If you want to join me in the scriptures this morning, I'm going to begin in the book of Second Corinthians, chapter five. While you're turning there, we're going to be talking today about the concept of a grand finale. And in that light, we have our own little grand finale here in terms of the series of studies and teachings that we've been pursuing together. I want to offer All of you, a word of congratulations that you have endured so far. If you notice on the board here, I've got the number 46 written. You've endured so far 46 teachings on this particular subject. That's actually, even though there's more than 46 weeks in a year, we've done some in between. We've done some individual studies on other issues as they've come to the forefront. But for I was looking back at my outline and looking back at the calendar and Over a year now, and for 46 straight weeks, we have been studying on this subject of what the Bible describes as the last things. What we talk about as the end of the world, what's coming in the future, what God's plan is in the summation of His purpose for all of history. And we've covered quite a bit of ground, as you can imagine. We've covered quite a bit of material. And you probably understand, if you don't, I'll just say it, I could go for 46 more weeks and I wouldn't run out of material, right? There's just so much more to be said and studied on this subject than we've covered. The only reason I'm not going 46 more weeks is not because of lack of inclination on my part or desire, but just out of understanding and yeah, as David said, mercy out of mercy for you, recognizing, you know, we all have a certain capacity to hold our attention on one thing. And I think I've definitely stretched that capacity for everyone here in the last year. I mean, there were probably weeks where you were coming to church saying to yourself, I hope he talks about anything except the end of the world. But, um, Nevertheless, we have pursued it because it's well worth our time and our study. And there's a reason why God has included so much material in his word about the end and about the future and about what is coming. Because the bottom line is the Lord wants that information about the future, not just to tickle our fascination bone. He wants us to be informed for the sake of being transformed. He wants the understanding and the perspective about what's coming. to shape and to mold and to transform or change what we do with our lives today, how we live out the limited number of days and years that we all have ahead of us. But I say this is the end and yet It's not quite the end. This is week number 46. I have planned and mapped out a total of 48 weeks, so there are two additional weeks on this subject after this, but today we start with the last section of our study, the grand finale, what is coming at the end of the end, which is really, in the purposes of God, of course not an end, only, but it's the end of one thing and the beginning of a new thing. Where we've left off in our study, even though we've spent the last probably 16 studies on the subjects of heaven and hell, where we had left off just before that in the part of the outline that we were studying together, is the idea that the grand finale of God for His purpose for all of history is the return of His Son, the second coming of Christ. And what we've seen is that in the Second Coming, there is a combination of critical events that are going to flow out of the Second Coming. Jesus, when He returns, is going to do more than one thing. He's not just returning for one thing only. What we've studied so far is the first thing that the Lord is going to do when He returns is He's going to raise all people from the dead. And he's going to raise them for two different purposes or two different reasons. He's going to raise the believers for one purpose and the unbelievers for a different purpose. But all are going to be raised from the dead and given new bodies, each for their own purpose in eternity to come. And then flowing out of the resurrection, the great resurrection at the second coming, the Lord is going to, of course, judge all men. both believer and unbeliever. He's going to judge them just like in the resurrection. He's going to judge them for two different purposes. And those purposes are, of course, that he's going to judge the unbeliever to make sure that the unbeliever understands just how thoroughly they deserve the judgment, the consequences that they are going to receive for all of eternity. And he's going to judge the believer so that the believer understands just how deeply gracious God's action in sending his son to die for us on the cross really is. And then to show us the glorious benefits that he's going to shower upon us in the possibility of rewards that will affect our lives for all of eternity. And I had said at the time when we started this section of the outline that there was a third reason that the Lord is coming, and that third reason is what we're starting with today. The Lord is coming to make all things new. And so this is what I mean when I say that while the second coming of Christ is the end of one thing, it's the end of history as we know it, It's the grand finale of history. It's also the prelude, the beginning point of an entire new thing that God is doing. And this new thing that God is going to do when the Lord returns is, of course, something that's not just going to be new for a while, and then it will inevitably grow old also, just like this first creation grew old. This new thing that God is going to do is going to be new forever and ever and ever and ever. And it's the only thing God will do for all of eternity in terms of making things new. He will make them new one time and they will stay new forever and all of eternity. So let's take a look first in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 as we start this last three weeks of our study. on what is called in many different places, the new creation. And that's where we're starting, the new creation. 2 Corinthians 5, we'll read from verse... I think we'll start in verse 14. For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all. Therefore, all died, and he died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf. Therefore, from now on, we recognize, and the from now on is of course in reference to from the point of Jesus' death on the cross forward, from now on, we recognize no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now, We know Him in this way no longer. Now, verse 16 is a passage that's not commonly focused on or talked about in Christian circles, but it's an important principle and concept for us to understand, and that is that when Jesus died on the cross, yes, of course, He paid the price for our sins, as every believer knows from the very first day of their salvation forward. Yes, He paid the price. in order for us to be forgiven of our past and saved, and to give us the opportunity for a new beginning point in our personal lives. But something much bigger than just the payment for our sins took place on the cross. What took place, if you were to put this on a timeline, and let's say this line represents here all of history, the beginning point is of course the creation, The Garden of Eden. And the end point is we'll call it the second coming of Christ here. The end of this history as we know it. And if we were to plot this out and put the cross, the event of Jesus' death on the cross, and of course, as the scripture often does, we want to link that with his resurrection from the dead three days later. They're not meant to be seen or understood or declared as separate events in the sense of one has any significance or meaning apart from the other. They both depend upon each other and they're both part of God's purpose for all of history. But from this point forward, Paul says, up until this time, and of course Jesus lived, if we were to put a little mark here, some 33 years on earth as a man before he went to the cross and rose from the dead. During this period of time, it was possible to meet Jesus and know him. to get to know Him, to learn about Him as a person, just like we meet each other and get to know each other and learn about each other as people. But if we knew Him during those days, if we had been alive during those days, and we had met Jesus, and even become disciples of Jesus, we would have known Him, as Paul describes here, according to the flesh. What that means is, However deeply we would have come to know Him, we wouldn't have known Him the way He needs to be known, the way He really is. We would have been limited in our perspective and in our understanding to a mostly natural or fleshly perspective of who He actually was. But Paul says here in this passage in verse 16, reading this again, he says, Therefore, from now on, and this is following what he says in verse 15 of him who died and rose again. Therefore, from now on, following the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, we recognize no one according to the flesh, even though we have known Christ according to flesh yet, we now know him in this way no longer. Something happened in this event of the cross and the resurrection that changed not just our standing before God in terms of our sins, but it changes everything. totally transforms everything. And what is it exactly that's happened? Well, reading on in verse 17, Paul begins to give us a hint. He doesn't stop in verse 17 and give detailed explanation. He leaves that for other portions of Scripture to come later to do that. But the hint is a critically important one. Verse 17, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, and of course being in Christ can only take place following the cross and the resurrection, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Now, verse 17 is a commonly quoted passage in Christian circles. If you go to the Bible bookstore and pick yourself up a little, what you've heard me refer to before, what's called a promise box, you know, a little box of of slips of paper that have individual verses of Scripture written in them, and people often use those as devotional tools, like to have on their dinner table or their breakfast table, to read a little verse of Scripture every day. You'll commonly find 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17 in your promise box. And as people read it, and as you just look at it on the surface, it seems to indicate a wonderful thing, which is that if anyone is made part of Christ, is in Christ, that that person individually is made to be a new creature, what we refer to as being born again, having their life start over from a new beginning point. And that is, if that's all that verse 17 was teaching, that would be an awesome and wonderful thing that God is revealing through Paul. However, that's not what Paul is talking about. What he's saying is, and you might even have a You might, if you have a study Bible, you might have a notation right there in verse 17 by the phrase creature. Anybody have a little number in your text by the word creature there? What does your side column reference say about creature? Creation. What this text actually says, what Paul is actually writing under inspiration of the Spirit of God is this, if anyone is in Christ, behold, This is literal. Behold, a new creation. Now, that of course includes the individual person that's in Christ. But it's not limited to the individual person that's in Christ. It's not just that the day for me, February of 1979, that I came to know the Lord. It's not just a promise about how my life will start over when I come to know Jesus. This is describing that when Jesus died on the cross and rose again, that God did something huge. And this is the beginning point of what He did. Up until the point of the cross, all of history was what we now call the old creation. The creation that began back in Genesis chapter 1 and into the garden. And all of the events of history that unfolded since then. But at the cross and in the resurrection, God began a new timeline of history. And that new timeline is a new creation. And so as a result, what happens now, where we live, because we live in this place right in here somewhere, between the cross and the second coming. And of course, is the natural creation that God started with Adam still unfolding day after day after day? Of course it is. Do you get tired? Do you get sleepy? Do you get sick? Do you get old? Do bad things happen to you in this world? As long as any of those things that I just listed and many others ever happen to you, you can be confident that the old creation is still happening day after day after day. But the old creation is not going to last forever. There's coming a specific and definitive endpoint of the old creation, and that endpoint is the second coming of Christ. And what we're told in God's Word is that when the Lord returns, the old creation ends, period. There is no more old creation beyond that point. So then what's left? Is there just a big ball of nothingness? And that's what existence is all about, as the Buddhists teach? No, God has plans to replace the old creation. And what he's going to replace it with is, of course, a new creation. And that new creation isn't just something that he's going to come up with on the spur of the moment at the second coming. The new creation is something that has already begun at the cross and the resurrection of Christ. But the problem is, of course, it's not exactly like the old creation. Because if I were to say to you, okay, can anyone here point out to me the new creation this morning. I mean, I can point the old creation out. It's in the carpet. It's in our bodies. It's in the air. It's in the plants outside. All of the physical substance of this present creation is evidence of the old, what God started with Adam. But where's the evidence of the new? I'm saying it started at the cross. Where's the evidence of it? There is no physical evidence of it yet. All we have so far is spiritual evidence, which is Our transformed lives. Excuse me just a second. Does that mean it's not real because I can't point to any physical evidence of a new creation? Oh, it's real. It's really real. It's so real. In fact, it's... I hate to use these kind of comparisons, but it's realer than the old one. Why? I don't mean to imply that the old one is not real, because we're living in it and we know how real the old one is. But because the new is so far only spiritual, then it's harder for us to latch hold of something, to taste it, touch it, feel it, smell it. And so we take the reality of the new creation strictly on the basis of faith, so far. But there is coming a day, and that day is the second coming of Christ. when the old will be finally and fully brought to an end. And when it is, God is fully replacing the old with the new. So that after the second coming, there's only the new creation. And the new creation at that point will be made fully physical. just like the old creation is fully physical. It'll be, praise God, and we'll see the details of this as we go forward, it'll be a transformed physical creation, but still physical, still real, still tangible. We're not just going to be floating around in some kind of ethereal new creation. It'll be a creation much like this one, only perfect and suitable for living in for all of eternity with transformed and resurrected bodies. All right. Let's turn from 2 Corinthians to the book of 2 Peter chapter 3. We're going to read a portion of scripture that gives the most detail of any place in the Bible of the process of the making of this new creation. When I say the making of it, understand this. The new creation, as I've described here, has two aspects. It has a spiritual aspect and it has a physical aspect. The spiritual aspect was made at the cross and in the resurrection of Christ. The physical aspect will be made at the second coming. So I'm going to put the cross and resurrection here and the second coming here. So when I say we're now about to study how the new creation, the process by which God is going to make the new creation, now I'm talking about the second aspect, the fulfillment aspect, the physical aspect of the new creation. We're going to read verses 1 through 14 of 2 Peter 3. This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you. in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles. Knowing this, first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation. But when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God, the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water. Now, I'm going to stop there and briefly describe that because that's a verse of scripture that's commonly confusing for believers, the statement that By the word of God, the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and by water. You can turn with me if you like, or you can just listen as I read from Genesis chapter 1. This is what Peter is referring to. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void. Darkness was over the surface of the deep. The deep here is waters. And the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. God, when He originally began the creation process of the old or original creation, He began it with the earth in a watery state. Then God said, let there be light. And there was light, and God saw that the light was good. This is the word by which things were formed. God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening, and there was morning, one day. Then God said, let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters. God made the expanse and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse, and it was so. And God called the expanse heaven. And then he continues on in verses 8 and 9 and 10 to describe how God is separating the waters and causing the dry land to appear out of the waters. So all of that is describing for us in greater detail what Peter is just referring to when he says back in 2 Peter 3, verse 5, that the heavens existed long ago by the word of God and the earth was formed out of water and by water. Verse 6, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. Now what is he talking about? All right, he's talking about Noah. So on our timeline here, going back to the beginning, what we have in this very first line of the timeline, we have waters, which are, of course, separated by God in particular ways, and out of which he brings forth the physical, natural land, the dry land, the creation that we're all familiar with. Then a few years later, we have an event, a special event on this timeline that we call the flood. the days of Noah. And when this flood happened, of course, God caused part of the waters that he had referred to back in chapter 1, which is the part separated, which is now above the expanse, which was kind of like a vapor canopy that surrounded the entire earth. Think of a cloud cover only much thicker and much fuller in terms of moisture content. He caused that to rain upon the earth for a certain number of days and also there were underground springs, underground oceans that he caused to be broken up and to release their waters onto the surface of the earth. And as a result of that combination, the entire world was flooded as we studied a few years ago together in a series of teachings on the flood. But Peter says here in referring to that event in verse six, through which, and he's talking about water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. Okay, right here, Peter says, in this event, the world was destroyed. That's important for us to grasp in terms of where we're heading. What happened to the world at the flood? Water came, flooded the earth, And Peter, using a descriptive term, says the proper way to describe what happened to the earth was that the world was destroyed. Now we can use in our language the term destroyed in different ways, different contexts. You can destroy something in such a way that it just doesn't even exist any longer. Or you can destroy something in such a way that it exists, but it exists in a different way or a different form than what existed before. For instance, we just recently had some fires here in our areas we've been talking about this morning. People's homes were destroyed, right? What do we mean? Are we meaning that the homes literally disappeared in entirety? like they were vaporized by some kind of laser beam. Well, there was vaporization that took place, but people, even after their homes are burned down, they can go back and they'll still refer to it as, this is my home. Now, they're not going to live there any longer until they rebuild. Their home's been destroyed in a sense that it's been irrevocably changed, all right? Now what I want us to see is that the world that existed then, it wasn't that the earth blinked out of existence. It's the world as a system of society, as a system of even nature, what we refer to as nature, all of the animal kingdom, all of the birds, all of the creatures of the earth, all of that was destroyed. But the substance of the earth was still there, correct? And then after the flood, and God caused the waters to recede, Noah and his family came out of the ark to a destroyed world, and yet at the same time, it was a brand new world. It was a beginning point. And this is an event all throughout the scripture that's commonly referred to as an imagery as a new creation. Now the proof of that, we won't go back into the details of this, but you can read this on your own and check me on this. Genesis chapter 9, when Noah and his family came out of the ark, and God spoke his first words to Noah about what life is going to be like from this point forward. Understanding this, that the only people alive on the face of the earth are Noah and his family. Just those eight souls, that's it. God begins to speak to Noah, and he gives him instructions that are almost identical to the instructions that he gave, who? Before Noah. He says, I want you to go forth, and I want you to repopulate the earth, and I want you to rule over it. And he gives him instructions that are almost identical to the instructions that he had given Adam. And the point of that is, just like he started a new thing in the earth, a new creation with Adam, God is restarting with Noah, a new beginning point. Even though the earth isn't blinking out of existence, nevertheless, it is a type, a kind of new creation, a new beginning point in what God is doing in history. Now, Peter's referring to that for a reason, because that's not the last big thing God is doing. He has another big thing on his agenda. Let's read on. I'll read verse 6 again. "...through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But by his word, the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire." Present heavens is everything after the flood. And it's really this line here that we're referring to. Everything after the flood is what Peter calls the present heavens and earth. Everything that the world was before the flood was the old heavens and earth. The un-flooded heavens and earth. that God brought a flood of water in order to do what? To clean the surface of the earth of all the corruption that sinful man had brought upon the face of the earth during this time period. Then in the flood, he wipes the slate clean and he starts fresh, and Peter says, this is the present heavens and earth. But God has a plan for that too, and the plan is, This present heavens and earth is not going to be flooded again as God cleans the decks to get ready for the new thing that he's going to do. In fact, we know when Noah came out of the ark, God gave him a very specific promise, which was what? I'm never going to do this again. And just to prove it to you, in case you doubt my word, I'm going to put a special sign in the heavens, the rainbow, and that will demonstrate to all generations that follow that I will never again flood the surface of the entire world and clean the earth with water. But God wasn't promising never to clean the earth again. And He wasn't promising never to start from scratch again, because He absolutely intends to do that. He was just promising, I'm not going to do it with water the next time. So what is he going to do it with? According to Peter, he is going to do it with fire. And he says the present creation, that's heavens and earth, present creation is reserved for fire. Now, the word in the original language that is translated reserved, Shockingly means reserved. Sometimes when you go into your Greek dictionaries and Hebrew dictionaries, you find out that words have different nuances, but this is the actual meaning of the word, even as we use it in our language. When we make a reservation for something, what we're doing is we're planning for the future and we're setting aside specific plans for a specific situation. God, even as He was flooding the earth and bringing Noah and his family out of the ark and promising to them, I'm never going to again flood the earth like this. He had in the back of his mind, but I am going to cleanse the earth one more time in the future. And I'm not going to do it by water. I'm going to do it by fire. He just didn't say all those details at that moment. It wasn't necessary at that moment. But he absolutely knew that that was the plan. The grand finale at the second coming of Christ, after the resurrection of all people and the judgment of all people, God is going to fulfill the reservation that he made. back at the beginning. And what he's going to do is, he is going to deal with the entire present physical creation, and he's going to bring it to a final end, and he's going to do so by means of fire. Now, the timing of this is one of those things that, you know what, I couldn't plan it out if I tried. How could I plan out that I would be talking about how God is reserving This present heavens and earth to be judged one more time by fire in a week after 46 weeks. that the whole world around us was burning up just these last few days. You just can't plan that kind of stuff out. But that's, you know what, as big as it was, and this was a huge fire that we went through here in Southern California. I mean, they're talking about this is the biggest ever in the history of the United States and as far as we know. One estimate I heard was that the square footage or square mileage of the fire was equivalent to three quarters of the state of Rhode Island. three quarters of an entire state burned up. Huge. And for, of course, for the people affected, it seemed even bigger. And I don't want to minimize the effect on anyone's life, but understand this. What we went through this last week, it's just a little appetizer, little taste of what is coming at the end, at the second coming. Let's read on. But by his word, the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. But The day of the Lord will come like a thief, meaning that it's going to catch people off guard. People aren't going to be anticipating the timing of it. There's not going to be all these prophecy conferences where everybody's got it all marked out on a chart, knowing exactly when this is going to happen. It's going to come like a thief. It's going to catch the world off guard when the second coming of Christ actually happens. And this is what it's going to be like. Verse 10, "...in which the heavens will pass away with a roar." Now, we've studied recently about the biblical terminology of this word, heavens. And the fact that it is plural. Right? And in the biblical worldview, why is the word heavens usually plural? Why is there more than one heaven? What are we talking about? The idea is, from a biblical perspective, there are three heavens, as we studied in our study of heaven. There is the heaven which is the expanse of atmosphere around this globe, this planet, the visible blue sky that we see. Beyond that, there is another level of heaven, and that level of heaven is what? The universe, the physical universe that we see every night when we see the stars and the moon. And we understand that as great as that is, that in and of itself, in spite of what Carl Sagan believed, he knows better now. But in spite of what Carl Sagan believed, it's not an infinite existence or an infinite expanse. All of that is within the boundaries of God's creation. But beyond that is a third and greater level of heaven, which is God's dwelling place, what we properly refer to as believers as heaven itself. But here, what this passage is referring to is not the third heaven, because the third heaven cannot be affected by physical fire. But it is referring to the first two levels of heaven. Just take my word on this, I don't want to have to go into for the sake of time, all the details of why this is only referring to the first two levels. But trust me on this. When Peter says the heavens will be burned with fire, what he's referring to is heaven number one and heaven number two. And I'm saying it that way just for simplicity. All right, let's read that with that understanding. Verse 10. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief in which the heavens, number one and number two, will pass away with a roar. The word roar here is a term for just a great, loud, huge sound. Not just, you know, like... Well, this probably would be a good analogy. You know, when we have a fire in our fireplace, it makes a nice, pleasing sound. You know, a crackling sound. But if you've ever been close to a real fire, like what seems to human perspective to be an out-of-control raging fire, like these forest fires that were just taking place in our area, the people that are close to those fires could testify that it makes a tremendously loud sound, a deafening kind of sound. That sound of a forest on fire is nothing compared to what's being described here. What's being described here as the entire universe, the physical universe as we know it, being on fire at the same time. Now, what that means is this, we'll read on, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat. Elements, the term in the Greek language is very similar to what we refer to and call like the atomic structure of things or the molecular structure of things. The basic building blocks of the universe as we know it. Now, a few short years ago, back in Peter's day, this was something that they just had to take purely on faith. They had no physical demonstration of the kind of potential power that he's describing here. But in our generation, we have at least a little bit more of a physical testimony of the potential of what's being described. Back in the 40s, of course, at the tail end of World War II, we had an event in which our country developed and then dropped two devices on two cities in Japan. And those devices were called A-bombs or atom bombs, atomic bombs. And then later, as we got better and better with our bomb making, we began to develop and drop hydrogen bombs. And the events that took place were based upon a simple principle. simple after they realized how to go about doing this, but before that no one had a clue. And that was simply, how do you cause an atomic explosion or a hydrogen explosion to do the kind of damage that those bombs do, which is the greatest release of energy that we know of in such a small contained space? How do we make that happen? Yeah, you're dealing with, scientifically, the breaking up of the basic constituent elements of things like hydrogen. You know, hydrogen is one of the basic building blocks of what? Water and air. You know, the stuff that we breathe, the stuff that we drink, the stuff that we swim in. And you take some hydrogen atoms and you excite them in a particular way and then you cause them to be ripped apart in a particular way. And what happens is you release a degree of energy that's beyond human comprehension. And that energy is in those atoms all the time, every moment. There are hydrogen atoms in this room that we're all breathing in right now, that if they were excited in a particular way, gathered together in a tight enough space and then ripped apart, it would blow this entire city off the face of the earth. But we don't necessarily think in those terms moment by moment. What Peter is seeing by the Spirit of God is there is an event coming in which God is going to Himself, and we have to go through all this scientific rigmarole to make even one single bomb explode in that way. God, who is in control of all of the elements, is going to rip every single atom apart at the same time. Now, the amount of energy that's going to be released there is going to affect, I believe, the entire universe, and that's what Peter is describing here. The day of the Lord will come like a thief in which the heavens will pass away with a roar. The elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Reading on, since all of these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God? because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning and the elements will melt with intense heat. Okay, so two things, two categories are going to be affected by this event of this fire that's going to end the natural creation as we know it. The heavens, and this is including heaven number one and heaven number two, and the earth, And Peter doesn't just mention the earth, he specifically adds the earth and its works. That's just a figure of speech to refer to the earth's works. The earth doesn't do any work. The earth is just hanging out, existing. What is it that Peter is referring to when he talks about the earth and its works being burned up? What are the works of the earth? It's everything we've done. Everything we've done. The earth isn't working. It's just existing. We're working. Everything that any human being has physically done from the beginning of creation until the second coming of Christ is the works of the earth. And what's going to happen to it at the end of the day? It's going to be burned up. Not just like the fires that passed through this area, where you can have your house burned up and you can go back later and at least pick through the fire and find maybe a memento that somehow escaped the effects of the fire. Or like a family photograph or something of that nature that somehow was in such a place where it just didn't get burned up. On this day, everything that's ever been done by any human being that's ever lived is going to be once and for all burned up. That even includes the good things that believers have done, like the believer builds a hospital, or goes to India and buys a college, or any good thing that human beings have done. And of course, all of the bad things that human beings have done, they're going to be burned up. Why would God do that? Because it's all part of the old creation. It's all corrupted by the taint of sin. Even the best thing, that we have done, physically speaking, since Adam fell. Even the best thing we've done is not as good as it should be. It doesn't bring the full measure of glory to God's name. Some of it is for us, even the best of things. And of course, how many really totally wicked things have been made and evil things that have only brought glory to man and served man's purposes. All of that is being burned up. God swept the earth clean in the flood with water. And water is a powerful cleansing agent, but it's nothing like the cleansing ability of fire. Fire does destroy, but it cleans. It purifies. All throughout the Old Testament, God gave us hints about this. We won't turn and read these things for the sake of time, but throughout the sacrificial system of the Old Testament in particular, God had them bring particular sacrifices that were intended to be burned, whole, whole burnt offerings. And the imagery is that it's in fire that God will finally cleanse and purify the things that have been tainted and corrupted by the fall. And what's the extent of this transformation? Well, the extent of the transformation is everything's going to be changed as a result, because yes, all of these things are going to be burned up. I'm saying the very fabric of the universe is going to be ripped apart. And then what happens after that? Well, God remakes and renews all things. And it's going to be a whole new earth that is described here, and new heavens, of course, described here in verse 13. But according to his promise, we're looking not just for the end of all things, but we're looking for the beginning of the new thing. We're looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. And the phrase in which righteousness dwells, this new heavens and new earth, in which righteousness tells us that while in the old creation, the very fabric of this present old creation is so tainted and affected by sin, that the fabric of the creation itself has got the stain of sin on it. The new creation, the very fabric of that new creation is going to be righteousness, woven into the new creation, woven into every molecule and every atom. of a new creation, God's righteousness will be the sustaining principle, the overwhelming principle, the dominating principle. And I say dominating just not in the sense of there'll be some sin, but mostly righteousness. There'll be only righteousness in the fabric of the new thing that God is making. The problem for us is we don't really get how much this present creation has been affected by sin. We just don't really get it. The Lord describes it. I'm going to turn real quickly to a passage in Romans that probably does the best job of any of the biblical descriptions of this to describe how much this present creation has been affected. This is in Romans 8. I'll read from verse 18. It says, For I consider the sufferings of this present time, are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God." The revealing of the sons of God is referring to what I'm saying here, which is that spiritually the new creation is already in place. And the only evidence we see of that is where? Inside of us. Those of us who have been changed and transformed and spiritually made part of this new creation that's already begun. Now, that's not fully revealed yet, though, physically revealed yet. So the creation, the present natural creation is anxiously longing and waiting to see what it's going to be like when we are fully revealed. All right. And then he goes on to say, for in verse 20, the creation was subjected to futility. And this happened at the fall of Adam. And it was subjected to futility. The word futility here means emptiness or vanity. Meaning that whatever the purpose that God had in making things the way He did was never fully realized from the point of the fall forward. All of the answers, I don't care how beautiful the flower is that you're looking at out in the field. It's not what it was meant to be. It was affected. I don't care how beautiful the bird is that's singing. It's not singing the way it was meant to sing. Everything was affected by Adam's sin. Why? Because Adam was the head of this creation. He was placed in charge of this first creation. And when he sinned, the whole creation was subjected by God to the taint of his influence. He goes on to say, for the creation was subjected to futility not willingly. It's not like the creation was volunteering and saying, you know, we want to be futile. It's all forced upon it by Adam's sin and God's judgment. But because of him who subjected it, that's God himself, in hope, this was, in other words, God's plan to change things at the end. In hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves, grown within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. Paul is saying that the entire creation, while it's not a conscious thing on the part of the physical creation, the entire creation has been subjected to futility, In anticipation, in reservation for the day when the creation itself is going to be set free. How is God doing that? He's going to destroy it and then he's going to remake it into what it was always meant to be. man, Adam, not tainted all things with his sin. But it's going to be even greater because in light of all that's happened, God is going to ultimately be greater, in a greater measure than he ever would have been otherwise. And this is the mystery of God's great plan. He's going to be glorified in the redemption and the setting free of all things as that day comes when the Lord returns to make all things new. Now, let's turn back to 2 Peter and we'll end with this last phrase from 2 Peter 3, verse 11-13. Actually, I'll read 11-14. And I'm not going to explain 11-14 this morning. I want to save those as the beginning point of the message next week. In light of the reality of the end of all things, and the beginning of all things again, as God remakes and recreates all things, verse 11, since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness? Now, is he referring here to what sort of people ought you to be when the Lord returns? Obviously not. He's talking about what sort of people should you be now? In other words, and this is what we'll talk about next week, All of this teaching is not, as I said earlier, just to fascinate us, just to be some interesting topic of conversation about the end times. This is all meant to transform us from the inside out if we really see what God has planned to do. What sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning and the elements will melt with intense heat? But according to his promise, we are looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, spotless and blameless. Let's stop there. We'll pick up with that same passage, Lord willing, next week. Let's pray. Father God, I pray that as we've been just briefly talking together about, from your word, what you have planned to accomplish when your son returns, I pray, Lord, that you would take that perspective, Lord, and that you would apply to each one of our minds and to each one of our hearts That understanding that will change us, that will cause us to think differently about our lives, cause us to prioritize our lives in a different way, to make different kinds of choices, to speak differently, to think differently, to live differently. Lord, you're able to accomplish that. That's your plan and purpose to change us by looking at these things. I pray you would accomplish that in each one of us beginning this week. And I ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. The copyrighted product of Tree of Life Christian Church of Canoga Park, California. 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