2 PETER 3
Here we are this morning at the end of our journey through 2 Peter. We are at the end and yet when we read this passage we find we are back where we started from – Peter reminding his readers of the basics.
VERSES 1-2: HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN ANYTHING?
Did your mum or dad ever climb into the car and say those immortal words to you: “Have your forgotten anything?” and then they held up some essential item that you had left behind. I remember when we were going to Kenya we got to the airport and I asked Janet for my passport and she just looked at me blankly and I then threw a wobbly and she calmly produced the passport and smiled. Do you remember rote learning tables in school? Endlessly repeating something until it had been ingrained on your memory. Like any good teacher Peter repeats once more the basic lessons of his letter so that they have one final chance to learn the essentials. It is like the teacher going over one last time the basics of the lesson before you sit the test. Peter here goes over ground which he had previously covered in 1 verses 16-21. He has a deep affection for the believers but is repelled by the false teaches and his desire is to woo the believers away from the false teachers to a deeper love for God. Peter’s concern is that the believers might understand that right thinking leads to right behaviour and vice versa, a lesson we all need to take heed of this morning. He wants them to be led to ‘wholesome thinking’ because only by thinking right can they live right. It is only by listening to, thinking upon and obeying the Word of God that their minds will think right and they will live right. He wants them to think in such a way that their lives (outward) will bear scrutiny and carry transparent sincerity before society. Their lives should be a stark contrast to that of the false teachers, whose behaviour he has outlined at the end of chapter 2. Their lives reflect their cavalier attitude to basic Christian teaching. Wrong thinking leads to debauched living and he holds the false teachers lives up as an example.
VERSES 3-7 GOD’S POWERFUL WORD.
Peter now addresses one of the key issues before the believers he is writing to, namely the delay in the second coming of Christ. Peter points out that scoffers will come in the last days to pour scorn on the belief that Christ will return. Now the ‘last days’ is not some date in the future. The ‘last days’ is the time between the first coming of Christ and his second coming. The believers Peter is writing to are living in the last days and we here this morning are living in the last days. Look at what Peter says in verse 3 –read. These scoffers justify their indulging of their evil desires by raising questions about those points of belief which condemn them. they sound sophisticated with their questions but in actual fact they are just sinful and seeking to justify their sinful desires.
On the surface their question of verse 4 (read) seems perfectly fair but Peter points out that all it does is prove they are biblically illiterate. In answering their question (verses 5-7) Peter cites two biblical examples and draws a conclusion from them. In verse 5 he points out that God spoke and creation came to be, in verse 6 God spoke and judgment (in the flood) fell upon the earth and therefore if God has in the past by His Word intervened in time and space then we can be assured that He will keep His promise for the return of His Son, Jesus Christ. Peter points out that God is absolutely in control and the fact that God is patient in delaying the return of Christ is not that it will not happen but is an act of mercy on the part of God to allow people to repent and to be saved. God’s patience, says Peter, is to lengthen the days during which a change of heart is possible. And this morning there are some of you and you need to hear that fact. God is patient so that you might have the opportunity to respond to Christ before He comes again and it is too late.
These false teachers argue that everything in creation just keeps going on the same. Peter points out that the same Word which guarantees the world’s stability in which they delight also guarantees the judgment to come which they mock. Because God is patient with the world does not mean that the world is closed to Him, the flood shows how He can intervene in time, history and space.
VERSES 8-10 PROMISED PATIENCE.
To reinforce what he has taught about God’s patience in delaying the second coming Peter quotes Psalm 90 verse 4. In the NT when writers quote the OT we should assume that they want us to understand the whole passage and not just that single verse. If you look at Psalm 90 you realise that there are five things taught concerning God, and I believe those are what Peter wishes for his hearers to understand. Psalm 90 teaches that God is an eternal God, a creating God, a judging God, a saving God and a moral God. Peter wants them to understand that God sees time from a perspective that they, and we, lack and with an intensity that they cannot possibly understand. God can see the broad sweep of history in a moment, yet stretch out a day with patient care. Therefore (v9) the Lord is not slow in keeping His promises but is patient so that all who wish may be saved. Eternal life, says Peter, is open to all. The sad reality this morning is that many, even many in here this morning, choose to perish. Peter then goes on, in verse 10, to speak of the judgment to come and he paints a terrifying picture of destruction. Look at verse 10, a harrowing picture of judgment by fire. Peter says God is patient so that you have the opportunity to respond to the gracious offer of salvation but there will come a day when there will be no more delay. Peter speaks of day that will come as a shock to all. It will be when we least expect it. Christ said two men would be walking together one would be taken and the other left. Jesus warned that if the house owner had known when the thief was coming he would have been prepared. Friends, Peter warned the believers that the return of Christ would come when they least expect it. When it did come it would be a dreadful and dread filled day of judgment. It will be a day when God pours out His wrath upon sin and sinners. It will be a day of salvation for some and perishing for others. Question is which will it be for you?
VERSES 11-16 THEREFORE HOW SHOULD YOU LIVE?
Peter now moves to bring out the practical implications of what he has just written, in the whole letter, not just this chapter. Look at verses 11-13. Peter says the day of Christ’s return will bring destruction so they should seek to live ‘holy and godly lives.’ The whole of their lives are to be lived in the light of that day, not moaning about the slowness of its coming. Let me ask you – ‘Do you mean it when you pray ‘Thy kingdom come…?’ Are you prepared for it coming? Are you living in the light of that day dawning? That is what Peter calls the believer’s to here. Peter says for those who belong to Christ and live in the expectation of His imminent return there is no fear of that day because they have the promise of God of a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness – which is with Christ for eternity. Peter reaffirms (verses 14-16) that they are to live lives that are ‘spotless and blameless and at peace with Him.’ The hope of this new heaven and new earth should drive them on to live as ‘new people’ and not as the ‘old man’ lived. Peter then calls on Paul’s writings to support what he is teaching them here. Scripture is in agreement concerning the lives that believers in Christ should live. Peter points out that those who choose to live other than according to what they teach do so, not because Peter and Paul are wrong, but because they wish to distort the Word of God to justify sinful lives. Friends the temptation for us all is to distort the Word of God so that our sinful life choices are justified. Satan distorted the Word of God in the Garden of Eden to tempt Adam and Eve to sin. There is nothing new in this today. Men still distort the Word of God to justify sin – we only have to look at our Anglican Communion to see that. But bring it closer to home – what about you and me? Look at what Peter says at the end of verse 16 – ‘to their own destruction.’ Friends, there is the warning to us all this morning. You can choose to distort the Word of God this morning in order to live as you choose, to salve a conscious and justify a sinful choice but the end will be your eternal destruction. It is a timely warning and one we should take very seriously. On a personal note let me say to you as your pastor the danger for me is not only will I distort the Word of God for my own life but that I will bow to the pressure which some of you try to exert for me to distort the Word of God to make an exception from Scriptures teaching for you. It is a subtle pressure but it is none-the-less a real pressure. Let me say to you all, the loving thing for me to do is to graciously confront you with your sin and turn you back to the Word of God.
VERSES 17-18 PETER’S CONCLUSION.
Peter hasn’t taught them anything they do not already know. It has been a revision class of basic Christian teaching so that they might be on their guard against the false teachers of their day who distort the Word of God in order to justify immoral lives which in the end will lead to eternal damnation and destruction. Peter concludes this letter by warning them to be on their guard so that they wont be carried away by false teaching and fall from their secure position, which some of them are in danger of doing. I believe this morning God would have me say to you all that same danger resides in each and every one of our hearts this morning and it resides in every church this morning. It is easy to be swayed by false teaching and to drift away from the secure moorings of the Word of God. Friends, remember to whom Peter is writing – believers. Remember where the false teachers are resident – in the church. I have said it to you before and I think it is worth repeating – just because I or Jack say it from the pulpit does not mean it is 100% correct. I don’t believe we have ever taught false doctrine, we patiently study the Word of God and prayerfully seek to interpret it correctly but that is no substitute for you examining it for yourselves. Let me give a bible verse to help you in this – Acts 17 verse 11 read. So be like the Bereans.
Finally let me end with Peter’s words from verse 18 – read. How appropriate. Friends, may we all grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ because to Him alone belongs the glory for ever and ever. Amen.
