If you will, turn with me for
our message this morning to 2 Peter chapter 3. 2 Peter chapter 3.
2 Peter chapter 3, and look with me, starting in verse 1. Peter writes, this second epistle,
beloved, I now write unto you. While studying the second epistle
of Peter, I couldn't help but notice something that he did
here in chapter three. He referred to those to whom
he's writing as beloved four times. in this short little chapter. And I want us to know that as
we look at this, I want us to understand who He's writing to.
Often it kind of goes without saying, but we need to know who
this is for. And I pray that it's for me.
I pray that it's for you. Who are these beloved people
he's writing to? First, they were beloved to Peter.
He loved these people. And more than that, they were
beloved of God. And I know that because he tells
us here, he said, I'm writing this second epistle to you. He's saying, I've already written
you one epistle. Here's the second one. Well,
I'm not gonna look for time's sake, but in 1 Peter 1, he tells
us who these beloved people are. He calls them elect. God's elect,
chosen of God, sanctified by God, redeemed by the precious
blood of Christ. He said, you've been begotten
unto a lively hope by God's abundant mercy. That's who he's writing
to. That's who this is for. In 1
Peter 2, he tells us this is for those who've been called
out of darkness into God's marvelous light. And in 2 Peter chapter
1, he tells us this is for those who have obtained something.
They've obtained by the grace, the gift of God, like precious
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who this is for, alright?
Now look at verse 1 again. Second Epistle, Beloved, I now
write unto you, in both which I stir up your pure minds by
way of remembrance, that ye may be mindful of the words which
were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment
of us the apostles of the Lord and Savior. Just like we looked
at a couple weeks ago in 2 Peter 1, He's stirring us up to cause
us to remember and be mindful of some things. Remember in 2
Peter 1, He said, when I'm long gone, I want you to always have
these things in remembrance. He stressed the Word of God,
how it's the more sure word of prophecy that God has been pleased
to give us. It's the light that shines in
a dark place. And what'd he tell us? He mentioned
the Mount of Transfiguration where Peter, James, and John,
where the Lord brought them up into a mountain, and they saw
him in his glory. They saw him, and then they saw
Moses and Elijah, and they got carried away with Moses and Elijah.
So what Peter did in 2 Peter 1, he's reminding us, and he's
reminding us again right here, God's word from start to finish,
first of all, we can trust it, we can believe it, And it all
speaks of Christ. We need to see Christ in it.
He said right here, be mindful of the words spoken by the prophets.
You remember, they spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
They didn't just tell us what they wanted to tell us. They
told us what God led them to tell us, what God had them write. And it's all about Christ. I
mentioned the Mount of Transfiguration. What do we read? that Moses and
Elijah were talking about with our Lord. They were talking about
His deceased, which He should accomplish at Jerusalem. And
that's what this Holy Scriptures, that's what the Bible's all about. It's all about Christ, who He
is, and what He's accomplished. And Peter said right here at
the end of verse two, he said, remember, be mindful of the commandment. You know, this book is full of
commandments, but there's just one commandment. Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. They are people who are very
familiar with the scriptures, who can quote scriptures far
better than any of us who have not learned Christ. And if we've
not learned Christ, we've not learned anything needful, because
there's one thing needful, and that's Christ. We must know Him
and be found in Him. If we don't know Him, if we don't
have Him, as John told us, then we don't have life. And not only
that, but the wrath of God abideth on us. I pray God would cause
us to know Him. All right, look at verse three.
He said, knowing this first, that there shall come in the
last days scoffers walking after their own lust 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. Now, Lord, after he arose from
the grave and before he ascended back into glory, He made it very
clear that He's going to return again. He made that very clear. I'm not going to look for time's
sake, but you know what I'm talking about. He told His disciples,
He said, I'm coming back. No one knows the hour when. He
said, when I come back, one's going to be taken and another's
going to be left. That's what He said, all right? Now, these scoffers,
or mockers, and it also means false teachers. And go back and
read 2 Peter 2. The whole chapter is Peter warning
us against false teachers, false preachers who are preaching us
something other than Christ. All right? That's why he's saying,
remember this, remember this, be mindful of this. Christ is
all. Don't let these things slip. May it ever be near in the forefront
of our mind. Christ is everything. But He's
saying, scoffers are going to come, and they're going to come
preaching another Jesus. That's what they're going to
do. We read that in the Word, don't we? They're going to come
trying to take us away from the simplicity that's in Christ.
You know, well, yes, grace, but you got to... He's warning us
of that. He's warning us that these scoffers,
these mockers, they don't believe Jesus, the Son of Man, to be
Jesus, the Son of God. What did our Lord ask Peter and
his disciples? He said, whom do men say I am?
Well, some say. He's no mere man. Peter, by the
grace of God, he said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living
God. He's the son of man and the son
of God. And Peter knew that he alone
had the words of eternal life. He knew that Christ accomplished
what he came to do. Can you imagine the joy Peter
experienced, honestly? You know, he was so upset, just
like those disciples on the road to Emmaus. Well, we thought this
was him that was going to come redeem Israel. We thought, that's
the problem, ain't it, when we think? But you imagine how discouraged
he was when our Lord went to him. Peter didn't know it was
the Lord at first. And here he is fishing. He and the other
disciples had, well, we're going back. And then when our Lord revealed himself
to him, can you imagine the joy he felt when he took off and
he swam to the Lord? found himself at his feet, the
joy that overwhelmed him, he knew, you're my Lord, you're
back, you did exactly what you said you were gonna do. Oh my,
brethren, our Lord's coming back. Our Lord is coming back. I've
titled this message, The Promise of His Coming. He's coming back
and these scoffers that shall come and they're already here.
There are people who don't believe he ever came. He came, He accomplished
what He set out to do. But we must acknowledge if someone
doesn't believe on Christ, if someone doesn't believe He's
coming back, if they don't believe He's the Son of God, He accomplished
our salvation, it's because God has not given them like precious
faith to believe Him. That's the only difference in
us and anyone else is God has quickened us by the power of
His Spirit. He's given us faith to trust
Him and believe on Him. And I can't help but acknowledge
this, too. As I walk through this life, you know, we hear
it all the time. He's coming back. He's coming
back. And every time, I get so excited while I'm sitting here
and just think, any moment now, He's coming. And then I walk
out the door, as I go home, and I get upset about something,
I think, He's not coming back. Brethren, let's not be so foolish. People like to make predictions
of when He's coming back. Let me read you what the Lord said in
Matthew 24. He said, He's coming back, look here,
verse five. For this they willingly are ignorant of these scoffers
that deny the promise of His coming, 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. Anyone
who mocks God or His promises is ignorant. And brethren, that's
every single one of us by nature. Even, I just told you all the
time, I even now doubt. I believe, Lord, I truly do believe,
but Lord, help my unbelief. Help my unbelief. This whole
world is full of religion, but ignorant of Christ, ignorant
of God's salvation, ignorant of what He did, ignorant of who
He is, ignorant of what is yet to come. I don't want to be ignorant
of these things. Honestly, I really don't. I don't
want to go through this life not knowing God, not knowing
Christ, not desiring Him, because this whole thing is going to
wrap up very soon. Very soon, He said the world
was destroyed by water once. He said this world is going to
be destroyed again. And when that time comes, I want to have
hope. I want to be found looking for
Him. Honestly, you consider Noah. Consider him. It says that he
condemned the world. By preaching Christ, he went
preparing an ark according to God's commandment, and God saved
Noah and seven members of his family, and he destroyed everyone
else from the face of this earth. It says all flesh died. What hope is there? Well, there
was hope for those in the ark. I pray that when Christ returns,
he'll find us begging for mercy. You know, we just read about,
at the end of verse seven, God has reserved fire against the
day of judgment and perdition or destruction of ungodly men. You know that's what we are,
don't you? In and of ourselves, ungodly. But praise God, Christ
died for those very people, the ungodly. But there is an ungodly,
the reprobate, who will not be saved. They're never gonna feel
their need of Him. That's the only thing we need,
brethren, to feel our need of Him. I pray we truly do, by God's
grace. Judgment's coming. Verse 8, here's
a word of encouragement. Let's not be ignorant of this,
brothers and sisters. Time is nothing to our God. He's eternal, eternal in the
heavens. You know, we're creatures of
time. That's all we can comprehend. It's all we understand. But I'm
telling you, time is short. Some of y'all know that a lot
better than I do. Time is very short. But to God, think about
it, a thousand years. You know, the oldest person we
read about in the scriptures lived almost a thousand years. To God, that wasn't even a day.
To us, that's a very long time. Oh, but not to God. And concerning
the promise of His coming, brethren, everything's happening right
on time. You know, we use the phrase, well, everything's according
to plan. God doesn't plan, He purposes. He wills, He does,
He executes. That's how God is. You know,
we make plans, we have hopes that are nothing like expected
anticipation. Our plans fail. God's doing everything
right on time. And I hope we can remember that.
We get so down, don't we? Everything is right on time. Right on time, perfectly according
to God's purpose and his will. I believe it's in Ecclesiastes
where it says, he hath made everything beautiful in his time. I love
that. What a great thing to know. When's
Christ coming back? at the appointed time. It's been
appointed. It's all been appointed. And
I love this, too. Thinking about our brethren who
have gone before us, we all know somebody, don't we? We know several,
quite a few, don't we? What a joy it is to think about
heaven, first of all, what it will be like. We'll look at it
here some more as we finish this. But to think about our brethren,
you hear, the Lord's taking so and so home. Oh, oh, praise the
Lord. You know, the song we sing, when
we've been there 10,000 years, bright, shining as the sun, we've
no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. You
say 10,000 years? Oh, 10,000 times 10,000, brethren.
That's gonna be never-ending. Eternity with Christ is one blessed,
never-ending, eternal day. You know, we're in the darkness
now. We're in the evening now, but morning's coming. I love
this. I had never noticed this. I heard
a brother say it, but in Genesis, when the Lord made the first
day, it says the evening and the morning were the first day.
You know, we think morning comes first, don't we? Morning's coming. I'm telling you, according to
God's Word, morning is coming for His people, and I can't wait. I'm thankful for today. It's
the day the Lord hath made, and may we rejoice and be glad in
it, but morning's coming. Let's look forward to that, honestly.
All right, verse 9. It says, The Lord is not slack
concerning His promise, as some men count slackness. concerning
His promise to return, the promise of His coming. Brethren, the
Lord is not slack. It means He's not delayed. He's
not put it off. Well, I need to wait now. I need
to wait for whatever someone might say. Wait for some people
to decide to follow me. He's not slack. We know everything happens at
God's appointed time. He's not slack concerning His
promise as some men count slackness. The men we just read about, the
scoffers mocking the promise of His coming. Where is He? Everything's
continuing now just like it always has ever since the flood. Men
are marrying and giving in marriage and eating, drinking, and being
merry. You know, that's the mindset of someone that doesn't know
God. We don't know God's sovereign. He's ruling and reigning. Where
is your God, David? He's in the heavens, doing whatsoever
He's pleased to do. I'll tell you this, He's saving
His people. He's adding to the church daily, every single day
such as should be saved. They're called according to His
purpose. He's saving His people, brethren. And He's not slack
concerning His promise. When God makes a promise, He
keeps it. We can trust Him. You know, if I make you a promise,
I may make good on it, I may not, but it's not so with God. Let God be true, and every man
a liar. God will make good on His Word. And I love this. The
book of Revelation, as John wraps it up, he says, He which testifieth
of these things, that's our Lord Jesus Christ. What does He say?
Surely I come quickly. You know, we doubt His coming.
Well, He said, I'm coming. I'm coming quickly. That's a
promise, brethren. We can hang our souls on this promise, all
the promises of God. That's where our hope lies, not
in ourselves, not in anything to do with us, but in Him and
what He has said, what He's done for us and revealed to us. We
don't doubt that he accomplished our salvation, do we? Not at
all. And let's not doubt the promise
of his coming. He's coming. I'm telling you, he's coming.
He said, I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare
a place for you, what'd he say? I will come again and receive
you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. That's
a promise. Oh, let's rest in that promise.
Verse 9 again, the Lord is not slack concerning His promise,
as some men count slackness, but as longsuffering to usward. Now let's think about this for
a second. God who is holy, He cannot so much as look upon sin,
alright? And we see that in the cross,
don't we? Why hast thou forsaken me? Because He's holy, alright?
God who is holy, is also long-suffering, patient. Does that amaze you
like it does me? Honestly, God who can't look
at sin is long-suffering to somebody. And I'll go ahead and tell you
who. Sinners. How can that be? You know, everyone loves to acknowledge
God is love, God is love, and He is. There is no love that
doesn't stem from God, and that's His very character. But we need
to understand, God is holy. He is just. He is righteous. He only does that which is right,
perfect, pure. And we know what that means.
It means God must punish sin. God can by no means clear the
guilty. He will not at all acquit the wicked. Sin's gonna be dealt
with, and it's gonna be dealt with justly. He's angry with the wicked every
day. That's what he said. The foolish shall not stand in
his sight. He hates all workers of iniquity. He's reserved unimaginable
wrath for his enemies. and yet he's long-suffering to
usward. Amazing. Amazing. God, in his infinite matchless
goodness, he purposed to be gracious, full of compassion, slow to anger,
and of great mercy to a bunch of unworthy, undeserving, hell-bound
sinners. Is that your hope? You know why
God would do such a thing? For His glory. That the Son of
God, the Lord Jesus Christ, might receive all praise, honor, and
glory for all eternity. This is my beloved Son in whom
I'm well pleased. That's why. Look down here, verse
15, that the long-suffering, account that the long-suffering
of our Lord is salvation. We know that to be so, don't
we, brethren? Because if God dealt with us according to our
sins, we would be in hell long ago. But He's long-suffering
to usward. Now look at it here, verse 9,
not willing that any should perish. Now, I know this verse is highly
debated. You know, people will take that
part right there and say, God's not willing that you should perish.
Now, that's true if we're in Christ. That's true if we're
the beloved whom this is talking about. But people like to take
that and say, God's not willing that anyone should perish, but
that all should come to repentance. That's not what he's saying.
This isn't for everyone. This is for his people. If God
weren't willing that anybody perish, You know what the rest
of this sentence is. Nobody would perish. God either
has his way or he doesn't. It's a very simple thing to acknowledge.
Whoever God's purpose to save will be saved or God is not God. That's not hard to understand,
is it? But we just, we don't like to hear that. We want to
have some role in this. We want to get some credit in
this, but there's no credit for us to have. Can we not glory
in the Lord, rest in His salvation? He even said in His high priestly
prayer, He said, the glory which you've given me, I've given them.
Is that not enough for us? Oh, I want Him to have all the
glory, don't you? I want to be robed in His perfect righteousness,
don't you? There wouldn't be a place called
hell if God weren't willing that anybody should perish. He wouldn't
make a place to be uninhabited. This verse should not be a verse
of debate, it should be a verse of great comfort. And I pray
that we truly can rejoice in this. He's saying, I am not willing
that any whom I chose, any whom my Son, my only begotten Son,
came and poured out His precious blood to redeem, any whom the
Spirit of God will come and quicken, give life and faith in Christ
to, I'm not willing that one of them should perish. Just like
our Lord said Himself in John chapter 10. He said concerning
His sheep, I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Praise God. Praise the Lord. He hath saved us, hath called
us with a holy call. It's done, brethren. It's finished. He's not gonna lose us. We're
not keeping ourselves. Peter told us, he said, we're
kept by the power of God. God will keep us, brethren. Look
here, verse 9 again, Now, again, contrary to the natural mind
and the thinking of most people in religion, repentance is not
the cause of our salvation, but rather the result of God's promise
to save us. Now our Lord said these words,
He said, And that is so. That is so. We must repent this
carnal mind which is enmity against God. God's not in our thoughts.
The thoughts of the imagination of our heart are only evil continually. We need to have a changed mind,
that's what repentance means, a changed mind towards God, a
mind that isn't sold under sin, a mind that believes God, takes
Him at His word, looks to Christ, believes with all his heart,
I am a sinner, I'm nothing but sin, God is holy, Christ is the
Savior of sinners, and He accomplished what He came to accomplish, God
have mercy on me. That's what the repentant mind
that God must give is gonna believe. And I rejoice to tell you, repentance
is something God must grant. It's something we must be led
to, and we'll be led to it if we ever experience the goodness
of God. That's what Paul said, leadeth to repentance, the goodness,
the grace, the gift, Christ, Christ. I rejoice to know it's
God which works in us to will and to do of his good pleasure.
What's his good pleasure? Pleased us to make him his people.
It's gonna please him in his time to cause his people to repent
and believe on Christ. I pray we truly believe that.
I know that if salvation were in any way dependent upon me,
I would have no hope. I would be one of those ungodly
men who's gonna be destroyed in the day of judgment, no doubt
about it. But I rejoice to know as the Psalmist said in Psalm,
I believe 110, he said, thy people shall be willing in the day of
thy power. They shall, I will, and they
shall. Praise God. Praise God. Verse 10. 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. Rest assured, the day of
the Lord will come, and we will not see it coming. We're not
gonna see it coming. But God will make good on His
promise. He shall come. Everything here is going to be
burned up. And you know, that sounds, to the natural mind,
I understand that that sounds kind of cruel. Everything here
is going to be burned up. But for the child of God, I pray
we can truly rejoice here. I believe there's encouragement
here. All right. We're not living, hoping, and
trusting in things that we can see. Paul said, if we hope for
that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it? And I want
to show you something. This encouraged me so much. We're
living by faith, brethren. We're living by faith that God
has given us. Okay, let me show you this. You
know this, but turn back a few pages to Hebrews chapter 11.
Hebrews chapter 11. You know, we read about the scoffers
are saying, well, the fathers of old, Moses, Abraham, David,
Isaac, Joseph, Jacob, they died a long time ago. Where are you,
Lord? Are you coming back? Doubting the promise of His coming.
Now look at this, Hebrews 11, verse 13. This is concerning
our fathers of old, okay? Hebrews 11, 13, it says, these
all died in faith. not having received the promises,
Christ hadn't returned yet. In fact, Christ hadn't come yet. All right? These all died in
faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them
afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and
confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For
they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful
of that country from whence they came out, They might have had
opportunity to have returned, verse 16, but now they desire
a better country, that is, an heavenly, wherefore God is not
ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them
a city. I pray that can be said of us. I pray that we, by God's grace,
we live by faith, and that by His grace, and that's the only
way it's gonna be, we'll die according to that same faith,
trusting Him, waiting on Him. Back in our text, verse 11. seeing
then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of
persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God,
wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and
the elements shall melt with fervent heat." Brethren, it's
coming, all right? Our Lord is coming. And I pray
we can honestly look forward to that day, honestly. We know, because God said it,
that it's not entered into our hearts the things He's prepared
for us who love Him, because He first loved us. We can't begin
to imagine, that's what it's saying. Everything here is going
to be dissolved. Everything. I was in an airplane
last week, and I saw some pretty amazing things, and I had preached
on this text out there, and I was thinking, it's all gonna be dissolved. And it didn't make me sad. I
can rejoice in this because our Lord said, old things, all these
old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. We just heard about the new heaven and new earth last
week. What a blessed thought. What a blessed thought. May God
help us to rejoice at the thought of these things. May God help
us who've been risen with Christ to truly seek those things which
are above, to seek Christ. Either He's our great desire
or He's not. I pray He is. I pray He is. Verse 13, nevertheless, we, according
to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein
dwelleth righteousness. I gave this example to the brethren
there. All my life, people have told me, Cody, you've got your
whole life ahead of you. I've been hearing it for 28 plus
years. And I've never liked hearing
that, because from an early age, I truly felt like time was flying
by. And I didn't like hearing that,
because even at a young age, I thought, I know it's going
to be over. I don't want it to end. I know I have my whole life
ahead of me. I know I do. But don't wish it away, OK? But
you know what? I hope somebody tells me that
soon, because here's what thought is just on my heart. Got your
whole life ahead of you. You have no idea. I sure do. I have eternal life with Christ
awaiting me. He's ahead of us, isn't He? By
His grace, we're following in His footsteps very soon, aren't
we? Oh, praise His name. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. Oh,
praise the Lord. That's a promise, brethren. That's
a promise in Christ, and it's yea and amen. Praise the Lord.
According to His promise, Let's look for Him. Let's look for
Him. He's coming. I'll close with this, verse 14.
And you know what? We are right now. He's our peace, isn't He?
We have peace with God through Him, don't we? Just like Christ
robed in His righteousness, we're without spot, blameless. accepted in the beloved. By God's
grace, brothers and sisters, let's look for him. Let's trust
in him, cling to him, wait on him, because he's coming back. He's coming back. And may our
prayer from this day forth and however many days we have left,
may this be our prayer. Lord, come quickly. Come quickly.