All right, I want to just start by saying I praise God that we are in a church that preaches the word and all the speakers that we have deliver and teach from the pulpit are clearly in tune with the Holy Spirit. Because if you just sat in there this morning, or if you're going to be in the second service, You should be so impressed by the fact that the Holy Spirit works everything together in the way he does. I'm sitting there making notes during his sermon this morning, trying to work it in here to the other parts of 2 Peter, because it's just great when the Holy Spirit lays everything out like that and connects it together, because it is so useful to us. And it speaks to you in different ways in your different seasons. But just praise God for that. And if you weren't in there on his advice on how to find a church for the first service, you can hear it in the second service. So, all right, so last week we looked at verses one through 10 of chapter three. Brother Danny covered those verses. Remember that he talked about scoffers. and that those scoffers are following their own evil desires. And basically these scoffers are attacking the Scripture and the revelation of the second coming of Christ. And that's what they were primarily dealing with as he's writing this second letter. And also remember as we look at the tail end here, 1 Peter 1 through 9 tells us the audience specifically of believers that Peter was writing to. And remember that we have here in 2 Peter 3 verse 1, this is my second letter. So these two letters are specifically written to the believers in those areas and he is sharing with them the word from God that he has for them concerning the second coming of Christ. So today's lesson is titled, How Ought We Live Until Christ's Return? So let's take a look at the scripture. I'm going to start on verse 11. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people 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 destroyed by burning and the elements will melt with intense heat? But according to his promise, we are looking for the new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. Just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. You, therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and the fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen." So in these verses, Peter is sharing with the believers that he's writing to, the believers' hope, the believer's attitude, and how the believer, that the believer should have, and the believer's secret. Some of the commentators use that word. Or maybe a better way to describe it is the believer's faith in God and the things to come. I think I may have shared this with some of you before, but my father's quote before he passed was, Jesus is Lord and God is in control. That is a statement of truth that you need to hang on to regardless of what trials you have in front of you or what comes your way. So in taking a look at the scripture today, what we're focused on is the continuation of Peter talking with these believers about Christ's return and how they should conduct themselves until Christ does return. As Pastor MacArthur likes to say when he preached on this, believers, don't be getting in your PJs and sitting on your roof and doing nothing. And yes, I thought that was odd for MacArthur to describe it that way, but that's the painting that we got from the picture of how he said it. Let's go back and take a look at verse 11. Now when you read that, it almost looks like it should have a question mark at the end of it. But the way Peter is writing this in the Greek, it's more of an exclamation than it is a question. So it's, what sort of people ought you be in conduct and godliness? Exclamation point, not question mark. So what does that mean? In looking at these words, holy conduct and godliness, we're differentiating in two ways. Holy conduct means separating ourselves from evil and being dedicated to God. And godliness means exhibiting piety and worship. People in our culture tend to think of the world, the earth, the things around us as more enduring and lasting longer than people. But for believers this is not true and Peter reminds us of this. people will live, believers will live in eternity and will exist, when we read the scripture in the Revelations, longer than even the earth. And he makes that point here in 2 Peter as well, when he talks about since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, and then he goes on and talks about this some more. Spurgeon said in regard to what manner of persons you ought to be, He paraphrased it in the sermon this way, the king is coming. He is coming to his throne and to his judgment. Now man does not go up to the king's door and there start talking treason. And men do not sit in the king's audience chamber when they expect him to enter any moment, nor do they speak ill of him. The king is on his way and almost here. You are at his door. He is at yours. What manner of people ought he to be? How can you sin against one who is so close at hand?" And then looking at verse 12, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God. because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning and the elements will melt with intense heat." So another element of godly living he is sharing with us is living in expectation of the coming of the day of God. So if you look at Acts 3, 19 through 20, it says, therefore repent and return so that your sins may be wiped away in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that he may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you. So we need to draw a little bit of a distinction here in two things in this chapter. So if you look back at verse 10 for a moment, it says, but it begins, but the day of the Lord will come like a thief and in which the heavens will pass away with the roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat and the earth and its works will be burned up. So the day of the Lord, is a defined time. We are talking about the day of judgment when we're talking about the day of the Lord. If you look back into the Old Testament, every time that phrase is used, it is associated with judgment. This is different than the day of God, which when we tie it with verse 18, where it says the day of eternity, those two things, the day of God and the day of eternity, are talking about God's return. So in Isaiah, to just give you an example, Isaiah 2.12, for the Lord of hosts will have a day of reckoning against everyone who is proud and lofty and against everyone who is lifted up that he may be abused. So, that's where we get, for example, one of the scriptures that indicates that day of the Lord mentioned in verse 10 is different than the day of God that is mentioned in verse 12. When you look at 1 Corinthians 15, 28, it says, when all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself also will be subjected to the one who subjected all things to him, so that God may be all in all. So what Peter's trying to explain to the believers is that in the second coming, all of these things that you see around you now, they're all gonna be gone. This order will be dissolved and it will be replaced. So if you look at one of the commentators, by the name of Clark, he said, will be dissolved. He says, they will be separated, all decomposed, but none of them destroyed. The solar system and the great galaxies, even space-time relationships, will be abolished. all elements which make up the physical world around us will be dissolved by heat and utterly melt away. It's a picture which in an astonishing degree corresponds to what might actually happen according to modern theories of the physical universe. So To put it in a more theological tone, Spurgeon said, this world, so far as we know, will not cease to be, but it will pass through the purifying flame. Then it may be soft and gentle breath of the Almighty. Love will blow upon it and cool it rapidly, and the divine hand will shape it as it cools into a paradise most fair. Peter then says, in looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, that there's a sense in which we can hasten the coming of the Lord. And so, how do we do that? It's remarkable to think that there's actually things that we can do as believers that will hasten that day, things that we can do that will affect the return of Jesus. So what is he talking about there? In the immediate context, he's talking about the holy conduct and godliness. And so what are examples of how we do that? One of them that he talks about is through evangelism. Paul said that God's prophetic focus on Israel will resume when the fullness of the Gentiles has come, Romans 11.25. It's an opportunity for the hardened Israelites to accept the Lord as their savior. So you can also hasten the day, well, let's stop there for just a second as well. The evangelism also puts into effect what other scripture that we all know well. the Great Commission, because that is our job. When I start getting into discussions with folks that want to have this theological argument about end times, I say, well, you can be this or you can be that, but at the end of the day, this does not impact your main, if you're a Star Trek fan, your prime directive, which is to do what? Go forth and make disciples for Christ. So until you are taken away into the sky, that's your number one job. Okay, so evangelism is a key tool. Others are prayer, obviously. Even as Daniel asked for a speedy fulfillment of prophecy on captive Israel in Daniel 9, we can also pray, even so, come Lord Jesus, Revelations 22, 20. So we want to, as believers, we should be filled with thankfulness that we have a God that loves us so much, that he has shown us in his word that he is coming back, and that these are the things that you will see happen. Now, one of the things that this will, he will address here in the upcoming scriptures is some of this is hard to understand. Even if you're a believer and you've been working through the scriptures, it's hard for you to understand. Don't let that throw you off track. We'll talk about that a little bit more here in just a second. But according to His promise, verse 13, we are looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. So we know the new heaven and new earth is believers. It's God's righteousness. There is none of the stuff that we put up with and we experience today in this world that is going to be left at that point. Because God will not dwell where sin is. And this has all been promised to us, and this is the hope of believers. We have cults out there, like Jehovah Witnesses, who teach that basically you have no hope because you can lose your salvation. If you don't work, work, work, work, and go out and bang on doors or however they're doing it this week, then you can lose your salvation. That is not scriptural. In fact, that's anti-scriptural. It's false teaching. We talked about that at the end of chapter two the last time I was up here with you. In looking at the phrase, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, Peter tells us basically that all the very elements of this world order will be dissolved. That's everything. Governments, the structures, a new heaven and a new earth will be there. Just as Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 65, 17, for behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. in dealing with the phrase, a new earth in which righteousness dwells, that is the most glorious characteristic of the new heaven and the new earth. We are there. It's been God's plan through the ages. And this happens in how we interpret and believe this. This happens after the millennial earth has been ruled by Jesus. don't have time to get down into the weeds on those different approaches, take a look at the church website. It very clearly lays out where our church is on the issue of pre-meal, post-meal, omni-meal. We are very clearly pre-meal. Then if we look in Revelations 21.1, it says, Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Then looking at verse 14, he goes into some more where he wants to explain to them where he is at. And he also wants to pull in some other support for what he's saying to them. So he goes on and he says, therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, spotlessness, and blameless, and regard the patience of the Lord as our salvation. Looking forward to these things, be diligent. If our hearts are really set on the glory of the new heaven and the new earth, we're endeavoring to walk in a godly way, to walk in a Christ-like way, and we're looking to interact with our brothers and sisters in Christ in peace. And in our relationship with God, we are looking to be without spot and without being with blame. So how do we do that? Anybody? If you sin as a believer, what do you do? You repent, you confess it, and you repent. Remember, there's nothing in the scripture that says that because you've been saved, you're not gonna sin again. It says you are to be Christ-like in your walk, but it also recognizes that we are fallen. And that's going to connect with some scripture on a little bit later here. So again, don't let false teachers or unprincipled men pull you off into some false eddy just because you have sinned. The worst thing that can happen is after you have repented of something, to be so shaky in your faith that the next thing you do is pick that sin back up. Once you repent of that sin, you are forgiven of that sin. And being forgiven of sin by the covering blood of Christ, we all know, is not a free ticket to do whatever we want and sin whenever we want. That is not holy conduct. their reputation is one that is not characterized by. Right. And what Daddy is saying is 100% correct. You need to be known is another way to say it as a believer. That means you can't go out Monday through Saturday and act like a heathen and then turn around and come in and act all good on Sunday. in your workplace. I mean, this is part of the Great Commission, this is part of evangelism. When you go into the workplace, if you act in a manner that is not consistent with your faith, then you're actually not giving good witness, and you're possibly pushing people away from Christ. That is not in keeping with the Good Commission. So yes, it's... I always hesitate to say, because some people then have grown up in ways where they automatically start thinking works. But remember what James says, it is out of the abundance of your, and I'm paraphrasing, but out of the abundance of your salvation, your beliefs, your love for God, that you do things for your brothers and sisters, that you go out and you evangelize and try and give the message to others. It's not that you have to do that so that God will take you and think you're good enough on judgment day to get into heaven. And there are entities, cults out there that preach that. So, let's see. the long suffering of our Lord and salvation. It's easy for Christians to sometimes get tripped up and feel a little bit resentful, angry, disappointed with the fact that God is very patient. God, to use a phrase, is in it for the long haul. So sometimes we, in our concept of when things should happen, like to shorten it up to here instead of letting God let the whole plan follow out through what God's planned for you. So again, that's another reason that people, they're praying for something. When you pray for something, you think it should look this way. Well, just because you think it should look this way isn't necessarily how God is gonna answer that prayer. And so you need to just continue to pray and continue to understand that the Lord will answer that prayer in the best way for you in where you are at that point. Sometimes the answer's no. And the reason it's no is because God is keeping you from some problems down the road you don't even know are out there if you go down that road. But we also get that sense of long-suffering. in the long-suffering of God when we're talking about his second coming. Spurgeon said, we're puzzled at the long-suffering which causes so weary a delay. One of the reasons is that we have not much long-suffering ourselves. We're impatient, is the way to say it today. And with the advent of the computer, I've watched that over my 62 years, attention spans have went like this. And expectations of when things are going to happen have went like this. That's not how God works. Sometimes he gives a quick answer. Many times he doesn't. Because we're all in a walk of sanctification. We're all learning things. We're all growing in our faith. That's what we're supposed to be doing. And sometimes we need that time to walk us through that season so we understand what it is that God has in store for us. Okay, so looking in verses 15, the second half of that, He says, just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which some of these things are hard to understand, which the untaught and the unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the scriptures, to their own destruction. So let's stop and think about that for just a minute. What was the relationship between Paul and Peter? What was Peter's position in the church? He's called the cornerstone. He was basically the leader of the church. It's part of the reason that Christ, he denied Christ three times, right? And then we have the scripture where Christ walks him through three times to rehabilitate Peter. And what did Christ say to Peter each time? Do you love me? And what did he say? He ended up with, feed my sheep. Every time Peter said, yes, Lord, you know I love you, Jesus then says, feed my sheep. So we also know that Peter, as the head of the church, still was just human. Because when they were in Galatia, in the church with Galatia, what happened there? Anybody remember that? Do what? Paul rebuked Peter to his face, why? Because he started going along with the Judaizers. If you remember in the scripture, it tells us that Peter was eating with the Gentiles until the Jews showed up, the Judaizers showed up, and then Peter started withdrawing from the Gentiles and would only eat with the Jews. And so Peter called him out in public to his face about how he was sinning by cutting off, you know, falling back into these old patterns and elevating that above what Christ told him. Yet Peter is sitting here writing what? Our beloved brother, Paul, perfect example of how church should be. If you get off the path, and you can because false teachers can very slyly suck you down a wrong path theologically, then a loving brother and sister should call you on that and say, look, what you're saying and what you're doing is wrong. Let's sit down and talk this through and talk about why. They're not doing that, shouldn't be doing that with an attitude of, I've got to show you where you're wrong. It should be with a compassion, a love, and a, I need to help you, brother, because you're walking her sister, because you're walking down a path that could lead you into an Eddie that is destructive to you. So one of the other things that I wanted to clarify on that particular point is because he talks about twisting scriptures, he talks about what Paul has said here and what can happen. As we talked about that a little bit at the end of two, and I wanna clarify that in just a minute, but again, remember, Peter is now looking at Paul. If you go back and you listen to, sermons from MacArthur and Sproul. One of the things that you will see here is that This is Peter recognizing the importance of what Paul is writing. He's acknowledging that it is scripture. He is acknowledging that it is under the direction of the Holy Spirit. And he knows that what he is writing, because he's seen it, he knows what he is writing is beneficial to the body as a whole. And so he's pulling that in to just use that to kind of reinforce. Peter has all the authority that he needs. but he's also bringing in and saying, look, this is because remember, the Judaizers were out there, they were primarily following Paul around, but they were also trying to create problems where the other apostles had been in teaching. So he also recognizes here in this scripture that even though he's teaching this, and even though Paul is teaching this in different ways, that It is sometimes hard to understand. You know, I really believe that you should, in your walk of sanctification, try your best through any means of studying the Word and looking at it and praying about it and contemplating it on what you believe it says to you in the Scripture and whether that's truth. Then you test it with other Scripture. But there are some things in the Scripture that no matter how much you study, that is something that you can have an opinion on, but at the end of the day, we're not gonna know exactly what that says or what it means until we get to heaven. It's not a lot of that, but he's acknowledging that that can sometimes happen. So the danger here is when you don't understand something, you also need to go to trusted, again, hopefully you've got good preaching, good teaching, others around you that you can talk about this with as believers. don't be relying on unvetted sources, sources that are not solid in what they're teaching, because it's part of your walk of sanctification to take you through these things. And again, sometimes you're... You may be earlier in your life and you might not get something, but by the time you put a few more years on you and more miles on the tires, as they say, you get into a situation where when you go back and read a section of scripture, you understand it. Or it speaks to you differently in that season that you're in. So it is good to always be in the Word. It's profitable to reread the Bible. You've read it once already, go back and read it again. You're going to learn something new every time. But he's countenancing again on the twisting of scriptures. Don't let the untaught, well, he's saying those who are untaught and unstable could use some of these difficulties to their ends, twisting the scriptures. We know that they have done that for both Paul and for Peter as they've been preaching. Many of the commentators, again, recognize that this is Peter recognizing the authority and validity of the writings of Paul as Scripture. And when they're talking about the word twisting, they said the verb twist, which the apostle uses here, signifies to distort. like to put on a rack, like the torture rack, and twist it that way to overstretch, to dislocate what it means. So you have to be on guard against those things. Peter's very firm here about the fact that the actions of the false teachers in twisting Paul's words and his words to justify their own libertinism and rejection of parioceia the second coming, that's a Greek word that is used for that in many places in the scripture, are so serious that it disqualifies them from salvation. So let's come back and it says in verse 17, you therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness. Lawless men equals false teachers. Unprincipled men equals false teachers, and they will attempt to shift believers off their foundations. So to go back and visit a question that we had at the end of 2 Peter chapter 2 in talking specifically about verses 20 and 21. It talks about, for if after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again estranged in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it to turn away from the holy commandment handed to them. So the question was, you know, are these people really believers or not? And again, I'm paraphrasing, but is it talking about believers there or is it not? I think... One of the responses was, well, you know, as we go out and we witness to people, sometimes we throw that seed out there, and if some of that seed lands in rocks, some of it takes, some of it doesn't. That's the Holy Spirit reaps that seed, not us. Our job is to just present the gospel. But if you go back to Matthew 12, verses 43 through 45, It addresses this. It says, now, when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, I will return to my house from which I came. And when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and takes, along with it, seven other spirits more wicked than itself. And they go in and live there. And that last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation. It also recounts that story in Luke 11, 24, 26, or that instruction there. So when we're talking about the tail end of chapter 2 there, we're talking about people who are on the outside acting like they're believers, but they start doing these things that very clearly makes it clear to us they're not known. They are not teaching the truth. They have not been recipients of true salvation, and you need not follow them. Whereas what we're talking about here in this section of the scripture is believers who are being misled by some teacher or unprincipled man with what they're teaching them. In the sermon today, he talked about that and on people asking him, how do you know where to go to church? Well, you need somebody that's standing in the pulpit speaking the truth and the word of God. Now, sometimes I would assume that some people criticize Dr. Lawson because he brings it and he doesn't necessarily put lots of flowers around it. And he's not there for your feelings, folks. He's there to deliver the word of God. And if that bends your feelings, then you need to be checking internally. There's nothing in here about the salvation is for those who feel like they're saved. It's not how this works. That's how our culture works today. That's why it's hard for you to deliver the message to some people and get through to them because they operate on feelings and what's on their sleeve and what's blowing in the wind and what's happening, not on what the truth of the gospel is. So he goes on and talks in verse 18, but grow, this is one way that you keep from falling and being the prey of unprincipled men and falling out of your own steadfastness, but grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord, Savior Jesus Christ. How do you do that? What's the number one way to grow in Christ, Brian? Knowledge of the Word. We have said that repeatedly through 2 Peter. Every sermon that you're going to hear from anybody that is preaching in the pulpit of this church, anybody that is teaching a lesson, They are going to be telling you the same thing. You have to be in this word. I have told, I said back several weeks ago, podcasts are great ancillary things. They are not a replacement for opening the Bible. I still use a book. I realize some of you are digital. So that's fine, but you need be in the Word, not listening to what somebody else is always saying about the Word. It's like the telephone game. By the time, I don't know if you guys still play that or not. Maybe that's showing my age. But by the time you pass that language down, you got something different than what it started with. You have got to know what the word says so that you know whether the people that are speaking to you from the pulpit or teachers or anyone else that you're talking with is speaking truth. So, The last part of that, to Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. This amen here is like a doxology stating what is the truth here. Just a couple other points here, but to grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord, our Lord, Savior, Jesus Christ. Again, there's all kinds of ways for you to do that. The primary one is to study the word, be involved in Sunday school, be involved in the extra things that the elder saints of your church put together for you. Trinity is not a big program church, and that is intentional. When you start programs, there's a tendency within the church for people, consumer Christians, who don't serve, and you can see them, you can see they are known that way, and they are engaged about that. Everyone needs to be serving the body somewhere. Sometimes that's just through sitting, being a prayer warrior. Sometimes it's through walking with another person. They have a pornography addiction and you are working to be their accountability partner. There's all kinds of ways to serve the body. When we get to the part where we say we must grow in our knowledge of Jesus, this means we need to be intentional about what we learn. Our relationship with Jesus and Christ and God needs to be the priority. My priority is my individual relationship with God and then biblically my next ministry priority is right there in that chair as my wife. The next one after that is my children. The next one after that is you all. Okay? And you can't get those, you can't do one of those things out of order, because when you do, you're out of scriptural authority. Okay? So you're gonna have seasons. You might be the best AV person on the face of the earth, but when your first child comes, your wife needs you there, not up at the church at six o'clock in the morning doing AV stuff. There are seasons for everything. The Lord knows that, and we have the grace of being able to step out of things for a while and then go back and re-engage later. That's extra, that wasn't in the notes. So, to him be the glory. Spurgeon says, noted that the second letter to Peter ends on two trumpet blasts. or by Peter, ends on true trumpet blast. One is from heaven to earth, growing the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. The other's from earth to heaven, to him be the glory both now and forever. So the way that this amen is used at the end, as I said, is kind of a doxology. The meaning of it carries, it expresses the desire of the heart In our relationship with God, it expresses an affirmation of your faith. It expresses the joy of your heart and the declaration of resolution. In the Old Testament, amen was used as a way to declare, so be it, basically. And here, in the New Testament, under the new covenant, this is just a way to affirm the great blessings and the praise to God that we have. The Bible gave us our start with including amen inside various passages, concluding prayers, oaths, and affirmation. Again, the Old Testament use has been so be it, but in the New Testament, it shifts. And Jesus uses the term amen in many instances to basically say, verily or truly. And it gives us a standard, a model to which we follow as we pray and affirm from truth. So we've got five minutes left. One of the things on application, just remember, be on guard. Everything that's on the internet is not true. It is twisted, but more importantly, I do think that sometimes our guard is up more when we read it on the internet than we are sitting with someone face-to-face. And you need to be just as on guard as to what you are taking in that way as you are through looking at the internet. So we've talked about a few things, but how as we as believers today, how do we practice holy and godly living? Danny said the biggest one, make yourself known. You cannot sit behind your computer screen at work and have a bunch of things around you in your office that doesn't give anyone the impression that you're a Christian. What I would like to hear about your testimony is that you have things that are scriptural in your office. And I can tell you that just being a retired military guy, that it shifted in the military. We are seeing people being, given disciplinary actions for having Bibles in their desk or on their desk that tells you where things have gone. But you need to do that. And then you need to ask yourself, do you joyously anticipate the return of Christ? I know that creates sometimes a little bit of internal conflict for you. If you're trying to witness to somebody and you know they're not saved, that's in God's hands. You keep planting the seeds, you keep taking the opportunities. I would pray that your boss has a moment of lucidity and if he has that, You take that opportunity when you're around him. I know from my dad's experience, you take that little piece of lucidity and you grab it, because you don't know if you're gonna get another one. So you cannot let these things pass, because you don't know if you're gonna get another chance. You go, ah, maybe I should say something, but then you don't, and then we're gone. You just missed an opportunity to witness to someone. So how do you achieve peace in Christ? That's the last application question I've got before we go. How do you achieve that peace in Christ? Right back to that, study the word. Again, if all else fails, write down my dad's motto, Jesus is Lord and God is in control, and keep putting that in your brain. I know that it is difficult to wait sometimes. Sometimes you're looking at a situation and you're going, and I've said this to my wife back in the day, God really must have a sense of humor to make us be going through this. Because I couldn't see a reason or a way or a why of what was going on at the time. Yeah, you know, hindsight's always 20-20. But you learn during those times. There's no guarantee as believers that you're not gonna have trials and tribulations. You all know that from your study of the word. But you don't let that derail your faith. And you know what? God's big enough to handle when you have that doubt, when you're upset with him about whatever it is. and he already knew it was gonna happen before you knew it was gonna happen, and he still loves you anyway, and he still saved you. So why would you doubt the veracity of that fact? Jesus is Lord, God is in control, Christ will come again, you will be resurrected, or you will be raptured, Because the last point of that is Jesus Christ took the full wrath of God for every believer on the cross. Why then would you be here when the tribulation happens or the rest of that happens? Just think about that if you're wrestling with that question. I am done. Anybody have any questions? Again, we're gonna have kind of a wrap-up session next week, but anybody have any thoughts, questions? Luke? Yeah, I had a thought more around this idea of being diligent in this current life. I know you were talking about the internet and all that, and I think to our generation, the short-form media, right, like Instagram, TikTok, those are, control it based on what you want. It is telling you how you should feel and think about things. And it's just so dangerous because you don't really know what you're going to learn. You have no idea. And you have no idea how you're going to behave. Yeah, and again, I'm 62. I have watched computers develop. I've watched the internet. Satan's not pulling any new tricks. He's just got a new toy to use to try and catch people with, and that's called the internet. And you need to be careful about what you're putting there. And so, yeah, I mean, if digital's the way you do things, I'm not knocking that. I'm just saying if you can spend an hour a day digital doing something, scrolling TikTok or whatever, you can certainly spend an hour a day studying the Word on the internet, on your Bible app, on your phone or what have you. And so it's just a matter of your priorities. And I get, look, I come home at the end of the day, I've stared at the computer screen all day long, which is part of the reason that I still use a actual book. My eyes adjust to it differently. I absorb it differently because of where I, you know, when I grew up and how I grew up. but you have got to be careful about what you put in there. As a prosecutor and criminal defense attorney in the military, I can tell you I've seen way more images of child pornography than I have ever wanted to see in my life. But once you get that in your head, it doesn't go away. It lessens the boredom. takes that away from you a little bit at a time, it's also there so that you know you need to be, as a Christian, pushing back on those points in our culture. Anybody that thinks that a child that's old enough to, at 10 years or less, 15 years or less, to tell their parents they wanna be a different sex, or they need to change operation, or this or that, that's just insane. You don't let them buy a gun. You don't let them drink. Why would you let them mutilate their body? The world is controlled by the prince of the air right now. It is up to us as believers to move out through the Great Commission and influence the world with the scripture and not just sit back and let this world influence our church. That's why so many churches are in trouble right now and so misled on what they have. why there's so many fights within the Methodist denomination, and the Lutherans, and the event, you know, the folks in England, the name went right on my head, but, yeah, the Episcopalians, thank you. And the Southern Baptists now are under that same attack. You cannot, as a Christian, do not, Step back from the line. That's why you armor up under Ephesians six. You hold the line. Unless you're advancing, which is always good too. Okay? All right, let me pray us out of here. We got 10 minutes. Father God, we thank you so much for being a loving God who put these things in writing for us under the direction of the Holy Spirit so that we could see how to live in the way that you would have us live to be of use in the Great Commission and to glorify and honor you. We ask that you bless us in the upcoming weeks. We ask that you give us the fortitude and certainty in our faith to step forward in those situations where we need to witness to others, to stand up against evil as it presents itself in a biblical way, and we ask that you be continuing to work through the Holy Spirit these things that we've talked about in 2 Peter, the items that we're learning about in Luke 4, and the fact that these things can and do happen in church, churches around the globe, and that we need to constantly be on guard by studying your word, looking at the truth, and being witnesses for you in all ways. We ask that you bless us in the upcoming week, and we ask all these things in your Son's holy name. Amen.