Well, good morning, everybody. Pastor West, pinch-hitting for Frank Walker today. So, we trust that the Lord will bless us as we look in the Word of God. Let's begin with prayer. Thank you for your goodness to us, our God. We know there's so much for us to humble ourselves before you and give you thanks for the shalom peace that you provide for your people. And we know that that piece not only refers to our material prosperity, but also our spiritual prosperity in Christ our Savior, who has redeemed us by his precious blood. Help us today to put our trust in him, and may we be led by your Holy Spirit to understand more and more of the unfathomable riches of your grace as they're presented to us in the word of God. These things we pray, now in the Savior's name, amen. Okay, today we're going to have a little Bible study on 2 Peter chapter 3, which was a sermon that was preached recently by Pastor Walker, several weeks ago in the evening, I believe it was. And the purpose of this Bible study today is to explore the doctrine of the new heavens and the new earth, which is referred to here in 2 Peter 3. It's possible that I might not be able to finish this, so I might have to impose upon Pastor Walker another ten minutes next Sunday morning to finish it, but we shall see. So if you turn your Bibles to 2 Peter chapter 3, reading verses 9 through 13. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to usward. not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. And may the Lord bless this reading here in this passage. So today we're going to look at the doctrine of the new heavens and the new earth and sort of backing up and summarize. I'm going to summarize all the details. You can listen to Pastor Walker's sermon here, but notice that among other things that God promises to melt the elements of this world with fervent heat. together with all of the works of this world, the evil works, that will be burned up. And this will occur at the timing of the second coming of Christ, which is spelled out in verse 10. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise. So this is referring to the parousia, the second coming of Christ. And so, on the surface of it, as you look at this passage, it might appear that the earth one day is going to be obliterated. It's going to be annihilated, you might think, as kind of a gutsy reaction to what we have here. And then after that happens, we're all going to be removed to another place, heaven itself. and the heaven that we occupy, that the saints now occupy after death, which the theologians refer to as the intermediate state, which is really a poor way of putting it. It doesn't sound very exciting to talk about, I'm going to die and go to the intermediate state. It's more of the intermediate heaven. an intermediate paradise where the saints go before the parousia, before the second coming of Christ. Now, it's often thought that this passage, as I say, is teaching that the day is coming in the future in which the heavens and the earth as we know them today will be annihilated. And there are several reasons, however, why we reject that idea. And, first of all, confessionally this is an error. Article 37 of the Belgic Confession states that Christ will appear as the judge of the quick and the dead, burning this old world with fire and flame, and here's a key phrase, to cleanse it, to cleanse the heaven and the earth. not to annihilate the heavens and the earth. In other words, that's the focus is cleansing. Also, Zacharias Yersinus in his commentary on Heidelberg Catechism says the following, this is on page 266, if you have that book in your library, Yersinus says, the world, the heavens and the earth shall be dissolved by fire There will be a change in the present state of things, and then he says, but no annihilation. And then he says, quoting him again, that Christ shall certainly come and that at His coming there will be a renewing of heaven and earth, a renewing of the heaven and the earth. And from those considerations he draws This application, he says, from these considerations we obtain strong and solid comfort foreseeing heaven and earth shall be made new. We have this confidence that our condition will hereafter be different and better than now. So the understanding of Reformed theologians is that the heaven and the earth, the earth as we know it today, will not be obliterated. but rather will be renewed. Lutheran theology, on the other hand, in the past has emphasized that the heaven and the earth that we have today will be totally destroyed. In other words, it will go out of existence. Now, the Greek word here in 2 Peter chapter 3, new, is key, of course. It does speak about a new heavens and a new earth. There's no question about that. But this doesn't mean brand new. The Greek word here, kainos, is used in other texts to describe what's new in quality, not necessarily something that's new in, or something that's brand new. And the word new here carries the idea of renovation, a sweeping total renovation that takes place, a renewal. And there's two prominent Greek words that are translated new in the New Testament, and the one that's used here is kainos, which usually applies to a renovated, something renovated. A good parallel would be your body, for example. After death and when the resurrection comes, you will be given a new body, new. But that doesn't mean that you will be given a brand new body. It's your old body that will be raised up from the dead and reconstituted and perfected. You'll have a new body, new in quality, but not something that is brand new. And that's the picture that we have here actually in 2 Peter chapter 3 about the new heavens and the new earth. And you'll notice That there's an analogy between the destruction of the old Noachian world and our world today here in this passage. Once again in verse 5 says, for this they willingly forget that by the Word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of water and in water whereby the world that then was being flooded with water perished. But the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word kept in store are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." Now if you think that the new heavens and the new earth will be brand new, all you have to do is compare the destruction of the world before the flood in Noah's time with the world that came into existence after the flood. The world that came into existence after the flood was not a brand new world. It was the old earth. But there were significant changes that took place in the old earth. And it says here in 2 Peter that that world perished. Now, the question is, what does it mean for the world to perish? Did that world perish? And the answer is yes and no. The sinners perished and all their sinful accomplishments, if we can call them accomplishments, sinful enterprises, those perished. But was the old earth annihilated so that it ceased to exist? And the answer to that question, I mean to ask that question is to answer it actually. The mountains of the earth were covered with water, we're told in Genesis chapter 7 verse 19. But those mountains were not destroyed. Plus even the mountains of Ararat were not destroyed, we're told in Genesis chapter 8 verse 4. And so Noah, when he was in the ark, of course, he took products, he took products out of the world. He took the animals out of the world. He took clothing out of the world. He took foodstuffs out of the world. Not everything in that world, in other words, was annihilated. So, the flood destroyed the old earth and gave us another earth where man would dwell and live, but not a brand new earth in the sense that this planet was destroyed and then a new one was created. So, you have an analogy here between the destruction of the old world and the establishment of the post-Noachian world. Similarly, we have that with the second coming of Christ. And this world that we live in today will be destroyed by fire, meaning it will be cleansed. But that doesn't mean that the planet and all the constellations will be annihilated. It will be renovated, changed dramatically from what it is today. So, the earth that we make our home today, what I'm saying that the earth that we make our home today is the terra firma of the future. when the Lord Jesus Christ comes back. It will be made new but not brand new. And so Peter tells us that there will be a new, renovated, regenerated earth. And again, new but not brand new. Now let me move on here and try to build on this. The fourth thing that we find here in the text is that despite the fact that the heavens and the elements will be dissolved by fire, still God's plan for the new earth abides. If you look at verse 13, it says, nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. This is a verse which appeals back to the prophets of the Old Testament. You have Isaiah especially, in Isaiah chapter 65 and 66, he speaks about the new heavens and the new earth very eloquently, and the coming time in the future. And this will be what the New Testament refers to as the Polygonesia, or the second Genesis that will come about. The first Genesis is our own regeneration when we're born again by the Spirit of God, the second Genesis for those of us that are believers. But the day is coming in the future when there will be a cosmic second Genesis, the new heavens and the new earth. Now, there's a number of passages that I could refer to, but in the gospel of Matthew, for example, in Matthew chapter 19. And in Acts 3 are the two that are significant here for me. In Matthew chapter 19, let's see, the reference there is verse 28, 19-28, it says, Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you that ye which have followed Me in the regeneration, there's a word there, polygynesia or second genesis. in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit judging the twelve tribes of Israel." And then if you turn in your book, in your Bibles to Acts chapter 3, you'll see there that this was an expectation of the Apostles in verse 20. Peter, breaking into the middle of Peter's sermon, he says, and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive, and notice here, until the times of restitution of all things. That word there, restitution, means restoration. The times of the restoration of all things which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. The restoration of all things is referring to the total change that will take place in the earth and in the universe, the cosmos, in the future. Now, you may wonder, why does there have to be a change in the whole cosmos? Why not just on the earth? The principal reason why there has to be a change in the whole cosmos is that when God created the heavens and the earth, it was for you. And when man fell into sin, his sin impacted not just the earth, this terra firma that we walk on, but the entire cosmos. This is one reason why Job says in the book of Job, he says that not even the stars are pure in God's eyes. And we know the cosmos is also filled with fallen angels. And so one of the purposes of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ into this world was not just to save individuals, but to save the cosmos, the earth as well as the heavens. Now you notice here in the Peter passage, back to that, in verse 13, Peter says, he speaks about A renovated earth, and he says that this earth will be the exclusive home of righteousness. A day is going to come in the future when the earth will be characterized by righteousness. Now, to have righteousness, you have to… obviously the righteousness here is the righteousness of Christ, but there are righteous people that will inhabit this earth. The new earth. So what this all adds up to is that the earth is important. One of the great promises that we find in the Scriptures for you and for me is God is going to give us the earth, not a non-earth, but the earth. You find this in the beatitude that Jesus preached in the Sermon on the Mount, blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. That particular beatitude means what it says, and it says what it means. It's interesting the number of commentators that hedge when it comes to that particular beatitude. One of my favorite writers is Thomas Watson and his book on the beatitudes. And I could never really get a straight answer as to exactly what the earth is from Thomas Watson. He did point out that the unbelievers that live in this world, they don't get the earth. In fact, they don't even get the earth now today because unbelievers are squatters on God's terra firma. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. Unbelievers are squatters. whereas Christians are stewards of the properties that God has given us which are to be used for the glory of God. But to get an interpretation about the earth that talks about an actual terra firma that we stand on today seems difficult. We have a book in our library over here. not bad-mouthing our library here, but there's a commentary in the library on 2 Peter, and the writer, when it comes to the promise of the church dwelling on the earth and for the righteousness to be on the earth, he says that this particular promise must not be stood territorially. He uses that phrase territorially, and it's a deep reluctance to, for some reason, to say that we get the earth, all of the earth, after Jesus Christ returns. So the earth is important, the new earth especially. And I might add, and this needs to be really emphasized here today, and that is that there's nothing ethereal or ghostly about heaven. In heaven, we don't hang our harps upon clouds. We don't shuttle from one cloud to another as depicted so often in the media and also in the Christian church to a great extent as well. We can say that in a sense the new earth that God promises for His people is heaven itself and that that's where the Lord Jesus Christ will dwell. So it is physical, planetary. Now, the second application I want to bring to you about this subject is that this new earth helps us to understand Scripture passages, again, that have bewildered us, may have bewildered us or confused us. I've already mentioned the Beatitude of the Lord Jesus. Scripture teaches, as I say, that the earth is your inheritance. We shouldn't try to spiritualize the earth away as if it didn't apply to the planet that we know today. In fact, Paul specifically broadens the word earth to speak about the whole world. If you turn in to Romans chapter 4, Romans 4 verse 17. Here the apostle is talking about Abraham. Let's see, is this the right verse? It says, As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations. That's not the one. Where's the one about he's the heir of the world? Anybody have that at their fingertips? Thirteen, is it? Yes, okay, thank you. For the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith." A point in this particular verse is in the Old Testament, the saints in the Old Testament, you remember the Jews especially, they were promised the land, the land of Palestine, which was the land of milk and honey, Emmanuel's land. What Paul does is he broadens the concept of the inheritance, not just to the land but to the world, to the whole world for Abraham and for Christians. And this is the import of this statement here about Abraham being the heir of the world. If you're trusting the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you also get the earth, the world in the future when Jesus comes back. Now, one of the applications of this subject is that we should be leery of those, for example, there's an old gospel song, the world's not my home, I'm just a passing through, and that particular phrase, is one that has some truth in it, but in another sense, it's a half-truth. And one of the reasons why it's a half-truth is because while you may be passing through the old earth, the day is coming when you will dwell in the new earth. And the new earth is the renovated earth. that will take place again at the Perusia. So to say that this world is not my home, I'm just a passing through, implies that there's no future earth. And that whereas Peter writes about the renovation of the new earth where there will be righteousness. Also, I'll call it this new earth theology helps us to helps us defeat what sometimes today is called pilgrim theology. Pilgrim theology is, once again, the world's not my home. Sometimes it comes with a reformed veneer, and often it's a pie-in-the-sky type of theology that exalts the ethereal and virtually has nothing concrete to say about heaven. Sometimes we hear, for example, that exercising dominion over the earth is not something that the church is called to do. There's like a cancellation of the dominion covenant of Genesis chapter one, that man is to have dominion over the earth. So the tendency of pilgrim theology is sort of to discount the value of the earth and to move on to sort of a heavenly realm, which is more ghostly and ethereal often, not always, but often it's like that. The scripture promises us a new earth. This is where the church will eventually dwell forever. What we have right now in this world, we have, okay, what I'm saying to you is that we have right now the intermediate heaven. This is the place where our souls go after death. The Bible refers to it as paradise. That's a Persian word where Cyrus, King Cyrus of Persia, referred to his gardens, his luscious gardens of green and beauty, an actual place. This is where our souls go after death. Also, heaven is mansions. Jesus promised that in Matthew, or John chapter 14. But that's the, we'll call that the intermediate glory, the intermediate heaven, and it is glory. However, the day is coming in the future when there will be the eternal heaven. And this particular eternal heaven is described here by Peter as the new heavens and the new earth. And it's in this eternal heaven, the new heavens and the new earth, that the church, the holy Catholic church, redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, will eventually make its home. That's why it says here that a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, that is this earth will be the home of righteousness. It will be the home of justice and of perfection at the second coming of Christ. Obviously all of us are pilgrims. That's a scriptural idea. But we're not pilgrims because our home will never be on the earth. We're pilgrims because our home is currently not on the earth, but one day it will be, once again at the second coming of Christ. We have to remember that the result of man's fall in the garden was toil and thorns and thistle. We're told in the eighth chapter, for example, of the book of Romans that the whole creation groans. And the whole creation groans because of the fall, man's fall into sin. But the whole creation, as one of the commentators said, is standing on tiptoe, waiting for the glorious revealing of the sons of God, waiting for the day in which the resurrection will take place, the resurrection of the body in the time that Jesus Christ comes back. And then when that happens, the whole creation, you see, will be renovated, completely renewed and changed for the church. And the curse that we sing about in the Christmas song, Joy to the World, this Christmas song, you know, is He shall come and change the earth as far as the earth is found, as far as the earth is found, that will be finalized. That will take place when the Lord Jesus Christ returns. And it will take place on the new earth that the Lord has restored for us. So in the words of Pastor Steve Larson, Steve Lawson I should say, where he wrote this and this is where we'll finish. Steve Lawson said, whatever sin has touched and polluted, God will redeem and cleanse. If redemption does not go as far as the curse of sin, then God has failed. Whatever the extent of the consequence of sin, so must the extent of redemption be. And that's why we have the promise of the new heavens and the new earth. It means that the Lord Jesus Christ is a winner. He's not a loser. He didn't have to annihilate this world, didn't have to annihilate the heavens and the earth. The day will come as a result of His death on the cross that the earth and the heavens will be completely renewed for us to dwell in. And then there will be this righteousness forever and ever and ever in the presence of God. So that's where we'll stop right now and we'll close in prayer. Yes? Isn't there a progressive sense in which the heavens and the earth and the hell? And does this day of the Lord come to an end tonight? Does it have to be the second coming? Or is there another day, I guess? That's the normal way of describing the second coming, he comes as a thief in the night, read Matthew chapter 25, last part of 24 and 25. And right, the first part of your question, that's correct. We have what theologians refer to as the, I don't know if we call it the tension, if that's the right word, between the already and the not yet. The already, for example, is that if we're Christians, then as Paul said, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away, all things have become new. So we see in this life, we see the advance of the gospel, capturing men's hearts, raising men from death unto life. And so, plus the fact the earth does belong to Christ right now. God promised in Psalm 2 that He would give the earth to Christ. And so, the answer to your question, yes, there is a dimension of the new heavens and the earth that we see developing and progressing right now. But that will not be final until the Second Coming. So, let's close in prayer. We do thank You, our God, for Your loving kindness to us and for the great promises found in the Scripture for Your people. And we thank You that You are a God who rules over all. You are interested in the redemption of the entire cosmos. And we know that the work of Your Son on the cross was not in vain. And so we thank You so much for the wonderful promises that You've laid up for us, Your people. We pray that that might make our day today as we serve Christ our Lord and our Savior, in whose name we do pray, amen.