======================================================================== THE END OF THE WORLD IS COMING by Anton Bosch ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon from 2 Peter chapter 3 emphasizes the certainty of the Lord's return despite scoffers' doubts, highlighting the destruction of the current heavens and earth by fire and the need for holy conduct and godliness in anticipation of the new heavens and earth where righteousness dwells. The message stresses the importance of living in readiness for Christ's imminent return, contrasting the unrighteousness of the world with the promise of a future where only the righteous will dwell in the new creation. Topics: "The Certainty of Christ's Return", "Living in Holiness and Readiness" Scripture References: 2 Peter 3:10, 2 Peter 3:13, Mark 13:31, Hebrews 1:11, Revelation 21:1, Revelation 21:27 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon from 2 Peter chapter 3 emphasizes the certainty of the Lord's return despite scoffers' doubts, highlighting the destruction of the current heavens and earth by fire and the need for holy conduct and godliness in anticipation of the new heavens and earth where righteousness dwells. The message stresses the importance of living in readiness for Christ's imminent return, contrasting the unrighteousness of the world with the promise of a future where only the righteous will dwell in the new creation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2 Peter chapter 3, 2 Peter chapter 3, we're coming to the end of 2 Peter chapter 3, and let's read verses 1 through 13. I'm going to deal with 10 through 13, if we get that much done, but let's read 1 through 13 of 2 Peter chapter 3. Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle, in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder, that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandments of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first, that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to 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 creation. For this they willfully forget, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. 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 long- suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burnt up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness? Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we according to his promise look for a new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. So Peter has now dealt with the objections that some say, well, the Lord is not coming, he hasn't come for all this time, and he's reminded us he is not slack concerning his promises, but that he is coming. And then verse 10 says, but the day of the Lord will come. It will come. It is guaranteed. The whole point that he has given us in these last two chapters is that we have a more sure word of prophecy, that what God has said he will do. That's the whole point of the book. The scoffers are saying, no, he is not going to come. He is not going to do what he said he would do. And remember that he gives us these various examples that when God said that he was going to judge Sodom and Gomorrah, he judged Sodom and Gomorrah. When he said that he was going to destroy the earth in a flood, he destroyed the earth in the flood. And so because he has done what he said in the past, he will do what he said in the future. So the day of the Lord will come. It's interesting when you see those words, if you go back in verse 3, knowing this first, that scoffers will come. So it's the same words. The scoffers will come. They are guaranteed to come. But the Lord will also come. He is guaranteed to come. So those two things are connected. So the fact that the scoffers are here, and those scoffers, remember, are not just out in the world. The scoffers are in Christian circles. Many are saying the Lord is not coming. And because they are here, they are proof of the fact that the Lord will come. So here's another proof of the surety of the fact that he will come. And he will come as a thief in the night. And so here again we have this idea of what we call imminence, that he can come at any time, and he comes unexpectedly, over and over and over, right through Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, right through the New Testament, every book in the New Testament, right through to the book of Revelation. You find this idea that he comes at a time we don't expect him to come. This is one of the things that is being attacked more and more by certain Christians, or many Christians, who don't believe in the soon coming of the Lord, who don't believe that he's coming at a time we don't expect him to come. And so he can come at any moment. That is what the apostles believed. That's how they lived their lives. And so he comes as a thief in the night. You remember that we saw exactly the same idea in Luke chapter 13, where he uses the same words. He says if the house owner knew what time the thief would come, he would guard the house and not allow the house to be broken in. But the very point is that the thief comes at a time you don't expect. Remember, this does not make a statement about God being like a thief. This is one of the problems we have if we over-interpret the Scripture. He is not a thief, but he comes like a thief comes. You have the same idea with the Holy Spirit coming upon Jesus at the baptism. You'll see many pictures, particularly in Catholicism, of a dove hovering over Jesus. No, it doesn't say the Holy Spirit was a dove. He came like a dove comes. As a dove comes and lands gently, so the Holy Spirit came upon the Lord Jesus. There's no sense in which the Holy Spirit is a dove or looks like a dove. Jesus is not a thief or looks like a thief. But the similarity between Jesus and the thief is that the thief strikes when you don't expect him. Jesus is going to come when you don't expect him. And so he uses again this term, the day of the Lord. And you'll see in the next verse, I think it is, he uses the word the day of God. Remember that the day of the Lord covers the whole period of the second coming. It's a period of a thousand and seven years. And it begins with a rapture, the seven years of great tribulation, then the battle of Armageddon, and then the thousand years of peace, and then the destruction of the earth, which we're going to see today, and the new heavens and the new earth and the new Jerusalem. So that whole period from the rapture of the church to the new Jerusalem is the day of the Lord. Remember the idea of a day? Remember he just said in the previous verses that a day is a thousand years, a thousand years is one day. So when it speaks about the day, it doesn't mean a 24-hour day. This is something which is important for us to understand, because there are times when in the Scripture a day is a literal 24 hours, and we must recognize that. In Genesis chapter 1, it was evening and morning the first day. Clearly it's a 24-hour day. But the day of the Lord is not 24 hours. And how do we know it's not 24 hours? Well, because when it speaks about the rapture, it speaks about that as the day of the Lord. When it speaks about the tribulation, it speaks of that as the day of the Lord. When it speaks about the Millennium in the Old Testament, it speaks of that as the day of the Lord. So it's all the day or the period. We use the same idea when we speak about in my father's day, or in my grandfather's day. Well, which of the many days that he lived am I meaning? No, we're meaning in that period, at that time. And that's the same idea here, in the period or the time of the coming of the Lord, the day of the Lord. But we also need to look again at the context and figure out which part of that period, from the rapture to the New Jerusalem, which part of that is he now referring to? And here we can see he's clearly referring to the very end, just before the New Jerusalem. So this is literally the second last thing that happens that he is referring to, and we'll see what this is in a moment. So the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. So the rapture is going to happen at an unexpected time. Then all of these things happen, and then the end, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise. Heavens will pass away with a great noise. This is clearly not the rapture. This is not even in the tribulation. While in the tribulation there are signs and the stars and the moon, and stars are knocked out of their orbit, and all sorts of things are happening. The sun is darkened and it becomes like a sackcloth. While all of these things are happening, the heavens continue and they don't pass away. Even upon the earth, all sorts of terrible things are happening. Great hailstones are happening, locusts come, great war, and the world is decimated, is destroyed. But it is still intact. The picture I get of the state of the world at the end of the seven years is the same pictures that you see of the Second World War, where they fought these great battles, and you just see a few sticks standing up where trees used to be, and everything else is black and mud, and there's no building standing. That is the picture I get of the world, but the world is still there. It's been beat up. But now he's saying, in that day the heavens will pass away. And when he speaks about the heavens, he's speaking about the stars, the galaxies, the sun, everything that is out there is going to pass away. It's not going to continue. And of course that's an amazing concept, because we think of these things as being sort of eternal, and we speak of light years, and we say, well, you know, that star is so many light years away—concepts that are impossible to get our minds around. And so that seems to create the idea of permanence, but in fact it is not permanent. It's going to be destroyed. The heavens will pass away. I'm going to look at a few scriptures in the Old Testament in a moment. And it's going to pass away with great noise. The word great noise here is the kind of noise that is associated with a great fire. And if you've ever been near a big fire—I'm not meaning a barbecue or a bonfire—the fires that we have in the mountains here, when you get those fires, sometimes there's a roar, and there's a noise, and there's a crackling, and there's the flames, and it's a terrible sound. That's the sound that he is speaking about here. So the heavens will pass away with a great noise. And the elements will melt with fervent heat. The elements. Some people say, well, the elements are the elementary table, those who did science. You remember everything you have—I don't remember—gold, and lead, and aluminum, and all sorts of things make up the periodic table. Those are not the elements he's meaning. He's meaning the basic building blocks that make up this universe. This word elements is the same word that you find in Hebrews chapter 5, and I think it's verse 11, that you need to be taught again the first principles of the doctrine of Christ. Remember when we spoke about those principles, the principles is what everything can be boiled down to, to its very basic building blocks. So mathematics, with all of its great formulas and calculations, can be broken down to the element of 1 plus 1 equals 2. That is the most fundamental, that is the element, the fundamental principle on which mathematics is built. All of the great books of the world, every book in the libraries, all of Shakespeare and of these great writers, is all built on 24, is that I can never remember, 24 letters, A, B, C, through to Z. That is, just those 24 elements make up all of the English language, understanding that other languages have other alphabets. Those are the elements. So if you destroy the elements, everything falls apart. So if you take the alphabet out of the English language, what have you got? You've got absolutely nothing, but you don't even have gibberish, because there is nothing. You take 1 plus 1 away from mathematics, you end up with nothing. So he's now speaking about the elements of the universe. What are the elements of the universe? Well, I don't understand half of these things, but I do understand that everything that we see and everything that we know is made up of atoms, and those atoms are made up of smaller little bits, nuclei and electrons, and that there are even smaller elements beyond that. This is what makes all of these things stick together, what makes up the difference between wood and metal and so on. Now, those basic building blocks will be destroyed. That's the degree to which this world and the universe will be destroyed. So it's not a matter of just burning something up and you're left with ash. Even the ash will be disassembled, will be dismantled. And you say, well, why is this? Well, the reason is because it has all been contaminated by man's sin. Man's sin has contaminated everything we touch in this world. There is nowhere you can go that you don't see the effects of man's sinfulness and sinful ways. And of course we've now contaminated the heavens. And you go home and read a little bit about space junk, and you find that there are thousands and thousands and thousands of pieces of trash. You know, I get so frustrated with people throwing trash out on the streets and having to clean up around the church, because people just throw their masks and their cans and their bottles and their whatever out. But we do the same in the universe. We've thrown out trash all over the world, even up to Mars now. All of that needs to be destroyed, because it is contaminated by man's work, so that God can create something new and something fresh. And so the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burnt up. So there's going to be nothing left. You say, well, where will we be? Well, we'll be with God. God is outside, even of all of the galaxies of the universes that we have, that we don't even begin to understand how big these things are. God is beyond those things, and we will be with Him. And then He will destroy all of these things. Now there's a bunch of Old Testament scriptures and New Testament scriptures that confirm this. In Mark chapter 13, now we normally quote this verse because of the emphasis on His words. But heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away. We always emphasize that last part, that God's words will not pass away. But the first part of the verse says that heaven and earth will pass away. So this heaven—and when he speaks about heaven here, he's not meaning just the sky, he's meaning the universe and everything beyond that. It will pass away. You'll find the same words in Matthew. In Hebrews 1 verse 11, they will perish—speaking about the heavens and the earth—they will perish, but you remain. And they will grow old like a garment. Is the world growing old? Yes, it is growing old. You can argue for or against global warming, but what we do know is that the world is not in a good shape. The earth is not in a good shape. Species are dying all the time. It's definitely—the climate is changing. The ice caps are melting. Things are changing. It is growing old. Then the next verse says, like a cloak, you will fold them up and they will be changed, but you are the same and your years will not fail. So again, the same way as Matthew and Mark compare the eternality of God's Word, that God's Word will endure forever, against the temporalness of the heavens and the earth. Here Hebrews is comparing God's eternal nature, specifically Jesus' eternal nature, with the temporariness of this earth, that he is going to fold up, fold up, and will be changed. Now verse 11, in 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 11. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved. So here's the conclusion. So he's told us, and he's going to come back to this again in the next verse, that it's all going to be destroyed. Now he says, because all these things will be dissolved. And this is a good translation of the word. The word is used in different ways. It's one of the first Greek words I learned at college, and the word is luau, which means to loosen, to loosen. But it can be used in many, many different senses. Now remember when we spoke about the fact that we have atoms that are made up of a nucleus, and of electrons, and neutrons. But when these things are loosened, it all falls apart. Everything is destroyed. It's the same power then that is used in nuclear bombs, and in nuclear power stations. So all of these things are going to be loosened. It's going to be taken apart. And the word dissolved is a good word, because when you take sugar and you put it in your tea, and you stir it, and the sugar is dissolved, the sugar is gone. It's not a good illustration, because you can still taste it. But the granules are not there anymore. And so these things are going to be dissolved. They're going to be loosened. He says, because this is going to happen, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness? This is the whole point of 2nd Peter. Remember, we've spent a long time in 2nd Peter chapter 2. Why do these people teach these bad teachings? Why do they behave in these terrible ways in which they do? Because they don't believe that the Lord is coming. That is the whole point of 2nd Peter chapter 2, and the beginning of chapter 3. Remember that in Luke we saw the same idea, that the master puts his servants in charge, or a servant in charge of his household, and he goes away. And the servant says, the master is delaying his coming. And he begins to beat up his fellow servants and eat and drink with the drunkards. And so because they don't believe he is coming, and this is the heart of the problem today, that the whole idea of Jesus' second coming has been attacked by Christians and by teachers and by theologians in many, many different ways. And there are very few, increasingly fewer and fewer Christians or pastors or teachers who actually believe that Jesus can come, and He can come at any moment. And because they don't believe in His soon return, it affects the way they live. Your view on the second coming will determine the way you live. Now we don't serve Him because we fear Him. We serve Him because we love Him. But at the same time we are human, and if we know that there is no accountability, well then we work in a particular way. If we know we have to give an account, whether it's in our jobs or in studying or whether it's in Christian things, if we know that there's a need to give an account, it changes our behavior. And when you remove the second coming, the idea of accountability is removed, and your behavior changes. Why do Christians do the things that they do today? Why do pastors do the things that they do? And I'm speaking about the terrible sins and the terrible stuff that goes on in Christian circles today, because they do not believe that Jesus is coming again. But Peter is saying, here's the other side of the coin. If we believe He's coming, and we believe He's coming not just to receive His own, but He is coming with great wrath and with great judgment upon the sinners and upon this world, what kind of people ought we to be? And so it cuts two ways. I really believe that you can look at the way a Christian lives, and you can determine two things according to Peter. The first is how real his salvation is, because remember in the first chapter of 2nd Peter, he says that if you live carelessly, you have forgotten that you were purged of your former sins. And so when Christians live bad Christian lives, the first thing it tells me, apart from the fact that they may not be saved, but if they are saved, they have forgotten where they came from. They've forgotten the price that was paid in order to redeem them. Because if we understand the price that was paid, if we understand the horrible pit from which He plucked us, can we return, as Peter says, as a dog to its vomit and a pig to its wallowing in the mire? We cannot. So my lifestyle is determined first of all by where I come from, what I understand about where I'm come from, and is determined secondly by what I understand where I'm going. And if I believe that I'm just going to live my life, eat and drink and be married, tomorrow I'm going to die, there's nothing more to it than this, and in any way if there is a life beyond this, we all end up in heaven, and we all look down smiling on everybody else down here. If that is our view, it changes the way that we live. And so the true believer who lives a godly life lives that life because he looks back at where he came from, and he's looking forward to where he's going, and he's saying the Lord is coming, and he's coming soon, and he's coming at a time he doesn't expect. And of course the point of being, of him coming at an unexpected time means there's no time to go back and fix things that first need to be fixed. When the earthquake strikes at 3 in the morning, there's no time to say, well I first need to go and buy some water and batteries and those kinds of things. It's too late. What kind of people ought we to be? What kind of people ought we to be? And obviously he answers his question in holy conduct and godliness. So if we believe that we were saved by a mighty hand out of a horrible pit, if we believe he is coming soon, we will be people of holy conduct, holy lifestyle. The word conduct, not just behavior, but the lifestyle and godliness. Really the same thing, but two aspects of the same thing. Holy living and godly being. Being like God, thinking like God, having God's values, having God's mindset, having God's understanding of sin and of holiness. And so here's the problem. When I look at many Christians today, when I look at the church in the world in general today, I have to believe that, and as I've said to you earlier, I know that people are attacking and no longer believing in the second coming of the Lord, because they say so. But even if I didn't know what they said, if I didn't know what their doctrine was, we can determine what their doctrine is because they're not living this way. People are living in sin. People are living ungodly lives. Churches are acting in ungodly ways. Church leaders are doing things that even the world would not look upon. So clearly they don't believe that the Lord is coming. And even if they believe he's coming, they somehow have a perverted view of how he's coming. That somehow he's going to come and he's just going to pass over all of our sin and all of our disobedience and all of our stuff, and he's just going to accept us even if we're like a pig wallowing in the mire. And clearly the point that Peter is making is, no, it doesn't work that way. These things are going to be dissolved, and it places upon each one of us an imperative to live a holy and godly life. Now, in doing so, we are looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God. See, there's the day of God. Earlier he spoke about the day of the Lord. Here he's saying the day of God. Same thing. What are we looking for? I can't tell you how deeply disturbed I was earlier this week when I watched the opening of Disney World. People crying, literally crying, because they can go to Disney again. Folk, what's our life about? Is that all there is to life, to go to Disney? I don't care if you want to waste your money and go to Disney, and I understand some people find it interesting and nice and all of that kind of stuff. That's fine. But if you are crying, literal tears, that you wouldn't cry over your sin, because you can get into Disney, there's something seriously wrong. And don't tell me they're all unbelievers. Many of them are Christians. No, we are not looking to get back into Disney. We are looking for the coming of the Lord. We're not looking for retirement. We're not looking for an increase. We're not looking for vacation. We're looking for the day of the Lord. I can remember when I was in the Air Force, most of the men who were there with me were conscripts. They were there by force. They had to serve a certain number of days. Every young man was conscripted, just like you had the draft. We had a hundred percent draft. Everybody had to go, and you had to serve a certain number of days. And you can go into any of the barracks and any of the workplaces, and every single one of those men would have a calendar, and he was marking off the days. And if you asked him, you woke any of those guys up in the middle of the night, he'd tell you how many days. He will tell you 384 days, or whatever it is, because there was one thing he was looking for, and that was a day he could get out of that uniform and get on with his civilian life. So that is the zeal, the earnestness with which Christians should be looking for the coming of the Lord. That when you wake someone up in the middle of the night, you ask him, what day is it? As I get older, I don't even know what day it is anymore. It's the coming of the Lord. Maybe today is the day. When we look at the sunset, maybe this is the night that Jesus is coming. When we wake up in the morning, maybe this is the day that we're going to see him. We need to be looking for his coming. Unfortunately, most Christians, it's just one of those things. Well, maybe, yeah, maybe, maybe not. Take it or leave it. No, we need to be looking, desiring, and hastening the coming of the day of God. Now that's a difficult concept, because we understand that he has set the time. He's going to come at a particular time. But then there seems to be, what Peter is saying, is that there are certain things that need to be done before he can come. Now remember, that was it last week or the time before, but why is the Lord delaying his coming? What is delaying his coming? He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. So if what is delaying his coming is the fact that some still need to be saved, then what can I do to hasten his coming? Preaching the gospel and bringing people into the faith, bringing people to Christ. And that is how we can hasten his coming, by living godly lives and by preaching the gospel. But it's all with this one goal, this one purpose, that we want to see him. We can't wait to see him again. Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved. So he's repeating the same thing, and I'm not going to preach this whole message all over again. But remember that God doesn't waste words. When he repeats something, he's emphasizing something. He's saying, I want you to get this. And Peter is basically saying what he's just told us. So first of all, in the previous verse he said, since these things will be dissolved, what kind of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness? Now he's saying the other side of it is, we're looking and hastening for his coming because the heavens are going to be dissolved. So everything is sandwiched between the fact that we're looking for this terrible day when God will come, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. So it's almost identical to verse 10, was it? Now verse 13. Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Just remember the end there, our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Jesus is God. Here's one of the many, many verses that tell us Jesus is God. He is our great God and our Savior, and he is Jesus Christ. So we are looking for his coming. Remember, looking for and hastening to his coming, verse 12. Looking for the blessed hope. This idea of the blessed hope is very central to the New Testament. Our hope, as we've said earlier, is not to get to Knott's Berry Farm or to retire. Our hope is to see Jesus. The blessed hope is not just seeing him, but it is also the resurrection. Remember, those two things are connected, the rapture and the resurrection. When we see him, and what is that all about? Well, seeing him and being changed into his own image. And so that is our hope, and it's not just our hope, but it is our blessed hope. Remember that when he uses this word hope—we've spoken about this recently—when he speaks about this idea of hope, it's not hope in the sense that we have of saying, well, I hope to win the lotto, or I hope to go on vacation. Maybe it's going to happen, maybe it's not. No, in the New Testament, the Greek word behind this word is not hope in the same sense that, you know, I'm really hoping it will happen. No, this is the sure thing. This is what we build our upon. Remember, the book of Hebrews says this hope we have as an anchor to the soul, both sure and steadfast. So the hope of winning the lotto is not sure, and it is not steadfast. It is fleeting and very dicey. But our blessed hope is sure and is steadfast, and that's what we're looking to. That is what keeps us going. That's what keeps us going through the hard times, because there is a hope before us. That's what keeps us through persecution. That's what keeps us through times of testing and of trial, because there is a hope before us. Remember that the Lord Jesus, because of the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despised the shame. That's what kept him going, the joy at the end of the day. And so the hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Now I want you to pay attention again to the details here. He has just painted a grim picture of the destroying of this world and the universes. A terrible picture. You know, just by the way, you know, these apocalyptic movies and things, and I've never watched any of them, but you see the trailers and the clips, and I understand that the idea behind them basically is that, you know, you need to escape from the earth, and we get people way into Mars, and so that when this earth is destroyed, we will be able to repopulate the world. Now that's obviously nonsense, because he's going to destroy not just the earth, he's going to destroy Mars and the outer galaxies as well. But you have this terrible picture of the destruction of everything. But here's the other aspect. It's his glorious appearing. To those who are not saved, it is a terrible day. To those who are saved, it is a glorious and a wonderful day. Because what the day reveals, when all of these things are destroyed, is it reveals his great power. You see, because we think that we have power when we generate an atom bomb, or we generate electricity with which we're able to drive all of these things, or, you know, these rockets that they're sending up to the space stations and out to Mars, and we think that's—his power is far more glorious. You know, the fireworks that we hear every night, people are awed by the great power of these bombs that they're exploding. Well, you're going to see fireworks and a bomb like you've never seen before, and it's going to reveal God's glorious power. And so it is the glorious appearing of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Now just a few more verses. In Micah chapter 1 verse 4, the mountains will melt under him, and the valleys will split like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place. Again 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 13, nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. So the destruction of the world is not the end of the story. He's going to create a new heaven and a new earth, and he has promised us. Remember, here's one of the themes of Peter. He has promised. He has promised judgment, but he's also promised a new heaven and a new earth, and we'll look at a couple of scriptures in the Old Testament where he makes those promises. And so he has promised, and so we are looking. We're looking for his coming. Remember in verses 11 and 12, we're looking for his coming, and we're looking for a new heaven and a new earth. Now we can talk about how glorious that will be if you look at this world and you see the glories of this world. And I'm not meaning the carnal world, but of creation, the great mountains. And when we were flying back this last week, we flew over the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately we were on the wrong side, so we could only see, I could only see a little, you know, we're sleeping, but I could see a little piece. And just the little piece, which wasn't the main thing which was on the other side, was amazing. Just to see this flat earth and this deep cavern cut down into the earth. If we think this is glorious, the birds and the flowers and the sunsets and all of the mountains and the things that God has created, I can't imagine what the new heaven and the new earth will be, because it'll be far better than anything we've seen here. But the great thing, the most important thing, is not what it's going to look like, but a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells, in which righteousness dwells. There is not a day that I'm not deeply disturbed by the unrighteousness that we find in our world today. Unrighteousness in business, unrighteousness in politics, unrighteousness amongst Christians, unrighteousness in courts of law. There's unrighteousness at every hand. But in that new heaven, it's going to be alright. Everything's going to be just. Everything's going to be righteous. Everything's going to be fair. There's not going to be anything that is not righteous. And so Revelation 21 verse 1, Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth. So you see exactly the same idea. I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Can you see how that Peter and John confirm each other? Exactly the same ideas. Then verse 27 of Revelation 21, But there shall be by no means enter it anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie. But only those are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Again the same idea of righteousness. That's why sinners cannot get into heaven. That's why those who are not born again cannot get into heaven, because they will come in with their sin. Righteousness and just one sin. How many sins did it take to bring all of mankind into perdition? One sin. Eve eating of that fruit. And it took one sin in getting into heaven to destroy heaven again. And for that reason the unrighteous cannot enter into heaven. The unbeliever cannot enter in, because it will defile heaven itself. Only those who are pure and have been washed in the blood of Lord Jesus and have been made new creatures can enter in, because they will not bring with them that sin. And so he will cause, so by no means enter it anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And of course the reason I've just explained is because they have been washed and they've been cleansed. So 2 Peter 3 verse 13 again, nevertheless we according to his promise look for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Father we thank you for your promise that Jesus will come again. Lord we thank you that this Jesus made this promise himself, that the angels confirmed it, that the same Jesus will come as he ascended. He will come in like manner. Thank you Lord that each one of the New Testament writers assure us that Jesus is coming and he's coming soon. And so Lord I pray that you'd help us to have our hope not fixed on earthly things that will disappoint and that may not even happen, but Lord help us to have our hope fixed upon your return and upon the promise of that blessed hope of the resurrection and of the rapture and of the day of the Lord. Lord we've said many things again this evening, many concepts Lord that may be difficult to understand. I pray that you would not just explain them to us by your Spirit, but Lord that you would write them upon our hearts, that we would be those who are looking every moment every day for the return of our Lord and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Make these things real to us Lord. I can only preach them, but Lord your Spirit needs to make it real. It needs to write it upon our hearts and change our minds. I pray this in Jesus' name. I pray that you'd go with us, keep us, protect us, and bring us together again safely on Sunday we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/6KzqM1GAMvw.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/anton-bosch/the-end-of-the-world-is-coming/ ========================================================================