In the Last Days

Sermon transcript

Amen. Well, please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word. We are heading towards the close soon of our study of 2 Peter, and this evening we consider 2 Peter chapter 3, verses 1 through 10. You’ll find that beginning on page 1208 in your Pew Bibles. 2 Peter 3, and I’ll read verses 1 through 10. 2 Peter 3, verses 1 through 10. Dear friends here, with reverence and awe, the Word of our God. This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them, I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing following their own sinful desires.

They will say, where is the promise of His coming? Forever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the Word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the Lord to bless the preaching of His Word. Our Lord and Father in heaven, we consider tonight a passage from your Holy Word containing sobering yet hopeful truth. We would ask, Lord, that by your Spirit you would illuminate us and open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from your Word this evening. And we pray that once again that you would grant that your Word would find a lodging place in our souls and that it might transform us.

May we be transformed by the renewing of our minds this evening through the proclamation of your Word. And we would ask that you would give me aid and assistance by your Spirit to declare and speak forth your Word in a manner that is clear, in a manner that is blessed of you for the salvation and sanctification of your people and the glory of your name. We pray these things, Heavenly Father, through Christ our Lord, in all of God’s people said. Amen. You may be seated. Once again, if you’re looking at your sermon outline, I’d encourage the children to listen for the following words. There’s a lot of words to keep track of, some of them rather long words, but the words are Well, dear friends, have you ever been mocked? Have you ever found yourself on the receiving end of ridicule?

How does it feel to be ridiculed? Well, certainly it’s not a fun thing to experience, is it? No one enjoys being ridiculed or mocked, insulted, taunted, or verbally torn down by others if in the way that the tongue can be used to tear others down. Well, dear friends, in Christ, that being the case, we are warned in Scripture that as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can expect that we will likely encounter unbelievers who ridicule the truths revealed in God’s Word, the truths that we love, the truths that we embrace, the truths that we confess, and who perhaps will mock us as well as being foolish or naive, childish, ignorant, uneducated for simply believing in the Bible and its divinely revealed truths. Well, dear ones, our passage for this Lord’s Day evening is one such passage that predicts the presence of scoffers and mockers in this present age, an age of redemptive history which Peter describes here in verse 3 as the last days.

Now, there are many details in this passage that we could consider this evening, and I really won’t have time this evening to draw out all of the truths that are jam-packed into this passage of Scripture. There’s so much here to be uncovered and to be explained, so we’re going to try to just give you a brief overview of this passage. But that being the case, in the light of the overall context of 2 Peter, one of the things that we should not miss about this passage is that these scoffers would arise not only outside of the church in the context of the unbelieving pagan world that exists outside of the world of the visible church. Friends, the apostle Peter indicates in this passage that such scoffers would even arise from within the professed people of God, in other words, within the visible, organized church.

This happened under the Old Covenant with false teachers, false prophets arising among the people, and it will happen today with false teachers in the church who end up mocking and scoffing at the truth of the faith once for all delivered to the saints. The heretical false teachers that Peter warns his first century Christian readers about in this particular epistle, and whom he had described in great detail back in chapter 2, were just such scoffers, and these false teachers had arisen from among the people, as remember what Peter says back in chapter 2 verse 1, he says, but false prophets also arose, he’s speaking there of the Old Testament times, false prophets also arose among the people just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, and so forth.

Now friends, again, remember where we are in this epistle, remember that Peter had begun this letter with an earnest exhortation for his readers to grow spiritually, to grow in godliness and virtue, that opening exhortation was found back in chapter 1 verses 3 through 15, and then at the end of chapter 1, Peter had reminded them that the gospel that he had preached to them was not based on cleverly devised myths, but rather that he and the other apostles had been eye witnesses to the majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ as we’re told back in chapter 1 verse 16, Peter also urged them to pay close attention to what he called the prophetic word, that’s how he describes the Old Testament scriptures back in chapter 1 verse 19, in other words, he urges them to pay attention to the written word of God, the written scriptures, all of which pointed to and were fulfilled in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, that’s why the Old Testament scriptures are called the prophetic scriptures, they prophesy of and point forward to and are fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, and then as we saw in our study of chapter 2, Peter gives an extensive warning and an extensive description of these false teachers and no doubt Peter specifically had in mind the particular false teachers that were endangering his original readers, his original audience.

Well that brings us to the closing chapter of this epistle, as Peter had begun his letter with an exhortation for us believers to grow in faith and godliness and virtue so he will end this letter with a similar word of exhortation, he begins to wrap up his epistle at the beginning of this chapter, he begins to wrap up this epistle by reminding us of the promise of our Lord’s glorious second advent, his future return at the second coming. Peter presents Christ’s future second coming as an additional motivation for godly living, but before his closing exhortation at the end of this chapter, chapter 3, Peter pauses to emphasize the certainty of our Lord’s return and the day of the Lord and to explain the reasons why Christ’s return has been delayed for so long, even in the first century some of the believers were wondering well Jesus promised to come back, why hasn’t he come back yet and here we are 2000 years later and our Lord still has not returned, so this is a subject that is very relevant to us as Christians living as we do in the 21st century in the year of our Lord 2025.

With all this in mind let’s turn our attention to the details of our text for this evening and the first thing I want us to notice as we take as a chunk chapter 3 verses 1 through 7, consider that last days scoffers and the certainty of final judgment, consider what Peter says here about last days scoffers and the certainty of final judgment, the two key words from this first point are scoffers and judgment. In verse 1 Peter begins this chapter by saying this is now the second letter that I’m writing to you beloved, so he says that there has been a previous letter that has been written to them, now many scholars believe that the first letter to which this is a sequel or second letter is of course the canonical book of first Peter and that is indeed a possibility though some commentators would dispute this even Bible believing commentators, some would say that well first Peter is written perhaps to a different audience, a different set of Christians and churches than is second Peter and if that’s the case then the first letter would have been a letter that we no longer have access to, a letter that is no longer available to us, but whatever the case may be I lean towards the view that the second letter, that the first letter to which this is a sequel, the second letter is first Peter, but whatever the case may be Peter is writing to these believers and he’s writing with earnestness, remember he knows that his time on earth is limited, he knows that he will soon go to be with the Lord and so he wants to make sure that they have a word of remembrance that they can remember the truths that he has been teaching them and notice how he addresses them, he says this is now the second letter that I am writing to you beloved, beloved, the Greek term is agape toy, agape love, Peter is not writing to them simply some formal theological treatise or tome, he’s writing to them, yes he’s writing them theology and doctrine but he is doing so with a pastor’s heart, he is doing so as an apostle of Jesus Christ who cares for the sheep for whom Christ laid down his life, so Peter addresses his readers with tender pastoral affection and he says, he gives us the reason why he has written this second letter, he says in both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, he’s telling us what he’s been doing here in these letters and in this letter in particular, he is doing what stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, now focus on the terms, focus on sincere mind, that language of his readers having a sincere mind, this would be in contrast to the false teachers who were phonies, he’s saying I am writing to you to stir up your sincere mind, he doesn’t want them to depart from their sincere mind but to have the mind of Christ and continue to fill their mind with the truth of God’s word and he wants to stir up their sincere mind for what purpose, by way of reminder, he’s reminding them and I know that you folks if you’re familiar with the scriptures, if you’ve ever read through the Bible in its entirety or you’re familiar with the big picture of the Bible, one of the things that should strike you is the fact that throughout the scriptures we have repeated exhortations and calls to remember, we’re called to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, right, God’s people were called upon in the law of God, the law of Moses to remember the Lord, to not forget what the Lord had done for them and to remember his holy commandments and so forth, Jesus in giving the Lord’s Supper he says do this what?

In remembrance of me as a memorial of what he did for us and for our salvation, we as God’s people often need to be reminded about the truths and commands of God’s word and especially about the gospel, the good news of our Savior Jesus Christ, why? Because we are so prone to forget and this is from the standpoint of how it benefits us, this is why we gather week in and week out, every Lord’s Day, Lord’s Day after Lord’s Day, this is why we believe in the importance of attending the public worship services, not only because to do so is an act of obedience to God, that’s the most important reason of course, we gather because we’re commanded to, we’re not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, but we also do so, it benefits us to do so because in the in and out of our week it’s so easy as we get bogged down in the details of daily life to forget the things that matter most, to forget our roots, to forget who we are in Christ, to forget the gospel and how it applies to us and so we come together week by week to remember God’s mighty works and what he has done for us and for our salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So Peter is writing them to remind them and he goes on to say in verse 2 that you should remember what? The predictions of the holy prophets, the holy prophets there, very most likely referring to the Old Testament prophets who predicted the coming of Jesus, the promised Messiah, but then he also goes on to say and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. The predictions of the holy prophets in the overall context of this passage, these predictions as I said seem to refer especially to the Old Testament predictions about the last days and we covered a passage in Isaiah this morning that spoke to that, that speaks to that reality. Now some interpreters say that the holy prophets that Peter’s referring to here were New Testament prophets and in the apostolic age there were prophets that God raised up in his churches as the New Testament scriptures were being written but nevertheless the more natural way to understand this terminology is to understand it as Peter referring to the Old Testament prophets.

But what about this language of wanting to remind them of the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles? In what sense what’s he speaking of specifically there? Is he speaking about the gospel? Is he calling the gospel a commandment? Well I mean and if he’s doing that is that a contradiction of the truth that the gospel is good news, that it’s about grace and not of law or command? Well friends again the commandment of the Lord and Savior, this terminology probably refers specifically to the teachings of Christ himself especially as those teachings are contained in the gospel accounts and especially he might have, he seems to have reference to the gospel message and its ethical implications. The gospel message is good news, it’s promise, it’s grace but that grace has ethical and moral implications.

We are saved by grace through faith apart from works of the law but we are saved unto good works, unto the commands of discipleship laid out for us in the New Covenant scriptures indeed laid out for us in all of the Word of God. We’re not saved by keeping the commandments but we are saved unto the commandments of our Lord and Savior and these commandments were conveyed to us, have been conveyed to us in the church through your apostles. The message of Jesus Christ was entrusted by Christ to his apostles and the apostles were Christ’s official appointed spokesmen and they were eyewitnesses of his ministry and especially of his resurrection and so in what sense are they your apostles? Well I think what Peter is doing here by describing the apostles to his readers as your apostles he’s saying look the false teachers they’re not your teachers, the apostles are your apostles.

In other words what he probably is conveying here by this language he is probably saying the well-known apostles, the apostles that you know to be true apostles, the apostles who were known to Peter’s original readers and were trusted by them including Peter himself for he himself was an apostle and then he goes on to say in verse three and he prefaces this this warning here in the first two verses but then in verse three he gets to the warning he says knowing this first of all that scoffers will come in the last days following their own sinful desires. He’s saying this is something that you already know. He’s reminding them of what they already know. We need to be reminded often of the truth that we already know. We need to hear the truth over and over again not only because of our tendency to forget it and drift away from it but because we need to grab hold of it and we need to know it and apply it by the grace of God to our situation.

Knowing that what? That scoffers will come. It can also be translated mockers. The presence of unbelieving scoffers should not surprise them. He’s saying don’t be surprised this crisis with these false teachers that shouldn’t surprise you and notice how Peter describes these scoffers. He says they follow their own sinful desires. Well isn’t that what we learned about the false teachers in chapter two? The particular false teachers that were threatening Peter’s original readers. They were antinomian heretics. They were promoting the idea that God’s grace in Christ excuses human sin. You know God God forgives you in Christ and so you’re free to send up a storm. After all sin is taken care of. Grace covers it all so don’t worry about sin and the idea that grace excuses us from our moral responsibility so that we can pursue our sinful desires and in particular what these false teachers seem to have been promoting was sexual license.

That seems to be the particular teaching that they were promoting using the grace of God to excuse their own sinful desires and thus they would scoff at any aspect of the truth of God’s word that put upon believers and puts upon people the responsibility to walk in obedience to the commandments of the Lord to walk in holiness and sanctification. And so again this is what he says knowing that scoffers will come. When will they come? They will come in the last days. They will come with scoffing. The presence the fact that Jesus the Messiah has arrived onto the scene of history. The fact that Jesus has come does not mean that scoffers are automatically done away with. They’re still going to be here. Now what are the last days? Well the last days this is the period of redemptive history between Christ’s first and second advance.

In other words now this present age he’s saying that this is going to be a reality even in this present messianic age. This age between the ages. This age between the first and the second advance of our Lord. And so friends then he goes on to say in verse four he describes what they will say. These scoffers they will say where is the promise of his coming? Now why would these particular false teachers want to mock at and scoff at the second coming of Christ? Well because the second coming of Christ means that Jesus will return and will hold each and every one of us accountable for every thought word and deed. And these false teachers these scoffers didn’t want that. They wanted the liberty to live according to their own sinful inclinations and desires.

So they would mock at the idea of a final judgment of a return of Christ. And even today we find that don’t we? We find folks who ridicule our belief in the second coming of Christ in the day of final judgment because they don’t want to be subject to God’s judgment. They want to be autonomous. They want to do their own thing. Chart their own course. Be the captain of their own destiny. The master of their own fates. But that’s not the way it goes. And so they scoff at the idea of the second coming and it goes on to say forever since the fathers fell asleep all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. In other words there’s been no divine intervention really. Everything’s just there’s this kind of hyper uniformitarianism that they seemed to embrace and promote.

That just as things continue in the natural order it’s just going to continue that way indefinitely into the future without any supernatural interventions of the Lord. They say everything’s continued ever since the fathers fell asleep. What does he mean by the fathers? Probably he has reference there to the the Old Testament patriarchs. For long ages of human history the sun rises the sun set the years come and go the decades the millennia come and go and things are still the same as they always have been. Forever since the fathers fell asleep all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. But then how does Peter refute them? He says for they deliberately overlook this fact that the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.

So again these scoffers deny God’s active intervention his active supernatural intervention in human history and therefore they deny the second coming of Christ and the final judgment because they deny their moral accountability to their creator. But as Peter points out they deliberately forget they are intentionally obtuse they suppress the truth and unrighteousness they’re not they’re not innocently ignorant they willfully forget they willfully forget what they deliberately forget that God has already supernaturally intervened in the past and he gives two examples in particular they deliberately forget that in the very beginning God created the universe ex nihilo out of nothing he did so by his supernatural creative word they also forget the flood judgment of Noah’s day the judgment that destroyed the human race the world that then was the world that had existed in the ancient pre-deluvian world of Noah’s time and that was a judgment of immense supernatural proportions and in which God supernaturally intervened to judge what Peter describes in verse six as the world that then was and I would have you note by the way that clearly Peter regarded the flood judgment of Noah’s time to be a real historical event not a myth not a parable but a real historical event and then it goes on to say in verse seven but by the same word that same word that brought creation into existence out of nothing that same word that brought the flood judgment upon the world of the ancient pre-deluvian world the world that then existed by that same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up not for water but what for fire being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly here we see Peter underscoring the certainty of the final judgment in the flood judgment God had destroyed the world of humanity by means of water but in the final judgment the heavens and earth in other words everything the entire universe that now exists are these things are stored up for fire a fire which will have the effect of destroying the ungodly and by the way when he uses this term destruction of the ungodly he’s not teaching the heresy of annihilationism he’s not saying that the ungodly will be destroyed in the sense that they will be snuffed out of existence and Peter the apostle has clearly affirmed back in chapter two the reality of hell of eternal damnation in hell so he is speaking here of destruction not in the sense of annihilation but in the sense of eternal judgment and punishment a couple points of application I want to make first of all Christian remember the truths of God’s word that you have been taught remember who you are in Christ remember how he wants you to live as a disciple of Christ secondly be prepared to encounter scoffers and mockers don’t be surprised when the unbelieving ridicule your faith it shouldn’t surprise us it’s offensive yes but let us remember that those especially those outside of the church those who do not know better as those inside the church should know remember that they are held captive to their own delusions they’re held captive to Satan and we need to pray for them and seek their repentance and conversion and those within the church who prove to be scoffers we need to call them to repentance and when necessary exercise loving church discipline to bring them into line and bring them to their knees in repentance but let us not be surprised let us be prepared to encounter scoffers and let us know the faith well so that when we do hear their scoffing we know how to answer their ridicule with the truth of God’s word also friends be comforted and motivated for godly living by looking forward to Christ’s second advent Jesus is returning he will right all wrongs and indeed he is bringing in a new heavens and a new earth wherein righteousness dwells but why hasn’t he done it already well that leads me to my next main point as we consider the reasons for the delay of Christ’s return in verses eight and nine we have reasons for the delay of Christ’s return it says in verse eight but do not overlook this one fact beloved that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness but is patient toward you not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance but the day of the Lord will come like a thief and so forth let’s focus especially on verses eight and nine there’s two reasons that Peter gives here in verses eight and nine for the delay of Christ’s return and you know you know we wonder oftentimes Christians throughout history have wondered when’s the Lord coming back and some have fallen into the trap of trying to read the signs of the times and predict when Jesus would return and Jesus himself says that that’s a fool’s errand because no man knows the day or the hour Jesus said we know that he’s coming back someday we know that he calls us to be prepared for his return but it’s not for us to know times or seasons which God the father has set by his own sovereign purpose and decree but one of the reasons for the delay that Peter mentions in verse eight is God’s perspective on time God views time differently than you and I do since God himself exists outside of time and is himself the creator of all things including time he does not view time as we do the Lord is transcendent over time he’s not bound by time like we are we live on a continuum of past present and future we all we are because we are creatures of God we are limited by time and we will be forever it’s not that when when the new heavens and new earth comes that that we will exist in the same realm of eternity that God exists in the sense that we won’t experience a succession of events we will forever experience past present and future because we are creatures we’re not the creator we are bound by time God is not and so again he is transcendent over time whereas we exist within time and so he says do not overlook this one fact beloved with the Lord one day is this a thousand years and a thousand years as one day one day a thousand years to the Lord it’s there’s hardly any difference now I want to make a an important point here this statement that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as as one day there were some in the early in early church who used this language to form a a doctrine of the millennium in their interpretation of the millennium of revelation chapter 20 but this statement does not provide any justification for speculating about a doctrine of the millennium nor does it address the question of how we are to understand the length of the creation days of genesis 1 as important as those issues are from an exegetical and theological perspective instead in the context of this particular passage Peter is addressing the question of why Jesus hasn’t come back yet and the reason he hasn’t come back yet is look he’s not he’s not delaying unnecessarily his view of time is different from our view of time his point here is that God’s perspective on time is different from our perspective on time but then he gives another reason for the delay of our Lord’s return and that is God’s provision of sufficient time for the elect to be brought to repentance it says in verse 9 the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness I mean two thousand years to us that seems like an awful long time for the Lord to delay his return but the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness his promise of returning is still certain it is still sure but he’s not slow in fulfilling his promise as we might count slowness but rather is patient toward you not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance now many friends many of our non-Calvinist and Arminian friends will appeal to this verse to support the idea of a universal saving will in God since after all it says God is not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance but is that a doctrine that we can legitimately derive from this particular verse now don’t get me wrong the scriptures I believe do indicate that God indeed has a general attitude of benevolence toward all of humanity and as Ezekiel tells us the Lord does not desire the wicked the destruction of the wicked but would rather that they repent and live but at the same time we need to remember that in the context of first Peter I’m sorry second Peter chapter 3 in the context of this passage Peter is writing to believers notice again what he says in verse 9 the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness but is patient toward who patient toward you in other words you believers he’s writing to believers he’s saying God is giving enough time for all of the elect to be brought to repentance and faith in Christ through the spread of the gospel so the implication of this passage is that God is not willing for any of the elect to perish and without hearing the gospel and being brought to faith and repentance even the elect would perish but rather that all of them should reach repentance and of course we know in God’s sovereign decree all of his own will indeed reach repentance but what do we learn from these verses well first of all dear ones let us trust in the Lord’s timing it is not for us to know times or seasons but to trust that Christ will return at just the right time are we ready for his return ready to welcome the Savior and dear listener by God’s grace have you reached repentance have you turned to Christ in repentance from your sin and trusted him alone for your salvation from sin he who died to pay the penalty for sin and rose from the dead so that whoever believes in him might not perish but have everlasting life may God give you the grace this night to reach repentance to come to Christ in faith and repentance but finally our passage for this evening leaves us with a reflection on the suddenness of the day of the Lord and the transformation that it will bring and this is my faith and my final point this evening consider the suddenness of the day of the Lord and the transformation that it will bring we’re told this by Peter in verse 10 but the day of the Lord this is the the final day the day of Christ’s return when he returns in glory raises the dead and judges humanity at the final judgment the day of the Lord will come like a thief it’ll be unexpected it’ll take the world by surprise and then what will happen then the heavens will pass away with a roar and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved Peter here is reflecting Old Testament prophetic language of cosmic upheaval that there will be a total transformation to the creation and it says and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed the works of the earth probably refers to human works will be exposed laid bare and perhaps destroyed now some of your translations instead of translating it as exposed or laid bare we’ll translate it as burned up now this is a a textual issue some of the ancient manuscripts have a reading that could be translated as exposed or laid bare other ancient manuscripts read burned up and there’s debate among Bible believing scholars about what exactly Peter is meaning Peter is meaning to teach by this language of cosmic upheaval some suggest that Peter is saying that when Christ returns he’s going to absolutely completely destroy the present universe by a mighty conflagration every atom every molecule will be destroyed in this present creation and he will immediately create a brand new heavens and earth in other words according to this view there will be absolutely no continuity between this present creation and the future new creation that Christ will bring in on the day of the Lord but others believe that the fire Peter is referring to is not a fire which destroys the cosmos as such but a refining fire a refining a a fire which will radically purify renew and glorify the creation so that it can be spoken of indeed as a new heavens and a new earth in other words is this a fire which destroys so that there is basically no continuity between the present creation and the new creation or is it a fire which radically refines so that there is some continuity my personal view is I favor the latter view because after all is Jesus’s body risen body glorified body with the nail prints and everything is that going to exist in the new creation well that’s continuity Jesus was raised from the dead in the same body that was put on the cross and he bore the he bears forever the marks of his cross in his glorified resurrection body so there’s continuity between Christ’s earthly body and his glorified body which will live on forever in the new heavens and the new earth same thing with our bodies when we are raised from the dead so there will be some continuity just like there is continuity between between a seed and the plant that grows from the seed though there is discontinuity and difference as well but you know whatever the case may be the point is the day of the Lord will be sudden it will radically transform the entire cosmos and everything will be put to rights all wrongs will be righted the wicked will be judged and destroyed the creation will be purified and we will have the privilege brothers and sisters to live in a new heavens and a new earth wherein righteousness dwells may this glorious truth cause us to cry out Maranatha come Lord Jesus come quickly and all of God’s people said amen let us pray our Lord and father in heaven sovereign and eternal God we thank you and praise you that you promise to bring in a new creation we thank you that Jesus will return for us and that he will right all wrongs and that he will bring us to be with him forever we thank you and praise you for this good news we ask that these truths would comfort us we ask that they would put a healthy fear of you within us and cause us Lord to bear fruit for your kingdom we pray these things heavenly father in Jesus name and all of God’s people said amen as we close our time of worship tonight let’s rise and we’ll see

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