Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): On today's Telling the Truth program, Stuart Briscoe brings a message called Living Today in the Light of Tomorrow. It's a message in a series called Six Things We Must Never Forget. Today's culture is a revolving door of ever-shifting views and beliefs. That's why it's so important to test new ideas against the timeless truth of Scripture. It's the best defense against the world's confusion.

We want to help ground you in the foundations of your faith by sending you Stuart Briscoe's six-message series on the book of Second Peter, Six Things We Must Never Forget. This series will anchor you in six time-tested truths from God's Word so you can stand strong in your beliefs as you remember the deep spiritual truths that are foundational to your faith.

The Six Things We Must Never Forget series is our thanks for your gift to help keep Telling the Truth going strong, sharing life-giving teaching from Stuart and Jill with more people all over the world. So request your copy when you give today and get help staying grounded in truth in today's shifting culture. Call 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, here's Stuart with his message for today, Living Today in the Light of Tomorrow.

Stuart Briscoe: This world is not my home. I'm just passing through. My treasures are laid up way beyond the blue. The angels beckon me from heaven's open door, and I can't feel at home in this world anymore. Now, that is a very peculiar sentiment. That is a very unusual way of looking at things. It's a lovely old song and we old folks like to hear the old songs occasionally. But I wanted to bring out the truth of this.

I hope that as the course of the week unwinds, the rhythm of that and the happiness of it will reverberate in your thinking, but the content of it will sink deeply into your consciousness. You'll be saying to yourself, is that true? Is that true? This world is not my home, I'm just passing through. Or am I just settled down and this is it? Am I just going to have a ball here and delay going to the other place as long as I possibly can? Or am I going to live today in the light of tomorrow? That is my theme as we come today to the concluding verses of Peter's second epistle.

Let me read to you Second Peter chapter three, commencing with verse 13. "In keeping with His promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with Him. Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters."

His letters contain some things that are hard to understand. So take heart, folks. If you have difficulty understanding Paul, so did Peter. Personally, I think Peter's more complicated, but that's my personal preference. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures. Notice that he puts Paul's letters on the level of the other Scriptures.

"Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever. Amen." You will notice that in verse 11, Peter says, "Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?" In verse 14, he says, "See then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with Him."

In other words, Peter is making a very powerful statement. He is saying in the light of the future, live today. Or look at it this way: we do tend to think in terms of the here and now. That's understandable; that's where we are. We live here and we're living now. But if we live in the here and now and never give a thought to the there and then, what Peter is saying in effect is if you don't have the there and then right, you won't get the here and now correct.

If we are living here on earth and we are so earthbound that we have no concept of heaven, then if we don't have heaven right, we can't get earth correct. If we are to live rightly in the here and now, it is in the light of the there and then. If we are to live rightly today, it will be in the light of tomorrow. That is the thrust of what he is saying, and it is a very unusual thrust because given our normal habitat and the environment that we understand so thoroughly, the most natural thing in the world is to think that the here and now is the substance of experience and the there and then is vague, ephemeral, and quite secondary.

When we begin to think in terms of the future and live our lives today in the light of the future, we're beginning to get our perspective right. There are three things I want you to notice. I'm sure that will be a complete surprise to you. I want you to notice first of all that if we live today in the light of tomorrow, that means we build a lifestyle on anticipation. We anticipate first of all that God will keep His promises. We recognize that Peter said in the beginning of his epistle that God has given us His very great and precious promises.

We saw last week in the early part of chapter three that Peter wanted people to recall the words spoken in the past by the prophets, by the command of our Lord, and through the apostles. God has given us great and exceeding precious promises through the prophets. He gave us great and exceeding precious promises through the Lord Jesus, and He gave us great promises through the apostles. He wants us to be aware of them, to understand them, to believe them, to embrace them, and to live in the good of them.

There are some people who live their lives based on the assumption that God is as good as His word, that God is able to deliver what He's promised, and they live in the good of that. In fact, if they were to discover one day that God told them a bunch of lies, that they had been believing error and they had built their lives on something that totally collapsed underneath, they would say, "I lived a totally wasted life."

On the other hand, the person who says, "I believe that God has given us great and exceeding precious promises that I've embraced, I've staked everything on them, and if you want to understand me, you've got to understand that I am living in anticipation that God will be as good as His word," then that person is a person who's staked everything on living by anticipation. The second thing that we need to notice is that we live in anticipation that God will complete the work that He has started.

The third thing is I anticipate the day of the Lord will come. There are all kinds of uncertainties concerning the future. We do not know what the future holds. Well, that's not altogether true. We do know one thing that the future holds, and I want you to hear it loudly and clearly: the day of the Lord will come. We've read the last chapter, we know what's going to happen, and we know who wins. That being the case, it's very smart for us to say to ourselves that if I anticipate that the final climactic event is that the day of the Lord will come, I live now in the light of the one sure thing.

I don't live my life in the light of all the suggestions, all the ideas, or all the different panics that come down the path. I live my life in the assurance that God will keep His promises, that God will finish His work, and the day of the Lord will come. Something very interesting about this day of the Lord: the minor prophet Joel wrote in his second chapter about the day of the Lord. He called it the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

Peter picked up on that passage of Scripture and expounded it on the day of Pentecost. Interestingly enough, when he expounded on the great and dreadful day of the Lord, he called it the great and glorious day of the Lord. Now, here's the question: will the day of the Lord be dreadful or will the day of the Lord be glorious? Big question. And here's the answer: yes. It will be dreadful and it will be glorious. How can the day of the Lord be dreadful and glorious?

If you're going to live today in the light of tomorrow, you do it by anticipating that God will keep His promises, that God will finish His work, and that the day of the Lord will come. And then fourthly, you believe what Peter says, that everything in this world as we know it will be destroyed. He uses very graphic language. It may possibly be fulfilled literally or it may be apocalyptic language where he is speaking in a slightly different way. Only time will tell.

What we do know is this world as we know it is coming to an end. If that is true, then a smart person lives his life today in the light of the fact that this world is coming to an end and therefore this world cannot possibly be the ultimate. It is finite, and therefore that person will live today in the light of tomorrow and say this world is coming to an end, therefore I will not put all my eggs in one basket knowing in advance that the bottom is going to fall out of this basket.

I will live my life in the light of tomorrow when this world as I now know it will pass away and a new heaven and a new earth characterized by righteousness will be brought into being. That's what's going to happen; that's where I'm headed. I live in keen anticipation of the fact that God will complete His work and fulfill His promise. The day of the Lord will come, this heaven and earth as we know it is passing away, and a new heaven and a new earth characterized by righteousness will be created. I live in the keen anticipation of these things.

Let me show you three areas in which this application can legitimately be made. First of all, we make this application by gearing up to godliness. You'll notice that there are three reasons I give you here why we should gear up to godliness. The first one is because consistency demands it. Peter has been pointing out that the new heaven and new earth will be characterized by righteousness. If that is what I anticipate and that is where I'm going, the logic is that if that's where I'm going, that's what I'm preparing for now.

If you are going on vacation up north, as we say in Wisconsin, in the middle of winter, you do not take your shorts and T-shirts. If that's where you're going, you prepare for it. On the other hand, if you're going down into the Caribbean in the middle of winter, then of course you prepare for where you're going. And if you're going to the new heaven and new earth characterized by righteousness, guess what? You get ready.

Consistency demands that I should be living now committed to righteousness, to godliness, and to holiness. But this is a strange concept to a lot of people. It doesn't register with them. "Well, I'm going to glory and that's where I'll finish up and it's going to be absolutely wonderful there. In the meantime, I'm just going to enjoy as much of the garbage down here as I can because it'll be great up there." If we love garbage down here, won't we be miserable up there?

If we are uncomfortable with godliness and holiness here, won't we be desperately uncomfortable up there? Doesn't consistency suggest that we should be gearing up for godliness now if our calling is a new heaven and a new earth characterized by righteousness? You see, I'm beginning to think in terms of living today in the light of tomorrow. Not only is it a matter of consistency demanding it, it is also a matter of the Lord commanding it.

"Make every effort," he says, "to be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with Him." In other words, the Lord is giving certain imperatives and commands to His people. One of the commands is this: in the light of the fact that all these things are going to happen in the future and you are on the way there, this is what I'm telling you to do. It's a command, not a suggestion. The command is make every effort to be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with Him.

This idea of making an effort to develop a godly life raises some interesting questions. When it comes to this whole issue of sanctification—that's the technical word for it—there are different theories about it. Some people would say you become sanctified through your own efforts and your own works. Other people on the other side of the fence say sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit. He is our sanctifier. Sometimes these two opposing views sort of dig in and spend time taking shots at each other.

Is the development of godliness, holiness, and righteousness the result of my effort or is it the result of the work of the Holy Spirit? The answer I'll give you is yes. Peter tells us in the beginning of his epistle that God has given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. So obviously, we develop godliness on the basis of what God already has given us. We have become partakers of the divine nature. It is a matter of His working in our lives.

Then why did he say we should make every effort? It isn't an either-or thing; it's a both-and. We live in dependence upon His enabling, and in dependence upon His enabling, we go about being obedient to His commanding. You don't have the freedom to settle for one at the expense of the other. To grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ means I grow in obedience to the Lord. To grow in grace means I grow in graciousness towards people.

Oh, there's so much growing to do. The measure whereby I live today in the light of tomorrow will be identified by the way in which I gear up to godliness, guarding against godlessness and growing in grace. The final thing of course is the little doxology at the end: "To Him be glory both now and forever." To glorify God means to express appreciation for His worth. I want Him to be appreciated forever, but I also want Him to be appreciated now.

How is He going to be glorified now? As far as I'm concerned, He could be glorified in my life. In other words, people could look at me and see some evidence of His grace and say, "Isn't He wonderful?" Not referring to me, but referring to Him. I want to live in terms of appreciation of Him, in terms of application of the truth, and in terms of anticipation of what God will do. Can I conclude this any better than to say, "Grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever. Amen."

Guest (Male): How can we start building a lifestyle of anticipation, Stuart?

Stuart Briscoe: I've heard it said that if you aim at nothing, you will probably hit it. If you have nothing to look forward to, if you have no overarching goal, if you do not see some transcendent purpose, then why are you living? If, on the other hand, you see the fact that one day you will have the opportunity to enter into the new heavens and the new earth that God has created, that you will become part of the restoration of all things, everything that God has created is brought back to that position in which everything glorifies God.

You are going to be part of it, and you know that you contributed to it because this was your objective, your goal, and what you were heading towards. You can live a lifetime not only of anticipating new heavens and new earth characterized by righteousness, but you can live your life now working towards the bringing in of this kingdom, the bringing in of God's fulfillment of His eternal purposes. That is motivation enough.

Guest (Male): This means we'll have to start making some changes in our choices and how we live, correct?

Stuart Briscoe: Correct. I would say the thing to do is to recognize that when we begin to take our lives seriously, there may be many things that need to change, and we may become overwhelmed by all the things. Well, here's a golden rule for you: the best way to eat an elephant is in bite-sized pieces.

So don't be overwhelmed by the elephantine dimensions of all the changes that need to be brought about in your life. Pick one and take it as a bite-sized piece of the overall change that you need to work on. Remember, you've got the rest of your life to see God bring about the changes and encourage you to make the choices that are necessary.

Guest (Male): Thanks for listening to Telling the Truth today. We're so glad you've joined us, and we pray this message has helped you experience more of the abundant life Jesus promised. We want you to know that your prayers and support are helping to transform the lives of listeners like one who recently shared: "A few years ago, my godmother first shared the Briscoes with me during a difficult season of my life. So much has changed in that short time, and all because of how the Holy Spirit has worked in me and those around me. Thank you."

Today's culture is a revolving door of ever-shifting views and beliefs. That's why it's so important to test new ideas against the timeless truth of Scripture. It's the best defense against the world's confusion. We want to help ground you in the foundations of your faith by sending you Stuart Briscoe's six-message series on the book of Second Peter, Six Things We Must Never Forget.

The Six Things We Must Never Forget series is our thanks for your gift to help keep Telling the Truth going strong, sharing life-giving teaching from Stuart and Jill with more people all over the world. So request your copy when you give today and get help staying grounded in truth in today's shifting culture. Call 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Tomorrow, Jill Briscoe begins a new series called Living in the Word. So tune in again Wednesday right here on Telling the Truth with Stuart and Jill Briscoe.