In this chapter, 2 Peter 3, the apostle tells us his design, the last day's scoffers, Christ's second coming, and how we ought to make use and improvement of that truth. Here now the reading of God's inspired word, 2 Peter 3, starting at verse 1. This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you, in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior. Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished. but the heavens and the earth, which are now by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day, The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness? Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless, and account that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation. even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you. As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable rest, as they do also the other scriptures unto their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to whom be glory both now and forever. Amen. Thus far the reading of God's holy word, 2 Peter 3. May the Lord bless us in the reading and hearing of it. Verses one through seven of this chapter, we have Peter's design in the second epistle and the scoffers he's protecting them from. You'll remember chapter two dwelt largely on the false teachers and their lawless ways, their false doctrines and their end, which was destruction. So Peter identifies this second epistle as having the purpose of stirring up not the filth and the vileness of the false teachers, but their pure minds by way of remembrance. Now this word sincere or pure means to be judged by the son. Helios is the son and Crinane is to judge or discern. In the ancient world, if someone made a piece of pottery and they didn't make it right, it would crack. It would have a fault line in it. And the way you could tell if they had tried to sell you their broken goods is you would judge it by the sun and you would see there's wax covering up that fault line. It was judged by the sun. So something that is not trying to sell you something, so that you can't see the fault lines, is called sincere, without wax. That's what the Latin word means. Sin, without, sere, is wax. Sincere. So heliocrenane means that which is judged by the sun. Your minds truly want to serve the Lord. They are pure minds. So he's stirring them up by way of remembrance, things they have learned before. He's bringing to their minds again. His goal is this in verse two, that she may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets. Now. He's going to call these scriptures, right? But he says they were what? Spoken by the holy prophets. This is a common figure of speech in the Bible, where the words of mouth are actually a reference to the writings of someone. God said is a reference to the Bible, the Old Testament. Here the prophets are said to have spoken, but it's actually referring to their writings in context. And he wants us to be mindful of those, what we call Old Testament scriptures. That's the purpose, he says. That ye may be is a purpose clause. Why are you stirring up our remembrance in our pure minds, Peter, with this purpose in mind, that you would keep in the forefront of your thinking, that is to be mindful, those words of the Old Testament, and what else? and the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior. Now, if the New Testament scriptures are sub-inspired, they're just nice ideas from some men who hung out with Jesus, and I can kind of take them or I can leave them, then this is the most presumptuous blasphemy imaginable. You're telling me, Peter, that I'm supposed to keep in mind your writings on the same level as the prophets of the Old Testament? Yes, that's precisely what he's saying. Because the commandment of the Lord and Savior's apostles and the holy prophets of the Old Testament, those are one book. This contra the Judaizers and them that despise the apostles, namely and especially the apostle Paul, which we will see shortly. He wants us to be mindful that these scriptures would constantly come back of both the Old and the New Testaments, constantly come back to our minds. I note then that the apostles' writings are on par with the scriptures of the prophets. The apostles' writings are on par, that means the same level, with the writings of the prophets of the Old Testament. They're both the word of God. This is a rebuke to those who think that somehow the writings of the apostles, while nice, require some critical analysis. Man, not really that true. Well, he made a mistake here. No, this is the word of God. Treat it as such, or at your own peril, disregard it. Let us take heed then to the commandment of the apostles of Christ. Let us study their words as holy scripture along with the scriptures of the prophets. And let us constantly be stirred up by remembering the words of the scriptures into our minds. Don't bring in the fault line of human wisdom. This is the true and sincere truth and faith that we are to receive. This is why we have an Old and a New Testament reading in our worship service. Why? Because you should be stirred up, beloved, in your pure minds with the knowledge of these truths. And you ought to do this in your own private worship. Notice the contrast in verse three. Know this, he says, there'll be people who don't think it's worth your while to listen to the apostles and the prophets. What do we call them? Scoffers, like little kids poking fun at the truth of scripture. They walk, how? Do they walk after the truth? No, after their own lusts. What do I want? Well, see, what the apostles say, that's not what I want. So I'm not gonna listen to them, I'm gonna poke fun at them. scoffers walking after their own lusts. When are they going to do it? Well, the whole last age. That's what the last days are. It's not like, OK, well, Christ is about to come back. Now they'll show up. No, they were in Peter's day. They were in John's day. They were in Paul's day. They were in Jesus day. They mocked at Jesus for the things that he spoke. Why? Because it didn't fulfill what they wanted. It wasn't according to their lusts. Where is the promise of his coming, they say? Didn't Christ say he was going to return? Didn't he say he was going to judge the living and the dead, the sheep and the goats? Where is that? All things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. Far as I can tell, I've examined the geological records. Everything's the same as it's always been. I note then that empiricism, or knowledge by your own experience, produces many vain, irrational, impious, and foolish opinions. Well, it is the science. You ought to trust the science, you say, and go and get your shot and wear your mask. Oh, should I? Really? You actually know how things work? You really know? And then they say, not just that you should get the shot, wear your mask. They say, well, the world is kabillions of years old. See here? See this mountain? See the kabillions of layers? Everything continues as it was since the beginning of the creation. But why aren't those layers everywhere? Why is it that they only show up in certain places? Why is it that some places don't have those kabillions and kabillions of layers? And how do you know they didn't all happen at once? Well, they don't. But they willingly forget. that God made the world by his word and he created waters that the earth came out of and then he took those same waters and what did he do with them? He judged the world of the ungodly. So did everything continue from the beginning of the creation of God just like it is right now in my observation? No, it didn't. As a matter of fact, God judged the world And God is an infallible source of truth. Was Charles Darwin an infallible source of truth? Well, how about Anthony Fauci? Isn't he an infallible source of truth? Maybe it's Bill Gates or the New York Times or Mark Zuckerberg. Maybe somewhere out there, there's some puny little wicked ungodly person scoffer. He's the source of truth. No. God is the source of truth. And why do you think they're going to mock his word of the apostles and prophets? Because it undermines their lusts. They walk after their own lusts. So the apostle gives us the judgment of God, first in the flood, then in the fire, verses eight through 18. He refers us to Christ's second coming, the renovation of all things, and how we ought to use that truth. Verse eight, he tells us that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. Now to us, it is not so, and in actual fact, it is not so. He's saying it is like that to God. Why is that? Well, God's not bound by time. God is above and beyond the process of time. He, in fact, holds time in his hand. He rules and controls it. So to him, one day, 1,000 years, not really that different to him, because he's not affected by the process of time, but for us, we are affected by the process of time. Psalm 90, verse four, for 1,000 years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night, that's three hours, by the way, a watch in the night, that's it. Three hours. That's how long we're gonna be till we have lunch. That's how he thinks of a thousand years. Nothing to him. God is eternal. He's not bound by our sense of things. He's not bound by our observations. He's not bound by our lust. We are bound by his word of promise and of precept. It's the other way around. But the scoffer wants to bind God, whereas God has already bound him. The Lord is not slack, Peter says, concerning his promise, as some men count slackness. You can mark it down. He will most certainly fulfill his promises precisely when he has decreed to do so and not a moment before and not a moment after. It doesn't matter what men say. God is not slack in his promise. There's no laziness in him. There's no delay. But rather, why does he delay? Why hasn't he come back to this day? Why? Because God is long suffering toward us. He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Now, There are the Armenians who read this passage and say, look, you see, God wants everyone to be saved. So much for your predestination, so much for Romans nine, you can set that aside, you can toss it out. Peter corrects the Apostle Paul here. There's no such thing as predestination. Really, look at it again. God is long suffering to whom? To whom is God long suffering? To Judas Iscariot? To Pontius Pilate, to Pharaoh, no, to usward he says. Because God's will is that not one of his elect shall perish and he shall make sure that none do. He is not slack, he is long suffering. He's waiting for the full number of those he has chosen to come to repentance. That's the only reason history goes on. So much for the well-meaning willingness of God for all men to be saved of the Arminians and the semi-Arminians. The Dutch annotations say the following. namely of us who are affectionately called and yet shall be. For seeing God can do and does do whatsoever he will, this cannot be understood of all and every human being, seeing scripture and experience itself testify that not all persons are saved, but that many perish. If God wanted every single person to come to repentance, you know what would happen? Every single person would come to repentance. There would be no hell, in other words. This cannot refer to a general desire in God for all men to be saved or even of the general command of repentance. Since Peter here is directing our attention to what? The final judgment at which what will happen. Many shall be burned with fire. The salvation of the godly is here set against the destruction of the wicked. That's the context of second Peter two and three. So he's not saying God wants everybody to be saved. He wanted somehow the people of Sodom to be saved or the wicked who are drowned by the flood to be saved. No, he didn't. He sent Noah to preach righteousness to them and their hearts were hardened by their sin and that was decreed by God. Peter goes on concerning this day of the Lord. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. This is what our Lord taught in Matthew 24, 42 and 43 and other places. We don't know when the Lord is coming, so we're always to be ready, always to be watchful, not like the foolish virgins who had their lamps, but no oil. He says, be ready, be wise virgins, have your lamps, have your oil, be prepared for my coming at all times, watch. He says, the heavens shall pass away with a great noise. They will pass along, they'll be a thing of the past. The elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. John Gill comments, the earth also will be purged and purified from everything that is noxious, hurtful, unnecessary, and disagreeable, though the matter and substance of it will continue. Some believe that this is some kind of absolute destruction of the substance of all things. That's not true. We know from Romans 8 that the old heavens are groaning and travailing for a new heavens and a new earth, just like our bodies are not going to be absolutely annihilated and destroyed. What will they be? Perfected. Mortality will put on immortality. Corruption will put on incorruption. That's what the resurrection is about. That's the glorious liberty of the children of God to which the heavens and the earth are destined. Now notice verse 11, seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, this word then. According to Thayer's lexicon is a conjunction indicating that something follows from another necessarily. Seeing then, here's the logical conclusion to the dissolution of all things by fire, the purgation of all the evil works out of the universe. Here's what use you should conclude from this. Here's the logical implication that you ought to take as a Christian from the dissolution of the heavens and the earth that now is. What manner of persons ought ye to be? The word ought is a moral word. It means you are morally bound. You must do this according to God's moral order. In all holy conversation and godliness, Now the word conversation is plural. in all holy conversations. Every single aspect of your conduct should be sanctified to God. And the word godliness is plural. That's why our authorized version adds the word all. Every kind of godliness, every kind of holy conversation, because of the dissolution of the world and all of its wicked works, you ought to be this kind of people, he says. I note then that scripture truths may be deduced to practical godliness. In fact, they must be deduced. Deduction is a logical conclusion. Here we must morally, we are required to make the conclusion. Some people study the final things so that they can be a smarty pants with heresy and make up new ideas. Do you know that the Bible says the reason why God teaches you about the final things is so you can be godly and holy in all your conversation. That's the logical implication. This is the morally necessary implication that you should take from the Not Mr. Smarty Pants know it all about this or that detail of the end, rather to be holy and godly in every way. Let us know our doctrines practically. Okay, yes, we have doctrines, don't we? Peter teaches doctrine here of the final things. Know your doctrine practically. How do I apply this? What does this mean for godliness and for holy conversation? We're to know our practice doctrinally. Here's what we're supposed to do, why? What is the doctrine that resides behind that? Did you know that our manner of worship assumes that God is independent of his creatures? The second commandment assumes that God has absolute independence from His creation, and therefore He regulates His worship. If we say that God regulates His worship by consulting with the creature, you know what we're saying? God depends on His creature, just like the heathens taught. Therefore, all will worship is atheism or polytheism. It is not Christianity. You see, we must know our practices doctrinally. We must know our doctrines practically. The Lord requires it. Let us use the final things as they call it, eschatology. Eschatos is the last or final. Eschatology, the study of final things. Let us use it properly. How? As a motivation to holiness, to godliness, to obedience. And this is a rebuke to the notion that doctrine stands alone. That doctrine is for its own sake. No, it's for the glory of God, as are all things God has taught us for his glory. We may also overemphasize a precision in doctrine or theory without an equal emphasis on precision in holy living. You see what Peter does, though? He gives us the doctrinal truth and the precise application in all manner of holy conversation, in every single way by which God has said for us to be godly, that is a logical consequence from this doctrine of final things. We must do this. This is part of our faith. If we do not do this, we're back in chapter two with the heretics who say, well, you can live how you please. You don't have to be godly. You don't have to be religious. You don't have to observe God's commandments. You don't have to fear his word. You can do whatever you choose as long as it feels good, baby. Wrong answer. We are to be godly. We are to be sanctified and pure unto the Lord, devoted to his purposes, obedient to his will, listening to his promises, trusting in faith in all the good things that he's promised to us. That's what religion is. That's what godliness is. That's what holiness is. Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God. Now, When you look for something expectantly, you must be patient. But is it a passive patience where you sit there and wait? Hasting unto, he says. They used to say, fastina lente in Latin. It means hurry up, but do it slowly. Hurry up slowly. Same thing here. You must look for it and wait for it, but you must also have an eager expectation so that you're hastening unto it. He requires patience from us, yet such patience as is not slothful, the Geneva Bible says. There will be a purgation with fervent heat, verse 12 tells us. And we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and new earth, verse 13 tells us. When we see the resurrection of the body, we shall see the renewal and the rebirth of the heavens and the earth at the same time. This earth, this heavens will have righteousness, no sin, no curse, no tears, only the righteous doing the will of their Father in heaven. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, again, a logical necessity, wherefore, You seeing that you look for these things, he says, because this future hope is set before you, be diligent that you may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless. Now the verb be diligent is in the aorist imperative, which means to do something diligently. It's a Hebrewism. Diligently be diligent, urgently be urgent. For what? Peace without spot, blameless, peace with God, peace with man, no scandals of impiety or open lawlessness. When you've done evil, you repent of it. Be without spot. Be as the precious lamb of God. The same word is used of Christ in 1 Peter 1, 19. He was without spot. He says, you be without spot. Reflect the image of your savior. Walk in his ways. The true religion requires of us that we keep ourselves unspotted from the world. James 1, 27, it's the same word. Freyberg says of this unspotted figuratively in a moral sense, pure, clean, uncorrupted. I note then that our future hope and expectation from God's promise must govern our current manner of living. The future promise of God in the gospel says you must live now in this life in this way. Be diligent, he says, to be found of him in peace. Even as our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you." Hold on, time out. Don't you realize, Peter, that you and Paul don't teach the same doctrine? Don't you realize that there is a Petrine Christianity of Peter, and there is a Pauline Christianity of Paul, and there is a Johannine Christianity of John, and there is a Mosaic form of religion from Moses. Don't you realize they're not the same? Apparently, Peter never got that memo. He must have missed that class in seminary where they taught him that corrupt filth that says somehow there are two different doctrines from two different men. That's if the Bible's the word of man, by the way. Okay, okay, fine. Then that man has his opinion, that man has his opinion. If they both give us the word of God from the wisdom that God gave to them, then what is it? All the same, it's God's holy word. God gave wisdom to the beloved brother Paul. This is a recognition of Paul's epistles by Peter as wisdom given to him by God. It's not wisdom he came up with. You see that? It is wisdom given unto him. He didn't come up with it. Oh, that's just Paul's idea. That's just his culture, his rabbinic training at the feet of Gamaliel. No, it's not. There is no Paul against Peter. This is a rebuke to all progressive dogmas. I read one, what I would call theologically retarded man once, who said that you had on the one side, Paul is the liberal. He's the freedom man. He's the left wing of the church. And then you have James is the right wing, the conservative part of the church. And then you have Peter's the moderate in the middle. He's not sure which way to go. And even though they have different theologies, they all have one religion. Wrong answer. Peter has the same religion as Paul. He has the same source of truth, God himself, speaking through him. There are half-breed versions of this heresy that say, oh, well, it's biblical theology, you know? Don't take the whole thing together as a system. Peter has his system, Paul has his system, John has his. Don't try to make them consistent with each other. Hogwash! Nonsense. We're not going to mix the true religion with some kind of progressive Hegelian nonsense. Let us learn to harmonize the scriptures rather than to study them as if they're separate books. No, it is one word of God. It is the wisdom of God given through prophets and apostles. If it is the word of God, it must be harmonized. If it's the word of man, sure, you can make all the divisions you want, because it's finite. It's not infinite wisdom coming forth. Let us learn to harmonize as the word of God truly is His word. As also in all His epistles, speaking in them of these things. You see what Peter just did? He universally recognized everything Paul wrote as scripture. That's what he did. This is God's wisdom spoken through the apostle Paul. And notice again the word speaking. Remember the prophets spoke in the scriptures? Who else speaks in the scriptures? Paul does, the apostles do. When they speak, he's talking about their writings. In which are some things hard to be understood. Lo Nida concerning this hard to be understood say it means pertaining to be understandable, but only with great effort. Not impossible in other words, but it's going to require some brain sweat as they say. You're going to have to think hard to understand some of the things Paul says. Some of them, not all of them. Some of the things are hard to be understood. This is a rebuke to the elite attitude that says, well, you masses, you unwashed masses, you'll never understand the book anyways, just trust us. We're scholars, we're bishops, whatever it is we are, and you're never gonna understand this book. So just hand over the keys to us, we'll look out for you. Or the mystic who says, well man, nothing's understandable in the Bible anyways, just like smoke weed and you'll be okay. No, no mysticism where you escape from reason into some kind of experience or nonsense gibberish that you say is the faith. You must use your mind. You must work hard to understand the things that are written in the Bible because some of them will be easily understood and some will require you not to be so lazy. They'll require some brain sweat. Let us do so. Let us not malnourish ourselves and say, well, that form of food that God gave, I don't want to eat that. No, that's not good for me. Did God say that? He gave it all for us, for our profit. They that are unlearned and unstable rest. They twist the scripture. They lack moral stability. They're unlearned. They don't understand what they're talking about. Do you know this is the opposite of what the eldership is supposed to be in the church? They're supposed to be learned. They're supposed to be stable. Those two things must characterize any ruler in the church. These men twist the scripture. Why? They don't know what they're talking about. They don't know what they're saying. They haven't learned what they should have learned, and their moral sense is turpitude. It's like waves rolling over their moral sense. They have no idea what they're talking about, nor are they grounded in love. We must have learned eldership along with holy and godly conversation for those that would enter the office. And they do that, he says, what else do they twist in the epistles of Paul? As they do what else? The rest of the what? Scriptures, hold on, time out. Paul's letters recognized by Peter as the word of God on par with the prophets? Yes. Precisely, the rest of the other scriptures. There may be twisting of truth, there may be many opinions, there may be many errors, but if you can't make a straightforward argument from the apostles and the prophets, you ought not to be heard. We must turn a deaf ear. They are misleading the people of God. It does not matter the numbers, whether they be great or whether they be small. If they do not speak according to this word, God says, it is because there is what? No light in them. Beware, he says. Be afraid. Be on the watch. Something bad could happen to you, he says. Beware lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked. You think the wicked come to you and say, look, I want you to apostatize from Christ, deny the scriptures, and go to hell with me. Is that what they do? Led away. Just take a little step. Oh, and one more. You're not dead yet, are you? Take a third. Keep going. Led away, little by little, degree by degree. Beware, he says. You will fall from your own steadfastness. If you are forewarned, you can arm yourself beforehand. Use the armor of God. Let us not become sluggish. This is the first step in the black chain of reprobation, not a mark of election. Be diligent, he says, not sluggish, not led aside, not that's too hard, not I don't like the word. It's hard to understand so many opinions. Well, yeah, there are a lot of unlearned and unstable people who twist the scriptures. There are some who criticize the scriptures. Oh, that's Paul. Oh, that's Peter. Oh, the different religions, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, no. Grow in grace, he says. Here's the antidote to being led away with the error of the wicked. Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This is what he mentioned in chapter one, wasn't it? He talked about those steps that were to give diligence and to add to this, this, add to that, that. Remember, virtue, faith, knowledge, self-government, the ability to suffer patiently, godliness, or the fear of God, brotherly kindness, charity. And so he says, if you do these things and abound, what will happen? An abundant entrance will be ministered unto you to the kingdom of our Lord and Savior. But if we don't do them, what happens? We go backwards, we are let aside, and we fall from our own steadfastness. And thus far, 2 Peter chapter 3.