Please turn in your Bibles this evening to II Peter chapter 3 as we continue our study through the Word of God. Tonight we are going to finish up this letter that Peter wrote to the churches in Asia Minor or the area around modern day Turkey. Please keep in mind that Peter wrote this letter as he sat on death row in a Roman prison because of his faith in Jesus Christ. His martyrdom may only be a few weeks to months away at this point, so what Peter is saying is heavy upon his heart. He wants to give these believers the truth that will help them to grow by and not fluff!
Thus, in II Peter chapter 1 we saw the focus being to cultivate Christian character. We are to grow in Christ because God has given to us the power to do so by His Spirit through His Word. He has given to us the things we need for life and godliness. In fact, he tells u in II Peter 1:5-9, “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.” Thus, Peter is trying to stir them up, to make sure they don’t become complacent in their walk with the Lord!
Then, in II Peter chapter 2 we saw the condemnation of the false teachers. In other words, Peter wants them to be awake, to be on guard because false teachers will try to deceive them into believing these false doctrines. They are slick, deceptive, their lifestyle is ungodly and tragically, many follow their doctrines of demons. And Peter wants to remind them that these false prophets, these false teachers will be judged but God will deliver the righteous before He pours out His wrath!
This evening, in II Peter chapter 3 the focus is on the confidence we have in the Lord’s return. Folks, when I first was saved, back in 1983, there was much excitement regarding the Lord’s return. Tragically, that excitement is gone. In fact, many churches are denying the Lord’s return or they don’t teach about it because it is controversial and we are seeing the results of that in people’s lives. There is no sense of urgency, of holy living. The church is becoming complacent and their focus is on social issues instead of bringing people to Jesus!
My prayer as we finish up this letter tonight is that excitement would return. That we truly believe, as the early church did, that the Lord can return at any moment. You see, as we do it will affect how we live out our faith. One writer put it like this: “The hope of Christ’s coming was of paramount importance for the early church. In fact, its certainty was so real that first-century believers would greet one another with the term “maranatha,” meaning “Lord, come quickly.” Instead of being frightened by the possibility, they clung to it as the culmination of everything they believed. Not surprisingly, the New Testament reflects the intense anticipation by referencing Jesus’ return, whether directly or indirectly, in every New Testament book except Philemon and 3 John.” (Nathan Buesnitz, Living a Life of Hope, P. 122).
Obviously then, this is important and the Devil is drawing us away from this blessed hope and glorious appearing of Jesus Christ that Jesus wants us to have. Don’t let the Devil do that, trust in God and His Word! With that said, let’s begin reading tonight in II Peter chapter 3, starting in verse 1 and see what the Lord has for us as we look at the confidence we can have in Christ’s return.
VERSES 1-2
I believe Peter is speaking of his first letter that he wrote to the churches in Asia Minor and now, in his second letter he wants to remind them not to become complacent in their walk. He doesn’t want them to lose sight of the truths of God because of the persecution they were facing. I have experienced this in my own life. I‘ve been pastor here in Manitowoc for 11 years now and at times, I have to admit, I have been discouraged. And my wife, my helpmate, the one God has given to me has encouraged me. And all she has to say is, “Joe, you know God called you here, you know His promises to you.” That is all I needed to be reminded of because, like you, I forget those things at times because I allowed the circumstances to take my eyes off of God’s promises to me.
Peter speaks of “pure minds” and the Greek word for “pure” is EILIKRINES, (i-lik-ree-nace’) and it speaks of being sincere or “tested as genuine.” The Latin word is “sine cera” and it means “without wax.” You see, at the pottery shops back then, if something had a crack in it, they would cover it with wax and it would look fine. That was until you held it up to the light of the sun and then you could see the crack. Thus, some of the pottery dealers would place the sign in their window that said, “sine cera” or “without wax” letting their customers know they were getting the real thing, it was without wax, it was genuine.
Our minds need to be genuine, sincere, pure, without the wax or garbage of this world, the influence of this world. And that is done as we stir up our minds, as we read and apply God’s Word to our lives. Peter tells them to listen to the prophets of God, what they said. He tells them to listen to the words of the apostles or the men of God. You will see if a teaching or what you believe is of God or not if you hold it up to the light of God’s Word! Paul reminds us in Romans 12:2, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” You see, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12.
The reason Peter is telling them to focus on God, to focus on His Word, is because of the false teachers that are bringing in destructive heresies or doctrines of demons. You see, they not only deny Jesus, His virgin birth, His deity, His death and resurrection, but Peter is now going to tell us that they also deny His second coming. Listen to what Peter says.
VERSES 3-4
Peter is telling us that scoffers, mockers will come in the “last days.” When did the last days begin? They began with the first coming of Jesus as Paul tells us in Hebrews 1:1-2, “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds.” And these last days will continue on until the second coming of Jesus when He establishes His kingdom, His millennial reign on this earth. Now, why do people deny the Lord’s return? Peter tells us it is because they are walking after their own lusts, doing their own things and thus, to admit the Lord is coming back would mean their sin is going to be judged. And so they deny the Lord’s return so they can continue on in their sin!
As I have said, the imminent return of Christ is not in vogue, it is out of style, even among some professing Christians. And here is their rational in denying the Lord’s return. “You have been talking about this for years and it hasn’t happened. Thus, it won’t happen, it is just talk. All things just continue on as they did in the past, nothing changes!” They believed what we now call uniformitarianism or that all natural laws occur in the same manner, nothing changes, we live in a closed system where God, if He exists, doesn’t intervene! Thus, the key to the present is to look at the past but they look at the past with a skewed view. And that is in complete opposition to the Biblical view that tells us that we live in an open system and yes, God has placed order in the natural laws, but God has and will continue to intervene in our lives, in this world!
This idea of uniformitarianism came into being through the efforts of a nineteenth-century British lawyer and geologist named Charles Lyell. He wrote a book called Principles of Geology which impacted the scientific community. They now came to ignore that which they once believed, catastrophism or cataclysmic events and moved towards uniformitarianism. Charles Darwin took that book with him on his voyage to the Galapagos and other islands off the Pacific coast of South America on the ship Beagle, where he established his theory of evolution, (1831-1832). What is interesting is that the church is buying into this garbage and the reason is simple. Their minds are not pure to the Words of God but instead they believe the principles of this world, the philosophies of this world!
Now, the big question is, “How do we know what Peter is saying is true? Peter was not a scientist, so couldn’t he be wrong?” No, and Peter is going to explain why he is right and they are wrong!
VERSES 5-7
You see, it is not that they don’t have the evidence to believe, but that they willfully forget what God has done in the past. God created the heavens and the earth and all the life that is in it in 6 literal, 24-hour days. The evidence that is out there shows us that truth. Look at the complexity of life, it didn’t just happen but there had to be a designer, a creator and that is God!
God not only created the heavens and the earth but He brought judgment upon man in the form of a flood that covered the face of the earth. We are told the reason in Genesis 6:5-8, “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the LORD said, ‘I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.’ But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.”
Man was wicked but Noah found grace in God and he and his family were spared as they were safe within the ark. But the flood, maybe some 5 billion people plus all the animals at that time, destroyed all life outside the ark! I know, some laugh at the idea of a global flood, but look at the evidence. There are billions of dead things buried in rock layers laid down by water, all over the earth! And folks, many geologists and scientists are looking at the evidence and seeing the remains of a global flood but many willfully forget or ignore this truth!
Thus, God intervened before and brought judgment upon an evil world and He is going to do it again, not with a flood but with fire! How do I know that? Because of the past and the evidence showing that what God has said has taken place, His Word is true and thus, what He says of the future will be true also! But, right now God is holding this world together. That is what Paul tells us in Colossians 1:17, “And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” The Living Bible puts this verse like this, “He was before all else began and it is his power that holds everything together.” And in Hebrews 1:3 Paul tells us, “who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”
Now some may laugh at that, God holding everything together. But think about Coulomb’s Law of Electricity that shows like charges repel each other and opposite charges attract each other. Now think of an atom that has protons in the nucleus and electrons orbiting around it. What holds those protons together? We aren’t sure and the scientists tell us that maybe it is “atomic glue” or something like that.
But there is a tremendous amount of power in that nucleus of the atom! Let me put this into perspective for you on how powerful these forces are and even more amazing, how in the world do they even stay together. If you were to take one tablespoon of positive charges and place them on the North Pole and then take another tablespoon of positive charges and place them on the South Pole, keeping in mind that like charges repel each other. Also note that the diameter between the poles, if you could cut right through the earth, is 7,899.80 miles apart. In saying that, it would take 30 thousand tons of pressure on each of the poles to keep them from pushing away from each other! So what holds them together? Not what but who, and laugh if you want, but it is Jesus Christ and when He let’s go, well, Peter will tells us in a few verses what takes place when He does! I will give you a hint, it goes BOOM!
VERSES 8-9
Why hasn’t God judged this earth again? Two points that Peter makes regarding this. First, God’s timetable is different than ours. God is outside the space/time domain and thus, one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day. Now in saying that, please understand that God will judge in His perfect timing and the reason He hasn’t done so yet is because He is longsuffering and His desire is that all would be saved. He gets no pleasure in the death of the wicked! And think about this, if the Lord returned back in 1967 during Israel’s Six Day War, I would not be saved, what about you? Thank God He is longsuffering. He gives people every opportunity to be saved, but it is their choice!
There is coming a day when His grace will come to an end and then judgment will come. In fact, Paul tells us in Romans 11:25, “For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” In other words, when the last gentile is saved, God will Rapture His Bride to Himself, He will pour out His Spirit upon the Jewish people and His judgment will come upon this Christ rejecting world! We long for that day but again, until then, let us go into the highways and byways and compel people to come into the kingdom of God!
VERSE 10
For those not waiting for His coming it will be a surprise to them just as it was for those who were drowned in the flood of God’s judgment during the days of Noah. For 120 years they heard of the coming judgment from Noah and they refused to listen, and we see God’s grace for almost 2,000 years now, but His judgment is coming and many still refuse to listen. And here Peter moves on to the culmination of history you might say. He goes past the end of the Tribulation Period, past the Millennial reign of Christ, past the Great White Throne Judgment to the creation of a new heavens and a new earth where we will dwell with the Lord forever, sin will be done away with completely!
Today the big push is to stop global warming, even Al Gore has a movie out promoting this cause. In fact, USA Today had a front-page news story by Elizabeth Weise and cited “forest ecologist” Glenn Juday with this alarming data: “Since the 1970s, climate change has doubled the growing season in some places and raised the state temperatures 6 degrees in the winter and 3.5 average annually since 1950, says Juday, a professor at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks.”
That should be alarming news to you. You should be terrified because if her data is true, if her facts are right, if the annual winter temperature in Alaska has increased 6 degrees Fahrenheit annually since 1950, it means that the average winter temperature in Alaska is 336 degrees higher than they were in 1950! It would seem like summer would be the best time to go to Alaska now since the average summer temperatures in Alaska has risen only 196 degrees since 1950! Isn’t it amazing the garbage people read and believe and yet, when it comes to God’s Word they just laugh, they think it is a joke. Folks, it is no joke! God says what He means and means what He says and if you want to deny the coming judgment, you can. But it is not going to change the facts, His judgment is coming just as it came in the days of Noah only this time it will not be by a flood, but by fire! I guess you could call it global warming!
Back on December 2, 1942 – at the University of Chicago’s Stagg field – Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Ferme, and Albert Einstein tested their theory that if Uranium 235 was bombarded with neutrons, energy was released. Then on July 16, 1945 in the deserts of New Mexico, the first nuclear devise was tested and it melted the 10-inch metal that was used to drop it. Debris shot several miles into the air and 1800 yards in every direction. Not only that, but the sand, for 800 yards around the test site, turned to glass! Then, in August of 1945 the atom bomb was dropped over the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki! Folks, when the Lord lets go there will be a thermal nuclear reaction beyond belief. But out of that a new heavens and a new earth will be created as Isaiah 65:17 tells us, “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.”
VERSES 11-13
Since the Lord is coming back, since all the worldly things are going to be destroyed, live accordingly, live holy lives. You see, why hold on to the things of this world so tightly when they are going to be destroyed? John put it this way in I John 2:15-17, “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 is in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” In other words, how foolish we are to invest everything in things we can’t keep, when we can invest in the things we can’t lose, things which are eternal.
Now that phrase, “what manner of persons ought you to be” is better translated, “how astonishingly excellent you ought to be.” You see, the return of Christ, the imminent return of Jesus should have an impact upon our lives! It should cause us to live holy lives, we should live in a way that honors God! Paul tells us in Titus 2:11-14, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.” If your hope is in this world you will be disappointed. But, if your hope is in Christ and His return, you will be blessed. It is as John tells us in Revelation 21:1, what we are looking forward to, “Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.” You see, righteousness will fill the land, there will be no more sin, no more sickness and we will be with the Lord! Thus, “how astonishingly excellent you ought to be.”
The “day of God” speaks of the final eternal state when all the enemies of God have been subdued and God creates a new heavens and a new earth for us to dwell in with Him. The phrase the “day of the Lord” speaks of the judgment of God and begins with the Tribulation Period and continues on till the end of the Tribulation Period.
VERSES 14-15a
Remember what Peter said of the false teachers back in II Peter 2:10-15a, “and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord. But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children. They have forsaken the right way and gone astray . . .”
Thus, Peter is telling us to be prepared, to be looking for the Lord which will cause us to live holy lives. Don’t follow the ways of the unsaved, don’t be conformed to this world but be transformed by God!
Now some struggle with the longsuffering of God, they want Him to come now! I think most of us feel that way and yet when we see family members, friends who don’t know the Lord, we should be glad He is longsuffering, giving everyone an opportunity to enter in. Again, think about it, where were you 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 20 years ago? Were you saved? Aren’t you glad the Lord is longsuffering? Of course you are! It is as Paul said in Romans 2:4, “Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” Or as The Amplified Bible puts it, “Or are you [so blind as to] trifle with and presume upon and despise and underestimate the wealth of His kindness and forbearance and long-suffering patience? Are you unmindful or actually ignorant [of the fact] that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repent (to change your mind and inner man to accept God's will)?”
And folks, in the midst of dark times, of persecution, we can have peace because we know this suffering is only for a while, the Lord is coming back, thus, live accordingly!
VERSES 15b-16
Remember what Paul did to Peter in Galatians 2:11-21, “Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed; for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, ‘If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews? We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not! For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
Paul rebuked Peter for his compromise, for not eating with the gentile believers when the Jews came. Peter was not angry with Paul, he did not hold it against him but took the rebuke to heart and loved Paul. And Paul did it in front of all not to destroy Peter, but to show him his hypocrisy and to encourage the gentile believers that there is no longer a wall of separation between Jew and Gentile because Jesus has torn down that wall! What a great lesson for us, to learn from our mistakes, errors and not be angry with those who may rebuke us!
Peter is not saying we can’t understand what Paul is saying but that some things Paul says are complex, they are deeper than the others. Now, what ends up happening is false teachers come along and twist the Scriptures to fit their agenda. That is why you can have homosexual and lesbian pastors, gay churches, churches promoting unbiblical doctrine because they twist the Scriptures. Thus, study the Scriptures so you know the truths of God and wont’ be mislead by these false teachers with their false doctrines!
VERSES 17-18
Here is the warning as Peter prepares to be but to death. You know the truths of God, you have been taught the truths of God, thus, don’t turn away from them! But don’t stop there, continue to grow, that is what the Greek is saying here. Never stop but keep on growing in the grace of God. Grace means undeserved favor, we don’t deserve it, we don’t deserve eternal life, but God freely gives it to us. Folks, Peter doesn’t say grow in devotion to God, or grow in your zeal towards God, or grow in holiness, as important as those are. But to grow in grace because we are saved by the grace of God, we stand by the grace of God and we will be taken to glory one day by the grace of God. Thus, grace is not only the starting point, it is the only point!
Peter also tells us we need to grow in our knowledge of Jesus, to have that intimate relationship with Him because the more we do, the more of Him will be seen in our lives. The more we learn of Him the more we learn of ourselves and the more we see the bountiful, the never ending grace of God. It is as Paul said in Colossians 3:1-4, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” As I close this evening and we finish this letter, may you be watching for the Lord’s return and live your life as if He is coming back at any moment! And in knowing all that God has done for us, as Peter said, “To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.” And folks, MARANATHA!