Pastor Jeff on the Radio

Guest (Male): You're listening to Pastor Jeff Ministries, the Bible teaching ministry of Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub. On today's program, Pastor Jeff concludes his message, "Second Coming Certainty," from the series "Stay the Course," and shows you why the Lord is not slow about his promise but patient, not wishing for any to perish. Our mission is to challenge you to respond courageously to God's word and live fully for Jesus Christ.

As we prepare our hearts for Easter, we're focusing on what it means to be made new in Christ and sent on mission for Him. To grow deeper each week, visit pastorjeff.com and sign up for weekly devotional emails delivered straight to your inbox. Now, here's today's message.

Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub: God, who existed before all eternities past, decided in a moment to create everything out of nothing, and therefore it exists. Evolutionism, which is not a science, it’s a theology, here’s what they believe: there was nothing that bumped into nothing and that created everything. And that's science. That's idiotic. You've forgotten the truth that someone has to be behind what is created.

Psalm 24 says the earth is the Lord's and everything in it. He created the seas. I mean, the heavens declare the glory of God. Look at the stars. You can't deny that there's a Creator. If I were to find my watch in a forest, I wouldn't look at it and be like, "Oh my goodness, millions of years and different iron ore formations brought this thing together and now it's a watch and I found it," because I'm not an idiot. I would realize there's a designer and there was a creator that had a purpose for this.

When I see the world, there has to be a designer and creator. If you've ever seen a child born, you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there's a designer and creator. And it escapes the notice of mockers that Christ is sovereign, that He’s the one that created it all. It also escapes their mind about Christ's activity. Notice the next verse, "Through which the world was at that time destroyed, being flooded with water."

I believe in a global flood. Do you know why? Because that's what the Bible teaches. I believe the entire earth was flooded. I don't believe it was a local flood. I don't believe it was a torrential downpour where a boat floated on a lake. I believe God flooded the whole world. Why? Because He gave 120 years for that group of people to repent and believe that He was God. Only Noah and his wife, Noah's three sons and their wives believed. And here's how you know they believed: because they actually got in the boat when God said it's going to rain.

With a group of animals, they floated into safety over the course of that time, and everybody else and every animal and every living thing died. And it escapes the notice of mockers that a loving God would never destroy the world. He's already done it once. And that pales in comparison to what's coming. It just does. That was like the appetizer or the preamble to what's going to happen.

Read through the New Testament. When God comes, His judgment is so swift and so severe that it's every single person, both living and dead, that God judges in a moment for an eternal hell or an eternal heaven with Him. It's that quick. And for mockers, it escapes their mind that that’s actually going to happen. And by the way, I'm not talking about your background or your faith. Maybe you don't have one, or if you're Catholic or you're Protestant or you're Methodist or Baptist or Lutheran or Reformed. It doesn't mean jack squat on judgment day.

The only thing that matters on judgment day is you, who were dead, repented of your sins, believed that Jesus died in your place, gave Him your dead life, took His living life, and are new and born again in Him. That's all that matters. But make no mistake about it, Christ is active. Christ is active. He's always been active. He's not just a God that's up there. He's dwelling in us now. He dwells in every heart who believes in Him. He's living and active in our universe. He's unfolding things both on a micro level in our own lives and at a macro level around the world. That's what He does. He's very active.

We know He's so active that Proverbs 21:1 says the king's heart is a channel of water in His hand. He can turn it wherever He wills. There's not a person or a being that's outside of the scope of what God can do. He's all-powerful and He's all-active in everything that's going on. Mockers question His commands, His return, His sovereignty, His activity, and then finally, they question His judgment.

But notice this in verse seven: "But by His word, the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire." Why? Because God promised in Genesis He would never flood the world again. And He gave a sign in the sky. You still see that sign in the sky that every time it rains, you see a rainbow. That was a sign of His covenant promise that it's going to rain and there'll be some floods, but I'll never flood the whole world again. Guarantee you that.

It's a sign that God's judgment might come, but God's judgment will never be with water. It's interesting that we have a whole community of people who have adopted the rainbow as their emblem, which is really a sign of God's judgment over sin the first time. I don't know why they would pick that. It's not only arrogant, it's ignorant. But Christ is coming, and He’s going to judge the world this time with fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

I mean, think about it. Everything that you think is valuable is going to burn. That new house that you're building that's just so awesome? It's going to burn. That league trophy that's so special? It's going to burn. The awards you got for work? Going to burn. The plaques on your wall, the diplomas? It's all going to burn. I mean, there's nothing here you're going to take into the new heavens and the new earth. Nothing. Because God is coming and our God is a consuming fire. He's going to start fresh with those who have been born again, and He's going to redeem the heavens and the earth and He's going to set up His kingdom. It's going to be beautiful and nothing that we have now is going to be worthy of entering that other than a born-again heart.

And that's why we need to believe that. Because the Bible says in Philippians chapter two that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. How will every knee bow and every tongue confess if He doesn't come back? Friends, He's coming back. And He's coming back in judgment, and His judgment will be so severe and so swift. Every person alive and every person who is dead will stand before Him in judgment.

Now, here's a different kind of judgment. For those of us who have been born again, our sin's already been judged. Our sin's already been judged. Because here's what mockers say: "How could a loving God ever take that many people and throw them into hell? The God I believe in is a God of love. He would never do that." Well, you believe in a false god.

See, the question that the Bible answers is this: how could a holy, righteous, perfect God that created human beings in His image that are dead in sin, that have spent their life rebelling against Him, how could a God like that ever allow one human being to be in His presence? And the Bible goes to great lengths to answer that. That God the Father sent His Son to be the Savior of the world, that Jesus Christ put on incarnate flesh for all eternity that came. He glorified His dad by fulfilling the law, and then at the very end of His life, instead of you taking all of God's wrath and all of His anger poured out on you, Jesus said, "Dad, I'll take it for them."

When He was on the cross, it was not just an act of love to die for some other people. It was His act of saying, "God, pour all the wrath that was deserved for humankind on me. I'll take it all." And when He did, He said what? "It is finished." It's complete. I took it all. Then He rose from the dead to validate the fact He was indeed God's one and only Son, because nobody else has ever conquered death except for Jesus. And then He offered life to all who would say, "If you don't want to experience the wrath of God, turn from your sin, trust in Jesus, and you too can be saved and saved to the full."

And I persuade you this morning, and I plead with you this morning, if you're hearing my voice this morning, I'm not asking you to join Brave and I'm not asking you to join a cadre and I'm not asking you to join our core, I'm not asking you to serve more, I'm not asking you to jump through religious hoops. I'm persuading you and pleading with you that if you've never taken your sin to the cross and individually said, "Jesus, take it all, I don't want to die in my sin, I don't want to experience Your wrath," give it to Him now and exchange for all of His life and be made new. Be born again. He will meet you right where you are right now to do that. And that's the message of the gospel.

Guest (Male): Thanks for listening today. That was Pastor Jeff with his message, "Second Coming Certainty," from the series "Stay the Course," showing you why the Lord is not slow about his promise but patient, not wishing for any to perish.

We'll get back to Pastor Jeff in just a moment. But first, generous listeners like you make this ministry possible. And when you give this month to help share teaching like you're hearing today with more folks around the world, we'll send you Pastor Jeff's booklet, "Made New: Discovering Your New Identity, New Focus, and New Mission." It's a powerful, scripture-saturated guide to help you understand what truly changes when you surrender your life to Christ: your identity, your focus, and your mission. This resource pairs perfectly with the messages you're hearing, calling you to step boldly into the mission God has for you. Request your copy today when you give to Pastor Jeff Ministries. Just go to pastorjeff.com. Now, for the conclusion of today's message.

Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub: That's what He wants to do in your life because, friends, Christ's commands are not burdensome. He is returning. He is sovereign. He is ruling. He's active, and He's coming back in judgment. And He will judge both the living and the dead. There's no doubt about it. This should be very sobering for us, by the way. You know why? Because God takes no delight in the death of wicked people.

And if you're a born-again believer, you know this: that in your family and among your friends and even some of those that you're sitting next to this morning, they don't know the Lord Jesus Christ. They've never surrendered their life to Him. Oh, they play games. They talk Christianese. They talk about how they love Jesus. They might even attend church. They might even sing songs. They might even have a Bible with their name engraved on the front of it and read it sometimes. They might even be in a group of small people. They may actually talk about Jesus, and they may know enough Christianese to fake you out.

But what they've never done is to be sick and tired of their sin. What they've never done is recognize that Jesus Christ hates that. See, when I stand up here at the end of a service and I say, "You are loved," I believe theologically I can do that. For the believer, I know I can say that, because once you've been redeemed, there's an unconditional love that God has for you and no matter what you do, no one can ever snatch you out of God's hand. And even on your worst day, you're still a child of God, and He loves you. And on the day that you have a whole "woulda, coulda, shoulda done that whole day over," or you look back at your life 20 years and like "woulda, coulda, shoulda," you're redeemed and you're God's and He loves you and He can't love you any more than He already does.

But I also believe that I'm telling the truth to the non-believer in this: that God created you in His image. And because of what God creates, He loves what He creates. And you're created in the image of God and so you have value. Now, here's the nuance of that. The nuance of that is that God loves you because you have value, but here's what the problem is: God hates sin and He hates the sinners that sin sins.

Psalm 7:11 says that God is angry with the wicked every single day. Psalm 5:5 says that God hates those who do iniquity. God hates those who sin. See, the problem is Jesus doesn't send sin to hell, He sends sinners to hell. We like to say things like this: "Love the sinner, hate the sin," and I know what we mean when we say that. What we're saying is they have value as individuals, so don't hate the individual, but hate what they do. Here's the problem with that. The problem with that is God doesn't send sin to hell. He doesn't send your immorality to hell. He sends the people that are living immoral to hell.

He hates sinners. You say, "Well, then what do I do?" You turn from your sin and you run to the cross as fast as you can to be freed from your sin so you can experience His grace. Friends, we are dead in our sins, and apart from Christ, we have no hope. There's nobody on judgment day that's going to stand before the Lord that hasn't repented that's going to have a good day. And even if all your friends are gathered around and your mom and dad are there and your grandparents are like, "Oh, but she's such a good person and we like her a lot and she's got a good personality," it will not matter if you've never repented.

I mean, I could sum it up like this: that Jesus is always pursuing lost people in His love, but He hates them in their sin. And both are equally true. He hates your sin. He hates my sin. He hates sinners when they sin. But He pursues us in love in hopes that we would turn to Him. And I'm persuading you today, I'm just telling you today, if you take this seriously, one day we'll see each other in heaven and be like, "Pastor Jeff, you were right. You were right. Thank you. I was mad at you when you said it, but thank you. Because He's coming back and His justice will be swift."

Let me give you a third one. Not only do you need to adhere to God's word and acknowledge the increase of mockers, you need to affirm God's massive patience. You need to affirm His massive patience. "But do not let this one fact escape your notice," there's so many things that scoffers and mockers, it's escaped their mind, but don't let this one fact escape your notice, beloved—you that God really wants to have relationship with—that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day.

Now, this has been butchered by so many people. Peter is quoting Psalm chapter 90 verse four where he says this: "For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it passes by, or as a watch in the night." Here's what he's saying. He's saying a day is 24 hours. A thousand years is a bunch of days collected. But from eternity past to eternity future, when God looks at a day or God looks at a thousand years, it's all the same to Him. It's not a big deal.

"Where's Christ? It's been 2,000 years since He predicted He was coming. 2,000 years!" Yeah, well, in God's timing, that's like two days. It's not long to Him. God steps outside of time and outside of space. What it doesn't mean is when God says in Genesis 1 that He created the world in six days, well, maybe it was 6,000 years. No, it was six days. How do you know? Because that's what God said. He's using a simile here to talk about God's eternity and how vast and big God is and how marvelous He is. And while we're sitting there saying, "He hasn't come yet, doesn't seem like it to me," friends, I'm going to be 54 years old next month. I've lived this much in the span of eternity, which means I know nothing.

Jesus knows everything and has always existed and will always exist and said, "Jeff, what seems like a long time to you is not that long of a time." You ever have a period in your life that's a real short period of time but seems like forever? I had a friend write me a note when we were in this college class one time and it said this during the class: "Jeff, if I only had five minutes to live, I would choose to come to this class because it would seem as if I were alive for years." You ever had one of those moments?

Or you ever had some sort of pain in your life physically where one minute feels like seven weeks? It just feels that way. It feels long. It feels long to us. Like, "Where are you, Jesus? It seems like it's been a long time." But in God's economy, it's really, really short. It's not that long at all. And you have to realize, in light of eternity, this is just a mist. And one day we're going to be celebrating millions and billions and trillions of years from now, saying, "We're just getting started. Isn't this amazing?" And we'll look back on this and say, "We were so impatient. We thought it was taking so long," right?

Because that's our perspective and that's our view because we're not God. That's why we’ve got to hear God's perspective. But notice what He says in verse nine: "The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but He’s patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance." Why hasn't the Lord come yet? Because He's incredibly, massively patient. Because there's some of you listening to my voice right now that haven't turned and come to Him yet.

Does that mean that God will save everybody? No, the Bible's clear that God doesn't save everybody. The Bible's clear that not all will come to Him. The Bible's clear that there are some people in this earth who will say, "It's about me and my life and my lust and what I want and I'm going to live for myself and nobody can tell me what to do." And if they die in that, God will give them exactly what they wanted for all eternity: a life without Christ.

And just so you know, hell's not described as a great place. It's not a place of community that's just like a big habitat for humanity work project that's hot, where everybody's slaving away, "Oh, so hot down here." That's not what it is. It's a place of isolation. It's a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. It's a place where you won't see another human being for all eternity. You will experience physical, emotional, mental punishment for all eternity, and there's no crossing over.

If you're thirsty, there's nothing to quench your thirst. If you want a friend, there's no friend for you. If you're uncomfortable, there's nobody to comfort you because every good and perfect gift comes from God, and you lived your life saying, "I don't want you, God," and God gave you the eternity that you wanted.

But for those of us who are believers, we would say we knew we didn't want a life without God, and we knew we lived a life without God, and we were sorry for the life we lived without God, and we repented and we were thankful that God sent His Son Jesus to die for our wickedness on a cross. And we exchange our wickedness for His life, and He took all of our sin and all of our wrath, so we're not going to experience God's judgment for our sin. We're going to experience God's judgment for the good works that we do. For us that are believers, it's going to be more like Olympics: first, second, and third place. It's going to be what God was able to do through you. It's going to be an exciting judgment because our sin will have already been judged at the cross. Amen?

So why hasn't Jesus come yet? Because there's still those and there's still time for those He's pleading with to say, "Come to me." How tragic it would be for you to hear this message today and to die in your sin, knowing that you had every opportunity to trust the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says in Romans 1:20 that all men in hell are without excuse. There's nobody in hell that says, "How come You didn't choose me? I would have really wanted had I—" No, no, no. You chose a life without God because you didn't want God and now you get eternity without Him.

So I'm pleading with you, I'm begging you today as your pastor, as someone that loves you and cares for you, it's not about you being good and it's not about you getting better and it's not about you joining the church. It's about you recognizing you're dead and that you need Jesus in your life, and would you turn your life over to Him?

And if you're sitting here saying, "Well, I've never had that experience and I don't know if I've done it," then do it today. It's not about the experience. It's not about the emotion. It's about knowing that you know that you know that you said, "Jesus, I came to You and You didn't turn me away, and I know I'm Yours." Make today your day. Jesus hasn't come back yet because not everybody that's coming has come. And God's sovereign and He knows when the last one who's going to trust Him comes, it'll be over and He'll come.

And it's already been set. The Father knows the day and the hour. The Father knows when it's going to happen. It's already set. It's already coming. But I'm telling you there's great joy for those of you that will live His way. And it's the kindness of the Lord that leads you to repentance. It's God's kindness that you're getting to hear this message today. He loves you so much He's saying, "Don't stay where you are. Don't kid yourself into believing that you're a Christian. If you're upset with other Christians that have come around you and said, 'I don't think you're a believer yet,' don't get mad at them. Examine your own heart."

There's too many people in the church that think that they're saved because they've adopted certain Christian behaviors that aren't saved. Being saved is a centered, personal, relational response to the Lord Jesus Christ in all His glory. Have you given Him your life? It's not about what's the bare minimum I can do to believe and still live like hell and get to heaven. That's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches how do you give up your dead life for the very life of Christ, and do you want that? And if you want that, today's the day of salvation.

Let me give you a final one after you affirm God's massive patience. I'll go quickly through this: anticipate the Lord's judgment. Anticipate the Lord's judgment. We'll talk more about this next week. We'll pick up here. But I want you to see this. If you're going to make it through, you have to anticipate the Lord's judgment. Notice this: "But the day of the Lord," which is when He pours out His wrath, "will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up."

We've already talked about that. When Jesus Christ comes back, it will not be some quiet, secret, special little rapture that nobody heard. When Jesus comes back, everybody will know Jesus came back. The living and the dead, the righteous and the wicked, everybody's going to know. It will not be a secret. Only problem I have with a silent and secret rapture is that nowhere in the Bible is it silent or secret, in my opinion. If you don't believe me, you will one day.

But anticipate His coming. And notice what it says: when He comes, He's going to come like a thief. Well, for those of us who believe, He's not going to come like a thief. Because if you knew the thief was coming, he wouldn't be a thief. And by the way, Jesus is not coming to steal anything from a believer. So He's not a thief to us. He's not coming to take anything from us.

And we already know when we start seeing these things happen, and when that generation of the church sees the sun turn dark and sees the moon turn to blood and sees the stars fall, you may not know the day or the hour then, but you'll be like, "Oh, it's coming soon. Get ready." Right? But for those that aren't in Christ, when those things happen, they'll be cursing God all the more.

And I'm just here to tell you, get your life ready now, because for them, it will come like a thief. It'll come quick. They'll feel like God's taking everything away from them, which He is, because that's exactly what they've lived like and that's exactly what they've said they wanted. You get the choice that in this life you either get to live for Jesus or you get to live for yourself. God loves you enough to let you make that choice. You live for yourself in this life, you'll live by yourself in the next life. You live for Jesus in this life, you'll live with Jesus in a community of people in the next life.

And when we see these signs, the book of Hebrews tells us we should gather even more and all the more as we see the day approaching. We as people who believe in the coming of Christ should be encouraging one another on, building one another up, saying, "He's coming! Can you believe it? He's coming, He's coming!" Yeah, I saw that over there. I saw who got elected. I didn't like that either. But He's coming! It's getting better and our best days are ahead because Jesus Christ has always been, is still, and will always be Lord of all. Amen? And that's what the Word is about.

Guest (Male): Thanks for listening today. That was Pastor Jeff with his message, "Second Coming Certainty," from the series "Stay the Course," showing you why the Lord is not slow about his promise but patient, not wishing for any to perish.

Thanks for joining us for today's program. Before you go, a quick reminder: when you give a gift of support today, we'll thank you by sending a copy of Pastor Jeff's powerful booklet, "Made New: Discovering Your New Identity, New Focus, and New Mission." This isn't just a devotional, it's a scripture-rich guide to help you understand who you are in Christ, why that changes everything, and how to step boldly into the mission God's giving you. So request your copy today at pastorjeff.com when you give to help others experience the transforming power of God's Word. That's pastorjeff.com. We'll see you next time.