2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 1. And we'll read to verse 10. 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 Saviour, 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, as some men count slackness, 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 a great noise, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat. The earth also and the works
that are therein shall be burned up. Amen. May God bless to us this reading
from his word also. You know, it is good for us to
be put in remembrance of the Lord and all that he has done
for us. And of course, the Lord knew
that. It is why he established this memorial feast that we will
participate in in a little while. But his disciples knew it too. And so that is why we frequently
have in these New Testament epistles references to being reminded
of the Lord and his goodness and his mercy towards us. You see, men are forgetful, just
like Paul forgot his coat. We forget to think about the
Lord. And just because I'm saying men,
don't imagine that that doesn't include the ladies as well. Although
I am always pleased that I have a lady to remind me of the things
that I need to remember. But you see, we need to be put
in remembrance of the things of the Lord frequently. We need
to have them brought to our attention. And this is Peter's aim in this
passage before us today. He is writing with this purpose,
that he might remind us of the Lord. And I admire the threefold
confirmation that Peter gives us here, as he reminds us of
three things. One, explicitly, and two, by
implication. He writes to those who are beloved. Do you know that he writes beloved
five times in this chapter? He is writing to those who are
beloved. He is reminding us that we are
loved of God. He is reminding us that he has
personally a passion for our well-being. and that that passion, that apostolic
love for the believers to whom he is writing is a love that
is inspired by God, finds its origin in God, is sourced from
God because it is God's love to his people. And he writes
to those who are beloved and he writes of their pure minds. and he reminds them all of what
the Lord Jesus Christ has done for them. Beloved by God in Jesus Christ
is a mark of distinguishing grace. Now, I want you to understand
what I'm saying here. To be beloved of God in Jesus
Christ is a mark of distinguishing grace. It is a lie and it is
a falsehood perpetrated by many who will stand before a congregation,
stand before a population, stand before all men and women in the
world and tell them, God loves you. And that's not what the Bible
says. Never anywhere does the Bible say that. The love of God
extends to His people by distinguishing grace. The love of God extends
only to those who are within the covenant of grace. The love
of God is manifested in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ for
those that He loves. And that limited, particular,
distinguished number for whom the Lord Jesus Christ died is
that self-same and exact number that God's love is upon. And
it is to them and them alone that gospel graces are mediated
by God the Holy Spirit. And so here is an evidence of
distinguishing grace as Peter speaks about those who are beloved. And yet that love is vast. and there is no end to the infiniteness
of that attribute and quality of God. It isn't that there isn't
enough to go around, it is that it is purposely directed to certain
individuals according to the goodwill and purpose of our God. This is a notion of vast dimensions,
the love of God, and it flows with limitless good and grace
and mercy to his people. The divine love of God, it is
a mine of precious ore, precious metal. It is the gold of God's
purpose for his covenant people in this world. It is a fertile
garden, the hymn writer was talking about that, where all the divine
blessings of God towards his people grow and bear fruit. Whence these blessings, whence
this mercy, whence this grace, whence Christ's death on our
behalf, all find source in the love of God towards his people. Every good and perfect gift begins
its journey to the elect from God's love. That love brings us sovereign
grace. It brings us electing purpose. It brings us sanctifying goodness. It brings us free justification. It brings us the imputed righteousness
of God. It brings us full forgiveness.
It brings us a conscience sprinkled with blood, all flowing from
the love of God towards us. Therefore, to be beloved of God,
is to be heir of a great salvation and of the promise of heavenly
glory. He calls these people beloved
and puts them in remembrance of it. He calls them also men
and women of pure minds. Pure minds are not natural minds. Natural minds are carnal minds,
preoccupied with fleshy things, sensual things. Natural minds
are defiled minds. They're sinful minds. They run
to sinful things. Natural minds are at enmity with
God. But pure minds are cleansed. Pure minds have been by the blood
of Jesus Christ sprinkled and cleansed. They've been purified,
not by an act of man's will, not by a work of the flesh, but
by that precious blood because it accomplishes the wonderful
promises that God's love has towards His people. That love of God that sends the
blood of Christ is transforming natural minds to pure minds. It converts that which is unwholesome
and unholy to that which is acceptable to God. It enables, it empowers,
It distinguishes between those who are redeemed, whose minds
are made pure by the blood of Jesus Christ, who are saved by
grace, who are heirs of life, to those who are still dead in
their sin. This is God's work and this is
God's accomplishment upon his people. He has a people that
are beloved by him and he purifies their minds through the preaching
of the gospel and the accomplishment of every grace and blessing that
is needful for their souls. And to these people, to whom
Peter is writing, to these who are beloved and to these who
have purified minds, the apostle says, remember, remember. I want you who are beloved of
God. I want you who have pure minds
to remember. Remember what God has done. Remember where your salvation
comes from. Remember it is God's free gift. You haven't earned it. You have
no right to it. It is a gratuitous blessing of
grace. Remember in whom it is founded,
the purpose of God the Father to save a people for himself. Remember by whom it was accomplished. The Lord Jesus Christ alone did
what no other person could do, which we could not do for ourselves,
which we cannot do for our children. what we can never accomplish
by the works of these hands or by the will and purpose of our
determination. And remember by whom these graces
are applied. They come to us by the Holy Spirit. We have no right to these either.
It is God the Holy Spirit that deepens our experience, that
deepens our relationship, that teaches us about the things of
God. And while we endeavor to maintain
the means of that, deepening of understanding, that growth
in grace, and the knowledge of the truth, by gathering around
the Word of God, by exercising ourselves to be where the Gospel
is preached, by endeavouring to have clear minds and understanding
spirits as we gather under the Gospel. Yet it has always got
to be the Holy Spirit who takes and applies these life-giving
words, these lively truths, to the hearts and the souls and
the minds of his people, to teach us, to teach us, thereby prepare
us, forearm us, forewarn us for the challenges that lie ahead
and the difficulties that we must face. And this is what Peter
is speaking about. He's about to talk about the
challenges that these people face. Grace comes. in the gospel. It is attested
by the holy prophets. It is attested by the apostles
and the things that they taught. And these things come from the
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And it is the great covenant
purposes of God. It is the great promises of God
that we are to think upon and remember. And that same message
that was preached by those holy prophets, that was preached by
the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ, whether you're talking
about 5,000, 4,000, 3,000, 2,000 years ago, this is the same word. And it is God's word, a faithful
word. And it is faithfully preached
as God sends his gospel out for the salvation of his people.
The Lord God has with design brought these words before us
today because he remembers that we need to be reminded and therefore
he sends his apostles, he sends his preachers with a message
for the well-being of our souls and to direct our minds once
again to the Lord Jesus Christ and the source of our salvation. Peter's saying, remember, because
not only false teachers are going to beset you, there won't just
be false doctrine swirling around about you, but there are going
to be troublesome scoffers also. So he's been talking about the
false teachers in the previous chapter. Now he's going to address
some troublesome scoffers. And these are more likely to
be without the church, outside of the church, although not necessarily
so these days, because the church seems to be such a broad church,
such a big umbrella that you can have pretty much any view
you like inside it, and people are encouraged to put up with
it. But Peter's reminder is intended
to accomplish two things, and they're simple things. Firstly,
to confirm that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back as he promised
he would. And secondly, to explain why
it seems to be taking a while. And I'm going to come back to
those two points in a moment, but I just want to address first
something about these scoffers that are bringing their mockery
and their allegations. Peter here is restating and reinforcing
The Lord Jesus Christ's promise that he will come again. That's
what he told his disciples as he was leaving. That he will
come again. And that's what the angels said
when the Lord ascended into heaven. He's coming again in like manner.
As you've seen him go, he's coming again. And that's what the disciples
took away. That's what Peter had a personal
testimony given to him. The Lord's coming back. Now Peter
had spent decades since then. He was now an old man. He's writing
these letters and he's saying, I need you to remember what I'm
telling you. I need you to remember what I've
seen, what I've heard, what the Lord has told me. Because these
scoffers are going to come and when they come, They'll make
a mockery of the message of the gospel. They'll make a mockery
of the promises of the Lord Jesus Christ. They will contradict God. They will say, has God said that? No, that's not true. Look around you. Don't be so
blinkered. Don't be so naive. Don't be so
foolish. Where's the evidence? Come on,
prove it. Prove it to me. If you're saying
these things, prove it. Let's talk. Let's discuss. Let's
debate. I've got my evidence. I've got
my little rock. I've got my history book. I've
got my scientific approach to this world. It's always been
like this. It's gone on like this forever
and ever and ever. And that opposition, it will
come in many forms. You see, one thing we should
remember is that Satan is imaginative. when it comes to opposing the
testimony of the gospel and undermining the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He was imaginative with the Lord, he was imaginative
with his disciples, and he will be imaginative with us also.
He will get us where we're not expecting it. And he may attack the church
violently, or he may inject false doctrine, or he may create division. Or he may employ temptation. Or he may concoct false allegations. Or he might just simply laugh
at us. Likely it will be a mixture of
all. And definitely we will not stand
unless the Lord upholds us in the face of that onslaught. and
I'm talking about as a congregation, and I'm talking about individually. You know, mockery can be distressing.
People don't like getting laughed at. It's embarrassing, it's shameful,
and it can be sophisticated. It can be straightforward. It
can be just to be the butt of the jokes in the workshop or
at school. People laugh at you. Yeah, you know what he believes.
You know what she thinks. Ha ha. And that can be difficult. We like to be liked. Or we might be undermined by
entertainment. There is a spirit in this age
that has assumptions that are not the assumptions upon which
the Word of God is based. And so we find that there is
a mockery which is insidious. There is a laughing at the fundamentalists,
that they've sort of disconnected their logic when it comes to
reality, and they believe fairy stories. about gnomes and elves
and God. And they get, it gets embarrassing. We don't like being laughed at. Or they may say, you're contradicting
science. The evidence is in. We know what
it is that's happening. We can see it. We've got the
proof. We've got the best minds in the world working on these
things. The finest universities putting
out their best students every year working on these things.
Are you telling me that they're all wrong and you're right? And it's hard. And it's hard
for youngsters. Growing up in school, going through
the education process, being laughed at can be very hurtful. And that can be in the classroom
or the workplace or even in the home. Parents getting mocked
by their children for their silly ideas. Well if that's you, I've
got a wee word of advice for you. Somebody told me this a
long time ago and I think it stands good. It comes from Psalm
1 verse 1. Blessed is the man that walketh
not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners,
nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. Let me tell you what that's saying.
That's saying, Don't agree with them when they mock you and are
scornful. Don't oppose them. And don't debate them. They're
just scoffers. That's what they are. They're
just scoffers. And it's not your fight. It's
not your battle. And Peter is pointing to something
else here. He's saying that this scorn that
they're bringing, it's directed not only against the believers,
but against the Word of God itself, against the Bible and the testimony
of the Bible, the testimony of the gospel. And let us know that
God takes notice of both. He notices when His people are
mocked, and He notices when His own name is mocked. He notices. These people are
over-smart. They've grown too clever for
their own good. They say, where is the promise
of His coming? Are you so gullible as to believe
that? That can't be trusted. But the Bible tells us God is
not mocked. On the contrary, He holds the
scoffers in derision. They laugh at Him, but He laughs
at them. Psalm 37, verse 3 says, The Lord
shall laugh at him. for he seeth his day coming. I like the ambiguity in the second
part of that little phrase. The Lord shall laugh at him. Why? Because he sees his day
coming. Whose day? Whose day? There's an ambiguity there. Does
he see his own day, the day of the Lord coming? Well, that's
good to laugh about because that is going to come. But he sees
the day of these scoffers coming as well when they will be held
accountable for the fact that they have rejected the testimony
of God and the word of God. This warning of judgment is,
let me say, I think I've mentioned this before, but I want to repeat
it because I think it's a good approach and thought process
when we encounter judgments in our world. The warning of judgment
is the evidence of grace and mercy. Okay, think about that
for a moment. The warning of judgment is the
evidence of grace and mercy. Why is that? Because if you've
got a warning of impending judgment, you've got time to repent. The
warning gives you a moment. The warning gives you an instant. The warning gives you time to
hear and time to change. The warning is not in itself
judgment. And any withholding of that,
any long-suffering, any patience that God gives to us at all is
in its essence the evidence of grace and mercy. This is the opportunity to flee
the wrath which is to come. Some people tell us that COVID-19
is God's judgment on the world. Well, I say it's His warning
to the world. I say it's a warning that if
we are smart, we will realize that God is saying to us, I can
turn this world upside down with something so small that you can't
even see it. What am I going to do when I
appear? What am I going to do when I come in judgment if I
can do this with something so tiny you can't even see it? Peter says, the elements shall
melt with fervent heat. The earth also and the works
that are therein. That means everything that we've
built, everything that we've created, everything that we have
built made of concrete is going to melt like wax. Everything
that we have built made of steel is going to bend and buckle and
disappear in a vapour. The sky, the mountains, the sea,
the rocks, everything, the elements shall melt with fervent heat.
The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned
up. Now that's what I call global
warming. God who destroyed once with water,
is waiting, is waiting to destroy once again with fire. Now let's get back to these two
points that I mentioned at the beginning and then that's us
done. First thing that we notice here is that Peter is confirming
that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back and that's what this
judgment is going to be about, Christ's return. He is coming
back as he promised he would and it is called the day of the
Lord. The day of the Lord is coming.
The day of the Lord will come in which his elect, long anticipating
his return, wait for the manifestation of his glory. And in that day
of the Lord's return, the reprobate and unbelievers, the scoffers
and the mockers and the false teachers, and those who hurt
the little ones of Christ, that will be a day of judgment for
them. And Peter says, as Christ says,
as the apostles said, as the prophets said, as the faithful
preacher of the gospel says, Christ will come soon. He's coming soon. That is a warning,
but it is a warning that speaks that yet there is time. He is
coming soon, and it's that point about the time that Peter stresses
here. Because of this day, we can say
a couple of things. First, we don't know when it
is. We don't know when it is. We might not get to the end of
today. We don't know when it is. And second, there'll be no
mistaking it when it happens. Because that is judgment. That
is it all over. Peter says it will come as a
thief in the night. Now thieves generally break in
when people are asleep or away, or at least they're not expecting
it. And that's the point. We've gotten good at anticipating
things, haven't we? We can forecast hurricanes and
we can predict earthquakes and volcanoes. We have early warning
systems for nuclear missiles. But we're not going to be expecting
this. We're not going to be expecting this. And speculate all you will. No one will guess the day that
the Lord comes back. No one will have anticipated
that day when the Lord Jesus Christ comes back. And there
are people in the world today, maybe you're amongst them, maybe
you're amongst them and you think to yourself that you'll get serious
about God sometime. And you'll think more about this
gospel, and you'll give more priority to the Lord Jesus Christ
sometime, but you're just too busy just now. There's just so
much going on, and it'll be easier, it'll be easier when something's
happened, something's passed, something's over. You think there'll be time, but there is no time. There is
no time. You don't have any time. You
don't have any time. You have the hope of time. You hope
that tomorrow will come. If you knew a thief was coming,
you'd stay awake in order to scare him off. And the Lord Jesus
Christ is coming back to judge the world and we are sleepwalking
into destruction. The Lord said of the wealthy
farmer, he said, you're a fool because this night your soul
will be required of you. And then all these things that
you've spent your time working on, whose are those going to
be? Some people talk about a secret rapture, that the church is going
to disappear out of the world and everything else will go on
pretty much just the same. Well, I don't think Peter believes
that that's what's going to happen. He says, Now we're going to know
about this when it happens. There's not going to be any second
chance. This is a warning of judgment.
That will be judgment. And Peter also goes on to explain
here why it's taking so long. Why is it that it seems to be
taking a long time? Well, Peter says, actually, it's
not. It's not taking a long time. Look at verse nine. The Lord
is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness,
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 a great noise and the elements, et cetera.
We've just read that. But the Lord is not slack concerning
his promise. With God, purpose and promise
go hand in hand. God's promises are based upon
his purpose, and his purpose will be fulfilled as his promises
come to pass. And we call that his covenant,
that's his contract with us, that's his agreement, that's
the established purpose that this world is going to follow. And with God, everything has
a purpose, and everything has a time. Everything has a place,
and everything has a reason. And nothing will be rushed, and
nothing will be left incomplete, and nothing will be quite not
finished. When God wraps everything up,
it will be perfect, and it will be precise. Because time is just
God's tool. Someone called it his handmaid.
And a day or a thousand years differs only as the divine purpose
requires. Omnipotence can accomplish the
same effect in the twinkling of an eye or in an extended duration,
all at God's pleasure. He can do what he will when he
wills. And what is God's pleasure? God's pleasure is the glory of
his son and the salvation of his people. And the only reason
that this judgment hasn't come yet is that the salvation of
his people is not yet complete. This world will exist only as
long as it takes God to accomplish both of those things. God suffers
the wickedness of the world. He suffers the rebelliousness
of men and women. The stench of sin in the nostrils
of God will last only until he has called the last elect child
home. the last elect child into his
church and body. The last member of that body
of Christ is joined to that body through faith and belief. We
sometimes talk about the flock of God and the wandering sheep
and the lost sheep and out in the wilderness. Well, that shepherd
is out getting his sheep and when he's got the last one, when
the ninety and nine are in the fold and he brings the last one
home, that's it. There's nothing else to be accomplished
and nothing else to be done. The glory of the son will be
manifested and the gathering of his people will be complete.
When the body is complete, Christ's bride will be revealed in all
her beauty, purity and glory. And that consummation between
the Son and his people will take place and we will enter into
our eternal joy. Then, says the Holy Prophet,
The redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing
unto Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their head. They
shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and mourning shall
flee away. Brothers and sisters, friends,
come what may, this is God's promise. This is our inheritance. This is all the glory of our
Saviour, and it shall be so. Amen.