Thoughts In 2 Peter - Number 9 - Where Is The Lord? Has It All Gone Wrong? Mockers And Judgment. 2 Peter 3:3-11 Series

THOUGHTS IN 2 PETER - NUMBER 9 - WHERE IS THE LORD? HAS IT ALL GONE WRONG? MOCKERS AND JUDGMENT. 2 PETER 3:3-11

In his second letter Peter has covered a number of things and so far we have looked at several messages in different subjects. Probably the biggest area was the teaching on false teachers, but there is a lot of practical material in this letter.

Today we are going to deviate somewhat into an area I do write on from time to time in exposition – that of prophecy and current events. We are going to consider the following verses –

{{2 Peter 3:3 Know this first of all, that IN THE LAST DAYS mockers will come with their MOCKING, following after their own lusts,

2 Peter 3:4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming for ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation?”}}

[1]. YES, YOU MOCKERS, WE KNOW YOU ARE AROUND! Verses 3-4

Peter is following on from his exposé of false teachers but takes up what they were saying – and still do – that everything has fallen in a heap because the promises given by God/Jesus have failed. That applies especially to His promised coming.

Verse 3 mentions “in the last days” and we must try to understand that phrase in Peter’s thinking. What were the last days? The last days applied to the Northern Kingdom of Israel before the Assyrian defeat and later to the Southern Kingdom of Judah in the Babylonian defeat, but it is not that, to which Peter refers. He is referring to the last days before the end of the age the disciples once asked about.

I won’t cover the whole revelation of the end of the age because I have done that frequently but will do it this way today. In Matthew 24:3 the disciples wanted to know what were the signs of the times and the end of the age and when the Lord’s Coming would happen. The Lord described conditions leading up to the end of the age but did not tell them when it was, as in years.

That is the age strategic for Israel when the Messiah returns at the Second Coming. The age of man’s rule closes and the age of Messiah’s rule on earth begins. That will be His reign for 1 000 years from Jerusalem (the Millennium).

However 7 years before the Second Coming, the Church is removed in the Rapture and taken to heaven to the Judgment Seat of Christ and the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. As many of us believe the Rapture is so close because of signs and the great wickedness of the earth, and the position of Israel right now, then we confidently say we are in the last days. They can say the same thing just before the Second Coming too.

Now returning to our verses 3 and 4 we are told of MOCKERS challenging God. These aren’t necessarily open sceptics such as the lecturers are at universities, and they can be very bad; humanists who discount God and decency. The ones in Peter’s mind are the ones more subdued, whose hearts are full of mocking and unbelief. They mock the promises of the bible, much like the wicked generation did in Noah’s time when told about the flood coming.

Peter mentions they will chase after their own lusts. Today’s society is perverse given to all forms of gross lust. When a man is a mocker of God, he usually is caught up in many ugly types of sin. It is like the glove fitting the hand.

We will always have mockers. They were at the cross on Golgotha – {{Matthew 27:41-42 In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were MOCKING HIM and saying, “He saved others - He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel - let Him now come down from the cross and we shall believe in Him.”}} BUT earlier the Gentiles were even more evil and blasphemous –

{{Matthew 27:29-31 and after weaving a crown of thorns they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand, and they kneeled down before Him and MOCKED HIM saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” They spat on Him and took the reed and began to beat Him on the head, and after they had MOCKED HIM they took His robe off and put His garments on Him, and led Him away to crucify Him.}}

It is in the heart of man to mock Divinity because his heart belongs to the prince of this world and anything godly is hated and persecuted. These mockers are here today in the Church age, both vocal and silent. Interestingly Peter says the mockers’ theme is that nothing has changed since the beginning of creation. It is even worse than that because these people today don’t accept creation or the Creator. Some indefinable big bang, hand in hand with evolution, is the supposed intelligence that gave us all we have.