Hello, friends, and
welcome to "Books of the Book."
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I'm so glad you're with us
to study this very interesting
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and fascinating
Books of 1st and 2nd Peter.
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So grab a
pencil, a piece of paper,
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and join us as Dr. Shepherd
shares some very deep insights.
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Dr. Shepherd, we are
talking now, of the end- Yes.
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We are in 2nd Peter Chapter 3,
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and Peter is
talking about the end,
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but he doesn't stop there,
he continues talking on this-
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Yeah, we noticed in verses-
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we're looking at
2nd Peter Chapter 3,
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and we notice in
verses 1 through 7
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that he addressed the false
teaching of these heretics,
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these false
teachers they were trying
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to mislead people
about the second coming.
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We found that he talked
about protology and eschatology.
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They said that,
"The end's not coming
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because
everything's continued as it was
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from the creation of the world,"
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and he said, "Ah, yes,
let's talk about the creation."
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And he goes back and
says, "By the word of God,
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the heavens and earth were
made, by water through water,
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it was also destroyed by water
and God is now preserving it."
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So God is intervening
in history all the time
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and He's now preserving
it for the destruction
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that will come
from fire in the future.
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So he agrees with them
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that the past is a
predictor of the future.
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They just had a
mistaken view about the past.
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So why does he go on?
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Because thinking
Christians have questions.
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And when false teachers come
and they start raising doubts,
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those doubts can kind of grow
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and blossom into
weeds in the Christian life.
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So Peter realizes that
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the Christians need to be
protected by a proper teaching.
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Remember, he knows
he is going to die.
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So he's going to pass onto
them important information.
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Let's read the
passage, 2nd Peter 3:8-13.
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"But, beloved, do not
forget this one thing,
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that with the Lord one
day is as a thousand years,
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and a thousand
years is as a day.
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The Lord is not slack
concerning His promise,
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as some count slackness,
but is longsuffering toward us,
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not willing that
anyone should perish,
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but that all
should come to repentance.
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But the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night,
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in which the heavens will
pass away with a great noise,
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and the elements will
melt with fervent heat,
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but both, the
earth and the works
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that are in it
will be burned up.
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Therefore, since all
these things will be dissolved,
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what manner of
persons ought you to be
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in holy conduct and godliness,
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looking for and hastening
the coming of the day of God,
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because of which the
heavens will be dissolved,
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being on fire, and the elements
will melt with fervent heat?
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Nevertheless, we,
according to His promise,
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look for new
heavens and a new earth
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in which righteousness dwells."
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Mm-hmm. Beautiful passage.
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Well, in verse 8, we want
to just jump right into this,
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and in verse 8,
we'll look at this.
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He says, "But do not
overlook this one fact, beloved,
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that with the Lord one
day is as a thousand years,
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and a thousand
years as one day."
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Now, those are one of those
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difficult passages
to understand that-
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Now remember there's no
problem text in the Bible.
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The text is not the problem,
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our understanding of
the text sometimes is.
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Right. So what
is the meaning then?
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One day is as- One day is-
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A thousand years is as a day-
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Well, actually, he says,
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"One day with the
Lord is as a thousand years
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and a thousand
years is one day."
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So he starts with the phrase,
One day is as a thousand years.
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And then he says, "A
thousand years is one day."
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Again, one of those nice
chiasms, you know, a-b-b-a.
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So certainly,
this is not the idea
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that one day in prophesy is
equal to one thousand years.
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There are some people
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that want to take
that idea and run with it.
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The question is,
"Why is that not correct?"
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Well, the problem is that
first of all it contradicts
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the plain teaching of
other places in the scripture.
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Ezekiel 4:6,
Numbers 14:34 tell us that,
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"One day in prophesy
equals one literal year." Okay.
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So there's yet another
problem however right here
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in the text of
2nd Peter and that is,
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when you just take it
as some kind of indication
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of what a day of
prophesy might represent.
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You ignore the second part
of this little wisdom saying,
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this aphorism but
then when he says,
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"A day is as a thousand years
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and a thousand
years is as a day."
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So then we ask the question,
"Why does he say this?"
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Remember, he's talking about-
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he's always
fighting the false teachers,
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and their
skepticism revolved around
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and focused on the
second coming of Jesus.
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They said, "He
is not coming back.
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Where is this
coming that was promised?"
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They're saying, "It's delayed.
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It's too long. He
hasn't come back yet."
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Of course, we Adventists'
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have heard this
kind of language before.
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But Peter says, "Wait a minute,
let me explain this to you.
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One day with the Lord
is as a thousand years."
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That's the first part
we've got to understand.
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One day is as a thousand years.
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Now I don't know if you've
ever read one of these books
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like "The Day Kennedy
Died" or something like that.
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You get a book
that's like 600 pages long,
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and it's a 600 page book,
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and it's talking
about 24 hours of time.
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Okay. And it's
like minute by minute.
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You know, just takes
you through all the events.
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People love these books,
you know-"Oh, the details."
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You know, they get to
see it and everything.
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Peter says
that, "With the Lord-"
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Now this is with
our Lord, with God,
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"With the Lord, one day
is as a thousand years."
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Well, that would mean
that he knows so much about me.
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He's so close to me
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that he knows more about my
life than I know about my life,
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lots more about my life.
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For me, it's
just one day of time.
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For him, it's a thousand years.
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We have a nice term
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we use in theology for
this, we call it eminence.
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Not spelled with an eminence
with an 'i' in the middle
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but that means like
something's about to happen,
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but eminence is the
concept of God's closeness.
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He's very close to
you. Okay, God's eminence.
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The other part of the aphorism
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and that's the case for
the first part of the aphorism,
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the little wisdom saying.
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Then the second
part of the aphorism
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tells us
something else about God.
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So the first part is, one
day is as a thousand years
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and a thousand
years as one day, right?
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So in this way, when you say
a thousand years is as one day,
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that makes it sound like
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a thousand years
goes by, it's nothing.
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Doesn't weigh with
him at all you know,
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it's just like
blinking your eyes and it's gone
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Time flies. Time flies.
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Yeah, with God it
really does. Time flies.
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A thousand years is as one day.
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And so then we
look back and we say,
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"How long has it
been since Jesus died?"
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Oh, it's only just a bit.
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It's been about
two thousand years.
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Oh, that's two days
in God's perspective.
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And somebody says, oh,
yeah, of course, He's God.
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But, you know, we
don't feel that way.
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You spend a long
time, we're waiting,
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you know, and why
hasn't He come back?
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Peter puts together two very
interesting ideas, all right.
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One day is as a thousand years
tells us about God's eminence.
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That's His closeness to us.
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One thousand years is as one day
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tells us how
high He is above us.
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That's His transcendence.
He's far above us.
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He's much greater
than we can ever understand
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and so He is the almighty
above all of time, right?
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So, we actually need
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both, His eminence
and His transcendence.
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His eminence tells us
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that He is close
to us in our troubles.
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If all we had
were His transcendence,
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we'd say, "Ah,
yes, but He's God.
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And He's faraway. He
doesn't understand us."
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If all we had was His eminence,
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we wouldn't
understand how powerful He is.
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How He is the almighty.
How He is above everything.
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So we need both of
these ideas put together.
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His eminence warms our hearts
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and tells us that
He is with us even now.
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Even when we may have
doubts and discouragement,
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His transcendence
tells us that He's in-charge,
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and we can trust our lives
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to the hand that
guides the universe.
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You see, when you get
down to the real question
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about the
second coming of Jesus,
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it's not a question as
much of what as it is of who?
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Jesus said in John 14:3,
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"If I go and
prepare a place for you,
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I will most certainly come again
and receive you unto Myself,
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that where I am,
there you may be also."
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So the question is,
"Do you trust this man?"
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He made this promise, you see.
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He said, "I'm coming back."
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And we can trust His hand, a
hand that guides the universe,
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that one who is close
to us and yet far above us.
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It's a beautiful little picture.
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Now is God or Jesus
delaying in coming back,
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verse 9 says that,
"The Lord is not slack."
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Or I think your
version says, "Slow."
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Why does Peter say
that "God is not slow?"
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"The Lord is not slow
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to fulfill His promise
as some count slowness,
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but is patient towards you not
wishing that any should perish,
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but that all should
come to reach repentance."
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Okay. The Lord is not slow.
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I have a sermon I
preach about this,
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I call it, God is
not slow, He is slow.
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And people say, " What?"
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But that helps them
come to church, you know, so-
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They say, "what
does he mean by that?"
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I've got to go find out. Okay.
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We want curiosity to
bring people to church.
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We should choose-we should make
00:11:07.13\00:11:09.05
our programs or presentations
sparky and interesting,
00:11:09.08\00:11:12.75
and strike people's curiosity.
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When they leave
church in the morning
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and they say to you,
"Pastor, that was interesting.
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I learned something
I didn't know before."
00:11:20.26\00:11:22.32
Guess what? They'll come back.
00:11:22.35\00:11:25.74
They'll come back
because they're curious
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and some people
might say, "Ah, curiosity,
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that's a terrible
reason to come to church.
00:11:32.92\00:11:36.19
Well, I'm afraid
God has no shame.
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He is glad if people come for-
00:11:39.45\00:11:41.33
even the wrong
reasons to come into His house
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because there they
will hear the gospel, okay.
00:11:43.59\00:11:46.72
Now, the false teachers suggest
that Christ is not coming back.
00:11:46.75\00:11:51.69
It's been too long, they say.
00:11:51.72\00:11:54.11
Now this suggests
that there actually was
00:11:54.14\00:11:55.95
a lively expectation of Jesus
return in the first century,
00:11:55.98\00:11:59.80
but as time went by,
people began to question
00:11:59.83\00:12:02.21
the promise that Jesus had made.
00:12:02.24\00:12:04.90
It probably sounds familiar
to us as Seventh-day Adventist.
00:12:04.93\00:12:09.23
People will say, "Are
you people still teaching
00:12:09.26\00:12:11.87
that Jesus is
coming again soon?"
00:12:11.90\00:12:13.89
And you know what the
answer is, "Yes, we are.
00:12:13.92\00:12:17.40
Yes, we are."
Jesus is coming back.
00:12:17.43\00:12:20.43
Jesus told the
story about this in fact
00:12:20.46\00:12:22.68
over in the Book of Luke 18:1-8.
00:12:22.71\00:12:28.37
Luke 18:1-8, read these verses.
00:12:28.40\00:12:35.08
"Then He spoke
a parable to them,
00:12:35.11\00:12:37.02
that men always ought
to pray and not lose heart,
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saying, "There
was in a certain city
00:12:39.70\00:12:41.83
a judge who did not
fear God nor regard man.
00:12:41.86\00:12:45.54
Now there was a
widow in that city
00:12:45.57\00:12:48.33
and she came to him, saying,
00:12:48.36\00:12:49.73
'Get justice for
me from my adversary.'
00:12:49.76\00:12:52.77
And he would not for a while
00:12:52.80\00:12:54.17
but afterward he
said within himself,
00:12:54.20\00:12:56.40
'Though I do not
fear God nor regard man,
00:12:56.43\00:12:59.08
yet because this widow
troubles me I will avenge her,
00:12:59.11\00:13:02.63
lest by her continual
coming she weary me.'"
00:13:02.66\00:13:05.65
Then the Lord said, "Hear
what the unjust judge said.
00:13:05.68\00:13:10.13
And shall God not
avenge His own elect
00:13:10.16\00:13:12.75
who cry out day
and night to Him,
00:13:12.78\00:13:15.49
though He bears long with them?
00:13:15.52\00:13:17.65
I tell you that He
will avenge them speedily.
00:13:17.68\00:13:20.71
Nevertheless, when
the Son of Man comes,
00:13:20.74\00:13:23.10
will He find faith on earth?"
00:13:23.13\00:13:26.88
Well, it's an awful,
interesting little story there
00:13:26.91\00:13:30.28
that he has told, isn't it?
00:13:30.31\00:13:31.68
And we'll just
take a break right now
00:13:31.71\00:13:33.55
and then we'll come back
and talk about that story.
00:13:33.58\00:13:35.91