2 Peter chapter three. I think we'll just read this chapter. We actually have looked at most
of it, but we'll read the chapter. This 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. 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, but is longsuffering to usward, 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 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 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? Nevertheless, we, according to
his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth
righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that
ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in
peace, without spot, and blameless, and account that the longsuffering
of our Lord is salvation. even as our beloved brother Paul,
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
rest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing
ye know these things before, beware lest ye also be 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 Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory
both now and ever. Amen. Now, as we have looked
at this passage of Scripture for a couple of weeks. And we
sometimes go over some of the same things and repeat ourselves,
but the reality is that we don't really have but one message.
And once you've heard that, that's about it. And that is that Jesus
Christ died for sinners. And that he came to save sinners.
And that he will save sinners. Because he's the Savior. Now
how much sense would it make to speak of him as a Savior if
he did not save? To talk about redemption if he
didn't redeem? And so it's a glorious thing
when we come to the word of God and we are reminded that all
of these things are in the hand of the Lord. He doesn't need
us to do one thing. Now that's a disheartening thought
to a lot of people because they are confident that the kingdom
of God rests in their hands and that somehow or other that he's
waiting on them. to do something. The Lord is
not waiting on people to do anything. Now by His grace, according to
His mercy, He is pleased to work in His people, both the will
and the do of His good pleasure. And He gives them the privilege
to manifest His grace in the world. And, you know, what a
blessing it is. There are many today who they
believe that they will gain the blessings of God by serving God. But the reality of the matter
is that's completely backwards because serving God is the blessing. I mean, what greater blessing
can come to the children of God than to be drawn by the Spirit
of God and be found faithful before him? That's the work of
the Spirit. I mean, a man can't bring that
to pass. Doesn't make a difference how long, as Brother Al talked
about David praying. Now, what was the purpose of
David's prayer? It's the purpose of all prayer.
See, a lot of people look at prayer as a thing, something
that people do to try to get God to change his mind. And surely David was hoping that
the Lord would change his mind, wouldn't he? But see, that wasn't
why the Lord put David down there in the place of prayer. He put
him in the place of prayer because he would teach him that prayer
is to bring us to conformity and desire that the Lord's will
be done. And so when once the Lord answered
David's prayer, see he did answer David's prayer. And they said
the child's dead. And because of the grace of God
that works in the sons of God, he didn't bow up and get mad.
But he said, even so, Father, for it seemed good in thy sight.
He blessed the Lord. And that's what prayer does.
See, the whole working of prayer in us is not to get us to get
God to do something for us, but it's rather, oh Lord, work in
me. Create in me, as we sang there a moment ago, create in
me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit in me. See,
I can't cause that to come to pass. But the very fact that
that desire is in my heart and I cry out to God is that proof
of the work of God in the sons of God. I mean, we're not trying
to do something to impress God. You couldn't do anything to impress
him, he said. To Job, he said, Job, where were
you when I spread out the heavens? What were you doing, Job, when
I created the world out of nothing? And so it would be impossible
for a man to ever do anything that would get the Lord's attention. But by his grace, he is mindful
of us, and he works in us. And so Peter writes, beloved,
I write this second epistle to you to stir up your pure minds,
Now we've talked about that some. How foolish would it be for any
man to say I have a pure mind? Because you know it's not true.
You do not have a pure mind. But yet, he said I want to stir
up the pure mind because you see there is a work of God in
the children of God wherein there is a pure mind. Because when
a man's mind is totally stayed on Christ, there's no more purity
of thought that could possibly ever enter into the heart of
a man than to think on him who is pure. And so that's what he's
talking about. I want to stir you up to think
about Christ. Not stir you up to think about
what you are, but stir you up to think about what is. 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 this Lord
and Savior. He said the prophets of old have
spoken to you of these things, and now we who have seen him
face to face, we speak these words to you. And it is a common
thing for there to be scoffers, even as he comes on to say, there
shall come in the last days scoffers. That doesn't mean there's some
future time coming when the scoffers are gonna come. No, the scoffers
have been here from the beginning. And in the last times, these
are the last. John, he said, little children,
I write unto you, this is the last time. There's not another
time to come. There are not other days to come.
This is the last day. This is the day of salvation.
This is that day which is the day of the Lord. And so, be not
ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as 1,000
years, and 1,000 years as one day. Time has no consequence
with God, because time is His creation. He doesn't dwell in
time. I've mentioned this before, sometimes
people say things like, well, that was in eternity past, or
that will be in eternity future, but that's actually an impossibility,
because eternity has no past, and it has no future. It is what
it is. God is eternal. Now, I can't
fully comprehend that. Creatures can't comprehend that.
That's, you see, when Isaiah had the vision in the year the
king Uzziah died, and he saw the Lord, and he said that the
angels, those creatures that flew around him, they ceased
not, day and night, to say, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come. That's the one whom we're serving.
by His grace. He is that one who is the King,
the Lord. And so when we consider time, it only bears upon us. And while
the day is as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day, the
Lord is not slack concerning His promise. And some men count
slackness. Because men grow impatient. We
want what we want when we want it. But that's not, you know,
the Lord has his own timetable, and you're not gonna speed it
up, you're not gonna slow it down. He's gonna do exactly what
he's going to do. But he is not slack concerning
his promise, as some men count that. As he had said, you know,
they say, well, where's the Lord's coming? He spoke about this,
we've heard about it, but it don't ever happen, so what? But the Lord is not slack, but
is long-suffering usward. Why does the world continue on? I mean, if the Lord, as he says
here, he's gonna destroy it, You're gonna dissolve it. If
something's dissolved, it's not there anymore. You know, it's
been changed into something completely different. And so, if the world,
if the ultimate end of the world is to be destroyed, why doesn't
the Lord just destroy it right now? Because He's long suffered us. See, he's long-suffering towards
his people. See, he has ordained the people
in the earth that belong to him. And he says, I'm gonna bring
every one of them out of the darkness and into the light. He's not brought them all yet.
How do we know that? Because the world's still going
on. But you can be sure of one thing,
that is surely as he has ordained the exact number of those who
belong to him, when the last one of that number is drawn unto
himself, then will come the end. The Lord is not slack concerning
his promise, but he's long-suffering to usward, not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Now will
a man one day wake up in heaven because he was one of the elect
without any knowledge of anything? He just, wow, what happened?
That's foolishness. Never taught in the scriptures.
Because you see, the Lord will bring his people to the same
place that he brought David. He'll bring them all to repentance,
and not just one time repentance, but the whole Life of repentance. You see, David, as the scripture says, a man after
God's own heart, David understood what it was by nature, but because
of his sinful flesh and the weakness of that flesh, he fell into that
thing which was a great sin, an awful thing. The Lord said,
You shall not die because I've put your sin away, but know this,
that I will punish sin, that I will cause my name to be glorified. He said what you've done by your
actions is you've brought shame and reproach. I can't think of
anything that would strike a dagger into the heart of a believer
desiring to follow Christ than to hear him say, you have brought
shame to me. And yet, dear brethren, we know
that there's only a day goes by that if our mind and heart
was revealed unto the world to see what it was, that we would
indeed be bringing shame and reproach unto the King of kings
and the Lord of lords. And so he goes on to tell in
this chapter of the coming destruction of the Lord, of the world, by
the Lord, looking for and hasting to the coming of the day of God. How is it that they're looking
for and hasting to the coming of the day of God? I mean, men,
that seems like a terrible thing, does it not? for the world to
melt with fervent heat. But he said, what manner of persons ought
ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness looking for this? Now, those who look for Christ
shall see him. Those that don't won't. Now what I mean, am I talking
about physically? Well, there's an aspect of that
that would be physical, I suppose, but no, it's looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was
set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is sat
down at the right hand of the Father. See, we're looking for
him. We're looking unto him. because
we don't have any place else to look. I mean, this world's
a pretty bleak place. I mean, realistically, I mean,
if you go out here trying to find satisfaction in the world,
you might get something temporarily, but it doesn't matter what it
is, it will fade away. Nevertheless, he said, we, according
to his promise, look for a new heavens and a new earth. And
what is it that makes this new heavens and new earth most desirable
to the children of God? It says, wherein dwelleth righteousness. You know, a lot of times when
people talk about going to heaven, and they talk about their loved
ones went to heaven, and this one, that, and the other, all
this stuff, and they say, you know, if a guy, if he liked to
fish, well, yeah, he's up there sitting by a stream, and he's
pulling in a big one, all, you know, and all this stuff. You
know, if a man liked hunting, he's gonna be hunting. If he
liked dogs, all his dogs is gonna be there, you know, and it's
just gonna be wonderful. But that's not that which causes
the children of God to desire that place called heaven. The
reason we desire it is because he's there. I mean, you see,
because it's a place wherein dwelleth righteousness. And you
can be sure that where he is pleased to dwell, that is a place
of righteousness. And may the Lord help us that
we might be ever looking to him. Regardless of what else you might
look for in this world, by the grace of God, may he give you
an eye to be looking for him and unto him. And then I will close this with
the last verse. Well, let's read the last two
verses. Ye therefore beloved, seeing ye know these things before. See, we've been taught the word
of God. We're not ignorant. God's people are not ignorant,
not meant to be ignorant. Because the spirit of God, the
Lord said, I'll send a teacher and he will guide you into all
truth. Now, it is a true thing that God gives to every man a
measure of faith, a different measure of faith, and he gives
to every man a different level of understanding in all of these
things. But you see, to all of God's
people, he gives them to understand what salvation is and where it
can be found, and that there is one savior, and his name is
Jesus Christ the righteous. There's not more than one. There's
not several different pathways, but it's Christ and Christ alone. Now you know these things. Before,
beware lest ye also, being led away from the error of the wicked,
fall from your own steadfastness. Well, that couldn't happen to
me. That's what Peter said, didn't he? Lord, look. You know, all these others around
here, they're a bunch of wimps. I've been suspicious of them
from the start, but you can count on this, when things start going
bad, I'll be there. I'm determined. What did the Lord teach Peter? He taught Peter the most valuable
lesson he'd ever learned in his whole life. That was that he
had no power at all. The Lord said, Satan, or Peter,
Satan has desired to have you, to sift you as wheat. But he
said, I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. Now
why did Peter's faith not fail? Why did Peter seek the Lord after
this thing? Well, he went out and wept bitterly. I mean, what prevented him from
taking his own life through the grief that he felt? He said, the devil desired to
have you, but he can't, because you belong to me. And I've prayed
for thee that thy faith fail not. Oh, what a glorious thing. Now, could anything have happened
to Peter? You know, all these people that
don't believe in the absolute predestination of all things
by holy God, answer me how it is that the Lord can tell Peter
I prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. That is, your faith
is not going to fail. And yet, how can it be that a
man supposedly had a free will and he can either choose to believe
or not believe? I mean, could Peter have gone
out of there and went off and went back to fishing and just
forgot the whole thing? Is that possible? No. You see, the Lord marked out
his steps. And he said, this is exactly what you're gonna
do. Peter said, it ain't gonna happen. The Lord said, you're
gonna deny me three times. What'd he do? He denied him three
times. But oh, the glorious thing is
that the mercy of God is greater than our sin. And the same Savior who said,
you will deny me three times, three times, came to Peter and
he said, Peter, I love thee. See, he,
how'd he say that to him? He didn't just say it in so many
words, did he? He said, Peter, do you love me? Peter didn't wanna say it. Because
he knew he hadn't demonstrated much love for the Lord. Now see,
the Lord wouldn't leave him alone, would he? Peter, do you love
me? Three times Peter denied, three
times the Lord proved to him that he loved him. That he loved
Peter and Peter loved him. Now who can explain that? You
know, we love Him because He first loved us, but dear brethren,
we do love Him, do we not? I mean, if we belong to Him,
we love Him. Nothing wrong with saying, I
love Him. That's not presumptuous. Now, if you say, well, it's because
of this, that, or the other that I've done, and this has brought
the Lord's love to me, that's presumptuous. But to confess
that which the Spirit of God has wrought in us is no presumption
to it. It's that which we must believe.
But then he says this. He said, be careful that you
don't fall from your own steadfastness. Peter fell from his. The Lord
restored him for his own purpose. But then he says, rather than
being turned aside with all these things, hold on to those things
that you know and grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. Now what is it to grow in grace
and the knowledge of the Lord? It is to every day be more convinced
that of these two things. What a great sinner I am, but
what a great Savior Christ is. So it doesn't make any difference
how much our sin has overwhelmed us, dear brethren. The love of
Christ for his people is greater than that. If your heart condemns
you, the scripture says, God's greater than your heart. Oh,
what a glorious thing. If we believe not, the scripture
says, yet he is faithful. See, none of this depends on
us, depends on him. But our exhortation as the sons
of God, and this is the thing that because the word of God
enjoins this upon us, We want it to be true. Now, we look at
ourself and we say, well, man, we're about the poorest excuse
of something like this that anybody could be, but yet we hunger for
him. But grow in grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, growing in
grace is not a work of man, and yet
we're exhorted to do it. because this is the work of God
in the people of God. Growing in grace. If any man
be in Christ, he is a new creature. Behold, old things are passed
away. All things are become new. If we look at that in relation
to having perfection in ourselves, we'll be greatly disappointed.
But you see, all things are new because we see Christ. All things
are new because we behold him. All things are new because we
rejoice in that grace that brought us to this place. And we make
no boast of what we are by nature, because that causes us the greatest
shame, does it not? But the Savior causes us our
greatest joy. And that's what it is to grow
in grace. And in the knowledge, because
you see, the more you know about Christ, the more you'll love
him. The more you find out, the more
you want to know. To him be glory, both now and
ever. Oh, to die with such words as
that upon one's lips. To God be the glory in all things.