You can be turning in your Bibles to 2 Peter chapter number 3. I had a thought as Brother Bruce was talking, he mentioned that he wasn't going to be singing, that he'll be bringing a message, and it took me back. We were there in Bosque and Pastor Jose, the church there, before I was set to preach, he kind of asked me, of course it's in Spanish, I didn't quite pick it up, but he asked if I wanted to sing a special in English. And it was amazing how quickly Brother Bruce answered for me that that was not going to happen. But anyways, it was a wonderful blessing. I just, I wanted to do a quick thank you, a little bit of recognition. We came back and I was so just exhausted and played out and just not right that I didn't say anything during our pie and praise, but I wanted to publicly thank Brother Ed and Miss Christina. I don't see them here tonight, but anyways, I wanted to thank them for all the food that they bring. It's almost every Monday. that they bring free food, and that's available to the entire membership. Usually Ms. Susie, my wife, will make sure that's set out on Wednesday nights, and I'm very appreciative of that. It's been tough for me and my family recently, and getting some free food is a wonderful thing. I also want to thank, just thank the Lord, and thank my pastor for the opportunity to be able to speak to you tonight. It's such an honor to be in the pulpit. And I want to give a special thanks to my brother Bruce. He took me on this trip to Mexico. He's taken me on numerous other trips in the past. All the teaching that he's given me, you know, I'm a product of Texas Theological University and seminary myself. I now work in the school, but I went through it as a student as well. But Brother Bruce has really taken on that mentorship of me, and even like a father taking care of me along the way. He paid out of his work fund to make sure all my travel and everything was covered, and it was just a wonderful blessing. So thank you, Brother Bruce. Just want to give my testimony here for just a minute. When I was 10, I was sitting in this church building on the north end of Austin, and listening to the wonderful preaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I remember being under such conviction that during that invitation, I was standing and holding on to that pew that was in front of me, just fighting with myself on my own need of salvation. And I'm very grateful that God prevailed and I went down to that altar, very much like this, fell there and cried out to God to forgive me of sin and save me. And He did, He saved me right there that very moment. It was like a massive weight lifted off my shoulders. I really, literally, I did feel lighter when I got up from that. But there was one thing that became very clear and happened very soon thereafter. then I began to love the Word of God. I began to love preaching. You know, it's one of the marks of a new believer is this desire for the Word of God. First Peter 2.2, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow thereby. You know, my teen years were rough, there was much time of backsliding there, it was tough at home, and basically I was stuck in that state of being a baby Christian for some 11 years. But that desire for the Word of God never left, and it never does if you're truly born again. That desire for God, for His Word is going to be in your heart. In college, I remember I would visit, try this church, that church, off and on, and I was amazed that usually there might be a reading of a couple of verses, and then it was story time from then on. Very little of God's Word was actually put out there. Then finally, the Lord introduced me to a small independent Baptist church there in Temple, where the Scriptures were being preached. And immediately I latched on as finally I'm hearing the Word of God again. And it was there that I really began to grow. The book of 2 Peter, the theme of it is knowledge. And here in chapter number three, we're going to find out very soon that God has some things that He wants us to hold on to. If we would, let's stand together, we'll read a couple of verses out of 2 Peter chapter three, looking at verse number one. God says this second epistle beloved. I now write unto you in both which I stir up your pure binds by way of remembrance that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Savior. Let's bow for prayer father. We come to you tonight. We love you so much. We thank you, Lord, for giving us a pure word. We thank you, Lord, for giving us of your son, Jesus, that he would come to this earth and pay the price for our sins. And I thank you, Lord, for bringing us back together on this cold night in North Texas. And I pray, Lord, that you'd speak to our hearts, that you'd accomplish exactly what you would have done tonight. I think of our pastor, I pray that you would accomplish what's to be done there in getting a new pastor started. We thank you, Lord, for being so good. Please bless us tonight, in Christ's name, amen. And of course, you may be seated. God wants us to remember some things. He says that He wants to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. But what is it that he wants us to remember? He says in verse 2, the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, what's he talking about? Well there, of course, he's talking about the Old Testament, the words that were spoken before. Then he goes on and he says of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, Peter and the other apostles, of course, in that he's talking about the New Testament. So really, God wants us to remember the entire Bible. You know, if we're going to be steadfast in our faith and in our doctrine, if we're going to be able to defend against error, we must know the truth. Amen? Just as He stated here in the first two verses. If you know the scriptures well, you'll be inoculated against error. If you know them well, you'll be able to stand against lies and false doctrine. And let me tell you, it's everywhere. You young folks in school, especially if you're out there in the public school, you're getting pummeled with error day after day. But God has the truth and he wants us to remember it. The theme of the entire book of 2 Peter is knowledge. Time after time, some 16 times, God mentions a word or a variant of the word, knowledge. God wants us to understand how important it is to know the truth. And it's not just any knowledge, young folks. It's not just anything that's out there. Again, there's plenty of false knowledge out there. This is a spiritual knowledge, a truth that God wants us to know. Knowing the truth is the first and the best way to go against error. We have courses in our college that will help you to learn about false doctrine, false religion, errors. Those are wonderful things, they're helpful. But the very best is knowing the truth. Now if we learn something, young folks, if you go to school and you get some new knowledge, that's a good thing, right? But what happens if you turn around and you forget it? It's not useful anymore, right? I had the major blessing of being trained by the best, by Brother Milton Martin, Brother Bruce's dad, that's now gone on to be with the Lord. He took me under his wing. He personally taught me one-on-one, face-to-face, man-to-man. He took me on mission trips as well. And I'm very grateful again that Brother Bruce continued that. He continued the discipleship that I needed in the college and in the pulpit. That makes me a debtor to these men. Other men, Brother Wayne and others have taught me as well. But again, the same thing I could say is, what if I forgot everything I learned? I wouldn't be able to pass it on to anyone else, right? And Brother Milton used to tell me, he had this saying, he said, get all you can and can all you get. And I was a dumb guy from the city, I didn't understand that. It took me a while. I wasn't so quick on my feet, as it were. But finally I got it. Oh, he's talking about canning, like when you put vegetables in the cans, you know? So I finally got it. And it's like, oh, okay, so what he's talking about is learning, sitting under the preaching, the teaching, studying it yourself, learning, gaining that knowledge, and storing it, holding on to it. Amen? And still, as in my early years of ministry, I didn't really get it. I couldn't put that into practice. And again, it's a sad thing. God, in those early years, he would give me some messages. Maybe I'd write something down and then I would go teach it to the kids or whatever ministry I was in, and then I would lose it. And those things are gone. Finally, I learned, and now I save all my messages on the computer, we've got the cloud and everything that we can get everything backed up, and so I hold on to those things that God has given me. So, each one of you, we need to do the same thing. If God gives you something, put it in storage, don't lose it. There's some things he doesn't want us to lose. Verse number two, that you may be mindful of the words which are spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior. Again, we said it, he wants us to remember the whole Bible. But let's look back into chapter one for just a second. 2 Peter chapter one. Verse number 21 says, for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And yes, he's referring to the same thing here, the Old Testament. And by the way, this is a way that he's given us the scriptures. He uses his Holy Spirit, he paired up with men to write all of the Bible. Remember all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for adoption for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness But also here in our passage in 2nd Peter 3 and verse number 2 He mentions that commandment of the Apostles the Lord and of our Lord and Savior the New Testament So again, it's the whole Bible So I want you to think about it, especially if you've been in the faith for a little while, look over your life, try to think back to those years when you first came into the faith. And then think about after you'd learned some things, you'd heard some preaching, you'd heard some teaching, you've done some praying on your own, you've done some reading on your own, you've done some study on your own. Maybe you took some classes here at our school, what have you. and some time passed, some years went by. Would you say that you were better back when, when you were a baby Christian, or better later on? Better now, after you've learned some things. Amen? Of course, we're better after we've learned some things. And then to those that are new in the faith, just get started, you know? You don't have anything to remember yet except for God saving you, but that's totally fine, that's what the book is all about here, learning. Moving on to verse number three, 2 Peter 3, 3 says, knowing this first that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts. Saying where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation These scoffers What does he mean? What does he mean by a scoffer? well, according to Strong's concordance a scoffer is a derider or one who mocks It's also associated with a false teacher. These are people that'll come along and make fun of you. You ever been out door knocking? I know some of the young guys have. Anybody ever made fun of you out there? It's not a pleasant thing. I've heard even my own daughter out here at Bible Handout, and somebody came by in the car and cursed her out as he went by. These are scoffers. These are folks that they do whatever they feel like, and then they come in, they mock, they question. the Word of God. I've had them out here before where they've come in and they try to teach me a works-based salvation, right? Right out there in the parking lot we had a couple come in. I knew it was trouble when I asked them, you know, what was the interest, trying to establish a baseline with them, and the guy says, well, we just wanted to come in and see what you believe. It's like, oh boy, here we go. And it was a rough one. And so they raise questions about the Word of God. Here in our passage, they ask the question, where is the promise of his coming? Do we agree that he's coming back? The rapture is a real thing. He's coming back. But they say, oh, well, you know, 2,000 years and still hasn't happened. Well, it's going to happen. Some have tried to put a date on the calendar, only to find out after the date's passed that they got it wrong. Jesus even said, but of that day and hour knoweth no man. No, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. There's one that knows, and he's keeping it to himself. And when the time is right, he'll signal for the Lord Jesus Christ, it's time to go. And whether I'm still here serving the Lord and get to go, the folks that are dead in Christ go first and I go meet my brothers and meet the Lord in the air, that's fine. Or if I'm dead and I get to go first, that's fine too. Either way is okay. The truth of it is that the rapture's real and it's going to happen. These scoffers will mock at it, nah, that's not going to happen, they say. But look at what God says about these scoffers in the next verse, verse number five. He says, for this they willingly are ignorant of. I find that phrase very interesting, willfully ignorant. That means they made a conscious decision to keep themselves in the dark. They wanted to make sure they wouldn't know something. That's the total opposite of what God's telling us here. He wants us to know. He wants us to know the truth. These folks deny it and they don't want any part of it. So the question we might ask is, what is it that they're willingly ignorant of. Well, I'm glad you asked. He says that by the Word of God, verse number five, the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water. The first thing they're willingly ignorant of is creation itself. Creation itself, does that sound like anything today? What's the common knowledge today about how this universe came to be? The evolution is specifically that Big Bang Theory, right? As if anything is better after it explodes. Doesn't make any sense. They're willingly ignorant. They will not accept that God spoke it with his own breath into existence. They don't believe he created this world, and they certainly don't believe that he did it all by his mouth, but he did. So the question might be for this golfer is, what happens when a better theory than an explosion comes along? What are you gonna do then? Well, they'll probably go on to the next one, and they'll continue scoffing. Incredible. Verse number six. whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished. These scoffers, they don't believe in the great flood. Take them to the Grand Canyon. Oh, that was formed over millions of years, right? Gentle erosion, millions of years, bunch of junk. I'm pretty confident it happened over a period of a massive tidal wave of water for 40 days and 40 nights, and a subsequent better part of a year until the water abated off the earth. God, in His infinite wisdom, carved the most beautiful things during that time. The Grand Canyons, one of them, Yellowstone National Park, Mount Everest, you name it, God carved beautiful things during that time. And remember, rain at that time, that was the first time it ever rained. There was no rain. Rain didn't exist prior to that great flood. Last month, there is a group of us out of this church that went up to Kentucky and we visited the Ark. This is a life-size recreation. of that momentous thing that God told Noah to build. And by their measurements, it came out to be something like 500 feet long. It's really astounding and I recommend if you haven't gone to it, to go to it. I was really enthralled, that was a, that visit was wonderful for me. I took many pictures, and there were several, many things that they outlined and tied into the Scriptures how it might have happened. And while that was amazing, while that helped to strengthen my faith, I didn't have to go. I already believed that the flood had happened. So it wasn't have to, it just strengthened, it just helped me. But those scoffers, they'll continue to deny it. They'll reject it. So it's only natural that they'll reject what comes in verse number seven. Verse number seven says, but the heavens and the earth, which are now by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." God right now is maintaining the heavens and the earth, space, our earth, the sun. How is it that the earth always stays just about the perfect distance away from the sun? How is it that the moon stays the perfect distance around the earth? You know, I found it interesting, I learned not too long ago that, you know, the moon turns as well as it's going around the earth, it also spins just like we spin going around the sun. and it spins precisely right to where in one day's time it makes a turn. What that means is we always see the same side of the moon all the time. It's always the face of the moon. We don't ever get to see the dark side of the moon. Isn't that interesting? What is the force that keeps all of this going? Gravity, right? Gravity is that force. Keeps us spinning, keeps us going around the sun, keeps us at the right distance and the right speed, all those things. The question is, why? Why is gravity constant? Why is it so dependable? Science can measure all of those things, but can't tell you why. But God can say why, man. In Job chapter 26, if you want to turn there, that's fine. If not, I'll just give you the verse. Job chapter 26 and verse number seven says this, he stretches out the north over the empty place and hangeth the earth upon nothing. Now, before modern day scientists figured out that, yeah, we're actually, gravity is actually a thing and we're rotating around the sun, before these things were figured out, if somebody read something like that and then he hung the earth on nothing, they'd probably think you were crazy. But we know that. Science has shown us exactly that. The earth is literally Kept in by nothing. There's nothing there. Space around us is a vacuum. There's absolutely nothing there. And yet, God hung it out there in space. He put it just where He wanted. He created the laws of physics. He created gravity. He created it all and said it all and maintains it all. so that we're guaranteed, we don't have to worry, the sun's gonna come up in the morning. Now, Christ might come before then, but if he doesn't, the sun's gonna come up in the morning. We're in the wintertime, the next season's gonna be fall. I'm sorry, spring. Spring comes after winter. Then summer, then fall, then winter. We know these things are coming. We have a pretty good idea when they're coming, too. We can put them on the calendar. Why? Because God has made it so. Verse number seven, though, says that there's another day coming. Right now, he says, by the same word are kept in store. That's right now. But later on, reserved under fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. I'm very grateful that this hasn't happened yet. Praise the Lord that this day hasn't happened yet. But there's coming a day when this Earth and all this that we know is going to burn up. And science has even admitted so. There's some point out in the future, now of course they think it will be billions of years or whatever, but they even agree it's going to go out and fire. So there's that coming day of judgment. But God is about to switch gears here and give us something beautiful. He's about to tell us about an amazing patience that he has. He turns his attention back to us as believers in verse number eight. He says, but beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing. That one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. God is not bound by time. He created time. If he wants to, he can go back in time, he can go forward in time, he can flip everything on its head. It's not that way for us. For us, there's a second, another second, a minute, another minute, an hour, another hour, and so on. And it's very linear for us. These scoffers, as we read about, they're willingly ignorant. God doesn't want us to be ignorant. He's Lord over time as well. He's not bound by it. And He's so patient and loving that He even gives time for these scoffers to repent. Verse number nine. It's a beautiful verse, if you've been around the things of God for any time, you'll appreciate this verse. He says, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. As bad as these scoffers are, coming directly against God and His people, God doesn't want them to go to hell. And God doesn't want you to go to hell. He's such an amazing God, He doesn't want anyone to go to hell. So our question for tonight is, have you repented? Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. This is a verse that's for all lost people in all places, all ethnic and tribal groups, all languages and all times. And if you're lost here tonight, it's absolutely for you. He doesn't want you to go to hell. And he did everything except force it on you to get you there. He did everything. He sent his only son to become sin for us. The One who knew no sin, He became sin for us to die, to be buried. And after three days and three nights, to rise again, paying that price for every single person to be saved. He's got enough grace, His blood is perfect enough, it's powerful enough to save every single person on planet earth. Eight billion souls, He can save them all. He's got the power to save them all. The only thing that He won't do is He will not force it on you. It's something that you have to do. What do I have to do? You have to repent. You have to trust Christ. Repentance is a change of mind and a change of heart. You see your sin as God sees it. You come to Him looking for forgiveness. Trusting is just a simple, childlike belief. God said it, that Christ was enough, and I believe it. And right now, God is giving time. One day with the Lord, like a thousand years. A thousand years is one day. God's in control, and even with the evil that we're seeing in our country and throughout the world, the scoffers, all that's happening, God is up there and he's waiting. And he's delivering the message. He's putting his preachers out there to give the message so that folks can hear and be saved. not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. So I'll ask again, have you repented? Brother Wayne, if you'll come. We'll pray and then I'll turn it over to my brother Wayne. Father, thank you so much for being a great and wonderful God. Thank you that right now, You're up there and you're waiting and you're giving time for another lost soul to hear your precious word and to believe on Jesus Christ. And I pray, Lord, that you would just get ahold of somebody, somebody that's in desperate need and that you would save their soul. I pray, Lord, that you'd help your people, that you would Help us to remember, to learn, remember that you might get much glory, that you might take your gospel to the ends of this earth, to the very last person that hasn't heard. And we just wanna give it to you. We love you and we thank you. You're a great God, in Christ's name, amen. Thank you, brother. You've heard the truth. Let's stand. We've heard the truth. This is one of the final truths of the Bible. God's word, God's work, God's will. He is not willing for you to go to hell. He's not willing that any should perish. And so what's holding back the time right now, the grace of God, that cares about your soul. That's a tremendous truth, brother. And He's given us this time. I don't know if you'll ever have another time or not, but we've got this time. He's provided this time. One day the last soul will be saved and it'll be over. He gives you that warning. that that day will come. I don't know how much closer we are than Peter was, but we're closer now than we've ever been before. So I just wanna invite you now to come. What number are you singing, brother? 163, only trust Him. Let's do business with the Lord. If you need to talk to Brother Jeff about this message, he's here and he'd be glad to share it with you. There's others here that can take you to the throne of grace. Don't put off what God's, this is an urgent message. It's not a, when I decide. God's already decided. And it's time for us to get in line with them. We will save you now. For Jesus, in His presence now, in His presence to be shown. God's love in the presence. It's interesting that Brother Jeff comes with this kind of a message at this time of the year. whenever one of our minds are focused on something else. It's all about Christmas, don't you know? It's jingle bells all the way. And besides that, we've been in church all week. We've ate everything there is in Lake Worth, I think, and had fellowship after fellowship, and we got things going on. You can be churchy. You can look good, talk good, act good. But down in your heart, you better know that what he said is a fact in you. There is that day when God will say it's over. And that day, there'll be no repentance. No, you can't put it off any longer. And we'll give an answer for what we've done with Christ. I had no idea this morning that I'd be up here giving this invitation. The pastor said, I want Brother Wayne to give the invitation. Why? He's already given you the invitation. But here's what I've come to. I've been praying about it all day long. There's folks in this congregation that come every week, sing all the songs that need to be saved. And what he's given you is very clear. The Word of God the work of God and the will of God. Now then, you may have not had all that before, but you've got it now. And you either accept it or you become the scorner. You're not rejecting Jeff or this church. You're rejecting the word of God, the work of God. He gave a savior and the will of God. He's not willing that any should perish. And if you stay in that position, you're in trouble. I prayed all day long for my family today. They're scattered everywhere, and they're doing everything. I don't know who's saved anymore, and I don't know who's not. They've all made some kind of a profession, but it seems like it's a surface profession in some cases. We see that all around us right here. Twice a week, we've been doing these Bible handouts. Every week, my heart is burdened about some particular person who said, I'll be there. This morning, the Word of God. Let me just say about this. God's given us a great church. God's given us a Bible preaching preacher. And God's given us people who are concerned about souls right here. Don't play a church game. Get a hold of the Word of God will of God and the work of God. That's your lot in this life. That's what He's brought us to be. All around us are people that say Baptist and live like the world. Don't become that scorner. but let God do what He wants to do. I would like for Brother Tim, let's sing one more time, Brother, one more verse. This is our verse, not their verse, our verse. If there's something lacking, why don't you get it right with God? Because there is a day coming when it'll be over. Do it today. Yes. Thank you, brother. I've got a couple of prayer requests. I talked yesterday with Scott Nutterville. Brother Scott is the preacher who brought this Bible program, this Bible handout program to us. They gave him, last year they said, if you, he was under the care of the Cancer Society, Cancer Hospital there in Houston. And they said, we can give you this chemo, but it will not kill your cancer. All it'll do is prolong your time. And Scott said to me, Brother Wayne, I don't want to sit in a hospital room and drink chemo just to live longer. I want to be out preaching and telling folks and winning souls and seeing people saved as long as I can be. That was a year ago. In December, they gave him three months. No, not December, in September. They gave him three months. He's used a month of it, and he's bought a home over in Center, Texas. Some of y'all don't know where that's at, but it's deep in East Texas. And he is making provision for his wife, Debbie, to be close to family. He's got a home bought. I said, well, Scott, are you traveling, still traveling? He said, no, I can't travel anymore. I said, but do you get to preach a little bit there at the church where you're at? He's in a good church. Brother Dodson is a pastor there and it's a good church. He said, the last two times I preached, I had to sit down to preach because I don't have any strength. He said, I told my pastor that I do not want to preach anymore. I'll be glad to witness and talk to people. Would you pray for Scott Netterville and Debbie? He had a choice a year ago. He might have taken the chemo for another year. I don't know. But he wanted to give his whatever time he had left to the service of the Lord. And he's done that. And according to their timetable, he's two months away from going to heaven. So pray for Scott and Debbie, please. And Uh, Joyce Jones, Joyce Jones fell and broke her arm this week. She wasn't able to be here today. You say, well, she's 90 something years old, probably didn't need to be here anyway. You know what? She likes to be here and she carries a testimony home from this place to her family every week. I don't know how well you know her, but she's pretty, she's got a strong will. She told me about the day that they came down to take her somewhere at the hospital. She said, what do you think you're doing? There's two big guys in there going to move her. She, they said, we're going to take you down to so-and-so places. She said, you're not taking me anywhere. And she stood her ground. They had to go get the doctor to tell her. It helped us to have some of that willpower that some of those old folks have. Just pray for her, would you? And pray one for another. This is a, it's a precious time. It's a precious time when everything in heaven stood still and all the angels came down to shepherds. And that song we've been singing about all day rang out for the first time. God so loved this world. that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him would not have to perish, but could have everlasting life. And every one of us who say Christian are bought with that price that was paid right there. It's wonderful. It's a wonderful time. Any other word? Bruce, you want to preach some or what? Me and Bruce decided to get rid of ... Pastor wanted some of the ceremonies up here, but we shuffled it around a little bit. I'm thankful for a pastor that's concerned about how he leads us and what's going on. It's wonderful to be here with you. We had a great day with the men yesterday. I would have liked to have been back there to the birthday party for Jesus back there in the children's church this morning. I know that was a great time. Celebrate. The King has come. Our Savior is here. It's a time of celebration. Brother Daniel, would you lead us in a word of prayer, please? I pray that you will help me, Father, in my ministry tonight, so that I may be able to serve a great deed, that I may be a good person, that I may be a good father, that I may be a good mother, that I may be a good dad, But I pray that you help us to remember that we are here to serve you, to honor you, to glorify you, and to praise you. So we pray for those who are not here. We pray for those who do not know you. We pray for those who are serving in the U.S. Army. Thank you, God. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.