“This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2 that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles. 3 Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, 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.” 5 For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, 6 through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. 7 But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.”
It may seem strange at first glance, that so far into this letter Peter would reference the fact that this is his second letter to them, written for the purpose that it is. People usually state their reason for writing either at the beginning of correspondence or at the very end.
Actually, he has already declared in chapter 1 verses 12 and 13 his desire and readiness to remind them of the things important for them to keep in focus. So if we remember that then we realize that he is only repeating himself here, for emphasis’ sake.
STIRRED UP
Notice that in both verse 13 of chapter 1 and here in verse 1 of our text he uses the term ‘stir’ and ‘stirring’, from the same word which means to awaken or arouse.
In all of us, even as sincere Christians, which by the way he calls his readers when he says he wants to stir up their ‘sincere minds’, there is the tendency to focus on the physical world around us and slumber, so to speak, spiritually.
We read a book or article, or hear a sermon or attend a conference in which the focus is on the imminent return of Jesus Christ, and we get so excited about it that we just feel He could come at any moment. Haven’t we all had those times?
And what happens to us? Well, for a little while at least, we pay closer attention to spiritual matters. We are more alert to the things in our lives that may be displeasing to Him; or perhaps the things missing in our lives that should be given a prominent place, because they have an eternal value that far exceeds the cares and concerns of this life, and since He is coming soon we are ‘stirred up’ to think about those things.
Then a week goes by, or less, and we’re back in our spiritual slumber, worrying about the bills, thinking about vacation, planning for retirement or whatever.
Now it’s not that it is wrong to think about those things. We still have to be responsible in our daily lives.
But the people of the early church really believed that Jesus was coming back; so much that they even greeted one another with the word, Maranatha, which means, “Our Lord, come!” or ‘Lord, come quickly!” depending on whose work you’re reading.
The Apostles certainly lived in expectation of the Lord’s return, simply believing the promise that He made to do so. In the whole of the New Testament only Philemon and 3rd John, both very short letters, make no mention of the return of Christ.
The very ones who walked with Him, saw Him die, were witnesses to His resurrection and saw Him ascend into the heavens are the ones that were so confident of His return that they mention it over and over again, either directly or indirectly, as incentive toward holy living and toward keeping watch with eager anticipation, and as the event that will mark the fulfillment of all His precious and magnificent promises concerning our eternal future.
Now, here, as Peter is beginning to draw his letter to a close, he once more expresses a desire to stir up, wake up, arouse in them, remembrance of the things they already know but should not let slip; specifically, the things that were spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and from the Lord Himself, and then the apostles.
Things thrice confirmed by the Holy Spirit through His agents; the pure truth of God’s Word.
Remember, he has just warned them in the strongest of terms to be on the alert against false teachers and then he has described these creatures born for destruction. So by way of contrast now, he says that he wants them in defense against the deceit of the false teachers to remember the holy prophets, as opposed to the unholy prophets, and the Lord’s own teaching, and the things taught them by the Lord’s chosen Apostles.
As Christians, if we have been in the Word as we should and submitting ourselves to sound Biblical teaching, we know these things Peter has reiterated throughout this letter.
But we need to be stirred up. We need to be awakened by having the truth of God’s Word concerning our eternal security, holy living and staying alert against the enemy’s attacks paraded before our eyes and our minds and taken to our hearts, often.
A MATTER OF PRIORITY
Not all false teachers deny the second coming of Christ. There are those who even teach the coming rapture and the Great Tribulation, but so much of their doctrine is demonic it makes one wonder why they are not trembling in dread of having to face Him.
Others teach that He has already returned. The practitioners of the Baha’i cult even teach that not only has He returned, but He has returned numerous times. He just pops in for a visit once in a while.
Just surfing the web a little bit I discovered that some guy named Harold Camping has been teaching since 2004 that Jesus has already returned, invisibly, and is judging the churches. Another couple with their own heretical website is teaching the following:
“The return of Christ with its complete destruction of the world, so widely speculated on, is not true. Rather, the return of Christ is to the hearts of individual believers who have prepared the way for him to return to them.”
www.hallvworthington.com HERESY ALERT! Reader beware.
They obviously do not read the Bible, since the declaration of Christ’s Apostles can hardly be called ‘speculation’.
However there are many false teachers who deny the imminent return of Christ, and that should come as no surprise. If He is not coming back then that frees them to continue their lifestyle of sensuality, greed, deceit and self-will with no fear of retribution.
As has already been stated in a previous sermon, not all false teachers are religious. Anyone who, declaring authority to speak on any basis, whether science, medicine, their own intrinsic wisdom or whatever, denies that Christ is coming back, is a false teacher.
Peter here calls them mockers. They come with their mocking, foolishly declaring to be true what is false, and declaring to be false that which is true, simply because in their sinful thinking that is the way they want it to be.
People in secular professional fields such as medicine, law, engineering and so forth would be appalled at the very thought of someone untrained and unlicensed in their field presuming to speak authoritatively and intelligently on the subject. They would challenge that person’s authority to speak and quickly shut them down when they discover the person has no schooling in their field of endeavor.
Yet those same people, knowing nothing of the Bible and unwilling to either read it or be taught about it presume to speak authoritatively in their denial of Jesus, His Deity, His virgin birth, His resurrection and His Second Coming, even rudely and openly mocking the person who believes and has studied these things thoroughly.
Ironically, that which they mock and deny names them and exposes their folly.
Peter warns that these folks are going to be around, so he says, “Know this first of all”, meaning ‘as a top priority’, meaning ‘this is of top importance for you to know both as an encouragement and so you will not be taken aback by their denials’; “…in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming?”
How can that be an encouragement, you may ask. Well, remember that these were people under violent persecution, and hearing the false teachers say either that He wasn’t coming back or that He had come back and they had missed it. Paul had to address this heresy in his first letter to the Thessalonians, who were being told that the rapture had already taken place and that both they and their departed loved ones had missed it.
So Peter saying this to them was an encouragement that although they were hearing these things, they were lies told by mockers and they could rest assured that they had not missed the rapture and that Christ was indeed coming back for them.
Believer in Christ, it is imperative, it is of top priority, of first importance, that you be assured in your heart and settled in your mind that Jesus is coming back for you. Do not give ear to the mockers and the false teachers who would mock the idea of His coming just because it has been so long and has not happened yet.
And to help you see through their foolishness, let’s look at the evidence Peter offered of their error.
THIS ESCAPES THEIR NOTICE
Here is their arrogant claim; here is their argument to justify their taunting question of doubt that Christ will come back.
“For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation”.
That reference to the fathers would be a reference to the Old Testament Patriarchs. But notice that they aren’t saying that all continues just as it was from the time of the patriarchs or the death of the patriarchs. They say that all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.
This statement admits a divine beginning of all things since they use the word ‘creation’, but it expresses a belief in what in modern times is called uniformitarianism.
In short this means that everything that was set into motion at creation has continued on as it was then, and anything that has not happened in the past can therefore not happen in the future. The absence of the past occurrence is evidence that it will not occur in the future.
Fundamentally, this denies divine intervention in nature and history. So it denies a six day creation, as though God set things to motion and let ‘nature’ take it’s course, and it denies worldwide flood.
That is why Peter goes on to say, “…when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water,”
The phrase, ‘it escapes their notice’ is not an attempt by Peter to be kind to them and suppose they just somehow missed it. The King James version says they are ‘willingly ignorant’ of these truths.
They have chosen to ignore documented historical fact so that they might continue in their unbelief and their life of sin.
They have closed their eyes and stopped their ears so they don’t have to take truth into consideration. Ever talk to anyone like that?
Listen, Christians. Anytime a person denies, ignores, refuses to take into consideration actual fact just because it is more convenient for him to cast truth away from himself, he puts himself in danger of having truth pop up and smack him right in the face.
Think about it. Enough studies have been done to conclude positively that the smoking of tobacco causes lung and other types of cancer. When a person says, ‘I don’t believe the studies’ or ‘I think the results were faked’ and continues to smoke, that person is likely to get surprise news one day from the doctor.
A traveler on a country road in heavy rain stops at a truck stop for coffee, and the waiter tells him that every time it rains this heavily the bridge down the road washes out. The man chooses not to believe the report, drives on down the road, and ends up turning his car into a submarine.
This is exactly what happened to the earth’s population in the days of Noah. They were willingly ignorant of the truth; they said rain was not going to fall from the sky because it never had, and in their ignorance and their rebellion against God they were destroyed.
Here Peter says these mockers in their mocking will deny the coming of Christ based on self-deceit; that God set the universe to running like a clock and He has not intervened since and therefore He never will.
But there was a flood.
And because they deliberately overlook that little detail, they will not be ready for their own destruction when there is fire.
This is why the teaching of Evolution in place of Creation is so demonic. By using the word ‘demonic’ I mean just that. Satan was behind the birth of the theory and he has been behind the development of the teaching until it has gained wide acceptance as fact by people who call themselves scientists and teachers but betray their own vocations by ignoring and even denying truth.
When men no longer believe in a six day creation then they have no reason to believe in a Creator. And if they do not believe in a global Flood, caused by a Holy God in response to global unholiness, then they needn’t fear future wrath for their own unholiness and rejection of God.
“For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. 3 While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape.” 1 Thess 5:2-3
Before I go on to close let me take a small side trip here. I have heard people partially quote this verse and say that the rapture of the church will happen when there is a peace treaty signed in the Middle East and there is temporarily no war in the world.
That application is faulty and needs to be refuted. These verses in Thessalonians are not referring to the rapture, but to the destruction of the Great Tribulation which will preceded the Second Coming of Christ. Men will be saying “Peace and safety”, because the Antichrist will have brokered a false peace and ungodly men will think they have by their own wisdom and efforts finally brought in world peace. The church will already be gone from the earth. This is a teaching in itself, but there is the nutshell version.
Getting back to the text then…
“But the present heavens and earth by His word are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men”. 3:7
Did you catch that? Verse 5: “By the word of God the heavens existed…”
Verse 7: “…the present heavens and earth by His word are being reserved for fire…”
BACK TO THE FUTURE
Now let’s go backward for a moment and look at chapter 1 verse 16.
“For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.”
When Peter refers to the ‘power and coming’ of our Lord Jesus Christ here he is talking about the second coming. Jesus did not come in power the first time, but as a sacrifice for sin. He came as the suffering Servant. It will be in His Second Coming that He will come in power.
In the following verses from 16 Peter is basing his assurance of the future coming of the Lord in power, on the snapshots of glory and majesty he has already witnessed when with Christ on the mountain, and the voice of God from Heaven declaring His pleasure in His Son.
So for just a moment I want you to consider everything from chapter 2 verse 1 through chapter 3 verse 3 to be a parenthesis, and let’s jump from one to the other as though Peter has not said any of this about false teachers.
I’ll read it that way:
“For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.
Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, 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.”
Now that’s not supposed to flow smoothly as though Peter really wrote it that way; I just want you to see this contrast between Peter the Apostle and the mockers who have come and who will come.
Peter, as the eyewitness, who walked with Jesus and personally saw His glory and majesty while on the mountain, who is nearing the end of his earthly life and has proven himself over and over to be a faithful follower and witness of the risen Christ, insures that he is not telling fables when he declares to them that Jesus will appear again in power.
In contrast are the mockers, who are not eyewitnesses, who have not demonstrated faith, who deliberately close their minds to truth, but have the sinful audacity to cast doubt on the Apostle’s message and on the character of Christ Himself, who uttered the promise to return and gave the personal assurance that He is side by side with those who love Him, even to the end of the world.
Friends, Jesus is coming back. Whenever I title a sermon I spend some time thinking about what the main point is going to be and then trying to come up with something that will concisely convey that point.
In this case I didn’t have to think much. I saw that in our text was the faithless question of the mockers, “Where is the promise of His coming?” and I knew the title had to be a faithful declaration to contrast their faithlessness.
Anyway, I just like to say it.
JESUS IS COMING!
But let’s not stray from our text, because this is not a pretty thing for those who refuse to believe, and it is why we who do believe must have a sense of Holy Spirit inspired urgency about us.
We don’t know when Jesus is going to shout ‘COME UP!’ It could be any time, Christians. There is absolutely nothing that has to happen first; there is no prophecy of scripture that is yet unfulfilled that has to take place before Christ raptures His church. It is going to happen, and it will be in the twinkling of an eye, and it can happen right now, and I happen to believe it is going to happen very, very soon.
So read these words as one who cares about those who are going to perish, and as one who knows the truth and therefore has an obligation to shout out the warning. Stop doing that before you get cancer! Don’t go there, the bridge is out! Listen!
“…by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.”
Who is ‘ungodly’? Just the ones we see as evil mean and wicked bad and nasty? NO! Anyone without God. That’s what ‘ungodly’ means.
Anyone without Christ. Know anyone like that?
Then who do you believe? Do you believe the mockers? Are they right?
If you do then what are we doing here? This is all a laughable waste of time. Let’s go party.
Do you believe the eyewitnesses who gave their lives and died violent deaths in the name of this One they constantly proclaimed was coming back in power?
Then again I ask… what are we doing here?
Jesus is coming.
