2 Peter 3:1-13
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 29 viewsNotes
Transcript
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, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles,
We begin in the middle of this letter.
But we begin at a good portion because he is beginning a new idea where he is reminding the people to remember the words of the prophets.
Peter is essentially staying here. Remember what God has said.
As Christians, we are known as people of the book.
God has given us this book.
And it matters what he has said in it.
I know this is basic.
The Word is our guide.
Our starting point and it’s our finishing point.
We cant assume it.
What I mean by that is it’s never enough just to have a Bible.
I would venture to say the majority of American households have a Bible.
But most don’t read it
It’s not enough to say “I’m biblical.” or corporately we are biblical as a church.
No, we have to look at what the word has said.
Do you do what the Bible says?
Peter is reminding us that we have a standard by which we are to live.
We have the words of God that have been given to us for us to read and look at.
We are to remember those things and we are to stick by them.
This past week, I told you that I had a meeting with the leader of our association.
Brother Jeff Gaskins.
The guy that is leading our team, Jay Worthington, he thought it would be a good idea for us to meet with Dr. Gaskins to do an exit interview.
And it was really helpful.
It helped me kind of understand what we ought to be looking for.
But nevertheless, at the end of our meeting, we asked Dr. Gaskins to give us some advice as we go looking for the next replacement.
And in so many words, Dr. Gaskins said find someone who stands on truth. Who knows the word of God. Who believes the word of God.
He made this comment— every association church and convention is just one generation away from losing the truth.
You have to hold fast to it.
I was so thankful to hear him say that.
That is the best advice we could’ve been given.
What he said was true though.
Every organization. Every church. Every association every convention is just one generation away from losing the truth.
There have been times throughout church history, where the truth was all but lost, the God through his providence, and through the faithfulness of individuals brought back the true gospel.
I think of times like in the 15 and 1600s during the protestant reformation.
The Catholic Church got the gospel wrong.
They preached justification by faith plus works.
They had so distorted the truth of the Bible that they worked to keep the Bible from being translated because to them it was dangerous for the Bible to be in the hands of the common people.
This is why John Wycliffe was such an important figure in church history.
He pave the way through the printing press for the Bible to be translated into modern languages.
And so once he did that in the Bible was in the language of the common people the Catholic Church could no longer pretend that they were abiding by the word of God.
People began to call them out. And what spring forth was the protestant reformation.
And then the Protestant reformation the goal was to return to the Bible.
That’s what the word reformation means.
The church reformed itself back to the Bible.
And so their problem was they lacked having the truth in their own language and so they were let astray
Today the problem is not a lack of the word of God in our own language.
We have enough Bible translations to fight about it within the church.
The problem today is not a lack of the word of God.
Today the problem is a lack of attention to it.
Peter says he remember.
Remember the predictions of the prophets.
In other words, don’t stray from the word of God.
Don’t allow yourself to be sucked in to those who may be cynical, or who may scoff at the word of God.
This is what he says next.
knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 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.”
Peter tells us here that there will be people who mock the scriptures.
There will be people who act as if God will not come in judgment.
They will make fun of us.
It’s essentially the same thing that was happening in Israel back in Malachi.
This is why I chose this text tonight.
In Israel, they were becoming cynical asking where is the god of justice?
Here its the same thing. People are questioning, whether or not God is ever coming back.
They say ever since those people said that God was coming back. They died and things have been just moving right along with no problems.
Why should we believe you when you say that Jesus is coming back?
Many people just do not care and scoff at the idea that God would judge the world.
They mock that nothing like that has ever happened before. Except for the fact that it has.
Keep reading with me in verse five.
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, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.
Peter says people intentionally overlook the fact that this world has existed for a long time.
God separated the waters and made dryland appear.
He created the world and in the spaces in the world, and he filled those spaces with things that we’re living breathing.
But part of this world‘s history is that there was a point in time where God in judgment flooded the world.
During Noah’s time, after he had completed building the ark.
We don’t have any record in scripture of people mocking Noah.
But it’s hard to imagine that they would not have.
Matthew 24 says that the second coming of the Lord, the judgment will come like it did in the days of Noah.
It will come suddenly.
The next time, though the promise is not that it will be filled with water
The promise next time is that it has been kept for fire.
Look at verse seven.
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.
By the same word, in other words, the same word that created the world to begin with.
How did God create the world?
He spoke.
How does God uphold everything?
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
Peter says here by that same word that created.
By the same word that gave permission and sent the rain in the flood.
The same word that upholds all things by the word of his power.
One day that word will be used and he will destroy the earth one day with fire.
We believe that Christ’s return is immanent.
God’s purposes hold the fire back.
God will end it all in his time. He isn’t slow or late.
And he’s also not on our kind of time clock.
Look at verse eight.
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.
God doesn’t measure time the way we measure time.
This morning we spoke about how in Malachi’s day the people of Israel were wondering where the god of justice was.
The thought is God should do something now if he is just.
Here is where we reveal really the difference between us and God.
We see things time oriented.
The Lord sees all eternity. Past present and future.
We wonder if someone gets away with something today if they’ll ever receive any kind of justice for what they have done.
God knows the end from the beginning. He’s not concerned about that.
One day is as 1000 years.
1000 years is as one day.
In other words, God is so infinite in time and knowledge. His infinite nature and his knowledge of eternity, gives him a different perspective than those of us who live on a time schedule.
Time is different for God than with men.
For a thousand years in your sight
are but as yesterday when it is past,
or as a watch in the night.
And so please understand this.
He isn’t late.
He hasn’t forgotten.
As we said this morning, he has a purpose.
We don’t see it because we can’t see everything.
It’s above our pay grade to know all things about everything.
But we trust and serve a God who does.
And that same God that we trust and serve tells us that everything works out for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.
But it could be that we might want to know the answer to the question:
What’s he waiting for?
Oppose this question this morning with the intention of hitting it tonight.
You guys get extra points for being here tonight.
The question is though: why doesn’t God just make all things right now?
Why doesn’t he just eradicate all evil now?
Why does he wait?
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.
The first thing he says here is the Lord is not slow.
Some translations translate this- the Lord is not slack.
You know every year around the end of October, my lovely wife asked me to get down the Christmas decorations.
And I will be honest with you all.
I do love Christmas.
I love Christmas decorations.
I love the house after she gets through decorating.
She does a good job.
It gets me in the Christmas spirit.
But I hate getting those decorations down.
And then three months later when we take our Christmas decorations down, I always hate that too.
This year Loren asked me, if I take the Christmas decorations down today, will you put them up in the attic today.
And I said sure. And I said it with a good attitude.
Then she proceeded to say something like this— well I don’t want to take them down today if they’re just going to sit in the boxes at the end of the hallway for three weeks like they did last year.
Some might call that slack. Others might call that prudence knowing that in just a few weeks, she’s going to ask for them back out again.
When he says here, the Lord is not slow.
That’s the word that we’re getting here.
The word for slack.
The word carries with the idea of laziness or negligence.
In other words, Peter is saying it’s not that God is just sitting up in heaven twiddling his thumbs just holding out the end of the world because he’s not ready to do it yet.
That’s just too much work.
I know when I get started I can’t stop so I’ll put it off for another day.
It’s on my honeydew list, but I’ll get to it.
Peter is saying no that’s not what is going on with God withholding his wrath.
Listen to that verse again.
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.
The Lord has a purpose to his waiting.
There is a purpose to his forbearance.
And his purpose is tied to his promise. The text says to you.
To you.
Peter is speaking to a specific audience. Here isn’t he?
Who is he talking to?
In this letter, he’s already identified who he was talking to.
Like Paul Peter addresses his audience.
Look at the very first verse of this book.
Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
Who is he writing to?
He’s writing to believers.
He’s writing to the bride of Christ.
In fact, do you remember how he began this chapter?
He calls them what.
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,
The beloved.
And so Peter is telling us, God waits for judgment so that he can be faithful to his promise.
What promise?
The promise to say they people from every tribe, every tongue every language.
What are we waiting for?
To phrase it the same way we spoke this morning- where is the god of justice now?
He waits.
We are waiting for God to bring his bride to salvation.
He promises to save His people.
And he will save his people.
He desires that not one of His people die in their sins. That’s what verse 9 means.
He is waiting for the last of his bride to come to faith.
We see this idea mentioned in the parable of the wheat and tares.
Let me read this parable for you very quickly
He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”
What is the problem in the parable of the wheat in the tares?
The problem is the enemy has shown bad seed among the good seed.
In other words, there’s a world full of wickedness and evil people, and those who are not Christians in the world.
And the servants want to go out and uproot everyone right then.
Let’s get all that bad stuff out immediately.
The master says wait.
Why?
Because at the end, he will sort it all out.
But this waiting does not mean that he will wait forever.
I have often told you that the Lord is long suffering, but he is not forever suffering.
Look at verse 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.
The day of the Lord will come.
It will come suddenly.
It’s not if it’s when.
When he comes, in his second coming, the heavens will pass away with a roar. The heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved.
On that day, there will be an exposure.
Everything that we’ve done.
Everything that has been done.
We’ll go through the test of fire.
Much like the refiners fire, everything impure will be burned off.
The blessing for us on that day is that we do live in Long for something better.
We will be made like him.
Remember that We have the promise of something better.
And so then, how should we live?
Reid verses 11 and following.
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, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
There are four exhortations and applications directly from the text here.
I want to mention these four and then I will let you go.
We are to live holy and godly lives. I have said this before, but I want to repeat it because I think sometimes we miss this.
In times the theology, the study of how things will end, is not so much that we could chart out every event in history history so that we could try to accurately depict the timing of Christ return.
Studying the fact that God will end the world is not primarily so that we increase our knowledge of future events even.
Ultimately studying end times theology according to the scripture, should be practical.
It’s not theoretical.
The world is going to end.
God is going to judge.
Rather than trying to figure out how it all fits out on a timeline, let’s get busy living, holy and godly lives.
We want to be a people that is marked holiness. separated from sin.
Not that we are completely separated from sinners.
No, we are to be seeking to win sinners to Christ.
But our lives should be separated from sin.
Additionally, our lives should be marked by devotion toward God.
That’s what I think is meant here by godliness.
Lives lived for and toward God.
Second exhortation here is to live expectantly.
We are to wait for and hasten the day of the Lord.
We are to long for this day.
The Christian should not fear this day.
It’s a day of hopefulness. It’s a day that we belong for because we will experience something on that day. Better than anything. This side of eternity can ever give us.
We understand that God is holding back his wrath.
He is holding back judgment day until the last of his bride comes into the fold.
And so how can we hasten the day of the Lord?
We don’t know who the last person God intends to save is.
But man, wouldn’t it be awesome to lead someone to Christ.
And that be the last person that God was waiting on.
Thirdly, we have to live with a proper perspective.
This world and everything in it is going to dissolve.
We have to live our lives in light of that.
We cannot become infatuated with the passing pleasures of this world.
It is going away.
And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
Finally, we also live in light of the Hope that we have.
There is coming a new heavens and a new earth.
As I ended this morning, we will be glorified.
Made like Christ.
Sin and the desire of sin removed from us in this world.
Recreated.
No more pain, no more sorrow no more tears.
The first things are passed away.
And so we live in hopeful expectation of that day.
Last verses of the Bible
Revelation 22:20-21
John, the writer of Revelation, he gets to the end of a really amazing yet potentially daunting book.
You have to imagine if you and I read revelation, and we are taken back by the images that John writes down imagine what he thought as he experienced them in visions.
But he gets to the end of revelation, and I want you to notice his desire.
He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.
The Lord says he’s coming soon.
Jon says amen. Come on.
Come quickly
