tonight is 2 Peter chapter 3, verses 11 and following, page 1019 in your church Bible. 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 11. Yes, we're picking up the very next verse we are studied from this morning. This is God's word. 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. This fire of Eden, God's holy word. In the previous verses, Peter was showing what Christians should believe about the coming of Christ, and here in this passage, verses 11 to 14, Peter's showing what Christians should do. First prior passage is what Christians should believe, and these verses what Christians should do. So you'll see if you have the handout, the bulletin outline is that God has called us to wait. What sort of people must we be while we wait? Number one, holy and godly. Number two, using the waiting time to ready ourselves for the coming new days of resident righteousness. And number three, being diligent to be found without spot and at peace. So we begin with holiness and godliness requested of us while we wait. Verse 11, since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness. So Peter began with the word since. In verse 11, since. So we show the connection with the previous passage and we show more the application to our lives. And the word since also implies a reason. There's a ground or a reason given that we ought to live holy lives. And it's the fact that all things are to be dissolved. Dissolved, we studied that earlier today. Dissolved has to do with the destruction. You see it in verse 10, you see it in verse 11. The things brought down to their basic elemental parts. And what things will be dissolved? Peter lists them for us. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved. So these refers back to verse 10, the heavenly bodies, The earth, all that has been built and done on the earth, these are the things that will be dissolved or destroyed. And in the light of the impending end of the world then, what rises to the surface for Peter is the question of your character, your own personal character. What sort of person are you? What sort of person ought you to be? You know that a holy God has created you. You know that his holy son has come into this world to live a perfect life, and to wash our sins away through his cross, and to give you his Holy Spirit once he reascended to heaven. And you know that the holy man, Christ, is the one who was crucified for you. Because of his resurrection, he is holy, and the death could not keep a hold on him. So we know the basic truths of the gospel. What does it mean for our motivation to be holy? not as a way of earning our salvation, but because salvation was given to us as a gift, and because we know that the final crowning piece of our salvation is when Christ comes for us, that therefore we are to be holy. Precisely because salvation was given, we ought to be holy, and it's the grace that's displayed here again in God's word. And Peter, back in 1 Peter, Chapter 1, verses 13 to 16 had already been talking about this. 1 Peter 1, 13, So you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. That was 1 Peter 1, 13 to 16. That's what he's coming back around to here at the end of his second letter, that we are called to be holy because God is holy, because he has sent his son to die and rise for us, and because he's coming again. Consider how the Apostles all support one another in this teaching. Consider how the Apostle John wrote what supports Peter. as John was starting his first letter of John, and how John was explaining what an impact it had on him that he got to meet Jesus Christ. He got to see God in person. And John did us a favor by writing down that experience, of course, carried along by the Holy Spirit as part of scripture. God himself is revealing this to us. But it's in the words of the apostle John, 1 John 1.3, that which we have seen, he's referring to Jesus Christ, and heard, he heard Jesus teaching and preaching, that which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. That was 1 John 1, 3 and 4. You see how John is writing the same things that Peter was writing in the passage we're studying. John wrote the same thing in 1 John 1 that Peter wrote in 1 Peter 3, which is what? Let me review it once more. What does it mean to be holy? We must be outstanding people. We must become those special, magnificent people on earth. Basically, Jesus is the best. He's the magnificent, beautiful person, and our task is to follow him and by his grace become like him. Of course, not in our own strength. instead in the strength of Jesus Christ and precisely because he is the one who came and he's the one who is coming again. We are eagerly awaiting his coming and we don't have any room for sin. We don't have room for ungodliness, unholiness. We don't have time left for ungodly thoughts and behaviors because he's coming so soon. We would be dumb, you could put it this way, to get ourselves caught up in scandals at this point in the world in the little time that is left before our Savior returns for us. So that was point number one. Holy and godly is how we are called to be. What sort of people? Holy and godly while we wait. That was from verse 11. We're moving on to number two, verses 12 and 13. bring out our second point. 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. So our point that we're gaining out of this is number two, using the waiting time to ready ourselves for the coming new days of resident righteousness. So let's get to these initial words, waiting for, we understood that already, we're waiting for Jesus coming, we're anxiously and eagerly waiting for his coming. But then this curious phrase that Peter writes here, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God. Can we make the day come sooner? It's a surprising statement and biblically, there is a yes and no answer. we seem to have a part in speeding along the coming of the day of God according to scripture, according to what Peter's writing, and it's backed up by other passages. Let's study this for a moment. First of all, we pray for God's kingdom to come. In the Lord's Prayer, recorded twice, Matthew 6.10 and Luke 11.2, we pray your kingdom come. If you're here this morning, you prayed it together with us. Your kingdom come. It means that we pray for our own holy living. We pray for God's reign. It literally means you reign. We pray for God to stop the ungodly and the ungodly living and to help us to live holy and godly lives. Your kingdom come. You reign in me and in the world. But secondly, we pray not just for the kingdom to come, but we pray for the king himself to come. we would plead with him to come. Come quickly, Lord Jesus, we pray. 1 Corinthians 16.22 and Revelation 22.20, we speak directly to God and we pray, come. Come, oh Lord. Thirdly, we send missionaries to all nations. When Jesus taught about the last day in Matthew 24, Jesus himself instructed his followers to proclaim the gospel to all the nations, listen, and then the end will come. Matthew 24, verse 14. And then the end will come. Interesting. It's the same kind of language that Peter's talking about here. the coming of the day of God. And there's a fourth aspect to this. Peter's surprising written statement here about hastening the coming of God is consistent with Peter's own preaching. Earlier in his life, right after the Holy Spirit came down in Acts 2, we read in Acts 3 that Peter spoke to a crowd of people after Peter had healed the crippled beggar at the temple. And in that sermon, Peter told the people to repent In order to participate with God in the sending of Christ, listen to it. Acts 3, starting with verse 19. In order to participate with God in the sending of Christ, listen to it. Acts 3, starting with verse 19. by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago, Acts 3, 19 to 21. So what am I saying? What does hasten mean? Do we actually change the date and make it sooner? Yes and no. Of course the date is set by God, so no. But yet what does Peter mean here? God uses our efforts in building his kingdom So yes, in a sense, we are participating with God, we're at least eager for it, we're at least participating with it, and there's a sense in which these activities are part of God's kingdom building before the next aspect of God's kingdom building, which is to send the King and gather us and bring us home. So God uses our participation in the work of missions through our prayers. through our giving to support and sending of missionaries and ourselves going as missionaries, maybe letting our children go, letting our grandchildren go as missionaries are all parts of echoing what God is doing in the world and therefore in that sense, hastening the coming. of His kingdom, hastening the spread of His kingdom, hastening the coming of His kingdom. It's really just a smooth segue into heaven and when Christ comes again. The more we're excited about His kingdom, the more it's a smooth transition between what we're doing now and what we're doing when He comes. We live in fellowship with God. We belong to the Lord. We know the Good Shepherd keeps us safe for we are his sheep. How can we be so sure? Peter knows we need some reassurance and so Peter writes reassurance in verse 13 according to his promise. We are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. What is this promise he refers to here in verse 9? I'm sorry, verse 13. Three times in this chapter, Peter wrote the word promise in the context of the day of the Lord. We saw promise in verse 4. And again in verse 9. And here's the third time in verse 13. Just as in the beginning of time God created the heavens and the earth, in which we know from Genesis 1.1, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, so also at the end of time God will again provide a new heavens and a new earth. And again, we see the Apostle John echo the same promise of reassurance of a safe future for Christians, Revelation 21.1. Revelation 21.1. So we see here the promise of God being fulfilled and Him taking care of us and providing a place for us to live. An earth now and a new earth or new heaven then. Since we the children of God can look forward to living eternally in a home of righteousness, which is really the emphasis here in verse 13, A place in which righteousness dwells. We dwell with God and His righteousness. We're clothed with the alien righteousness of Christ, which we receive by faith. And we live that out in real time in actions and words. We live in the presence of God and His righteousness. We live in the righteousness of God in all of our relationships with each other. Already now, we're starting to live in righteousness, a place where righteousness dwells in the Church of Jesus Christ, and we ought to be practicing that righteousness, but it's according to God's grace given to us, His promise. We are waiting for the true new heavens and new earth where righteousness dwells, and we're readying ourselves for that in our eagerness. That was number two, using the waiting time to ready ourselves for the coming days of resident righteousness. And a third and last point tonight from verse 14, what sort of people must we be? Being diligent to be found without spot and at peace. Verse 14, therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace. Peter here gives exhortations in a very pastoral way. He writes, therefore, to connect what he said already to his closing applications, if you will, in verse 14. His therefore, because what he's written in the previous verse, that the home of righteousness is something we eagerly anticipate that's been promised for us, has implications for our lives currently. The future home of righteousness, where righteousness dwells, the future new heavens and new earth, already now has implications for us here and now. So he writes, therefore, he wants us to see that what he's about to apply to us is valid and legitimate based on what we know already of God's promise of what's coming. And then he also includes the next word in verse 14, beloved. Maybe you've been missing it, so I'll point it out to you now that Peter has written this whole letter in a Christ-like pastoral way of love for his people, the ones receiving this letter. It's not some clinical class. This is a warm-hearted pastoral letter. Beloved means dear friends. Peter wrote in verse 1, Beloved, he wrote it again in verse 8, and here the third time in verse 14, and he'll do so again in verse 17. Don't miss those cue words. This is a warm letter from a warm-hearted, friendly, and pastoral Apostle Peter, and the rest of verse 14 is in that tone, that Pastor Peter is showing the response needed from Christians. Here we go. Since, Beloved, you are waiting for these, Wait, stop. This means, since you are waiting for what? You're waiting for a sinless environment of the saints in the presence of God in the new heavens and the new earth. You're waiting for a place where righteousness dwells. You're waiting for a sinless environment. Since, beloved, therefore, you're waiting for these, It means something significant for you now. It means something immediately now must already be at work in your heart and your life today as a redeemed person looking forward to that promise. This is the third time that Peter used this verb in just three verses. Verse 13, waiting for. Sorry, verse 12, we see it, waiting for. Verse 13, waiting for. It's the sense of looking forward to, anticipating. It's a positive connotation of looking forward to. It's in verse 12, it's in verse 13, it's in verse 14. Looking forward to, anticipating with joy. Living by a hope of what is to come. Looking forward to something. Living with your hope in high gear. And Peter likes to write this phrase next, make every effort. I know you have the English standard in front of you probably, and so it's translated there, be diligent, which is a fine translation, but it's my job to point out to you the ways that we see this throughout the chapter. throughout the book. So chapter 1 verse 5, he writes, make every effort to live with deepening character. Chapter 1 verse 10, make every effort, there's that verb again, to confirm your calling and election by your behavior. And in chapter 1 verse 15, Peter himself promises he will make every effort to teach these things so clearly, so repetitively, that his readers will remember them. And here in our verse 14, Peter uses the same verb a fourth time, make every effort, or the translation here, be diligent, is a great translation, from the English Standard Version, verse 14. It means diligence, see? It means effort. It means being eager enough to take action. to get busy doing what you're supposed to be doing. And the emphasis is on our responsibility as individual Christians to exert ourselves in developing our own Christian behavior, our words, our conduct. make every effort, he says, be diligent, he says, to become, to be found as people without spot or blemish, blameless. That means we work really hard at being like Jesus is. Not to earn anything, this isn't legalism, never. You couldn't read this book without seeing the grace of God. It's all by Christ, it's all by his cross, it's all by his resurrection, and yet, Since that's given to us as a gift, Peter now feels free to link that to your action next. Your play, your turn, the ball's in your court. What will you do? And what he exhorts us to do is to make every effort to be found without spot. And Peter himself uses this phrase to refer to Jesus. I'll point it out to you. Back in the first letter of Peter, chapter 1, verse 19, 1 Peter 1, 19, we read that Christ's blood is like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. Does that sound familiar? Like a lamb without blemish or spot. Again, a connection to the only way that we actually are without blemish and spot is because of the blood of Christ and his lamb blood being spilled for us through the cross work, his crucifixion, his resurrection. We understand that, but in addition to our being cleansed, in addition to our justification, we get sanctification. We get the motivation, the exhortation, and the strength to live out our redemption. So Peter's choice of words here is deliberate, of course. It's deliberate for him to say, be found without spot or blemish because we're covered by the blood of he whose blood is without blemish or spot. It's the opposite, also, of the false teachers that he's been addressing us about. In chapter 2.13, would you find it interesting that I would review for you the false teachers were blots and blemishes? So while the false teachers are blots and blemishes, our Lord Jesus Christ's blood is without blemish or spot, and what He exhorts us to be is not like the false teachers, instead like our Lord Jesus, following after Him, eager for His return, and to be found when He comes. How? In what condition? Without spot or blemish in our personal behavior, our words, our thoughts, our actions. The apostle Jude even echoes this. I could go to Paul again, but you've got the point there. Even Jude, all the apostles agree. Jude echoes this when Jude concludes his letter by saying that God is able to keep you from stumbling and to resent you, how? blameless before the presence of his glory. So we've covered that, but there's one more thing to cover before we stop our study is those last three words of verse 14, and at peace. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace. We're to make every effort, the same verb is applied now to this also, make every effort to be found at peace with the Lord Jesus. Paul also rehearsed the pathway to peace with God in Romans 5.1. And there, it's the possession of peace with God because of the justification of Christ. But here, it's the application of that to us in our effort, in our sanctification. We are to also add to that the effort of being found at peace with Christ when He comes. How can we gain that peace? How can we maintain that peace? We only gain it by His justification by His death and resurrection. How do we maintain this peace? By His grace given to us and then we add our efforts to it. We live in the light of God's word. We can enjoy fellowship with God the Father and with His Son. We have peace with our Maker and we long to see our Maker. We have no problem going to meet our Creator. We anticipate with joy seeing Him. We have peace with our Redeemer and we live to thank Him. We keep on sinning though. Peter's acknowledging this, that yeah, everything's right with God. We have eternal standing with God. We're children of God forever. It's not to be taken away. We can't lose our salvation. That's all true. And yet we keep on sinning. So what does that do to the situation? It threatens, in some way, our peace with God. We have peace with God permanently because of Jesus' righteousness, but we still have to deal with our sin. We do so by continually coming to Him, by continually confessing our sins, by continually receiving remission of our sins from God and being more and more purified from all unrighteousness. Again, here the Apostle John echoes and chimes in, with the words of perpetual solution to our perpetual unrighteousness problem, our sin problem, in the first letter of John, 1 John 1.9, maybe familiar words to you, if we confess our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we're going to be at home in a new earth and a new heaven where righteousness dwells, we have to have a process of readying ourselves until that time by cleansing us from all unrighteousness. We come again to the cross. We come again to our Redeemer. We come again and again to Him. That's the process that Peter is shorthanding in three words and at peace. How do you make every effort to be at peace with God? You stay at the cross. You stay at the foot of the cross. We ask him, the faithful one, to forgive us as we confess again to anything that we've done to disrupt our peace with him. Anything that we've done that doesn't look like righteousness. Anything we've done that doesn't fit in the home of righteousness, we bring it to him. That's the protocol for us when we sin. is to make every effort to make a beaten down pathway to the cross, to be cleansed of our spots and cleansed of our blemishes and restored in our peace and ready for the home of righteousness. So what have we seen? God has called us to wait. There's a lot of waiting. The next big event is when Jesus comes, and we're waiting. What sort of people ought we to be while we wait, holy and godly? That was point number one. Number two is using the waiting time to ready ourselves for the coming new days of resident righteousness. And number three, being diligent to be found without spot and at peace. I do have four application points. They're short, but I have four. Number one, live a life filled with holiness and godliness. No surprise to you, it comes right out of verse 11. The application points pour out of the passage because that's his whole point, is to make the application to what he's been teaching through the book. So the first one is out of verse 11, the next one's out of verse 12, and the next one's out of verse 13, the last one's out of verse 14. I'm not inventing things, these are applications from God to you from his word. Peter did not give us a list of do's and don'ts in verse 11. Is there something missing from verse 11? How do exactly we go about the holiness? How do we go about the godliness? Tell us something about what it looks like. We don't have a list of do's and don'ts. And it's kind of interesting how he puts it in the plural here. It's holinesses and godlinesses. It's all of them, everything under the categories of holinesses and godlinesses. There is no do list or don't do list, but it's a be list and don't be list. Be holy and godly and don't be unholy and ungodly. Be a follower of Jesus Christ and more and more like him. Don't be a follower of the false teachers and more and more like them. It's being a holy person, being a godly person. So live a life filled with holiness and godliness. In other words, be that sort of person. That's number one. Number two, wait for the coming of Christ in concert with God. What I mean by that is in agreement with God. doing everything in partnership with God. It's the sense of hastening His coming by being really in agreement and doing everything that God would love for us to do. God wants you to pray, so pray. God wants you to verbally testify of Christ, so verbally testify of Christ. God wants you to be a good steward, so there's money left to support missions, then be a good steward. Take care of your belongings and have money left to support missions. God wants you to invest more in heaven than you do on earth. so that you remain a stranger and a pilgrim here. And invest more in heaven than you do on earth. Remain a pilgrim and don't settle in. But do be faithful. Faithful in what God has given to you and called you to do. Martin Luther said it interesting this way. We're on the cusp of Jesus coming, right? Anticipating, eagerly waiting for his coming, should we punch out? Martin Luther says this, Think about that. It's waiting for the coming of Christ in concert with God. If he's coming tomorrow, plant the tree today. Because today is where we live. Get in tune with God and hasten the coming of Christ in that way. It's waiting for the coming of Christ in concert with God. That's number two. Number three, at home with righteousness. Be comfortable with righteousness, which means being uncomfortable with unrighteousness. Be the person who says, no, I don't want to hear that dirty joke. No, I don't want to. Go there. I don't want to be with that wrong thing. I'm at home with righteousness. I'm quite comfortable. In fact, I'm very at home with righteousness. I'll try to illustrate. If you were going to the Olympics next summer, and you knew that if you would win a medal, a gold, silver, or bronze medal, that you would have the opportunity to give an interview on national TV in Japan, but only if you could speak Japanese. I'm completely making this up, okay? I'm completely making this up for my illustration. You'd want to work hard at your sport to win a medal, but you'd also want to practice your Japanese so that you could have the interview on national TV in Japan. You'd work hard at both. You want to be at home with the life of an Olympic athlete. You want to live the life. You want to speak the language so that when you move over there next spring or next summer and you get to move into what they call Olympic Village, you'll be at home there. You're going to the heavenly village, you see, where righteousness dwells. What sort of person should you be? A person who is at home with Christ and his righteousness and Christ's people, quite familiar with and aware of and comfortable where righteousness dwells. Fourth, the last one, be at peace with God. I know it was brief. I know it was just tucked in there on the end, but it's ever so important. We know that the cross covers our wrongs. We don't graduate from that. We never graduate from the plain gospel covering our wrongs. We know the cross covers our wrongs, that Jesus' blood has cleansed us. We're at peace with God. But when you're at peace with your creator, you're at peace with yourself. Why such a struggle with false guilt? Wrestle it down. Be at peace. Make every effort to be found by Him at peace with Him, which means at peace with yourself. We don't do guilt. Christians don't do guilt. True guilt, false guilt, none of it. It's all solved by His cross. We don't let things that happened years ago guide our day, guide our mood. You're at peace with others also. Peace with God, peace with self, peace with others. If they want to talk it out with you and reconcile, then work it through. That's great. But if they don't want to talk it out with you and they won't reconcile, you're not stuck. You make every effort to be found at peace with Christ, and you won't be stuck. You'll find a way to absolve, to accept, to love anyway, and be at peace with others. Act like you're leaving this place pretty soon. for a better place. Don't let petty disturbances with other people. They're sinners, you know. Don't let petty disturbances with other people dominate you. Christ dominates you. Make every effort to be found at peace with Him. Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart and your life. When you get to heaven, you're going to fit right in. that remind you of 1 Peter 1 11. In this way, there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It's a picture of our entrance into heaven, and the picture is of Jesus himself standing at the gate, and you're coming from afar off, and your first glimpse is of him saying, come on, come on home, come on. waving his arms eagerly and warmly and insistently to welcome you to come on home because you're at peace with God. Let's pray. Lord, keep us from the dangers of false teachers who would rob us of all these jewels. Give us ears to hear your voice and your voice alone. May we have, Lord, your righteousness, the alien righteousness won for us at Jesus' cross imprinted upon us, and we never be confused about justification. We know that we are right with you. But as an outflow of that, as a natural outflow, may we also strive, making every effort towards lives of holiness and godliness, being at home with righteousness in our living, being insistent upon it for ourselves. May we see, O Lord, the diligence that's needed for us, and we maintain peace with you because of your grace, applying to ourselves every day the good gifts you've given, being ready for the best gift yet when you come to take us home. In Jesus' name we thank you, amen.