Our sermon text this morning comes from 2 Peter 3, verse 11 through 16. After Peter has just described the end, he says, 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, 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. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these things, be 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 are 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. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, sanctify us in the truth. Your word is truth. May we abide in the truth as Christ tells us. And that in so doing, be set free. For we know that whom the Son sets free is free indeed. We pray that you'd untangle us from the weeds of this world that suck out the life of us. Instead, have our eyes lifted to Christ in the heavenly places where he sits at the right hand. And we await until that blessed day, the glorious day of his return. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Well, you've probably heard the saying, This person's so heavenly minded, he's no earthly good. Peter would disagree with that. But he would not define heavenly-minded the way some people consider that, which is somebody who's all into end time charts and how it's all laid out, or someone who thinks the world's just going to implode and burn, so whatever, throw up your hands. No, he has in mind and has been articulating a personal encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ on that final day, who comes in glory and majesty, and that, brothers and sisters should impact how we presently live our lives. He's taught that throughout this letter, but he will focus in in these final exhortations to the church. that the future eschatology in which you understand Christ to be returning impacts your present-day ethics. Peter wants to connect the dots for us. Some people really need help with this. You'll find in conversations with people, you know, they're not very impressed with Christ, though they profess to be Christians. They don't see his majesty. They're not really all about Christ, they don't really like to gather on Sundays, they're not really into it, and yet supposedly they're awaiting this future day and this renewal of all things where Christ will be front and center to be baptized and glorified in all of eternity, but they're not into that right now. You know what I'm saying? That just doesn't fit. The dots are disconnected. What you think about, perceive, enjoy, are affectionate about, and how you live should be somewhat of a reflection of what you will be doing for all eternity. Okay, Peter's going to connect that for us today and it's very important for we can be very caught up in this world. Our lives can be so rooted and holding on fixed to this world, but he wants to wake us up to the reality of the return of Christ and that impact for our present lives. So we're gonna see that today. Future eschatology impacts present ethics. we'll look at future eschatology and how it impacts present priorities, perspectives, purity, procrastination, and perceptivity. Those will be on the back of your handout if you'd like to follow along that way. Well first, future eschatology impacts present priorities. Verse 11, since all these things are thus to be dissolved, since of all I've said so far, which he's referring back to verses 7 and 10, the destruction of the heavens and the heavenly bodies by fire. He tells us that not just to satisfy our curiosity towards the end, but he's driving towards something. He says, what sort of people ought you to be now in lives of holiness and godliness? And it sounds like a question, like, hey, what do you guys think? No, but it's not. It's a rhetorical device where he's saying, if this is the case, what sort of people ought you to be, considering that? And we don't really understand it yet, but he's gonna keep driving this. What sort of people should we be, really? Well, he says, in lives of holiness and godliness. The holiness, that is that inward sort of set-apartness that then results in a changed and transformed life. We actually saw this in 1 Peter, where we were first initially introduced to the subject. Be holy as I am holy, as the scriptures teach. Therefore, you should be holy as well. But that has very practical forms. He talked about expressing a sincere love for brothers and sisters in Christ, being subject to every human institution, being willing to embrace suffering for the gospel, loving service to the family of God where you use your gifts. That's holiness. If the end is coming in such a way where you are going to have to give an account to the risen and ascended Savior who's returning in glory, What are you supposed to give yourself to? A set apart life that's reflective of God. He also says not only holiness but godliness. We already learned in chapter one. That by his divine power, he's granted to us all things for life and godliness. That is the habits, the orientation. You could even call it the God-wardness, the God-towardness, the God-centeredness of your life. Do people look upon you and say, wow, that person is all about God, what God wants him to be like, who he should, how he should live, what he should be thinking about, is his mind renewed? That's what we are to be about. Holiness and godliness, those are priorities for those who know that Christ is returning. Now that's interesting though because I oftentimes get the question as a pastor, what's God's will for my life? That's probably the most often talked about subject that people have. What's God's will for my life? How do I find it? And they're usually talking about their vocation or who they should marry. I'm just like, I don't know. I don't know what that is. The Bible doesn't talk about that. Yes, you should probably take into consideration your own desires, your gifts, your talents, the opportunities that avail yourself to kind of figure out what you should be doing, sure, great. But ultimately, God's will, though, when it talks about that in the Bible, is very specific and it's revealed. And I wanna point people and say, well, okay, so that's kind of, you got some options there as to how you wanna organize your life, but what God has really stated you should be prioritizing and making the center of your life is holiness and godliness. In fact, 1 Thessalonians 4.3, for this is the will of God, your sanctification. That's pretty clear. 1 Peter 2.15, for this is the will of God. That by doing good, you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Prioritize doing good. 1 Thessalonians 5, 18. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Give thanks. So those are the priorities of the people of God. what he desires, what pleases him, he sets it out. So before you get all caught up in what God has not revealed about the future of your life or what you should specifically be organizing your life towards like a vocation or who to marry, you should really consider first and foremost what has he revealed. Knowing the end is coming, what sort of people ought you to be? Well, second, future eschatology impacts present perspectives. Verse 12, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God. The day of God, that's the same as the day of the Lord or the return of Christ. We are to not have this sort of out of mind understanding, but we are waiting for it, expecting it. And then he even goes on to say hastening. Hastening, we don't even have a theological category for that. Hastening is like speed up. We understand God being sovereign and that he's declared him from the beginning. He knows it all. He's decreed everything that comes to pass, including that final day. So how does this fit in? We're supposed to speed up or hasten the day of God. Well, let me help you with how we think about the Bible. There actually are, God is very clearly in control of all things, but yet he uses secondary causes towards his ultimate ends. He involves his people in his future plans. I hope you have a comfortable understanding of that. It's tough to understand how that all fits together, but we see this taught in other places, like for instance, the Lord's Prayer. Your kingdom come. What are we praying for? That his kingdom would come. Or the phrase Maranatha, or come, oh Lord, come. Those are quite often prayers made by God's people. We just read of Acts 3, 19 through 21, where Peter was saying, hey, repent, so that the times, so that the times of refreshing may come when Christ is sent from heaven. If everybody repents, Christ returns. We learn that in 2 Peter 3, verse 9. The Lord is patient towards you, not willing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance, that God is gathering in his elect, and when that time comes, he will return. And so Jesus taught the same thing. The gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. So Peter is saying, by living a godly life in holiness and expectation, you actually hasten the day of God. How that completely works in God being sovereign, we don't really understand, but we grab a hold of the responsibility we have to actually be engaged in the work of being godly, conformed to Christ, repenting, and preaching the gospel to the nations. Well, Peter returns to what will occur when God's day arrives. He says, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn. The heavens are said to be reserved for fire. That's in verse seven. And in verse 10, they will pass away with a roar. This is an echo of Isaiah's prophecy. All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved, but also the heavenly bodies, it says, which could be referring to the planets or the stars, but most likely the elements of the earth. That's why some translations will translate it, elements, the physical components of the earth, earth, air, fire, water. And they translate it that way towards elements or heavenly bodies because there's gonna be a new heavens and a new earth. So both of those concepts, similar heavens and heavenly bodies will be burned up. And it says they will melt as they burn. That word melt really brings in the concept from the Old Testament in which God's final day of judgment, he would melt not only his enemies, but the entirety of the world. Listen. to this prophecy from Micah. Look, the Lord is coming from his dwelling place. He comes down and treads the high places of the earth. The mountains melt beneath him and the valleys split apart like wax before the fire, like water rushing down a slope. That's the end, but don't forget, according to verse 7 and 10, this is the judgment of the ungodly along with this sin-cursed world But that's not really what we're looking forward to, although that's a reality. Peter then says what we're looking forward to. Verse 13, but according to his promise, we're waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. As promised, it says here, we just read from Isaiah 65, didn't we? For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. This is a world in which it's free from the stain of sin and death and pollution. Spoken of also in Revelation 21, I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Now that's an interesting thought, the destruction of the world. We know that's taught. Is it an annihilation to where this entire earth itself will be completely destroyed and God starts a brand new one? Or is this a concept of renovation or redemption or purification? Sounds like a very academic type of debate. but it has practical ramifications. It's been discussed since the early church. I tend to lean towards purification so that, very similar to how we are raised, in the future, the future resurrection, it will be our earthly bodies, yet it's a new body, but of the same substance. We think about Christ who was raised from the dead, came out with the same body, and also the fact that Earlier in this chapter, he had talked about Noah and the flood as a type of what would be like in the future judgment. And what happened in the flood? The earth was destroyed and everything in it, yes, definitely, but it wasn't completely annihilated. You get what I'm saying? It started fresh, a new beginning, a new start. which I would say fits more with the idea of the scriptures, a transformation of this world through fire, bringing about this amazing reverse of the curse. How does it all come about? How is that? Well, the Lord Jesus Christ is the second Adam or the last Adam. Adam brought a mess of this whole thing by wanting to be God and disobeying God. brought about the curse of all things. But we've seen that song from joy to the world. No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found. Christ, the last Adam, comes and fixes it all. He renews heaven and earth by bringing heaven down to earth in a renewed type of way. Colossians 119, for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. Ephesians 1.9 has a similar purpose statement, which God set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven, things on earth. One day this renewing task will be complete. We've seen it already in our own selves and that we are new creations, but that will be a reality throughout the entirety of the cosmos. The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. a new heavens and a new earth where, it says, righteousness dwells. That is to say, a place of perfect harmony and peace. When we think of the Ten Commandments, we think of the righteousness of God and that if obeyed, bring about perfect harmony within society. Well, those will be obeyed. But the question I have for you is, are they being obeyed now? If that place, the new heavens and new earth, is where that righteousness dwells, Are you pursuing righteousness now? Is that descriptive of your own life, a desire? I want to see righteousness in the here and now because that's what it will be like forever. Peter exhorts us to have our eyes fixed on the coming age and let that determine our present lifestyle. Well, it's that topic that he turns for the final encouragement of the letter in verse 14. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, Since you are waiting for these now, we have a final eschatology here, or future eschatology, impacts present purity, verse 14. Be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace. Be diligent. That same diligence which we saw in chapter one, which was to make your calling and election sure, by supplementing your faith with all those particular virtues and qualities. He says now, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish. To be found, that is that final day that he is going to expose all that has ever been done. Look at verse 10. That day in which all the things will be exposed, the work's done. He says, make sure you're found without spot or blemish. And we're like, wait a second, how's that gonna happen? I don't, I'm not pure. The concept is from the Old Testament, sacrifices, you know, you needed a physical lamb. without spot or blemish, which pointed forward to the spotless spiritual lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who had no spot or blemish. Well, we are to reflect Christ at the end, being without spot or blemish, which is the opposite of these false teachers, which we saw in chapter two, which was what? They were blots and blemishes. They were living corrupt lives. entangled in the pursuits and passions of this world. He says, may it not be so with you, be found without spot or blemish. Doesn't that seem unattainable though? Well, here's where I want to encourage you, okay? This is descriptive of a general reality of someone who's sanctified. They are without spot or blemish. They're above reproach. And this is exactly what Christ came to accomplish, so that Ephesians 5, which we usually go for marriage advice and things like that, actually talks about a promise or a certainty of all whom Christ has redeemed. Listen to this. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word. That's the church. so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish." Don't you see? This is called sanctification, what Christ is actually bringing about in his people. He is making you into a pure, spotless bride, adorned for her husband. That should encourage you. That doesn't make us passive. Oh, that will actually happen. No, we're active in it. We participate in the reality of our being sanctified by the Holy Spirit. And so we pursue those means by which he does the sanctifying. We're diligent, it says. Be diligent. But he also says, and be at peace. On that final day, be found to be at peace. Peace with God, as in reconciled to God, is that the subjective peace, about the peace which God gives us, like an experiential type of peace? It's tough to say, honestly, it's hard. If we're tying in like the being diligent to be found, it's basically like the way the Bible talks about our relationship with God as being one of actually in present and kind of fluctuates, not that God distances himself from us, but sometimes we distance ourselves from God. Sometimes we have unclear consciences and we don't confess our sins, but instead being at peace is one who has a clear conscience, who has confessed their sins, who is walking in the light as 1 John says. And so you are at peace with God by following his commandments. Yes, it's based on the objective peace that's brought about by Christ's reconciling work, but then we also then are looking forward with not shrinking back type of fear when Christ returns, but we're like, we're ready for him because we've been walking in the light as he has had us. So there you go, that's what you pursue, purity in light of the return of Christ, without spot or blemish and at peace. But we look again at another reality that future eschatology impacts in the present, and that is procrastination. Verse 15 says, and count the patience of our Lord as salvation. Count the patience of our Lord as salvation. You're not to be looking at the fact that Christ's return, which seems to be, you know, it's taken a long time as a way to be lax and just to procrastinate. Peter says, count the length of his delay as an opportunity. Which, according to this letter, some of these people are being kind of wrapped up in sin and maybe being lured by false teaching. He's saying, you have time to get this stuff right. Counter to salvation. Repent from any sort of errant ways according to what I've been teaching you in 1 Peter, or 2 Peter, this whole letter. Get right and know that that's God's grace in your life, that he hasn't returned and made you give an account for right this minute. But you could also say that the fact that the delay is here and it's prolonged means the judgment has not come. And so then what should we be getting about? What should we be doing? We should be evangelizing the lost. So we don't just say, oh, you know what, this is cool. We could just kind of go on as things always have been. No, we see, we can tell people, hey, Christ hasn't returned. You know what that means? He's being patient. He has his plans, yes, but you have an opportunity to repent and trust in him and turn from your sins and be saved. So then that means consider it as an opportunity to rid ourselves from procrastination and to be diligent to pursue the things that God wants for us. Peter brings in another gun to enforce his argument. He says, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him. the Apostle Paul, whom these people are already familiar with, based on the fact of these written letters, he says, Paul's also mentioned this, and what do you think he's referring to? Romans chapter two, verse four, or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? The patience, the kindness, the loving mercy of God is meant to now say, wow, God is amazing, he's so patient, let's get to work. Procrastination gets smuggled out when we have a right understanding of why Christ has not returned yet. Well, the mention of Paul continues into verse 16, which leads to one final point. Future eschatology impacts perceptivity. perceptivity, and by that I'm thinking of spiritual perceptivity, or considering truth and being able to discern what it is. Notice he, as we return back to verse 15, notice he is our beloved brother. He is our beloved brother. That's talking about Paul as a coworker in the gospel, a fellow apostle. Notice he's beloved, though, by Peter. And that language is really important because of the very public conflict that is described in Galatians chapter 2. Are you familiar with that? Galatians 2, Paul writes, when Cephas, that is Peter's Aramaic name, came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles, but when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, if you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews? And then he goes on to explain justification by faith, essentially saying that by Peter's actions, he's causing the Gentiles to think that maybe there's something more I must do in order to be truly justified before God, which would be to keep the ceremonial law, circumcision, food laws. And Paul was like, you're messing this whole thing up. Now, the reason I say that, because he says here, our beloved brother, Paul, he has a high regard for him. greatly respects him, one who called him out publicly for sin. So he reconciled with him, he repented. All that to say, this is something we should seek to attain, which is that sort of humility that even being an apostle, Peter, would receive correction, embrace, and be reconciled with another brother, and then even look up to that person or have high regard for them. a little lesson in conflict management. But we continue here, beloved Paul wrote to you, that is to say, probably a good argument for the fact that this audience that Peter's writing to is the same audience as his first letter, which mentioned Galatia, Paul had written to Galatians. But Paul also then, after he wrote a letter, he would say within the letter, hey, make sure you pass this around to the other churches, knowing how important his writings were. And we continue on thinking about Paul. He did this according to the wisdom given him. Now that stirs up in our minds what we learned from chapter one about who are these prophets? How do we know they're something significant or different? Well, they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. And here, Paul writes according to the wisdom given him. It's in the passive. This is inspiration. All of this is bring us to have a very high regard for Paul's letters that he writes, but here we have even more specifics. Verse 16, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them for these matters, there are 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. There are things in there that are hard to understand. That's difficult to interpret. Doesn't mean it's impossible. But there are scriptures or letters or however you want to say that are more difficult and challenging to interpret. You can use the term less clear. That's OK. you might be like, well, we talk about scripture being clear. We talk about those things pertaining to salvation, life, and godliness as being super clear, so that a child would even understand it. That's called the perspicuity of scripture, to where you don't have to have the magisterial authority of the Roman Catholic Church to give you the accurate interpretation, you can come to that understanding by the Holy Spirit through your own interpretation of the study using normal laws of interpretation. But, Peter says they're hard to understand, but the motive behind these false teachers is that they distort and they twist them to serve their own agenda. And you need to be able to recognize that. What are people doing with the scriptures, particularly the more difficult ones? Are they saying, you know what, this is actually teaching this, or are they overemphasizing this and saying Paul teaches that? Most likely, the fact that these false teachers were basically pushing towards a lifestyle that was sensual and without patches, they're abusing Paul's understanding of freedom. and saying, okay, we're out from under the law, we're free to live however we want. Watch out for that. You need to have spiritual perceptivity, which this letter ends in verse 17 by saying, you therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the air of lawless people and lose your own stability. Watch out for these people who are doing this. But notice they are not doing anything new. They've always done it. And that's why he says, as they do the other scriptures. And that sounds like not a big deal, but this is one of the key proof texts for recognizing that Paul was writing scripture when it uses that term other scriptures. The way this is phrased is that Peter regards Paul's letters in the same category as the scriptures. That's what that term other means. So that, if you needed understanding, why do we receive Paul's letters as scripture? Well, Peter, who's an apostle, also recognize them as scriptures. It says right here very clearly. Paul then also quoted from Luke's gospel account in 1 Timothy 5 alongside another Old Testament proof text saying that, okay, Luke's gospel account is scripture, and this is sort of how the canon of scripture, those New Testament books, started forming. as these apostles recognized that they were writing scripture to be preserved and kept. And that's why Paul's letters has so many copies and Peter's letters. And then all of a sudden, later years, they started gathering them together to where the church recognized these particular documents as New Testament scripture, right alongside the Old Testament scripture. That's important for you as a foundation of just a doctrine of scripture, but also that you would have the discernment to know what people can still do when they claim to have the scriptures. You need spiritual perceptivity. Well, in conclusion, as we've considered the future eschatology and its impact on our present, our priorities, our perspectives, purity, procrastination, and perceptivity, We need to be able to make sure we have the right understanding of how to view the future. Are we so wrapped up in this life in this world that we don't have a category for the return that is not actively influencing how we live our lives today? There's two twin motives God gives here for our sanctification that we would consider that the fact that the earth is going to be burned up and all the deeds of evil people will be exposed. That means all our vain accomplishments or things we're living for in this age are going to vanish. They're going to pass away. What should we be living for? And then second, this age to come where righteousness dwells means we should actually be doing that now. Our lives should be but a reflection of what we will experience for all eternity. We as a church are a microcosm of the new heavens and new earth. Although imperfect now, we are living in peace with one another, in unity, in harmony. We have a single focus of like-mindedness. We share our things with each other. We have humility. That should be who we are and what we prioritize. One helpful quote from C.S. Lewis, he said, as he's considering people being too attached to this world, prosperity knits a man to the world. He feels that he is finding his place in it while really it is finding its place in him. What should we be about? What should we be pursuing? Well, according to Peter, it's waiting for and hastening the coming day of God. Let's pray. Our Lord, we thank you for this morning. Your word is powerful. I prayed at the beginning that you would sanctify us by truth. We thank you that you've given us this body of doctrine in the scriptures that we might appropriate and believe in a world full of lies and false truths, half-truths. We need a word from Christ our Savior. Thankfully, we have clearly articulated in the pages of Scripture the word of the Lord. May we receive it as such, may we be humbled by it, tremble at it, and also appropriate all the truths into our lives so that we would be a dim reflection of what we would one day experience when Christ returns in glory in the new heavens and new earth. We pray all this in the name of our blessed Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.