[Prayer]
Today’s message is from 2 Peter 3:1-13. This is my second message on this passage. (The first one was last Sunday.)
This passage is about the Day of the Lord. The Day of the Lord, as I pointed out last week, is the day of God’s judgment and the day of his salvation—his salvation for those who fear the Lord, his judgment for those who have rejected him. And the difference is the difference between day and night. It greater than the difference between life and death. It’s the great and dreadful Day of the Lord. It’s a scary thing. We need to know that it’s coming and to be prepared for it.
And remember that the Apostle Peter wrote about the Day of the Lord (and all the things that he wrote in 2 Peter) as his final words. It’s the things he wanted all of his readers (and that includes us) to remember, if nothing else.
So as we read the passage, remember as always that we are reading the word of God. And especially remember that these things that the apostle Peter wrote about, that he was being guided by the Holy Spirit of God to write about, are the things that he considered most important. We need to pay attention. So pay attention. I’m going to review and repeat quite a bit of what I said last week and then add to it.
Also, as always, I’m reminding you to read your Bibles every day. The apostle Peter knew it was important for his readers to hear the message over again even though they had already heard it and knew it. We need to be reminded of the word of God on a continuing basis, even though we already know it. (If you don’t know it, start reading.)
Now, let’s read the passage—2 Peter 3:1-13:
1Dear friends, this is now the second letter I’ve written you; in both, I awaken your pure understanding with a reminder, 2so that you can remember the words previously spoken by the holy prophets, and the commandment of our Lord and Savior given through your apostles. 3First, be aware of this: scoffers will come in the last days to scoff, following their own lusts, 4saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they have been since the beginning of creation.” 5They willfully ignore this: long ago the heavens and the earth existed out of water and through water by the word of God. 6Through these the world of that time perished when it was flooded by water. 7But by the same word the present heavens and earth are held in store for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
8Dear friends, don’t let this one thing escape you: with the Lord one day is like 1,000 years, and 1,000 years like one day. 9The Lord does not delay His promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.
10But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief; on that day the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, the elements will burn and be dissolved, and the earth and the works on it will be disclosed. 11Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, it is clear what sort of people you should be in holy conduct and godliness 12as you wait for and earnestly desire the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be on fire and be dissolved, and the elements will melt with the heat. 13But based on His promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness will dwell. (2 Peter~3:1-13)
Last week I talked about verses 1 through 9. Today I’m going to review some of what I said last week and also overlap somewhat with the part of the passage I talked about last week. I’m going to talk about verses 7 through 13. But I’m going to talk about some other things, too. I’m going to talk about repentance and faith and salvation—about crossing over from death to life.
If you look back to the beginning of 2 Peter, you will see that Peter was writing to People whom he assumed were believers—people who had obtained a faith that is “of equal privilege with ours”. (Some of the other translations say, “...of equal standing with ours,” “...the same kind as ours,” “...as precious as ours.” The King James says, “obtained like precious faith with us.”) What is faith that is “of equal privilege” with the faith of the apostles? What is faith that is “as precious as” the faith of the apostles? What makes faith precious? Faith is precious because God says that it is precious. It’s what he wants to see in us most of all. It’s also the means by which we have salvation. By dying on the cross, Jesus paid the price for our sin. But we have to have faith to receive God’s forgiveness.
I looked up the word faith in my Bible concordance. In the HCSB translation it’s used 227 times in the New Testament. I’m going to give you some examples. Some are rebukes for lack of faith, most are commendations. All of the verses I’m going to read are from Matthew:
The first one is from the Sermon on the Mount. It’s a rebuke to people who worry more about their material needs (or maybe luxuries like beautiful clothes) instead of seeking God’s kingdom and his righteousness first. Jesus talked about how beautiful the lilies of the field were. Then he said, “If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t He do much more for you—you of little faith? (Matt.~6:30) If you worry about the things of this life more than you do about seeking God kingdom and his righteousness, you have little faith.
Here’s one from Matthew 8:1-5:
“When He entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him (Jesus), pleading with Him, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, in terrible agony!”
“I will come and heal him,” He told him.
“Lord,” the centurion replied, “I am not worthy to have You come under my roof. But only say the word, and my servant will be cured. For I too am a man under authority, having soldiers under my command. I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes; and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.”
Hearing this, Jesus was amazed and said to those following Him, “I assure you: I have not found anyone in Israel with so great a faith!”
The centurion was a soldier. He was not an Israelite. He was a Gentile. But he understood that he had his authority over those who were under him by putting himself under the authority of those who were above him. And he knew that Jesus could certainly heal his servant because his authority came from God. He understood better than any of the people of Israel that Jesus’s power and authority came through his obedience to his Father in heaven. Jesus said, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” (John~6:38)
How much authority do we have? Where does our authority come from? Whose will do we do? Jesus called the centurion’s understanding “so great a faith that he had not found anything like it in Israel.”
By the way, in John 6:38 (that I just read) Jesus said, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” In the next verse, John 6:39, he said, “This is the will of Him who sent Me: that I should lose none of those He has given Me but should raise them up on the last day.”
Here are some more:
Matthew 9:2: Just then some men brought to Him a paralytic lying on a stretcher. Seeing their faith, Jesus told the paralytic, “Have courage, son, your sins are forgiven.”
Matthew 9:22: But Jesus turned and saw her, “Have courage, daughter,” He said, “Your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that moment.
Healing and forgiveness comes through faith in God. Faith in God is simply believing him—that what he says is good and true is good and true.
Matthew 9:27-29:
“As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, shouting, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”
When He entered the house, the blind men approached Him, and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I can do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they answered Him.
Then He touched their eyes, saying, “Let it be done for you according to your faith!”
Matthew 14:28-31: This is when the disciples were alone at night on the Sea of Galilee and the waves were beating against their boat. Jesus came to the disciples walking on the water. They were terrified. They thought he was a ghost. Here’s what it says:
When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost!” they said, and cried out in fear.
Immediately Jesus spoke to them. “Have courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
“Lord, if it’s You,” Peter answered Him, “command me to come to You on the water.”
“Come!” He said. And climbing out of the boat, Peter started walking on the water and came toward Jesus.
But when he saw the strength of the wind, he was afraid. And beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me!”
Immediately Jesus reached out His hand, caught hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”
Jesus rebuked Peter for his lack of faith. (But he did have faith to cry out to Jesus to save him.)
Matthew 15:22-28:
Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came and kept crying out, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is cruelly tormented by a demon.”
Yet He did not say a word to her. So His disciples approached Him and urged Him, “Send her away because she cries out after us.”
He replied, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
But she came, knelt before Him, and said, “Lord, help me!”
He answered, “It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to their dogs.”
“Yes, Lord,” she said, “yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table!”
Then Jesus replied to her, “Woman, your faith is great. Let it be done for you as you want.” And from that moment her daughter was cured.
“It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to their dogs.” Most people would be insulted. Many people, in their pride, would tell Jesus to just forget about it or maybe something stronger than that. But this woman wanted her daughter to be free, so she persisted: “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table!” Would you be able to humble yourself in such a situation? Jesus called this woman’s humility “great faith.”
Matthew 16:6-8: (This one is a rebuke to Jesus’s disciples.)
Then Jesus told them, “Watch out and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
And they discussed among themselves, “We didn’t bring any bread.”
Aware of this, Jesus said, “You of little faith! Why are you discussing among yourselves that you do not have bread?
Yeast in the Bible, virtually always represents something bad. It represents rottenness and corruption. The yeast of the Pharisees was their teaching. Jesus was warning them about it. He called what I believe was their lack of willingness to think carefully about what he was saying to them—to think deeply about it—little faith. How willing are we to think deeply about the word of God?
And one more, Matthew 21:18-21:
Early in the morning, as He was returning to the city, He was hungry. Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He went up to it and found nothing on it except leaves. And He said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” At once the fig tree withered.
When the disciples saw it, they were amazed and said, “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?”
Jesus answered them, “I assure you: If you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you tell this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will be done.
This is about faith and about cursing a fig tree not to ever bear fruit again. Listen to this parable that Jesus told. This is from Luke 13:6-9:
“A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’
“‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”
Fruit is what God wants to see in our lives. It’s the evidence of our faith. Without faith, it’s impossible to please God. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control. (Some translations say faithfulness instead of faith. But remember that faith and faithfulness are the same word in Greek. Faith and faithfulness go together. They are inseparable. I’ve said all these things many times and will, no doubt, say them again.)
According to the parable that Jesus told, all people have a limited time in which to bear fruit. The fig tree Jesus cursed died.
Last week I quoted some things from James: “But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith from my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. The demons also believe—and they shudder.” Works are what you do, not what you say you believe. Saying, “I believe in Jesus,” doesn’t save you. Faith does save you. But if you are not growing in Christ, you don’t really have faith. You are still dead in your transgressions and sins.
Let’s get back to today’s passage. Peter is talking about scoffers who say they don’t believe a Day of the Lord is coming, a day of judgment and of salvation. They say that things are going to just keep on going on as they have in the past. But, Peter says that they are deliberately ignoring the word of God—the word of God that says that things did not just kept going on in the past, but that there was a flood where the Lord wiped out all the animals and birds and all men except Noah, his wife and sons and their wives, eight people in all. In the same way, there will be another day of judgment in the future—the Day of the Lord. But the scoffers scoff because they want to keep on sinning without thinking about being judged, held accountable and punished.
Let’s look at verse 7: “But by the same word the present heavens and earth are held in store for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.” This is not something new that Peter is saying. This is according to the same word of the Lord that tells about the destruction that God brought with the flood. Listen to Isaiah 34:2-4: “The Lord is angry with all the nations—furious with all their armies. He will set them apart for destruction, giving them over to slaughter. Their slain will be thrown out, and the stench of their corpses will rise; the mountains flow with their blood. All the heavenly bodies will dissolve. The skies will roll up like a scroll, and their stars will all wither as leaves wither on the vine, and foliage on the fig tree.” This sure sounds like what Peter is talking about.
Let’s look at verses 8 and 9: “Dear friends, don’t let this one thing escape you: with the Lord one day is like 1,000 years, and 1,000 years like one day. The Lord does not delay His promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. I talked about verses 8 and 9 last week.
Verse 9 says, “The Lord does not delay His promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.” The Lord is patient, but the Day of the Lord will come. And practically, even if it doesn’t happen in our lifetimes, there will be a time when we die. There will still be the day of God’s judgment and of God’s salvation: “And just as it is appointed for people to die once—and after this, judgment—so also the Messiah, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.” Are you waiting for Jesus—for his salvation—or for his judgment?
Look at verse 10: “But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief; on that day the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, the elements will burn and be dissolved, and the earth and the works on it will be disclosed.”
“The Day of the Lord will come like a thief.” The idea is that we do not know when it will happen. We have to be prepared for it at all times.
“The Day of the Lord will come like a thief. ...the earth and the works on it will be disclosed.” In Revelation 20:11, 12 the apostle John says, “Then I saw a great white throne and One seated on it. Earth and heaven fled from His presence, and no place was found for them. I also saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged according to their works by what was written in the books.” This will happen just before the present heavens and the present earth are destroyed.
Let’s look at verses 11 and 12 in today’s passage: “Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, it is clear what sort of people you should be in holy conduct and godliness as you wait for and earnestly desire the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be on fire and be dissolved, and the elements will melt with the heat.”
I believe all of us know at least something about the word of God. What sort of person should you be in holy conduct and godliness? All of us have an idea of what it means to live a holy and godly life. Do you live a holy and godly life?
I read about the “Great White Throne Judgment” in Revelation chapter 20. Now I going to read what comes after the Great White Throne Judgment. Tis is from the first 8 verses in chapter 21:
1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea existed no longer. 2I also saw the Holy City, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.
3Then I heard a loud voice from the throne:
Look! God’s dwelling is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.
4He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will exist no longer; grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer, because the previous things have passed away.
5Then the One seated on the throne said, “Look! I am making everything new.” He also said, “Write, because these words are faithful and true.” 6And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give to the thirsty from the spring of living water as a gift. 7The victor will inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he will be My son. 8But the cowards, unbelievers, vile, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars—their share will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” (Rev~21:1-8~CSB)
There is salvation and there is judgment.
Last week I read several verses and passages from the Old Testament that referred to “The Day of the Lord.” They were all negative and about judgment. I mentioned the great and awesome (terrible, fearful, dreadful, according which translation you pick) Day of the Lord from Malachi. Now I’m going to read the whole passage from Malachi. This is from Malachi 4:1-6:
1 “For indeed, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and everyone who commits wickedness will become stubble. The coming day will consume them,” says the Lord of Hosts, “not leaving them root or branches. 2But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and playfully jump like calves from the stall. 3You will trample the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day I am preparing,” says the Lord of Hosts.
4 “Remember the instruction of Moses My servant, the statutes and ordinances I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.
5Look, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome Day of the Lord comes. 6And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.” (Malachi~4:1-6)
There is judgment and there is salvation.
Let’s look at verse 13 from today’s passage: “But based on His promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness will dwell.” (And faith, by the way, is believing what God has promised will happen.)
There’s wonderful salvation and there’s judgment. There will only be righteousness in the new heavens and the earth. There will not be wickedness and deceit. Only the righteous will dwell in the new heavens and the new earth, no one else.
There is judgment and there is salvation. Do you live a holy and godly life? Do any of us live holy and godly lives? The answer is, “No.” All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. It says so in Romans 6:23: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Only Jesus lived a perfect life. But here’s what Romans 6:24 says, one verse later: “They are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
How can we be saved? “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” (Acts 16:31) “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Rom.~10:9) You will be justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
I pointed out last week (and many times before) that there is no partial salvation. You are either dead in your sins and transgressions or you are alive in Christ. You have to cross over from death to life, to use Jesus’s words.
I talked about repentance last week. To repent literally means to change your way of thinking—your way of thinking about God and about your relationship to him. If you have repented, you are a new creation in Christ. You no longer want to keep on sinning. You want to be like Jesus. We are still tempted, sometimes very severely, but we want to be like Jesus. He is able to keep us from falling. But, in any case, let’s be prepared for the Day of the Lord.
More next week, the Lord willing.
[Prayer]