This is one of those chapters,
as I was looking at it again this morning, that I would like
to have brought in the next service. Just had one service, because
this is so powerful in this chapter. It has to do with what's going
to happen in the last days before his coming. And remember, this
was written 2,000 years ago. And, uh, what's going to happen
when he comes, you can title this the coming
of Christ. I put on my nose before and after
Christ coming. Now in this chapter, in the closing
part of this chapter, the apostle Peter is going to deal with four
things. He's going to deal first of all
with why he writes this second epistle to the Beloved. Now you'll notice that name keeps
popping up. The Beloved, Beloved. You are the Beloved. Isn't that
a sweet term? The Beloved of God. I get a preach
to the Beloved of God every week. You are the Beloved. We are who
believe. And he tells us in this chapter
that in the last days scoffers, the writers of the gospel shall
come. These scoffers will make fun
of the gospel. They make fun of judgment. They
make fun of the resurrection of Christ, the gospel of Christ,
the return of Christ, the destruction of this earth, this world, the
heavens and the earth are going to be dissolved. This ball that
we live on is gonna be burned up. And he says the heavens,
everything has to do with this earth, is gonna be destroyed. They laugh at that, just like
they laughed at Noah. They laughed at Noah, but one
day, 120 years, 120 years went by, Noah building the ark, and
judgment fell. Judgment came they weren't laughing
then They weren't scoffing at Noah then But he says that in
the last days these coffers will come There'll be more of it. It'll be more evident And this
is what he deals with And then he describes the coming of our
Lord and how this earth is gonna be dissolved and and he's gonna
close with with our use of these things. What manner of persons
ought ye to be, he says. I mean, there's such a message
in all these verses. What manner of persons ought
you to be in all holy conversation, in your life, in your conduct,
and in the things you get taken up with? We get taken up with
so many things. It's one of the reasons why we
have to meet together like this, that we'd be reminded, as we'll
see here. Now he says here in verses one
and two, he gives the reason why he wrote this. This second
epistle, beloved, I now write to you in both, that is in both
epistles, he wrote it for this purpose, to stir up your pure,
your pure mind. That word pure really means sincere
because we know our minds are not completely pure. We have
thoughts we ought not to have. but your sincere minds by way
of remembrance. You know, we are told to take
the Lord's table in remembrance of our Lord's death till he comes. And he writes this to stir up
their minds, their pure, their sincere minds. You know, even
though our minds are not Completely pure. We're not pure of thoughts
that we shouldn't have. But I do know this. Every believer
here is very sincere about their relationship to Jesus Christ.
You are sincere about that. That's why you're here. You want
to learn of Christ that you may grow in grace and in knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we need to be continually
stirred up week after week. Because we leave here and we
go out into the world. You go out to work and we do
business in the world. We live in this world. And our
minds get taken up with other things. But we come here each
week and we're stirred up to remembrance of the gospel of
Christ. What's really important? What's really important to you?
It's your relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's your
relationship to Him and what you have in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what is really important. And we need to be reminded of
our duties to one another, to love one another, to look after
one another. We are not independent of one
another. What was it Cain said concerning Abel when God said,
where's your brother? What did he say? Am I my brother's
keeper? You know the answers to that?
Yes. Yes, you are. Yes, I am. We are
each other's keepers. We look after one another and
we have to be reminded of this because we're so sinful by nature
still. And then we got to be reminded
of the promises that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. All
these precious, they're called precious promises because they're
of God and they're given to us in Christ. And it's these promises
that keep us from falling into despair. That's what keeps us
from falling into despair. These promises in the hand of
the Holy Spirit, when he applies these promises in power to our
heart, it keeps us on the way. It keeps us in the way. It keeps
us from falling into despair, the promises of God. You know,
when you're in a deep, dark valley, the one thing that keeps you
going are the promises of God. I know it is because I know it
by experience. So he says, I stir you up and
I stir you up that you may be mindful and he gives what we
are to be mindful of, that you may be mindful of the words.
He's talking here about this whole book to us now. And the
people he was writing to, they didn't have the New Testament
yet. So he was writing to them about the, be mindful of the
words spoken before by the holy prophets. He's talking about
the Old Testament. We don't put the Old Testament away because
we have the New Testament. There are 66 books in this Bible. But how many books are there
really? One. I've got one book in my hand.
The Old Testament, New Testament, they speak of one person, they
have one message, and we don't toss them away. You see, the
prophets spoke of the future. They spoke of Christ. He said,
they wrote of me, the prophets and the Psalms, they speak of
me. They point us to him. And so he says here that you
be mindful, that your mind, to be mindful of something is your
mind is set on it. You think upon it. That you be
mindful of the words spoken before by the holy prophets and the
commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and savior that they
go together. You see the commandments of the
apostles and the, and the holy prophets. It's one word. It's one word. And I think he's speaking here
is that the commandment of the Lord Jesus Christ given to, to
you by us apostles is one of them is to preach the word. That's
what the Lord sent the apostles out to do. That's what Paul told
Timothy to do. He's told Timothy, preach the
word, the whole word, the whole word of God from Genesis. And
for us, it's from Genesis to revelation. And not only that,
and his commandment also is to love one another. That's what
the Lord said. This is my commandment that you
love one another. If you and I love one another,
we don't need to be given anything else. We don't have to have another
commandment, do we? You look after that which you
love. You take care of that which you love. You love one another,
and if you do that, everything else will fall in place. It will.
It'll fall in place if you love one another. And he says in verse
three, and knowing this first, that there shall come in the
last days scoffers. I do believe we are in the last
days of the last day. I believe we're in the last hours
of the last day. I do believe that nobody knows
when it is, but you know, there's, there are certain things that
are so evident by the reading of God's word that we're in the,
we're in the end of it. And I believe that. But know
this first, knowing this first, you know this, there shall come,
in the last day, there shall come scoffers, that word is deriders,
mockers, walking after their own lust. Not only do they walk
after their own lust, now listen, not only do they walk after their
own lust, they legalize their own lust. Don't we see that?
They legalize their own lust. They walk after their own lust,
and so to make it easy on their conscience, they legalize immorality. That is so rampant in our day.
It's so glaring in our face nowadays. They legalize their own lust
in these last days, and people will make a mockery of sin. I sent a message out that Henry
preached on this chapter, Outstanding. I sent it to Vicki this morning
and several others. And in that message, Henry said,
they make a mockery of sin. They make a mockery of just basic
morality and integrity. The integrity that's in our government
is gone. It's just gone. There's no integrity
left anymore, except among God's people. There was a time you
didn't have to lock your doors. There was a time that a person
could give their word, but not anymore. Just basic morality,
basic integrity is gone. It's gone. We see that. It's
just so glaring nowadays. People, I tell you this, I saw
this the other day. I saw it on the news. Over in
California, they run people off the road now and then rob them.
They run them off the road. They run them into a ditch and
then they get out and rob them. I saw this here. You probably
saw this. People with their, young people
with their masks on, running in and robbing stores and laughing
and running down the street laughing. There was a time they would have
been in deep, deep trouble. I mean, deep trouble, but not
now. Where has the integrity gone? Where has just a normal
decency gone? It's gone. We're in the very
last of the last days. There ain't no doubt about that.
And they mock and they deride the gospel preachers. When you
really stand up, preach the gospel, and it's the truth. They mock you. I had this done
to my face several years ago. I know I've told you about it,
but the place I worked, I was talking to a man about salvation,
about being saved. And he started going through
the shop and just saying, oh, I'm going to be saved. He started
making fun of this word saved. He started making fun of it,
mocking me. He was mocking me. That's the day we live in. That's
the day we live in. They mock God's preachers, and
they reject the gospel of grace. They use the word grace in their
own pulpits and conversations, but they deny what the true grace
of God is. The true grace of God is this.
You don't have anything to do with it. Zero. Zero. You have nothing to do with that.
God saved you on purpose, and He saved you by His grace without
asking you if He could. If someone comes along preaching,
and they preach that Christ died for sinners on the cross, now
it's up to you. It's in your hands. That's another
gospel. That's another spirit. That's
not of God. That's not of God. Because God's
not going to ask you and me if he can do anything. If he wants
to take my house, he can take it. He's not going to ask me.
If he wants to take my children, my grandchildren, he ain't going
to ask. God's not going to ask me if he can. But they mock at
that. They mock at that. And here, listen, the object
of their scorn and their mocking is Christ. and his promises. And here's what they say in verse
four. Where is the promise of his coming? You say that Jesus Christ is
coming again. I think you can go out here on
the street, on the average street, go to New York or any place,
go to the average street, and you start talking about the coming
of Christ, destruction of this world, and they're going to look
at you like you're stupid. What are you talking about? Where is the promise of His coming?
For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were
from the beginning of creation. Years, they say. You know, look
over history. Thousands of years have come
and gone, and nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. Everything
is the same as it was from the beginning. Really? Nothing has changed since the
beginning. How about the fall? How about the Garden of Eden?
How about a perfect world that God created? And now look at
it. Now look at it. There's been a great change since
the beginning. There's been the fall of man.
And then there's judgment, the flood. The flood itself changed
the structure of this earth. That's a big change. And Peter says, For this they
willingly are ignorant. They are willingly ignorant.
The evidence is given. We have the Word of God on it.
We have God's Word on it. But they're willingly ignorant
of it. And the reason people are willingly ignorant, they
don't want to believe it. They don't want to believe it.
Because you know why? If they believe it, then they
become responsible. If you acknowledge this to be
so, then you have to acknowledge all of it so. And I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble. If the Word of
God is the truth, if all the Word of God is the truth, not
bits and pieces of it, but all the Word of God is truth, then
I'm in trouble. I need a Savior. Judgment's coming. This they are willingly ignorant
of, that by the Word, and you can change that by Christ the
Word, because He is the Word. We can read that over in the
Gospel of John, where all things are created by the Word. 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 that's a big change that's a
big change but the heavens and the earth which are now by the
same word by the Lord Jesus Christ over Colossians chapter 1 it
says that all things were created by him and for him and all things
are maintained that word consist is what the word used there in
first in Colossians chapter 1 it consists and that word consist
means maintain held together right now it's all held together
by the word the Lord Jesus Christ 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
judgments coming But here's what they are ignorant, here's what
they are willingly ignorant of. They are ignorant of the fact
of creation. They ignore the fact that God
created the heavens and the earth. And by His word, it still exists. It still stays in its orbit. It's by the power of His word
that this whole earth and the universe stays in its course. They're willingly ignorant of
that. The heavens and the earth were created by God, and he's
the one who keeps it to this day. And then the second thing
they're ignorant of is the fact of judgment. God did once destroy
the world. You know that? You know that. God drowned every person in his
world except for eight. Eight people. That's all. And they didn't drown because
he put them in the ark. They were in the ark, which is, you
know, is a type of Christ. God destroyed this world by water. The earth was covered with water
by the word of God. God commanded it to rain. God
commanded the waters to cover the earth, and it did. It did. And then they're ignorant of
the fact that by this same word, which created the world and which
keeps it the Lord Jesus Christ by the same word is kept intact
for this reason for this reason it's going to be burned up it's
reserved it's what he's saying it's reserved for fire and you can read over in 2nd
Thessalonians well let's turn to 2nd Thessalonians I'm not
gonna get through all this so let's just turn and read 2nd
Thessalonians 2nd Thessalonians turn to chapter
1 in verse 7 and to you who are
troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed
from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire taking vengeance
on them that know not God and they obey not the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction
from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power
when he shall come to be glorified in his saints and to be admired
in all them that believe because our testimony among you was believed
in that day they are willingly ignorant that
by this same word that created the heavens and the earth the
same word that brought that brought the flood that same word is keeping
this world this earth the universe intact And it's reserved for
this last day of judgment, which is going to be by fire. They're
willingly ignorant of it. But he says here, and we've got
to remember who Peter's writing to. He's writing to the beloved.
Beloved, be not ignorant. Don't be ignorant, especially
this one thing. When they come and they say,
but where is he coming at? You know, since the beginning,
nothing has changed. And you people keep saying that
he's going to return and that he's coming back. And you keep
saying that. Peter said, don't you be moved
by that. Remember this, don't be ignorant. I don't want you
to be ignorant of this, of this one thing, that one day is with
the Lord as a thousand years. and a thousand years as one day. Time has no effect on the purpose
of God. Time has no effect on God's eternal
purpose, which he purposed in Christ before the foundation
of the world. You say a thousand years have
gone by, you say six thousand years has gone by. With God,
that's six days. That's all it is with God, six
days. And your life and my life in those six days, I don't even
know if it would register a second. You know, we live to be 70 years
old, 80 years old, 90, or maybe beyond. That's not even a second
with God. But with God, God has a purpose
and an eternal purpose, which he purposed in Christ, and God
is working that purpose out. He's working it out, and He's
working it out in every individual sinner He saves. God had a purpose
and has a purpose in saving you. And you have a time on this earth
to serve that purpose. And when that's done, He's going
to take you home. And you're going to serve that purpose throughout
eternity in worship, in praising the Lord Jesus Christ, in doing
whatever we're going to do on that new earth. We're not going
to just be standing around like, you know, it's going to be busy,
busy. God, you know, when God created
this earth and the Garden of Eden, you know what he told Adam
to do? Dress it and keep it. Be busy. Go in that garden and
work. You know, sin puts sweat in work.
By the sweat of your brow shall you eat your bread. Work is not
a problem to take sin out of it. Work is joyful. It doesn't
matter if you're sweeping the street, digging a ditch, or whatever
it is. It's sin that puts a sweat in
it. It's sin that makes me and you say, well, I wish I had this
job. I wish I had his job. You take sin out of it, you'd
be happy you have your job. You would. You'd be happy right
where you are. You'd be so thrilled. I mean, you couldn't be happier.
You couldn't be more content if you take sin out of us. And that's what's gonna happen.
When sin's removed, you're gonna be happy whatever God has you
doing on that new earth. We'll be busy. I think we'd be
very busy and be very happy doing it. The Lord's not, now listen
here. And this is probably one of the
most abused verses in the scripture. And this is what happens when
you take it out of context. The Lord is not slack concerning
his promise. The Lord is not slack concerning
his promise to Christ and to his people in the covenant of
grace. That's what he's talking about. That's what the promise
is. As some men count slackness, and that word means tardiness.
Tardy. Is God ever tardy? God's never tardy. He's never
tardy. Listen, but God is long suffering. to us word who's Peter writing
to the church the beloved he's not writing to a bunch of unbelievers
see people take this out of context and they apply it to everybody
you cannot apply the scriptures to everybody this applies to
believers he's long-suffering to us we're not willing that
any should perish but that all should come to repentance God's
long-suffering is toward his elect that they be saved Here's
a question. It says there that he's not willing,
God's not willing that any should perish. Now, if God's not willing
that any should perish, if he's not willing that any should perish,
will they perish? They can't. If God's not willing
for me to perish, I'm not going to perish. I can't do it. It's
impossible. God's will must be done. He said,
I will do all my pleasure. God's will shall be done if he's
not willing. I don't know how they miss that. Peter's writing to the believers.
He's writing to the church, and he's writing to the beloved,
and he's saying that God's not willing. His long-suffering,
his long-suffering is this. He's not willing that any should
perish, but that they all should come to repentance. Every one
of his elect shall come to repentance. That's what he's saying. Keep
it in its context, and it makes sense. But the day But the day that is appointed
day that our Lord has, you see that over in Acts 1731, there's
an appointed day in which he's going to judge the world by that
man, Jesus Christ. And the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night. He's coming. He's coming. He's going to come like a thief
in the night. And when this happens, when he
comes as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall
pass away. All those stars, all the galaxies,
all those things are gonna pass away. They don't, they've served
their purpose. Don't need them no more. Don't need them. You
know, in one scripture, it says in Revelation, it talks about
the new earth and it says, and there shall be no sea. You know
why we have the sea? Because from it, the moisture
goes up. It comes across the world and
it rains on the earth. Jesus Christ is the water of
life on that new earth. We don't need to see. We don't
need rain from heaven. He is heaven. We don't need it. We have him. He's the water of
life. The things that are not needed
won't be. In the which the heaven shall
pass away with a great noise. a great explosion, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat. The earth also and the works
that are therein shall be burned up." They scoff at this. They scoff at it. They laugh
at it. Just like they did in Noah's
day. His coming shall be sudden. It's going to be in an hour,
our Lord said, when you think not. When you think not. And the entire world, He said,
is going to be destroyed by fire. You believe this? I do. I do. I believe it. And I believe
we're in these last days. Seeing then that all these things
shall be dissolved. seeing this is going to happen
what manner of persons are you to be in all holy and all holy
conversation and godliness let me end here we'll pick this up next week
there's a whole there's so much here there's so much here and
i tell you it is sobering what's here this i you know peter's
telling the the church He's saying the Lord's coming. The Lord's
coming, and one of the evidences of being in the very end of it
is these scoffers. They're gonna make fun of the
gospel you believe and preach. They're gonna make fun of the
Lord Jesus Christ. They're gonna make fun of the
resurrection and his second coming. But he says, just remember this,
time is irrelevant to God. Time doesn't affect God. God's
working out his eternal purpose. That's what he's doing. And God's
gonna burn this up. Boy, doesn't that put it in perspective? Oh, that puts it in perspective.
God is gonna burn this up. But he's not gonna burn you up.
We'll see this. It won't touch you. It will touch the ungodly, those
who believe not. It'll get them, but not you.
All right.