m introducing this week’s study to you.

Remember that’s how this started way back when Bonnie and I were in ministry in local churches around America. That’s what we did all the time in our home and wherever we could gather people, we taught the Bible. Now, the Lord is blessed because of COVID. Everyone got used to online meetings. I’m having this Bible study while Bonnie and I travel as missionaries. We’ve just popped into this studio, just got back from 12 weeks on the road. We’re here for three weeks and we’re leaving again.

Sitting across the table from you talking about 2 Peter, I would look up at you and say, when I talk about the end of everything and Bible prophecy, do you think of these two questions? Because everywhere we travel these two questions are what students come up with. This is what they say, where is American biblical prophecy and if they’re not in biblical prophecy, why is America not in biblical prophecy? I’m going to quickly go over that as a part of this 2 Peter 3 study, but actually, I’m going to divide it. It’s going to become a freestanding question on YouTube. Plus, it’s a part of our small group study because so many people have this question. I want them to get this biblical framework to understand.

There are five sobering possibilities of why America’s not in biblical prophecy. Number one, we get aligned with the Anti-Christ and we are a part of the Western army. That’s one possibility. I’ll talk about that.

Number two, we implode because of everything that’s going on with the debt in our country, 30 plus trillion, that somehow, we default financially and the whole country just unravels… or we explode. Have you been listening to the news lately? Every news outlet has carried the fact that Russia has threatened the United Kingdom and the United States. You’ve caught that. I’m going to show you a clip in just a minute that I pulled off of a Russian news station where they are talking in Russian and saying if you of Britain and you of the United States don’t stop helping Ukraine, we’re going to respond. It’s sobering. What they said is they will send four of their missiles, two on the east coast and two on the west coast, that would completely wipe out about three-quarters of the population of the United States. Okay, that’s the explode option.

Maybe a blackout. We’re going to talk about that. Did you know that one missile exploding 300 miles up in the atmosphere would make an electromagnetic pulse that would wipe out all of our electric transmission lines, all of our generators, all of our phone systems, all of our cell towers that we all heavily depend on, plus all the other infrastructure? Want to know something terrible? If the electricity goes off, how do we stop the chain reaction in all the atomic reactors without electricity? They have backup generators, but they only last so long. Okay.

Then we could dry out. Remember the mega drought that’s going on right now? The largest fire right now in our country is a byproduct of this drought that’s going on in the whole Western United States. I’ll show you pictures of that. Where’s America? We’ll cover that point by point. Why is America not in biblical prophecy?

Let’s go back to slides and I’m going to walk you through this and explain it. First of all, this is the first lesson that underlines and frames everything. God, in His word in the book of Daniel, sees only four world empires. I know there are many others but let me explain that. What do I mean by only four world empires? God looks at Jerusalem as the center of the world because His throne, He’s enthroned over Jerusalem, and they’re His chosen people of promise, the Jewish people. All of His oracles come through them. The scriptures come through them. The apostles came through them. The Messiah, Jesus Christ, God the Son, came through them. God has them as the focus of world history.

Four empires have had an impact on the people of the land of Israel. Those four empires are how God maps out the history of the world to the very end. Let me show you what I mean on the slide. God sees only four world empires, and we’re going to look at this in Daniel chapter 2. Now this; God said four kingdoms fulfill His plans until the end. We’ve already studied the book of Daniel. You can look back at that, but here are the references if you want to look them up right now.

First of all, God says these four kingdoms surround Jerusalem and Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. Everything in God’s plan is around Jerusalem and the sacrifice of Christ, which happened in Jerusalem. Look at number two, this is the prophetic parameters. This is all Bible prophecy. You have to understand these parameters. There are four kingdoms, all prophecies weave together to that. Jerusalem is the central focus of all biblical prophecy. Look what Daniel 9:24 adds, the people of the Roman Empire because they are the people that destroyed the temple. They destroy the temple and they’re the ones that crucified Christ right here. They’re the people of the Roman Empire. What it says is that the Anti-Christ is from the Roman Empire. That’s going to be very important. I’ll show you in a minute.

Then here’s the last thing. If you read Revelation 16 and 19 with Daniel 11:40-45, the final war, we call it Armageddon. The final war has armies that come from the east, remember the kings of the east it says in Revelation 16, from the north, the kings of the south, but they join the Western ruler who is the Anti-Christ who is part of the Roman Empire. Wow.

If we see Daniel’s vision with a picture that we can explain, it would look something like this. Daniel 2 says Babylon is the head of gold. Silver, the torso, is Persia. Brass, down through the thighs, is Greece. Then iron, the two legs, then iron again, but mixed with clay, are the feet. Daniel 2 says that there are these four empires with the Roman Empire being the fourth and a revived Roman Empire being the final. It’s still that fourth kingdom. In Daniel 7, this is fascinating when God repeats this vision. Daniel 2 is from mankind’s view, the head of gold and silver, that’s all pretty, this statue. But, in Daniel 7 they’re called these beasts; a winged lion, a bear, a leopard, a terrible beast, a 10 headed beast, which is Rome two.

Let me go a little further. The gold was the Babylonian Empire. The silver is the Medo-Persian Empire, the bronze of Daniel 2’s statues is Alexander the Great’s Greek Empire, the iron is the Roman Empire, and the iron and clay are the end times in which we live right now. The Roman Empire has never ceased; it just morphs.

Let me take you over here to this map, and I want to show you what I mean. You’ve seen this map often. This is the Roman Empire, and this is the Mediterranean here. The Roman Empire is this darkened area around the Mediterranean plus up here and all the way down. Rome extended its power as far as it could. Rome continued to exist right here in the Eastern Empire in Constantinople until 1453. Remember, in 1492 Columbus sailed outward to explore the world. During Columbus’ lifetime, there was still a Roman Empire. The Eastern Empire here was conquered by the Ottomans. They rose up. They came in from outside the Roman Empire as barbarians and then they overwhelmed the empire and finally knocked it out in 1453.

Here’s what I’m trying to explain to you. As soon as this Roman Empire ceased to exist, the Ottoman Empire, which is all of this area of ancient Rome, took over all of Turkey, all of the Middle East area, and here in Northern Africa. When they got done Portugal started making a huge empire. I’m going to show you all this. Then Spain made a huge empire. France made a huge empire, and the final empire is right here. The largest empire of all was the United Kingdom or England.

Look back at the slides and I’ll show you what I mean. Look at these statistics. You can look all this up on Wikipedia. The Roman Empire was 5 million square miles. A million square miles I abbreviated as MSM. It declined in the east. The Roman Empire started in 746 on the peninsula of what we call Italy. It continued till it was overthrown by the Ottomans in 1453. There’s the Roman Empire of what Daniel talked about. This massive iron is two legged, that’s both sides of the Mediterranean, north, and south. Northern Africa and Europe were the two parts of the Roman Empire.

Look, it didn’t cease, it continues to morph. What happens to the Roman Empire? It became the Ottoman Empire. 5.2 million square miles are ruled as a part of what used to be the Roman Empire. Then it became the Portuguese Empire. They ruled 5.5 million square miles. Look at that, for 400 years. The Spanish Empire was huge. 5.3 million square miles, look at this, for over 300 years. That was one of the great empires of the world. The French Empire, 4.4 million square miles and ruled for only about a hundred years. Then we know so well the British Empire, which was the biggest empire the world has ever known, reigned for over 200 years. Look at this, they ruled 13.7 million square miles. It just morphs, every piece. See, this is the Roman Empire. Every piece of the Roman Empire had its day, we could say, in the sun.

Look at number seven here. America was a part of the British Empire and it’s now the current world power, since right after World War I when Britain started to decline and the colonies started breaking off. America ascended, and we’re still the global superpower.

Back to this map, all of this is the Roman Empire. This Eastern Empire fell and became the Ottoman Empire, then the Portuguese Empire, then the Spanish Empire, then the French Empire, then the United Kingdom. Each piece had its day in the sun, but it never ceased to exist.

Let’s look at the possibilities. What happens to the USA? Five sobering possibilities. We could align ourselves and become part of the revived Roman Empire of the west. Here’s a picture. You can get this. This is this year’s NATO. You hear a lot about NATO, right? This is Ukraine right there. Of course, this is Russia. All of these blueish countries, all of these nations are somehow either applying or part of NATO. Look, the only thing that isn’t a part of the old Roman Empire is right here, this area. It could be that America, through NATO, through the revived Roman Empire aligns itself to become part of the revived, that’s Roman Empire two, as you saw.

Remember there’s the first kingdom, the second kingdom, the third kingdom of Daniel, the fourth kingdom is Rome, and Rome part two is the revived Roman Empire, which could be we align with them and that’s why we’re not in prophecy. We’re part of the Western Confederation, the Anti-Christ’s kingdom.

Number two, we implode financially. Just a second. Look up and think about this. We’ve gone through a supply chain crisis, the cryptocurrency explosion, and then an implosion, all the cryptos have dropped. The stock market has dropped, and the real estate market exploded during COVID. Now, the real estate market is starting to decline. We’re having all kinds of inflation; gasoline is heading toward $5 a gallon. I can’t believe I was going through our family pictures, looking at them on my phone and in the background of one of the pictures, it said $2.50 a gallon. I thought, where’s that? I want to go get some gas. Before our eyes, we’re seeing this incredible global financial distress.

Look back at the slides. What could happen to the USA? We owe more money than most of the rest of the world combined financially because of our 30 trillion debt bomb. It could cause different parts of the United States to default. It could cause some kind of disruption for us, and we stop being powerful. An implosion. I call it the US public debt, a $30 trillion debt bomb. It’s waiting to explode and cause severe financial trouble.

Here’s the third one, how about America just explodes? Did you know on June 1st, just a couple of weeks ago, Russia began threatening the United States? What if they stopped threatening and do what they say?

They said, if they launched two to four of their Sarmat missiles, they would wipe out the United States. Look, this I clipped out of the online news. “Update: Russia.” This is June 1st, 2022. It wasn’t the first time they said it. They’ve been saying this since the Ukraine war started. “Russia threatens to wipe out the USA with just four of their” Sarmat missiles. The code in America and Western Europe, are called “Satan nukes.” The real name you can look up online is Sarmat, named after Sarmatia, which is a part of Ukraine, which is a part of ancient Russia.

They say each of their missiles has 15 separate guidable missiles within the main gigantic missile. It’s hypersonic. Each one of those is 100 times more powerful than Hiroshima. In other words, there would be 15 of these warheads on each missile. If they launched two missiles, they would put 30 explosions like this down our Eastern seaboard, and they would shoot two more and do 30 explosions across the Western seaboard. They said they can wipe us out. Wow.

Look at this next one over here on the right. This is what I clipped off of the Russian TV station. Watch this video clip. What he’s saying is they could send a nuke to wipe out the UK, or they could send one of their underwater drones here to explode underwater and tsunami the United Kingdom. That’s unbelievable, that they’re saying that on television.

It could be, number one, America is aligned with the revived Roman Empire, and we’re part of the Anti-Christ’s plan. We implode financially and just fade out because we can’t afford anything, even food, or Russia or China or someone else actually launches atomic missiles at us.

How about this? This is very possible. Under an EMP strike, China could do that today. North Korea could do that today. Russia threatens it. Iran could even do it. What does it look like? If you detonate a thermonuclear explosion in the atmosphere, 30 miles up, it would cover this much of the United States, a 480 mile blast radius. If you detonate it at 120 miles up, it’s a thousand miles that it fries all electronics; transmission lines, cell towers, hospitals, nuclear reactors, and even the circuitry in our complicated cars. Look at this, at 300 miles, which is at satellite height, it covers the entire United States. An EMP pulse would be 1500 miles wide from 300 miles up. That’s the coverage of just one strike, one little EMP strike. All those drawings are from the congressional hearings. They’ve been having hearings on this for 20 years because we’ve known this could happen.

What could happen? Five sobering possibilities. Here’s the last one. We could dry out under the 1200 year mega drought we see unfolding in the west right now. We don’t have to join the Anti-Christ. We don’t have to go broke financially. We don’t have to get attacked by atomic weapons or face a blackout. We can just dry out. We’re facing that right now in the Western United States where 1/3^rd of all of our vegetables come from, right here. Much of America’s population is being totally affected by the Colorado river waterway. It’s drying up. Look at this. This is a typical example. You can see Lake Powell, Lake Mead, and every other reservoir between the headwaters and down here in the Gulf of Mexico are drying up. This is last year’s picture. You ought to see how bad it is this year.

Where is America in prophecy? Or why is America not in prophecy? Look here on the board. There are five possibilities and they’re very sobering. We can align with the Anti-Christ to be totally godless. We could implode financially. We can explode with an atomic attack. We can have an EMP or a drought, a series of mega climate shifts. Can you imagine if the drought hit the central United States, the Ogallala Aquifer, and we couldn’t grow corn and wheat? Did you know, three main crops feed the world? Corn, wheat, and rice. If we have any hit on those, we’re talking famine. Okay.

You say, what is this, are you trying to scare us? No, God explains the end of everything. See, this is the whole reason we’re studying 2 Peter. God says what will last forever. How does that shape your daily life? When I spent my week, and I’ve already done this class, I’m introducing it to you, but I’ve already spent all week long reading, reading, reading 2 Peter, and putting into my journal everything I found. What I came up with is if God shows us what lasts forever, it should shape my daily life. I should start living for what’s not going to burn up and dry out and get EMP’d.

Are you floating or rowing? We’re going to look at how godly living is a struggle, but here’s the real application. For those of you that are just tuning in for the Q and A on is America in prophecy and if it’s not why? Here is your application. Okay. When it feels like the end of the world is near, what are Christians supposed to do? Dig a kind of a cavern to hide in and store food? Is that what we’re supposed to do? Get as far away from civilization as possible. Is that what we’re supposed to do? Live off the grid? That’s not what the Bible says.

The Bible says this. When you feel like the end is coming, live redemptively. We’re going to study that in this course in just a couple of minutes. Stay alert so that you see God’s word unfolding. Build fireproof, invest your life in what you can never lose. Your true net worth is what can never be taken away from you and that’s what God explains to us. Look up. We should be looking up as our redemption draws near, and we should be the most hope filled people on Earth. We should be the ones that are peaceful, calm, not living in fear, not living in anxiety, not living in constant wonder if something’s going to happen to us. God said I’m holding you in My hands. I am holding the future. I hold your life’s breath. I know every day of your life, I know what you need, and I will bring you through or take you home. Taking you home is even better than being carried through the struggle. Finally, 2 Peter ends with, “but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Obey Jesus. Experientially know how to obey and follow Him.

That is the answer to these twin questions, where is America in biblical prophecy and why is America not in Bible prophecy? There are some very sobering possibilities. However, rather than focus on fearing those things, live redemptively, stay alert, build fireproof, look up and obey Jesus. Let’s go back to the slides.

That’s the answer to where is America in prophecy and why America’s not in prophecy. Let’s move on to week 48 of our 52 Greatest Chapters, 2 Peter 3. The big picture is that God in this chapter is explaining to us the end of everything. It says that. Here, look up and I’m going to read to you how the Bible describes the end of everything. Take your Bible to 2 Peter chapter 3. It says, starting in verse 10, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise.” The elements will melt with fervent heat, and both the Earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Verse 11. “Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved.” Everything. Look at the slide, the end of everything. The Earth and everything on it is going to be dissolved, so is the universe. That’s what 2 Peter says.

The next slide is to remind you where we are. We’re on week number 48 right here, 2 Peter 3. We’re going through the 52 Greatest Chapters. We’re going to see there’s a new universe. We’re going to see what survives forever and God explains why it lasts forever. This is an exciting week.

What you’ve joined is a survey of the whole Bible by the 52 Greatest Chapters using the devotional method. I haven’t shown you all the tools. Here is another suggestion from down in the description of this video for studying the whole Bible. You might need a theological framework. I do read many of your comments and some of you are saying, wait a minute, Grudem? Systematic Theology? Isn’t he reformed? Yes, he is. Very reformed. Some of you said John MacArthur Study Bible, isn’t he reformed? Yes.

Do you want to know the simple difference between reformed and non-reformed, which would be Armenian? It’s the conflict between Calvinism and Arminianism. Calvinism says that if you are saved by God, you can never lose your salvation. Arminianism says that you can sin and fall from grace and lose your salvation. That is the big picture difference between Arminianism and Calvinism. Which one would you like to hear from? Someone that affirms the security of your salvation or someone that believes you can lose your salvation? The good news is in Wayne Grudem’s System Theology he covers all the beliefs of all the groups.

Here, I’ll show you. I don’t usually show this to you, but here in the front, they cover everything the Episcopalian Anglicans believe, the Armenian Wesleyan Methodist believe, the Baptist, the Dispensationalist like Dallas Seminary, the Lutherans like Martin Luther, the Reformed or Presbyterian like the Calvinist, and the Roman Catholics, both pre and post Vatican two, and the Renewal Charismatic Pentecostal. If you have a Systematic Theology like Grudem’s, the writer is very reformed, but he explains what the whole spectrum of Christendom believes. That is so important, so we know what we believe. What he’ll show you is this is what the scripture says, just like the MacArthur Study Bible gives us. Then you, remember being a good Berean, you will say, ah, I understand now why there are different groups. They see things differently, but I know what the Bible says. Okay.

Back to the slides. We’re surveying the whole Bible. We’re using 52 of the greatest chapters. These are representative of the whole, but here’s the key; we’re using the devotional method. What we do in our journal, remember our journal, right here is my journal. I’ll open it up to show you this week where I studied with you 2 Peter 3, you can see I write it at the top. This is all, everything written here is what I’m going to be covering over here with these lessons. Okay. Those are right out of my journal typed out for you.

Back to the slide, you write your own title. You’ve seen mine that’s on the board God explains the end of everything. Then you write down all the lessons you can find, and I’ve shown you those over there on the sideboard. Look at this, you write an application prayer, and I’m going to end our session reading that with you.

Here’s my Bible. What I have in my Bible is I’ve written things down. This is where we are. We’re right after the fire in Rome, Nero is persecuting the Christians, and Paul and Peter are going to be martyred. 2 Peter is just before Peter’s martyrdom. He is on his way toward going to meet the Lord; being crucified upside down. In my Bible, we’re looking at something that’s occurring right here in the late sixties. I’ve jotted that in my Bible.

Here’s everything that I’ve written in my journal. I titled the top of the page Week 48, 2 Peter 3. Then I write my own title. You say, how do you do that? It’s just whatever you can summarize from what you saw in that chapter after reading it. Each time I read it I write a new title. This time through I wrote what lasts forever and why it lasts forever, then does God shape my daily living? Here’s a summary: God uses 2 Peter to get them ready for the reality of death, that’s 2 Peter 1. The deception of false teachers, that’s 2 Peter 2. See, I read the whole book of 2 Peter. Although our focus is right here, I wanted to see the big message. The End of Days is what we’re covering. 2 Peter has such a lineup of biblical doctrine. 1 and 2 Peter, last week we did 1 Peter, which is an amazing pair of epistles and I hope that you’re enjoying studying them.

Here’s more of my summary. Peter never forgot. As we open the 2 Peter 3, we’re opening to the final session Peter had with the growing churches he poured his life into. They’re now scattered across the heart of the Roman Empire.

Look over here. I want to show you on this map where Peter’s writing, in 1 Peter we saw this, to the believers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia. There’s Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. This area, what we would call modern day Turkey, is the area that is the heart of the Roman Empire. Remember the empire slowly starts being overrun by pagans, by what they called the hoards. The Germanic tribes and the Franks and the Visigoths and all these were all coming across like this. This part of the Roman Empire is what remained till 1453. It was the heart of the Roman Empire.

Back to our slides. They’re scattered across the heart of their own empire. They’re facing fiery trials, we studied that last week in 1 Peter, and glittering allurements. They’re torn between loyalty to Christ and painful persecutions. Either they’re floating along, remember I told you like floating in a canoe down the river with the current of the world in its endless pursuits. They either are going to go through painful persecutions or float along and not buck the culture. Peter’s congregation sounds eerily like the Church in America in the 21st century.

The question is, are you floating or are you going against, fighting against, the current by paddling or rowing your canoe as we talked about last week? We either float along with a crowd that lives for the weekend parties and fun, or we live every day as sacred to Christ and suffer. We float along with the world as believers and enjoy as much as we can of both worlds. See that’s what our world is facing.

This is when I would look up. With all those small groups I would always say stop. I take my Bible and I say, wait a minute, look up, everybody. Think about it. You and I, when we were born, were dropped into the world flowing away from God. The whole current of culture and humanity is in rebellion against God going away from Him. When we got saved, Jesus saved us and it’s like He put us in a canoe and pointed us toward Heaven. He said all of the world is going this way toward destruction. You are going toward your Father’s house. Sanctification is me resisting the current; paddling against it and resisting the way I was born with my sinful desires and habits and all the things that I was born with. God says I want you to be born again and get a new heart and a new spirit. My question to you is, are you floating along with the current today or are you paddling against it? The grace of God, Titus 2:11-13, that brought us salvation teaches us to deny, to paddle against ungodliness and worldly lusts.

Back to the slides. I don’t look across the table and make you feel bad too often. Are you floating along in the river of materialism or are you fighting against its control of your heart, mind, and will? That’s the proof of who we really serve. We try to stay focused on the Lord, especially on Sundays, but so much of our life gets consumed with things, activities, and pursuits so it’s hard to focus on God. Jesus said it’s hard to follow His path and Peter agreed.

Last time, last week, we looked at 1 Peter 2 to 4 and we saw that godly living was a struggle. The empire’s greatness was clearly seen in those huge temples we talked about and in the sprawling bath complexes that could hold thousands of bathers. The crowded athletic stadiums, the acoustically perfect theaters, the bustling markets of Asia. We can see that very little has changed from Peter’s day to ours and God’s word speaks so clearly to our lives as it did to theirs 20 centuries ago. That’s the power of the super cultural timelessness of the scriptures inspired by God.

What are Peter’s lessons? Peter targets the people with a reminder that all of our homes, our cars, our collections, our gadgets, our trophies, our treasures, our investments, and anything else material face a future of fiery destruction. Remember, that’s what we already read. This is what I showed you on the board; when it felt like the end was near. Look at this, as Peter was writing his epistles to those early believers, at times, they felt like maybe the end was right then. They thought that the Roman emperor was the Anti-Christ. Many of them thought they were in the Tribulation. That’s how the Church has been. It’s been so bad.

In his first epistle, Peter comforted them about fiery trials. We studied that last week. He assures them that it’s only going to get worse, and everything is going to go until it’s finally consumed, and all things are made new. That’s what we see in 2 Peter 3. Peter lays out for them and us, how we serve the Lord to the end; by five choices with these five lessons: live redemptively, verses 1 to 9, keep alert, build fireproof, look up for Christ, and obey Jesus.

Why? Because in our culture materialism blurs our purpose in life. Think about it for a second. Why are we here? Our purpose in life is not to have the most financially secure job and career, education, and lovely surroundings. That’s not our purpose. Materialism blurs our purpose. The Bible has written down for us what we’re to be as disciples. That’s what the first nine verses are about.

Secondly, materialism clouds our minds. Why? Because it’s so easy to get involved in the idolatry of covetousness. What’s that? Oh, looking online and wishing I had a better kitchen, a better car, better clothes, better electronics, a better everything. We start having the idolatry of covetousness.

What is idolatry? If the Bible represents God, idolatry is anything that takes God’s place and pushes Him out of the way. It can be our job. It can be our family. It can be our education. It can be our entertainment. It can be anything. Idolatry is something that robs God of being foremost in our lives. Back down to slides. Materialism clutters our lives with discontent. It blinds our eyes with earthly treasures and it corrodes our wills because we want to serve two masters.

Let’s go through the lessons. I’m going to quickly go through these. You can see them over here. This is what I wrote in my journal and I’m going to show them to you typed out in just a second. In 1 Peter 3, let me get there with you. My page is getting loose. 2 Peter 3. “Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder).”

He says I want you to respond to God. You say, wait a minute, it doesn’t say that. Do you remember what the lessons are? The lessons are when we take our journal and after reading that verse, we write down what we see the message is from God in that verse. What this verse said is I want to stir up your minds to remember what God has to say. I wrote that God wants us to be stirred up to respond to Him. That’s why He speaks to us. If someone speaks to you, they would like a response. God says I want you to respond to Me.

Then Look what it says in verse 3, “that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts.” Expect scoffers. Verse 4, “saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming?…things continue as they were from the beginning.'” We call that uniformitarianism. It says they fail to remember about the flood, and these are all scoffers rejecting what God says. Look at verse 5, “For they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the Earth standing out of water in the water.” Do you know what that is? Affirm your Creator. Believe that God created everything.

Verse 6, “the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.” Remember the Judge. God says if you reject Me, be not deceived, I’m not mocked, whatever you sow you’re going to reap that. Jesus said He is the judge. Remember the judge.

Escape the fire. See verse 7. “The heavens and the Earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire.” Everything is possible to get out of the fire. In other words, send our treasures to Heaven. Take people with us to Heaven. Invest our time for the Lord. That’s escaping the fire, so it won’t be burned up. Most people in this world have spent everything getting the best they can have on Earth that’s going to be destroyed. Haven’t even ever looked up and said this world isn’t where I’m going to be forever. There’s an afterlife. How do I invest in God’s plan and kingdom and what lasts forever?

Back to the slides. Here are the lessons and I typed them out for you. Respond to God. Trust God’s word enough to listen to Him respond. That’s why we’re doing this study. Expect scoffers. They’re going to say oh, the Bible isn’t true. Resist Satan’s lies, especially this uniformitarianism that there was no global flood and there’s no judgment coming. Affirm your Creator. By the way, when God presents the Gospel at the very end in Revelation 14, He says that, worship the Creator. Remember the Judge is coming, and we’ve covered this so many times in the Gospels.

Then I put in for you, see this MSB right here. This was a great note from your MacArthur Study Bible. I wrote my sixth lesson. I found it in verse 7. I’ll read it to you. It says, “the heavens and the Earth which are now preserved by the same word.” What is that? The creative word. Jesus spoke. He’s the Creator. Colossians 1:15, 16, 17 says, for by Him were all things created that are in Heaven and on Earth, visible and invisible. He is the Creator and by His word the heavens were of old, He spoke them into existence, and they’re now “preserved,” verse 7, “by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment.” Remember that we can escape the fire.

Look at this note. This is what the MacArthur Study Bible said. God put the rainbow in the sky to signify that He would never destroy the world again by water. That’s Genesis 9. In the future, God is going to destroy the heavens and Earth by fire. That’s what it says in all these cross references. In the present universe, the heavens are full of stars, comments, and asteroids. The core of the Earth is filled with a flaming, boiling, liquid lake of fire with a temperature that reaches about 12,400 degrees Fahrenheit. The human race is separated from the fiery core of Earth by only a thin 10 mile thick crest. Kind of like the skim on top of heated milk in your hot chocolate. We’re sitting on that above that fire. Far more than that the whole creation is a potential firebomb due to its atomic structure. As man, from atoms, creates destructive bombs that burn the path of death, God can disintegrate the whole universe in an explosion of atomic energy. Escape the fire by fleeing to Christ. That’s what the seventh lesson I found is; seek the Savior.

Listen to this in verse 8. “But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish.” Look at this, seek the Savior, the one who is long suffering. He’s not willing that any should perish. Live redemptively. Take people with you to Heaven.

Number nine. Live for eternal things. Let me read to you verses 10 and 11. “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise and the elements will melt.” Verse 11. I love how Peter does this. Peter was one who liked to apply the word of God. I can just see him looking at his congregation and saying, “since all these things,” verse 11, “will be dissolved, what kind of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness?” Can you see his heart poured out by the power of the Spirit of God writing these words?

Look at the slide. This is the lesson that I wrote in my journal: live for eternal things. God said we keep our lives from suffering loss. From having the legacy of our lives destroyed, number one, by living for what lasts. What’s that? Verse 10, what we have that won’t burn. Also, by living for what pleases Him, that’s verse 11, so we won’t be ashamed when He shows up unexpectedly. That’s what empowered the Early Church. They were looking for Christ every day.

By the way, what is Peter thinking about that displeases God? See this? Look at verse 11. “What kind of persons ought you to be in holy conduct?” What he’s saying is, don’t do what displeases the Lord. What would displease the Lord? Let me show you. Years after Peter, we find in 1 John that the last living apostle uses the very same word Peter was instructed to use. It does not please God for us to crave and sacrifice for what He’s telling us to abandon.

What does God say we’re supposed to abandon? John writes it in 1 John 2. This is the verse. Peter said, since everything is going to be dissolved, don’t love these things in the world for “if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh.” This is what I wrote and we’re going to be doing 1 John next week, but I’ll give you a preview. The craving of our body, chasing pleasures. The lust of the eyes. The lusting of our eyes, chasing stuff. The pride of life. That’s the boasting of our mouth chasing status. Most people are either chasing pleasure, chasing stuff, or chasing status or all three. None of that is of the Father, it’s of the world. Look at this, “the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”

What pleases God is when we live, verse 11, purely. Verse 12, let me read it to you. It says, “looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God.” We live expectedly. Then look at number 12 on your notes. We’re supposed to live hopefully “looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved.” That’s verse 12 right here. Look at verse 13. “Nevertheless we, according to His promise.” We’re to live hopefully. We live by His promises. We are looking “for new heavens and a new Earth in which righteousness dwells.”

There was never a more relevant passage for any group of people than those at the heart of the Roman Empire in Peter’s day and us at the heart of American materialism today. Peter is saying this is how you build a destruction proof legacy. If in advance, everything around you is going to get dissolved like trash in an incinerator, Peter is asking, what should we focus on? In other words, 2000 years ago, as they thought they were at the end of the world, Peter said, what on Earth are you living for?

Peter heard Jesus warn him that materialism or the craving after the riches, the things riches can buy, number one enslaves our hearts. Look with me in Matthew 6. Okay. Matthew 6. Go back to your Bible. We covered this so long ago. I want to stir you up by reminder. That was Peter’s motto. He said I want to stir you up by way of reminder. He repeats himself. Look at 6:19 of the Gospel by Matthew. It says, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on Earth.” By the way, the word lay up is the word from which we get the idea of a thesaurus. A thesaurus is multiple words grouped to give wider meaning. Thesaurizo means to stack a lot of stuff. Whether it’s words, thesaurus is how we use it, or thesaurizo in Greek means to stack treasures.

Think about it. Jesus says don’t stack up for yourself treasures on Earth. Why? “Moth and rust destroy…thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven.” Look back at the slides. Riches can enslave our hearts. Why? Because “where your treasure is, there your heart will be.”

Then it captures our minds. Look what it says in verse 22. Let me read to you Matthew 6:22. “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad,” what is a bad eye? It’s an eye that’s only looking for more stuff, looking for more status, looking for more possessions. That is a bad eye. It’s blinded from looking for Heaven. Let’s see, we’re in week 48 or 49. When we get to Revelation 50, 51, and 52, I cover in depth how the Early Church, especially in Laodicea, were blinded because their eyes were only looking for things on Earth rather than things in Heaven.

Back to chapter 6. The last one in your notes, says in verse 24, it conquers our will. I’ll read that to you. “No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to one and despise the other.” You can’t serve God and mammon, materialism.

Back to the slides. Either we lay up treasures in Heaven that can never be lost, or we clutter our life on Earth with things and lose our treasures in Heaven. There’s no middle ground, Jesus said. We can’t serve two masters.

Peter is asking them and us, should we spend our lives collecting and guarding, seeking out and holding onto trash? They’ll only be taken away from us by God and burned, you can review what we studied a few weeks back in 1 Corinthians 3, or spend our lives on eternal treasures that last and stay with us forever so that we can give an endless offering of worship to God. Which are we going to do?

Before we go, we need to say something as a response to God. This is when I would look up at you. I’d say, hey, there’s an old hymn and I’m going to quote the words for you. This is an old hymn that we used to sing in the hymn books growing up. I knew this by heart. Here’s how it goes. All to Jesus, I surrender, all to Him I freely give. Worldly treasures all forsaken, I surrender all. I surrender all to Thee, my blessed Savior. I surrender all.

Look down, I printed it out for you. I was quoting a combination of the stanzas, but my favorite is the first. All to Jesus, I surrender. All to Him I freely give. I will ever love and trust Him, in his presence daily live. Look at this. I surrender all, I surrender all. All to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all. Please ponder these words and even hit the pause button right now and look at the screen right where you’re sitting. Why don’t you pause, look up at the Lord and say, Jesus, I want to surrender. I want to freely give what time I have left in this world. Some of you are young. You’ve got a whole life ahead of you. Some of you I hear from and you’re old. You have one foot already in Heaven. You say, I just want to live in Your presence every day. I want to love You more, trust You more and surrender more of my life. You are my Savior. I surrender all. Pause and make that offering of response to God and we’ll be right back.

Welcome back. Here are the last two points. This is the 13th lesson I found; live peacefully. Let me read it to you. Let me get back to 2 Peter. My pages are loose in this Bible. 2 Peter chapter 3. Let me see, I’m going to read verse 14. “Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation – as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you” and on he goes.

Look at the slide. Live peacefully. Live peacefully, be diligent to be found by Him in peace. Then he says, live fruitfully. Grace is what God does. Knowledge is what we do. Let me read to you the last two verses. Look at verse 17. “Therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace,” that’s what God does, “and knowledge,” that’s what we do. We seek to experientially know “our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever.” Grace is what God pours on us. Knowledge is what we choose to experientially know.

How do we do that? By applying the word of God to our lives. How do you apply the scriptures to your life? Let me just show you one way. Here’s my prayer. Look down at this slide. After spending all week long on this, this is what I wrote today. I wrote this today and typed up all my prayers from all the week and put them into one and I’m going to pray it with you right now. I said Lord, I’m trusting Your word. I’m listening to Your truth. I’m responding to do Your will today. I want to live redemptively seeking to take people with me to Heaven. I want to live hopefully so people see Your light reflected out of my life and know You as the God of hope. I want to live fruitfully for You. I want to bear the fruit of the Spirit. I want to redeem the time You give me here on my way to the place You’re preparing for me. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.

On the next slide, we have downloadable resources right here on our website discoverthebook.org. All the things I mentioned, these verses that I’m memorizing and talking to you about, you can run off copies of those cards. Everything I’ve talked about, history, the Grace Energized Life, Word Filled Marriages, are all right there at discoverthebook.org.

Two final challenges. Find someone you can share your findings and application prayer with. Don’t be alone studying the Bible. Share it with someone. Start a small group. Finally, pray for us. My wonderful wife Bonnie is sitting over there recording. Pray for us as we go. We’re home for three weeks and then we’re headed back to the classrooms. We’re going to be in the Middle East working with the refugees.

In fact, oh, look up. One of the things we’re going to do, we’re going to a church that has people from 21 different countries around the world. All of them have fled to that country as refugees from all of the different Arab Springs and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as Ukraine. This church has gone in and evangelized in the refugee centers, helped these people get started, and now they’re training them in their church. They’ve asked for Bonnie and me to come and minister to the men and the women and the whole congregation.

Before we go, from your study this week, using your notebook, and reading the scriptures, find some lessons as I found. Respond to God and say, God, I want to respond to You. Expect scoffers. Resist Satan’s lies. Affirm your Creator. Remember the Judge and He’s watching our lives. He’s going to see if our lives will last forever. Remember to escape the fire by investing in eternal things. Seek the Savior, live redemptively.

Over here, what lasts forever, that should shape my daily life. Are you floating or rowing and resisting and letting God sanctify you? When it feels like it’s the end of the world, because of all the possibilities ahead, because God explains the end of everything, He’s already told us what we’re supposed to do.

Here’s my challenge. Have a great week in 2 Peter 3. I read 2 Peter 1 and 2 and 3. As long as you’re reading it just add four or five minutes and read the whole book. Ask God to open your eyes to behold wonderful things. Write down all those truths and then prayerfully invite Him to transform your life through it.

Thanks for being on week 48 of our 52 week journey through God’s word. I can’t wait to finish with you all the way through. Take the time this week, work on this every day, write those things down and see God transform your life. Then start sharing, look, I always tell you this. These are on our website also. There’s a whole explanation of how to share Gospel tracts to take people with you to Heaven. Start living redemptively as we seek to take people with us to Heaven. See you next week. God bless you. Have a wonderful week in the Lord.