According to secular evolutionists, the universe began with a big bang. So the idea is that something about the size of a micro dot, that's all there was, they don't tell us where the dot came from. But this dot, at some point, for some reason, began to expand at a huge rate of speed. Now, if you can believe that, you shouldn't have any problem believing Genesis 1 through 3. And God was there. He knows what happened. That's what we've been studying these past few weeks. And whether there was a big bang involved with what is recorded in the opening chapters of Genesis 1 through 3. I'll let you be the judge of that. But this I can say with the full authority of Scripture. Whether or not the universe began with a Big Bang, it will certainly end with a Big Bang. And that Big Bang must have a big impact on your life and mine. We read of this big bang here in 2 Peter 3, verses 10-14. Let's read together. 2 Peter 3, beginning in verse 10. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace without spot and blameless. Now on Sundays, we have been studying how all things began. On Wednesdays, we have been studying how all things will end. And this morning, at the intersection of those, we're going to take a right-hand turn and we're going to take a little detour and we're going to supplement what's not really found in the final chapters of the book of Revelation. This passage that we've just read details exactly how we get from the earth and the heavens as they exist today to the new heavens and the new earth that are described in the final chapters of this book. Now, my outline this morning is very simple. We first of all turn our attention to the event described in these verses that I have called the Big Bang. And then we'll only have time to briefly meditate on the big impact that this event needs to have in our lives. So first of all, the Big Bang. Actually, there's more described in this passage than the Big Bang. The entire event in verse 10 is called the Day of the Lord. Now, whenever you see that phrase, the day of the Lord or the day of God, used in Scripture, that means that God is entering into judgment with men. And so at times, the day of the Lord has occurred within human history. When God has entered into judgment, you find this phrase particularly in the Old Testament prophets. need to pause a minute, time out here. When I talk about God entering into judgment, when I talk about the wrath of God, you have to remember God's wrath is not like our human anger, which is so often explosive and irrational. God's anger, God's wrath is his consistent, inevitable opposition to all sin. It is a settled thing, not an explosive thing. But ultimately, God will deal with every human sin in a final, cumulative act of wrath yet future in something that this passage calls the Day of the Lord. Now on Wednesdays, we've been studying the first seven years of this period, a period called the Tribulation. The Day of the Lord continues after those seven years through the 1,000-year reign of Jesus Christ, which ends with what two events? ends with the Great White Throne Judgment, and then the Big Bang. All of this is within that last 1,007 year period that Peter here calls the Day of the Lord. I want you to notice that this period, according to Peter, will come like a thief in the night. How many of you have ever have your house robbed? Anybody ever have your house robbed at night? OK, so you understand. The days after that, what did you feel like? Were you on edge? All the time thinking about what might happen again? That's the idea here. This Day of the Lord could happen at any moment, and we ought to be just as expectant as if a thief had robbed our house last night. Looking for it to happen again. Looking for Jesus to come again and begin that 1,007 year period we call the Day of the Lord. Next, Peter explains an event that actually takes place at the end, as I just explained to you, at the end of this period we call the Day of the Lord, and that is the dissolution of the heavens and the earth as we know them right now. Now, Peter gives us more detail about the Big Bang, as I have called it, than any other prophet in Scripture. So the bulk of this message, I want to work through that explanation that we have here in verse 10 in great detail, phrase by phrase. In fact, practically word by word. So first of all, verse 10 states, the heavens will pass away with a great noise. Now the heavens here are not speaking about the abode of God where His throne is. Rather, the heavens here are speaking about what we call the The sky. And so the phrase points to the destruction of the stars and the galaxies that we see in the heavens at night. Peter here is actually describing the very opposite of the Big Bang that the secular scientists theorize that began the universe. It will be a cataclysmic event which brings about the destruction of the universe as we know it. Now, the destruction that Peter describes here is not annihilation. The point is not that the stars, the planets, and the galaxies cease to exist, but rather that they will cease to exist in the form in which we know them right now. Their form and their structure will be radically changed. they will pass into another form that Peter, here in verse 13, calls the new heavens, or a better translation, I believe, would actually be the renewed heavens. And I'll explain why I say that here in a few moments. Now this cataclysm will be attended by a great noise. And the word that's used in the original language is interesting. It's a case of onomatopoeia, where the word sounds like what it means. The word is roisidon. Roisidon. Can you say that with me? Roisidon. Gesundheit. This word is actually used in ancient literature for many of the sounds of danger. the whizzing of an arrow, the rushing of mighty waters, the roar of a fire, the hiss of a serpent. And I think Peter here was in the same situation that the Apostle John was when he was trying to write the book of Revelation. Peter here is trying to describe something that's indescribable. Now, we live in modern times. I doubt that there's a person here who hasn't at some point seen a video depiction of a nuclear explosion. And if you take that and multiply it by about a billion times, that's the sound that Peter is trying to describe. And you'll soon see why I say that. Because we're told, as verse 10 goes on, that the elements will melt with fervent heat. Now here we come to another interesting word in Peter's description of the Big Bang. The word translated elements here literally means things that stand in a row. In the original language of the New Testament, there's a verb that means to walk in a line. And this is a form of that same word. And so it has the idea of things that stand in a row. And in ancient times, it was used of the alphabet. But what's interesting to me is that today we speak about chemical elements. And those chemical elements are often charted in a table called the periodic table. And for reasons which I can no longer recall from my high school chemistry class, that periodic table is in rows. The chemical elements are in rows. Now, I don't think that Peter understood the periodic table way back when. I don't think that's the idea here. But what's interesting to me is that when Peter used this word, he actually used a word that was scientifically accurate even today. Someone has said that the Bible is not a science textbook, but when it speaks, it is scientifically accurate. And here we have another example of that truth. Now the chemical elements, we're told here, will melt with fervent heat. And the fervent heat that Peter mentions here was a medical term used in ancient times of burning up with a fever. And so the usage of the word has the idea of an internal heat, a heat that's coming from within. And so the destruction of these chemical elements will be attended with heat coming from within. But what exactly is going to happen to these chemical elements to release this heat? Well, our new King James Version, following the old King James Version, translates the verb here, melt. Other modern versions translate the word destroy. But in the original language, the verb here is very familiar to me. It's the verb luo. OK, can you all say that? Luo. And every person who has ever studied biblical Greek knows the word luo better than any other word in the New Testament, because this is the verb that you learn in all of its forms in order to learn how you conjugate a Greek verb. And the meaning of the word loo is very simple. It means loose. I mean, loo, loose, you can't get any simpler than this word. And so, literally what this word means is that the chemical elements of the universe will be loosed with internal heat. Now, what is Peter trying to say here? Again, by means of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Peter is speaking with scientific accuracy. So every atom, of every chemical element is composed of three subatomic particles, okay? What are they? Okay, protons have a positive charge, electrons have a negative charge, and neutrons don't count. No, neutrons don't have a charge, okay? And in the The nucleus of every atom, you have protons and neutrons wadded up together. And the number of protons in that nucleus is what defines each chemical element. Hydrogen has one proton. Carbon has six protons. Now, if you didn't learn anything else in physical science survey years ago, you learned that light charges repel. Now think about what I just told you a minute ago. Wadded up at the center of every atom in this universe are a bunch of like-charged protons wadded up together in the nucleus of every atom. Why don't all of those atoms explode right now? Colossians 1.16 says that in Christ all things hold together. The Creator by His power, by His sustaining power is literally holding the nucleus of every atom in the universe together. But there's going to come a day at the end when the creator is going to loose the atomic structure of every atom. And what will happen at that point? I mean, this is what atomic power is, right? This is what powers an atomic bomb. This is what powers an atomic power station. splitting that atom, splitting that nucleus. And so can you imagine what it will be when God loses the atomic structure of every atom in the universe? And at that point, it'll all be transformed back into pure energy. But we're not quite finished yet. Verse 10 has one further phrase. It says, both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. At the beginning of the verse, Peter specifically mentions the heavens, the stars, and the planets, and the galaxies. But he wants to be clear here that the earth will not escape this cataclysm. And in fact, he even takes it a step further. He includes both the earth and the works that are in it. In other words, it won't be just what we call nature that will be destroyed, but all the things that man has invented and built, all the great accomplishments of humanity will suffer the same fate of atomic dissolution. Think of all the great art that hangs in the museums. Think of all the wonderful architecture that people travel across the ocean to see in Europe and in Greece and Italy. Think of the amazing infrastructure that we have built in this country. it will all be destroyed in a moment. And again, Peter uses another interesting word here at the end of this phrase. Our New King James Version translates it burned up. But the verb is normally translated exposed or laid bare and that's the translation of this verse in in some modern translations. The point seems to be that by means of this cataclysm, by means of loosing every atom in the universe and reducing it all back to pure energy, Almighty God is going to expose the true value of every human achievement. All that stuff that we pour so much energy into. Our homes and our cars and our bank accounts. All of this stuff that we spend a lifetime collecting. Excuse me. God's going to expose the value of it in a moment. It's gone. First John 2 verses 15 through 17 says, love not the world, neither the things, neither the things that are in the world. Why? Because it is all passing away. And that doesn't just mean that it's getting old and rusty. It means that it ultimately, it will not survive. We'll discuss in the second service today what you can put your effort into that will survive. But as I've implied to you throughout this entire service this morning, we find ourselves investing our lives in that which will not survive this final conflagration. So ends verse 10 and its description of the cataclysm, which will be the climax of human history. But we're not finished with the events of the day of the Lord, because verse 13 ends by pointing us to new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. That time period of scripture that's called the day of the Lord ends with the renewal of the new heavens and the new earth. Now, I've tried to be very careful to indicate that the heavens and earth, as we know them, will pass away, but the stuff of which the universe is composed will not be destroyed. Our text here seems to indicate that all matter will be transformed back into pure energy, and then God will reconstitute the new heavens and the new earth using that stuff. from the original translation. You see the word translated new here in verse 13 means new in regard to quality, not new in regard to time. The original language of the New Testament has two words for new. So one of them is the word neos. That ought to be, I mean, you know, we have the suffix neo. We have the English word new. That word means new in terms of time, or we might use the word brand new. So this year, the US Mint is minting quarters that are brand new. They've never been in existence before. They're minting five quarters this year that honor great women in American history. In June, they came out with a likeness of Eleanor Roosevelt on one of those quarters. That quarter never existed before. It's brand new. That is not the word that's used here of the new heavens and the new earth. There's another word in the original language that has the idea of a new quality. I mean, how often do you walk into the grocery store and you see a product that you've been buying for years and it says, new and improved? How many of you are old enough to remember New Coke? OK. Many of you. You youngsters, you don't know about this. So Coca-Cola, the most successful soft drink of all time, was invented back in the late 1800s. But in the 1980s, they had lost, they had originally like 60% market share. in soft drinks and it had gone down to below 30%. And who was eating their lunch? Pepsi was eating their lunch. And they did taste tests and they found out it was because Pepsi was a little bit sweeter than Coke. And so the bigwigs at Coke thought they would have a great idea and they would come out with new Coke that was a little bit sweeter. And of course, it was a flop. That's why none of you know about it. But you get the idea. New Coke wasn't brand new. It was just a new formula. That's the word that's used here in this passage of the new heaven and the new earth. We're talking about God using the same stuff that he created when he first created the universe some 10,000 years ago. But at the end of the millennium, he is going to give a new quality to that stuff. It will be a completely renewed universe. So it won't be brand new. It'll be renewed. Now, what exactly does that mean? Again, we don't have time to discuss it. We'll still have bodies, but they'll be glorified bodies. What does that tell us? There won't be any sea in the new earth. What does that tell us? There'll be no sun or moon, for God himself will provide light. What does that tell us? But here's the one thing that this passage does tell us without a doubt. It says that the primary characteristic of the new heaven and the new earth is righteousness. The new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Some time back I read a translation of this verse from a reliable Greek scholar and he said it could be translated a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness will be at home. I like that. Because we live in a sin-cursed world filled with sinners. Righteousness will never be at home in this world. This place will never be right. Do you not yearn for a place where it will be easy to do right? where righteousness will be exalted to the place that it ought to have? Do you not yearn for a glorified body which will be suited to communing with God rather than living in this sin-cursed world? That is what we are promised. A new heavens, a new earth in which righteousness will be at home. This then is the big bang toward which all humanity, all human history hastens. And here's the point of all this. Peter makes the point in verse 11. He says, since all of this is true, what manner of persons ought we to be? The Big Bang must have a big impact on how every human being lives. And Peter spends the remainder of this passage outlining that big impact. Now, we don't have time in the next few minutes to dive into all of that, but I do want to point out two major truths. First of all, we must live holy and godly lives. What kind of persons ought we to be if this is what the future holds? Well, the first answer to this is common sense. We do not want to invest our lives in what does not last. Men build buildings out of granite and marble and reinforced concrete, but in that day, it's all going to disappear like children's sand castles on the beach when the tide rolls in. There is not a thing in this world in which we can invest that will endure that day. To invest in this world is an unwise investment. For our lives to get wrapped up in this world is to become entangled with that which is perishing. Again, I say, do not love the world nor the things in the world, for the world is passing away. So, Peter says, we must be holy. Now many of you know the word holy means set apart. We must be set apart from this world and set apart to God. We must learn to live in this world without letting the world infect us with its values. valuing the here and now, valuing what this world has to offer. We must learn to use the things of this world and yet hold them very loosely because they will be taken from our hands. I'm not trying to preach this morning that you can't own anything, but what I'm saying is what you own You better hold on to it with a real light touch. And we must live godly. Now that means that we must invest our lives in God. So as opposed to investing our lives in this world, in the stuff and the things of this world, we need to invest our lives in God. Getting to know God. Getting to love God. Delighting in God. I preached not long ago on the beauty of God. One of the reasons I preached that is because we find so much in this world to be beautiful and alluring and delightful when the things that ought to delight us are things we cannot see right now. The beauty that we do find in this world is intended Not to cause us to love this world, but to cause us to love the creator of this world. To draw our hearts to Him. Invest your life in knowing God and loving God and serving God. And what you invest in will not be destroyed. at that last day because God's not going anywhere. He will still be there in the new heavens and the new earth. He is what will make the new heavens and the new earth glorious. Now this passage suggests that we find ourselves in much the same situation as Noah before the flood. I'm not going to take time, but if you go back to verses 6 and 7 here in this chapter, it compares the flood to this final judgment. God is only going to judge this world completely twice. He did it once back in Genesis chapter 6 through 9 with the worldwide flood. He's going to likewise judge it one more time at the very end, not with water, but with fire. And so there's a parallel here between Noah's day and our day. Now let me ask you, do you think that Noah found it very difficult not to invest in the world that he had? Do you think he was trying to accumulate stuff that he knew was going to be swept away in that flood? Do you think he was trying to amass real estate? When he wouldn't be able to even find that land after the flood? You see, we live in the same kind of a situation. We just don't realize it. Nothing that you've got, nothing that I've got is going to survive that final conflagration. Why would we invest our lives in it? And then I have time to point out only one other application of this truth that's found in verse 14. We must be certain of peace with God. we must be certain of peace with God. This last verse compels us to be diligent, to be found at peace with God. And that word, be diligent, means do your best, take care. If this world is going to pass away, we need to do everything in our power to be certain that we are at peace with God because that's the only way that we're going to have part in the new heaven and the new earth. Now, here's the problem. No human being can make peace with God. I mean, we're in a dilemma. It says, you need to make peace with God so you'll be in the new heaven and the new earth, but we're all sinners. And our sin separates us from God. I mean, if every one of us here this morning could say, okay, no more sin, I'm never sinning again. And we could actually pull that off. still wouldn't make any difference because of all the sin that we have committed. The New Testament calls us the enemies of God. But Ephesians chapter 2 says that Jesus Christ is our peace. He has done what it takes to make peace with God for us by bearing the punishment for the sins that we have committed and we will commit. And so if we would be at peace with God, then we need to come to Jesus Christ. We need to trust what He did on the cross. to reconcile us to God, to take our sin problem out of the way? Have you come to Jesus? Have you trusted Him? Have you turned from your sin to follow Him? Be diligent to be certain that you're at peace with God. America was swept into World War II on December 7, 1941. And as the war in the Pacific expanded, the Naval Ammunition Depot at Mare Island, California, was unable to keep up with the demand for ammunition. And therefore, Port Chicago, California, this is not in Illinois now, but Port Chicago, California was built 35 miles north of San Francisco. Construction began in 1942. And I want to tell you a story about Port Chicago. I quote now from a website called history.mil. By 1944, the pier at Port Chicago could support the loading of two ships simultaneously, and crews loaded munitions around the clock, 24-7. On the evening of July 17, 1944, the empty merchant ship SS Quinault Victory was prepared for loading on her maiden voyage. The SS E.A. Bryan, another merchant ship, had just returned from her first voyage and was loading across the platform from the Quinault Victory. The holds were packed with high explosive and incendiary bombs, depth charges, and ammunition, 46,000 tons of ammunition in all. There were 16 rail cars on the pier with another 429 tons. Working in the area were 320 cargo handlers, crewmen, and sailors. At 10.18 PM, a hollow ring and the sound of splintering wood erupted from the pier, followed by an explosion that ripped apart the night sky. Witnesses said that a brilliant white flash shot into the air, accompanied by a loud, sharp report. A column of smoke billowed from the pier, and fire glowed orange and yellow. Flashing like fireworks, smaller explosions went off in the cloud as it rose. Within six seconds, a deeper explosion erupted as the contents of the E.A. Bryan detonated in one massive explosion. The seismic shockwave was felt as far away as Boulder City, Nevada. The E.A. Bryan and the structures around the pier were completely disintegrated. A pillar of fire and smoke stretched over two miles into the sky above Port Chicago. The largest remaining pieces of the 7,200 ton ship were the size of a suitcase. A plane flying at 9,000 feet reported seeing chunks of white hot metal as big as a house flying past. All 320 men on duty that night were killed instantly. The blast smashed buildings and rail cars near the pier and damaged every building in Port Chicago. The blast caused damage 48 miles across the bay in San Francisco. Instantly, the entire city of 1,500 people was plunged into chaos without water, electricity, or gas. In six seconds, a prosperous city was reduced to rubble. That is the fate that awaits every city and town in the world. everything that we have built gone in an instant. We must be certain that we are at peace with God through Jesus Christ and we must invest ourselves in God in the new heavens and the new earth and not what we find so easy to do, investing our lives in the things of this world. Could I have every head bowed, pleased, every eye closed? Are you certain of your salvation? Are you certain you have peace with God? If not, run to Jesus right now in your heart of hearts. Run to Jesus and tell him, Lord Jesus, I believe you died in my place to bear my sin, to bear its punishment. I want to be reconciled to God. I want peace with God. I'm willing to turn from my sin to follow you, Lord Jesus. Be diligent to be certain you have peace with God. And then Christians, this message has caused me afresh to look at how much of my life I invest in the things of this world. Where are you investing your life?