This is November the 21st, 2010, in the year of our Lord here at Zion Baptist, and we are continuing, and we'll finish up today, hopefully, well we will finish whether we get through or not, finish up today on the remnant in the last days. The remnant in the last days, this is part number four, It's time to bring this part to a close because I would like to start a preaching on the kingship of Christ that I think is very important for us to understand that the Lord Jesus is our King. And we need to understand a little more about kings. We don't know much about kings because we've never lived under one. But our forefathers did over in Scotland and England and some of these other places. They lived under kings and some other forms of potentate. Now look, you mothers, don't be shy to bring in a lamb with you. so that you can warp children when they attempt to speak while the preacher is speaking. Don't be shy nor ashamed. I've seen it done many times in church. And when the preacher is speaking, it is very disrespectful for you not to pay attention and for you not to listen, and it is very disrespectful for you to be speaking or doing anything while the preacher is speaking, because he is trying to declare unto the sheep what the Lord has given him to, as he has studied and prepared and prayed for all week to stand before you. Don't disrespect in God's house. There should be great reverence If you knew how people used to act when a king was present, when they were in front of the king, what reverence and respect they gave him, it was unreal. And so you must, when you're in the house of God, pay that same respect and reverence to the Lord Jesus Christ. Is He your king? We say he is our king. Is he your king? All kings have subjects, and all subjects obey the will and the commandments of their king at any cost, lest he be angry at them, and they die. So we will. Romans 13, beginning at verse 11, it says, Romans 13, beginning at verse 11, and then we will proceed to where we left off in 2 Peter 3. Romans 13 verse 11, and that knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, nor not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. Make no provision for the flesh. to fulfill the lust thereof." Now these are instructions for believers in the last times, and that knowing that the time that now it is high time, knowing the time, that we know the time that we live in. And knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. Not our spiritual salvation, that's been secured before the beginning of time you might say, especially when Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead. He secured our salvation. He redeemed us with His own blood. But our eternal salvation, when we go to be with God in eternal bliss and happiness, we're newer today than when we first believed. And it's time that we quit wasting time, is what He's saying. It's high time that we stop that, that we know the time. to awake out of sleep because sleep is a reference to darkness. And we're not in the dark anymore. We're in the light. We're filled with the light of the Lord Jesus Christ and He is in us, living within us. And the Spirit of God illuminates His Word so that we might be able to see it and understand it. Or at least his people are. And that's what we're talking about, the remnants in the last days. Those people that are truly his, that he has illuminated. There are millions of people that fill up buildings every Sunday. But there are very few that are being called according to God because there are very few who worship Him, who praise Him, who love Him, who follow Him, who love to read His Word, who hunger and thirst after righteousness. There's not many of those people! And it's only those people that want to hear the Word of God preached. Everybody else wants to be pampered and petted and entertained and all the other things that these churches are doing. in order to keep the people there. Hold pamper and pet. Make them feel good. Let them act any way they want to. Oh, for goodness sake, don't say anything that would hurt anybody. Make them mad. If the word of God makes you mad or angry, then you got a problem. And look, it does. You believe me. You believe me, church people that will go to church and not do the word, when you read it to them as though they ought to be doing it, and reprove them when they are not doing it, they get mad. You can count on it. They get mad. Because no longer are you preaching soft and nice and sweet things, and how lovely God is, and how sweet and kind He is to everybody, but now you are rebuking, reproving, and they don't like that. Because now it's very obvious who you're talking to. It's very obvious to me who the Lord's talking to every time I open the book. He's talking to me. He's talking to me. So knowing the time, the night is far spent. It's gone. It's daytime. The day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness. Those are evil works, ungodly things that we are prone to be in. That is one reason. There are many reasons why we ought to be at church every time the doors are open. There are many reasons why we should speak to one another during the week on the phone and have communication with one another and fellowship with one another. There are many, many reasons why we should do that. Other than we are commanded by the Word of God to do it. But because we as remnant in the last day, children of God, living in a vile, filthy flesh that is subject and prone to wonder from God, we love sin. It's in our nature. We're born children of Adam, and it's in our nature to love self-sin, Satan and the world. It's a battle to fight against it. And if you try to go it alone, very likely, that you're going to stumble and fall and to succumb to the devil and to the ways of the world. That's the reason the Bible says, a new commandment I give you, that you love one another. And if you love the brethren, you're going to be with the brethren because it takes the prayers of the brethren and the communication with the brethren and the fellowship with the brethren in order to sustain yourself and in order to have some encouragement and some examples before you of how we ought to live and somebody that we're accountable to about the way that we live and the way that we talk. It's important. It's a must for Christian people. So let us put off the works of darkness. and let us put on the armor of light. You can find that armor of light and the armor that we're supposed to put on in Galatians the 5th chapter and Galatians the 6th chapter. We won't turn there tomorrow, but you can go there and read it for yourselves. It's very important. And he says here, let us walk earnestly as in the day. You don't see a whole lot of people unless you're down on the Mexican border. that are doing illegal things. Let me put it that way. I won't say dishonest things because they are very deceptive in the daylight these days, but illegal things during the daylight because they can be seen very easily and reported or caught or locked up or whatever. They do them at night. And so he says here concerning Christians, concerning the people of God, let us walk honestly as in the day. Let us walk decently as though we're in the daytime because spiritually we are in the light. We're in the daytime. And that's the way we ought to be walking. According to what? The rules and the commandments of our King and our Savior, our God. The whole thing has always been about obedience. And it will always be about obedience. Even when we are changed in the moment of strengthening of an eye if we still are here when the Lord comes. It will still be about obedience. Obeying our God. It was about obedience with Adam. But now we are in a proving ground. We are in a training ground. This is where we learn to obey. This is where we learn to put on the whole armor of God. This is where we learn to resist the devil and to submit unto the ordinances and the commandments of God. This is it. Why do you break your hair? Why do you break your living on this earth? Why do you break your breathing? It's just because I'm such a good fellow. I'm a gift to the whole world. No. No. The Bible says God reputed this is nothing. It's worms. It's only by His grace we are here to show forth His glory and His honor. We're here to bring honor and glory to our King and to our God by being honest and walking decently in the day. Not in rioting and drunkenness like they used to do at the festivals that they had, the big feasts that they had. They would throw drunk and have big feasts and orgies. And that's what it's talking about here when it says not in chambering. You can relate that chambering to a bedchamber, that's what they're talking about. And not in wantonness, that's homosexuality, unnatural desires, solemnites. Not in strife and envy, no quarreling and grumbling amongst yourselves. We live according to the scriptures and live according to the commandments of God and we love one another and there's no reason for us to be quarreling and striving amongst one another. Why is that? Because we esteem the other better than ourselves. And that's what Christians do. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh. Put you on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's like putting on your clothes every morning. You get up every morning, you get dressed, you put on your clothes. You get up every morning, you put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we don't clothe ourselves with our works. Our works are not our clothing. Our good works are any works that we do. That is not our clothing. The Bible says we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ that He, by the grace of God, has imputed or we've been charged with the righteousness of Christ. And that's what we put on every morning. It's the righteousness of Christ. We claim it. We plead it. We plead for it. That the righteousness of Christ that we be covered in so that the Father sees not our sin. He sees not our vile filthiness because He will not look upon it. But He only sees the righteousness of Christ when He sees us and beholds us. He sees the righteousness of Christ as though we had never sinned. Because that's what Christ gave us. And therefore we are to live that way in our daily lives. It's daytime. We're in the light now. We understand what God's done for us. We understand what the Lord Jesus Christ suffered and died for. We understand what He secured for us and has given us, implanted in our hearts and in our minds that we might worship Him aright. And so that's what we do. Put you on the Lord Jesus Christ every day. It has to be a conscious act. Something that you think about. In the mornings when I get up, I'm getting up to worship God. I'm getting up today to please Him. And with everything that I do today, it is to bring honor and glory unto God. Every word that I speak is to bring honor and glory to my God. Our priorities need to change. We're not going to work just to make a living. Our purpose for living is to glorify God, especially in these last days. It should have always been that. Put you on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh. You say, now, preacher, we have to provide provision, provide, for our fleshly needs, we have to eat, and have to have some kind of shelter to live in, of some kind, and have to provide for our families, or the Bible says we're worse than infidels. We sure do. And that's the reason there's a comma there, and the rest of it follows. But to the Lord Jesus Christ, they make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. He didn't say not to be concerned about what you're going to eat, drink, and wear. He didn't say take no provision for your needs, your necessities, but not to the fulfilling of the lust of the flesh. There's a big difference. There's a big difference in having what you need and working and spending all of your effort and time and energy for things that you want other than the things that you need because we know that Christ has and does provide everything that we need. We're just not content with it. We want to heap to ourselves things that are lustful to our flesh. We want bigger this and prettier that and more of this and more of that. All the things that we don't need because God has provided all the things that we need. You're still breathing, aren't you? That's all you need right now is just to breathe. If you can breathe and your heart keeps pushing blood through your veins, you're alright. I don't see nobody starving to death. 2 Peter 3, we try to finish up here. 2 Peter 3. Let's read again from verse 9 through to the end of the chapter. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to usward, 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 the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with perfect heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burnt up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness? Looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Therefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent, that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. and to count that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul, also according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrestle, as they do also the other scriptures unto their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware, lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in grace, And in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to Him be glory both now and forever. Amen. Now there's a few things that we kind of skipped over before in this part of this chapter that I'd like to just touch on for a few minutes before we dismiss. One thing I want to be certain of is that we, believers, in these last days, as there will be more markers, especially amongst the media and amongst the nations abroad and all over, even our own family and acquaintances and people that we know, really do not believe that the Lord Jesus is going to return in the sky. with fire in his eyes and bring damnable condemnation and judgment on the ungodly. They really don't believe that. It's been such a long time ago since Christ walked on the earth. And there are some people today preaching that He already has come. Preterist, I believe is what they call it. Preterist. Or maybe hyper-preterist. You may have heard that term before. They believed that in 70 A.D. Jesus came. When He destroyed Jerusalem, the Roman soldiers destroyed Jerusalem, that the Lord returned. That was the second coming of Christ then. I don't know what they do with the rest of the Bible, but there are people that think that. And there are very few people that today really believe that the Lord Jesus is going to return and split the eastern skies and bring judgment upon the ungodly and redeem His people. Salvation will have come. Literally. We will be caught up in the air and the dead in Christ shall rise. There are very few people that really believe that today. And he talks about that here. That's what the whole, from verse 9 to the end of the chapter is about. It's confirming that the long-suffering of the Lord is for salvation of the elect of God, whose names were written in the book before the foundation of the world. They cannot be lost, will not be lost. And that day has been appointed. And God has decreed all things to be as they are. We serve a real God. We serve a God that everything is controlled exactly how it's supposed to be. Even the evil that men do is not of God, but certainly controlled by God as to which direction it's going in, so that it fulfills His purpose for them. Now, I want you to see here where He says, Seeing then, in verse 11, that all these things shall be dissolved, everything that's here is going to be gone. Highways, buildings, there'll be nothing left here. Nothing. It's all going to be melted away. Even the stars and the sun, the skies. I know the astrologers and the brains to be today say, If the sun ever burns out, we're gone. If there's a supernova within a hundred million light years from us, we're gone. It'll burn us up. We can't live without the sun, that's right, but it's the SON that we can't live without, not the SUN. Because we can live without the SUN. We can live without the MON. We can live without anything except the SON. But all this is going to be dissolved and gone away with. All the ungodly, the heathens going to be burned up, destroyed. They're going to lick their eyes in hell and we will be up in the sky with the Lord. And we're going to have a thousand years on this earth, just us and Him. Just like he says. So, seeing that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness? There's going to be nothing left. Where will you be? Do you really believe? Do you want to believe? Only God can put that want into you. Seeing then, We ought to know what kind of conversation. When it says conversation, it means manner of living. In all holy manner of living in God, it's looking for and hastening unto. In other words, we're looking for. God's people will be looking for Him when He comes. Everybody else is going to be a shock and a surprise to them. But not God's people. Why? Because we've been warned. Look for Him. Pray for His quick return. Look for Him. Be looking for Him. Be ready for Him to come. Watch ye therefore and pray. Hasten the coming of the Lord. No need for it to be a surprise to us when the Lord splits the eastern skies. He can come any time. Looking for and hastening to the day wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall be burnt with the fervent heat. Nevertheless, we. Nevertheless, we. He's talking about the remnant in the last days. Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look for you heavens and you earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. That's where we'll be. And that's what we're looking for. They are going to be dissolved and it's going to be a surprise for them. He's coming as a thief is in the night. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt. It'll be a surprise to them. They'll say, woe is me! What's happening? But we'll know. Because we'll be praying for it. We'll be longing for it. Especially you. before he's through with this nation. Nevertheless, we... And then you read on, it says, according to His promise, what you have in the new earth, wind, water, and earth, wherefore? Since these things are sure, they're going to happen. Beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent. Don't stop. When the Bible says, Be ye therefore temperate, He means self-control. It's a battle, it's a fight, it's not easy. It was easy, everybody could do it. It's only those that have been blessed by the presence and the Spirit of God living and dwelling in you, and the power of God living in you, giving you the power, and the will, and the will to, to be obedient to Him. Everybody else is going to hell. You can count on it. You can read the Scriptures how God blesses His people with the Spirit of God and turns them from themselves. Satan sent in the world and turns them to Him. Jacob said, turn me, O God, and I'll be turned. Turned from what? Himself! His own lust! His own evil works and deeds! To be true to God in all that we say and do. Be diligent, he says, that ye may be found of him in peace. Everybody else is going to be in turmoil, but God's people is going to be at peace in their own minds, in their own hearts, with all the world in an uproar. We'll be found of him in peace. It doesn't matter how bad it gets. When Peter was in prison, they were going to kill him the next morning. He was asleep. The angel had to poke him in the side and say, Peter! You think you'd be sleeping if you knew in the morning you were going to die? He was at peace. Why? Because he knew that whatever God's will was, that's exactly what was going to be done. And whatever God's will is, it's what we want to be done, no matter what it is. The problem with most people is their will is more important to them than God's will. Oh, I don't want to die. Oh, such a frenzy. Don't want to die. Not Peter. He didn't care. Whatever the Lord wanted. That's what he wanted. So he went to sleep. He was at peace. So, be diligent, he says, that you may be found in peace without spite, and blameless. Only born-again believers can be without spot and blameless. Because they've been washed, they've been cleansed, they've been sanctified. Their vile bodies are still spotted and blameful. But what God sees is sanctified and is holy. And so should our conversation and manner of living be every day. If we stumble and fall, it should be because we hate it, and we turn from it and beg God to forgive us. In account of all covering our Lord's salvation, even as our brother Paul, also concerning wisdom, in all of his epistles, speaking in them of these things in which some are hard to be understood, that are unlearned and unstable, wrestle. You have to read all the scriptures. You have to read all the scriptures. And you can make a pretense of salvation like many examples in the scriptures. They were of those. All those Jews did when Christ walked the earth. They were all very religious people and they all thought they were going to heaven. They made a pretense of being good and with their mouth they served God but their heart was far from Him. You see, your mouth can do one thing and your heart do another. It's important that they both be right before God. Because these people that are unlearned about spiritual things and they're unstable in all of their ways because they are not truly the children of God, they wrestle with the Scriptures! Not only those talking about the end times and the coming of Christ, but with all other Scriptures until their own destruction! Because not all scriptures fits their scheme of things. And when the scriptures don't fit the way they think that they want to be, and they get mad and all puffed up. But that's what they are. And to count that also around the Lord's salvation, as our beloved Paul, according to the wisdom given unto him, In all his epistles, speaking of these things, in which are some things hardly understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable rest, as they do also of the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. Ye therefore. Now there's another one. We've had, nevertheless we, and wherefore, in verse 70 says, ye therefore. What does that mean? You're not like them. I don't care if it's family or not. I don't care if it's wife or husband or children, brothers and sisters, mothers and dads. I don't care who it is. Paul says, you therefore. What does that mean? You're different than them. They wrestle with the Scriptures. Why do they wrestle with the Scriptures? Because the Scriptures is going that way, and they're wanting to go that way, but they still want to look religious. So they wrestle with the scripture. It don't really mean that. It means this. Women keep silent in the church. Well, it don't really mean that. It means this. Women go to teach or preach or you serve with her. Well, it really don't mean that. It means this. We keep wrestling here. You keep wrestling with it. To your own destruction. And then he says, you therefore, talking about the remnant, in the last days. Ye, therefore, don't be like them. You're not like them. Don't wrestle with the Scriptures. Read them and believe them. Ye, therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before... How can you wrestle with that? How can you wrestle with anything the Scripture says? Tie all the scriptures together and study and pray for God's wisdom and His knowledge. See, you know these things before. Beware! He said, I'm telling you, you're not like them. They wrestle with the scriptures because they want them to say something different. That's why they keep making different translations. Because this one don't read the right way! Don't say the right things that make it more comfortable. So everybody can be at ease with themselves when they read the Scriptures. Especially when the preacher is reading the Scriptures from the pulpit. Just don't make anybody uncomfortable. Let me tell you something. God uses ministers of the Gospel that makes people uncomfortable, especially the elect that are yet unconverted, when the Spirit of God goes out with the Word of God that makes them uncomfortable, for them to say, woe is me! I'm in a bad way here. Of course, some of them it just makes mad. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware, lest ye also, oh my goodness, Wait a minute preacher, you said he was talking about remnant in the last days, but he's saying beware lest ye also like them! How do you know if you're not one of them? Is it because of something you said with your mouth when you were 12 years old down in front of the church? Is that what makes you different from them? Those that wrestle with the Word and struggle with it to their own destruction? Is that what makes you different from them? He says, Ye, therefore, beloved, those whom I love, they're born-again believers. Seeing that you know these things, beware! Take heed! lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness." What is steadfastness? It's being steady. Always the same. Doing what we're supposed to be doing. Putting on the Lord Jesus Christ every morning. Everything that we say and do. We're doing it for the honor of our God. and our King. And we want to be pleasing to Him. And we want to be looking for Him to come. And we want to be hastening to the coming of the day of God. We want to be looking for it. We want our manner of conversation and our manner of living to be such that we'll be at peace with Him when He comes. And we won't be running and crying for the rocks and the hills to fall on us and save us from Him that set us on the throne. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things, beware, lest ye also be led away with the error of the wicked. If you hang with the wicked, if you talk with the wicked, if you socialize with the wicked, if you're buddies and pals with the wicked, beware. Beware. Beware if you're not. But if you do, beware, you're going to be led off with them. That's the reason he said, tempt not Christ, like they in the wilderness also tempted him and were led away. He was telling the Corinthians, don't you go into those temples and sit down and eat meat that's been offered to idols, you're tempting Christ! The same way they did in the wilderness when they withstood Moses. They were tempting God. God told Moses which way to go. God led the cloud where He wanted it to go. He was the cloud! Don't you tempt Him. Don't you sit down with these people and eat meat that's been offered to idols. Don't you socialize with these people that are ungodly filth in conversations. You're different. You're the children of God. You're the remnant in the last days. Ye therefore beware, lest ye be led away also. in the era of the wicked. And you fall from your own steadfastness. That's why we come to meet together. That's why we fellowship with one another. That's why we can take rebuke, reproving and exhorting one another. We are supposed to exhort one another and to reprove one another and to rebuke one another. That's what we do. Because we love one another. But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That's what we do. If you will do what he says here, then you will grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that you are not carried away with the error of the wicked and the ungodly. You stay among godly people and you have fellowship with godly people and you love godly people and you pray for one another and you help one another. That's what the remnant does in the last days because there are few of us. And we won't bow to Nebuchadnezzar's statue or anything else other than our King. We won't tolerate sodomy. And we won't say that it's alright, or adultery, or fornication, or all the other sins that it lists in Romans the first chapter, or anywhere else in the scriptures. We won't tolerate them. We're not going to put up with it. That's just the way it is. Amen. Nathan, we address the Lord's blessings on us.