Just a few weeks from tonight, we'll be in the midst of a series in the gospel, and I trust you're making preparations for it by spotlighting a family that you'd like to see saved and pray for them, start to get to know them. Maybe invite them over for lunch or dinner so that when you invite them off to the meeting, they'll be ready to come. and pray for them every day. There's nothing that would bless my soul more than to see a few families saved in that week of meetings with Brother David Mars. The young man knows the book and he presents the word in a loving way. And I trust that this is going to be a time of rich blessing. I'm praying for it. I have some people that I'm spotlighting in my prayers every day. that God will meet them and save them that week. As Bill Patterson used to say, our prayers are the heavy guns that we put on them. And we do the mopping up operation when they come in and they hear the gospel. And we need to pray. So I trust you're going to put some time aside every day to pray. that God will move in hearts. You see, we believe something here. We preach it, at least I do, that if anyone is saved, God has to do it. God has to do the work, and that's the one reason we pray. We know that God has to do it. It drives us to pray. We're not going to be using any gimmicks or any other things, but the Word of God. And it's the Word of God that does the work of God. But he uses human beings in the unique ministry of witnessing and inviting. So let's keep it before us. Let's do it. Second Peter three. We begin with verse one. Second Peter three. This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you. in both which are stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they are willingly ignorant, that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished, but the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word which are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but his long-suffering to usward. not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. May the Lord bless the reading of his word. The coming of the Lord and the attendant kingdom glory of our blessed Lord was the sure word of prophecy that Peter spoke of in chapter one. In chapter one he outlines the fact that what he saw on the Mount of Transfiguration with James and John, when our Lord was transfigured before them, was a preview of the glorious kingdom that he's coming and he's going to usher in at his coming. And therefore, that was Peter's more sure word of prophecy in chapter one. Now, chapter one deals with the establishment of the believer in grace. We have been given all things that pertain to life and godliness. We read. We have been made partakers of the divine nature. And now in chapter two, as we noticed on two occasions, when we studied in chapter two, there is the presence of false teachers in the world. Now Peter reminds us of the position that false teachers will take relative to the doctrine of the coming of the Lord. So he says, and we start in verse three, and later we'll go back to verse one, he says, knowing this first. He writes here saying, I'm stirring up your pure mind. This is the first thing I want you to know. There shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lust, and saying where is the promise of his coming. So in verses two through seven, we have the ignorance of the scoffers. And we notice their ignorance first in what they say and second in how they walk. Notice what they say. Now the word scoffer means to play with, to trifle with, to mock. and mockers in the world. And these scoffers say, where is the promise of His coming? Oh, you people have been talking about the coming of the Lord for years. And they're right. They're right. The early church looked for the coming of the Lord. My father looked for the coming of the Lord every day of his life. And he's been gone now. Over thirty years. But the Lord hasn't come yet. So the mockers of the last day say, Where is the promise of He's coming? And remember what the word scoffer means. It means to trifle. To trifle with the word of God. To mock the promises of God. You see, the end time mockers will mock at the promise of our Lord's Second Advent. Now, according to Second John and verse seven, and if you'll just turn ahead in your Bible to Second John, verse seven, we read this. For many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. You notice these men deny that Jesus Christ comes in the flesh. They deny that the Joshua of the Old Testament, or Jehovah who saves, who is designated as the anointed one in Isaiah sixty-one, whom our Lord says is himself in Luke chapter four, when he was in the synagogue of Nazareth for he said the spirit of the Lord God is upon me he read from Isaiah sixty one and he said this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears our Lord is designated as the anointed one the Christos in the Greek the Messiah in Hebrew he's the anointed one who would become incarnate Assume a human body and put himself under the limitations of human flesh apart from sin. And that he did. And those who deny that Jesus Christ is God manifest in the flesh is an antichrist. That's what John said about the people in the early church who were known as the dosete. They denied that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. What is it? It was the denial of an incarnation. And the denial of the incarnation is what has given rise to the naturalistic and the rationalistic basis in the universe, which has led many astray. And they're willingly ignorant in this area. They're willingly ignorant. And you'll notice men today deny the fact of a being who would create, who would put order in a universe, and naturalistic thinking abounds today. Now the basis of their mockery is you'll notice you can link the first coming of Christ, the Antichrist denied that he came the first time. And the mockers deny that he's coming again. And therefore you put the two together. And the basis of their mockery is creation. They say from the beginning of creation all things continue as they were. Now for Peter being an ignorant fisherman He used a lot of good sense in what he had to say here. Because what is prominent in courses in geology today, according to Henry Milton Morris and others, is this very thing. They say, since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they are, as they were. Now, if you go to a cave in North Carolina, I don't know of any offhand, but I think there are some. But go to one in Virginia like LaRae Caverns or Endless Caverns. Or you go to one in Bermuda. Beautiful caves in Bermuda, by the way. And you look at the stalagmites and the stalactites in the caves. The first thing that they tell you is this took place. Twelve million years ago. I heard the same thing in Virginia that I heard in Bermuda, that I heard in West Virginia, and I asked the same question each time. How do you arrive at twelve million? See, I always ask that question, and they all tell you the same answer. And it's exactly what Peter talked about. Since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning. they deny the fact of a cataclysmic intervention in nature by God. That's what they really deny. They say it takes so many years for one sixteenth of an inch for a stalagmite or a stalag type to grow. It takes so many years and they measure the length of them And they say, that took so many years, you see. One of the things that my friend Robert Ramey told me the other night when I spoke with him on the telephone, he said, Phil, if you ever get to meet a fellow by the name of Steve Somebody from Creation Science in a seminar, he said, it's worth your time to go. He said, he blessed our souls. And what he did... He took pictures of what took place when Mount St. Helens blew its top in Washington state just a couple years ago. He said, in one day, in one day, a valley was formed that the men have been telling us takes millions and millions of years to do. It happened in one day. in the state of Washington. How do you answer it? You see, what took place at the time of the flood? And these people who use what is called the uniformitarian theory, if it takes so long to do this, then it always took so long to do that. But God showed us in our own country that he can do in a day with a cataclysmic detail what scientists said it took millions of years to do. I hope that fellow comes around this where sometime I'd like to go listen to him. And he said his pictures were awesome that were taken to prove what he had to say. So the basis of the mockery is creation. From the beginning of creation, all things continue as they were. You see, this is the intent of the present-day theory of naturalism, which contends that nothing happened in days gone by that does not happen today. And I don't believe that. I don't want to live during the time of a cataclysm like the flood of Noah. I don't want to go through anything like that. I don't want to go through a flood period. It just isn't true what they tell you. Now the fathers here were evidently those to whom the promise of our Lord's coming was made. And the Lord made the promise that he's coming again. In fact, The second coming of Christ is spoken of in the Old Testament. For you have the two comings of Christ, his first advent and his second advent. In the Old Testament scriptures, Isaiah sixty-one is a good illustration of the two comings of Christ, his first advent and his second advent. And you have it in other places in the Old Testament as well. So what they say. What they say is since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning. And keep in mind that Peter says they are willingly ignorant. That means they are satisfied to be the way they are. In other words, they have a closed mind. I happen to enjoy something that a newscast that was on the newscast tonight. And it had to do with the nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. And one man who is for Robert Bork, he said this. He said, I think if there's anything that this government needs, is a man who got straight A's through law school. You know the man who headed the judiciary subcommittee, he was about, he claimed that he was way up in his class and when he found out about it he was almost at the bottom, third from the bottom I think it was, and another man who was on that subcommittee by the name of Kennedy, he failed at Harvard. One of his courses, I understand. And the newsman, I was amazed that he said it, but he said he probably had reference to those two men who were grilling him. One man who had to drop out of the presidential race because of his plagiarism and because of his lies. And another man who would sit there to quiz him, who not only had difficulties when he was at Harvard, but he also has chaperquitic to his credit. Isn't it amazing? This country needs help. And the answer is, beloved, the prayers of God's people. The prayers of God's people. Now I vote. I want you to know that. But I'm not commanded in Scripture to vote. But I am commanded in Scripture to pray. So I want to ask you a question. Are you praying? The easy thing is the vote. The difficult thing is to pray. And we're commanded to pray. We're commanded to pray. So we have the markers. We have what they say. And it's an amazing thing that when some of these fathers speak, never forget that a lie told by a million people doesn't make it the truth. Truth is truth and it will always be the truth and it doesn't matter who says it. And most people, when these little cliches come up, they climb into a hole. And I've learned a number of years ago not to climb in a hole. One day in my presence, someone is trying to make fun of what I believed in an offhanded way, and they made the statement about another person, oh, that person believes whatever will be will be. I just turned to that person, and I said to him, tell me, what do you believe? Whatever won't be, or whatever will be, won't be? What do you believe? And I also said, by the way, I happen to be one of those who believes whatever will be will be. And I'm not ashamed of it. God has told us in his word what will be. He had told throughout the Old Testament that his son would come, that his son would be of the tribe of Judah, that he would be of the lineage of David, that he would be born in Bethlehem. that he would die for our sins, that he would be buried, that he would be raised from the dead. It told all these things. Did it come to pass or didn't it? Was it possible for it to fail? God also has said, well, he's going to be in the future. Our Lord said, if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again. He said, I'm going to return in power and great glory. in that day when I return all nations are going to be gathered before me when he returns in power and great glory he's going to deal with the Antichrist he's going to deal with a false prophet he's going to deal with Satan and he's going to set up a millennial kingdom and I don't believe that man with his cliches can ever thwart the purposes of God I rest on a book which is a pre-written history of the world. The Word of God tells us how it's going to end. For in Daniel chapter seven it says, And the saints of the Most High shall possess the kingdom forever and ever. And that's where I rest. And the reason the saints of the Most High are going to possess the kingdom forever and ever is because Jesus Christ the Lord, who was rejected by man, but declared by God to be Lord in Christ, he is coming again. He's coming again. Think through the cliches of man. Don't let Satan use them to trip you up. and don't be afraid to ask people questions to explain what they mean. If people ask me certain questions on certain subjects, I say, tell me what you mean by that. Then I know where they're coming from and I know how to deal with it. And I think it's foolish to just draw in and let the cliches amend who deny the word of God, mold your thinking. I wish we had men in Washington tonight who would not be swayed by the women's organizations and the homosexuals and others. They have the biggest lobbies in Washington. It makes you sick. But, beloved, we can pray, and we need to. Now we not only have here what the mockers say, we have how the mockers walk. Verse three says that they walk after their own lusts. The one thing that we learned in chapter two was that the false teachers make merchandise out of people. They make merchandise for gain for themselves. And it is ever when people want to follow their own lusts that they begin to scoff. Did you ever notice that? A man living in sin and he wants to follow his own lust, he begins to scoff at righteousness and at holiness. Those who want to live in their lusts, they say those of us who believe in purity were puritanical. I ask you what was wrong with the Puritans? I've asked that question. Well, what was wrong with the Puritans? I tell you, I wish we had more of them today. They gave us some of the best Bible teachers the world has ever seen. John Owen and others. Men begin to scoff when they want to walk after their own lusts. And be careful when somebody wants or scoffs at holy things. Behind the scoffing is a lustful life. So says the word of God. Furthermore, it may not be outward and gross lusts, always. But man wants to be independent of God to gratify himself. Therefore, he thinks he has to get rid of God. And to get rid of God, he wants to get rid of authority. You see, the Word of God has been under attack in the last number of years, and it has been under attack on the subject of inerrancy. Is the Bible an inerrant book? This has been one of the key issues in seminary and in other areas of debate over the last few years. Now why? Why has it been man does not like authority? He wants to deny the authority of God. So to deny the authority of God, he has to deal with the inspiration of Scripture. If the Bible is inspired, then it's authoritative. If it isn't inspired, it isn't authoritative. So the whole object is to get at the inspiration of Scripture, which would therefore deny the authority of Scripture. Oh, friends. The word of God is inspired. Holy men of God. Peter established that in chapter one. Holy men of God spake as they were born along by the Holy Spirit. So you see, we have here number one, what they say. We have number two, how they walk. And we have number three, what they are. And Peter says they are willingly ignorant. In other words, the truth has escaped them by their own will. They are willingly ignorant. In other words, they have shut their eyes to the fact. They have shut their eyes to the fact. Therefore, they deny the truth of Christ's second coming. Now, the key to this passage is the word world in verse six. It is the Greek word cosmos, whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished. And the Greek word cosmos, it speaks of a system where order prevails. In other words, when God created the world, Genesis one, one, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, there was order. Order prevailed, for the sons of God shotted for joy at creation. So we read in the book of Job. They didn't shotted for joy over disorder. They shotted for joy over order. Now, I believe this refers, when he's speaking of the world here, to the original perfect system of the material universe. of Genesis one one and that system was brought into existence by a fear of God he spoke and it was done he spoke the world into existence it's an amazing thing that the theory of evolution begins with chaos begins with chaos you see it Now the New Testament writers use this word world or cosmos and describe the original condition of the universe as one of perfection. But these scoffers are willingly ignorant of the fact that the present day heavens and earth are stored up with fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. Beloved, if you've ever lived to a time when the top of the mountain like Mount St. Helens just blows off. A friend of mine was in the area number of miles away. His car just stopped. Couldn't drive. There was so much dust in the air. The carburetor sucked in that much dirt that the air filter is clogged, period. Just can't go. Can't drive a car with a dirty filter. The dirty filter will keep the air from going in and the engine will not work. You see, and when the earth rumbles as it has been in California, how many earthquakes have they experienced in the last week? at least three real heavy shocks that I'm aware of. They had another one yesterday. They're willingly ignorant that the earth is stored with fire. Now we're going to come back to this in the will of God next week when we take another look at the verses that remain in that passage. And especially we want to deal with verse nine. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but he's long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish. There's the answer as to why God, the Lord, has not returned yet. He is long-suffering to usward. He is long-suffering to those whom he is going to save. The usward there in the text is the people of God. And he's not willing that anyone who was given to him by the Father would perish. That is what the text is saying. Why hasn't the Lord come yet? He's waiting for his people to all come in. The flood didn't come in the days of Noah until Noah and his family were in the ark. They were in the place of safety. And our Lord is not going to come in judgment until his people are safely gathered in Christ. He is not going to lose one of them. They'll all be there. Now let's pray. We thank the Our Father for the riches of grace We thank you that with a simple faith we can believe the message of your word. And we ask you now to receive our thanks for it. And we look for that day when our Lord shall come. Take his people home. Be magnified among all that believe in that glorious day. May this be a blessed hope to each of us for Jesus' sake. Amen. We want to turn this morning in our Bibles to the Ephesian Epistle, the letter to the Ephesians, chapter three. In Paul's letter to the Ephesians, we have two of the greatest prayers that are found in the whole of Scripture, apart from those that were prayed by our Lord Himself. Of course, the greatest prayer is in John seventeen, the high priestly prayer of our Lord. But this one here, that he's prayed by Paul, I believe takes us to the height of that which Paul and the Spirit of God desires for us. Verse fourteen, Ephesians chapter three, For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man. that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto him that he is able, to do exceeding abundantly above all that we may ask or think. According to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to our all ages, world without end. Amen. Now it's verse eighteen that we want to concentrate our minds upon. Verse nineteen really. To know the love of Christ which passive knowledge. Now let's pray together. Our Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is our joy to bow before thee. Thou art God, beside thee there is none other. Thou art the high and the lofty one who is the habit's eternity, whose name is holy. The exalted seraphim veil their feet and their faces as they approach thee and they cry, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts. Yet we who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ have been invited to draw near with a true heart, with full assurance of faith, we have been invited to come boldly to the throne of grace. So complete is the work of Christ on our behalf. Our lips praise you. With a psalmist we can say, because thy loving kindness is better than life, our lips shall praise you. And we want to thank you this morning for answered prayer. We thank you for the way in which you've answered prayer in relation to our good friend Butch Pickett. And we ask for Tom's sister that she may know thy power and thine undergirding hand as she faces some difficult hours. And for others who are laid aside, we bring them to thee. And our Father, we want to pray in a special way for our missionary family. that they may know the reality of that which Paul desired for the saints, not only at Ephesus, but for all the saints that would ever be. And we pray that our missionary family, Sarah Murdoch and West Stephan and his family, Mrs. Patterson and the Leighton family, that they all may know the reality of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. Grant our God that we may lay hold of truth, and that truth may lay hold of us today, and that your name will be glorified in us and through us. For Jesus' sake. Amen.