2 Peter 3
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 3 viewsNotes
Transcript
1 This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance:
“stir up your pure minds”
stir up - the reason for the word, and for preaching and teaching, is to stir the heart, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God
stir = wake up, arouse
isn’t that what it’s like when we realize our sin, we wake up, as if a veil was lifted
for the old Christian, we need to keep our spirit alive and kicking, not just let it go dormant and gather dust
it’s good for us as believers to stay in the word for this reason, it can wake us up or arouse us out of a spiritual slumber
we talk about having revivals and such, certainly revivals are good
pure = to being sincere, without hidden motives or pretense
simplicity of heart, single mindedness
8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
62 And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
29 But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
by way of rememberance - as Christians, we already should know these things, yet unfortunately, sometimes we need reminded
sometimes we go dormant, sometimes we slip
but if we’re not making progress, then we’re going backwards, if you’re not for Christ, you’re against Him
2 That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:
So we have the treasure of the Old Testament, which has all of these prophets, a true wealth of material from God
how many times is “thus saith the Lord” in the OT?
“Some thirty-eight hundred times the Bible declares, “God said,” or “Thus says the Lord”
We know that these epistles were written early on in Christian history, Peter walked with, talked with, ate with, etc. Christ
we see in this verse that Peter is putting the commandments of the apostles on the same level as the old prophets.
Peter tells us to be mindful, to keep it in the forefront of our mind, we want God on the frontburner, not the backburner
we don’t just want to leave Jesus out in the shed of our hearts, we don’t want to just put Him away and live our lives
Paul tells us to pray unceasingly, to do this we need God in our mind everyday
God is with us everywhere, we are filled with the Holy Spirit, and we shouldn’t just ignore Him and live our lives without ever thinking about Him except when we go to church or something like that.
3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
Peter warns us of the last days and some of the things that will happen, we are forewarned, and with forwarning, you can be prepared.
We certainly see this kind of stuff going on today, quite a bit of it.
There have been people who have become famous essentially just by doing this.
what this shows is that there are not only those individuals speaking out like this, but apparently there are many who want to hear it.
We see the world greatly walking after their own lusts today, the abortion issue, the transgender issue, all based on their fleshly lusts.
all that this world seems to be about today is following after their lusts, we see a huge rise in drugs, a rise in perversions, a rise in all these things
because they have no moral compass,they have nothing to direct their life, they think we’re just animals on a floating rock through space with no meaning whatsoever.
there’s no judgement, so why do they care? - what they think
regardless, we have been warned that this is coming, and we need to be prepared for it. whether it be to minister to them, or to just be prepared to live life in this crazy world.
“Where is the promise of His coming?” - this is certainly something people say. TELL MICHAEL BROWN JEWISH DEBATE STORY
They look around and say, “Hey, everythings been like this for millions of years, why would it change now?”
we know that NOTHING ever totally stays the same. rocks change over time, soil changes over time, rivers and coastlines change, all slowly, but nothing stays the same.
Let’s see what Peter himself says about this
5 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: 6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
WILLINGLY ignorant, they don’t want to know, or maybe they don’t even care.
“That BY THE WORD”
“Peter goes back to the dependability and stability of God’s word as demonstrated in creation”
Essentially we have a reference to the God’s judgement on the world by the flood
the point of this is, people who say that “oh things have always been like this, nothing new or crazy will happen like Christ coming back” are wrong
Peter is saying that things have NOT always been the same, and they just choose not to think about that fact
God pronounced judgement on a world that was overrun with sin, just completely overrun, so God destroyed it in a flood
however, God gave us the rainbow, and said that He’d never destroy earth by water again.
7 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.
Peter says here that BY THE SAME WORD are kept in store, so by God’s word the earth was and will be judged, but also by the same word the world is kept together
only God is holding this world together, by His mercy, His grace, and just His sheer awesomeness
So God is giving us time right now, we have time on earth to do our job as Christians, as agents for God on earth.
We see this in Revelation, we see this in other places throughout the Bible as well.
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
Peter tells us to keep this in mind, as we think about when Christ will return
God exists in a way outside of time, He doesn’t experience time the way we do, He has foreknowledge, He’s been there since the beginning and He’ll be there at the end, He’s the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end
So essentially, God is operating on a different time table, He will come when He wants to, on His own time, and also it will be a time when we aren’t expecting
9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
So God is not putting us off, He’s very much keeping us in mind regarding His return
“As some men count slackness” - again, this is God operating on a different time table than we are, we perceive time very differently than God
just like we can’t expect God to answer all of our prayers when we want to, God will neither come when we want on our time table when we think He should
Peter tells us that God is being patient with us, He knows we need it
we need it not only to straighten our own selves out, but we also need this time to spread the gospel.
God is giving us time to do our jobs as Christians, but how are we using that time? Are we using it in a responsible way? Are we just wasting these precious days that God has given us?
God is not willing that any should perish, so we certainly shouldn’t be either, everyone is made in the image of God, everyone deserves to hear about the good news
how will they hear without a preacher? faith comes by hearing, and someone’s gotta do it, it’s all of our jobs
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.
Jesus talked about coming as a thief in the night, again, when we don’t expect it.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, 39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
BACK TO PETER VERSE
We see that Jesus is saying is that the people in Noah’s day just went on about their life like nothing was going to happen, then, the flood came and they weren’t ready
this is what Christ’s return will be like
the earth and all it’s works will be burned up - purifying steel, you heat it up, and the impurities show
Jesus tells us that nothing that’s done in secret will remain hidden, one day, everything will be revealed, and we will stand before Christ and give an account for our lives.
When the time comes, how much impurities will we show?
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
He’s saying, “Hey, knowing that Christ is coming back, shouldn’t you be on your best behavior while you wait for His coming?”
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?
we should not only be trying to do our best through the power of the Holy Spirit, but we should also be looking for His coming with anticipation
we should be excited for this, after all, what an unimaginably great day that will be?
we can’t even imagine how great of a day that will be, and how happy we will be, to be able to be with God forever as His children.
13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
one day, we’ll be in a sin free atmosphere, which will be perfect
imagine a world without sin, everyone would get along.
THIS MOVES ON TO THE FAREWELL OF THE LETTER
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.
15 And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;
The patience and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ is incredible, and is completely why we are saved
how many of us needed time to be saved and did not just immediately submit to God the very first time they heard the gospel?
Most of us, right? But God had longsuffering patience with us, He was patient with us, and He’s being patient with those out in the world
Peter goes on to tell them Paul and the letters they received from him, and to listen to the wisdom therein
we’re looking at 2nd Peter, which doesn’t tell us who it’s written to, but we see here that it’s a place that Paul also wrote to, just something interesting to think about when we think about who this letter is to.
16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
He talks about the fact that Pauls letters can be hard to understand at times, but here’s the thing, they are understandable, we just need to be good students of God’s word and God will lead the way to our understanding
The Spirit will guide us into all truth, how many times have you been reading and all of the sudden you just get a realization, almost as if God showed you something from the text
also, the fact that Pauls letters can be so deep also tells us that there is much wisdom in them, as Peter told us
Peter talks about Pauls letters as SCRIPTURE, so this shows that very early on in Christian history the apostles letters were viewed as authoritative scripture, on par with the OT, even while the writers/apostles were still alive
He talks about how people twist Pauls letters, for instance, you had “antinomianism” - it sounds complicated, but it’s like this...
It’s saying “Hey, God gave us grace forever, so we can just go around and do whatever we want to and don’t have to change or even try, we just can go back to normal life and go to heaven since we have grace.”
This shows us that people twisting the scriptures and making erroneous sects before the apostles even died, so this has been going on since the beginning, and we should do our best to combat it.
17 Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.
since we know all of this stuff in this chapter, we know about false teachers, we know about God’s judgement and Christ’s coming, we should be vigilant that we don’t fall into error or into sin.
18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.
Let us grow in Christ and His knowledge and His word, because if we’re not growing, then we’re going backwards
Let us also give Christ all the glory, praise, honor, and reverence in our lives, it’s the least we could do to live for Him
He’s given us grace, change, heaven and all He’s going to do for us there. it’s incredible
To Him be the glory both now and forever!
