2 Peter 3

So, 2 Peter chapter 3. Let’s remind ourselves that this is the very word of the living God. And so we read with care and attention:

This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you, in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, that you 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 Saviour: 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 us-ward, 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 you to be in all holy manner of life and godliness, looking for and hastening on to 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 you 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 wrest, 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 Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen. Amen.

This is indeed the word of God.

Now, whenever we get any form of communication, whether it is by email, text, or occasionally still in these days letters, the tone in which it appears to be written will determine how we react and respond to it. That’s automatically the case.

And so here, as we come to these last inspired words that were written by Peter, it’s very interesting to note the tone in which they are written, and we can discern the tone by the repetition of one word that he uses.

Peter uses this word very infrequently, but yet we find that as he addresses the believers he’s writing to here, he uses it four times. What is this word that he uses? It’s a little word, beloved. And as he writes to them, verse 1 you have beloved, verse 8 you have beloved, verse 14 you have beloved, verse 17 you have beloved. Four times in this short chapter he’s referring to them as his beloved.

In all of 1 Peter he only uses it on two occasions, but here he compresses it and uses it four times.

Now, there is a fifth time that he uses it in this chapter, when he’s referring to Paul, and he calls him “our beloved brother”. But as he addresses the believers, four times he refers to them as his beloved. This is written out of love, deep, deep love for those he’s addressing.

And maybe the idea of that love is accentuated when we realise that there’s one other place in this epistle where he uses that same word. It’s in the very first chapter, whenever he is recounting the events that occurred on the Mount of Transfiguration that he was privileged to witness and also to hear. And he says, verse 16, that they “were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” That’s verse 16 of chapter 1.

He says, verse 17:

For he received from God the Father honour and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

This is the very word that God the Father used when speaking of his Son and emphasising how much he loved him.

And now Peter speaks to these people, and again and again he refers to them as my beloved, my beloved, my beloved. He’s writing to them in love.

It’s important for us to realise that. But then, as he writes to them in love, notice the event that he considers and that is the focus of his attention in this chapter. And what is that event? Well, it’s the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that’s what he speaks about here.

And as he does so, notice some things with regard to his return. First of all, it is that which will be mocked, and he anticipates this. He says this, verse 3, “knowing this first”. This is of first-most importance that you realise this, that “there shall come in the last days”, and that’s not the last little period before the Lord returns, but it’s throughout that period of the last days, from Christ’s death, ascension, and right through until his return. We are all living through those last days.

And he says that in this period there will come “scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying, Where is the promise of his coming?”

Now, is that familiar or not? We hear that so often, that there’s just a mockery at the idea that Jesus Christ is going to return again. It’s mocked, but it has been delayed, and as we will see, for a very specific purpose.

And he refers to that, that the heavens which are now, verse 7, by the same word, that is the word of God, are kept in store. They’re reserved. And they’re being kept for something. And there’s going to be that great day of judgment that will come.

And as that day of judgment is being delayed, it’s being delayed for a specific purpose that we’ll think about in a few moments’ time. But then this event, he tells us, is going to be so unexpected. Verse 10: “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night.” Totally unexpected.

Everybody will not be running about saying, Oh, it’s going to come just now, it’s going to come just now. They’re not going to expect it when it does come. Remember how the Lord spoke, and he said to the people that as it was in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah and so on, so it shall be in the days of the Son of Man. And you know, I’ve heard that preached on so many times, and they’ll talk about the days of Noah, the days of Sodom and Gomorrah, and they’ll begin to talk about the sins that were prevalent at those times.

But that is not the point that Jesus makes. What is the point that he makes? He says, as it was in those days, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man. He says there will be eating and drinking, marrying, giving in marriage.

That is, life will just be going on as normal, and people will not be showing great perplexity. But suddenly. Suddenly, the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, and it will be utterly cataclysmic. We have seen power that man has unleashed in warfare in these days. You see it in Ukraine, you see it in Iran, and so on, and what power they have.

But listen, that is totally insignificant. This is nothing compared to the power that will be evidenced in this coming day. And it tells us there that the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, a tremendous explosion. The elements shall melt with fervent heat.

He repeats that again in verse 12. And I know that the ESV has it that the heavenly bodies will melt, but there’s another understanding of that, and it is that it’s the very elements that make up this world and this whole universe. Those very elements will melt in the heat of this tremendous day.

It will be utterly cataclysmic, but thank God it will be transformational, because he says, verse 13, “Nevertheless, we according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.” And there’s going to be that day whenever it all will explode and erupt and melt, but out of that will issue a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. What a glorious prospect that is, is it not?

And so Peter, out of love, considers this event, brings it to their attention, but then he asks a question. And what is the question? He says, verse 11, “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation”, in my version, “manner of life”, that is, “and godliness.”

What sort of people should we be if we really believe that these things are going to occur?

How should it have affected us? That is the question, and there is an implication. And the implication is that belief should influence our behaviour. Anything that we believe with regard to the things of God should influence our behaviour.

There is no truth revealed to us in Scripture that is not designed to influence our lives and our behaviour.

And so it is with this great truth.

Now, for such a long time, I would have to say that hardly a week goes by without somebody speaking to me and commenting about events that are taking place in the world and saying, It must be near the end. Must be near the end.

But do they really believe that? If they really believed that, you would know it, because you would see the impact it has upon their lives.

Now, that is not my perspective, by the way, that we are near the end. Don’t chase me out of your pulpit for saying that, but it’s not my perspective.

And I want you to notice this, the application of this truth. You see, here is Peter himself writing these things out of love. But this is so often overlooked: Peter lived his life knowing that Christ would not return before he died. Did you ever contemplate that? And he has emphasised that in the first chapter of this epistle, where he writes, verse 13:

Yea, I think it meet, or necessary, as long as I’m in this tent, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance, knowing that shortly I must put off this my tent, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me.

Remember in John chapter 21, whenever the Lord Jesus was restoring Peter from the state that he had been in, he tells him that when you’re old, another will come and take you out where you would not want to go. And then it tells us that this he spoke regarding how he would glorify God in his death.

And Peter knew that he was going to die before the Lord Jesus returned, but yet the truth of Christ’s return affected and impacted upon Peter.

And so it should be if we believe that Jesus Christ is going to return. Whether you’re those who believe that it could be any moment, or others who see that there’s much that still is yet to be done under the gospel before he does return, it should impact your life. It should have an effect on it.

And this is what Peter says.

And so he asks the question, what sort of people should we be if these things are true and we believe it? And then he goes on to give the answer. And what does he say to them?

He says, verse 14, “Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent.” That is, to carefully endeavour to do something, to strive strongly after something. And he says you must give your energies, your whole yearnings after these things. He says, be diligent.

1 Fellowship with the Lord

And first of all, he says they’re to be diligent in fellowship with the Lord himself. “Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found of him in peace”, that when he comes, whenever it is, you’ll be found of him in peace. And you see, this is speaking about being in fellowship with the Lord.

Now, we must understand this concept of peace.

There is an objective peace with God that the true believer has, which cannot be disrupted. Romans 5:1:

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And whenever we are drawn by faith to trust in Jesus Christ, and trust in him alone, God the righteous judge is able to declare that we are justified. That is a forensic, a legal act of the judge declaring us justified.

And what does this justified mean? It’s through Jesus Christ that we receive this. And this pronouncement by the judge comes about because we have been cleansed by the work of Christ and the blood that he shed, and it’s applied to us whenever we come to trust in him as our Saviour. But not only that, there is a righteousness that is made over to us. He was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

And there is this righteousness whereby God can look upon us as we are in Christ and deal with us as if we had never sinned. But it needs to go beyond that. It’s not just as if we had never sinned, but he sees us in Christ as if we had always lived in absolute accordance with his law and with his standards, and that we have indeed a true righteousness that comes as a consequence. Christ kept the whole law for us that we might have that righteousness made over to us, and so that Almighty God could look upon us and say, You’re justified.

You have peace with God, and that is something that can never be disrupted. That is something that is static and sure. But you see, there is a subjective peace, let’s call it that, that must be maintained, because we don’t relate to God just as a judge. We relate to him as our Father.

And you see, as he is our Father, we want to have peace with him and know that we have that true peace, that it’s well between us and our loving heavenly Father. And really, this is what 1 John chapter 1 is speaking so much about. Listen to what it says in 1 John chapter 1. We’ll read from verse 5:

This then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

You can see there that this peace that he speaks about having is peace with God the Father as we walk with him in the light. And as we are walking in the light, the blood of his Son cleanses us from all sin.

Now he says this:

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.

He’s making it abundantly clear that we who are true believers at times do sin, and because of that sin, it can mar our fellowship with God the Father. But there is a remedy for that, and it’s found in the blood of Jesus Christ as we have recourse to it again and again and to know that cleansing. And he says in chapter 2:

My little children, these things write I unto you that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

And so that peace can be kept in harmony, that peace can be kept as it ought to be, in sweetness. But the sad thing is that so often there are believers and they have that objective peace with God. They have been justified, but they’re not walking in the light as they ought to, and they need to come again and again and cry out and plead for that cleansing that they might know the sweetness of that fellowship with the Father and with the Son. And maybe there’s somebody sitting in this congregation this morning, and that’s the description of you.

You’re not enjoying your fellowship with God. You don’t know the sweetness of the Father’s presence. And even when you occasionally come to pray, it’s perfunctory, it’s cold. There’s not much life or vitality about it because there’s that barrier that is there, as it were, between you and the Father.

And you need to come and you need to cry out to him. And remember, he says, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. The truth is not in us. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar.

We need to come, make sure that we have this peace, this wonderful peace. But not just to see that we have peace with God and with the Son, but also with the Lord’s people. Because it is a mockery to say that we have peace with God and peace with Christ if we do not have peace with his own people. Remember there in Ephesians chapter 4, Paul says this:

I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love,

Now, notice this:

endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

And we have to strive, we have to make the effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit. Notice we are not to strive to create the unity. That’s no part of our work or our potential. It is the Spirit that produces that unity.

And what we are to do is to maintain that unity of the Spirit and the bonds of peace. And I trust that here in Emmanuel, if you really believe that Jesus is coming, you will strive and endeavour to be at peace with God, but be at peace with one another as the family of God, and get put right the things that may be wrong and the dissensions that at times do rise among the people of the Lord. But they’re to be diligent, first of all, in their fellowship with the Lord.

2 Conformation to the Lord

But secondly, back in 2 Peter chapter 3, notice what he says, verse 14 again:

Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless.

Without spot and blameless. And I would suggest to you we could call that the conformation to the Lord. Conformation to the Lord.

How do we get that? Because there, whenever it says “without spot and blameless”, that actually is “without spot and blemish”, as the ESV has that second word: blameless, blemish.

Now, does that create an echo in your minds of any other scripture? Well, remember 1 Peter chapter 1:

We know that we are not redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver and gold, from our vain conversation learned by tradition of the fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ.

Without what? Without blemish and without spot. Jesus Christ is the one who is without blemish and without spot. And Peter takes those exact same terms here and says that we are to strive and endeavour to be without spot, without blemish, as we anticipate Christ’s return.

That means we become more and more like Christ. And again, there’s another echo that comes to us. You remember what it tells us in Ephesians. Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church without what? Spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without what? Blemish. There is a great objective of Christ that he will have a bride that is without spot and without blemish. And we are to strive and endeavour that that might indeed be the case with us as we anticipate his return.

And you see, in essence, this is fulfilling a tremendous purpose, the very purpose for which we have been saved by the grace of God.

You know, we love to quote Romans 8:28, don’t we?

We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.

And so often we stop there as if that’s the full stop.

But we will never really understand what that verse means until we go to the next verse. Because to understand that verse, we need to know what the good thing is that is being referred to there.

We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose, for whom he did foreknow, them he did predestinate,

To be what? Conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

And there is a great purpose that God has for every saved person, for them to be made more and more and more and more like his Son until the last day when we are like him, when we see him as he is. But in the here and now, we are to endeavour, to strive to be more conformed to the Lord. And that means bringing ourselves under willing subjection to the word of God, learning the lessons that he wants to teach us as he brings us into different circumstances of life, even those afflictive circumstances that are designed to maybe shear off some of the fleshly things and to mould us more and more like Christ. But then there’s a pressure we need to resist in this matter.

You remember Romans chapter 12?

Beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Then what is he going to say? “And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

And you have to resist the pressure of the world attempting to squeeze you into its mould, and you have to say, No, that is not the mould that I am designed for as a child of God. The mould that I am to be brought into is likeness to Christ.

And so the things of the world, or of a country, have to go. We must resist them and resist its pressure, and we need to be a distinctive people, to be like Christ in this world.

One of the tragedies in modern Christianity in many circles is that they’ve lost the real reality that we are to be a distinctive people, a different people, not like the world. There’s been this concept that if we can sort of get a bit closer to the world without being wholly of the world, we’ll be able to attract more perhaps to be like us. But that is not God’s pattern. God’s pattern is that we will be most attractive when we are most like Christ, and the more we’re like Christ, the less we will like the world.

Is that not logical? And this is what we are to strive to be by his grace.

3 Witnessing about the Lord

Thirdly, back in 2 Peter chapter 3. All right, we are to be diligent that we might be at peace with God. We are to be diligent that we might be conformed to Christ the Lord. We’re also to be diligent in witnessing about the Lord. Verse 14 again:

Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless. And account, or reckon, that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you.

And here he says we’re to be diligent in this, reckoning, reckoning that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation. That brings us back to the delay of Christ’s return. And notice the realisation that he wants to stimulate in the mind of the Lord’s people.

Go back and look at verse 8 of chapter 3, and he says this:

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.

A lot of ideas about what that means. To me, simply what this means is that the Lord can do in one day what we think it would take a thousand years to do. Or the Lord can look on a thousand years of our time as if it’s just a day to him. So our concept of exercising patience is different to what the Lord’s is, in that context. He goes on to say this, verse 9:

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

Now, the last few phrases of that verse so often are taken out of their context, and we can lose so much of their sweetness and their consolation by doing so.

We quote it so often that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But whenever you look at it in the context and you ask, who is the any that is being referred to there? He’s not willing that any should perish. Well, you need to link it in with the previous part of the verse. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to us. Who is the us that Peter is speaking about? Himself and the people to whom he is writing. That’s the us.

And he was long-suffering to us, not willing that any, any of us should perish, but that all of us should come to repentance.

Now I want you to think about this. Think how patient God was with you and how his coming was delayed, delayed in your experience. For me, all right, I was saved when I was about eight years of age at a Bible club camp. Carnlough. It was in August of the year. I can’t remember anything beyond that. I think it was a Wednesday night.

But if the Lord Jesus had come in the July, I would have been lost and in hell. Think of it for yourself. If he had returned a day before your conversion, you would have been in hell. But the Lord was long-suffering to us, not willing that any of us should perish.

And there’s maybe somebody sitting in this congregation this morning and you’re not saved, and you know that you need to be saved, and maybe you think that someday you will be saved. But the Lord has been so patient with you, so patient. And oh, do not presume in that patience, but rather yield to God and the mercy that he offers you in Christ and come and trust in him, as once again that opportunity is held out to you.

But whenever we realise this, and we think of what Peter then goes on to say, reckon, reckon that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation. What is the deduction we make from that? God has more to save. If he’s still delaying his coming, there’s more to be saved. And if there are more to be saved, there’s still more for us to do.

And we should be motivated by this, the fact that Jesus Christ is going to return again someday. And on that day when he returns, those who have not prepared for that day through faith and trust in Jesus Christ will be caught up in that cataclysmic judgment. And oh, what it will mean for them. You’ll be lost for all eternity.

And we live in the light of that. I’ve already indicated to you that my understanding of eschatology, that is things with regard to the Lord’s return and so on, I believe there are things still to be fulfilled before that event occurs. But I don’t just say, Well, it’s going to be a while yet, maybe, so I can relax.

No, no, no, no, no, no. Jesus Christ is coming again. And the people that I meet, the vast majority of them are outside of Christ, unsaved. And what it will mean for them at that last day.

And I reckon that the delay means salvation. There’s still more to save, still more to do. I go out onto the streets to preach in the open air. I have done so for years, and you get many things said to you when you’re out in the open air.

But here is the most common statement that is made to me whenever I offer people a tract, among those who are going to refuse it. They say, I’m all right. I’m all right. They are not all right. They’re all wrong. They’re lost. Brethren and sisters in Emmanuel, we need to be diligent.

We need to carefully endeavour. We need to strive strongly to reach out to those who are lost. Christ has delayed his coming. There’s more to be saved.

There’s more for us to do.

Let’s get up and do it to the glory of his name. Well, may God bless his word to your hearts. I pray that it is a word from the Lord for each one, and that help and benefit may be derived from it.