Transcription downloaded from https://legacy.freechurch.org/sermons/12937/what-manner-of-persons-ought-we-to-be-gaelic/. Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions. Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt. [0:00] Thank you. [0:30] Thank you. [1:00] Thank you. [1:30] Thank you. [1:59] Thank you. [2:29] Thank you. [2:59] Thank you. [3:29] Thank you. [3:59] Thank you. [4:29] Thank you. [4:59] Thank you. [5:29] Thank you. [5:59] Thank you. [6:29] Thank you. [6:59] Thank you. [7:29] Thank you. [7:59] Thank you. [8:29] Thank you. [8:59] Thank you. [9:29] Thank you. [9:59] Thank you. [10:29] Thank you. [10:59] Thank you. [11:29] Thank you. [11:59] Thank you. [12:29] Thank you. [12:59] Thank you. [13:29] Thank you. [13:59] Thank you. [14:29] Thank you. [14:59] Thank you. [15:29] Thank you. [15:59] Thank you. [16:29] Thank you. [16:59] Thank you. [17:29] Thank you. [17:59] Thank you. 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[44:29] people who knew. [44:59] coming again. [45:29] And you. [45:59] I think they apart know you. who are troubled in their minds regarding some truths of revelation, but who have within their heart a sympathy with Scripture and with truth that makes them concerned about their own doubts and their own questionings, and that leads them to desire to have light in order to be more fully convinced and persuaded of the truth. [46:41] And at the same time, there are those of a different disposition, people who are in their hearts governed by hostility to the truth and consequently make a mockery of truth, and to consider that those who humbly and simply receive the truth of God, without question or doubt, that they are simple-minded people, people who do not think for themselves, and people who are themselves misled, misguided, and who are guilty of misguiding other people too, who come under their influence. [47:21] There are many in every generation, and the number naturally increases as the population of the world increases, of those who are of that kind of inward disposition, who pose positively to every truth of revelation and to some of them more than others. [47:40] And you can well imagine it is so reasonable that if any man or woman or child wants to live according to their own desire, and to be their own sort of master, and to enjoy what they consider to be pleasures in life, without lack or hindrance, nothing can be more offensive to such spirits, than the very thought of the return of Christ into the world. [48:15] And especially when that return is in order to judge the world. It is the very last piece of news, or point of information, that such a soul wants to hear for a moment. [48:29] They want to banish such thoughts, totally out of their mind, and that is the condition of the vast majority of souls in the world tonight, that rather than receive with gladness the news that Christ shall come again into the world, their desire is to banish forever such thinking out of their own hearts and minds, so that they shall be free, to that extent at least, to enjoy life as they choose to enjoy it. [49:06] Peter answers, first of all, the Lord, he says, is not slack concerning his promise. [49:17] That is what these people were asking. [49:28] Where is the promise of his coming? If God has said he is coming, where is there any evidence that there is any truth in such a promise? [49:43] Peter says, the Lord is not slack. He's so far, as it were, from telling an untruth, of promising what shall not happen, that he is not even slack concerning this promise. [50:07] There is no kind of uncertainty on the part of God as to the fact of the coming again of his son, or the time of the coming of his son. [50:24] The Lord is not slack concerning his promise. And he goes on to say positively that the same God who has declared that Christ shall come is long suffering to earthward. [50:44] This, as it were, continuation of things as they have been, as you judge them to be, a mere continuation of everything as they have been from the beginning, is actually a revelation of the long suffering, the mercy, and the goodness of God. [51:10] Not any reason for questioning his truthfulness, or the certainty of the fulfillment of his promise. [51:21] It is long suffering to you who are disbelieving, doubting what he has said. God is, as it were, extending your opportunities for preparation for that event. [51:38] That is one reason Peter gives why the promise is not yet fulfilled. He goes on to say that this Lord does not wish any to perish. [51:59] What then does he wish? His wishes that all should come to repentance. That is what we have before us here tonight. [52:13] When we are gathered in an assembly where the gospel of Christ is set before us, the way of salvation provided by God, we have before us a demonstration of the fact that whereas God would have been just, in consigning every one of us to a lost eternity as soon as we came into being, he has preserved us in life and he has so ordered our providence that we gather around his word where he himself sets before us a way of mercy and salvation and offers a savior to us without money and without price. [53:04] How can you or I dare say that judgment is what God delights in and that mercy is what he detests, that he delights rather in dealing solely in terms of justice with sinners for their sins and if he has mercy on any, that it is reluctantly and grudgingly none, even when all of mankind shall assemble in his presence on the judgment day, not one soul shall be able to accuse God in these terms. [53:50] peace. As Peter says, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. [54:04] The seeming delay then in the fulfilling of this promise that Christ shall come again is actually not a delay but a revelation of the grace and mercy, the patience of God with sinful rebels of mankind. [54:32] How will this day come? How will this passion come? We are told by Peter here that the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. [54:50] It shall happen not as a gradual process and we are all so keen are we not for great and solemn events especially oh amongst all events the event that shall seal the eternal destiny of every soul of man that it should come gradually that there would be many many evidences that it draws ever nearer in such a way that we would see his coming actually long before the event supposing it were to happen twenty years from now that there would be signs in the heavens of the presence the very presence of Christ as it were moving from heaven and drawing nearer to this world well perhaps there are signs but not of the kind that we would wish to see the day of the [56:05] Lord shall come as a thief in the night he comes suddenly I think a simple way to illustrate that aspect of the coming of the Lord is this that it could happen while I am in the middle of a sentence trying to tell you that it has to happen it could happen then before I had finished a sentence it could happen and it will happen whenever the time has arrived when men are going about their normal interests and concerns at a time when men shall be building and buying and selling and marrying and giving in marriage at a time when things in fact are going on as they were the day before and as they were the year before as they were in a sense centuries before when things appear to be normal when none when none is looking to heaven except the few who are obedient to the [57:49] Lord's exhortation to watch because they know not the day not the year you notice how there are people because they know not they become increasingly watchful whereas the mass of people because they know not the time become more and more unwatchful more and more indifferent and careless other things draw their hearts and thoughts away from their encounter with Christ their judge because they know not the day nor the hour what will Christ do on that day as I have already indicated he shall judge the world at the last day but we find here other events described to us by the apostle he says that the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word that is by the word of the [59:04] Lord himself are kept in store reserved he says unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men he tells us as I pointed out the end of the end of the world is to be brought to an end with fire with fire now the reason I mentioned the obsession of men at this present time with nuclear destruction is because of this very truth that there is a destruction awaiting the world of equal seriousness and indeed of greater seriousness it is not dependent upon the choice of any man ruler or subject king or president or prime minister or military commander it is dependent upon the will of the great [60:45] God and creator and he has declared that destruction by fire is coming now the strange it is strange to me on the part of people who have the Bible and who read their Bible and especially if they claim to believe the Bible how do you reconcile the one thing with the other this terrible all consuming fear of nuclear war and destruction and total indifference to what we know to be an inevitable destruction that has been foretold by God in his word and yet having no effect whatsoever on men's faith on men's behavior and actions and attitudes as long as they live in this world how do you reconcile these two well [61:50] I feel that they are irreconcilable you cannot rationally reconcile them the only explanation surely for them is this that although you might claim to believe the word of God you do not truly believe it in the in the first instance the threat of nuclear war you are dealing with something regarding which you have no certainty it can happen it may not happen with regard to the other form of destruction it shall occur as surely as you exist and as surely as God exists the heavens shall pass we are told by Peter when he has spoken about the long suffering of the [62:55] Lord and of the day of the Lord coming as a thief in the night in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up nuclear war or no nuclear war the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up and my exhortation to you is to let that truth grip your soul and influence your vision so that you shall live in the light of a fact not a speculation not a fear or a threat of something possible but live in the light of an inevitable event that has been divinely revealed as an event that is under divine control and that shall be effected by divine power supposing there is no nuclear power in existence by that time this shall be put into effect destruction by fire of the earth and all the works that are therein now I had intended referring to several other things and especially to the question what instruction are we given us to our lives in the light of this glorious fact and [64:53] I want to bring the service to a conclusion in a few moments the exhortations are plain on the face of scripture they have been read or heard by yourself so often some of you cannot even remember the times that you have heard exhortations bearing upon your standing before God on this great and awful day the first exhortation that I would offer tonight to myself first and to you then is this that you believe this truth believe it and I want to say again that when any soul of one truly believes this fact of revelation their belief inevitably will result in changes in their lives inevitably for instance you will become afraid afraid of what you will become afraid of sin [66:30] I think any soul who lives in the light of the day of judgment Christ's second coming inevitably becomes afraid of sin people who live in that light cannot live in sin they cannot delight in the transgressing of any of God's commandments love love sin or any who have found in that condition by Christ at his sudden return to the world shall receive the wages of sin any who have died before his second coming in that condition loving sin sin or any one particular sin shall be dealt with accordingly and he says that the wages of sin is death [67:38] I think too and I am only giving out my own personal simple thoughts as to what exhortations are necessary in the light of the truth before us tonight I think if you are living in the light of the glory of the judgment day you will seek salvation for your soul you will seek deliverance from every deception from every delusion from every false refuge that can satisfy blind sin in this life you want to escape from every false refuge and you want to know the one way of escape from the wrath to come and you will put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ himself and have you ever thought of the wonder of this experience on the part of any sinner in this world that a point has come in his life or her life when instead of regarding the judge who comes to judge themselves and all men at the last day with fear and dread and terror they have come to put their trust in him not in someone near to him or someone like to him but they have come to place their trust in himself for their salvation they receive and rest on [69:26] Christ their judge alone for their salvation he is not then a source of terror but surely the one only source of comfort and of peace yea of joy and gladness in view of his coming again at the last day you will want to seek grace will you not do you not agree that such an one will daily seek grace to live to his glory to grow as Peter here says in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ you will use every day and every opportunity on Sabbath day and week day you will seek every opportunity in order to prepare for this solemn event and for your encounter personally with one who shall give to all of us according as we have done in the body whether our deeds and pursue it is a ministry and raise everything in their hearts with with all the baby is