Check. Good. All right. Well, I'm sure everyone's rested up, ready to hear from the Word of God. Had a nice little extra hour of sleep. So as we begin to wrap up 2 Peter, Peter will now give us a few exhortations. He's going to give us some commands, what we should be doing, right? He's given us so much truth and we ought to put it into practice. In other words, do we gather as a church just to hear a preacher teach on a text and say, okay, that was a good sermon or that wasn't? Or do we take what we learn and apply it? Are we mere hearers of the word or doers of the word? And so I want us to stand for the reading of God's word. I'm gonna be reading 2 Peter 3, verses 11 to 13. If you got it, say amen. The Word of God says, 2 Peter 3, 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 new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. You may be seated. Let's pray for the Lord to bless our time today in his word. Oh Lord God, we thank you once again that we can approach your throne by the righteousness of Christ, by his sacrifice, his blood shed for us. We do ask that you will help us understand this text today. Give us that urgency, this alertness in our minds and souls of just the coming day of our Lord. Lord, we thank you that we were able to sing about it this morning. And help us now, Lord, to hear from you in your word. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. I want to ask a question to start us off. Who was the first false teacher? Who's got it? I know someone here's got it. Who was the first false teacher? I'll give you a hint. He was in the Garden of Eden. All right. It's the devil, the father of all false teachers. And after the creation account, we read about this false teacher in Genesis 3. We read there, he says to the woman, indeed has God really said you shall not eat from any tree of the garden? After the woman responds to Satan that eating from the fruit of a specific tree meant death, Satan then tells her that she will surely not die. He lies to her. Adam and Eve then, they eat from the tree that God told them not to eat from. And then after that discussion, about their disobedience, you know, they're going to have those consequences for their sins. They are sent away from the Garden of Eden. Fellowship with God was broken. And so we could summarize Genesis chapter 3 in three frames. The first, a false teacher's lies. The second, the fall of man. And the third, a flaming sword to guard the way to the tree of life. And so our text in 2 Peter has a similar setting. I want us to observe the temptation Peter's audience is going through. And so, like their father, the devil, we have these false teachers who are stating their lies to God's people. They're saying, did God really say Jesus was returning? Surely He isn't. Go ahead and sin. After all, where sin abounds, grace abounds. So they're lying, right, to Peter's audience. And then we know that, just like Adam and Eve, these believers have to respond. They have a choice to make. Will they obey God's word, or will they listen to the false teachers? Will they eat from the fruit which God has commanded them not to eat from, remember? Are they going to live in sin before the return of the Lord? And so we know that disobedience will mean judgment, right? We saw that in the Garden of Eden. And Peter has warned us constantly about this coming judgment. But what about that flaming sword? How does that fit into our scenario in 2 Peter? We see that the new heavens and the new earth will be a place where only righteousness dwells. We'll talk about that soon. And in the book of Revelation, it tells us that outside are the immoral persons. Outside are the murderers, the idolaters, everyone who loves and practices lying. And so, we see throughout scripture just how important it is to live a holy life, a life that follows God's word, a life that says no to sin. How we respond to the gospel matters. We discussed that last week, if you remember. Repent or perish. God has been patient with us, and so we should humble ourselves before him and obey him. And so this week, our focus will be on responding properly to the return of Christ. So far in chapter three of 2 Peter, we learned about what we are to believe. Now Peter is gonna say what we should do about it. And so I wanna answer three questions about the return of Christ to help us prepare for his coming and observe three actions that we should do in the meantime. And so the three questions are, number one, what type of conduct should we have if we believe in his return? Number two, what are we doing as we wait eagerly for his return? And number three, what do we have to look forward to at his return? And so the actions or the verbs that will tie into the answers to our questions are, number one, hollow, number two, hasten, and number three, hope. And so let's read 2 Peter 3, 11 again, and we're gonna see our first question and our first action here. Verse 11 says, since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness? And so what is Peter doing here in verse 11? He's reminding us of the context, right? In verse 10, he was writing about the day of the Lord, the day of the Lord in which the heavens will pass away and the elements will be destroyed. That's a key word there. You see destroyed. He says it again in verse 12. And so it's gonna be a day of destruction. He wants us to meditate now on this truth. He says, since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, all right, what are we to do about it? And so let's stop and think for a second. Last week we discussed the expectation and the extent of this judgment. And we concluded that it will be sudden, world-changing, like nothing ever seen before. And so given this truth of judgment, Peter wants us to think about what sort of people we should be. And this brings us to our first question. What type of conduct should we have if we believe in his return? And so the answer to this first question, again with our first action of to hollow, which means to set apart for holy use, we should have hollowed hearts and hands for God. And so Peter tells us here that we should be defined by holy conduct and godliness. Our behavior should fit what we believe and our character should be set apart for God's use. All we should do should be holy. We know Peter made this point in his first letter. He says, as obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lust, which are yours in ignorance, but like the Holy One who calls you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior, because it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. And so I want you to picture it like this. Who do criminals spend most of their time with? usually other criminals. They wouldn't let an honest police officer into their gang, right? And an honest police officer wouldn't want to be in their gang unless he was going undercover, but you get the point. Sinners party together, saints pray together. And so if you claim to be a Christian, you will be holy. Your life will be hollowed for God. Your heart will be reflecting the heart of Christ in what you do and say. And your hands will be clean from wrongdoing. And so let me remind you of these qualities which the lives of believers should be characterized by. Remember, look at 2 Peter 1, verses 5 to 7. What were those qualities? In your faith supply, moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. And so we can ask ourselves how we are doing. in these qualities. Remember, the context in 2 Peter says we have no excuse for the divine power has granted us everything pertaining to life and godliness. And so we need to ask ourselves, are we being diligent? Are we growing in godliness? Are we abstaining from sins like lust, pride, envy, jealousy, anger, hatred, impatience? Are we loving all people we come in contact with? We know, beloved, we're not supposed to shut ourselves off from the world and pretend like nothing else exists. We live in this world. Yes, we're not of it, amen. But that doesn't mean we don't engage with the world. Like we learned last week, God is being patient, so we should reach to the lost with the gospel. And so are we praying for people to get saved? Are we telling them about our Lord Jesus? There should be something different about us. We should care about others. and their souls. See here, holiness in 2 Peter doesn't mean we're better than others. It means we want what God wants. We should want to see people repent of their sins and have a relationship with Jesus like we do by God's grace. A Christian that doesn't live a holy life doesn't understand the coming judgments. People will be thrown into the lake of fire for their sins, so why would we abuse grace like the false teachers? If God has really changed our hearts, wouldn't we desire to glorify Him and not gratify ourselves? And so true believers, they are hollowing their lives in accordance to God's word. They say no to sin and yes to him and his commandments. And so like Peter, Paul also motivated his audience to live pure and holy lives by reminding them of the return. And so that's what we're gonna do a little bit today. We're gonna see some scriptures that kind of put in holiness and the return of Christ together. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians. So a couple of books to your left here. Chapter 5, verses 6 to 11. I'll read the last couple of verses here. Chapter 5, verses 6 to 11. You get the context here. It's obviously better to be present with the Lord. Right now we're home in this body, which is absent from the Lord. And then look what he says in verse nine. Therefore, we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to him, right? Whether we're here, not present with the Lord, or when we die and we are present with the Lord, we want to be pleasing to him. And then why? Verse 10. For, because we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. And so we can reason, if we've been living in a holy manner, we should expect good. But if we've been unholy, we should expect bad. And so how our lives, how we live our lives matters. Now turn with me to another passage, again, talking about the reminder of being holy. Look at Philippians chapter three. So a couple books here right now. Philippians chapter 3 verses 17 to 21. Here's Paul saying, brethren, join in following my example and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. For many walk, of whom I'm often told you and now tell you even weeping that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their appetite, and whose glory is their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. Okay, so we see a contrast here. We have the unbelievers that are really just all about themselves. and they're thinking about earthly things, not heavenly things, not on God. And then look at verse 20. Getting our mindset right, he says here, And what is he gonna do when he returns? We'll talk about this later. who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, right? He was raised in a glorious fashion. He has a glorified body. We will too. And so, really important for us to understand, a holy person sets their minds on things above. Their focus is to please God, not themselves. They walk like Christ. And so, one more example here from Paul. Turn to Titus now. So a couple of verses here to chew on. Titus 2 verses 11 to 15. A couple of books here right there. Again, just seeing how the holiness the call to holiness and the return of Christ go hand in hand. Titus chapter two, verse 11. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age. And here it is, looking for the blessed hope. and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds. You know, during Wednesdays, we are going through this book talking about lordship salvation, and one of our brothers was sharing about easy believism and free grace, and we just think about it here. If you read the text, verse 14, who gave himself, why? to redeem us from every lawless deed. We would reason and say, OK, Lord, you didn't just save me just so I can go to heaven. You saved me. Why? It says it here for good works, to be a pure person for your use. And so our Lord is not just our savior. He's our Lord and savior, the master we obey and listen to. And so we need to ask ourselves this. Have we been living for God? Holy people, they understand that God saved them to be pure, zealous for good works. They're gonna deny the ways of the world. But have we been hollowing our body for God so that he may use us to advance his kingdom? What do we do in our spare time? Have we been praying to the Lord to show us his will in our lives? Now our next question that we need to address will have a similar response, so continue with me to 2 Peter now. Look at verse 12 of 2 Peter 3. We should have that holy conduct, living a life of godliness, if we truly believe in the return of Christ. Here's our second question from 2 Peter 3, 12, looking in For 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. And so here's the question. What are we doing as we wait eagerly for his return? The answer, we should hasten the return by repenting, evangelizing, and praying. And so Christians, we need the motivation daily of that forward look. We need to recognize that God has a plan and that it unfolds just as he wants it to and will bring about blessing for his people. And so what do we do? We hasten. Now, this word has to do with speed. We are to hurry or strive. It's about making this effort, being eager. And this is an amazing truth we have in Scripture. Believers do have an effect on the Lord's return. Our actions can actually hasten the return. Now, of course, like any truth in Scripture we observe, we need to be careful with extremes. Now, I'm not arguing that our actions take away from the sovereignty of God. As Bachmann, a commentator, argues, what Peter is suggesting is that God graciously factors his people's actions into his determination of the time of the end. And so, like we learned last week about God's eternality, the truth of hastening Christ's return is deep. God's sovereign decrees must never become this excuse for laziness, and neither must our plans and activities try to take their place. And so in other words, we should not have this attitude that we're locked in to God's sovereign plan in such a way that nothing we do will ever make a difference, or think that God cannot do anything unless we do it. Alright, so you see those two extremes? Number one, we know that God is sovereign, but we must also know, number two, man is responsible to act. And so here's a brief illustration of that. Maybe you like going to the gym. I was thinking about maybe going to the pool. Obviously, during the winter, it could be a little hard, right? But God is in control of our overall health. So think about it this way. Yes, we have this responsibility to go to the gym or be mindful of what we eat, right? Our daily calorie intake, our daily exercise. But again, God is in control of our overall health. And so to help us remember this point about hastening the return, I want you to remember the following statement. Christians need to do reps. Christians need to do reps, all right? Here's another acronym for us. R for repenting, E for evangelizing, and P for prayer. And these three ways to hasten the return of Christ, they're found in scripture. And we're going to look at some verses here about that. So let's discuss repenting first. By connecting what Peter says here about hastening the coming day of God in his exhortation in verse 11, Peter suggests that the holy living of God's people is a way to speed up the end times timetable. God's people can hasten Christ's return by their sincere and complete rejection of the hold of sin in their lives. Look with me to Acts chapter three. So a couple books to your left there. Acts chapter three verses 19 to 20. making the argument here that repenting of our sins hastens the return of Christ. And here's some biblical support, Acts 3, 19 to 20. 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. And so if we want Jesus to come quickly, right, we have that prayer, come quickly, Lord. We need to be quick in our repentance. Don't entertain any type of sin or idol in your life. We need to turn to the Lord because he should have our whole heart, soul, strength, and mind. Now I want you to think some more about evangelizing, right? We were discussing a little bit about repentance, but what about evangelizing? We mentioned that last week. the importance of that. But this truth of hastening the return should even excite us more about evangelizing. So a commentator, he writes this, if God's work today is calling out a people for his name, then the sooner the church is completed, the sooner our Lord will return, right? This is biblical, Matthew 24, 14. The gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then what happens? Then the end. will come. And so repentance and evangelisms are means to hasten the return of Christ. What about prayer? Jesus told us to pray, your kingdom come, your will be done. We were just singing it a little bit before, right? We're praying that his kingdom come, his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And what do we think about that prayer? We should believe that the Lord will answer that prayer. And so we pray it, Lord, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I love what Hebert writes, another commentator, certainly aggressive evangelism and believing intercession supported by the holy lives of the saints are divinely appointed means of furthering God's purpose and program. And so we repent, we evangelize, and we pray. And we should be active in these areas as we expect his return. And so ask yourself now, how are you doing in these areas? Are we losing weight, or is every day cheat day, in other words? And so God is watching, we know he will not be mocked. We see in Galatians 6, for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. And so we must not play around in this manner. Now one last observation I wanna make from 2 Peter, Verse 12 there. It should remind us of just how devastating that day of judgment will be and just how powerful our God is. We know that the Lord destroyed the world before with water. This time He's going to do it with fire. I don't know about you, but have you ever seen something melt? Maybe a snowman or a marshmallow. Now just picture the whole earth Nahum 1.5, and we have plenty of other Old Testament prophets that talk about this day of the Lord. He writes, mountains quake because of him, and the hills dissolve or melt. Indeed, the earth is burned at his presence, the world and all that dwell in it. I was reading this morning in Habakkuk and different Old Testament prophets, Zephaniah. And I was just reading about just how great this day is going to be. And when you see the Lord and when he comes, it's not like this, oh, the Lord's there. OK, cool. No, it's a fearful image. And the earth trembles at him. And you see just his holy consuming fire coming at us. I like what Psalm 46 says. It tells us that at the raising of God's voice, the earth melted. I mean, we're talking about a being that is holy, holy, holy. And there are so many other scriptures that talk about God's wrath and Him coming in judgment. And so that judgment... that is coming should bring us fear, but really, it's the judge we should fear. He is the one that will bring the heat. And so ask yourself, do you have a healthy fear of the Lord? Without that fear, we know in the book of Proverbs that we would be fools, just like the false teachers. And so for those of us that have been studying Proverbs, we know for the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, this righteous living. And so, do you fear Him? Do you really fear God? Let's continue to our last question. Look at verse 13 now. 2 Peter 3, verse 13. But according to His promise, we are looking for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. This is probably my favorite part of the study this week. Just dwelling on this truth. We could do it for years. So what do we have here in this verse? We observe this contrast. If you look at verse 12, it ends with this heat, right? Or this judgment of the world. And now we're going to talk about the future of God's promise. And so in the Greek there, Peter goes from this word melt or dissolve, and he starts with fresh, new. We have this scary picture and now we're talking about this glorious place, the new heavens and a new earth. You can say that the renewed earth like we spoke about last week. And so beloved, we have something great to look forward to. The very promise that the false teachers mock is what we hold on to this promise of the return of Christ in glory and we're gonna be in these new heavens and new earth. And we know it's gonna happen because Christ promised it. We can have faith, beloved. And so, what do we have to look forward to at his return is our question. I'm gonna give you three blessings that we can look forward to. Number one, no more doubts or suffering. Number two, no more death or sin. And number three, no more deception or Satan. And so the first blessing we can have hope about has to do with restoration. Restoration or also assurance. The new heavens and the new earth will be a place with no more doubts or suffering. We will finally see Him face to face. I don't know if you have a close friend or someone that you really love or care about, and maybe you haven't seen them in a long time. It's been a couple years, whatever it may be, some family trips, vacations. You're not able to see them because of the distance. You have that in you. You can't wait to see them. Or maybe it's a loved one that you haven't even seen in a month or a couple weeks, and you feel like, man, I miss that person. Well, beloved, we're going to see him face to face. Revelation 21.3 says, Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and he will dwell among them, and he shall be his people, and God himself will be among them. You see that closeness, that intimacy. Yes, we have it to a certain degree now, but we will have it far greater in the new heavens and the new earth. Right now, we see with the eyes of faith, In the new heavens and new earth, we will serve Him and we will actually see His face. We read that in Revelation 21. We know that He will be on the throne. And there's going to be people from every tribe, language, and nation that are going to be praising Him. We're going to have this fellowship with God. We also know that the earth will be restored. We will reign upon it. But for right now, What do we have right now? That's the future, but right now we have this groaning, this longing of restoration, right? We have this in our souls as well. I mean, if you turn to Romans 8, 18 to 25, you'll read about it there, how the earth is groaning for the sons of God to be glorified. And so we can have hope. I love how Paul starts it there just The sufferings do not compare with the glory that is to come. We can have hope about the return of Christ even in our sufferings. And so maybe you're going through some suffering today. Let's remember that that suffering will come to an end in the new heavens and new earth. It will happen soon. Another blessing, a second one that I want to talk about is having to do with redemption and glorification, right? The new heavens and new earth will be a place with no more death or sin. I don't know about you, but temptation exists, right? We're feeling temptation daily. We won't in our glorified state. We won't when we have a glorified body. If you really wanna honor the Lord, you know that tension we live in, where we're tempted in our sinful state right now. One day, that will be gone. In 1 Corinthians 15.58, After explaining our coming resurrection, our glorified state, Paul tells us to be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing your toil is not in vain in the Lord. And so this is a proper response to the victory we have in Christ over sin and death. Now, of course, we still sin. We still battle with sin today. But Christ has defeated sin and death at the cross. And when he comes back, there will be no more death. We will not be able to sin. But right now we live in this world where wrong prevails, a world in which Faithful Christians are often persecuted for doing God's will. And while evil people enjoy the rewards of sin, it's a place where innocent lives are ripped from the wombs and God's laws are flaunted and ridiculed. But we know this will end in the next world. And so maybe You lost a loved one recently. You know how that hurts. This reality of losing someone dear to you will also end soon in the new heavens and new earth. Revelation 21, four puts it this way. There will no longer be any death and there will no longer be any mourning or crying or pain. There will no longer be any curse. And so are you excited about this? When we're talking about the new heavens and earth, does it excite you? You say, I can't wait for this place. Or are we stressing out about the coming election this Tuesday? What are we looking forward to more? Now, don't misunderstand me. Of course, we should vote. But we shouldn't act like the winner will usher in the new heavens and new earth. We need to rest in God's promises and trust God's plan for the world. He will redeem us and deserve. Now the last blessing I want to discuss that we can hope about has to do with righteousness and joy. Righteousness and joy. Notice how Peter describes the new heavens and new earth. He says it's a place where righteousness dwells or settles. The new heavens and new earth will be a place with no more deception or Satan. The personification of righteousness means that there will be no longer among us those who violate or oppose God's standards and directives for his people. Everyone in the new world will be in perfect agreement with God's sovereign will. Revelation 21, 27 says, and nothing unclean and no one who practices abomination and lying shall ever come into it. And so, spoiler alert, there will be no sequel to the fall of man. We will not be deceived again. Revelation 21.8 says, 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 of fire. Satan and his angels, we know, if you keep reading in Revelation, they will also be in the lake of fire. Well, they'll be tormented forever and ever. And so beloved, there's so much good to look forward to if you know Christ. But if you do not know him, these scriptures are like warning lights to you, emergency lights. And so you need to ask yourself, if you're not a believer, you think you're a good person? Look what we were just reading here in these verses. All liars will have their part in the lake of fire. Have you ever lied? Don't lie. God will hold you accountable. And so you must turn to him before his return. You still have time. Now again, like I said last week, God is being patient with you. Here we are next week, another week, again showing his patience to you. What are you waiting for? And so beloved, we have a lot of blessings to hope for at his return. I've only named a few. I mean, we can keep going on. I'm sure you can think of some. Definitely share it during the Agape Fellowship. But if we are honest with ourselves, we often put our hope in things of this world. We act like this is our new heavens and new earth by how much we invest in it. But we know Jesus said to store up treasures, not here, But in heaven, where neither moth or rust destroys and where thieves do not break in or steal. So think about it. Here's an example. Maybe you're saving up for retirement. Yes, that's important. But don't let it consume your soul. Money, comfortability should not be the master we serve. It's so easy to be tempted in those ways here, of course, in America and New York. But praise God. For the home you have, yes, or the provision he has given us, but do not worship it. Do not worship it. Your mind should be more focused on the new home to come, the place where there'll be everlasting joy. I like what Grudem writes. He says, as we gaze into the face of the Lord, we will know more fully than ever before that in God's presence there is fullness of joy, and at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. All right, one last observation from this verse and we'll get into our applications. We see that righteousness dwells or settles in the new heavens and new earth. And so that should remind us that we ought to be righteous in the present earth. Our eschatology affects our present walks with God. It supplies a motive for ethical conduct. And so our new home gives us hope Therefore, we should live holy. Our new home gives us hope. Therefore, we should live holy. Now, of course, it's not our righteousness that gets us to the new heavens and new earth. It's the righteousness of Christ that was imputed into our accounts. It's by God's grace, he has saved us by his perfect life, death, and resurrection. It's his blood on the cross that was shed for our forgiveness of sins. It's because of his love that he has for us that followers of Christ can press on to good works. I love what 2 Corinthians 5.21, if you haven't memorized it, we should definitely memorize it as a church. He made him who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in him. And so this brings us to our applications here. Okay, I just wanted to make that point there. It's not our righteousness that saves us. Yes, we ought to be holy, live righteous lives. It's the righteousness of Christ. But here are some applications. I have three for us. Number one, purify. Purify. Hollowed Christians will not permit themselves to be spotted and blemished by the false teachers. They want to meet their Lord wearing pure garments. I really like how John puts it in 1 John 2, listen here. He says, now little children, abide in him so that when he appears, talking about the return of Christ, we may have confidence and not shrink away from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who also practiced righteousness is born of him. See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us that we would be called children of God, such we are. For this reason the world does not know us because it did not know Him. Again, the world isn't righteous, right? They don't have this relationship with God because he is righteous. And then verse two. Beloved, now we are children of God and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him just as he is. And here it is, verse three. And everyone who has this hope fixated on him purifies himself just as he is pure. Again, the return of Christ should motivate us to be pure. A true Christian will live a life of holiness. They will aim to be pure because they know God is pure. Again, they are being holy because God is holy. So purify, number one. Number two, proclaim. How do we maintain this eager expectancy that leads to holy living? It's by keeping his promise before our hearts. We proclaim the truth of his return to ourselves daily, and we warn others who are not living in holiness. I really like how Jude puts it here. As he's coming to a close, we spoke about this a couple of months ago, just very similar cross-references you can see here with Jude and 2 Peter. Listen to Jude 1, 20 to 24. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. So again, talking about the return. And then he says this, have mercy on some who are doubting, save others, snatching them out of the fire, and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh. Again, we ought to hate sin, purifying ourselves, And verse 24, now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory blameless with great joy. And so the return of Christ should be on our minds. It should motivate us to proclaim it to others that they too can meet the Lord with joy, right? Standing with confidence and not in fear of his judgment. So purify, proclaim, and number three, patience. Now we still aren't in the new heavens and new earth, right? So what must we do? We must be patient. James puts it this way, James 5, 7 to 8. Therefore, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it until it gets to early and late rains. And again, he repeats, you too be patient. Strengthen your hearts for the coming of the Lord. is near. And so when we have trials come our way, what do we do? Who do we turn to? We should turn to our Lord Jesus and remember that He is coming soon. He cares for us. All will be made right. Justice will be served. In conclusion, we learned what our response to the return should be. The type of conduct or behavior we should have is one that is hollowed for God. Our hearts and our hands should be spiritually clean as we do good works for God. We should be repenting, evangelizing, and praying to hasten the return of Christ. And we look forward to the new heavens and new earth. We have this hope In this place will there be no more doubts, death, or deception. No more suffering, sin, or Satan. This place will be a place of righteousness, restoration, redemption. And so, we purify ourselves, proclaim the truth, and we're patient until his return. And beloved, we can't wait. We can't wait. If you know the Lord, you can't wait to see him. But God has much for us to do today. And so let's get to work. And so as we come to a close, I just want to motivate you with one last passage and some lyrics from a hymn. Turn with me to Philippians. Philippians chapter three. I just really love how Paul, right, he's wrestling in the first chapter. For to me to live is Christ, to die is gain. You know, he's far pressed about what should be better to be with the Lord presently with you to obviously see the edification of God's people and then he's talking about his testimony how you know he considers it all dung all that was before his status right he talked about just how you know you circumcised the eighth-day nation of Israel the tribe of Benjamin Wow a Pharisee a Hebrew of the Hebrews and he gets to that point where he considered it all dung and then verse 12 Verse 12, what does he do? How does Paul get through all of these trials and suffering? What does he do? He talks about just, he hasn't already been fully matured, right? Because he's still present in sin, verse 12. And then this is what he tells us. He says, brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do, beloved, we should do this. forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude. If in anything, you will have a different attitude. God will reveal that to you. However, let us keep living by that same standard in which we have attained. And so are you reaching forward to what lies ahead? You're gonna have to let go of your old lifestyle of sin. Are you pressing on to the ultimate prize? He is surely worth it. And so the hymn, last thing I'll say here. This hymn should help us to think about the coming judgments but also the need to prepare ourselves and our hearts for his return. It's called, Great God, What Do I See and Hear? It goes like this. Great God, what do I see and hear? The end of things created, the judge of mankind doth appear on clouds of glory seated. The trumpet sounds, the graves restore the dead which they contained before. Prepare my soul to meet him. The dead in Christ shall first arise at the last trumpet sounding, caught up to meet Him in the skies with joy their Lord surrounding. No gloomy fears their souls dismay, His presence sheds eternal day, all those prepared to meet Him. But sinners Filled with guilty fears, behold His wrath prevailing. For days shall rise and find their fears and sighs are unavailing. The day of grace is past and gone. Trembling, they stand before the throne, all unprepared to meet Him. Great God, what do I see and hear? The end of things created. The judge of mankind doth appear on clouds of glory seated. Beneath the cross I view the day when heaven and earth shall pass away and thus prepare to meet him. Are you prepared to meet him?