Treasures in Heaven – 4

24“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Do store up = θησαυρίζω thēsaurizō 8x = from thēsaurós (2344), treasure. To lay, store or treasure up goods for future use.

Treasures = θησαυρός thēsauros = treasure (wealth): accumulated wealth in the form of money, jewels, or other valuables.

“Stored up” for Fire

2 Peter 3:1 (NIV84)

1Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.

The NIV84 translation has a subheading for chapter 3, The Day of the Lord.

The TEV or GNB translation has the subheading The Promise of the Lord’s Coming, which can also be rendered as The Lord’s Return; The Lord is Coming Again; or, Jesus will Come Again.

This chapter deals with the Parousia, that is, the teaching about the second coming of Christ, a doctrine that was apparently scorned by the false teachers.

To stimulate = διεγείρω diegeirō = to stimulate ⇔ rouse: to stimulate feelings or action; conceived of as stirring someone from sleep.

2 Peter was written to awaken people and stir them to have pure thoughts that are uncontaminated by error, sensual passions, and other vices of false teachers.

“I have reminded you of these things in order to stimulate your minds to think pure (clean) thoughts.”

Romans 13:11–14 (NIV84)

11And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

Time = καιρός Kairos = The Greek word signifies divine timing in distinction from chronos, which is calendar time.

Kairos is a divinely determined moment in the time process.

Believers are to do everything in the light of the uncertainty of life and the certainty of eternity.

There is a tendency to sleep.

To sleep indicates unconcern.

Being awake implies spiritual readiness.

12The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

13Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.

14Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

NEB translation: “let Christ Jesus himself be the armor that you wear”

JB translation: “let your armor be the Lord Jesus Christ”

Charles H. Spurgeon: Christ must be in us before he can be on us. Christ must be in the heart by faith before he can be in the life by holiness.

2 Peter 3:2–3 (NIV84)

2I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.

3First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.

Last days: the time between Jesus’ ascension to heaven and the time when Jesus will return again.

Jude 1:18 (NIV84)

18 They said to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires."

2 Timothy 3:1-5 (NIV84)

1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.

2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,

3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,

4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God--

5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

In the years that precede the return of Christ numerous scoffers will ridicule Christians for their faith in God.

A scoffer is someone who treats lightly that which ought to be taken seriously.

If you have tried at all to witness for Jesus Christ, you have no doubt met people who scoff at the idea of hell or a future day of judgment for this world.

Why do these apostates scoff? Because they want to continue living in their sins.

If your lifestyle contradicts the Word of God, you must either change your lifestyle or change the Word of God.

The apostates choose the latter approach, so they scoff at the doctrines of judgment and the coming of the Lord.

2 Peter 3:4 (NIV84)

4They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”

Note: The scoffers used the word where and not when. They did not ask, “When is this coming he promised?” They asked, “Where is this coming he promised?”

Had they asked when Christ would come, they would have acknowledged the reality of His second coming.

Instead, their use of where reflected disbelief about the reality of the promise itself—questioning whether the coming would occur at all.

2 Peter 3:5 (NIV84)

5But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water.

They deliberately forget. The end-times scoffers of our day now have two things to ridicule.

In their ignorance, they look back on the history of the Flood and scoff at it.

In their folly, they look ahead to the prophecy of the Lord’s return and scoff at that event.

Either way, they expose their ignorance, blindness, and unbelief.

Only the fact that the mockers exclude the biblical history of creation and the flood from their consciousness allows them to claim that the world has never changed.

The mockers can only maintain the opinions they express in 3:4 because they disregard the facts relating to the Creation and the Flood.

2 Peter 3:6 (NIV84)

6By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.

Jon Courson: There was another time in human history when men scoffed. Day after day, decade upon decade, as Noah constructed a prophetic illustration of gigantic proportion, the laughter of his friends and neighbors accompanied the sounds of his saw and hammer. But eventually, the collapse of the water canopy that surrounded the earth in days of antiquity caused rain to fall, resulting in a world-wide flood—as evidenced to this day not only by geological data, but by its appearance in the written or oral history of virtually every culture.

Matthew 24:36–44 (NIV84)

36“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

37As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

38For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark;

39and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

Took away = αἴρω airō = to eliminate ⇔ take away: to terminate, end, take out, or even kill or murder; conceived of as taking up and away, and so out of sight (forever).

40Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.

41Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

Will be taken = παραλαμβάνω paralambanō = to be carried off.

Luke 17:34-37 (NIV84)

34 I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left.

35 Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.

36 [Added in later manuscripts; not in the original text]

37 "Where, Lord?" they asked. He replied, "Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather."

One will be taken and the other left. Two main interpretations.

The person who is taken is a believer taken to be with Christ, often connected with the rapture, while the one left is left for judgment.

The one taken is taken away in judgment, while the one left is spared.

The context strongly favors the second view. Jesus compares His coming to the days of Noah and Lot, where those who were taken away were destroyed, while the righteous remained.

Luke 17:37 confirms this view. Where are the people taken?

Where the dead body is located.

Those taken will experience punishment and will die, while those left will enter the earthly kingdom, since they will be believers.

Mt. 24:42“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.

43But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into.

44So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

In the pre-flood world, ordinary life continued—people engaged in eating, drinking, and marriage—right up until Noah boarded the ark.

The population remained oblivious to impending catastrophe until the flood itself arrived and swept them away.

We are missing the point here if we merely say that the return of Christ is unexpected by the world. The world is actually convinced that he is not coming! The world denies Judgement Day, it denies hell, and it denies the gospel. Not only will people be unprepared—they deny there is anything to prepare for!

Genesis 5:28–6:3 (NIV84)

28When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son.

29He named him Noah and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.”

30After Noah was born, Lamech lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters.

31Altogether, Lamech lived 777 years, and then he died.

32After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth.

6:1When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them,

2the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.

3Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

Some contend that Genesis 6:3 placed a 120-year lifespan. Scripture clearly records nineteen individual that lived beyond 120 years after the flood.

Shem – 600 years (Genesis 11:10–11); Arphaxad – 438 years (Genesis 11:12–13); Shelah – 433 years (Genesis 11:14–15); Eber – 464 years (Genesis 11:16–17); Peleg – 239 years (Genesis 11:18–19); Reu – 239 years (Genesis 11:20–21); Serug – 230 years (Genesis 11:22–23); Nahor – 148 years (Genesis 11:24–25); Terah – 205 years (Genesis 11:32); Abraham – 175 years (Genesis 25:7); Sarah – 127 years (Genesis 23:1); Ishmael – 137 years (Genesis 25:17); Isaac – 180 years (Genesis 35:28); Jacob – 147 years (Genesis 47:28); Levi – 137 years (Exodus 6:16); Kohath – 133 years (Exodus 6:18); Amram – 137 years (Exodus 6:20); Aaron – 123 years (Numbers 33:39); Job – 140 years (Job 42:16); Moses – 120 years (Deuteronomy 34:7), not included with the nineteen.)

Genesis 6:3 is God’s declaration that the flood would occur 120 years from His pronouncement. Humanity’s days being ended is a reference to humanity itself being destroyed in the flood.

Some dispute this interpretation due to the fact that God commanded Noah to build the ark when Noah was 500 years old in Genesis 5:32 and Noah was 600 years old when the flood came (Genesis 7:6); only giving 100 years of time, not 120 years.

The timing of God’s pronouncement of Genesis 6:3 is not given.

Genesis 5:32 is not the time that God commanded Noah to build the Ark, but rather the age Noah was when he became the father of his three sons.

It is very plausible that God determined the flood to occur in 120 years and then waited several years before He commanded Noah to build the ark.

Whatever the case, the 100 years between Genesis 5:32 and 7:6 in no way contradicts the 120 years mentioned in Genesis 6:3.

2 Peter 3:7 (NIV84)

7By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

God is simply holding the earth on layaway. It is reserved (thēsaurizō, “being stored up like a treasure”) for fire and kept (tēreō, “guarded” or “held”) for judgment.

By the same word (by the same command of God, gnb) that decreed the destruction of ungodly men in the time of Noah by water, God has decreed that the present heavens and earth will be cleansed of all evil by fire.

By the same word, the powerful word of God that creates and sends judgment, the present heavens and earth are stored up for fire, when the ungodly will also be judged. The day of reckoning is coming for scoffers, and their place is reserved for them. History will not go on forever; the end is coming.

Charles H. Spurgeon: “Reserved for fire.”

It will not happen as an inevitable result of physical causes, but because God intends to purge this material world from all traces of sin. It has been defiled, and before He makes it into a new heaven and a new earth, He will cleanse it as by fire.

Under the Levitical dispensation, the cleansing of vessels that had been defiled was effected by passing them through the fire as a type of the intense energy needed to remove sin and the Lord’s abhorrence of it.

Even thus shall this earth dissolve with fervent heat, and thus the Lord shall proclaim to the whole universe that He hates even the garment spotted by the flesh.

When a house was defiled with leprosy, it was destroyed, and so must this earth be—for the plague of sin has polluted it.

Martin Luther: “The darkness grows thicker around us, and godly servants of the Most High become rarer and more rare. Impiety and licentiousness are rampant throughout the world, and we live like pigs, like wild beasts, devoid of all reason. But a voice will soon be heard thundering forth: ‘Behold, the bridegroom cometh!’ God will not be able to bear this wicked world much longer, but will come, with the dreadful day, and chastise the scorners of his Word.”

2 Peter 3:8 (NIV84)

8But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.

We should not interpret the word day as a thousand years everywhere we find it in Scripture; the passing of time has no bearing on God’s faithfulness to His promises.

God stands outside of time, and we should not doubt the occurrence of a future biblical event simply because it seems to be taking a long time from our limited human perspective.

2 Peter 3:8 has nothing to do with the length of the creation week, nor was it meant to turn “day” into a mathematical formula. The verse simply illustrates that God experiences time differently than we do—not that we should use it as a calculator for interpreting other biblical passages.

As Christians are persecuted and continue to look for the Lord to deliver them, it does appear as though His coming is “delayed.”

Peter reminds the believers not to lose heart because God is working on a different timetable.

2 Peter 3:9 (NIV84)

9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

This verse is addressed to believers (see 2 Peter 1:1), not the world in general.

This verse is not referring to universalism, where everyone will be saved and no one perishes.

The anyone in this verse is referring to the you that just preceded it. That you comprises the elect of God, the believers in Christ.

God is not wanting any believer to perish.

2 Peter 3:10 (NIV84)

10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.

Unbelievers will realize too late that destruction is imminent since the end will arrive without warning, just as birth pangs suddenly seize a pregnant woman.

1 Thessalonians 5:1–3 (NIV84)

1Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you,

2for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

3While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

Like a thief. How does this apply to the believer and the unbeliever?

Can both unbelievers and believer be caught off guard?

Next Week!!! (The Lord Willing)

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