I do want to invite you, as we continue our series in 2 Peter, to turn to 2 Peter 3, the final chapter of the book this morning, as we continue our studies in it. We're looking at verses 1-13 of chapter 3. Here's the Word of God. This is now the second letter that I'm 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. Knowing this, first of all, the scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing. Following their own sinful desires, they will say, where is the promise of his coming? Ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. but they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago when 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. 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. But do not overlook this fact, beloved, this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years are as one day. 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. 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. Since all of 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're waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Thanks to God for his word. Let's pray and ask his help as we give our attention to it this morning. Father, we thank you for the word of God. I pray now as we give our attention to the scriptures that your spirit would be our teacher, enlighten us, illumine the word to us, to our hearts, to our minds, Lord, to understand your word. love you, the Lord, whose word it is, and to grow in grace by it. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Years ago, there was a publication called Leadership Journal for Pastors, Church Leaders, and it usually had good articles in it, but probably the best part about it was the cartoons. They were good. I remember one in particular that had a group of men bent over a table They were very intent on the top of the table on charts and timelines and maps and open Bibles and other books, and they were intently trying to figure out everything pertaining to the return of Christ. But there's one man who's not looking down at the table. He's looking up, because above them there are these clouds, and there are two feet coming out of the clouds, bare feet coming out of the clouds, and the man says, not yet, Jesus, we haven't figured it out. Well, and likely we won't. When Jesus comes back, and we might be surprised at some things we thought we had figured out. But it's very easy, as people have studied in the Old Testament, the New Testament, the book of Ezekiel and Daniel and Revelation, trying to figure out the return of Christ, to, if not forget entirely about, to sort of overlook this startling fact. Jesus is returning. Jesus will come back. Jesus will usher in the second coming, not like the first coming in humility and obscurity, but a second coming that the Bible plainly does say will be characterized by glory. And that's what this passage is about. Peter begins in verse 1 by saying, this is now the second letter that I'm writing to you. We said at the outset that we are taking this, I'm taking this, as being written by the apostle Peter. and it would seem most natural to take as reference to the second letter applying a first letter, that that was in fact what we know as 1 Peter. Scholars get real excited about which letter could that be, is it this or that, including 1 Peter. I think it is most natural and makes the most sense to take it as 1 Peter. And while there are differences, there are also some themes that pertain to the second coming of Jesus in 1 Peter as well. And I think as we get here into chapter three, after that somewhat extended look at the false teachers in chapter two, they're rising up, the character, the nature of them. I think here in three, we really get to the heart of their error, their mistake, which was to deny the second coming of Christ and the judgment that was associated with it. and therefore the accountability for our sin that goes with it. It seems the false teachers were teaching not anything you have to worry about, so it really doesn't matter how you live. In response, Peter writes here about the return of Christ. Of course, he's not the only one in Scripture to write about this. The others do, too. The writers of Paul and Jesus spoke of it. But Peter, in this passage, would have us respond to the coming of the Lord and the scoffing of critics in four ways. I want to look at four things here that he talks about. One is just to remember the promise that the scriptures generally, and Jesus particularly, spoke about his second coming. You see this in verses one and two. Peter says in both of these letters, I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder. Peter's already talked about reminding them. writing to the church in Corinth, as we've seen on Sunday night, speaks of reminding. He said that preaching and teaching is often reminding the people of God what they know, or maybe bringing things that they kind of fall into the back of the mind back to the forefront of the mind. A lot of times we'll learn something new or see some new connection. But much of the purpose of preaching is simply to remind us of the things we know. And so Peter is making it clear he doesn't see himself as teaching them something new here, but simply reminding them of what they already know because of the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior for your apostles. The predictions of the holy prophets, I think we would refer to primarily Old Testament prophets, And the prophets did look forward to a greater day, a more glorious day, the day of the gospel. Often in the prophets, Jesus' first coming and second coming are sort of intermeshed, speaking of a day of greater glory, and yet often speaking of day of glory that you and I have yet to see. So it seems they're looking to Christ's first coming, the Messiah's first coming, but also the full glory that will be brought in with his second coming. Just one example. Isaiah 64, one and two, Isaiah says, oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence, as when fire kindles brushwood, and the fire causes water to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence. Now, speaking of things nearer to come, but also to be taken as the final manifestation of God rending the heavens and come down with the return of Christ. And that's just, this is one example. We could look at many through the Old Testament. And then also, he refers to the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. Now, commandment is, I think, a pretty, should be taken fairly broadly there, referring not so much to an instruction as just his general teaching about the return from Jesus through the apostles, your apostles, those who primarily began the church or won them to Christ. I think, for example, in Mark chapter 13, Jesus is speaking in the Olivet Discourse, Mark's version, he says in 13.32, concerning that day or hour, the return of Christ, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. So Jesus is referring to that his second coming would take place, and no one knows when it will happen. So you may safely discard those, disregard those who claim to have a specific date for the return of Christ. If Jesus says no one knows but the Father, including the Son, if Jesus himself didn't know, I'm pretty sure that they don't know either, and many have predicted the date only to be proved wrong. That doesn't mean it won't happen. It just means they were wrong about the specific date. So the first thing that Peter says is just remember the promise. Again, in the context, as it's being questioned, remember came from the prophets. It came from Jesus. It came through the apostles. This is what we're looking forward to. This is the next great redemptive work of God is the return of Christ into the world. The second thing he wants them and us to remember is ignore the skeptics. Ignore the skeptics about the return of Christ. And he picks up in verse 3, knowing this, first of all, the scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing. following their own evil desires. Knowing this, first of all, he's already used that expression. I love the great 20th century preacher, Martin Louis Jones, one of the highlights of my life, was standing in the very pulpit where he preached in London and had been greatly blessed by his ministry in print and now on the internet, recorded sermons. over the years, but if you listen to Lloyd-Jones for any length of time, everything is of first importance. This is of the utmost importance that we get this. And this is of the first importance that we get this. And if he's doing that, he's only following in Peter's footsteps, because Peter's already said, knowing this first of all, back in chapter one, verse 20, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. And then knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing. Well, Peter's not contradicting himself. Everything can't be first. What he's saying is that this is of utmost importance. This is genuinely and truly important. You hear this and you get this. That's what he's saying. And that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their evil desires. Remember a couple months ago or so when we went to the Ark encounter, If you've been there, you've maybe seen it on deck two. It has three decks, like in the Bible. The middle deck, at one end, there's a movie that just cycles through, and we watched it. And it's about Noah and his family and others building the ark way back in Genesis. And a news crew comes to interview him. And you can tell from the start, they're pretty skeptical about the whole thing. And the woman who's the lead journalist is interviewing Noah, and she's pretty dismissive. And I have a guy who is not the photographer, but he's sketching the scene. He's drawing it because there were no cameras, of course. And so they're getting all this. And anyway, they basically ridicule the whole thing and leave. And Noah's wife looks at him and she says, scoffers going to scoff. And they do, as Peter says, scoffers come with their scoffing, because that's what scoffers do. In the last days, you might say, well, people are pretty skeptical today. Does that mean we're in the last days? Well, yes, we're in the last days. We've been in the last days since Jesus died and rose again and ascended to heaven. And we are in the last days, redemptively speaking, because we are waiting to return of Christ. And so there were scoffers in Peter's own day. That's why he wrote this, just as there are in our days that are skeptical. And notice how he ends this. He says, following their own evil desires, which may be their main motive. They don't want Jesus to come back. They don't want there to be a judgment. They don't want there to be a reckoning and accountability. because that means they're answerable. And that seems to be at the heart of their false teaching, was encouraging people, and some people are attracted to this, they can live however they want with impunity, without being called to account on the last day. And so he says that their scoffing is, in all of this, their attitude is just following their own sinful desires. They reject Jesus' return because they reject judgment. That's often true. I mean, people have intellectual objections to the faith, but as often as not, maybe more often, they don't want to be accountable. As they said in the parable of Jesus, we will not have this man to rule over us. We want to be God. We want to call the shots. We want to live as we want to live. And so they also plead uniformitarianism. It's a fancy way of saying everything continues on the same as it always has. And that does seem to be kind of the basis of their argument, their own desires. But their answer is, in verse four, they will say, where is the promise of his coming? Where is this coming that he promised? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. Fathers there, some see the early apostles, but Peter would have been one of them, probably referring way back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the fathers, and the patriarchs. If you look at that, life just goes on, sun sets, sun rises the next day, life just goes on, everything continues as it always does. Peter, so where is this cataclysmic, apocalyptic, Glorious return that you're speaking of when everything always just goes on the way it always does. Ignore the scoffing, because there are always, in Peter's day, in our day, in every age in between, certainly in the future, those who will say, look, it's been 2,000 years since Jesus left. Why hasn't he come back? Maybe he's never coming back. Maybe you've got it all wrong. By the way, it was 2,000 years from the time of Abraham which brings us kind of down to some other things that Peter says here. The third thing that he will have us understand is not only the promise that was given, not only the need to ignore the skeptics, but also third, consider the facts. They say everything's gone on exactly the way it always has. Therefore, everything will always go on the way it always does. No need to worry about the second coming of Jesus. But third, consider the facts. You see this in verses 5 through 10. Peter says, not so fast. Yes, most of the time, things just go on as usual. But not always. Sometimes, pretty cataclysmic things have, in fact, happened. One, fact number one, he points to, consider the facts, fact number one, creation, verse five. But they deliberately overlook this fact. Look at those words. Kind of Peter's equivalent of Paul in Romans 1 where he says they suppress the truth in unrighteousness because what can be known about God is made known to them through creation so that they are without excuse. The evidence is all over, but they suppress the truth in unrighteousness. That's how Paul puts it. Peter puts it this way. They deliberately overlook. In other words, they cast that aside. Maybe they say, well, it didn't happen. Maybe they say that's not worth paying attention to. Maybe they say that was an exception, it won't happen again. 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. What is Peter getting at there? Well, he's making a reference back to Genesis 1, verse 2. which says the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep waters, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Verse 1, God calls his creation into being, but it's apparently an undifferentiated mass that in verse 2, God begins to sort and to separate, and it says, The spirit was hovering over the face of the waters and he separates the waters from the waters and going through that process of creation. And so, you want to look at God intervening, that's the first intervention. That God brings this universe in its primeval form, in its undifferentiated form, this stuff, into being, and then he proceeds to shape it into the cosmos that would be a suitable habitation for all of his creatures and preeminently for human beings, who he would thank. So Peter first points to creation as God intervening, acting in space-time, acting in this universe that he has made, or by implication, but it's there in verse five. But then, in verse six, he presents fact two. Fact two was the flood. Chapter 3, verse 6, by means of these, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. By means of these, by means of what? Well, probably referring back to water and the Word of God. Flood was all about water, lots of water, and the scriptures themselves say water fell, but water also broke up out of the deeps, the subterranean water rising up by means of these, not just water, but the word of God. What does Peter mean by that? Well, he means that the flood wasn't just this random, accidental catastrophe, but that it occurred, by order of the Word of God, that God said that it should happen. He said it would happen, but we ought to prepare for it. And in fact, on his appointed day, it did happen. So the world of that time was flooded with water and it perished. Water and the Word of God. A natural occurrence, but also an act of God. So that was the second fact that Peter brings up about that. And then the fact number three is God's patience. They say, well, you know, it hasn't happened yet, probably not going to happen. Of course, we have many more years than they did. They say, well, everything's just gone on the way it always does. But he also points to God's patience and God's purposes in being patient as a fact that they don't consider. And that is that the Lord doesn't reckon time as we do. God, of course, is outside of time. Time is part of his creation. God does not experience time, nor is he bound by time the way that you or I are. And so Peter uses this illustration to explain something that ultimately can't be explained, and that's how God dwells outside of time. But he just says, with the Lord, one day is as 1,000 years, and 1,000 years are as one day. Now, he's just saying that God is timeless. God doesn't experience time like we do. 1,000 years is a long time to us. It's like one day to God. But one day to God could be like 1,000 He is outside of time. His sense of time is not like ours. He doesn't get impatient. He doesn't feel rushed. But also, verse 9, that God delays by giving opportunity to repent. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness. Looking at you, false teachers. but is patient toward me, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance." And here, he explains the reason that time has gone on, and of course, from our vantage point, much less longer than even from these scoffers of Peter's own day, and that is for salvation. Now, that shouldn't surprise us. From the Old Testament, where Jesus is foretold, to Jesus coming into the world, to his ministry, his ascension, the work of the apostles, God is saving a people for himself. And there are a lot of people to be saved. And so he is patiently giving time for people to be saved. Now, he says, not wishing that any should perish, but all should reach repentance. Some quote that verse as being an argument against a Calvinistic understanding of salvation. I don't see it as anything of the sort. Well, what is he saying? Well, what does it mean for God to wish that someone should be saved or not wishing that any should perish? Well, if we take that in an absolute sense, the wishing is God's absolute will, then no one would perish. If it's God's sovereign will that no one should perish, no one will perish. Every single person will be saved. Yet we know that's not true. The question is, what does it mean by wishing? Well, I think a helpful way to understand it is looking at God's will in two senses. One is his sovereign, decreeing will of everything that will come to pass, including those who would be saved. But also his revealed will is that people repent, believe in the gospel, and be saved. His will in a more general sense. Or some say it points to the general benevolence and kindness and mercy of God. He's not cruel. He's not vindictive. And then in the Old Testament, it says, God takes no delight in the death of the wicked. He's not malicious in that sense. So that's one way to understand it. Of course, Peter's writing to Christians. It's possible he's saying that any that would be saved, that they should perish, but all should reach repentance. And I think that's how we should understand that, is that all the elect will be saved. All the elect will have an opportunity to repent, believe in the Lord Jesus. And God is not cruel. He wants people to repent and believe in Jesus, just like he wants people not to steal. Yet sometimes people steal. He wants people to believe, and some people will not believe. But the whole point of Peter's writing here is that this seeming delay Is it proof that Jesus isn't coming back? It's proof of the mercy of God to give people time to repent and be saved for the day of judgment, because as verse 10 says, his patience will reach its end. The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar. The heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved. The earth and the works that are done in it will be exposed. The day of the Lord. Peter is drawing from his Old Testament knowledge where that was a frequent theme. The day of the Lord, as the prophet spoke of it, was a day of judgment. It was a day of salvation. It was the day that the Lord intervened, the day that the Lord acted, the day that the Lord appeared. And he says it will come like a thief. And there he's just echoing Jesus' own words in Matthew's version of the Mount of Olives Discourse, Matthew 24. Jesus says, know this, if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake. He would not have let his house be broken into. And Peter's just echoing his master's language, which he heard. Jesus' language there, he'll come like a thief. That is, he'll be unexpected. It'll be a surprise. Not that it happens, but the specific moment. come like a thief. It will be unknown. It will surprise you. And then there will be this cataclysmic upheaval. The heavens will pass away with a roar. Heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved. The earth, the works that are done on it, will be exposed. Literally will be found. That's given the scholars lots to work with. What does he mean they will be found? And I think the ESV and other modern translations do a good job. I think it basically is what the ESV says. We'll be exposed. We'll be found, we'll be seen, we'll be found out, we'll be brought to light before the eye of God, and maybe before all the works on the earth that are done will be exposed, which goes along with the rest of Scripture. The day of reckoning, the day of judgment, the day of account when we stand before the Lord. But also notice that this is judgment not by water, but by fire. Remember the rainbow, that beautiful multi-colored arc that God appointed to be a sign of his promise never to destroy the world again with blood. We just need to reclaim the rainbow, the beautiful symbol of God's mercy, God's promise. But the next judgment won't be with water. It will be with fire, the universe burnt, consumed in preparation, as we'll see, for being remade. And so, remember the promise, ignore the skeptics, and then also, as he says here, consider the facts, the creation, the flood, and God's patience. And then the last thing, the fourth thing that Peter brings to our attention here is that as a result we should live God-given lives. Verses 11 through 13. What does that look like? Well, verse one, we should be holy. Since all of these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness? Notice he doesn't say, quit your job and go sit on the mountain and wait for the return of Jesus. And Paul deals with that when writing to the church in Thessalonica. You know, you continue to work. Continue to go about your business. continue to go about your day and do the things that God is giving you to do, but because Jesus is returning, because things will be brought to light, we ought to be, by his grace, as those who are in Christ, pursuing lives of holiness and godliness. That's the direct consequence of the knowledge of the return of Christ, that we should seek to live Christ-like lives, not in order to be saved, but because we have been saved, that Christ has died for our sins, as this righteousness stands on our record before God. You can't save yourself, but if you are saved, how should we live in light of Christ's return and holiness and godliness? And then also hastening. We should be holy, we should be hastening, verse 12, waiting for and even 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. One aspect of waiting for the return of Jesus is that we hasten it. We speed its coming. That's a mysterious thing. What do you mean by that? How can we possibly speed up the date of Jesus' return? After all, hasn't God already appointed it? Well, this is a little mysterious. Yes, God is sovereign. Yes, God has appointed the day. But His sovereignty also includes our behaviors. For example, earlier we prayed the Lord's Prayer. Your kingdom come. What are we praying for when we pray your kingdom come? Well, we're praying, yes, for the spread of the gospel throughout the world, to raise up and send out missionaries that the kingdom of Christ would come in this world, and ultimately we're praying for his return. One of the ways that we hasten that coming is to pray for it, but according to Peter here, that by our holiness and godliness, We are hastening the day by spreading the gospel, bringing in the people of God. We are hastening the day. And so somehow in God's providence, our prayers, our sharing the gospel and missionary efforts and our obedience and holiness are woven into his sovereign will so that we are in a sense hastening, speeding up the return of Christ for that day when things will be destroyed in judgment And then, waiting. We do wait. This is in verses 12 and 13. Verse 12, he said, waiting for and hastening, even. And then verse 13, but according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. We're not looking forward simply to being disembodied spirits, whatever that would look like floating around. We're looking for the new creation that Jesus died to redeem. Remember when we fell into sin, Adam and Eve, Adam sins, God places a curse on this world. And life is harder here because of the sinfulness and because of the curse. In fact, Romans 8 says creation grows. It personifies this universe. Creation itself groans under this curse and under sin, looking forward to the revealing of the sons of God. In other words, looking for that day when Jesus appears and everything is seen as it is, and the people of God are revealed for who they actually are in Christ Jesus, the day of judgment, the day of vindication. Creation itself groans because creation itself is looking forward to its renewal. Jesus, yes, died for me. He died for you, but he also died in a far more grand and cosmic way to redeem this whole creation, which Peter simply describes here as a new heavens and a new earth. And that's also seen even in the Old Testament prophets, this day of the renewal of the entire creation. Notice, Peter says we're waiting for this place in which righteousness dwells. That's why we pursue lives of holiness and godliness. Heaven is a place of holiness and godliness, of righteousness. There's nothing in heaven and nothing in this new heavens and new earth except righteousness. In other words, sin is gone, not in us, not around us and other people, not in the creation itself. That will be the consummation of what Jesus came to, a holy, righteous people living in a holy, righteous universe forever and ever. We may have jobs to do. We may have vacations to take. We may have the whole universe to explore. All of that is part of living in a very solid, You heavens, when we were waiting for that, you Christians should be longing for that, looking forward to that, praying for the hastening of the coming of the day of Jesus, when we will begin to experience all that Jesus died to win for us. So, there's a lot we don't know about the return of Christ, certainly don't know when it's going to happen, don't know exactly what it's going to look like, that we call some things, but we do know this, that it will happen. It's coming. Because God promised it would. Therefore, the skeptics are wrong. And so in the meantime, we should live holy lives in Christ, hastening the day of the Lord as we await Jesus appearing. That's great. Father, we thank you. Thank you for your Word. Thank you for this great and glorious promise of the appearing of our Savior. Father, we long for that day when our faith will be sight. We will gaze with our own eyes on the beauty of the Lord. So come, Lord Jesus. We pray it in your name, Lord. Amen.