The Alternative

Dr. Tony Evans: We are to look at life from a temporary point of view. Eternity changes the way we see earthly matters. If you have a forever mentality, you're going to be tied to this world. Therefore, don't hold on to anything like it is forever.

Guest (Male): This is the Alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans.

Have you ever noticed how quickly temporary things can start to feel permanent? Today, Dr. Evans explores why God calls us to hold this world loosely while living with eternity firmly in view. Let's join him as he begins.

Dr. Tony Evans: Peter's goal with the prophetic word is that prophecy should lead to an experience. So, we pick it up in verse eight as we go through verse 13 in this session. But do not let this one fact escape you, beloved, that with the Lord, one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day.

He says make sure your theology of time is correct. God does not view time as we do. You can't look at your clock to time God. We are creatures of time. Peter says don't impose that on God because He doesn't operate that way. Now, there is coming a day when God's reality will be our experience in the eternal state when there is no longer any night, no longer any sun, and we are existing in a timeless state. There will be for us no tomorrow and no yesterday. We will live in a now because we will be in an eternal state.

The Lord is not, verse nine, slow about His promise. What promise? The promise of His coming. Remember, the scoffers were saying, "Where is the promise of His coming?" But He is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. God and His promise includes what you and I do or don't do. He says He's waiting on us. He keeps His promise while waiting because His promise includes our participation. Notice He's waiting on us.

When you understand the relationship of sovereignty and responsibility and how the two marry one another, it then can explain things that bring to light this reality. Sovereignty means God rules. He makes a promise. He's going to keep His promise because He is true to Himself. He is sovereign. At the same time, He holds us responsible. God has a sovereign plan. He knows when He's coming back, but He also knows things are happening along the way that affect the timing without changing the time.

So, it's not that He's slow. It's that things are happening within the prescribed time, which makes it feel longer, looks slower than it actually is. And so He says God can be trusted, and He's waiting on us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. The word repent refers to a turning. If you confess while walking in the light, you don't need to repent because you haven't gone to the darkness.

God has a heart, not wishing for any to perish. So His time doesn't change His sovereignty, but He doesn't want His sovereignty for you to miss His heart. But it still can affect timing. The only reason it took Abraham and Sarah as long as it did for them to have a baby called Isaac is because somebody else entered the picture. And as a result of that, there was a delay. There was a delay with the birth of Ishmael trumping the birth of Isaac.

Ishmael was not God's plan, but because they inserted a human plan, it created a delay in the promise. Not because God is slow concerning the promise, but there was something on the human level that intervened. God is so flexible with His timing, so fluid with His timing without changing His clock, that He will even adjust and change His mind about His timing from a human point of view.

In other words, He is waiting on us so deeply that we can influence from our standpoint—we don't from His, but from our standpoint—we are influencing His timing. You see a number of references in scripture of God, watch this, repenting. God obviously is not repenting of any sin, but He's turning in a different direction. But wait a minute, I thought God does not change. I thought He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. How can a changeless God change? How can a God that does not change, change and He still be immutable, unchangeable as God?

Because all of God's attributes are perfect. Okay? Attributes, His characteristics, are all perfect, but He doesn't always operate out of each one of them all the time equally. So, when God sees a shift in man, He will then allow the shift to appeal to another one of His attributes. The first thing He was going to do, He was going to do out of the attribute of His wrath. But because there was a prayer, or a change, or a repentance, He shifts it over to His mercy.

He'll shift over to His mercy. So He's still being consistent with Himself. He's just operating out of another attribute. So He hasn't changed. He's just applied it in another part of His consistent personality because He cannot change, but His nature stays the same. He even pre-described this with Nineveh because Jonah's sermon was, "In 40 days Nineveh will be destroyed." Now, whenever God gives you a time, He doesn't just zap you. He gives you a time. That means that's your window. Okay? And when they repented, it says God repented. He changed His mind.

Here's one I like. I like this one. God tells Abraham, "I am going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah." Two evil, wicked cities. Remember, He's waiting on us. I'm going to go somewhere with this in a moment with regard to this room, but He's waiting on us. He tells him, "I'm going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah." Abraham says, "Just a minute. I want to appeal to Your mercy even though You're justified in Your wrath. I want to appeal to Your mercy. If I can go and find 50 righteous, will You save the city for the sake of the 50?" And guess what God said? He said, "You got a deal. If you find me 50 righteous, I will use the righteous as a down payment on the culture."

I'm going somewhere with this. "I will adjust what I do because of the 50." Abraham comes back and says, "What about 45?" He couldn't find 50 folk. And God says, "Okay, you got a deal. We can go for 45." He comes back and says, "What about 30? Then what about 20?" He finally gets down to 10, and God will cut a deal if He can find 10. So exactly why was Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed? It was not just destroyed because of how sinful the culture was. It was also destroyed because the righteous couldn't be located. The righteous couldn't be located.

But wait a minute, He had Lot. Lot was in Sodom. Lot had a wife. That's two. Lot had two daughters. That's four. Lot had two sons-in-law. That's six. If each one of them would have impacted one person, that would have been 12, so Abraham would have found 10. The problem was that Lot was so tied to the system. He was a great man. The Bible says he was a preacher. He was a right man, but He was a right man who did not influence.

So you can be a good preacher, a good pastor, but not have influence. God is not waiting on the White House. He's waiting on the church house. And it's because the church house is divided, the church house is confused, then judgment can come on the culture because He's waiting on us. He's not waiting on the culture. He's waiting on us, even though He cares about the culture. So, "Not willing that any should perish." The idea of perish, *apollymi*, is the Greek word. It means to be destroyed. And He says repentance can intervene and limit that, cancel that, reverse that what was originally planned based on what was done.

Guest (Male): When Dr. Evans continues our message in just a moment, he'll have more on the importance of being spiritually prepared. Don't go away.

Guest (Female): Life moves fast, and sometimes the most important thing you can do is slow down. You're invited to join Dr. Tony Evans for a Caribbean cruise designed to help you rest, reflect, and renew. Beginning February 28th, set sail on a seven-day journey roundtrip from Fort Lauderdale, visiting stunning destinations like Nassau, Grand Turk, Amber Cove, and even a private island in the Bahamas.

But this journey is more than scenic beauty. It's a time to reconnect with God and with others. You'll experience life-changing teaching, uplifting worship, and moments of peace that are hard to come by in the middle of everyday life. Whether it's a quiet morning on deck or a shared moment of praise with fellow believers, every part of this cruise is designed to refresh your body and your soul. Make plans now to step away so you can step back renewed. Visit TonyEvans.org for details and reservations. That's TonyEvans.org.

Guest (Male): Today's lesson is part of a series of messages recorded live at the Kingdom Leaders Summit this year called The Sure Word: Living in Light of Prophecy. In these messages, Dr. Evans explores why understanding eternity changes the way we hold on to the things of this world. So many of us live as though everything around us is permanent, but scripture reminds us that this life is temporary and that our real hope is found in God's eternal kingdom.

These lessons will help you develop that eternal perspective and discover the peace and confidence that come from trusting God's promises about the future. When you make a contribution to support the Alternative, we'll send you all three full-length messages in this series. And as an added bonus, we'll also include Tony's book that goes hand in hand with the series called Thy Kingdom Come: Exploring End-Times Prophecy. This special offer is only available for a limited time, so visit TonyEvans.org or call 1-800-800-3222 today. Again, that's TonyEvans.org or by phone at 1-800-800-3222. Right now, let's get back to today's message.

Dr. Tony Evans: He says, "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief." That means a thief doesn't notify you. A thief doesn't tell you, "I'm going to come rob you at 12 o'clock tomorrow night." A thief is an unexpected intrusion. The coming of the Lord is like a thief. The day of the Lord is like a thief. Why? Because they're both happening together. As Jesus comes, it ignites the day of the Lord as opposed to what has been the day of man.

He says, "The day of the Lord 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 burnt up." There was the creation, there will be the un-creation. Because there's going to be a new heaven and a new earth. So there's going to be an un-creation. He says, "Since all these things are to be destroyed," what He is telling you and me is that we are to look at life from a temporary point of view.

All these things, all the things that make up our existence, is going to be destroyed. Therefore, don't hold on to anything like it is forever because it's not. If you have a forever mentality, you're going to be tied to this world. He says, no, not that you can't have it and hold it, but you can't have it hold you because all these things are to be destroyed. They will come to naught. They will come to nothing. We are to live now with a view of the life to come and let the life to come inform our living now.

And then he says, "Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God." Interesting, he has changed his language from verse 10. Verse 10 he calls it the day of the Lord. In verse 12 he calls it the day of God. Why? Because in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 24 to 28, the Bible says that God, Jesus is going to take the kingdom and hand it over to the Father. Now, there's an interesting word here. "Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God." Hasten means to have something happen quicker or faster. It means to speed something up.

He's talking about the coming of the Lord or the day of God in this context, but it's still the end times. He says, "I want you to make it come quicker." Well, we've already seen, God has a sovereign clock, but we're involved with it. Okay? We are tied to 24 hours a day. We are tethered to that. In that 24 hours a day, a person that has a normal full-time job has, let's call it eight hours. Back when you were doing that, or if you're still doing that, some days the clock goes fast and some days the clock goes slow.

Sometimes time flies. Other times you look up, it's 2 o'clock, you look up an hour later and it's 2:05. It looks like the clock not moving. No. The clock is moving. You're moving differently. When you have a busy schedule and you got a lot to do, it looks like the clock is just turning and going crazy and you don't have enough time to do this. Other days, the clock taking its time. The clock ain't in a hurry. That clock has not changed one iota. Your movement changed.

So you can't change God's clock. What you can change is your movement. And when your movement changes, you're hastening the day. You're speeding up the time without changing the clock because the movement has changed. And so he says in verse 13, "But according to His promise, we are looking for the new heaven and new earth in which righteousness dwells." What he is not trying to do is cancel your significance in time. What he is trying to do is let your prophetic focus in eternity inform time.

But he wants an eternal perspective. So what I'm saying is prophecy or the elements thereof should be a major part of the pulpit. He wants you to look and emphasize this eternal perspective of a time when we will study war no more, a time when there will be no evil coming at us or coming from us. A time, and he says let that perspective be a driving influence in your teaching to counteract the false views that are being perpetrated today on social media, in educational institutions.

Because there was a time when a Judeo-Christian ethic informed the culture. Many of our laws reflected that Judeo-Christian frame of thinking and operating, which has been a large part of the success of the uniqueness of this nation. We have now become a post-modern nation, no longer being affected greatly by that ethic. The ethic has shifted, and the ethic has infiltrated the culture. It's in laws, it's in schools, it's in businesses, it's in sports arenas.

Everything is conforming to this anti-Christian worldview. So now the fight is harder because you do not have cultural support for the battle. Used to be the culture would support the Christian value system. It no longer feels obligated to do that. In fact, it works against it. Our job in the church is to promote, preach, proclaim, and insist on that value without adjusting to the culture. And one of the false teachings that is going today in many ways is trying to placate the culture for acceptance by the culture.

But you have to understand, the further the culture gets from God, the less you're going to be accepted by it. Now you don't go out and try to be unacceptable, but what you don't do is cancel the truth to be acceptable. So you got pastors not calling for repentance because they want the culture to like them, to accept them, which means we are no different than them. But God is calling you to tell the world, the congregation, and then from them, there is a world to come.

So in closing, most people agree that one of the greatest speeches in a generation was in August 1963 on the Mall in Washington by Dr. Martin Luther King. He was describing some things, and he was talking about the realities of life, the realities of injustice, and the color divide, and he's dealing with time. But then he went into a self-reflection in one of his speeches. He says, "And I'm not fearing any man." He says, "The reason that I can keep doing what I'm doing is my eyes have seen the coming of the glory of the Lord."

He says, "Because I've been to the mountaintop, and my eyes have seen the coming of tomorrow, I can do what I'm doing today in fighting injustice." So I say to me, you, and us, keep your eyes on the glory of the Lord so that you can fight the good fight on your way there. Because when you see heaven, you get a better shot at earth.

Guest (Male): Dr. Tony Evans talking about how a heavenly perspective reshapes the way we live. Now, don't forget to take advantage of that special offer I mentioned earlier. It's a package of resources specifically designed to give you a better understanding of prophecy and how God's plan for the future can help you live a more fulfilled and purposeful life today.

The package includes the audio series called The Sure Word: Living in Light of Prophecy as well as Tony's helpful book on biblical prophecy called Thy Kingdom Come. These items are available for a limited time with our thanks when you make a donation to help support the ministry of the Alternative. Get the details today at TonyEvans.org or call our 24-hour resource center at 1-800-800-3222 where one of our team members is ready to help you. Again, that's 1-800-800-3222.

One final note: you can hear Dr. Evans host insightful conversations about the issues of life with special guests. Listen to the Unbound podcast anytime on his YouTube channel or on your favorite podcast platform. When you know company is on the way, you start looking at things around your house differently, cleaning up in preparation for their arrival. Tomorrow, Dr. Evans says the expectation of Christ's return should have that same kind of effect on us. Be sure to tune in as he explains why taking God at His word transforms our priorities, perspective, and purpose.