2 Peter 3:1-18 (Remember & Diligently Wait)

Introduction

In the Minter house, we need reminders.

Don’t forget to take out the trash.

Don’t forget to empty the dishwasher.

Don’t forget to winterize the house later on this afternoon.

Sometimes Cass will ask me to help her remember stuff, and anyone who knows me will know that she’s in bad shape if she’s depending on my memory for something. I don’t know what people did before something like the “reminders” app on my phone and computer. Between my calendar app and my reminders app, these are how I remember just about everything I need to keep up with.

Now, maybe your RAM or short-term memory may not be as bad as mine, but the truth is that we all need reminders from time to time. We are prone to forget all sorts of things… ironically, we’re prone to forget some of the most important things.

We’re prone to forget that God is both sovereign and good.

We’re prone to forget that God’s grace in Christ cannot be earned.

We’re prone to forget that perseverance in Christ is both a promise and a command.

Friends, we often forget important stuff, fundamental stuff, and life-orienting stuff.

You might say that this whole letter we’ve been studying for a few months is a letter of “reminder.” Peter “intended always to remind” (1:12), he wanted to “stir up by way of reminder” (1:13, 3:1), and he wanted his reader to “remember” (3:2).

Specifically, here in our passage this morning, Peter wanted Christians to remember the predictions of God’s prophets and the commands of Christ through His Apostles… Peter wanted them to remember that the predictions of God’s judgment and salvation were absolutely true, and the commands of Christ were absolutely worthwhile for those who are awaiting the final return of the Lord Jesus.

Today we are concluding our series through the letter of 2 Peter, and our passage today speaks directly to the sort of perspective Christians ought to have as they believe and follow Christ in the world… until He returns.

What should Christians keep in mind, and how should Christians live?

Well, brothers and sisters, there are things we need to remember, things we need to do, and things we need to avoid.

May God help us remember what’s true and live in the way He’s called us.

Scripture Reading

2 Peter 3:1–18 (ESV)

1 This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2 that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles,

3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”

5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, 6 and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!

13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. 14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.

15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters.

There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

Main Idea:

Christians must diligently avoid error and strive for holiness, remembering that Christ’s return is sure, which will bring judgment for the ungodly and salvation for the penitent.

Sermon

1. Remember Beloved (v1-2)

The antidote for false thinking and sinful living is remembrance.

Remember beloved… Remember dear ones.

Peter concludes his letter (in ch3) with a lot of love.

Four times in these last 18 verses, Peter refers to his reader as “beloved” or “dear ones.”

Right here in v1, “This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved…” (2 Pet. 3:1).

“Do not overlook this one fact, beloved…” (v8).

“Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting…” (v14).

“You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand…” (v17).

Whatever else we might say about Peter’s motive or intention here, we must acknowledge and understand that his teaching and warning and commands spring out of a heart of love.

Friends, how much more are we ready to hear from someone who loves us than we are from someone with other motives?

When we know that love is behind even hard words, we are usually better able to hear them and better able to receive them.

It’s worth noting here that God’s words to us through the Apostle Peter today are most definitely motivated by a heart of love.

It is God’s love for His people that stimulates Him to act and to speak, to warn and to discipline, to instruct and to command.

But what does God lovingly want us to hear today?

He wants us to remember… to remember the predictions and the commands.

Remember the predictions of the holy prophets of old.

Peter said, “I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets” (v1-2).

Most of what Peter says in our passage is focused on “the day of judgment” (v7) or “the day of the Lord” (v10) or “the coming day of God” (v12)… and the OT prophets spoke a good deal about what would happen on the last day.

Isaiah said, “Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it” (Is. 13:9).

Jeremiah said, “That day is the day of the LORD God of hosts, a day of vengeance, to avenge himself on his foes. The sword shall devour and be sated and drink its fill of their blood” (Jer. 40:10).

Ezekiel said, “the day is near, the day of the LORD is near; it will be a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations” (Ezekiel 30:3).

Citations like this could go on for quite a while…

Peter wanted his reader to “remember” these “predictions of the holy prophets” because he knew that there would be “false teachers” (2 Pet. 2:1) and “scoffers” (2 Pet. 3:3) even among Christians who would speak and act as though such a day would never come.

And the same is true of Christians in every generation.

“Beloved,” God says to us today, “remember the predictions of the holy prophets” (2 Pet. 3:1-2).

Even if everyone else forgets what God has told us about the judgment that is to come, don’t you forget it!

God will most assuredly judge the ungodly.

But there’s also a reminder in these predictions of a coming day of salvation (not judgment)… for those who believe God’s word and obey Christ’s commands.

Remember the commandment of Christ through the Apostles.

Peter said, “I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles” (v1-2).

Not only did Peter want his reader to remember that the “day of the Lord” is coming, but he also wanted them to remember that Christ had given them “commands” to obey in the meantime.

v3-10 of our passage focus on the “scoffers” and the reminder of God’s “judgment,”

but v11-16 are loaded with various “commands” about how Christians are to live as they await the return of the Lord Jesus – who will both judge and save, destroy and re-create.

Friends, God certainly wants Christians to eagerly await that final day when Christ will come to make all things new, but God also wants Christians to live as faithful and diligent followers of Christ in the world as it is – avoiding error and striving for holiness.

If we have peace with God now, and we look forward to peace with God in the life to come, then that’s great!

But we also need to remember and understand what Christ is commanding us to do while we wait for that coming day.

Remember, beloved, both the predictions and the commands.

2. Christ’s Judgment is Sure (v3-10)

Christians must remember that God’s judgment through Christ is sure.

The few citations I already mentioned from OT prophets about the “day of the LORD” are clearly predictions of “wrath,” “vengeance,” and “destruction,” and all of this is to be unleashed upon “sinners” or “the ungodly” or “the wicked.”

And Peter’s argument here in our passage this morning goes something like this – the OT prophets “predicted” the coming judgment of God, and God even demonstrated both His ability and willingness to pour out His judgment upon sinners by doing it already in the past… Remember it, beloved, and believe it!

God’s judgment against sinners did come in the past.

Peter says that “false teachers” and “scoffers” will foolishly follow “their own sinful desires” as they deny the coming day of judgment (v3-4).

They will say, “Where is the promise of [God’s] coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation” (v4).

In short, they claim that God’s promise of judgment has not yet been fulfilled, even though many generations have come and gone in the world; therefore, God’s judgment will likely never come.

But, Peter says, people who think and talk like this “deliberately overlook this fact” – the fact that God’s “word” (especially His “promise” of judgment) has already been demonstrated as true and trustworthy (v5-6).

First (in v5), Peter reminds his reader that it was “by the word of God” that the “heavens exist” and the “earth was formed” (v5).

God’s word is powerful enough to bring non-existent things into existence!

Second, Peter says that it was “by means of these” (i.e., by the “water” and the “word of God”) that “the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished” (v6).

His reasoning seems to go like this – the “scoffers” say that all is going as it has from the beginning, but they forget the fact that we are already in a kind of second age of the world, which did experience God’s judgment (in the flood), and this included worldwide death and destruction.

Friends, don’t make the mistake of thinking that God’s judgment is not coming. We are already living in an age after God’s judgment has come, and He has warned us ahead of time that He will do it again.

The first wave of God’s judgment against sinners came in the form of water, but the next (and last) will be a roaring fire.

God’s judgment through Christ will come in the future.

I’m making explicit what is implicit in our passage – that God’s final judgment will come through Christ Himself.

This is explicit elsewhere in the NT.

“Christ” is the “judge” of “the living and the dead,” and He will carry out His judgment “at his appearing” (2 Tim. 4:1).

“We all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Cor. 5:10).

On the final “day,” God will “judge” the “secrets of men by Christ Jesus” (Rom. 2:16).

God “has fixed a day on which he will judge the world,” and He has “appointed” Christ as the “man” by or through whom He will judge (Acts 10:42, 17:31).

And we can be sure of this because God has raised Christ from the dead, thereby making Christ the head, the King, the chief of the new creation (Acts 17:31).

But even here in our passage this morning, we can see that Peter is implicitly saying that Christ will judge, since Peter is bringing together “the day of the Lord” and the title which Christ now possesses – He is “Lord and Savior” (2 Pet. 3:2, 18).

When Peter says, in v10, that “the day of the Lord will come like a thief [i.e., when you least expect], and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed” (2 Pet. 3:10), he’s saying that “our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (v18) will be the one breathing fire, wielding the sword, and destroying His enemies.

Friends, the point I’d like to make here is that the same Jesus who offers grace and salvation to sinners like us will also stand in fiery judgment over those who do not turn from sin and trust in Him.

It is true that “the Lord is… not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (v9), but the “patience” of God in delaying the return of Christ so that more sinners may hear the gospel and repent should not be misunderstood.

Many will indeed “perish” on the last day.

Scoffers and false Christians will experience God’s patience in sending His judgment, and they will presume upon His grace.

We, however, should act while we still can – turn from sin and trust in Christ ourselves… and urge others to do the same.

Beloved, Christ’s judgment is sure. Remember and believe it!

3. Christ’s Salvation is Sure (v11-16)

Christians must remember that God’s salvation through Christ is sure.

While the emphasis in v3-10 is definitely (as I see it) on God’s judgment (especially God’s final judgment that will most assuredly come through Christ), v11-16 seems to shift the emphasis a bit. The “fire” of God’s judgment is still there, and the “destruction” of those who “twist” the “Scriptures” is there too, but the bulk of this section is aimed at the perspective and practice of those who are looking forward to Christ’s return.

Scoffers dismiss the coming day of Christ’s return (though they should fear it), but there are some who “hasten” it (v12) or “hasten unto” it (KJV) or “look forward to” it (NIV84). Christians cannot speed it up or make it happen, but they eagerly await what God has promised to do on the last day… and we are to live (today) in light of what we expect on the last day… that is, we are to live according to the commands of Christ through the Apostles.

The penitent await salvation, not judgment.

Peter is clear that Christ’s return will mean judgment for the ungodly.

He says (in v12) that “the coming of the day of God” will include a “fire” and a “burning” of “the heavens” (2 Pet. 3:12).

Peter said that this “day of judgment” will mean the “destruction of the ungodly” (2 Pet. 3:12).

But this is not what awaits the penitent or repentant ones.

Those who do “reach repentance” (v9), those who aim to live “lives of holiness and godliness” (v11), and those who are “found… without spot or blemish” (v14) are “waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (v13).

Theirs is a destination… not of judgment, but of salvation!

Brothers and sisters, do you believe that?

Do you believe the coming day of Christ will bring a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness (and not sin) dwells?

And do you believe that you will take part in it?

As we await that coming day, we ought to be penitent, we ought to be holy, and we ought to patiently and diligently await Christ’s return.

Therefore, be penitent.

When we hear of this coming day when Christ shall return, we ought to prepare for it – first, by repenting or turning away from our sin and trusting in the only Savior for sinners like us.

Peter says (in v9), “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9).

The Apostle Paul says it like this (in Romans 2)… that “the riches” of God’s “kindness and forbearance and patience” is “meant to lead you to repentance” (Rom. 2:4).

Friends, we ought not presume on God’s kindness (as the scoffers do, continuing in their sin), but we ought to take advantage of the time and opportunity God has given to us… We ought to repent!

We ought to turn away from our sin, we ought to prepare ourselves to meet our Lord and Savior, and we ought to make every effort to rid ourselves of the sinful thoughts, words, and deeds from which Christ came to set us free.

Friends, are you repenting?

Not, have you repented? Or will you repent?

But are you repenting now?

Does “repentance” in any meaningful way describe your day-to-day Christian way of life?

Repentance is not merely feeling guilty for sin or even confessing sin, but turning away from it… warring against it… aiming to eradicate it from our lives.

Therefore, be holy.

As we walk in daily repentance, we ought not just concentrate on “not sinning,” but we ought also to strive for holiness and godliness.

Peter says (in v11), “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God” (2 Pet. 3:11-12).

Again, the NT is full of this sort of command and calling.

Romans 12 says, “I appeal to you… brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:1-2).

Brothers and sisters, we ought to know what God’s will is for us – as men and women, as husbands and wives, as employees and homemakers, as retirees and teenagers – we want to know what God has commanded, and we want to strive to obey.

We want to do this, not just out of a sense of mere duty or obligation, but because we are presently united with the very same Jesus who will bring us fully into the salvation He’s promised.

Christ (who is righteous) is going to bring us into the new creation where righteousness dwells, and we want to be striving to conform ourselves to His righteousness now!

Brothers and sisters, are we doing that?

Are we prioritizing a familiarity with God’s commands?

Are we striving to apply God’s instructions for life in all our relationships – in our homes, on our jobs, with our friends, and as citizens in our communities?

How will Christ find us when He returns?

Therefore, patiently and diligently await Christ’s return.

As we turn from sin and strive for holiness, we ought to patiently and diligently await Christ’s return.

Peter says (starting in v13), “according to his [i.e., God’s] promise we [who are repenting and believing] are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation” (v13-14).

God will send Christ in His own good time, and He has His own purposes behind that timing.

While we wait, we ought to do so with patience or trust, and we ought to be diligent in our effort to love and serve Christ with the time He’s given us.

Friends, it may seem trite or cliché or completely unoriginal on my part to say it here, but I think it’s what the Scriptures are commanding…

As we wait for the coming day of the Lord, we are to live simple lives of faith in Christ, lives of obedience to Christ’s commands, lives of humility concerning our perceived status, lives of boldness in our witness, lives of persistence in our efforts to know and love and serve Christ… In other words, we ought to live as diligent and genuine Christians.

It’s been said in different ways, but we do not get to choose the times in which we live, but we get to choose what we do with the time we have.

Beloved, Christ’s salvation is sure.

Remember that He’s coming, and let’s be penitent, let’s be holy, and let’s patiently and diligently await our Savior and Lord.

4. Avoid and Strive (v16-18)

Christians must remember that God told us what to expect and what to do.

Peter concludes with a sort of summary of all that he’s said in this letter.

He’s said that Christians are already “in” Christ – they have already “obtained a faith of equal standing” with the Apostles (2 Pet. 1:1). Peter said that believers have already become “partakers of the divine nature” or been united with Christ Himself (2 Pet. 1:4). And Peter said that Christians have already been “granted” all things “that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3).

But Peter has also warned of “false teachers” and “scoffers” who will make it tempting for Christians to turn away from following Christ, to indulge sin (rather than turn away from it), and to believe what is false.

In these closing verses, then, there is yet another reminder that Christians ought to (1) watch out for error and (2) aim to grow in Christ.

God has warned us of the error of scoffers.

Peter says, “16b There are some things in them [i.e., in Paul’s writings or letters] that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability” (v16-17).

Brothers and sisters, God has warned us beforehand that “ignorant” and “unstable” folks will “twist” the Scriptures to make allowances for sin; therefore, we must “take care” that we are “not carried away” (v17).

We must know the Scriptures ourselves.

We must regularly get ourselves around others who know the Scriptures well and live their lives according to them.

We must take seriously the temptation to leave the right road, and we must be diligent to persevere in truth.

God has called us into the grace and knowledge of Christ.

Peter says that the way to avoid error is to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (v18).

Of course, this includes growing in knowledge or understanding of Christ.

We ought to read the Bible.

We ought to read what insightful Christians before us and around us today have said about Christ, about believing Christ, and about obeying Christ.

And we ought to talk with others about all of this.

But this also includes growing in the right and comprehensive and consistent application of that knowledge.

Brothers and sisters, we want to read and think about and talk about the stuff we learn from the Bible with the goal of conforming our whole lives to it.

Furthermore, we want to start and foster meaningful relationships with others who have been walking with Christ a while.

Those of us who have been following Jesus for 10 or 20 or 30 years should also be initiating and cultivating relationships with newer Christians.

Who are you helping to follow and keep on following Jesus?

Who is helping you do that?

Beloved, we want to avoid error, and we want to strive for holiness, because our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is sure to return… and on the last day we want to be found remembering and diligently waiting.

“To [Christ] be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”