Let's begin reading verse 1 of chapter 3. We'll consider all the way down through verse 13 this morning. This is now the second letter that I'm writing to you, beloved. In both of them, I'm 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, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing. Following their own sinful desires, they will say, where's the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. 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. But by the same word, the heavens and the earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and the destruction of the ungodly. 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. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, 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 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 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 the new heavens and the new earth in which righteousness dwells. Let's direct our attention to this God and respond in faith by praying. Praying is one of those ways that we remind ourselves that what we need right now is not what we possess within ourselves, but God most certainly does. So let's ask that He would help us to hear His word and apply it. Lord our God, we look to you this morning in response to who you are and the very plain fact that you have spoken. That you have spoken in such a way that is clear, without mistake, without error. And yet Lord, we are those who are so prone to error and we are those who left to ourselves, we're unable to truly hear. to truly see. Lord, we have all confidence that you have not left us to ourselves, but you are a good and gracious God, and that you've not only given your word, but you've given your spirit. Lord, you are the one who is able to make blind eyes see and you're the one who's able to make dull hearts actually respond and love you. And you're the one who's actually able to turn our feet to walk in paths of righteousness. And so we have every reason for confidence to turn towards you and to turn towards your word because you are the God who's faithful to his promise to do exactly what your people need. So Lord, we pause in this moment, having heard your word read and to now consider it expounded that, Lord, you would cause your word to be fruitful and effective amongst us, that we would receive it with hearts of faith, that we would turn towards it in all meekness and receive it knowing that the implanted word is able to save our souls. God, we turn towards You longing for the fulfillment of this promise that's found in Your Son. Lord, show us Jesus and His worthiness. And for every reason that we have to trust in Him, we do pray this morning. Amen. Well, as we read our Bibles, there are a number of clear themes that inevitably cross our paths, and these themes become the guideposts for understanding and applying the Scriptures. One of the most prominent and important themes in our Bible is that God has spoken. and how we respond to his word is of the utmost importance. You figure this out quite early as you even just began reading chronologically. If you were to pick up your Bible and open to Genesis chapter one and just keep reading, this prominent theme would jump out before you as it becomes so clear and by God's design is meant to guide you in your understanding of God's word. For example, from Adam and Eve to Abraham and Isaac to Moses and the people of Israel, the repeated pattern is that God's Word is trustworthy and that it is our great sin and folly to disregard God's Word. This pattern, this theme is certainly one that Peter, who wrote this letter, has noticed, and that he himself has actually experienced firsthand in his own life that God's Word is trustworthy, and it is to our great sin and folly to disregard His promises. And so with that knowledge, and with that personal experience, and with this great concern for his brothers and sisters, He's devoted much of this second letter to reminding God's people of the trustworthiness of God's own Word. You just look back at chapter 1 of this letter, back in verse 16, Peter doesn't waste much time in getting straight to this emphasis. He says, for we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. If you jump down to verse 19, the same chapter. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which you will do well to pay attention as a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this, first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. God has spoken. We can trust his word. And we ought to remember this. And so as we come now to chapter three, which we just read this morning, this same emphasis presses upon Peter's concern for God's people. You could sum it up like this. Because God has spoken, we must remember and reorient our lives according to His promise. Because God has spoken, we have this great responsibility to remember and actually reorient our lives according to God's promise. Now in order for that to work itself out, Peter says, you actually need to remember a couple of things. Number one, you can expect some to scoff at this promise. He says, you should not misread his promise. And then he says, you must order your life according to his promise. In fact, everything that Peter's saying here really in these first 13 verses has to do with God's promise. It's repeated three times, and he wants us to draw our attention to God's promise. Let's begin by heeding the first bit of instruction in verse 1, where Peter says that we should expect some to scoff at God's promise. If you look back at verse 1, he says, this is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them, I'm stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets, the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this, first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. Now, if you read through this letter in one sitting, you're gonna notice certain connections between various paragraphs and chapters. Again, there are these repeated themes, even in a particular book of the Bible, that help us connect the main ideas and the development of those ideas through the letter. I think one of the most obvious connections is at the end of chapter two, and this word command. We began reading in chapter 3, verse 1, but if you read through it in its entirety, you would notice something as you finished out chapter 2. There's a contrast here between the false teachers who, in verse 21, turn their back from the holy commandment, compared to the faithful believers that Peter's speaking to in verse one and two, who remember the commandment of the Lord and Savior. The command is at the center of everything that Peter is saying. There are some who turn their back upon it, but God's people are those who remember this. So all of this is going to revolve around the trustworthiness and authority of God's word. In a sense, Peter is saying this, dear friends, don't forget Hold fast. I'm trying to awaken your minds and stir you to action by this trustworthiness of God's word that's been given to us. Why am I doing this? Because there are going to be some who will scoff at this promise. In what way? Peter says not only in what they say, but what they overlook. If you look back at your Bible in verse 4, he even points this out, saying, they will say. They're going to mock. They're going to scoff by their words. The problem here is not their ignorance of God's word, but their mocking rejection of what God's word says. They mock, they scoff, they attempt to put others at ease, assuring them that their sinful desires ought not concern them. Remember these false teachers? As their hearts are trained in greed, they're given over to their sensual passions, and the message that they are proclaiming is, it's going to be okay. In a sense, there's no reason for your guilt. That's just some construct that has been imposed upon you. You don't need to worry about that. There is no coming judgment. There is no boogeyman. Be at ease. Live as you like. There's actually a long tradition of those who question God's ability or God's willingness and plan to interrupt this world with judgment. How sad that it's actually become cliche that when people think of Christians, they then mockingly think of someone who just says, he's going to return and he's going to judge, and then dismiss the whole thing out of hand. Really, this is nothing new. Many centuries before Jeremiah had to handle the same issue in chapter 17, Jeremiah says, they keep saying to me, where is the word of the Lord? Jeremiah says, let it come. These scoffers are not just simply raising questions about the timing or the finer details of this return. They are calling into question the entire idea of judgment. You've heard that it was said, God's judgment is coming. But I say to you, the world continues on as it has for thousands of generations. That's what they're saying. That's how they're mocking. These people mock the promise of Christ's return, saying, look, Jesus has come and he's changed nothing. Look around you. The world is just as it is before Christ. In fact, the Old Testament prophets have changed nothing. Look around you. The world is exactly as it is since creation. Rinse, wash, repeat. It's just going to continue on just like this. There is no concern for judgment. Peter says, you need to beware, there will be some who will scoff at the idea of judgment in what they say. But also, he says, they will scoff in what they're actually overlooking. He says that in verse 5, for they deliberately overlook this fact. What is it that they deliberately, not mistakenly, deliberately overlook? The flaw in their reasoning is that they've ignored the fact that God relates to his world by his word. To reject the authority or the reality of Christ's return is to reject God's word. Peter takes three biblical examples to prove his point. This is what they're deliberately overlooking. Number one, they overlook God's word in creation. Some may scoff that the world continues from the beginning of creation, so Peter says, yes, good point. Let's talk about what happened in the beginning. God created by his word. In fact, if you turn to Genesis chapter one and read 29 verses, you could count up, excuse me, in chapter one, you could count up 10 times in 29 verses where we read God said. God's Word is literally the emphasis of the creation story. Peter puts his finger right on the creation account and says, look here, that creation that you just mentioned, it exists because God spoke. It exists because of God's Word. And so the error of these false teachers is that they deliberately overlook this fact. And the need then is for God's people to be stirred to action, being reminded of these truths. But it's not just that they overlook God's Word in creation. Peter says, turn a few pages over. They deliberately overlook the fact of God's Word in the flood. As you read the Genesis story, you hear the rebellion of Adam and Eve against God in the garden. It really reaches this crescendo point in the story as you come to chapter six, and that there's this wide-reaching disobedience within creation that man and women are just doing as they please in all manner of wickedness. Now, what God says in the time of Noah is that this water, which became the great agent of God's creative word, now becomes the agent of his judicial word. Because as you come to Genesis chapter six, verse 12, you hear, God saw the earth and behold, it was corrupt. For all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, I've determined to make an end of all flesh. For the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth." He will literally bring water upon the earth, and he will judge. This is by his word. By water and word, he says, I will bring forth this judgment. So you see these false teachers, they're wanting you to believe that everything is continuing on from the beginning of creation. But Peter reminds his readers, no, that's not true at all. God intervened. He's actually broken into his creation by his word, disrupted the created order in order to bring about judgment. They deliberately overlook this fact. And then this is the crux of the matter. They overlook this same word, Peter says, that promises judgment. Verse 7, by the same word. What word? the same Word of God that spoke all things into existence, the same Word of God that promised He was going to bring judgment, and He did, they overlook that it is this same God and His same Word that promises judgment. The fact that we do not see God actively judging the world is not owed to a failure of God's Word. He's in control of history. And he's actually proven that when he speaks, we can trust his word to bring it about exactly like he says he will. What Peter's saying is that the flood is just advance warning of what will happen. It is, in a sense, a picture painted on a very small canvas of what is compared to be what is coming according to what God has promised. So the arrogance of their scoffing is really an exaltation of humanity as a blasphemous degradation of God. Where's the promise of His coming? The only way you can say that is if you believe that you have a better view of things than God. It is, as it were, as if a human is standing upon an anthill, boasting of our perfect vantage point to make sense of the world that we live in. It's calling upon the creator of all things, the one who is outside of all things, high above creation, calling him to be impotent, to be weak and changing. It's cosmic treason. That is what they are saying. So Christian, we need to know this. We need to expect this. We need to beware of this. Scoffers will come. They have come. They are here mocking the promise of God's Word. So how do we read this? It's not just an out there, in here sort of scenario. Ah, the mockers are here. It's a warning to every single person who can hear God's Word. It's a warning against any temptation that we might have to mock God's Word, at any point, that it isn't true, that it isn't going to come to pass like this, or that it doesn't really apply in this way. Peter says, you need to remember these things. You need to know that God has spoken, and you need to expect that some will scoff at His promise. The second thing that he tells us is that we should not misread his promise. Do not misread his promise. Look back at verse 8 now, where he says, but do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is 1,000 years, and 1,000 years is one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient towards 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. Peter now defends Jesus's own teaching against this sort of toxic skepticism that is spreading amongst these churches. So after exposing the flaws of these scoffers' assumptions in the previous verses we just looked at, he now revisits the question back in verse four. He's not done with this. Where's this supposed coming that he's promised? He showed that it's absolute folly to mock this. But the question remains, and maybe the Christian in the back is raising their hand, saying, yeah, but it has been a long time. Where's Jesus? Why is there this delay? This is yet another emphasis of Peter's concern for these people to be remembering, to be remembering the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles. He said in verse 2. Because in verse 5, Peter calls out these false teachers deliberately overlooked. And did you notice now in verse 8 what he said? He calls his readers not to overlook this one fact. They've overlooked one thing. And then he says, beloved, don't you overlook. Do not overlook this one fact. And it should not surprise us that the one thing that must always be before us and be upon our memory is actually nothing new at all, but it is a theme that's throughout all of God's word. He goes right at it, and he says, let's talk about this apparent delay. Let's consider this apparent delay so that we might not misread this promise. Now, the problem with making any sort of conclusion about the timing of Christ's return is that our perception of time does not match up with God. Why is that? Well, because we are finite and He is infinite. He is the creator. We the creatures. We are bound by time. He is eternal. Or as Peter says, with the Lord one day is a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. Now, Peter's not just waxing poetically here about time, giving us his own philosophical reflections. Nor is he giving us a prophetic conversion chart that we can decode the timeline of history. Peter is reading his Bible and he's reading Psalm 90. That's what he's pointing us to. Psalm 90 is a psalm of contrast, laying the eternality of God alongside the temporary nature of human beings. Our lives are short and frail, but God does not weaken or become frail in any way with the passage of years. In one sense, the marking of time is irrelevant to God because He transcends it. Psalm 90 begins this way, Lord, you have been our dwelling place to all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth or ever you formed the earth and the world from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. You return man to dust and say, return, O children of man. for 1,000 years in your sight are but as yesterday when it's passed, or as a watch in the night. You sweep them away as with a flood. They are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning. In morning, it flourishes and is renewed. In the evening, it fades and withers. Perhaps you'll remember Moses's conclusion towards the end of that psalm. So teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Why does Peter point us to Psalm 90 as the answer to the scoffers mocking and to remind us of this truth? I think he's reminding us that we must not misread the gap between promise and fulfillment as some sort of defect in God. Do not misread the promise. The Lord is not on your timetable. What seems like a long time to you is really irrelevant because In all scope of eternity, it is but nothing. Number your days to gain a heart of wisdom." Let me say it this way, friend, do not interpret this gap between promise and return as God's tardiness, but as His tender patience, is what Peter says. It's not a callous forgetfulness of His people. but it's a patient working of repentance in his people. Remember what Peter's already said just in this letter back in chapter 2 verse 5, if he did not spare the ancient world but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others when he brought a flood upon the world of ungodly, then in verse 7, and if he rescued righteous lot greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked, conclusion verse 9, then God knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment." In other words, God will save his people. God knows what he's doing. He does not bring judgment indiscriminately. So in order to understand the all of verse 9, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. We need to read that all in light of all scripture to remind ourselves of what Peter's trying to press home to us. Here's the facts of the matter that we can say without question in regards to our Bible. God will bring judgment, and not everyone will be saved. If you move beyond that, if you disregard that statement, that God will bring judgment and not everyone will be saved, you are moving beyond the bounds of Orthodox Christianity. That's a stated fact of the Bible. God will bring judgment and not everyone will be saved. Secondly, the clear testimony of Scripture is that in our natural state, Everyone deserves judgment. There is nobody righteous. No, not one. But God, in his sovereign grace, has chosen to save some. This is why Peter refers to his readers in the first letter as elect exiles. chosen pilgrims. It's the very same emphasis of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter one, where he begins extolling the grace of God. And where does he begin, where does he go to talk about God's grace and the glorious reality of his grace? even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace. This is the very same instruction of Jesus. In John chapter six, verse 44, Jesus said, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day." The same sort of emphasis that Jesus is talking about in John chapter 10 about the sheep, and he being the good shepherd, and that his sheep hear his voice. He says, my sheep, hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. Why do we need to hear this? As we live in the gap between promise and fulfillment, we are intended to stand in awe of the patience of the Lord as He works repentance in His people. That's how we are to read the promise, not misreading it. But reading it as, oh, this gap exists because God is merciful and He's working repentance in His people. And now the next question you should be asking is, what is repentance? It's a really important word that's not only central to what Peter's saying here in chapter three, friend, it is a word that is central to the whole Bible in your understanding of why this is actually good news. What is repentance? What does it look like? Repentance is the only right and God-honoring response to sin. It is the recognition, first of all, that there is no one who does not sin. Even the best men and women fall into sin and are born in sin. What is repentance? Well, in repentance, We have a true sense of the sinfulness of our sin, of what it actually is, that it is against God and His direction for our lives. And secondly, we've learned or apprehended something of His mercy that we've heard about that's given to us in Jesus. And because we've heard of His mercy, repentance means we turn from our sin grieving over it, hating it, and we turn to God, resting in Christ. The sinfulness of our sin, the mercy of God in Christ, turning from sin, turning to God, and resting in Christ. Here's what that means. It means that repentance is not some one-time act that you can think back upon in 1973. It is not a one-time act of when you first heard the gospel, whenever that might have been. It must continue throughout the life of the believer. Because as long as sin remains, repentance must remain. Friends, this means that there is no sin so small that is undeserving of judgment. And at the same time, there is no sin so great that will bring judgment upon those who repent. It is the best news you could have ever heard. The Lord is patient, but do not misread His patience as indifference to your sin or unawareness of your sin. Do not misread the promise. That's Peter's concern. Do not misread this gap between promise and return as saying, I guess God doesn't care. I'm going to put my finger in the light socket again. Oh, nothing happened. I guess God doesn't care. I guess, really, maybe there is no God. I guess, really, there is no consequence for sin. Peter says, do not misread his patience as indifference to your sin or unawareness of your sin. Or to put it in Paul's language, Do you presume upon the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? That's what Peter's saying. If you've yet to repent of your sin and you have breath in your lungs, you've just proven the patience of the Lord. That's what Peter's saying. We must not misread this promise in the apparent delay, but he also mentions the reality of this impending day. Verse 10 is really the counterweight of what Peter's just argued. God will be patient, but he will come. Both his patience and his coming have been promised. What Peter's referring to in verse 10 is really the teaching of Jesus. Again, Peter's just pointing us to the scriptures. He's pointing us to Psalm 90. He's pointing us to what Matthew records in the 24th chapter. Therefore, stay awake, this is Jesus teaching, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore, you also must be ready For the Son of Man is coming in an hour you do not expect." This means there will come a day when God says, no more. The end has come. And this promised day will be an unwelcome shock to any of those who assumed his return would never come, just like the one who was surprised the thief came. This last day, Peter says, will be a cataclysmic end. It will be a day of salvation for God's people. He's going to talk about that. But here, Peter focuses upon the terror of this event. First, he says the heavens will pass away with a roar. That is to say, they will come to an end with a rustling or a crackling crash. Judgment is coming, and even the highest of heights will not be exempt. Then, he says, the heavenly bodies will be burned up and destroyed. By this, he's referring to the stars and the planets, the galaxies being destroyed. And lastly, he then speaks of the earth and the works done on it being destroyed. What has he just done? He has just said from the highest of heights to the furthest of galaxies to the very dust of the earth will not be exempt from this judgment. Friends, that means the sort of judgment that Peter is talking here is far greater than any sort of climate calamity that we could bring upon ourselves, or any sort of nuclear arsenal that we could unload upon ourselves, because it goes from the heavens to the galaxies to the very dust of the earth. This is the result of the promise of God, that he says, my son will return. And when he returns, then the judgment. After emphasizing all of this, I can't help but wonder if Peter has ringing in his ears Jesus's words in Mark 13, heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. That's really the illumination that's shining upon everything that Peter is saying here, isn't it? All of this is going to pass away, but what will live on? The same word of God that promised this will never pass away. Do not misread his promise. God is patience, and patience is only meant to provoke repentance. God is working to bring repentance. We can expect some to scoff at his promise. We must not misread his promise. But lastly, we are called to order our life according to his promise. Peter says there in verse 11, since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness? We now come to the so what of the passage. He's not just been expounding prophecy that this is just gonna come and these things are gonna happen to wow his readers and saying, oh, the heavens and the stars, it's all gonna burn. He says, why am I telling you this? He really tells us for two reasons, that we would know how to walk in holiness, and that we would know how to wait for his return. Walking in holiness has been a constant concern of Peter for his years. Holiness has really been one of the driving forces that have been moving his concern for them along, not just in 2 Peter, but in 1 Peter as well. He's concerned about these false teachers who are promoting greed and sensuality with no concern for self-control, and they've been giving full reign to their sinful desires, and he's saying, that ought not to be in God's people. That's not how this works. In fact, if you wanted, you could go back to chapter 1 of 1 Peter, and you'll hear Peter call upon his readers to be holy as he is holy. He says in verse 13, preparing your mind for action, being sober-minded, set your hope fully upon the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy. in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. Or if you look down at chapter 2, verse 1 of 1 Peter, he then comes to this and says, so put away all malice, and all deceit, and all hypocrisy, and envy, and all slander. What Peter's emphasizing is that holiness and godliness, they're two-way actions. They're two-way streets. because they include a putting off of certain things and a putting on of something. There is one direction in which I'm turning from and the other direction in which I'm turning towards. Why is this so important? Because so much of the frustration amongst God's people to pursue holiness is to attempt to take up one without the other. What I mean is, I'm going to be holy, so I'm going to deny my flesh, and I'm not going to do that without filling your gaze with Christ in all of the glories of His excellence. Likewise, I'm just going to think about Jesus and not make any changes to my life. Each of those errors is insanely frustrating to try and understand what it means to walk in holiness, when the clear emphasis and pattern of Scripture is that two-way street. There is a putting off and a putting on. There's a turning away and a turning towards. God's people walk in holiness as they are doing both. The goal of the Christian life is not just this external conformity or mindless action, but ultimately it is affection for God because our minds have been renewed and our wills are moving in a certain direction. The path of holiness is not attempting to decrease your affections. That's Buddhism. That's not Christianity. Christianity says, oh no, you need to raise your affections. You need actually to fill your affections and enlarge them with heavenly things, with who Jesus is. John Owen said it this way, were our affections filled, taken up, and possessed with these things, talking about the excellencies of Christ, what access could sin, with all its painted pleasures, with all its sugared points, with all its envenomed baits, have unto our souls." Meaning if our affections were filled to the brim and overflowing, there is no room then for the allure of the affections of the flesh. Walk according to his promise, remembering that we are called to walk in holiness. See, this is Peter's concern. God has spoken. And therefore, how shall we then live? Order your life according to His promise by walking according to holiness and godliness. Order your reading, your thoughts, your streaming content, your wicked plans by ordering your loves according to what pleases God. And what pleases Him? He's not left us to guess. He is a good God. He's given us His Word. And He's given us the sort of instruction that we need to know, ah, this pleases Him. So we then ask, what place does His Word have in our lives? From the priority of our corporate gatherings, to private worship, to conversations with one another. What priority does His Word have in my life which shows me what pleases Him so that I can order my life around these promises? The Christian is not just only walking in holiness. He's also waiting for this day. That's how we respond. That's how we order our lives. The judgment is coming. The day of the Lord is at hand. But it's not a day of dread for the Christian. Twice, Peter says, this day we're waiting for is according to His promise. In fact, this day is of such anticipation that the Christian is hastening the day. Did you see that word? We are waiting for, hastening the day. What's Peter doing here? Well, notice the parallel in what he's already said. The Lord is not slow concerning His promise. We are not slow waiting for his promise. We are zealous. We are diligent. We're not idle. We're not slacking. The Christian anticipates this day with such excitement they cannot sit still. That is what he's talking about. The last day with its coming judgment will indeed bring cosmic destruction, but this Last Day also carries with it the promise of new heavens and a new earth and the inauguration of a truly righteous society upon this earth. Although this will be the end of the present heaven and earth in this form, the believer holds to this glorious hope where there shall be a new heavens and a new earth. Well, what promise is Peter referring to here? shouldn't surprise us he has one in mind, because he knows God has spoken and God has given us his word. In fact, in Isaiah chapter 65, verse 17, we hear, for behold, God speaking through Isaiah, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. New heavens and a new earth. But what's the glory of this new earth? Why is the Christian to hope or even hasten for this day? What is so good about new heavens and a new earth? What is the hope for God's people? It's a good question to ask, because if this is to be a primary motivation for Christians to reorient their lives, you should probably be clear on what the ultimate expectation is. What's so great about the new heavens and the new earth? Is it merely a shiny new home? Is it merely a life free from pain? The death of sin isn't merely a hope that we finally get to rest from our labors. Well, all of these things shall come to us. But the substance of our hope is far sweeter. It's what our hearts have actually been longing for ever since they were awakened and restored by God's own spirit, the promise that Peter's speaking of in Isaiah is the same promise that John writes of in Revelation 21. See if you hear the same language. For I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. The sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, and neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new. And he said, write this down. For these words are trustworthy and true. Church, our hope and this hope is according to the promise of our Lord. God shall dwell with us and he with him. That is the substance of our hope. If that be not the reality, then we have no hope. There is really just nothing to labor on for. All of those other things that come with that, freedom from sin, the end of death, righteousness reigning. All of that is because God is with us and we with him. The Christian hope is not merely just one of escaping. The Christian hope is one of arriving with his God. This is a heaven and earth without sin. Why? Because the lamb has wiped away the stain of sin and the penalty of sin. This is a new creation without death and without corruption. Why? Well, because the triumph of the resurrection is the one who was slain now lives again. Church, this is God's promise to us, and this word is worthy of reorienting our entire lives around because he has spoken. God has spoken, and we must remember and reorient our lives according to his promise. Let me close by just asking you one question. Have you forgotten this promise? Have you forgotten that God speaks? Have you lost sight of just what exactly God is doing in this world? How kind and how loving of our God to give us His word this morning to exhort us and to comfort us as we await His return. If you need endurance, if you are worn down by the mocking voices of unbelief, then look to His promise, His promise of strength for weary pilgrims. Are you in need of assurance and comfort in the face of your own sin that you know you are guilty of? Well then, look to His promise for cleansing and forgiveness of sin. God has said it. He promises it. Are you in need of wisdom, counsel, direction? Well, look to his promise that he gives to us to order our steps and direct our minds according to his own design. It's almost as if God were saying His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us very great and precious promises. Everything that we have comes to us by God's word. Father, we pray that you would help us to hear and to receive your word for what it is. that we would lay hold of it by faith, and that we would respond in repentance, that we would respond in great trust, and that we would respond in great hope. Lord, may the triad of faith and hope and love mark our lives in response to who you are in your word to us, we do pray.