Well, it's good to be here with you all from northern Mexico, from the city of Chihuahua. I love Isaiah chapter 55 that we just sang that song from. Today we're going to talk about restoration. Restoration. Our text is going to be 2 Peter chapter 3 2 Peter chapter 3. We'll begin with verse 7. 2 Peter chapter 3. beginning with verse 7. Before we read the scriptures, let's begin with prayer. Gracious Lord, we thank you, Father, for your goodness and your mercy towards us. We thank you, Lord, that from the rising of the sun to its setting, your name is to be praised. We praise you, God, for revealing yourself to us. Thank you, Lord, for condescending to reveal yourself to us and show us who you are and what you are like. We pray, God, that you will forgive our sins. We thank you, Lord, for receiving us in the beloved. We pray, God, that as we gather here today to worship you, you will be honored and glorified. Your word will be proclaimed with clarity. And I pray, God, that the Christ and the gospel will be prominent. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. 2 Peter 3, beginning with verse 7, But the present heavens and earth, by his word, are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some count slowness, but patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. Verse 10. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. It just says like a thief in this translation. In which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat and the earth and its works will be burned up. 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 day of God on account 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 new heaven and new earth in which righteousness dwells. In our world People live in a lot of different ways. But many, many, many people on this earth ignore these facts. They don't think about these facts. Things are going to change, my friends. Things are not going to be the same forever. We can look back a hundred years and think of some significant changes that have happened in the last 100 years. Those changes are very small compared to the changes that will occur in the restoration. The changes which are coming are far greater than the changes which have been seen before. In our verse, verse 13, and that's going to be the verse we're going to focus on this morning. In this verse we see a few very important phrases here. We're going to start with the phrase, we are looking for. We are looking for. The Christian worldview is not content with the way things are today. We're not happy with the way things are today. As a matter of fact, you could look around and you'd really realize that nobody is really happy with the way things are today. No one's really content with the way things are. But the Christian has some particular reasons to be discontent with the way things are. We're commanded to contentment in many areas of our life, aren't we? But at the same time, the Christian is discontent. He's looking for something beyond what this world has to offer. We're discontent with the current situation and we expect that things will change. The reality of the fall and all of its consequences That reality has been devastating on the human race. Slavery to sin, pain, suffering, alienation, sickness, death. These things have characterized our existence here on this earth for generations and generations, as long as humanity can remember. And the Bible gives us a wonderful explanation, and we've talked about the explanation of why these things exist, haven't we? because of our sin, because of God's wrath poured out on our sin. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Here in this earth we live simultaneously under the curse and under the common grace of God. Suffering came as a result of the fall. Whenever people go through a time of a greater expression of these things, our heart complains, doesn't it? Our heart longs for something else. Even the heart of the rank pagan longs for something else, but all he can do is complain because he doesn't have any future hope. All he can think about is today. What a blessing it is to have a Christian worldview, isn't it? In which even when we bury a beloved loved one, we don't grieve as the world grieves. We have hope that that person will one day rise from the grave. But all creation groans under the weight of our sin. All creation groans under the weight of the fall. Romans chapter 8 verses 19 to 22. State this with great clarity. Romans chapter 8 verse 19, For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revelation of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but according to Him who subjected it in hope, that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth until now." All of creation is under the curse. All of creation, in some sense, is suffering because of our sin. of no fault of its own, but because man sinned and God has brought the curse because of our sin. The majority of humanity notices, the majority of humanity notices the way things are and complains about the world's problems of sickness, suffering, injustice, etc. But like foolish ostriches with their heads buried in the sand, they ignore God's promises and look for solutions and reward outside of God, don't they? And that's very easy. That would be very easy for even some of us to do, wouldn't it be? Very easy for us to be carried along by the ways of this world and to look for our hope and our reward in the things of this life. It's the most natural thing for us. It's the easiest. To have our hope in something beyond this life requires a very important ingredient called faith. Outside of faith, man looks for tangible rewards, doesn't he? He wants those things which will make his life here on this earth more pleasant, doesn't he? And those tangible things become our priority very, very easily. Where are you looking for your rewards? Where are you looking for the solution to your problems? Are you looking to Christ? Are you looking to God? And are you expecting reward in heaven? Or are you thinking, I want to live my best life now, here on this earth, let's get all we can right now. That's the attitude of the majority of the world which surrounds us. Are you looking to God for your satisfaction, as mentioned there in Isaiah chapter 55? Do you have thirst, a thirst for God? Jesus says, blessed are those who thirst, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Where are you looking? Where are your eyes fixed? Are they fixed on Jesus and on the future reward? Or are your eyes fixed on the tangible things of this life which so easily, so easily find their way into our hearts and begin to dominate our thinking and our expectation? Isaiah 55, the chapter we just read, calls us to seek our satisfaction in the Lord. And the Lord in that passage says, in that beautiful invitation to the people of Israel, He says, why do you look for your satisfaction in these things that don't satisfy? Come to me and get the good stuff, He said. Why are you looking to all this other stuff that's not really all that great and is going away? Look to me to find your satisfaction. The blindness of unbelief, the blindness of unbelief is to look to this present world for our rewards. Some expression of the treasure of this world are the priority of the masses. Comfort, health, wealth. Now there's nothing wrong with those things in and of themselves, is there? But if that's our hope, that's a pretty pathetic hope, isn't it? If that's our hope, You know what? Those things are being taken out of our hands every day. Those things are being pulled out of our hands every day. If those are your priority rewards, you're in for a depressing ride. Decay, inflation, aging. disease, death. You can fight against those things all you want. And it's fine to fight against them, fight against them. I mean, do what you can to live a healthy life. And I mean, you don't want to die tomorrow unless you have to, right? But seriously, those things are all being pulled out of your hand. You are losing the battle every day for the world's rewards. But God, He's going to give rewards which are going to last for eternity. And rewards in heaven are worth a whole lot more than rewards here on this earth. Now we do receive, as Christians, as followers of Jesus Christ, we do receive rewards here on this earth. The psalmist says in Psalm 27, I would have fainted unless I had expected to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. And how many of us can say that we have indeed seen the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living? All of us can say we've received much more than our works deserved, haven't we? God has rewarded us greatly, but the rewards that God will give in heaven are of far more value than the rewards here of this age. The rewards of eternity will not be subject to corruption like the rewards of this life. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verses 16 to 18. says the following, therefore we do not lose heart, but through our, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. While we look not at the things which are seen, but to the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. God is going to reward His people with eternal things, things which today we can't see and it requires faith to believe that God is indeed the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, doesn't it? And so while the world perhaps, and even our own heart sometimes, may think of those rewards and think, wow, I can't see it. And though the world may mock the idea of faith, And a God who gives rewards to His people, a God who cannot be seen, by faith we accept that it is so, and by faith we pursue pleasing God. Doing those things which are pleasing to Him, knowing that He is the rewarder of those who seek Him. We look for something different. Things are going to change. Things are going to change radically, drastically. We're in 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 13. The second phrase I would like to call our attention to is this phrase. According to His promise. According to His promise. We have reason to be expecting this new creation. We have reason to be expecting this new order of things God has promised. And here all the commentators that I could find send us to Isaiah chapter 65 verse 17. Isaiah chapter 65 verse 17. In which The Lord speaks of future times saying this, for behold I create new heavens and a new earth and the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. I create new heavens and a new earth says the Lord. We take the God who cannot lie at His word. Faith takes the God who cannot lie at His word. In Christ all the promises of God are yes and amen for the believers, aren't they? And as we examine biblical history, We see the ways in which God has fulfilled his promises time and time again. As we think of the first advent of our Lord Jesus Christ and all the prophecies leading up to that and all the wonderful ways in which our Savior fulfilled those promises. It comforts our hearts. and gives us the expectation in the future that the God who has fulfilled His promises in the past will continue to do so in the future. The Bible not only teaches us of things regarding the past, and it wonderfully does so, but it also teaches us of the wonderful things that still remain ahead of us. And so we confidently say that the God who cannot lie has spoken the truth to us, and we take Him at His word. According to His promise, we look for these new heavens. and New Earth. And when it says heavens, it's speaking of the atmospheric heavens, isn't it? It's not speaking of the dwelling place of God. It's speaking of the atmospheric heavens and this Earth, this creation which we see today, subject to decay because of the fall of man. And that new reality, which we're going to experience someday, is going to be characterized by something very important, according to our texture today. We're looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. In which righteousness dwells. In this phrase we find the essential difference between our world today and the one which is to come. Our world is marred by sin. I had to get that word in there. Marred by sin with all of its ugly consequences. The world which is to come will be characterized by righteousness. It will be perfect. And we just sang, Jesus shall reign, and in that song it says that we will inherit more blessings than our fathers lost, right? How can that be? Our fathers walked in perfect communion with God. But in that perfect communion with God, it's obvious that God built into this first creation the capacity for the fall and the capacity for sin. And there is no indication whatsoever that that world which is to come will be in any sense subject to corruption. Praise God for a new creation which is fall-proof, in which righteousness dwells, We're going to go now to the book of Revelation chapter 21 verses 1 to 8. Revelation chapter 21 verses 1 to 8. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and there was no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city New Jerusalem, and coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them. And He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there shall no longer be any death. There shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain. The first things have passed away. And he who sits on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. And he said, Write, for these words are faithful and true. And he said to me, It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. He who overcomes shall inherit these things and I will be his God and he shall be my son. But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. He will dwell among them. He will dwell among them as a permanent. He will take up His permanent residence among them. We rejoice in having the presence of God among us today, don't we? He said, Lord, I am with you even to the end of the age. He has sent His Spirit to be with us, to build His church, and we are sanctified by the Spirit, and it's a work of the Spirit whenever anyone comes to faith in Jesus Christ, right? We have some measure of the presence of God among us, But that will be far greater in the world which is to come. In the world which is to come, the presence of our Lord with us will be a different sort of reality. And what that will be like, you and I can only try to imagine. What will it be like to live with God and walk and talk with Him? Adam and Eve knew something of that for the first period of their lives, didn't they? But then they lost it. One day that will be restored in the new creation and even better. We will rejoice in a level of fellowship with our Creator which is unknown in our current age. As the first man walked with God in sinlessness, so we will walk with our Lord. Righteousness will dwell there. And who is indeed the Righteous One? Our Lord. He is the Righteous One. And we will have a new body, a new nature. We will be glorified. And we will be enabled in this new way of existing to live with our Creator forever. That justice which people so long to see today will be carried out in the future. That comfort which we so long for today will be ours. That lack of sickness, that lack of the sin nature, all those things will be changed into a new reality called glorification. We will dwell with Him. There'll be no need for the sun there, it says, because the Lord will be with us. He will be the light of that place. Verse 8, in verse 8 we find a stark contrast. But for the cowardly, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and immoral persons, and sorcerers, and idolaters, all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire. Here we find a stark contrast and a grave warning, don't we? A stark contrast and a grave warning. I really have appreciated an illustration from Paul Washer in which he says some of those sitting here in this room today within 50 years will be so glorious that you wouldn't even be able to believe it. I mean it's just beyond our imagination. And some of those sitting here today, within 50 years, will be in such a horrible situation that you cannot imagine either. Hell will be a terrible, terrible reality. Our Lord commands us to flee from the wrath to come. Our Lord commands us to repent or perish. Our Lord commands us, commands all men everywhere to repent because He has established a day in which He will judge this world in righteousness and the evidence that that will indeed take place is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Jesus Christ is the mortal enemy of the man who rejects faith in God. The man who refuses to repent has the worst of enemies, Jesus Christ, who is an undefeatable enemy. Death itself could not defeat Him. There will be great reward for those who know and love the Lord. There will be great loss on that day for those who do not know and love the Lord. The Scriptures say that in that day many will say to the Lord, did not we say to you, Lord, Lord? And didn't we prophesy in your name and do many mighty works in your name? The Lord will say to those people, to some of those people, depart from me. You workers of iniquity, I never knew you. The Lord gives us so many warnings in the scripture of the wrath which is coming. The book of Hebrews itself gives us many warnings to pay attention to how we hear. Pay attention to how you hear. Your eternity is very important. Your eternity is at stake. Will you accept God's invitation to come to Him? Or will you harden your heart and seek the rewards of this life instead? A very important doctrine of Orthodox Christianity is the doctrine of eternal hell. It's a very important doctrine of Orthodox Christianity, clearly taught in our text here, also in chapter 20 of the same book of Revelation, verses 10 and following. And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are also, and they will be tormented day and night. forever and ever. And I saw a great white throne, and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. And books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged for the things which were written in the book according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them. And they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. And death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. If we could see that lake of fire, I believe that it would cause us absolutely to tremble, my friends. It would cause us to tremble to see the wrath of God poured out in its fullness is a terrible, terrible thing. Our God is a consuming fire, is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God. The Lord, in His Word, reveals both His severity and His kindness to us. Here on this earth, we are living in so many ways under the kindness of God. The common grace of God has made a beautiful life for us here on this earth, compared to what hell will be. Hell will be horrible. As a matter of fact, this earth will look just absolutely beautiful in comparison. And the Lord tells us in Mark chapter 9 that to avoid hell is to be done at all costs. Mark chapter 9 verse 43, And if your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than having your two hands. to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life lame than having your two feet to be cast into hell, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. And if your eye causes you to stumble, cast it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes to be cast into hell. where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched." Now, we know from other scriptures that your hand and your eye and your foot are not the source of your sin, are they? Where is the source of your sin? Your innermost being, your heart, is the source of your sin, isn't it? But if your right hand was the cause of your sin, and if you could get rid of your sin by cutting your right hand off, that would be better than going to hell. That would indeed be better. As painful as that would be, as horrible as that would be, that would indeed be better. But what we really need, my friends, is a heart transplant, isn't it? A new heart. And that's what God promises His people in the New Covenant. He promises His people a new heart. He will write His law in our heart. That means He will give us a love for His Word. Our affection will be for Him and for His Word. And as we see our affection for Christ and for His Word growing in our hearts, We grow in the confidence that we are indeed the children of God. And if we do not see that growing in our hearts, if we see our hearts growing hard against the Lord, then my friends, it's time to cry out to God for mercy. Cry out to God for help, because He is the only help for the soul of the hard-hearted man. He is the only help. The doctrine of hell and the thought of eternal suffering should unsettle our hearts and cause us to be concerned about our sin and drive us to the Savior. Repent, because judgment is coming. Believe on Jesus and you will be saved, said the Apostle Paul to the Philippian jailer. He said, what shall I do to be saved? Feeling the weight of his sin. It is indeed a blessing to feel the weight of your sin for a moment, if that drives you to the Savior. And it is indeed a curse to live a comfortable life in unbelief. So, this world is not all that there is. This world is a temporary reality. Your life here in this world is a temporary reality. If you set your hope on the things of this world, you're in for a depressing ride, my friends. And as I look at the people we minister to in northern Mexico, I see this again and again. We minister in a small town called Bawinocachi, which is about three hours away from our house. It's a town of maybe 100, 150 people at the most. And that town is given over to paganism. They practice the pagan rituals of animal sacrifice. They practice the pagan rituals of drunkenness. I know men who spend entire months drunk. The entire time. The entire time. And they practice the pagan ritual of suicide. I don't know how many suicides there have been in that little town in the amount of time that I've been ministering there. It's absolutely very sad. Very sad. Why? Because they don't have any hope beyond this life. They're looking to this life for their joy. And indeed my friends, the life there is very bleak. Very bleak. The gospel is the only hope to give a new worldview to these people and a reason for living. The gospel is the only hope. The only way out is the gospel. The government gives them money. The government gave them recently a really nice greenhouse to grow stuff in. And you know, when the government gives stuff, it lasts about, not very long. Because people really don't take care of it, right? And the greenhouse is still going, but you know, I don't think it's going to be going for very long. And really, northern Mexico is littered with government projects that just are abandoned. The government thinks that money is the solution to the problem. Money is the solution to the problem. Money and education are not the solution to the problem. They're not the solution to the problem. I mean, some education can help because, hey, if you can read, that's a big advantage. You can read God's Word. But having your hope in education is a false hope. It's a false hope. As I look at these people that we minister to, So often it is so saddening to see the road that they're taking. We cry out to God to have mercy on them. Unless the gospel of Jesus Christ had come to our people group a few hundred years ago, we would be in that same situation. We would be in that same situation. And our culture in many ways is seeking to return to that situation. Seeking to emulate those ridiculous, ridiculous false hopes of the pagan indigenous peoples of this land. May God have mercy on us. The gospel of Jesus Christ is, my friends, the only hope. The only hope. And even in a dark place, like Babu Nokachi, if the people will turn to Christ, if the gospel of Jesus Christ will turn their lives upside down, there will be great hope. There will be great hope. And things will change. The same could be said of the lives of many people, even in this room. If we would bow the knee before the Lord Jesus Christ, if you would look to Him as your Lord and Savior, if you would abandon your hope in the comforts and joys of this life which are not wrong but are a horrible hope. If you will abandon those hopes and trust in Christ, Christ will turn your life upside down as well. And Christ, you will be the beneficiary of the greatest promises that have ever existed. for the human race, the promise of eternal life, the promise of great reward when this life is over and when God brings about the restoration of all things which He has promised. Let's pray. Gracious Lord, we thank you, Father, for your promises, the promises of your word. And Lord, they are a comfort to us. I pray, Lord, for those among us here today who are trusting in Jesus Christ who have been humbled by their sin and who have come to Christ in repentance. I praise you, God, for those people. And I pray, God, that your comfort will abound to them, Father, and that they will grow, Father, more and more in their love for you, Father. I pray, God, for those among us, Father, who still do not know you, who have not been given that new birth still, who have not repented, and whose hearts are still hardened against you. I pray, Lord, that you will, in your mercy, reach out to those people and give them that new heart that only you can give, Heavenly Father. Lord, we thank you, God, that from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, your name is to be praised. I praise you, God, for the glorious future of your people revealed to us in your word. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.