Our Old Testament scripture reading will be from the book of Amos. The book of Amos, chapter 9. You'll find Amos immediately after Joel and immediately before Obadiah. And we'll be reading the entire chapter. I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and He said, Strike the doorposts that the thresholds may shake, and break them on the heads of them all. I will slay the last of them with the sword. He who flees from them shall not get away, and he who escapes from them shall not be delivered. Though they dig into hell, from there my hand shall take them. Though they climb up into heaven, from there I will bring them down. And though they hide themselves on top of caramel, from there I will search them and take them. Though they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea, from there I will command the serpent and it shall bite them. Though they go into captivity before their enemies, from there I will command the sword and it shall slay them. I will set my eyes on them for harm. and not for good. The Lord God of hosts, he who touches the earth and it melts, and all who dwell there mourns, all of it shall swell like the river and subside like the river of Egypt. He who builds his layers in the sky and has founded his strata in the earth, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the face of the earth, the Lord is his name. Are you not like the people of Ethiopia to me, O children of Israel, says the Lord? Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt, the Philistines from Kaphtor, and the Syrians from Kir? Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth. Yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, says the Lord. For surely I will command and will sift the house of Israel among all nations. As grain is sifted in a sieve, yet not the smallest grain shall fall to the ground. All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, the calamity shall not overtake nor confront us. On that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, and repair its damages. I will raise up its ruin, and rebuild it as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom. And all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord who does this thing. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the shredder of grapes him who sows seed. The mountains shall drip with sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will bring back the captives of my people Israel. They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them. They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them. I will plant them in their land, and no longer shall they be pulled up from the land I have given them, says the Lord your God." Our New Testament reading is from the book of 2 Peter. 2 Peter chapter 3. We'll begin reading in verse 14 and read through verse 18. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, without spot and blameless, and consider that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation, as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you. as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of scriptures. You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and forever. Amen. Well, I guess I better give you a heads up first. We read from 2 Peter 3, verses 14 through 18. As I was preparing this sermon, I found that I could only get through verse 16. So we're not actually going to get into verses 17 through 18. So when we don't get there, please don't be surprised. But as we look at this text from 2 Peter, I'd like to cash attention to my experience. I'm a bit of a runner. And one of the things I've found is that when I run, when I'm out running, the hardest part of the run isn't the first mile. And it's not the last mile. It's not mile five or six or however far you like to run. It's like mile two or three, right in that spot where you realize that I'm not excited anymore to be running. I'm not excited. I'm not feeling good. But I know I've got a long way to go. And it's kind of a drag. You realize, I'm going to have to keep pushing, keep persevering, keep working forward for a long time. And it's going to hurt. It's not going to be pleasant for a while. And I think in our Christian life, we often face similar times, where we pass out of a time of great excitement, and yet the goal is still far ahead. And we realize that This work is going to be hard. And it's not going to get easy anytime soon. That right now, I have to persevere and press forward. I've seen these in my own life, in my academic career, both in college and in seminary. I've seen it in my marriage. We've only been married less than six months. And you go, oh, it's really fun for a while. Then you realize, it's going to be work. And it's going to be work for a long time. But we also see this as we look at Christian history, if we look at the Bible as it presents history. There was this time of great excitement and church growth right after Christ came and the apostles were on. And the church seemed to be expanding rapidly. The apostles were there. We think, wow, what a great, exciting time to be in. And we look forward and we think, there'll be this time when Christ returns and all will be set right. And it will be glorious and exciting and wonderful. But we look at today and we go, by all indications, by everything we can see, of course, we don't know when the second coming will be. But by everything we can tell, it's just plugging away. The church keeps working along. Christian families keep persevering and striving. You and your own Christian walk are just striving. You're looking forward saying, I don't know when Christ is going to come, but I know I've got to keep pressing on. And those can be hard times to work in, hard times to push forward in. And it's interesting, as I was preparing to work on 2 Peter, I was struck by a comment one person made. He said that this book, 2 Peter, is an obscure corner of the New Testament, that it is rarely preached on. It is rarely taught on. It's rarely written on. There's even scholars that would like to say it's not part of the canon. It's not part of scripture. They're wrong. Don't be taken aback. But it's a book. It's a topic we don't discuss much. And it's sad because one thing 2 Peter does for us is he takes the doctrine of the second coming of Christ, the doctrine of the restoration of all things and the coming judgment, and he applies it very directly to a situation that's very similar to our own day. The days of persevering, days of having to face much false teaching. And he shows that why this doctrine, the doctrine of Christ's second coming, is applicable to you and to me and is a useful thing for us to be aware of. The book is very short, just three chapters. It's tightly argued. Peter starts out discussing that God's revelation is reliable and it's true, that we should found our hope on that. He then immediately moves to confronting false teachers, first talking about the fact that they are doomed for destruction. Second, showing that they are wicked men, that their morality, their actions show them to be false. And finally, demonstrating that they're vain men, that what they're pursuing will pass away. They have no staying power. And then, he confronts the teaching, the false teaching they present. Primarily, that Christ isn't going to come again. That the Second Coming has either already happened, or that it just isn't going to happen. And so he says, no, it's not true. Christ is going to come, it's guaranteed. Even as the flood coming in Noah's day, it's going to come. But even as Noah's flood was delayed while Noah built his ark, so the second coming is delayed. And he also is very clear, he says, it's going to be comprehensive. It's going to cover all of heaven, all of earth. Everything will be judged and purified and cleansed, and we'll establish a new heaven and a new earth. No one will escape. And so then he comes to verses 14 through 18. Well, really, he begins in verse 11, summing up what he has said and saying, why does it matter to you? And essentially, he has three points. There's three therefores in that section. First, therefore, because of all these things, regard what kind of people you should be. Second, in our text, verses 14 through 16, looking forward, be found in peace. And finally, in verses 17 and 18, it says, because of all this, beware and watch out for false teachers. But what I'd like you to see today from our text is that the second coming of Christ is a powerful ground for you to find personal peace and also a powerful motivation to pursue that very peace as we live in this time of persevering, in this time of having to push forward and be consistent. And so the first thing we see is that we can find a peace in the war with sin. We find this in verse 14, where he says, therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things. These things is referring back to what he's discussed in chapter 3 on the melting of the heavens and the earth and the establishing of the new heavens and the new earth. So looking at those things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, without spot, and blameless." And so I think this peace, as we investigate it in the context, it could be taking his peace with God, or it could be taking his peace with ourselves. But considering that he's already exhorted them in verse 11, to seek after holiness and godliness, to seek after really being at peace with God, it seems to make sense that he is really referring to seek to be found personally in your own souls to be at peace, as it were, resting. But he brings forth be at peace without spot and without blameless. So I think this peace really, much of it has to do with their own war with sin. And this is something that the false teachers would have denied. They would have denied that godly living, that holy living, was important. Even as we see in our own culture, in our own day, how many people out there deny that one of the important parts of the Christian life is living after God's word? How many people is the Christian life just, you know, I gave my heart to Jesus and now I do what I want? It's a very common belief in our day. But we have to press on and find peace in the fact that we will have a war with sin. But the day of the Lord gives us hope in this. First, it gives us a hope of deliverance, setting our minds on these things. He just said in verses 11 through 13, therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness? Why? Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. And here what he's presenting in those previous verses is a picture of all of the earth being purified by fire. The word he used actually is used to apply to taking a piece of metal, be it precious metal like gold or even iron, putting it through very intense fire and burning off impurities so it might be found pure. So he's saying there will come a day when everything will be purified and taken away. Now why does this give us hope as we face sin in our days? We face that persevering, hard fight of rooting out the evil in our hearts, trying to seek out of God, seek after God. Why is that helpful? Well first consider this. This word here, the fact that everything will be purified, means there will come a day when you will not have to fight this fight anymore. There will come a day when every spot of sin, either at the day of your death or the day of His coming, will be gone. It will be purified, purged away, burned off in that fire, and you won't have to face that fight anymore. You will have victory in Christ Jesus. But also consider, it will be a day of vindication. How many people, how often do we look a little strange to the world. Why do these things matter? Why does resting on the Sabbath day matter? Why does keeping my thoughts pure from lust matter? Why does loving my brother matter? Why can't I just hate him like I want to? We look a little silly. In fact, we sometimes ask ourselves, is this really worth it? Is this worth all the effort? Is this worth the pain? No, this is vindication. There will come a day when it will be shown that the striving after holiness, the hard, persevering fight against sin, will be shown to be worth it. And it will vindicate against those who argue that this holiness is unnecessary. You don't need to pursue it. That either practically or in their words, argue that no, that's not what the Christian life involves. It'll also argue against those, think of it, we live in a time when materialism is strong. People think this world is all they have. Do they not think you're silly to be looking for a hope, not here, but in the future? A hope of a coming of Christ? There will come a day when they will be shown, no, the Christian hope was the true hope. What you as a Christian has been striving for and persevering in, That work, that steadfastness, will be shown to be true in that day to all, so that even as these false teachers Peter addressed would be shown to be wrong publicly. So those that mock the Christian for his hope today, those who in their writing or in their words or in their deeds mock us today for our hope will be shown, no, you were wrong. The persevering fight was worth it, and the hope is there. But second, a second use of this, setting our eyes on the day of the Lord, is that it gives us some motivation. It helps drive us forward. You can think of it as some days, I've had the experience, you wake up in the morning, you're sitting in bed, and I really need somebody to give me a little kick, and come on, get going, get up, you got a day to go on. And you've all felt that when you wake up tired in the morning. But I'm sure you've also felt that in your Christian walk, where you know there are things you need to be doing. You know that you need to be applying yourselves to reading God's word and praying and setting your mind on Christ, or making things up with your wife, or following after the teaching of your parents, or whatever. You know you need to be doing those things. Yet it's hard. But God here also, I think, gives us motivation in the coming day of the Lord. You know, He says to be diligent, to work hard, to be found by Him in peace without spot and blameless. What does that have to do with the coming day of the Lord, the coming return of Christ? Well, first, we're going to be found, and we want to be found faithful. We want to be found as a servant of God. We want to be found not just at peace, dwelling peacefully, comfortable in the situation we're in, but we want to be found at peace with God. It's true. Because He's going to come and He's going to find us. And so it is encouraging, one, to be setting your heart right with God, to be regular in repentance, knowing that He is going to come. and that if you're at peace with him, he'll come in great love and vindication for you. But I think also this truth that everything will be purified, that all that is evil will be purged, and Peter argues everything that is good and right will continue into the new heavens and the new earth. It gives us great motivation for holiness. We are tempted to think that what I do here today doesn't matter that much. that it's all going to pass away. What? I'm 25 years old. In 60 years or so, I won't be here anymore. All my works will have passed away. What good is it? Well, the truth that God will purify and carry forward those things that are done right, that as we see in Matthew 25, that he's pleased to reward The good deeds that we do in this life, with fruit in that life, gives us great motivation to press on to do good, to do right, to persevere in this walk. Why? Because our gracious God, looking on Christ and covering over and purging out our sin, will be pleased to say, well done, good and faithful servant, for the work we do here and now. It is relevant. It will pass forward. It will be of use and recognized in that day, in the heavens and earth, that will not fade and will not pass away. And so consider these things as you set your mind on what is ahead, on what is coming, looking forward to that day when Christ will come, and use that as a reason to be found at peace with Him, to plead His blood, to look to Him as your hope, and also use it as a ground as you struggle in your day-to-day walk, as you wonder, why am I fighting these sins? Does it even matter what I do? Use it to remind yourself it does matter, that God does care, and he is pleased to reward, not because of your own goodness, but because he is a loving father. Even as you fathers and mothers may pin a sketch or a scribble drawing of your young child to the fridge, so he's pleased to reward the good in what we've done because he is our father. Not because we're so good, but because of our relationship to him as his child. But also consider, in verses 15 and 16, that the coming day of the Lord can give us a peace and a settledness in our worldview. That is a very powerful way to preserve us from false teaching and to keep us on the straight and narrow. There we see Peter says, And consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation, as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the scriptures. And the first thing we see here is that we can find by setting our minds on the coming day of the Lord, the coming return of Christ, we can find some perspective on what's going on in history. Notice here that we are to consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation. And what Peter is answering here is an important question. The question that comes up in my mind, I'm sure it comes up in your mind. Lord, why must I wait so long Why do I have to persevere in the Christian life so long? Why can't you come now? That's what the false teachers were asking. They were asking the people of the church. Why has your God abandoned you? Why is he making you stay here so long? He must have already come and you missed it. Peter says, no, that's not what's going on. Consider this. The long-suffering or the patience of our Lord is salvation. So the first thing to recognize is that our persevering, our stay on this world, the reason that Christ has not returned for some 2,000 years yet, It's not that he's forgotten us. It's not that he doesn't care about his church, but that he's patient. He's merciful. Think that every day that he stays his hand, he doesn't come in judgment, is a form of patience and mercy with all on this earth, sinner and saved alike, that he is delaying his judgment. But he's delaying it with a purpose. The long-suffering of our Lord is salvation. And so before we grumble, before we push back, before we decide that we want to give up and stop, consider this. The patience of our Lord was salvation for you. When you were born, you were unsaved. When you were conceived, you were unsaved, as David says. I was born and sent. At some point, God had to regenerate you. Before you were born, at some point, some of you remember that point, some of you may not, but there was a time when you were unsaved, and if Christ had returned at that time, you would have been found without Him, and you would be now suffering your sins. His patience was your salvation. But also consider this, that His patience is the hope of salvation for those around you. So you parents, His patience is the hope of salvation for those of your children who you may not know if they're saved or not, for those in your family around you who may not be saved, for your friends, for those around you. His patience is a hope of salvation to them. And that His patience is His adding, day by day, year by year, month by month, brothers and sisters, to your company, that you will meet in heaven. And consider this, that your suffering and your perseverance in this day is necessary because God is saving them. And so in some sense, your perseverance, your need to wait, is for their sake. It's not just that you have to push through, but because God is working on a bigger scale, because He is saving others, He says, know my son, know my daughter. You must wait, you must persevere, because I'm still at work, I'm still calling. There's great purpose to it, and there's purpose that you were involved in, in His work, in His church. And that is a great hope. It creates great comfort knowing that we're not abandoned. This isn't a purposeless time. It is a time where many are being added to God's family. Many are added to the company of the saved. Many that we will meet in the last day. We should also consider that the day of the Lord helps unify and direct us in our understanding of the scriptures. It does it in several ways. First of all, as Paul says, that also our beloved Paul, according to the wisdom given to you, is written to you. And Peter's just arguing here. You know, what I'm telling you What the false teachers deny is nothing new. It shows up in what to them would have been the New Testament, what they took to be authoritative, the letters of Paul the Apostle. It shows up there. Paul writes about these very same things. Consider that addressing a very similar situation in the book of 1 Thessalonians, Chapter four, Paul says, for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, with the trumpet of God. The dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. And such topics show up frequently in Paul's writings. You can think of 1 Corinthians 15. Both books of Thessalonians focus on that very topic. It shows up in Timothy and elsewhere. So it's not news. And then consider in the Gospels that Christ spoke of a second coming. We can think of, in the Gospel of Matthew, where we have the several parables on his coming, and even the picture of his judgment with separating the sheep and the goats. Even in the closing of the book of John, we see Christ saying, no, what is it to you if John lives till I come again? Not saying that John will live till then, but assuring us that Christ will come again. So it's a feature of the New Testament. We even have the whole book of Revelation that focuses on that. This isn't new. Don't be shaken in your belief in its coming. It even shows up in the Old Testament. We read from the book of Amos because that chapter, Amos chapter 9, in more veiled language presents the coming day of the Lord with the judgment, with the separation of the wicked from the righteous, with the punishment of the wicked and the reward of the righteous and the and God calling out in mercy those who are his own. And then the restoration of all things, so fully that the harvesters are overcoming the planters. Earth is set right, which is a picture of the new heavens and the new earth. And so remember that the second coming of Christ is an important feature of the scripture. But also consider that because it is an important feature of scripture, It also becomes a central feature of scripture. We have to realize that's where everything is running. Christ talks about it. Paul talks about it. Because if you were to draw a timeline chart, if we have creation of the fall over here, we've got the cross, Christ's coming, and death. But it doesn't stop there. It's all running to this ultimate goal of the second coming and bringing in the new heavens and the new earth, the hope, the restoration. That's where everything's going. That is a central and important thing to the idea of scripture. And I think Peter alludes to a great use of this. Because he says that in Paul's epistles, there are some things hard to understand which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of scripture. Remember, these false teachers were denying the second coming. They were denying in some way, either saying that the second coming had come invisibly, or just that it wasn't going to happen because of the delay. Well, if you do that, you're missing a huge piece of the context of Scripture, and you're going to twist and misform Scripture to explain that away. But by setting your mind and your interpretation of Scripture, your understanding of Scripture, in the context that Christ will come again, He will come personally in judgment and in reward and in restoration, you guard yourselves from many errors. Consider you guard yourselves from the errors of Eastern religions and our own modern materialism, for they deny that a coming will even happen. They don't see an end coming. We say, no, there is an end coming. And I know there's an end coming. So any interpretation of scripture that leaves out an end I know is wrong. The reality that there will be a judgment in our own internal awareness that we cannot stand drives our hearts to the cross, knowing that you will stand in judgment, and knowing, I look at myself, I know there's no way I could stand on that day. You know there's no way you can stand on that day. But dwelling on that drives your mind to Christ, knowing you need him. But also, you know, reading the parable of the sheep and the goats, and seeing Christ recount the good works of his people reminds us The sanctification of the pursuit of holiness is worthwhile and important. And so, by setting your minds on the coming of Christ and the events that will happen there and its significance, it can help you balance your understanding of Scripture, especially practically, because it forces you to affirm some of the most necessary things about the Christian life. And so, as you're reading scripture, keep that in the back of your mind. How does the Second Coming, how does Christ's coming influence these things I'm reading? How does it give me direction and alignment? And so, consider, is the Second Coming relevant to you? Is it something that's important, something that matters? Or is there something out there? Well, I'd argue, especially in these times, So I said these persevering times, these times in between what seem to be great acts. If you listen to the general buzz in the church and in the political sphere, we feel like we're in a time of decline in our own nation. It's a persevering time. It doesn't feel like a time of great things of God. It may be a time of that, but from our perspective, we can't see it. It's a persevering time. Well, it is relevant because it reminds us this delay, this time is purposeful. It was for your salvation, it's for the salvation of others. There's great hope there. And consider also that the Second Coming is a great tool for evangelism. One of the great problems you have if you're trying to sell something to somebody is that they don't want to make a decision. They don't want to consider things. We like to procrastinate. Oh, I don't know. Call me back next week. I'll tell you that. The reality of a second coming and the reality that we don't know is a tool you can use when you're talking with your unsafe friends, neighbors, family, to say this is important because you don't know when the second coming is coming. But that's the end of the line. That's the day of judgment. And so it's a way you can press people to consider it their own condition now, even as you use it to consider your own condition and to examine your heart. But oh, it is such a great hope as well to consider that the fight will be done. This race you are in will have a finish. You're not on a treadmill. You're outside on the track. The finish line, it may be over the hill, but it's out there. You won't be drowning this race forever. The fight will finish, and it will finish gloriously. And finally, the hope of the second coming, because it balances us, it helps us feel our place in history and know where we stand, it helps us understand scripture better, is a great tool to protect you from misunderstanding your world, from misunderstanding scripture. It helps ground you in what is true and what is real so that you don't become those who are untaught and unstable. But you are, as Paul says, steadfast. You are not led away by what is wicked. Because it is true and it is coming. And so I would urge you To make dwelling on heaven, on Christ's coming, on the judgment, make that a habit. Make it something that when you are discouraged, you dwell on. When you are fighting with sin, that you dwell on. For it's something Christ has given to you to strengthen you, to give you hope. Use it as something to help you meditate on what Christ has done. How amazing to think that there will come a day when you will stand before the throne of God And instead of being condemned because He died for you, you will be acknowledged and acquitted and welcomed in. And God will, as it were, pin your good works in that fridge, you knowing they don't deserve that, but He, because of Christ, doing it anyways. The Second Coming is a great hope to all of you and is a great tool to press you forward and give you the strength you need for these persevering days. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for the truth of the Second Coming. We thank you that you have put a finish line before us, something we know is out there, that we know that by your grace and by your Spirit and by Christ's blood, we will cross the finish line and it will be glorious and it will be finally rest. We pray that you would help us to set our minds on this hope, that this truth would flow out in our words and our lives, that you would give us what we need to be found faithful in that day. For we are weak, but in you, Father, is all the strength and grace that we will ever need. And you are eager to give, so we pray that you would, in Christ. Amen.