THE HELMET, SWORD&SHIELD

Sobering Anticipation

“Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.”

2 Peter 3:14

Before he departed from their presence to complete the work of redemption at Calvary, the Lord Jesus took considerable time to inform and educate the Disciples regarding the important details related to His imminent glorious Second Coming.

Moreover, He graphically portrayed to them in painstaking detail the conditions that would be prevalent in society pending the arrival of that appointed day. He greatly stressed that the lifestyle and attitude of every follower of Christ should convey to “the lost” the reality of its expectance and its immense.

He stressed that our “world view” should be reflective of His sobering declaration, “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.” (Matt. 24:42)

The Lord Jesus strongly emphasized and expressed the extreme importance of this event to the degree it became permanently etched on the tablets of their inner being. After His glorious Resurrection, during the days prior to His miraculous Ascension, the Disciples posed to Him the question, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6)

The Holy Ghost made the Disciples mindful of the Old Testament prophecies that predicted the event inaugurating the establishing of the Kingdom of God on earth.

His Second Coming is Imminent

Scripture repeatedly shows us that the Second Coming of Christ was an event that remained in the forefront view of the early Church. The reason for this was because of their faithfulness in following the Lord and their effort of diligent devotion to Him.

Without question the general atmosphere of persecution and reproach contribute to them maintaining a mindset affixed on the promise of His return. Early on, the Church was held in utter contempt and wholly rejected by the “world” because of their faith in Jesus Christ.

They clearly identified with the heavenly mandates set forth in Hebrews 12:13-14 that directs us, “Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.”

They were both deliberate and diligent in their daily practice of godly living because they were ever “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” (Titus 2:13)

The commencement of Christ’s Second Coming dramatically and traumatically closes the door on the era of Grace and commences the final chapter of human history. In Isaiah 13:6-13 the Old Testament prophet vividly scribed: “Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt: 8And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.

“Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.

“And I will punish the world for their evil and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.”

Is this the portrait of events that we envision, when we contemplate the imminence of Christ’s Second Coming? Do we even remotely consider how His Coming our present “world-view;” and greatly our daily lives will be changed?

Isaiah 2:10, 11 declared: “Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.”

According to His Promise

The promise of redemption essentially is summarized by the declarations presented in 2 Peter 3:13. The Apostle documents, “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.”

However, do we actually grasp the true depth of what “his promise” actually means? We profess, “I want to be where Jesus is;” but do we truly comprehend the vast dimension and impact that His “imminent Second Coming” will have on this world, and most importantly on our personal lives.

In the verses preceding the present text the Apostle Peter graphically explained, “For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” (2 Pet. 3:5-7)

Without question “the world” and the universe will be a very different place with the arrival of His “Second Coming.”

“Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.” Malachi 3:16

MAIN TEXT

2 Peter 3:10-14

10) But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. 11) Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, 12) Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? 13) Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. 14) Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.

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