Where Is The Promise of His Coming 2 Peter 3
Series: Trinity Season Epistle Sermons
November 17, 2024
Rev. Nathan J. Rusert
The Second Last Sunday In The Church Year (Trinity 26) 11/17/24 Sermon Text: 2 Peter 3:3-14 Sermon Theme: Where Is The Promise of His Coming? I. It Is Written In His Word and Works! (Vs.3-7). II. It Is Written In God’s Mercy And Judgment! (Vs.8-10) III. It Is Written In Our Baptismal Hope! (Vs.10-12) by Rev. Nathan J. Rusert
Episode Notes
The Second Last Sunday In The Church Year (Trinity 26) 11/17/24
Sermon Text: 2 Peter 3:3-14
Sermon Theme: Where Is The Promise of His Coming? I. It Is Written In His Word and Works! (Vs.3-7). II. It Is Written In God’s Mercy And Judgment! (Vs.8-10) III. It Is Written In Our Baptismal Hope! (Vs.10-12) by Rev. Nathan J. Rusert
I.N.R.I. 2Pe 1:16 For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. The Apostle Peter assures Christians suffering persecution for confessing Jesus as Lord that Christianity is the true truth. He continues, 2Pe 1:17-18 For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (18) And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.” On the Mount of Transfiguration Peter, James, and John glimpsed the glory of the God/Man Jesus of Nazareth. They heard God the Father testify that He was well pleased in Jesus and the reconciliation He would accomplish at Jerusalem. God the Father calls all to “Hear Him!” - to listen to Jesus. How? 2Pe 1:19-21 And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; (20) knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, (21) for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. If you would hear the Truth, the Way, the Life speak open up the Holy Bible and read. From Genesis to Revelation He speaks to us through His Word recorded by the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit. The Scriptures testify of Jesus. As you read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the Holy Bible you hear the voice of Jesus echoing through them all - you are being fed on the Bread of Heaven - Jesus - by the Holy Spirit bringing you back to your Heavenly Father. Cling to this Truth!
The fallen angel Satan and his demonic host never tire of snatching the living Seed of God’s Word from your heart. His lie hasn’t changed over the past six millennia... “Has God indeed said...” “You can’t trust God’s Word!” “He’s forbidden you to eat from any tree?”... “God really doesn’t love and care for you.” “You have to save yourself by rebelling against Him to claim all power for yourself.” Beware your fallen reason, feelings, experiences, and flesh love to have their itching ears scratched with these lies. The world trumpets cleverly devised myths and fables as knowledge, mocking and silencing all who don’t repeat their clever lies that all life originated out of non-life. A lie that violates the law of biogenesis - simply stated that life only arises from other living organisms.
The world mocks Christianity for confessing that Jesus “will come again to judge the living and the dead.” “It’s been two millennia and the world hasn’t ended, Jesus hasn’t come again, you are fools!” the world chortles. Still the world preaches doomsday scenarios of its own imagination. In my lifetime we were told the population bomb would bring the world’s destruction when we hit 2 billion people - it never happened. We were warned of nuclear apocalypse, a new ice age, acid rain, the ozone hole, global warming, rising sea levels flooding costal cities. Faith in the world’s foolish fables generate fear promoting tyranny as fallen man imagines he can build his own utopia by seizing power from others, slaughtering the powerless, and silencing those who preach the Truth - Christ Jesus is coming again to judge the living and the dead. The worldly mock, Where Is The Promise of His Coming? I. It Is Written In His Word and Works! (Vs.3-7). II. It Is Written In God’s Mercy And Judgment! (Vs.8-10) III. It Is Written In Our Baptismal Hope! (Vs.10-12) f
I. God the Holy Spirit wrote of those who worship at the altar of “scientism.” (Vs.3-4) One of the building blocks of the lie of evolution is called “uniformitarianism. ” The belief that all things have continued in this world the same since the beginning. What we see now is how things have always been. This view denies the historical accurate record of the Holy Bible for its own assumptions. Building on this lie Charles Lyell created a new paradigm for geology in 1830 by emphasizing a radical uniformity in nature. Claiming that each rock layer took millions of years to be laid down. Charles Darwin influenced by Lyell’s work then imagined a world without a Creator and promoted his myth of evolution happening over millions of years. Darwin’s book: “Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life” also known as the “Origin of Species” - fueled the lie that some people groups should be eliminated for the good of mankind. It was the basis of Nazi Germany’s striving to build a master race, and of progressives in the United States, like Margaret Sanger, pushing for forced abortions on blacks, mentally retarded, and those they deemed less desirable.
Scoffers mock God’s Word of Life promoting the culture of death to save humanity. Scoffers follow their own lusts, feelings, to justify their rebellion against our Creator’s Word and Work. (Vs.5-7) Scoffers stubbornly forget the truth written in Genesis and recorded in the rock layers laid down all over this earth. What does the geological and biological record testify? That Life originated in its many forms instantly as Scriptures record in Genesis. Our Creator’s intelligence, wisdom, and power is seen in the design of every living creature. The seeing eye and hearing ear would never originated by chance random processes. The rock layers laid down by water all over the earth containing millions of millions of dead things - fossils - testify to the world wide flood. An event which reduced the world’s human population from upwards of 11 billion back down to 8. Our world’s present population of 8.2 billion fit with the historical record of the Holy Bible. All people groups share one blood and geneticist trace our origin back to one male and one female -as the Scriptures testify.
God’s Word spoke in those first six 24 hour days of the existence of our physical universe still stand. It is His Word that brings forth life among the deer in the woods, the livestock in our barns, the babies born in our families. His Word spoken still is bringing forth life - each after it’s own kind. His intelligence programed variance within the kind’s of living things, but never does one kind of life evolve into another.
God’s Word spoken to Noah called the world to repentance. After 120 years of preaching - Noah’s congregation remained his wife, three sons and their wives. The rest of the world mocked him as an insane man building a large ship on dry land. Their laughing stopped the day the Lord shut the door of the Ark and the springs of the deep and windows of heaven judge the world by water.
God’s Word spoken by the Holy Spirit through the prophets, by John the Baptist, and by Jesus warn that judgment day is coming. The world is preserved by God’s Word still in this day of grace - but soon judgment day will fall - God’s holy righteous fire will destroy the ungodly - as fire burns the dross from gold to purify it. The promise of Christ’s second coming are written in His Word and His Works! Hear Him!
II. Daniel, exiled to Babylon, serving the Lord and his neighbor as a government official was given a vision of hope. The Day will dawn, the Ancient of Days will redeem sinners through the cross of His only begotten Son! He will come again to judge the living and the dead for His is the everlasting kingdom! “Where is the promise of His coming?” It is written in His present mercy and coming judgment! (Vs.8-9) God’s timing is not our timing. He is eternal, without beginning and without ending. Our lives in this world are temporal. Sin pays the wages of death, and all of us here will die, unless Christ’s returns today.
The Lord is merciful. He doesn’t desire your destruction and eternal torment in the solitary confinement of hell’s flames. Today His mercy calls you to repent! Turn from your sin. Lean not on your own understand. Hear Him! Mercifully He calls you to His cross washing your sins away with His blood! Today, be honest confess your sin, your rebellion, your lusts, your desires - and through them all upon Jesus - your Lamb of God who takes them away by His sacrifice on Calvary’s altar! Today may be your last! Repent! Turn from self to your Savior Jesus Christ! Cling to Him in His Word! Rejoice to feast with Him now within His Church at His Table. He fills you with His body and blood to wash away all your sin - filling you with His life and salvation! God’s mercy is written in the nail wounds in Jesus’ living flesh for you! Hear Him! He calls you by name!
Where is the promise of His coming? It is written in God’s justice! (Vs.10) Jesus clearly teaches - the Father has entrusted all judgment to His Son. He promises that He is coming again soon, when men least expect Him - like a thief in the night. In a millisecond all creation will pass away with a big bang and all the great works of man will be consumed by fire. Purified from all evil, sin, Satan’s demon armies, disease, and death. Be ready to meet the Lord Jesus who is coming soon to judge - separating His believing sheep from stubborn unbelieving goats. His judgment is just and final - there is no court of appeals when that day breaks! Hear Him now! Look into the mirror of God’s Holy Law - turn from your sin - live! Now and forever - In HIM! Hear Him!
III. Where is the promise of His coming? It is written in our baptismal hope! (Vs.11-12) Baptism wasn’t your decision. God the Father judged you to be His own beloved child in His Son Jesus from eternity. Daily remember you are His own beloved baptized child. Live your baptism as you daily drown your old sinful adam and rise to new life of faith in Jesus and love towards one another. This world is passing away - it isn’t your home - hear Jesus promise - He is preparing your Home and will come again to receive you unto Himself. Walk in faith, live in hope, pour yourself out in loving service to your neighbor.
The world preaches doom, Satan tempts you to despair, your flesh wallows in depression - look up! You are marked for life with the sign of the Holy Cross! The fire of judgment cannot burn up those who live in baptismal waters! (Vs.13-14) World history is moving to its fulfillment on the day of Christ’s return. On that day God the Holy Spirit will bring our baptism to its full eternal completion - the resurrection of our bodies - immortal, incorruptible, glorious, spiritual bodies to forever live face to face with our Savior - blessed by our Father brought Home to the inheritance He prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Look up! He is coming again! Let His peace fill you! As it did Simeon as he held Baby Jesus in the Temple. Then baptized and fed by Jesus you can sing, “Lord, now let me depart in peace! My eyes have seen your salvation!” Hear Jesus! Rev 22:20-21 He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming quickly." Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! (21) The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
Sermon Text: 2 Peter 3:3-14
Sermon Theme: Where Is The Promise of His Coming? I. It Is Written In His Word and Works! (Vs.3-7). II. It Is Written In God’s Mercy And Judgment! (Vs.8-10) III. It Is Written In Our Baptismal Hope! (Vs.10-12) by Rev. Nathan J. Rusert
I.N.R.I. 2Pe 1:16 For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. The Apostle Peter assures Christians suffering persecution for confessing Jesus as Lord that Christianity is the true truth. He continues, 2Pe 1:17-18 For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (18) And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.” On the Mount of Transfiguration Peter, James, and John glimpsed the glory of the God/Man Jesus of Nazareth. They heard God the Father testify that He was well pleased in Jesus and the reconciliation He would accomplish at Jerusalem. God the Father calls all to “Hear Him!” - to listen to Jesus. How? 2Pe 1:19-21 And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; (20) knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, (21) for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. If you would hear the Truth, the Way, the Life speak open up the Holy Bible and read. From Genesis to Revelation He speaks to us through His Word recorded by the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit. The Scriptures testify of Jesus. As you read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the Holy Bible you hear the voice of Jesus echoing through them all - you are being fed on the Bread of Heaven - Jesus - by the Holy Spirit bringing you back to your Heavenly Father. Cling to this Truth!
The fallen angel Satan and his demonic host never tire of snatching the living Seed of God’s Word from your heart. His lie hasn’t changed over the past six millennia... “Has God indeed said...” “You can’t trust God’s Word!” “He’s forbidden you to eat from any tree?”... “God really doesn’t love and care for you.” “You have to save yourself by rebelling against Him to claim all power for yourself.” Beware your fallen reason, feelings, experiences, and flesh love to have their itching ears scratched with these lies. The world trumpets cleverly devised myths and fables as knowledge, mocking and silencing all who don’t repeat their clever lies that all life originated out of non-life. A lie that violates the law of biogenesis - simply stated that life only arises from other living organisms.
The world mocks Christianity for confessing that Jesus “will come again to judge the living and the dead.” “It’s been two millennia and the world hasn’t ended, Jesus hasn’t come again, you are fools!” the world chortles. Still the world preaches doomsday scenarios of its own imagination. In my lifetime we were told the population bomb would bring the world’s destruction when we hit 2 billion people - it never happened. We were warned of nuclear apocalypse, a new ice age, acid rain, the ozone hole, global warming, rising sea levels flooding costal cities. Faith in the world’s foolish fables generate fear promoting tyranny as fallen man imagines he can build his own utopia by seizing power from others, slaughtering the powerless, and silencing those who preach the Truth - Christ Jesus is coming again to judge the living and the dead. The worldly mock, Where Is The Promise of His Coming? I. It Is Written In His Word and Works! (Vs.3-7). II. It Is Written In God’s Mercy And Judgment! (Vs.8-10) III. It Is Written In Our Baptismal Hope! (Vs.10-12) f
I. God the Holy Spirit wrote of those who worship at the altar of “scientism.” (Vs.3-4) One of the building blocks of the lie of evolution is called “uniformitarianism. ” The belief that all things have continued in this world the same since the beginning. What we see now is how things have always been. This view denies the historical accurate record of the Holy Bible for its own assumptions. Building on this lie Charles Lyell created a new paradigm for geology in 1830 by emphasizing a radical uniformity in nature. Claiming that each rock layer took millions of years to be laid down. Charles Darwin influenced by Lyell’s work then imagined a world without a Creator and promoted his myth of evolution happening over millions of years. Darwin’s book: “Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life” also known as the “Origin of Species” - fueled the lie that some people groups should be eliminated for the good of mankind. It was the basis of Nazi Germany’s striving to build a master race, and of progressives in the United States, like Margaret Sanger, pushing for forced abortions on blacks, mentally retarded, and those they deemed less desirable.
Scoffers mock God’s Word of Life promoting the culture of death to save humanity. Scoffers follow their own lusts, feelings, to justify their rebellion against our Creator’s Word and Work. (Vs.5-7) Scoffers stubbornly forget the truth written in Genesis and recorded in the rock layers laid down all over this earth. What does the geological and biological record testify? That Life originated in its many forms instantly as Scriptures record in Genesis. Our Creator’s intelligence, wisdom, and power is seen in the design of every living creature. The seeing eye and hearing ear would never originated by chance random processes. The rock layers laid down by water all over the earth containing millions of millions of dead things - fossils - testify to the world wide flood. An event which reduced the world’s human population from upwards of 11 billion back down to 8. Our world’s present population of 8.2 billion fit with the historical record of the Holy Bible. All people groups share one blood and geneticist trace our origin back to one male and one female -as the Scriptures testify.
God’s Word spoke in those first six 24 hour days of the existence of our physical universe still stand. It is His Word that brings forth life among the deer in the woods, the livestock in our barns, the babies born in our families. His Word spoken still is bringing forth life - each after it’s own kind. His intelligence programed variance within the kind’s of living things, but never does one kind of life evolve into another.
God’s Word spoken to Noah called the world to repentance. After 120 years of preaching - Noah’s congregation remained his wife, three sons and their wives. The rest of the world mocked him as an insane man building a large ship on dry land. Their laughing stopped the day the Lord shut the door of the Ark and the springs of the deep and windows of heaven judge the world by water.
God’s Word spoken by the Holy Spirit through the prophets, by John the Baptist, and by Jesus warn that judgment day is coming. The world is preserved by God’s Word still in this day of grace - but soon judgment day will fall - God’s holy righteous fire will destroy the ungodly - as fire burns the dross from gold to purify it. The promise of Christ’s second coming are written in His Word and His Works! Hear Him!
II. Daniel, exiled to Babylon, serving the Lord and his neighbor as a government official was given a vision of hope. The Day will dawn, the Ancient of Days will redeem sinners through the cross of His only begotten Son! He will come again to judge the living and the dead for His is the everlasting kingdom! “Where is the promise of His coming?” It is written in His present mercy and coming judgment! (Vs.8-9) God’s timing is not our timing. He is eternal, without beginning and without ending. Our lives in this world are temporal. Sin pays the wages of death, and all of us here will die, unless Christ’s returns today.
The Lord is merciful. He doesn’t desire your destruction and eternal torment in the solitary confinement of hell’s flames. Today His mercy calls you to repent! Turn from your sin. Lean not on your own understand. Hear Him! Mercifully He calls you to His cross washing your sins away with His blood! Today, be honest confess your sin, your rebellion, your lusts, your desires - and through them all upon Jesus - your Lamb of God who takes them away by His sacrifice on Calvary’s altar! Today may be your last! Repent! Turn from self to your Savior Jesus Christ! Cling to Him in His Word! Rejoice to feast with Him now within His Church at His Table. He fills you with His body and blood to wash away all your sin - filling you with His life and salvation! God’s mercy is written in the nail wounds in Jesus’ living flesh for you! Hear Him! He calls you by name!
Where is the promise of His coming? It is written in God’s justice! (Vs.10) Jesus clearly teaches - the Father has entrusted all judgment to His Son. He promises that He is coming again soon, when men least expect Him - like a thief in the night. In a millisecond all creation will pass away with a big bang and all the great works of man will be consumed by fire. Purified from all evil, sin, Satan’s demon armies, disease, and death. Be ready to meet the Lord Jesus who is coming soon to judge - separating His believing sheep from stubborn unbelieving goats. His judgment is just and final - there is no court of appeals when that day breaks! Hear Him now! Look into the mirror of God’s Holy Law - turn from your sin - live! Now and forever - In HIM! Hear Him!
III. Where is the promise of His coming? It is written in our baptismal hope! (Vs.11-12) Baptism wasn’t your decision. God the Father judged you to be His own beloved child in His Son Jesus from eternity. Daily remember you are His own beloved baptized child. Live your baptism as you daily drown your old sinful adam and rise to new life of faith in Jesus and love towards one another. This world is passing away - it isn’t your home - hear Jesus promise - He is preparing your Home and will come again to receive you unto Himself. Walk in faith, live in hope, pour yourself out in loving service to your neighbor.
The world preaches doom, Satan tempts you to despair, your flesh wallows in depression - look up! You are marked for life with the sign of the Holy Cross! The fire of judgment cannot burn up those who live in baptismal waters! (Vs.13-14) World history is moving to its fulfillment on the day of Christ’s return. On that day God the Holy Spirit will bring our baptism to its full eternal completion - the resurrection of our bodies - immortal, incorruptible, glorious, spiritual bodies to forever live face to face with our Savior - blessed by our Father brought Home to the inheritance He prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Look up! He is coming again! Let His peace fill you! As it did Simeon as he held Baby Jesus in the Temple. Then baptized and fed by Jesus you can sing, “Lord, now let me depart in peace! My eyes have seen your salvation!” Hear Jesus! Rev 22:20-21 He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming quickly." Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! (21) The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
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