Well, we're done with the scoffers, thankfully. I think we've had enough of them. We're not going to buy into their wicked lie that the key to the past is the present, and we certainly don't want to join the ranks of those who are willfully ignorant. It's bad enough to be ignorant, but to be willfully ignorant, to just turn away your ear and your heart from knowledge and those things that God has plainly revealed, is certainly the mark of the apostate. Now, God's agenda for this world is altogether fantastic and fascinating. And when we stand on the consistent teaching of the Bible, we know that this world is heading for catastrophe. Now, that doesn't sound fascinating, and it doesn't sound fantastic, but there is not just the fact that God is going to wind up this world in a burning inferno, but that he has a program of a new creation and a new heaven. And so we are not called to be patching up this old world, but that we are called to build for the world to come, another world, not this fallen, sinful, cursed, broken world. And we're not going to fall into the social gospel. We're not going to fall into the environmental agenda, but we're going to look for the promise of that glorious appearing of the Lord Jesus. Now this truth on the future of the world will lead us to a very different mindset from the ungodly. For one thing, we will continue to believe that God is in control. Now, the carnal mind looks around, and they see the chaos, they see the troubles of this world, and they would begin to think, of course, that God is no longer in control. Somehow, things have gone awry, and we have just a world that is on its own. But God's program is on target. And this falling away, these latter days of decline and apostasy, when men will follow their own lusts and stoop to awful depravity. They are predicted here in the Bible, and God is allowing this at this time. And the big part of God's program really as seen here in verse 10, and also verse 12. In verse 10, it is called the day of the Lord. That changes everything, the day of the Lord. Now, the same day is referred to, and it's called in verse 12, the day of God. Don't squeeze different things into those days. There is but one day. day when the trumpet sounds, the day when the Lord will come in judgment, and it is that part of God's program. And so, this world is hurtling to a day that is set It is part of God's fixed program, and it is according to His promise. No matter what the scoffers and the deniers and the unbelievers will say, this world is headed on an agenda of the day of the Lord, the day of God. We learn also here that His long-suffering is not the cancellation of judgment. it is its postponement till that day, and then judgment will be meted out. Verse 9 is a very crucial text. It is a gospel text, and it is another aspect of God's program. the long-suffering of the Lord is not slackness concerning his promise, but it is God's long-suffering to us-ward. And I want you to underline the word us-ward. That is the key to understanding that text. And we have to ask the question, to whom is Peter writing? Who is he addressing when he says us, or us-word? And of course, we have to look at the opening part of the letter, where in chapter 1, verse 1, he addresses to them that have obtained like precious faith. And the us-word is believers. It is the church. It is the people who are saved. And understanding verse 9 is very important, because you may get the idea that God is going to try and save everybody. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish. Now God's on the throne, God's in control, and if God in his sovereign wisdom planned to save all men in the world, he would do it. But that is not God's program. We know that from the rest of scripture. We know that he has a church, the Ecclesia, those that are called out. They are from every tribe and nation in all corners of the earth, and in every period and generation of the world's history. And those people will be saved. And so, rather than saying God's program is to save everybody, but it fails, let's not go down that road. that will lead us into theological difficulties that we will regret. But it is better to put the focus on the word us-word, those who have obtained like precious faith. And those whom the Lord has given this faith, none of them will perish, none of them will be lost, but that all should come to repentance. Now, It is true that in general terms God calls all men to repentance. Otherwise God would be tolerant and give permission for men to sin. So all men are commanded to repent. But we also know that many are called, but few are chosen. And so in this verse 9, we see that God's program, He extends the time in this world for however long. He is long-suffering to a wicked world to gather in His people and to build His own church. If you want to read further on this, I would recommend John Owen. John Owen, the Puritan. I don't know if it's searchable on the internet, or if you have that volume in his set of treaties that deals with the death of Christ, the death of deaths. And in that passage, he deals with this text. And he points out that God's program is not universalism, but his program is his church, whom he will save. And of course, the Lord will not allow one to perish. for whom Christ died and who is ordained to eternal life. That is God's program. And then, when the last soul is saved, when the last one is gathered in and the church is complete, then the end will come. Then that final day will appear, and the day of the Lord will appear, and the Lord will come as a thief in the night." And this now is the blessed hope. The hope of the Christian in every generation is that, first of all, God's in control, He has a program to build His church, and while wickedness may increase in this world in the latter days, and it will, Yet that does not mean God's program is broken down. It is His long-suffering. And in the midst of that ungodly age, the preserving, keeping power of God will be manifest. The Lord will find faith on the earth. when he returns. And from other portions of Scripture, we're told about them that are alive when the Lord returns, will be caught up in the air to meet the Lord. We read about two shall be in the field, one taken, the other left. Two shall be in a bed, one taken, the other left. So there will be living Christians on the earth when the Lord returns. That's our hope. The church is not going to die. Sometimes we get the pessimistic view that we're living in such hard times and ungodliness, secularism, humanism, and all the isms of our day that the church is never going to survive. Well, I have no idea when the Lord is returning. I don't know whether it'll be in my lifetime, or my children's lifetime, or my grandchildren's lifetime, or even longer. But at the time of the Lord's return, There's going to be His visible, living church, His witnesses on the earth. And that encourages me. And to know that not one whom the Lord will save will be left behind. Now we're going to look at this blessed hope tonight. And the first thing we need to do is to look at the expectation of the Lord's return. the expectation. In verse 10, Peter holds nothing back. He lays it all out here. And I think he is, like many of us, after dealing with the negatives, after dealing with the lie of the scoffers, and he comes now to expound the promise, the truth of these events. He just takes delight in laying it all out. And he says here in verse 10, 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." Now, the day of God is mentioned in verse 12, and you'll notice of the events on that day, "...looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens shall be on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat." And I make no distinction between the day of the Lord and the day of God. The same impact is there, the same results are there, and this is catastrophic. It is in keeping to the catastrophe of Noah's day. And that's the whole reason why Peter has spent time dealing with the catastrophe in Noah's day, because while the Lord will never again destroy the world by a flood, he is going to destroy the whole earth, the whole globe by a fire. Now, the expectation of the ungodly is a mixture of two things. Well, the lie of the scoffer, things will just go on as the same. The key to the past is the present, and the key to the future, again, is the present. Things will just go on the same. The other philosophy of the ungodly is that the world is going to gradually become a better place. There are going to be gradual improvements, and the world will become a happier, safer, more blessed place to dwell. And of course, there are scientific advances. We have privileges today that are just tremendous. Technology, travel, air travel, medicine, there are diseases that are generations before us dealt with that are no longer in the world. There have been great accomplishments in those areas. In many ways, the conveniences we have in our homes, we live better than kings and queens in the Middle Ages. We have an easier lifestyle than people of hundreds of years ago. Having said all that, The world is not free from problems. Just go to the ER of any hospital of your choice, day or night, and with all the advances of medicine and technology, what do you find? You will find the ER to overflowing, patient after patient after patient. whether it be physical injury or disease or some sudden failure of organs in the body, the medical system is overburdened. And so, on one hand, we can say, yes, the world is getting better, and there are advances and improvements, but on the other hand, were not really any better, and there are not really any improvements in the big scale. The premise of socialism, and we'll take them as the full cousins of Marxists, and that's where they got much of their ideology, is that there's going to be gradual improvement in the world. And there have been many experiments in communism, fascism, Nazism, and all the experiments of the nations that have promised much and brought nothing but failure and misery. Nazism alone. It was said that the Third Reich was going to last for a thousand years. It lasted about a decade, and it brought millions and millions of deaths and misery upon the world. And this is their idealism, that they're going to come up with a form of government leadership that is going to create either a perfect nation or a perfect world. It will never happen. This world will never advance beyond what the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 24, ye shall hear of wars, and rumors of wars, see that ye be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. And the Lord went on to speak about famines, pestilences, earthquakes, and the beginnings of sorrows, and how people will betray one another. There will be disloyalty. There will be hatred, bitterness, acrimony, corruption, and cruelty in this world. And we just have to listen to the daily news to see the state of the world. One of the saddest little countries in the world today is the country of Greece. Greece was the cradle of learning and wisdom, the Greek philosophers, Plato, and the famous philosophers that influenced many other nations at one time. And they were much in place when the New Testament was being written and played out. And Greece hasn't advanced. Look at its sorry state today. And it is the result of socialism, It's the result of corruption. It's the result of the depravity of the human heart. And whatever country you study, historians will tell you that no nation has prospered on a straightforward line for more than 200 years. You read of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. And we get this idea in our heads in human thinking, that when a nation is born, a nation gets on its feet and it has some victories in battle and gaining ground and territory, building ships and armies and social infrastructure, that that nation will go on and on and on, on a straight-line trajectory of increase and improvement. It never happens. It always comes to a point of crisis and disintegration. And if you look around the world today, even the promising nations of the world are in great trouble. In Europe, South America, Brazil, Venezuela, the countries that people were saying a few years ago, that's where to invest your money, and now they're bankrupt. We look at North America and US and Canada, and we ask, can collapse come to these nations? And of course, we try to say, well, surely our confidence in human nature ought to be higher than to think that men will destroy it. But corruption and moral bankruptcy has been the destruction of nation after nation after nation. And so, the carnal man's expectation is that this world is going to become a better place, incrementally, slowly, perhaps with some reverses, but nevertheless, we'll strive for it to become a better place. It won't happen. And we've got to change our expectation from a better world a world that will fix its problems to a world that's going to perish and get our hearts and our expectations on the world to come, that new heaven and a new earth. And I wonder, how are you building your life week by week? Maybe you are in business, maybe you are in employment and seeking a career, and you say, well, I'm setting just to make this world a better place. You could spend your whole life and all your energy and all your skills doing much of that and have some accomplishments, but one day it's going to be burned up. The Christian must have a different expectation. It must be upon another world, not this world. And no matter what success you or I have in this world, when it comes to the day of the Lord, it'll be burned up. Now, after looking at the expectation of that day, I want us to look at the extent of the dissolution. Now, I use that word because I notice in verse 11 and in verse 12, and you might want to underline this word, the word dissolved. That word comes up twice, the word dissolved. The Greek word is not very complicated. It simply means loosed. when the very things that govern this world, the physical laws that keep this world, are going to be loosed. They'll just come apart. They will not function together in any more. I looked up Henry Morris on this at the back of the book. He had a reference to this text, and I looked up his statement, and he called it atomic disintegration. when the laws of creation that God has put in place will no longer function, and this world will be dissolved. Now, if you look at the extent of this, you will see that this disillusion extends to the heavens. Verse 10, the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away. Now, heavens can have different meanings. It can mean the whole universe as a solar system, all those galaxies and all those stars that are out in the universe. It can mean that and the planetary system. Or it can mean the water canopy that is around the earth, the solar system. are the ozone layer that is around the earth. And there's a lot of talk about people, about the hole in the ozone layer, and radiation is stronger today, and creating problems, and all of that. So, we have to decide now, which of these destruction is it? Is we're talking about the dissolution of the complete universe, the farthest star in the universe, the sun, the moon, and everything in the galaxies, or are we talking about the earth itself? Well, The only way we can get a guide on this is to look back at verse 7 and see what happened in the day of Noah. It says here that the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word, are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. So here's a reference to the heavens and the earth in Noah's day. Now, in the time of the judgment of God upon the world by the flood, there was a tremendous canopy around the earth before the flood. That was the reason for so much vegetation, such lush forests, grasses, vegetation of all kinds, supporting a massive wildlife population and a human population. And it extended to the North Pole and the South Pole. There was no ice caps at that time when this canopy was around the earth. But when God sent the flood, that greenhouse effect around the earth was changed. The water came down into the earth. There was a huge amount of water in that canopy that fell upon the earth, and the climate changed. And so now you have an ice age that followed. You have the northern hemisphere and the southern caps. They are now ice-bound year-round, and buried underneath all of that is this mass of vegetation and animal life from pre-flood times. And so when the flood came upon the earth, there was a change upon the canopy around the earth. So I'm going to say that when the Lord returns and there's going to be the dissolution of the heavens and the earth, that those heavens are the very canopies that surround the earth today. That's going to change. That's going to be dissolved. And The radiation from the sun, which scientists speak so commonly about, that will change. Now, I want you to notice that it's going to happen with a great noise, verse 10. And I've thought about this, this great noise. Greek word simply means a whizzing sound, and it'll be hard for us to even guess what kind of a sound, but it talks about a great noise. I think of Fort McMurray and the fire that's raging. What would the sounds be like, the noises of that fire? If you were a firefighter at the very edge of the fire and the wind was whipping up the flames and the vegetation was burning, there would be a roar of that fire that would certainly be very scary. And that is mentioned right here, this burning up of the very elements of the heavens and the earth. So it extends to the heavens, it extends to the earth. Now, we talk about the earth burning up. That could happen in various ways. We know that the earth, its crust is very shallow. It's only about 75 kilometers deep, and in the bottom of the oceans, some say it's only about five kilometers deep. And when you go through that, there is various layers again. The earth is like an onion that you can peel back of various layers, but you take off the crust and you're down into the magma, and that is the hot, soupy liquid, which when volcanoes erupt, and they give off not only their gas, but they give off that magma, and there's a volcanic flow, and that creates igneous rocks and so on, that these things they occur from time to time. If you think of Mount Vesuvius, where Pompey was buried in the year 70, A.D. 79. About 16,000 people were instantly fossilized in that spewing of magma that flowed down from the mountain. And cities were preserved, and archaeologists are going in there, discovering their culture, what they ate, how they lived, because they have been fossilized flesh, preserved right in that situation. And so, God can do that again. And we know that this world is a very unstable place. Romans 8 talks about the creation groaning until the day of redemption. And every time you see a volcano go off and you hear of an earthquake, what is the earth doing? It's warning us that this world is unstable. And this world is just waiting for that day of the Lord when He will create a new heaven and a new earth. Now, it also extends to the works of the earth. It says at the end of verse 10 that the heavens will melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein. And so everything that's in this world, God's handiwork, will be destroyed as we know it. There are those natural wonders of the world that we call the handiwork of God. They are tourist centers now, and people travel around the world to visit these places. All of that will be gone. The cities of the world—Babylon, Jerusalem, and the modern cities of the world—they'll be gone. And even if you build a bunker, it'll be gone. Fortresses, Fort Knox, where they keep the gold, just burn up. They'll be gone. All the works of man will come to nothing. Our homes, towers, cities, just burned up. That's God's program. And He's going to cleanse this world from every trace of the human race, every trace of sin, every trace of man that's on it. And, of course, men can become very proud of the things that they can build, and they boast in them and trust in them. And that's where the problem comes. It's not wrong to build cities. It's not wrong to build a home. But when we trust in these things, then we're not really thinking of the great program of God. What pride man takes in those little things. Even in a picket fence, and some hobbyists will spend days working on that picket fence just to make it a beautiful appearance. I noticed in Fort McMurray where one of the subdivisions where the fire raged through, there was a picket fence that remained. Strange, how the house is gone, the garage is gone, all the garden, vehicles burned out, this little picket fence just standing. Somehow the fire missed it. But on the eternal day, there'll be nothing left. All the works, everything will be completely gone, and God's judgment, fiery judgment, will be upon the world. Now, after considering all these things, you'll notice the exhortation in verse 11. Here is the application of what we've just learned of God's program. Now, here's a loaded question. If you really understand the future of this world, that it's not going to become a better place. It's not going to be delivered from wars and famines and destructions, but rather there is a program that God has in store where he's going to burn everything up. How then ought you to be living? Well, first of all, don't buy the scoffer's lie. Don't get into the program that the world's going to get better, but recognize that you need to live for the new world and prepare for that. And the thing to note, that it is a world of righteousness. a new heavens and a new earth, where dwelleth righteousness." And so Christ's return and that burning of this world, the new heavens and the new earth, it calls us to holy living. Don't get into the downgrade of the scoffer, the ungodly, but build your life upon righteousness And that, of course, is the character of God, and that is the law of God. And so, to make it very plain, don't lower the standard. These wicked are saying, God's not coming. There's going to be no judgment. We can live as we like. It doesn't matter. But the Christian who understands God's program and who says, God is coming, judgment will fall. Therefore, I not only need to be saved by the blood and the cross of Christ, I need to live for God. and to keep His Word and keep His commandments. And so, we as Christians, if we're going to withstand the apostasy, the ungodliness of this age, there is a safeguard that God has given us, and that is righteousness. That ought to be our theme. That ought to be our motto. That ought to be our watchword—righteousness. And to do that, we need to have regard for His Word and for His law. The law of God is the rule of life for the Christian. And sadly, in many quarters, people are saying, and even theologians are saying, that we are now in a new covenant. We are now in a new era, and the law of God that the people of God in the Old Testament were under, we are not under that. That is a lie. That is what will reduce your standard of living, and it will give you a sense that you can live as you please. You're under grace, not under law. Paul says, God forbid, God forbid. And instead of lowering the standard, we ought to be a people that are known for holiness. After all, Peter emphasized in 1 Peter 1, Be ye holy, for I am holy. That's the command of God, and that's still the command of the Lord for the church right to this day, because we're going to be judged according to righteousness. Now, you might be asking, How are we going to do that? How are we going to emphasize righteousness? Well, Come on Wednesday night as we pray over the Ten Commandments, or the Fifth Commandment this week, but as we seek to do this week by week. This is the kind of practical faith, practical devotional life we need in these days. Instead of listening to the lie of the scoffer, come back to the clear commands of Scripture. and the Ten Commandments are absolute. You can't walk around them, you can't change them, you can't water them down. They must be the delight of our hearts. In recent weeks, I've taken an interest in reading Psalm 119. Now, Psalm 119, to the early reader of the Bible, It sounds very repetitious. It sounds as if it's just going over commandments, statutes, judgments, precepts, and just recycling those terms in different ways. But Psalm 119 is a tremendous emphasis in devotion on how to apply God's law to our lives. And you may know that it's divided into 22 sections for the 22 letters of the Hebrew Bible, and in every section it takes a letter, and that letter has a theme. That section of eight verses usually has a theme. And It is the Christian at prayer, praying the law of God, praying the precepts, the commandments, the judgments—all those terms are used, and they're not always synonymous, but they seem to be used copiously. And these are the things we've got to work into our Christian living—God's commands, God's judgments, God's precepts, God's law. And you have such statements as, well, delighting in the law, teach me thy commandments, show me thy precepts. And here is the Christian on his or her knees pleading with God to understand how to live godly, biblically, to please the Lord. And so Peter says, and I say tonight, we need to get back to the law of God. And when the church says, well, we're just to preach the love of Jesus, we're just to tell people there is a way of mercy, we end up failing to prepare our own hearts and to prepare God's people for the tremendous battle that we are in against lust and corruption. And that's what Peter is expounding in this book. How many times have we witnessed that these scoffers follow their own lusts, and they feed on their own corruption, that they are greedy, they are lusting after money, and they are motivated by these things. And so, we must come back to the key to survival. Don't get into Lot's position. where he compromised, pitched his tent towards Sodom, and put himself in a place of danger. No, the Christian today is told to flee temptation. Don't walk into it. Put yourself on guard. Flee from the devil. And of course, at all costs, get close to the Lord. And in that way, we can build our lives on God's program. that he is going to come and wind up this world, and he's going to end all the madness that's in the world, and Satan in all his wicked ways is going to be destroyed. And that's the program that we're building on day by day and week by week. But it comes down to practical terms. And if you see it here in verse 11, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation." Now, conversation simply means lifestyle, and then godliness, godlikeness, that our lives may be known to be more and more aligned with God himself and his holy character. There are a number of other things in this chapter that we're going to preach in the weeks to come. But what a warning, what a plea, that we do these things, that we might be separate from those that will be judged on that terrible day. Well, let's close our meeting here, and we'll sing a hymn in closing. 576, 576,