Let's pray. Father, once again, we come and we ask humbly that you would give us years to hear you would speak to us. We are here. We are listening. Give us minds to receive in hearts to believe in wills to obey. Teach us something new, remind us of something we've forgotten and set our sights and our heads and our hearts ahead to live in light of your coming again. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Second Peter, chapter 3 verses 1 through 7. Second Peter, chapter 3, I'll be reading verses 1 through 7. This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them, I'm stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the Holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. Knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, where is the promise of his coming? Forever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation, for they deliberately overlook this fact. The heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these, the world that then existed was day-loosed with water and perished, but by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. I probably don't need to tell you that Christmas is almost here. As an adult, that brings great anxiety. Fear, at least it doesn't our household, as an adult, December goes by too quickly. You realize here we are in the evening of December 20th, and you already have so much done, but yet so far to go in preparing meals or Christmas presents, or at least when you have a gaggle of children, there is a lot left to do. When you're a kid, it's all very different. Time moves very slowly, and you wish that you could just make it to December 25. When I was a kid, I could keep myself going for a month once you got on the other side of Thanksgiving, and especially when you turn to December, and at least as I remember it as a kid growing up in Michigan, there was usually snow on the ground and everything seemed to be in place for Christmas to come. I had this little acronym to myself, as I would ride the bus to school, TAC, TAC, think about Christmas. Feel free to use it yourself, kids, and I would think about how many more days until Christmas, and we had multiple Advent calendars to open the door, move the little mouse to the next pocket, and count down the days until Christmas morning. It was as if every waking moment, and sometimes even the sleeping moments, I was thinking about waiting and waiting for, and it seemed like December 25 would never come. Now why? Because I was so eager to celebrate the incarnation as a little boy, I'm sure that was a big part of it, maybe also because I was thinking about Presidents, and I wanted to open Presidents. It really was the most wonderful time of the year to have the stockings in the Presidents, and it was better than a birthday, it was for all of us. It was amazing. The promise of Christmas coming, even when it felt like it would never arrive, shaped everything I did and believed and felt for one month out of the year. Christmas is coming, and I knew that even though time was dragging on, eventually it would be here. I wonder how many of us, myself included, are shaped in any similar way or really shaped at all by the promise of Christ's second coming. Now I know it's a little bit apples to oranges. You have a date when Christmas is coming, and we don't know the date when Christ will come again, but yet everything in this epistle is to remind us that that second coming ought to shape what we think and do and feel. And it was the mistake of the false teachers in Peter's day that they no longer believed in the Lord's coming. And as we've seen time, and again, this is what allowed them to keep on with their immoral lifestyle and to encourage others in this so-called freedom and licentiousness because this coming was not really happening. It is a bit of a sobering question, isn't it for most of us? How much are we really anticipating, shaped by, really believing in the coming of the day of the Lord? A dare to say, we certainly don't look for it like a seven-year-old looks for Christmas. We probably don't look for it like a 20-something-year-old looks to marriage. Someday it's coming, I hope, or like a 65-year-old may look to retirement. More like the way some sports fans think about their team winning a championship. And I told Pastor Derek I was going to use his South Carolina game cocks as an example because he grew up rooting for them instead of Clemson. I have no particular dog in that fight. But it did occur to me in hearing Pastor Derek talk often about his love for South Carolina football that it's a little bit like that. You sort of know, theoretically, they could win the National Championship someday and enter the college football play, but it really doesn't shape your whole belief system of what you expect or what you feel. It's sort of just out there. So insert whatever your team is, unless it is Clemson or Alabama. And it just sort of seems out there. Yeah, it may happen by not really living my days in anticipation. So we know, we believe, we confess as Christians, we recite it in the Apostles' creed that he's coming again to judge the living and the dead, but honestly, doesn't do very much to shape our way in the world. Well, Peter certainly thinks that it should look at what he's about here in these verses. He begins by saying in verse one, this is the second letter that I'm writing to you. Some people think there's a lost letter, but it's most easiest explanation is to think he's referring to first Peter, what we know as first Peter. And this is now his second letter. He's saying, I'm talking about many of the same things, beloved. Notice, he's writing to Christians. He's writing about false teachers. He's not writing to the false teachers. He's writing to his beloved brothers and sisters to warn them of these people. And he says, once again, I am stirring you up by way of reminder. Now, look back at chapter one, he said this already, verse 12, chapter one, I intend always to remind you of these qualities, verse 13. I think it right as long as I'm in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, this is a book not teaching them new things, but reminding them of things. Have you ever thought that perhaps the most important thing you need to learn are the things you've already forgotten? They know this. They've heard this. They need to be reminded. Isn't it why you keep coming back to church? You're here on Sunday night. And you know what? Probably most of you are here most Sunday nights. That's what Sunday night people are like. Of all people, you think, what do we really need to hear? Well, we need to be stirred up by reminders again. At least I trust that you know you do. Otherwise, I feel quite silly again. As I said to some of the elders before and I said, I get tired of hearing my own voice. Imagine what you think hearing my voice all the time. But I trust that you and I need to be reminded of these things. Never tire of speaking to one another, to say, listen, brother, sister, friend, husband, wife, child, I know you already know this, but let me remind you we leak the gospel. We forget the truth. We grow wobbly on scriptures teaching. We need to be reminded that there is no longer no condemnation for those who are in Christ. We need to be reminded that he works all things after the counsel of his will. We need to be reminded of the gospel. We need to be reminded of eternal varieties of heaven and hell. Peter says, you should remember, now verse two, he mentions two things in particular. You should remember the predictions of the Holy prophets. Now we might think with that language that he's speaking about the predictions of the Messiah. That's often what the reference to the predictions of the prophet has in mind. But here it's the predictions of the prophets regarding the end of the world. For example, we read in Isaiah chapter 66 verse 15 and following, for behold, the Lord will come in fire. We're going to see that in just a moment and his chariots like the whirlwind to render his anger and fury, his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire will the Lord enter into judgment. By his sword with all flesh, those slain by the Lord shall be many. Verse 18, for I know there works, their thoughts, the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues and they shall come to see my glory. Verse 22, as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, so shall your offspring and your name remain. All flesh shall come worship before me. He gives to them a picture of salvation and judgment. When you hear the language, Old Testament or New Testament about the day of the Lord, that's what you ought to think. The day of the Lord is when the Lord visits his people for salvation and judgment, salvation for the righteous judgment upon the wicked. And it was predicted there in the prophets. That's just one example from Isaiah 66. Peter says, I want you to remember what you know about the predictions. Second thing he wants them to remember, look at verse 2, the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. Want to remember what you learned from Jesus through the apostles. Now isn't this something striking about the authority of the Bible that these people did not have first-hand acquaintance with Jesus. These are people who are scattered throughout the empire, but he tells him what you learned from the Lord through the apostles. That was as good as learning from the Lord himself as they delivered to you the good deposits, the gospel, and the commands of Jesus. And in particular, the things you learned from the Lord regarding his second coming. He says then in verse 3, do not be surprised. That scoffers will come. It will happen in the last days. Now that phrase right there is often trips up Christians the last days, and there are all sorts of people who want to see the big chart and timeline that stretches across the room of all the intricate details of everything that's going to happen. But the last days is a much simpler, broader concept than that. The last days were ushered in at the coming of Christ and the whole event of his incarnation, resurrection, and the coming of the Holy Spirit. That's why at Pentecost Peter can say that this is the fulfillment of what Joel prophesied about in the last days. So when you hear last days, no there may be last last days, but we are in the scheme of things and in the sweep of redemptive history, former days. Now on the other side of Christ coming, we are in those last days. So Peter says you can expect that there will be scoffers. Second, Peter 3.1, in the last days there will come times of difficulties. Hebrews 1, 2, and these last days God has spoken to us by His Son. So we are in these last days and scripture warns us that there will often come scoffers, mockers, unbelief. Scoffers are a sign that things are proceeding as God has planned. So rather than freaking out to use the technical theological language, when people oppose the truth or don't believe what the Bible says, no, it's not a good thing, but we ought to be reminded. Yes, this is what the Lord said would happen. In fact, this is further evidence that we are in the last days that God has spoken about. This is exactly what the Bible says will happen. See, in life we cannot avoid disappointment, we cannot avoid suffering, but one of the themes in most first and second Peter is that God would have us not be surprised. Now suffering is still suffering, but suffering is made worse when we don't expect it. When we think that we can make it through life, no one will be opposed to us. Everyone will believe what we believe and nothing difficult or painful will happen to us. No betrayal, no disappointment. No, no, no, do not be surprised. This is the way it is in the last days. There are scoffers. Did not Paul warn the Ephesian elders that wolves would come into the flock? Acts chapter 20, Matthew 24 11, Jesus said many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. First on 218, many anti-Christs have come. Anti-Christ plural, that there is a spirit of the anti-Christ. This is how we know we are in those last days. So we can easily get agitated and upset. Well, we look at injustice in the world or we look at people disbelieving in God and his ways and we scream out, that's wrong, that's wrong. Well, that's true, but let us not forget that God knew that there would be wrong. It's not as if his plan is somehow going to fail. This is exactly what God said would happen. Now what? Are they scoffing about? They say, look at verse 4, where is the promise of his coming? That is their scorn. This Jesus, where is he? He hasn't arrived? We can hear the same sort of thing in our own day. Maybe it's not about the cataclysmic second coming, but where is your Jesus? Don't you get sick? Why did you get cancer? Why did your child run away from the faith? Where is this Jesus? What, why do you see suffering in the world? Where is he? Well, here the scoffers, the false teachers are saying, look, there's no Christ. How long have you been waiting? He's not coming back. This is the same sort of thing that many of the false prophets said in the Old Testament. Jeremiah 17, 5, where is the word of the Lord? Let it now be fulfilled. Where does he kill 12? The days go by and every vision comes to nothing. You don't have to be a false teacher to wonder that. If we're honest, you've probably thought that in your heart before, is this Christianity thing for real? Is this really happening? Is this Jesus? Is it possible that this is something we've just heard enough times we've convinced ourselves? Is true? Is he really coming back? Or maybe, maybe other people don't even see it and you're still here at church, you still come to church? Maybe you come because your parents expect you to be here or because your spouse expects you to be here, but something has happened in your heart. You've become a cynic. You don't really believe in prayer anymore. You're not really encouraged by the gospel. You don't really anchor yourself in the promises of the Bible. No, you resonate with these scoffers. Oh, really? Where is his promise? Where is his coming? Can we really count on this Jesus? These false teachers were saying, look, nothing has happened for hundreds of years. Where is the promise of his coming? Verse 4, for ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. They're saying, well, sure, maybe there's Messiah. They're not thinking in particular about those promises. They're thinking about these promises of the end. They're saying, look, we've heard these promises since we were little kids. We don't see anything. Ever since the fathers have fallen asleep, that's likely a reference to the patriarchs or certainly to the great men of the Old Testament. We've heard over and over about this cataclysmic event, but there's nothing.
Minds me of Zephaniah 112, which I remember reading years ago and a verse that I had memorized, but it really struck me and it stuck with me since then as a great example of what cynicism and complacency look like. There's a difference between contentment and complacency. Contentment says, God is in control of my life, and I will trust Him with whatever He does and whatever He's given me. Complacency says, there's really no God to be dealt with, and He's never going to do anything different, either good or bad. And that's exactly what the scoffers say in Zephaniah 112. At that time, I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are complacent, those who say in their hearts, the Lord will not do good, nor will He do ill. That is the definition of spiritual cynicism or spiritual complacency. There's a God, and you know what? It does not matter. It doesn't really matter what you believe. Look at the world. Does it make a difference if you're a Christian? It doesn't really matter. The Lord is not going to do good. He's not going to do ill. He's just a God who is out there ignoring me and everything else. God doesn't care. And so some of us, though we may still come to church, we may still say the right things and sing the right things, can become functional deists, or even functional agnostics. Not really believing that there's a God who's at work in our lives, personally, minutely, not really believing that there's a God with sovereign sway over the universe. Yes, there's a danger in over-interpreting current events. Thinking every earthquake, hurricane, political triumph, political defeat, it's all, we know exactly what God is doing. There's a danger in thinking that we know what every movement means, but there's an opposite danger. And that's thinking that God doesn't intervene in history. And that God doesn't do that sort of thing to move nations or to judge or to bless. Certainly, he won't on some cosmic end of history scale. That's what the scoffers are saying. There will nothing he's going to do. This has been going on for a long time and it just keeps on going. So why are the scoffers wrong? Why are they wrong? Peter gives three reasons. Look at them. Number one, we can be sure of the day of the Lord, and we know that the scoffers are wrong. Number one, because God created the heavens and the earth. And look, this is very smart what Peter does, because what they're saying, verse four, ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. Nothing changes. There's no final direction to history. And what Peter does is he jumps on that last statement of theirs about ever since the beginning of creation. And he says, as it were, okay, let's think about creation for a moment. So verse five, they deliberately overlook this fact that the heavens existed long ago. The earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God. What's he doing? He's reminding them. God created the heavens and the earth. X and E, hello, out of nothing. We've been seeing this on Sunday mornings from Genesis. What he means there, that the earth was formed out of water and through water, sort of watery chaos and separating the waters from the waters and the waters below in the expanse in the sky. That through those he created the heavens and the earth and the dry ground appeared. He did so by his word. He spoke and it was so. Psalm 336, by the word of the Lord with the heavens made their starry host by the breath of his mouth. Hebrews 1, 3 Christ upholds the universe by the word of his power. They say, well, that's interesting, but what is Peter doing? What does this have to do with refuting the claim of the scoffers? Think about it. They say, there's no coming again. There's no cataclysmic judgment. There's nothing to fear. Things keep on going as they ever have been since creation. Peter says, well, think about creation. If that's really true, that God created the heavens and the earth by water through water. By the word, what does that mean? Genesis 1, 1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, points us to several massive worldview shaping realities. If that's the case that God created by his word, it means there is a massive creator, creature distinction. God existed. He never was when he was not outside of time, before time, beyond time, and we were created. There's a vast gulf between the creator and the creature. Also, if creation is true, it means that God not only intervenes in the world, but he, in fact, created the whole world, and if creation is true, it means that nothing is too big for God. Do you see what Peter is doing? You think, he says, that nothing has ever happened since the beginning of creation. Peter says, well, remember, we do believe in a creation. And if there is a creation, there's a God who is immensely above us and beyond us, and he's able to enter into our world and he's able to do more than you could ask or imagine or even fear. So you should not scoff. This God created the heavens and the earth. That's the first rebuttal. Here's the second. And here we're tracking through Genesis again. He said, why are the scoffers wrong? Number one, because God created the heavens and the earth. Number two, because God sent the flood. Verse six, and that by means of these, that is the water and the word, the world that then existed was day loose with water and perished. Peter says, God used the same means and creation that he later used in de-creation, in the punishment with the flood. The world was created through water by the word and then at the word and the appointed time, the waters were unleashed and the world was wiped out. This global flood, the world that then was perished, the slate wiped clean. Now it did not annihilate the planet. We're going to come back to that when we pick up second Peter in the new year and talk about, well, what might this subsequent destruction look like? And we'll see that a little bit coming up in verse seven, because the parallels with the flood. Now the flood did not annihilate the earth, death star style, where it just blew up and there's just light and sparks and everything, just completely annihilated, massive explosion, but it wiped it clean. So there's a difference between the world that then was and the world that now is. And this is going to come into play when we look further on in chapter three and try to understand what does it mean that the world is going to be burnt up and dissolved, verse 10. Well, it's something like the flood. Recreation is not something that we just effortlessly slide into. It will arrive as the flood did after this present creation as we know it is destroyed. And again, later in chapter three, we'll have time to think about, well, in what way is this earth destroyed? The point here in verse six is simply to look to the flood and to make this simple argument. If the flood is true, then judgment is true. One popular at least 10 or so years ago, author, professing Christian author said this about the flood. For me today, the Noah's story in which God wipes out all living things except one boatload of refugees has become profoundly disturbing. He says, I'm not trying to defend the view of God in the Noah's story as morally acceptable, ethically satisfying, and theologically mature. At least he's honest. The argument that Peter's making is quite the opposite. He says, you don't think there's a judgment to come? We'll think about the flood. Didn't that happen? See, Peter's claim here is anchored in history. This happened. It happened in a moment when most people did not expect it and it happened. So the judgment to come will happen. So his first rebuttal of the scoffers is think about creation, God's power. Second argument is the flood. And here's the third argument, verse seven, but by the same word, the heavens and the earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. God pledged in Genesis not that he would never visit the earth again with judgment, but specifically the rainbow in the sky that never again would he judge the people with a flood to wipe out all mankind. So now, Peter says, it's not a flood that's coming, but stored up for fire. I don't know exactly what this will be like. Fire is often used in a metaphorical sense in scripture. So here it may be speaking of something like fire, or it could be quite literally fire, just like the water was literally water makes me think that in some way there is literally fire that will be coming awaiting God's word. You've ever considered that? The world that now exists is stored up for fire. People say, I don't want fire and brimstone preaching. Well, sometimes you have to have it because it's in the verse and this is one of them. The world that now exists, the world all of us inhabit, the only one we have. The Bible says it's stored up for fire, just waiting for the word of God. Not yet? Not yet? Not yet? In some day, whether it's soon or in a hundred or a thousand years, the not yet will be now. Just as I imagine, fire fell on Sodom and Gamora, so fire will fall upon this creation. There is coming a day of judgment and destruction. One of the early Christian writers, Milito of Sardis said this, there was a flood of water, there will be a flood of fire, and the earth will be burned up together with its mountains. We don't know exactly what that entails in what sort of continuity and discontinuity there is between the world we now experience and the new heavens and the new earth. Do you know that the new heavens and the new earth come down? So there is some sense in which the world that we now live in is going to be that eternal heaven. It comes down to New Jerusalem here on earth, but there's also a profound sense of discontinuity that Scripture doesn't tell us everything we want to know, and we finally have to trust God what it will be like, just as the flood wiped off the wicked from the earth. It was still the same earth, but you could rightfully say that the world that then was had been destroyed. So in some parallels sense, there is a fire of judgment that is coming that will wipe clean the earth as we know it. There are reasons that Christians should be engaged in culture, and building, and artistry, and artifacts. There are reasons that we want to preserve the beauty of creation. There are reasons to give thanks for a Bach Cantata or for a beautiful piece of art or a magnificent skyscraper. But I don't believe one of the reasons is because somehow our artifacts are going to make it into the new heavens and the new earth. Now, whatever it is, it will be good. Will there be a Rembrandt there? If there aren't, then there'll be something even better. God will have for us there. There are some who would argue that the reason why we make culture now, the reason that we're engaged in these things now, is you don't make them now, then you won't have them to adorn the new heavens and the new earth. I think we simply see here too much discontinuity between this world and the world to come to think that that is a major reason, although there are many others for our engagement in the world and culture making and all the rest. What we see here is a cataclysmic picture of judgment, all that will be left. The ark is in a parallel. Are those persons who have put their faith in the promise of God? And so the scoffers are wrong. The day of the Lord will come, creation proves it, the flood proves it, the world now stored up for fire proves it. We have a God involved in the universe, a God who has judged the world before, a God who will come again to save his own and to judge the wicked. So I leave you with this very simple question. There's a question I posed to myself. Do you really believe that's going to happen? And in the theory of weight, yes, yes, we believe that's, but do you really believe? We're coming to Christmas. I think for all of those years, all those centuries, millennia, they heard these promises about one to come, the seed of the woman, the child of Abraham, the son of David, the one to sit on the throne, the son of righteousness with healing and its wings, the one from Bethlehem of Africa, all of these passages that they barely understood. There's some Messiah coming. Imagine many of them must have felt, well, yeah, we know that and it's in our scriptures, but we won't really see it, but they did. And some were even alive in that day when the baby was born in Bethlehem. Now not as they thought, not what they expected, but he came. Do you and I believe the same thing about his second coming? Or is it just a category of possibility but never something that we would possibly see
many years ago? Well, not that many years ago. I'm trying to remember how many it was. I guess four, I think. My grandpa died and the last of my grandparents that I had alive, he was 91 and he was a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan. The young's come from Chicago at some point in growing up, my dad decided that he was going to be a White Sox fan instead of a Cubs fan. And so I'm a White Sox fan. And my kids, it's hard to make it stick if you've never lived in Chicago, but the Charlotte Knights are the AAA White Sox team, so it all comes together. My grandpa in those last weeks and months, as he did for much of his life, would take some solace in watching an afternoon Cubs game, especially as he was ill and there wasn't a whole lot else that he was able to do. It gave something for him to look forward to and something for my parents as they took care of him to say, well, here, this afternoon, tonight you can watch the Cubs. I often thought with some sadness, 91 years old, it's a long life, never saw the Cubs win the World Series. But they did. A month or two after he died. He was in heaven and whatever you do to enjoy Cubs World Series, it probably doesn't mean anything when you're there. They finally did. All of those years, who knows if Christ's coming may be finally at the end of your days, or perhaps two months after you're gone, but he probably never thought all those years rooting for the Cubs that he would never see it, and then after not seeing it for so long, he probably assumed it would never come 108 years. They had a little bit of a drought, but it did, and there will come a time. Scripture tells us to be certain of it, when Jesus Christ will return to judge the living and the dead. So how should we then live? The rest of 2 Peter talks about that, but let me just leave you with this as we close here and return to 2 Peter, Lord willing, in the new year. How should we live? Well, think of it this way. What do you think they wish they had known in Noah's day? Because we don't know when it will come. They didn't know when the flood was coming. What do you think they wish they had known in Noah's day? Don't mock those building boats. That is to say don't be a scoffer for those who are looking for a deliverance. Maybe they wish they knew today may not be what really matters. Maybe we shouldn't live for the moment. Maybe they wish they had known that sometimes one man is sane in the whole world is crazy. Maybe they wish they had known trust in obey, trust in obey. Do what God says. Maybe they wish they had known. Prepare now for the life that will come on the other side of judgment. Because when the judgment comes, it will be too late. I imagine there were dozens of things, hundreds of scores that they wish they had known. What would you want to know as we live our days anticipating not a flood of water but it will come a flood of fire. Those who are wise, those who believe in the promises of God will not scoff at this coming but will live their every day in light of it. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we wait. One of the hardest things to do is wait. We wait for your coming again. We pray that we may be those building boats of deliverance. We may be those who know that it is the future that matters even more than the presence. That we would be those who are willing to stand against the whole world gone mad when your word keeps us sane. Oh Lord, help us to trust and obey. And as we celebrate, you're coming the first advent. Give us faith and hope to believe in the second. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.