Peter, chapter three, which concerns the coming of the day of the Lord, let's refresh ourselves a little bit and in our memory and read verses 10 through 13, second Peter, chapter three, starting at verse 10. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. And then the heavens will pass away with a roar. The heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people are you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn. But according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Well, you can't you remember that Peter is speaking is warning us against false teachers very much as as Jude did as well. Those two books, 2 Peter and Jude, are very parallel. And he's warning us specifically here about false teachers who will come and deny, hard to believe, but they actually deny and attack the primary storyline of the Bible. They tell us, he warns, that God's eternal purpose is just a fable. That the big picture of the Bible, what God is doing from Eden to the establishment of the new heavens and the new earth is just a fable and that this world has always been as it is and always will be. And remember, he is certainly we can find examples of that among atheistic teachers and so on today. But but Peter is warning us against people who are teaching this sort of thing in the church, false teachers, the creeps who creep in as as Jude kind of puts it creep in among among us. And they have they have no shame, no conscience in doing this. No, no fear of God. The some of them are going to overtly deny the fundamental doctrines of scripture. Those those examples of those you can find among the so-called liberal theologians. Right. They're going to deny the basic fundamentals of the gospel the deity of Christ and the resurrection and the inspiration and inerrancy of scripture the vicarious atonement of Christ on the cross and and so on. But these kind of false features that that Peter's warning us against here are they're more dangerous. And many, many times the evangelical church has not done a good job while they're fighting against and exposing liberal theology very energetically, sometimes not so as energetically as nation. Well, here comes. Here comes these other kind of false teachers that come in among among the flock, you see, and these are more. These are more dangerous. A Christian, Peter says, is a person who believes God's promises. And therefore, is waiting for and looking for looking toward The new heavens and the new earth where everything will be right. Now, this is to be characteristic of every Christian, that we are people who are looking ahead, looking forward to the fulfillment of God's promises, specifically the new heavens and the new earth. And Peter is reminding us of this. We all need to be reminded of it very, very regularly. For numbers of reasons, we tend to be forgetful. It is easy to, well, just for example, as we talk about the new heavens and the new earth, and our resurrection, and we are going to be there, and it's a real place. All the things that we've talked about so often here, you have to admit that kind of in the back of your mind you're thinking, that's kind of weird. I mean, it's almost like the stuff that sci-fi movies are made out of and so forth, right? And that's just an example of how bound to this present life and body and world that we are. And this is like all we've ever, ever known. And in fact, even thinking about the new heavens and the new earth can be kind of scary. It's like, look, we are like, we're like, Meat and potatoes, people, you know, it's just like bacon and eggs and and the things that you like to do hunting, fishing and other things that you like. I mean, that's that's that's life, it seems. But what scripture is telling us is no, actually, while those are those are good things, then to be enjoyed. The fact of the matter is your real life. If you're a Christian, your real life. Well, it's begun, but. Not fully, you're not you're there, but you're not there yet. In fact, it's hidden with Christ. And when Christ comes your real life and your real home, that's when you're going to see it. That's when it's going to be. It's going to be revealed. And so we're warned, warned and exhorted in scripture not to love this present world and to look forward to. The and focus our lives, make decisions every day based on the fact that this world's not my home. Right. I'm an alien and stranger here. I'm going to elect exile. My real home is somewhere else. First, John to do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. For all that's in the world, the desires of the flesh. And the desires of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the father, but is from the world and the world's passing away along with its desires. But whoever does the will of God abides forever. So you have those kinds of warnings and admonitions and encouragements in in scripture to be people who are looking out there, looking to the new heavens and the new earth. I think this gets easier if you're a Christian. I think this gets easier as you grow older. Now, if a person is not a Christian, I mean, it just amazes me. You can talk to somebody who's very elderly, but they're not a Christian. They're just like total worldlings. And it's like you kind of want to shake them, you know, and don't you ever wonder what's going to happen when you die? I mean, is this this is this is it? This is all there is. What's what's going on in your head, you see? But if you're a Christian, the older that you grow, the more these things are going to be on your mind. And and these promises are the things that are going to get you through as you draw closer and closer to the end of your life. And also, as you grow older, you see people that you've known your whole life. They die. Right. I mean, I remember when my parents were in the care center over in Salem and talking with them. You know, they lived till they were like 92 or so, something like that. And actually, most of their friends were dead. You know, they outlived them. Most of their friends had passed away. And that kind of stuff starts hitting you. In the face, I think I think Verla's parents were the ones that said one time, it seems like we're just go to funerals all the time, you know. And well, there's there then is the reminder that we live in a in a temporal world, in a temporal body. And and this is not forever. Our bodies are going to die. We're going to die. And so. We become more and more focused on the new heavens and the new earth, and it becomes our comfort. All right, well, Peter then brings us here face to face with the main storyline of the Bible that we might call from creation to new creation. The Bible is a history book, but it is a very unique history book. in that it writes history past, present, and future. That's a future history that is yet to come from Genesis to Revelation, creation to new creation. The Bible is a book about Eden to Eden. From Eden lost, paradise lost, Paradise read a regain in Christ. That's why you you read about Eden not only in Genesis but all of a sudden and actually in places in between. Actually then in you read about Eden Eden crops up again in Revelation. At the end of at the end of the story, which turns out to be really the beginning of the story, the new heavens and the new and the new earth. This is why Christ is known as the second and the last Adam. Right. Adam, the first Adam in the first Garden of Eden sins. Man is cast out of the presence of God and out of Eden. And the rest of the Bible is the account about how God in Christ, the second and last Adam, is bringing us back to Eden. Paul talks about it, 1 Corinthians 15, thus it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. You see, I remember in our biblical theology class I took once, the professor read that verse and he said, so in God's sight, you could say there's how many people in the world? Two. Two. And you are either in the first Adam and all that he is, dead and dying and in sin, Or you're in the second Adam, the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ. You see life, eternal life, salvation and moving on into the new heavens and the new earth. Paul goes on, verse 46, but it is not the spiritual that is first, but the natural, then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust. The second man, Christ, is from heaven, as was the man of dust. So also are those who are of the dust. And as it's the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven, just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, the first Adam. We shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. Notice there now, and this is important that so when the Bible talks about something is heavenly. or something is spiritual as opposed to earthly or natural, right, spiritual. Those terms, spiritual and heavenly, don't mean fog. They don't mean it's not real. And so many people think that. You know, I'm going to have a heavenly body. Well, that doesn't mean I have a spiritual body. That doesn't mean it's spirit. It's a it's a body just like the Lord Jesus Christ when when he was raised then from from the dead. But it means it's not of this world. It's not the body like Adam, who returned then to the dust. I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. That's fallen flesh and blood. These present bodies, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep. Right. So. I kind of can you envision yourself dying can be kind of never happened. So I like I like to think about other people dying, but not me. Somehow I'm not going. to die, so maybe we're going to be that generation of Christians when Christ comes again. Of course, every generation has thought that, and there's nothing wrong with thinking that, but we shall not all sleep. Some people, some Christians, are going to still be alive in this present earth when Christ comes again. Sleep here is speaking of the physical death of the body of the Christian. We shall not all sleep, but We're all going to be changed. All right. We're all going to have resurrection bodies in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall be changed for this perishable body must put on the imperishable and this mortal body must put on immortality. You've seen Kenneth probably in sci-fi movies or whatever it is where, you know, things go There's some kind of a warp in the space-time continuum, whatever. That's the usual term they'll put in these sci-fi movies. But they get off on a wrong track. And then somebody's got to set it right. And so at some point in the movie, there's like this fast rewind, right? We get back so we can get it back, get back right. And that's what you're looking at here. This is like A fast rewind in a sense, what's happening here, what Paul is describing is going to happen when Christ comes again. The curse is put in reverse. See, all this stuff, death and everything else, this is the curse and it's put in reverse and it's like this. Just as soon seen when Christ, the whole thing, and we're going to read about that some more. Well, we did already in second Peter three that this whole business of the creation in the earth and the star, everything going up in heat and being dissolved. That's what that is. This is the reversal, the remedy that Christ has affected in in the curse. And it happens in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. At the last trumpet, the trumpet will sound. The dead will be raised imperishable. Here they see everything's getting fixed. And we shall be changed for this perishable body must put on the imperishable and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, that's a resurrection he's talking about. And the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that's written, death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin. And the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, who's met the demands of the law. Therefore, my brothers, beloved brothers, be steadfast and movable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. Well, what Peter's warning us against is there's going to be people who are coming along and telling us your labor is in vain. All this stuff about resurrection, new heavens and new earth, that's bogus. You know, you don't actually believe that stuff. And then as you'll see, they'll go on to say, you know, oh, yeah, right. When did Christ live? Two thousand years ago. Uh huh. What has that happened yet? You see? So these are the kinds of things that that we are to be on guard then against much of what is taught as scripture in local churches today. has been and continues to be what Paul calls the wisdom of this world. And we have to be careful because when we take the Bible and we twist it and turn it into the wisdom of this world instead of the wisdom of God, then it has the effect of dulling the eyesight of our faith in regard to Christ. Much of what happens in local churches today, the programs, the teaching, and the so-called Bible doctrines that are taught, if you really examine them, they have a way of dulling the eyesight of our faith. And what has happened is, well, just apply it. Ask yourself this question. if you if you grew up in the church if you grew up as a Christian in the church a long time has has growing up in the church and going to Sunday school church every week and so forth. I think back to when I was a kid and so forth. Did that make me a person who's looking for the new heavens and the new earth. And I have to answer no. And I think in a lot of people's lives. A lot of Christians' lives, that is the case today, because it's so easy for Christians and entire churches to actually become very, very much focused on this present world. I gave an example of that last week. Some churches just go absolutely crazy over building a huge building, a project or something. And this becomes the thing. And you kind of imagine, you know, what if Jesus would come along and we'd say, hey, check this out, Lord. Look at this. Check out these plans. You know what he's saying. You know what he'd say. Right. You see all this. Not a stone is going to be left of it. Right. Your priority gets to be wrapped up in this present in this present world. And so we have to be on guard. The Gospel of John, Jesus said, let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me, our most professing Christians. Do they have troubled hearts today? You got to say, yeah, people are messed up. I mean, in part of the part of the reason is They've forgotten where their real life is. They've forgotten these promises. In my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself that where I am, you may be also. And what Christ is talking about there is the preparation of the new heavens And the new earth is coming again to take us there. And there's going to be a place there, a room custom made for you. I think that room actually is like a massive chunk of real estate in the new heavens and the new earth over which each one of Christ's people are going to govern. Don't you know that you're going to judge angels, right? and all of that sort of thing. You're going to come into the Father's kingdom in its fullness. And so Peter's reminding us that we need to be people who see these things from afar and be like Abraham, the father of all who are of faith. Abraham not only believed the promises of the inheritance waiting for him. But you could see it in his life. You could see his fate. And we need to be those kind of people. We need to be people who are who have our eyes fixed so much on our on our real home that's coming that people can just tell. You're not from around here, are you? Right. That's that's really that's really the gist of the whole thing. So Peter, he exposes the fallacy of these false teachers that claims all things just keep going on and continuing as they are. That's all that's ever going to happen. Peter tells us some remarkable things, some remarkable details about what is going to happen when he comes again. Right. And this is this is stuff that even modern day visual technology, you couldn't portray it. So Peter's doing as good a job as he can here to tell us what's going to happen. Listen to it again. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. And then the heavens will pass away with a roar. The heavenly bodies will be burned up. and dissolve. See, it's not just this creation isn't just this present world. It's the whole, the whole thing, the whole creation, right? The planets, the stars, the whole universe, the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening The coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn. But according to his promise, we right here in a way you could say, who is a Christian? Well, the Christian is the person who's waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which in which righteousness dwells. I'll make just one comment here on On first of all, one little phrase there or I'll forget to do it. It's not in in your handout, but in verse twelve and eleven and twelve, Peter is saying, well, then look at look at you need to be looking up. You need to be waiting daily for the coming of Christ and and living lives of holiness and godliness. And then he says, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God. Now, that's interesting. Does this mean that the church that Christ's people can actually speed up, hasten the time of Christ's return? And I just wanted to put that question in front of you and and let you know that so people there's big discussions about that. And you can you can read about it in commentaries and and so forth. But in one sense what would it be when I obey the Lord. I live my life in holiness and godliness somehow or another. Am I actually speeding up Christ's return. I don't know. Something for you to think about and what I mean, obviously, the day and the hours fix. And yet Peter uses this uses this phrase right here. Maybe it just means that you you're you're a person that's praying. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. But it's probably probably more more than that. Well, Peter, then again, he speaks here of new heavens and a new earth. A new creation where everything that has ever gone wrong, been wrong and done wrong is put right once and for all and will never be wrong again. Ever. You will never have a relationship problem ever again. Never. You won't ever do anything wrong to someone else. They won't ever do anything wrong to you. You won't ever think they've done something wrong to you and you don't have to worry about them thinking that you've done something wrong to them. All that stuff, everything's gone. I mean, all all all sin and all of the curse, every effect of sin is is is gone. So each one of us. Need to. Live our lives with these things in mind, and we have to, I think if we're honest with ourselves, I know if we're all honest with ourselves in this regard, Man, I don't I don't think about this as much as I should. I don't I don't govern and direct my life in accordance with this truth as much as I as I need to. I need some improvement here. My faith needs to be needs to be strengthened. And this is certainly then a An area of our walk in Christ that we can work on. Let's take a closer look at a couple of the things that Peter is telling us here. He says the day of the Lord will come like a thief. Right. The day of the Lord will come like a thief. And we know that we're familiar with other parts of Scripture that that mention that Revelation 16. Behold, Christ says, I'm coming like a thief. And blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on. that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed. And then in the Olivet discourse, Matthew 24, therefore, stay awake. For you do not know on what day your Lord is coming, but know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore, you also must be ready for the son of man is coming at an hour You do not expect who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has set over his household to give them their food at the proper time. Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. And how do you do that? How do you stay awake? How do you stay ready for when Christ comes by conducting yourself in holiness and godliness by Following Christ and being obedient to Christ and growing in Christ by being by not being people who are like the worldlings and around us and and to be people whose lives model the fact that Christ is coming again. He's coming again when we when we as believers when we face death. It is grievous. But we don't. We don't need to and I'm saying we must not grieve at those times as those who have no hope. We can every every opportunity we have in our lives especially in troubled troubled times and tribulations. We have an opportunity to model that Christ is coming again. I'm looking for the new heavens and the new earth you see. At most every funeral, you know this, you hear inevitably somebody's going to say, oh, well, at least they're what? In a better place, right? In a better place. Peter's telling us there is a better place. It's called the new heavens and the new earth. But most of the people that that said about are not in a better place. They're in a much worse place because they rejected Christ and ended in in hell. But Peter tells us, yeah, yeah, there's a better place and we need to be looking for. We want to be people that when we pass out of this life, people will be able to say he's in a better place. But when Christ comes, he's going to be in a better place yet. Because this is what Paul means when he's talking about First Corinthians. You know, we don't desire to be unclothed, but to be clothed. What he means by that is when we die and we're not told what it's going to be like when we die now before the resurrection. Scripture doesn't give us the detail. OK, I die now and I'm with Christ, but what am I like? Am I like a ghost? Or what am I? My theory is that there's some kind of intermediate resurrection body. You know, the disciples were able to recognize on the Mount of Transfiguration. What was it, Moses and Elijah? And they were able to recognize them. But the ultimate better place, even then, if you were to die today and be with Christ, as good as that is, you're still looking for the ultimate, which is the resurrection and to be clothed with our with our resurrection body and be in the new heavens and the new earth. That's the better place that the Christian is is looking toward. And Peter is telling us how this is all going to come to come about. And that were to never believe, never fall prey to the lies of the wicked false teachers that are trying to destroy our faith. He ends this letter with those urgings. Verse 14 of this chapter. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these. All right, you're waiting for the day of the Lord. That's what you're waiting for. The diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace. and count the patience of our Lord as salvation. Just as our beloved brother, Paul, also wrote to you, according to the wisdom given him as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters, there's some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures. But look at now. Now look at this. We're 17. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, Take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and losers to own stability, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. OK, now their tactics, the tactics of these false teachers is that they try to persuade us that Christ's promises are not true because it's been so long. Right. Because so much time has gone by and Christ hasn't yet returned. Now, I find this kind of ironic because Peter. Peter is writing this, he's even in Peter's day, there were guys that people were saying coming into the churches and saying, where's the promise of his coming? Well, It's only been like 20, 30 years since Christ said those things then. Now, in our day, it's been like 2000 years, you see. And and so we're faced with this. And you ask that of yourself sometimes. Lord, how long? It's like a long time. And so what Peter tells us is, well, When these guys say these things, here's another example, but verse four, they will say, where's the promise of his coming forever? Since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. And remember, Peter goes back and says, are you crazy? There's this little thing called the flood. Sodom and Gomorrah gone as he has intervened in judgment in history. It's not true that all things are continuing as they were. But Peter encourages us in regard to this fact that so much time has elapsed since Christ promised that he would come again. Peter says, now look, verse eight, do not overlook this one fact below. That with the Lord, one day is as a thousand years. And a thousand years as one day. And then he says in verse nine, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise. as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. And again, in verse 15, count the patience of our Lord as salvation, right? So here's things to remember. Some mocker, scoffer says, ah, yeah, right. Two thousand years. He hasn't come yet. It's not it's not going to happen. That God does not desire every human being to be saved. OK, we we know from Scripture, well, Peter says so in verse nine here. God is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.