A Certain End
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Like every generation of believers before us, we may be tempted at times to see the rampant evil in our world and wonder if God is ever going to close the chapter on this time and if the Day of the Lord will ever come. The early church sometimes wondered, too. In the second letter of Peter, he encourages and challenges the church. In chapter one, he urges believers to confirm their calling and election. In other words, to grow in the faith. He list qualities that should be increasing in the believer’s lives. This would keep them from being ineffectual. But believers who practice the good qualities Peter writes about will never fail. So he tells them he intends to constantly remind them of these qualities.
Again and again Peter talks about knowing, knowledge. You need to know these qualities, and he seems to be working hard so that after he passes away, they will be able to recall his teachings. In other words, Peter believes in the power of repetition, and the necessity of repetition. We need to constantly be remembering, learning, and re-learning the truths of scripture, and diligently working to apply these in our lives. Peter also in chapter one points out that Jesus’ ministry had eyewitnesses, and he is one of them. And he points out the 2Pet1.21
For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
In chapter 2, Peter goes after false prophets and teachers in what one writer said is probably the strongest polemic found in scripture. Peter rips into the false teachers. He says there were false prophets in Old Testament times and there will be false teachers among you. Peter joins Jesus and other writers of scripture, including Paul, that warned many times that false teachers, wolves in sheep's clothing, would be in the church. Constant diligence and vigilance are needed. We should be watching out for false teaching, warning both false teachers and other believers. The number one way to do that is to be in the Word of God ourselves, and know it well so that when a false teaching pops up, and it certainly will, we will be able to have the discernment we need to avoid it.
Peter very strongly comes after these false teachers, who are blasphemers, those who are after sensuality and are insatiable for sin. They are greedy, they are accursed, they have gone the way of Balaam, they are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. They turned away from the path of righteousness and are therefore worse off than if they had never known it. After Peter’s blistering rebuke and warning about false teachers, one writer said he was greatly comforted to arrive in Chapter 3, where our study will begin this morning, because Peter’s tone changes, and he uses the word beloved. I will read through Chapter 3 and then we will get back to see about that big idea and our main points.
This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder,
that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles,
knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.
They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”
For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God,
and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.
But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
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.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and 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, 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, 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.
You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your 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.
Big Idea: The Day of the Lord will come
Big Idea: The Day of the Lord will come
Believers need to:
Be diligent to be found without spot or blemish
Count the patience of the Lord as Salvation
Not be carried away by error
Grow in grace and knowledge
So Peter begins with addressing the church as beloved. This is a very close term, one reserved for the most intimate relationships. In the church, we find ourselves knitted together in Christ, and our bonds then should reflect a very closeness and love and care for one another. Peter wants to gently remind the church about the prophecies and the commandments of Jesus that have been taught and explained by the apostles, and this is because scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. These scoffers will mock the Christians, who hold to the truth that Jesus is returning, a day of Judgement is coming, and remade heaven and earth are in the works. Yet many will say, “when is it going to happen?”. And how much more might they say it today. It has been 2,000 years. There are terrible things in the world. Why doesn’t God just come and clean house right now? Why does he let the sinners keep on sinning? They will say that nothing has changed, the world is still proceeding on as if there is no God to answer to.
Peter shares a lesson here, about God’s eternal nature. 2Pet3.8
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
Please do not take this in a very literal sense. Peter is not saying at all that there is some perfect ratio that we can calculate God’s time on a scale as an increment of our time. No, it is more than that. God is outside of time. He is the one who set our current time table in motion. He is eternal, and we have really no concept with which to understand what that means. All of us were born, we have had a certain number of days thus far, we will have a certain number of days after this morning, we cannot possibly understand what eternality is like.
Peter is simply showing us that what may seem to us to be a long time, or perhaps we could say that it is too long since all this has been going on, we need to understand that to God, he is not worried like we are about the amount of time it is taking for the Day of the Lord to come. What Peter says next shows us that there is a purpose in the long period of time from our perspective, and that is that God is working all things out in the timeline so that all of the elect will come to him.
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.
He is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish. Wait a minute, here, Peter! Are you saying you believe in universalism? Universalism is the belief that all people, universally, from all points in time and all places, all people will be saved. Is that what Peter is saying? No, absolutely no. Remember that context is king. What is the context of this letter? What has Peter been writing about up to this point, and who is he writing to? Peter is writing to the church, and he has been writing about false teachings and false teachers. So when he says the Lord is patient towards you, the you is the church. Certainly this letter can be read by unbelievers, but it was not addressed to unbelievers. Remember that important rule of Bible study, that a passage cannot mean something different than it meant to the original audience, in this case, the church that Peter is writing to.
Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
So he is writing to believers, so when he says that the Lord is patient towards you, he means towards the believers. Truly saved people. Jesus said: Luk18.7
And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?
So it is the elect God seems to delay over, yet we do not understand his timing, so we need to trust that His timing will be just right, and when we get discouraged when things seem really awful in the world, we need to remind ourselves that God is being patient with us. Peter has just written about false teachings in the church, so part of that patience is allowing people to come back to the truth. Certainly today there are many false teachers. There are all sorts of heresies and bad teachings, and God is being patient with us. I myself and many believers I have met will confess that we once believed some sort of error. God graciously allowed me the time to get some things right that I had wrong before. He continues this refining work in me and in all who are determined to understand God and know Him and to know His ways.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and 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, 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.
Jesus used many parables and metaphors, which is where Peter got the idea that the day will come like a thief. Thieves use the element of surprise. We will be surprised whenever that time comes, but we must be ready. The heavens will pass away with a roar, the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and all the works done on earth will be exposed. There will be no secret sins left, they will all be exposed. This should motivate us to have lives of holiness and godliness. We both wait and we hasten that day when we live righteously.
Next we see some pretty disturbing imagery if it were the final act, that the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, heavenly bodies melting as they burn. We need not be disturbed by this, though, if we are in Christ, because this burning is a cleansing, and after that there will be new heavens and a new earth, and this will be made with perfection and without the decay and death that we now see all around us. This is according to his promise, and God’s promises will certainly be kept.
And now we get to the last several verses and our main points.
Big Idea: The Day of the Lord will come
Big Idea: The Day of the Lord will come
Believers need to:
Be diligent to be found without spot or blemish
Count the patience of the Lord as Salvation
Not be carried away by error
Grow in grace and knowledge
Be diligent to be found without spot or blemish, and at peace. Paul wrote something similar: 1Cor15.58
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
When we see the word diligent, we usually mean someone who completes their job, or makes sure to do things they are responsible to do. But the word here means a bit more than that. The word Peter used in his letter before it was translated for us into English meant something more like be zealous, be eager, hurry. It also means what we normally mean, that is, to be earnest or make effort, but added to that is the idea that we do it with zeal, a sense of urgency, even with speed. Be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. Be eager or zealous to be found this way. In other words, we need to be highly motivated to live holy and respectable lives.
Next, we need to count the patience of the Lord as Salvation. When we get discouraged in our time, looking around and wondering why God lets so many people get by with so many blasphemies and sins, we would do well to remember that God is being patient and kind with us, and allowing us to continue working out our salvation. We don’t work for our salvation, for Christ has done all the work, but we work out our salvation, that is, why continually apply our salvation to ourselves. And this life-long process that we call sanctification, whereby we grow to be more like Christ, takes time.
But not only that, we need to remember that just as we are being given grace to continue this sanctification, so others may be given more time to come for the first to to Christ. You see, if they are the elect, they will certainly come, but until the Day of the Lord comes, there are those who are elect that are His, who we may just have an opportunity to be a part of their coming to faith and becoming disciples. In fact, we should hope so! Isn’t this the command we spoke of last week? And our big idea last week was that every believer should be actively involved in this enterprise we call evangelism. And we know not how many in our city are among the elect, so we must actively go out and present the gospel. We know not, but God knows, so He sends us.
Next week, Lord willing, we will look at Acts 18. Jesus spoke to Paul about not giving up on his evangelistic efforts, even in the face of opposition. He told Paul to go on speaking an not be silent, for I have many in this city who are my people. Jesus knew who they were. Paul didn’t. Paul was to be obedient to preach to all who would listen, but Jesus knew who were his in that city, so we must also remember that there may very well be many in our spheres of influence who are God’s people but they don’t know it yet, and you don’t either, so we pray and look for opportunities to proclaim the gospel.
In David Helm’s Preaching the Word commentary on the letters of Peter, he shares this great illustration:
1 & 2 Peter and Jude—Sharing Christ’s Sufferings (Salvation)
Why hasn’t Christ come? According to Peter, he wants us to dwell with him forever. His apparent slowness is our salvation. Entering into that relationship with God demands time—and for most of us, it takes a little bit more than one might at first think.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a preacher of the mid-twentieth century, had a businessman in his congregation named William Thomas. Thomas was a salesman—a Welshman—who sold fish door to door. One day several men at the local watering hole were drinking and talking. Suddenly Thomas, who was also having a pint, found himself listening to their conversation at the table next to him. “Yes,” said one man to the other, “I was there last Sunday night, and that preacher said nobody was hopeless. He said there was hope for everybody.”
Of the rest of the conversation, Thomas heard nothing, but arrested and completely sobered, he said to himself, “If there’s hope for everybody, there’s hope for me. I’m going to that chapel myself to see what that man says.” That first Sunday he walked to the opened gate of the railings that fenced the church, stood for some minutes, and then, his nerve failing him, turned and went home.
Throughout the wretched week he waited for the next Sunday evening to arrive, and somehow he reached the chapel only to hear singing. Faced with the realization that he was late, he once more turned away and went home. The third Sunday evening came, and William Thomas was once again at the gate, wondering nervously what he should do next when one of the members of the congregation welcomed him with the words, “Are you coming in? Come and sit with me.”
That night William Thomas passed from condemnation to life. He found, as Mrs. Lloyd-Jones tells us, that “he could understand the things that were being said, and he believed the gospel and his heart was flooded with a great peace. Old things had passed away; old things had become new.”
Imagine what the end would have been like for William Thomas if the Lord had said after that first week, “Well, I think I’m done now. I’ll return in judgment today.” What would it be like for you? How many times have you come under the hearing of God’s Word? How many years have you silently wondered whether or not you should make a fresh start with God? Do you not see, do you not yet understand? The delay in Christ’s coming is not only because he is so unlike us, but because he is so patient toward us.
Believers need to:
Be diligent to be found without spot or blemish
Count the patience of the Lord as Salvation
Not be carried away by error
Grow in grace and knowledge
Before we get to the third point, I want to point out something that should be encouraging to all of us, since I doubt there is anyone among us who hasn’t at one time scratched their head trying to understand some facet of scripture. I say this because Peter seems to admit that Paul’s letters are hard to understand.
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.
It is also worth noting that Peter lumped Paul’s writings in with other Scriptures. This shows us that already, very early in the church, it was understood that the writings we call the new testament carried with them apostolic authority.
You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.
You can read chapter 2 on your own later, clearly this was a concern for Peter, that error was in the church and people were being swayed to believe the wrongs things, so once again he tells them not to be carried away by error.
How do we avoid error? I know you hear me harping on this again and again, but it is so fundamental to your success as a follower of Jesus it bears repeating again and again. You must be in God’s Word daily, and be careful that you do not think you have learned enough to stand without further teaching or study. For Paul also warns:
Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.
We have a tendency to think more highly of ourselves than we ought, we tend to congratulate ourselves on what we know. We tend to compare ourselves not to the perfection we are called to, but one another, while we see each other’s faults while missing major problems of our own if we ever take the time for self-reflection.
So in order that we take care to not be carried away with the error of lawless people and lose our own stability we must be very intentional, very committed, to maturing in our faith, to being wiser today than we were yesterday, to not let the lessons of grace miss us. You see, we are constantly and throughout our lives given graceful reminders of our own need for God. So if we think we stand, we must take heed lest we fall.
Finally, Peter closes his letter with a beautiful exhortation to the believers, 2Pet3.18
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.
Peter finishes his letter with a positive encouragement to us. Don’t be carried away with error and lose your stability. Instead, grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Grow in His grace, that grace that brings us to the place of humility that always wants to look up to Him, makes us dependent on Him and not ourselves, for this is the best way to stay out of trouble.
And grow in knowledge. Many people have deceived themselves into believing that they have all the knowledge the need already. Some Christians say really silly things, like if you study your Bible too much, you are making an idol of it. While the possibility certainly exists for a person to be puffed up by knowledge, the proper correction is certainly not to be biblically illiterate people. If someone thinks they have acquired all the knowledge they will ever need, if someone always wants to teach but never is the student, they may very well be that puffed up person. But if the solution to puffed up people or teachers is to forbid being a student from learning, we have gone way off course.
This is why Peter pairs grace with knowledge here. Jesus was full of grace and truth. Jesus said we are to be perfect, which is at this time to be an aspiration, since perfection is not possible for us at this time. But if we are to strive to be perfect, wouldn’t this include being perfect in knowledge? Yet many Christians say they cannot find the time to study deeply into the things of God, so they rely on a paragraph a day from a devotional book and a sermon once a week. Some of the very pious listen to something Christian during the week too, but they never themselves dive into scripture. Yet compared to many, the one who does a paragraph a day is way ahead, since many people do not read their bibles during the week between church services at all.
Yesterday I saw some information on some research into the effects of reading the bible 4 times a week, and it is amazing. This is based on a scientific study, but it only confirms what we should already believe about God’s Word.
I read from an article on the Lifeway website they studied the effects of reading scripture one day per week, two days, and three days. At three days there started to show some measurable results, but at four days it is simply amazing The article says:
A steady climb of impact would have been expected, but that was not the case. The level was basically stagnant over days one and two, with a small bump on day three. But when day four was reached, the effects spiked in an astounding way. The stunning findings included the following:
Feeling lonely drops 30%
Anger issues drop 32%
Bitterness in relationships drops 40%
Alcoholism drops 57%
Sex outside of marriage drops 68%
Feeling spiritually stagnant drops 60%
Viewing pornography drops 61%
Sharing your faith jumps 200%
Discipling others jumps 230%
The research literally leaps off the charts. The findings hammer home the truth that there are profound differences between people who engage the Scriptures at least four times a week and those who engage with Scripture less often.
This data is extremely revealing. There is a full-blown effort to keep the followers of Christ from consistently reading the Bible on a daily basis.
Integral to these findings is that people who engage the Bible one to three days a week indicate basically the same effect on their personal lives as those who do not engage at all. The deceptive reality is that they can feel good about their activities without any sustainable results. They think they’re being “good Christians,” but their lives are no different than people who aren’t Christians at all.
This can be devastating to a movement. Limited activity is elevated to the same effect as consistent activity, when it is actually the same as no activity.
Limited activity is often elevated to the same effect as consistent activity, when statistically it is actually the same as no activity.
The reality is that with a lack of consistent Bible engagement defined as at least four times a week, Christians have less confidence in sharing their faith with others and are more vulnerable to falling prey to false teachings, as well as a lethargy and apathy in consistently living out their faith in their circle of influence.
The studies show that the best spiritually based predictor among 13- to 17-year-old teenagers was their engagement in Scripture.
Similarly, when examining children raised in church, a Lifeway Research study found the biggest factor for predicting their spiritual health as young adults is whether they read the Bible regularly as kids.
Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Bible is the Word of God, and has supernatural power to change lives. We are to grow up.
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
And we are to long to the pure spiritual milk.
Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—
Big Idea: The Day of the Lord will come
Big Idea: The Day of the Lord will come
Believers need to:
Be diligent to be found without spot or blemish
Count the patience of the Lord as Salvation
Not be carried away by error
Grow in grace and knowledge
The Day of the Lord is coming! Many things are happening in our world that without a grounding in scripture may seem stressful and scary. When you are grounded in God’s Word, you will have increasing confidence in the truth of God’s Word, and an increasing sense of the real and coming end of this age. If you ground yourself in God’s Word, you will be more and more excited about what God is doing in and through His church! You will be more likely to evangelize your friends and neighbors. You will be better able to resist temptation! The Day of the Lord will Come, the heavens and earth will be remade, and those found faithful will enjoy an eternity of blissful worship of God in the most amazing way. We truly cannot even imagine the wonders that await for the believer,. I will close with the words of Paul as a Benediction. May this be our prayer as we look forward to the Day of the Lord:
But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair;
persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;
always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.
For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
So death is at work in us, but life in you.
Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak,
knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.
For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling,
if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.
For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,
for we walk by faith, not by sight.
Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.
We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart.
For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;
and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.