Good morning. It's great to be
with you as always. I invite your attention for our
message today to the second epistle of Peter, chapter 3. Second Peter, chapter 3. 2 Peter 3, and look with me at
verse 1. Peter writes, this second epistle,
beloved, I now write unto you. Peter, under the inspiration
of God, he wrote to, Epistles and I'm glad he did you recall
Peter after after our Lord was crucified and Peter had denied
the Lord and Peter went back He went fishing remember our
Lord came to him He came to Peter and he asked Peter three times. Do you love me? And he told him
three times feed my sheep Here he is, feeding God's sheep. Peter wrote this second epistle,
and he tells us he's writing to the same people he wrote the
first one to. He said, this second epistle,
beloved, I now write unto you. Well, I want to start this message
by establishing who he was writing to. And you don't have to look
with me at all of these, but I'll mention a couple. In 1 Peter
1, we read that he's writing to the elect. He's writing to
those who've been sanctified. He's writing to those who've
been begotten unto a lively hope through the resurrection of Jesus
Christ by God's abundant mercy. Later in 1 Peter 1, we read He's
writing to those who've been redeemed, bought with the precious
blood of Jesus Christ, the spotless Lamb of God. In 1 Peter chapter
2 we read Peter's writing to newborn babes. He's writing to
those who believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is precious. He
went on to tell us he's writing to those who've been called out
of darkness into the marvelous light of Jesus Christ. Those
who had not obtained mercy, but now they've obtained mercy. They
were a bunch of nobodies, but now they're the very people of
God. In 1 Peter chapter 5, he summed it up. He said he was
writing to all those that are in Christ Jesus. And I do want
to show you this one. Turn, or you may not have to
turn. 2 Peter chapter 1. 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 1. Simon Peter a servant and an
apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like precious
faith With us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ
Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge
of God and of Jesus our Lord according as his divine power
hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness,
through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory
and virtue, and I love this, verse four, whereby are given
unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might
be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust. Do we see who he's writing
to? He's writing to His particular chosen people, sinners whom He
chose to save in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look back at chapter
3, verse 1 again. We're going to see what He has
to say. 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. First Peter and Second
Peter are both in exhortation to remember something. He's reminding
us, he's exhorting us to be mindful of something. In 2 Peter chapter
1 he tells us about the more sure word of prophecy. The word
of God. And at the time Peter wrote that
it was the Old Testament scriptures. He's exhorting us to remember
the word of God. And he went on to tell us in
2 Peter chapter 1 that this word is not of any private interpretation.
He said there's one interpretation of this book. What he's saying
is there's one message of this book. And here's the message. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Again, in 2 Peter 1, He told
us about when He was on the Mount of Transfiguration and how Peter,
James, and John, they saw Christ in His glory there with Moses
and Elijah, the prophets. They spoke of Him. When Peter
wanted to build a tabernacle for three of them, The father
spoke from heaven. They fell down on their faces
so afraid. And the father said, this is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. Hear ye him. Peter's reminding
us there's one we need to hear. There's one we need to see. And
that's the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all about him. I love what
Paul said in 2 Corinthians chapter 11. He said, I fear lest by any
means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so
your minds. should be corrupted from the
simplicity that's in Christ Jesus. You may have noticed it here
in verse 1, I think he said, your pure minds, or verse 2.
God has given us, in Christ, the very mind of Christ. We have
the pure mind of Christ, and praise God, it's not possible
that the elect should be deceived. Remember, if it were possible.
Well, praise God, it's not possible. We have the mind of Christ. We're
one with Christ. But nonetheless, As we walk through
this world, I pray God would cause us to ever be mindful of
our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, as we go about our
day-to-day tasks and responsibilities, we have to be mindful of many
things, don't we? But we know there's one thing we need to
be mindful of. We know there's only one thing that matters,
and that's Christ. Christ is all. May we be mindful of Him.
And look here, verse 3, 2 Peter 3, verse 3. 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.
Peter warns us of scoffers who shall come. Now these folks are
not mindful of Christ. They don't believe on Christ.
They're not looking to Christ. They're not trusting in Him and
Him alone. And the word scoffer, it's the
same word as mocker. They mock Him. They mock His
word. We just read His promise. They
mock His promises. They mock Him. Now, upon that
thought, let me say this. We don't have to look any further
than the cross to see what He's talking about here. I pray that
when we consider the cross, we see ourselves as the scoffers,
as the mockers, mocking Him, mocking God in human flesh to
the point of crucifying Him, nailing Him, the spotless Son
of God, to a tree. It's us. We were walking after
our own lust, mocking God. We read in Isaiah 53, I believe,
that we despised and rejected Him. And we read in the Gospel
accounts what we had to say when He was being led to the cross.
We said, away with this man. Crucify Him, crucify Him. Well,
why don't you let Him go and we'll just crucify Barabbas.
He's a convicted robber, murderer. Nope. Away with this man. Do we know who this man is? He's
the Christ, the Son of the living God, and we wanted nothing to
do with Him. Why? Have you ever asked yourself
that question? Why? First, we must acknowledge that
was us. That was us. All of us. Why would we want
nothing to do with Him? Why would we mock God? Why would we mock our Creator,
the One who made us? Why would we do such a thing? I know that by God's grace we
don't, but if it weren't for His grace, we still would right
now. And here's the reason why. Ignorance. natural man, as we're
born into this world, we're ignorant of all things pertaining to God.
Ignorant of God Himself, ignorant of the Lord Jesus Christ, ignorant
of His Word, ignorant of everything that matters. I'll show you this.
Look right here in our text, verse 5. Peter went on to say, 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."
These scoffers that Peter's writing about. First, we see ourselves
that naturally that's exactly what we are. Mock God, want nothing
to do with Him, didn't want His Christ, His salvation, none of
it. We just want ourselves. Right here in the context, Peter's
saying these scoffers, these men, they mock the promise of
His coming. And Peter calls out their ignorance.
And I love the example he gives. He says, remember Noah? Do you
remember what happened in Noah's day? You recall Noah. He declared
God's glory, God's holiness. He declared Christ and Him crucified
for 120 years. He said, God sees our wickedness. He sees how wicked we are. Every
imagination of the thought of our heart, He sees it. He knows
it. And He'll have nothing to do
with it. Do you know what everybody on this earth, except seven other
people other than Noah, You know what they thought about that
message? They scoffed at it. They mocked it. Wouldn't have
it. Turn back just a few pages to
Hebrews chapter 11. And again, if you recall, the
Lord sent the flood. He wiped everybody off the face
of this earth. It says, all flesh died. Eight souls remained alive. And there's only one reason they
remained alive. It's because they were in the ark. And look
here, Hebrews 11, verse 7. It says, by faith Noah by this
precious faith that he obtained by the grace of God. He found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. By faith Noah being warned of
God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, he prepared
an ark to the saving of his house by the which he condemned the
world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. God commanded Noah to build the
ark. He warned Noah. Noah believed God. He was moved
with the fear of God. He built that ark. God put him
in the ark. He shut the door to the ark.
And he saved him and his wife and his sons and his sons' wives
in the ark. And we know that ark is Christ.
We died in Christ. All flesh did not. They died
in Christ. And they live in Christ. I pray that as this verse says,
that we too, we've been warned. May God move us with fear. May
God cause us, as Noah condemned the world, may we condemn ourselves.
May we condemn this wicked flesh, all that it is, and believe on
Christ. Because there's only one hope
for a wicked sinner like me, and that's to be found in Him.
That we might know Him and be known of Him, be known among
His people. When the day of judgment comes,
these scoffers, these ungodly men, as it says, are going to
be destroyed. We must be in the ark. We must
be in Christ and believe on Him. But back in our text, 2 Peter
3 verse 8. 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. When I read this at
first, I thought that kind of seems like strange placement.
At first, it didn't seem to go. And then I thought, well, I'd
be foolish to think such a thing because it's God's perfect Word.
We just read that destruction is coming. But here he mentions
the Beloved again. I believe he mentions the Beloved
four times in this chapter. He's writing to God's beloved
people. He says, brethren, though destruction is coming, you have
nothing to fear. And that's so. The child of God
has nothing to fear. When that flood was coming, when
Noah was expecting it, he was expecting it, and I pray we'll
expect it too, the judgment that awaits. He was moved with fear,
but he wasn't afraid. Does that make sense? Moved with
the fear of God, but he wasn't afraid because God gave him faith
to believe God. He gave him faith to believe
that he would be saved in that ark. I pray God's giving us the
same faith. We don't have to fear. When our
Lord returns, it will not be well with the unrighteous. It
will not be well with the scoffers, the mockers, the ungodly. But
it will be well with His people. You know, these scoffers, again,
in the context, they mock the promise of His coming. They say,
oh, well, so much time has gone by. So many years have passed.
Everything is continuing now in this world just like it always
has. He's not coming back. Here's the comfort. One day is
with the Lord as a thousand years. A thousand years or as one day.
What he's saying is, yes, I understand. A lot of time has gone by. But
time is nothing to our eternal God. Time is nothing to Him. And that's comforting to me.
Because it reminds me, and I think we all can relate to this, whatever
is going on in our life, in our country, whatever it is, everything
is happening right on time. We think so many mistakes are
taking place. It sure seems that way. But we know better, don't
we? No mistakes with God. He has His way in the world and
in the storm. The clouds are the very dust
of His feet. Brother Gabe just brought a message
a few days ago. I believe it was called Absolute
Sovereignty and Absolute Salvation or something like that. God is
in control. He's in complete control. Our
Lord, though He has not come again yet, since He ascended
back to His Father, there's an appointed time that He shall
return. He shall return, and when He
does, don't forget this, it will be forever. It'll be forever. You know, I feel like we often
think of His return and the resurrection as a one-time, kind of in-the-moment
event. It's going to be forever. There'll
be no end to it. Thought about this. Right now,
as we live in this world, we're in the evening. You know that? Every day it gets dark. Today's
gonna be the first day of this year where it gets dark at like
5.30 and I hate it. Honestly. Drives me crazy. But
at 5.30 at night or 5.30 in the morning, we're in the evening.
No matter how great the day may seem or how gloomy it may be.
Life in this world is evening, but for the child of God, the
morning is coming. The morning's coming, alright?
The morning's coming. I love the song we sing when
we've been there 10,000 years. It sounds like a long time, don't
it? When we've been there 10,000 years. It's just a few days,
isn't it? When we see our Lord Jesus Christ bright shining as
the sun. You know that's what Peter said
when they saw him on the mount, his glory shined so bright, brighter
than the sun, whiter than on earth no man could whiten it.
We're going to have eternity to see him, bright, shining as
the sun, and there's going to be no less days to sing our God's
praise than when we first begun. It's going to be forever, forever
and ever. Now look back in our text, verse
9. He goes on to say, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise. as some men count slackness."
We know the Lord's not slack concerning anything. He's not
slack concerning any of His promises. We know that all His promises
are yea and amen in the Lord Jesus Christ. I've titled this
message, standing on the promises. We can stand upon the promises
of God our Savior. We can rest in His promises.
What God has promised in His Word to His people, we can believe
it, we can be sure of it, and we can die trusting in it, trusting
in Christ of whom the promises concern. And I couldn't help
but think of our brother, our brother Lindsay. When I was a
young kid, I remember asking him often if we could sing standing
on the promises. I'm really not sure why, but
I often asked him for that. But I don't think he ever turned
me down. And to this day, we don't sing it a lot in Kingsport,
every now and then. But every time we sing that song, I think
of him. And I think of our Lord. I think
all those years, Brother Don, he would pray for me, pray for
us, that by God's grace, one day we too might be standing
on the promises of God our Savior. I'm so thankful that both our
brothers were, and that I am too, and I pray we all are. Because
in ourselves, there's no hope. We're the scoffers. Go back and
read 2 Peter chapter 2. That's us. That's us in this
flesh. But there's hope in His promises. May God enable us to truly stand
on His promises. The Lord's not slack concerning
His promise, as some men count slackness concerning His promise
to return. Again, that's the context here.
He's not slack. He's not delayed. He's not, well,
He was going to come back, but He's put it off. Or He's not
coming. Not at all. Not at all. I love
what our Lord said. He which testifieth of these
things saith, surely I come quickly. Surely He's coming, and He's
coming quickly. He said, I go to prepare a place for you, and
if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again. That's
what He said. He said, and I will receive you
unto myself, that where I am there you may be also. What a
blessed promise. What a blessed promise. And look
here, verse nine again. The Lord is not slack concerning
His promise, as some men count slackness, but as longsuffering. To us, Lord, does that amaze
you like it does me? We know God is holy, holy, holy,
holy, and yet He's long-suffering. Amazing. I know everybody acknowledges
God is love, but very few know He's holy. Very few acknowledge
God's holy. He must punish sin. He must do
what's right. Our God can by no means clear
the guilty. He can't do it. He has to act righteously. The soul that sinneth, it must
die. It must. It must go according to the justice
of God. Truly, our Lord is angry with
the wicked every day. He is. He has reserved unimaginable
wrath for His enemies. But praise God, He's longsuffering.
And notice, to us, Lord. I know y'all have heard this
preached on many times. He's long-suffering to us-ward.
Remember who He's writing to. Sinners. Chosen in Christ. The
elect. The redeemed. The sanctified.
The called. That's who He's writing to. That's the us-ward He's speaking
of. And I love this. Look down here, verse 15. He
said, An account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation. Our Lord Jesus Christ, as He
walked this earth, as He hung on that cross, as He suffered
long to redeem His people, He did so in order that God might
be merciful to sinners such as you and me. He didn't suffer
in vain. You know, our brother just read
that in Zechariah, how those wounds that he obtained in the
house of his friends. You understand that was his friends
that nailed him to the cross. His enemies, yes, but his friends.
He made his enemies his footstool. He made his enemies his friends.
And now we rejoice in Him who's our friend that sticks closer
than a brother, don't we? Our Lord suffered and He suffered
long so that we might be saved in Him. Verse 9, again, the Lord
is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness,
but is longsuffering to us, were not willing that any should perish. Again, we know He's not saying
that He's not willing that anybody should perish. And again, we
know that so clearly. He just mentioned Noah. How many
people perished in Noah's day? Some believe that the earth was
just as populated then as it is now. It could have been more
populated. It doesn't matter. God saved
eight people whom He chose to save. Might sound like a hard statement,
but God is willing that some should perish. He is willing
that some should perish. But praise God, He's not willing
that any of His sheep should perish. You think about it. We
just read about the Day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
If God weren't willing that anyone should perish, then nobody would
perish. Because again, God is sovereign.
He's in control. And what He wants, He has. He
doesn't want anything. His will, His purpose comes to
pass. He's not willing that His people
should perish. He says He's loved them with an everlasting love.
We know God's love is saving love. It's not like our love.
It says Christ laid down His life for His sheep on purpose. What He said in John chapter
10 about laying down His life, He said, I give unto them My
sheep who hear My voice, whom I know, who follow Me. He said,
I give unto them eternal life. And He didn't stop there. He
said, and they shall never perish. That's what He's talking about.
He's not willing that His sheep, whom He gave eternal life, for
whom He shed His precious blood, He's not willing that one of
them should perish. We read in John chapter 6 where
He tells us, All that the Father giveth Me, they shall come to
Me. And yet Him that cometh to Me,
I will in no wise cast out. And He's going to raise them
up at the last day. He shall. He shall, verse nine one more
time. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count
slackness, but is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Our Lord said, except ye repent,
ye shall all likewise perish. Does that put salvation in our
hands? You know, a lot of people think that they're going to be
saved because I repented. Praise God, He's not willing
that we should perish. Praise God, He works repentance
in us. It's God's will that all of His
chosen people shall repent. We're not going to be saved without
it, but God's going to work it in us. It's God which worketh
in us, both to will and to do with His good pleasure. When
do we come to Christ? When He makes us willing. When's
that? In the day of His power. You see, you already know this,
but I'm thrilled to tell you again. Salvation's of the Lord.
It's not our will, it's His will. He begets us with the word of
truth. Not of him that willeth, nor
of him that runneth. It's of God that showeth mercy. Salvation's
of the Lord completely. You know what else we can say
concerning that? My hope. is that I'm standing
on the promises of God my Savior. He promised to choose a people.
He chose those people. He promised for the Spirit to
come quicken those people. He promised for Christ to come,
shed His blood, redeem those people. Promised to be long-suffering
to them. He promised not to be willing
that they should perish. He promised that they should come to repentance.
And it shall all come to pass because He promised it. I didn't
promise it. He did. It means we can trust
it. It's safe to trust the Lord. It always is. It's safe to trust
the Lord. Back in our text, verse 10. It says, "...but the day
of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in 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." Again, the scoffers mock the
promise of His coming. He's coming. It doesn't matter
who mocks Him. You know, God's people, we know that they're
the minority on this earth. They're the remnant. They're
the few. Right? It doesn't matter how many people
believe on Him. It doesn't change the fact that
His will is going to come to pass. He is coming. And we're
not going to see Him coming. It's going to be as a thief in
the night. God will make good on His promise. He just told
us everything here is going to be burned up. And you know what
that means for us? Right now, we know this, and
I want to tell you this, this world is not our home. This life isn't what it's all
about. When I wrote that down, I thought of our brother David
Coleman, and I remembered he sang a song one time, and I have
it on my phone, I listened to it. He said, this world is not
my home. This wasn't long before he went
home. He said, this world is not my home, this world is not
my home. My home's been made at heaven's
throne. This world is not my home. We
have a home not made with hands eternal in the heavens. And that's
where our brethren are. We're sad when they leave us.
Oh, but we're so happy for them. Sad for ourselves, but I pray
God won't let us drown ourselves in our sadness because we have
the same hope. We have the same hope rest in
His promises, child of God. He's going to make good on His
promises. Right now, someone my age may think, well, I've
got a big old life ahead of me, my whole life ahead of me. I
have whatever time God has for me and my family ahead of me,
ahead of us. Yes. We don't know what it is. I do
pray it's a nice length of time, enjoyable years, and there's
things we want to do, things we want to fulfill in this life.
But may we live each day pressing toward the mark knowing this
ain't it. Be thankful for it. This is the
day the Lord has made. I pray that we can truly rejoice
and be glad in it. Oh, but may our eyes be set on
Christ, our home. You know, all these things that
right now that we're worried about, you remember Martha, cumbered
about, much serving, just tossed to and fro. There's a lot of
things we have to take care of every day. But like we just read, it's all
gonna be burned up. All my sinful works, all the
sinful works. You know, people in this world,
I'm a big sports fan. You know, we talk about legends and they
leave legacies and records and I'm into all that stuff. I do
like those things. It's all gonna melt away. All
man's works, all man's glory. It's nothing. Vanity of vanity.
All is vanity. That's it. Turn back a few pages
again to Hebrews chapter 11. I want to show you these few
verses. Hebrews 11 verse 13. Here we're reading about the
great cloud of witnesses, God's people who we read about in the
Old Testament Scriptures, who went before us, they've gone
home. Read this account concerning them, Hebrews 11 verse 13. These all died in faith, according
to faith. Not having received the promises,
but having seen them afar off, just like we do, 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. But now they desire
a better country. that is in heavenly. Wherefore
God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared
for them a city." Does that encourage you? I mentioned Noah. He's talking
about Noah. Just a few verses up, He's talking
about Noah, talking about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, all our
brethren before us. That was true. They were standing
on the promises of God. They trusted in God and His precious,
exceeding great, precious promises to them in Christ. They hadn't received Him yet,
but they saw Him. They were persuaded of Him, and
they embraced Him. I'm here to tell you by now,
they've received Him. They've received them. Their
joy has been fulfilled. And ours will too. By God's grace we'll live here
and we'll leave here trusting in His precious promises to us.
By His grace. Now go back in our text and I'll
close. 2 Peter 3 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? I love this, verse 13. Nevertheless,
we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new
earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." Does that give you something
to look forward to? Again, I want us to look forward to today,
tomorrow, whatever days we have. But I pray we can look forward
to that day, the day of God, the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. It's going to be a blessed day.
A blessed, never-ending, no sinning, no sadness, no crying, eternal,
glorious day. When old things are going to
be passed away, all these old things that we're so sick and
tired of ourselves, it's all going to be passed away. All
things are going to become new. Christ our life. He's going to
appear. We're going to appear with Him
in glory. According to God's promise, brothers
and sisters, let's look for Him. Let's look forward to that day
when He said we're going to be with Him. He's coming back. He's coming back. We're going
to see Him. We're going to be with Him. And
praise God, we're going to be just like Him. Believe you said
it, a brother's service said it. He's a clone of our Lord,
however you said it. Perfectly conformed to his image.
One with him for all eternity. I hope that your prayer is mine.
Lord, come quickly. Amen. God bless his word to our
hearts.