Let's open our Bibles to 2 Peter
chapter 3. As many of you know, I began this
chapter last week and only got up to around verse 9, talking
about the last days. The title of this message is
part 2 of In the Last Days. And Peter started this chapter
out. He didn't write it in chapters,
obviously, but he started out in verse 1 of chapter 3. This
second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you. And he says,
his whole point is that in verse 3, he said, knowing this first,
that there shall come in the last days scoffers. And the issue that they're going
to be scoffing at is not only the gospel, that's part of it,
But the promise that God has made that Christ would come again
the second time, the second coming of Christ. And so what I'm intending
to do is basically to preach a series of messages from several
passages of Scripture that speak of the last days. And I made
mention of this last week how, you know, we've been living in
the last days since the Lord ascended unto glory. and the
New Testament church was established and inaugurated at Pentecost,
from the time of Christ's first coming to the time of his second
coming, that's the last days. And I made the point that the
Apostle John spoke of that in his first epistle, talking about
how that in the last days that Antichrist, those who are against
Christ would come, and he mentioned the spirit of Antichrist, which
was in his day talking about people who would come in the
name of Christ, but not believing and preaching the truth of Christ. And we have a lot of that today.
And I'm going to deal with that later on. But I wanted you to
see in this chapter, Peter speaks of some things that are kind
of alarming here. It talks about these scoffers.
In fact, the whole book of 2 Peter deals a lot with false prophets,
false preachers. Again, not just what we would
call idolatrous religion in the sense of Buddhism and Muhammadism
and all of that, but talking about men and women who come
in the name of Christ, claim to be Christian. And that's alarming. The Lord spoke of it when he
taught his disciples about the last days. He said in the last
days there'll be all kinds of people. There'll be some who
come and claim to be the Messiah. Now we know that's happened,
and it'll probably happen again. But he says that the worst part
is those who claim to preach Christ, but they deny the doctrine
of Christ. What the Bible says about who
Christ is. Who is Jesus Christ? We need
to be concerned about that. Not saying that we're confused
on it or doubtful about it, but I know who Jesus Christ is. And the Bible says it, God's
word says it, he is none other than God manifest in the flesh. That's who he is. He's God-man,
he's not a lesser God. In his deity, the second person
of the Trinity, co-equal with the Father and Spirit, in every
attribute of deity, and in his humanity, sinlessly perfect,
God-man. And the Bible says that that's
what he had to be in order to save sinners like you and me.
Because he had to die on the cross. So there's no question
in our minds about who is Jesus Christ. Christ asked the scoffers
of his day that question, what think ye of Christ? Whose son
is he? And they said, well, he's the
son of David. Well, that's true. In his humanity,
he was a descendant of the line of David. But that doesn't answer
the question fully. And so he posed another question.
He said, okay, how could David call him Lord? How could David call him his
God? They didn't know. Aren't you
glad you know? Because he's both God and man
in one person. And then secondly, what did he
accomplish when he died on that cross? Now that's the gospel
message, the person and work of Christ. It's not just that
he died. It's not just that he was buried.
And listen to me, it's not just that He arose from the dead,
He did all of that. And that's amazing, it's marvelous,
it's awesome. But what did He accomplish for
His people? Because that's what the Gospel
is. His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His
people from their sins. Emmanuel, God with us, God manifest
in the flesh. All of that. Well, Peter's talking
about those who are scoffing, denying, ridiculing the second
coming of Christ based upon their reasoning, and this is a great
example of sinful human rationale. Well, look, he's not come yet.
Look how long it's been. Time's against him. Well, look
at what Peter says about that. Verse eight, 2 Peter 3. But beloved,
be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord
as a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. Do you think
time is a hindrance to God's plan and purpose? We look back at it and we say,
boy, that's a long time. God says it's just a day. It's
been, they would say, over 2,000 years since Christ died. Well,
in God's mind, that's two days. God doesn't measure time like
we do. God has an appointed time for all things. That's what the
scripture says. And the time of the return of
his son is set in time. You don't know it, and I don't
know it. We talked about that last week, didn't we, Robert?
About how we know this, and this is where we're gonna go in verse
nine. But he's coming again. There's no doubt in my mind,
I don't know what day or what hour, and I wouldn't ever attempt
to try to figure that out. Y'all may remember that preacher
in California who figured it out and wrote a book on it. Didn't
happen, so he recalculated, wrote another book on it. Didn't happen. My understanding is he went into
despair and died. Why would you want... Why would
you want to do something like that? You see, what are we to
be about as a church, as witnesses for Christ, as light shining
in a dark world? What are we to do? Sit around
here and write books called Left Behind. As I told you last week,
the only thing that was left behind in those books was the
scriptures. Sit around and make charts. I
can remember a man gave me a book of charts where this fellow had
it all worked out. Why? If there would be any chart
that we could believe in, wouldn't it be in this book? What are
we to do? Well, we're to preach the gospel.
And here's when the Lord's coming back. Look at verse 9. He says,
the Lord is not slack concerning his promise. The Lord's not slow. There's nothing we can do to
slow it down or to speed it up. God's not slack concerning his
promise. Now he's talking about the specific
promise of sending his son to return, his second coming. As
some men count slackness, as these golfers judge it. But he's long-suffering to us-ward. Now that's a key point here.
The usward is God's people, believers, God's elect, to whom God does
not charge sin, whom he chose before the foundation of the
world and gave to Christ, made him our surety, sent him into
the world as our substitute to redeem us by his blood. Those
who are born again by the Spirit and brought to faith, and he's
long suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish,
any of us, not all without exception, And he says, but that all, all
of us, all of God's elect should come to repentance. Now that
tells you what we should be doing in our lifetime while we are
anticipating and waiting for the Lord to return. And what
is that? Preaching the gospel aimed at
repentance. You say, well, what about faith?
You know how you get to repentance? By God-given faith. Both faith
and repentance are the gift of God. And what is this repentance
that he's talking about? Well, repentance is a God-wrought,
Holy Spirit-wrought change of mind and heart that brings us
to see things totally different than what we saw then before.
Now most people today, when they think about repentance, they
think about feeling sorry for your sin. Well, we ought to feel
sorry for our sin. We ought to sorrow over our sins,
more than we do probably. But that's not repentance. Others
say, well, it's reformation of conduct. Well, We probably have
a lot of areas in our conduct that need to be reformed, need
to be changed, need to be better, but that's not repentance. Repentance is, as I said, here
we see things in one way, judge them to be good or evil, and
God, by the Spirit, in the new birth, enters into our minds
and our hearts, gives us a new heart, Brings us to see things
good and evil opposite of what we naturally do now Let me show
you that turn to Philippians chapter 3. I think this is one
of the best examples in scripture Of what real repentance and let
me just quote a verse for you in light of this Philippians
3 You remember Christ he confronted the Pharisees and their followers
and He looked at them and in Luke chapter 16 and verse 15,
now you turn to Philippians 3. In Luke 16, 15, he says, you
are they which justify yourselves before men. That's what he said. He said, but that which is highly
esteemed among men is an abomination to God. Now think about that. What is it that is highly esteemed
among unregenerate, natural man? Well, I can tell you this. Religion
is highly esteemed. Human morality is highly esteemed. Sincerity, charity, all of those
things are highly esteemed. Well, what's the problem with
those things? Aren't all those things good in a way? Isn't it
good to be a moral person? Shouldn't we be moral? Yes. There's
no argument there. I hear people say, well, if I
believe what you believe, I'd go out and sin as much as I want
to. Well, you might as well if that's what you want to do. But you see, that's what God
does in the power of his grace. He gives us a new want to, doesn't
he? And we have a struggle now. We've still got the flesh. But you see, this thing about
repentance, it gives us a new perspective, a new way of looking
at good and evil. And here, when you talk about
morality and religion and sincerity and charity, Here's what you
see. Whereas before you thought and
I thought those things would recommend you unto God as forming
some part of a right relationship with God, now you see that that's
an abomination. A simpler way to say it is salvation
is not by works. And those who come before God
pleading their works, no matter how they appear to men and women,
That's an abomination to God. Why? Because it denies His glory. It denies His Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's nothing but self-righteousness.
So in repentance, here's what happens. As Christ said, that
which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination to God. In repentance, God brings us
to see that that which is highly esteemed among men, now, even
in ourselves, is an abomination to us. Look at Philippians three, verse
three. Paul writes, for we are the circumcision. Now he's talking
about spiritual circumcision there, circumcision of the heart.
Which worship God in the spirit. Some people say the Spirit there
should be capitalized. I'm of that mind, but we worship
God from the heart, but we also worship God as the Holy Spirit
guides us in God's Word. So both are true. And we rejoice
in Christ Jesus. Now the word rejoice there is
the word glory, to boast. What's he saying? We worship
God in spirit and we boast in Christ. That's what I'm doing
here today. I'm bragging on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Look at my Savior. Look at my
Lord. Let's talk about His righteousness.
Let's talk about God's mercy in Him. His mercy endureth forever. See what I'm saying? That's what
we're here for. Let's talk about who he is and what he's done.
And so he says, and have no confidence in the flesh. No confidence in
that which proceeds from us. Now look at verse four. He says,
though I might also have confidence in the flesh. Now Paul's going
to begin talking about his life before conversion. He says, if
any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in
the flesh, I more. Look at what I used to think
recommended me unto God. I was circumcised the eighth
day. I was of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew
of Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee, went beyond the
call of duty. Concerning zeal, persecuting
the church, that is, he persecuted that which he thought was heresy.
and touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless,
outwardly. Those are the things that Paul
thought was highly esteemed before God. But look what happened. Verse seven, but what things
were gained to me? I thought those things were gain.
I was achieving something. But those things that were, those
I counted loss. for Christ. Now there's repentance.
You say, well, where's faith? There's faith in Christ and repentance
of dead works. He says in verse eight, yea,
doubtless I count all things but loss for the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I've suffered
the loss of all things and do count them but dumb that I may
win Christ. and be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of, or the faithfulness of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God by faith. That's faith in Christ and repentance
of good works. Now go back to 2 Peter 3 and
verse 9. What Peter in essence is telling
us here, here we are living in the last days. Somebody said,
well, we're closer to the time of Christ's return. Well, obviously. We're closer than what John and
Paul and all of them were. Somebody said, well, we're living
in the last of the last days. I have a tendency to believe
we are. And all kinds of ideas come by, oh, this world is getting
so much worse. Well, OK. I'm not gonna argue
with y'all anymore on that if that's what you... The world's
always been evil. Maybe the main difference is
we didn't see it on, they didn't see it on TV back in John's day,
or in the movies, I don't know. But the world's always been.
You know, they say going to hell in a ham basket. Well, it's always
been that way. And I see it as getting worse
in some sense, but not in the sense a lot of people talk about.
I see it in the sense of false religion. And I think that's
what Peter's talking about here. And so he says, as long as God
has not sent his son back to destroy this world and gather
his church, we know there's some lost sheep out there. Don't know
where they are, it might be in Albany. Might be somewhere else. There's some lost sheep out there
who have not yet been brought into the fold. And God's not
willing that any of them should perish, but they should all come
to repentance through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Just like
Paul, just like you, just like me. And so when that last sheep
is brought into the fold, that's when the Lord's gonna return.
I'm convinced of that. I don't know what day it is.
Look at verse 10. The day of the Lord will come as a thief
in the night. That doesn't mean that he's gonna sneak in like
a thief and take some out and leave some here. No secret rapture. The Bible says he'll come with
trumpet sound, loud and clear, and gather his people together.
I'll get to that later on in messages. But he'll come as a
thief in the night. It means this. He'll come when
you least expect it. We don't know the day and hour.
It could be before I finish this message. We don't know. And he says, in the which the
heavens shall pass away with a great noise. That doesn't sound
like a silent rapture, does it? The heavens are going to pass
away with a great noise. And he says, and the elements
shall melt with fervent heat. Here's your global warming. The earth also and the works
that are therein shall be burned up. This world as we know it
will burn up. Now somebody said, well, that's
pretty depressing. Well, that's why I had Brother Randy read
that song. Not to us, not to believers. His mercy endures
forever for us. And he says in verse 11, seeing
then that all these things shall be dissolved, all these things
that we by nature esteem, value, hold onto, will be dissolved,
what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation
and godliness? What kind of people should we
be? How should we conduct ourselves? How should we think? How should
we act? Well, the first thing he says
here, look at verse 12, we should be people who are looking for
and hasting unto the coming of the day of God. Lord, come quickly. Now you may have said, and I've
said it too, I want the Lord to come back, but I've got so
many loved ones who are still lost. and unbelieve. Well, my friend, here's what
we have to see in God's view of things as he gives us in his
word. All of God's chosen people will be brought to repentance.
That's right. No matter when he comes back,
he's not going to leave one of his elect to be, to be burned
up with the world, to perish. And so we look for and we hasten. Lord, come quickly under the
coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall
be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.
Verse 13, nevertheless, we according to his promise. This is the promise
of God. Look for new heavens and a new
earth. Now notice how he describes the
new heavens and the new earth. Wherein dwelleth what? Righteousness. That thing which I get ridiculed
a lot of times for preaching so much. That's how he identifies
the new heavens and the new earth. Righteousness. And whenever I
think of righteousness, I think of Christ. Don't you? I don't go looking inside myself
or looking at you. I look at the gospel message
of the righteousness of God in Christ, like Paul said, that
I may be found in Him. Not having mine own righteousness
of the law, which is of the law, but that which is through the
faithfulness of Christ. And that's His righteousness imputed. Now,
when the Lord comes back, we will be glorified and we will
be righteous people even within ourselves. There'll be no sin.
Sinless perfection. But don't look for it here on
this earth, even in us. Oh, the Holy Spirit has given
us spiritual life, the gifts of knowledge and faith and repentance,
perseverance, all of that. And the only reason we know the
surety of that is because we're looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. Who is your hope? Is your hope
built on nothing less than Jesus, blood, and righteousness. And
incidentally, I believe if you read the scripture and study
it, God's people in the new heavens and new earth, we will inhabit
the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. We're not gonna
be up in some celestial city. We're not gonna be floating on
a cloud with wings and a harp. We'll have new bodies, spiritual
bodies, And I really don't know a lot about that other than what
we read in 1 Corinthians 15, and we'll talk about that later. But wherein dwelleth righteousness? Whatever that's talking about,
we'd better love righteousness. And if we know anything about
righteousness in the Bible, we find it in the perfection of
the law that can only be found in Christ. That's it. That's how he identifies the
new heavens and the new earth. And he says in verse 14, Wherefore,
or for this reason, beloved, seeing that you look for such
things, be diligent that you may be found of him in peace
without spot and blameless. Be diligent. To do what? To know that I'm in Christ. It's
like Examine yourself whether you be in the faith. Am I really
looking to Christ or am I secretly in my heart of hearts looking
somewhere else? You understand that? That's what self-examination
is about. I want to be found of God in
peace. Well, where is my peace? The
blood of the cross. Now what the Bible says? Christ
is our peace. Jehovah Shalom. That's who He
is. The Lord our peace. Who made peace between God and
His people? Christ did. God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses
unto them. The non-imputation of sin. What
did God do with those sins? He imputed them to Christ. And
we stand in Him having His righteousness imputed to us without spot and
blameless. That means you can't be charged.
Well, how in the world could I be diligent to be found without
spot and blameless? Am I perfect within myself? Are
my thoughts always perfect, pure, without any contamination of
sin? And the answer is no. So how am I going to be diligent
to know that I'm without spot in blood? To be in Christ. Am
I in Christ? Do I really trust Him? Is He
all my hope? Paul said, I know whom I have
believed and I'm persuaded that He is able to keep that which
I've committed unto Him against that day, the day that we're
talking about here. To keep what? that which I have
committed unto Him. What have I committed unto Christ?
My whole salvation is committed to Him. It's not conditioned
on me. Does that cause me not to want
to be an obedient servant? No. It's the greatest motivation
to be an obedient servant, to fight sin. Verse 15, he says,
account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation. God's
saving His people, even as we stand here and sit there. It's
salvation. As long as Christ has not returned,
sinners are being saved. Now, it may not be multitudes
like at Pentecost. It may be one here, one there,
a group here, a group there. I don't know. We'll find out
in the end, won't we? Even as our beloved brother Paul
also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto
you, verse 16, as also in all his epistles speaking in them
of those things in which are some things hard to be understood,
which they that are unlearned and unstable rest or twist as
they do also in other scriptures unto their own destruction. Now
what is Peter talking about here? You know, a lot of people, they'll
say, well, he's talking about the doctrine of election. That's
hard to understand. No, he's not. Peter spoke of
that, writing to the elect. What is he talking about? Well,
I think he's talking about the gospel, not just in message,
but in how it applies. And what was the one thing that
Peter himself struggled with? as he went out to preach into
the world, the salvation of Gentiles, and what that meant and what
it required. But Paul was the first apostle
who spoke of those things, how that there is, in Christ, there
is no separation and no difference between Jew and Gentile. It's
all in Christ, it's all by grace, through the righteousness of
Christ, and has nothing to do with whether a person is a Jew
or a Gentile. And Peter says, there are some
who are unstable, twist the scriptures to their own destruction. What
it is, is they will not, will not accept the sovereign grace
of God in the salvation of sinners, both Jew and Gentile, by his
grace through the blood of Christ. Now that's what I believe he's
talking about here. He doesn't really specify, but I know that's
what Peter had problems with early on. He had to be taught
that. Remember when Paul withstood
him to the face in Antioch over that issue? So he says in verse
17, you therefore, beloved, seeing you know these things before,
beware lest you also being led away with the air of the wicked
fall from your own steadfastness. Don't be led away or led astray
with these false preachers. Be on your guard. How do you
do that? Verse 18. Grow in grace? What does that mean? Does that
mean try to be a better person? No. Now again, should we try
to be better people? Yes. But you know what growth
in grace is? In the book of Hebrews chapter
12, it speaks of it. And chapter
13, having the heart established with grace. Realizing in the
simplicity that's in Christ that it's all of grace from beginning
to final glory. Saved by grace, kept by grace,
hearts established with grace, and grace brings obedience. But it brings submission, growing
grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
know Him more, His word more, become skillful in the word of
righteousness so as to discern good and evil. That's how we
stand fast and not fall from our own steadfast. It's God who
keeps us. It's God who preserves us. But this is His means. grow in
grace and in knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
To Him be glory both now and forever. Amen. All right.