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2nd
Peter 3:1-18 “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 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 us-ward, 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. Seeing then that all these
things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all
holy conversation [conduct, lifestyle] and godliness, looking for the hasting
unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be
dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise,
look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for
such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot,
and blameless. And account that the
longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul
also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; as also in
all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some
things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest,
as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these
things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the
wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.
But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ. To him be glory
both now and for ever. Amen.”
"2nd Peter chapter 3 he’s
going to talk to the beloved talking to us four times in the chapter. You’ll see there in verse 1 of 2nd
Peter 3 it says “beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir
up your pure minds by way of remembrance:
that you would be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the
holy prophets and the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:”
(verses 1-2) so first of all he says "beloved...I want you to be
mindful." In verse 8 he says
“beloved be not ignorant of this one thing”
In verse 14 he says “beloved...be diligent” he
challenges the believer to be diligent in regards to these things and in verse
17 he says “beloved...beware” ‘I want you to beware of certain
things.’ So there’s an
interesting flow in the chapter here as we jump into it. The 2nd
Coming Of Jesus Christ The Broadest Subject In The New Testament: Why? “This second epistle, beloved, I now
write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of
remembrance:” now we have the mind of Christ, it’s your other mind that gives
you problems but you have a pure mind [in Christ]. We have the mind of Christ it’s kind of
unmixed “to 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:” (verses 1-2) “of” in King James should be “from
the Lord and Saviour:” The idea is
the words that the prophets spoke the words the apostles spoke they were from
the Lord the Saviour, he’s affirming the deity of Christ there and challenging
the Church to be mindful of the things that were spoken by the prophets and by
the apostles in regards to the last days, that we should be mindful of those
things. We can know them and become so
familiar with them that they no longer have the impact that they’re supposed to
have on our lives. 'Oh we’re studying
this again oh we’re talking about the Rapture again [1st
resurrection to immortality for the rest of us folks] oh we’re talking...’ Peter says ‘These things are supposed
to have an impact on our lives that’s the purpose of them’ and he says ‘he
is seeking to stir up our minds and putting us in remembrance of certain things
that our minds would be full of those things, mindful that we’d be thinking of
them on a regular basis the words the Old Testament prophets, the commandment
of the apostles, which was always watch, be sober, be vigilant,
be ready that we would live godly in light of these things.’ And he says this is from the Lord. There are over 300 references to the 2nd
coming of Christ in the New Testament [see http://www.unityinchrist.com/prophecies/2ndcoming.htm]. There’s seven specific places that talk about
the new birth. Ah there’s a number of
places that talk about repentance and faith, I forget how many twenty
twenty-five specifically. You know there’s
about 70 to 80 places that speak of baptisms that’s of the Spirit, water
baptism as a subject. There are over 300
separate references about the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ. It is by far the broadest subject in the New
Testament. And why would that be? He says these things are from the Lord, why
would that be, why would it be the broadest subject in the New Testament? You know I put myself in the Lord’s sandals
in a sense you know. I’m going to Iraq
you know just making this up. And I know
that while I’m gone America’s going to get hit with a nuke. I know while I’m gone terrorists are going to
set loose anthrax or something terrible, I know there’s going to be trouble
here while I’m gone. But I know that I’m
going to come back and when I get back everything’s going to be ok with my wife
and my kids. What do I write to them
about more than anything else? Knowing
the Lord loves his Bride more than I love mine, the Lord loves his children
more than I love mine, that’s incredible to me, if that’s true I want to grow
in that. Because I love my wife and my
kids so much. But the reason it’s the
broadest topic in the New Testament is throughout Christ is saying ‘I’m
coming you’re in a foreign world right now, you’re a pilgrim, you’re in a
hostile environment. In this world you
have tribulation, if this world hated me it’s going to hate you also, but I’m
coming I’m coming’ he’s talking to his Bride ‘I’m coming and when
I come everything’s going to be ok. When
I get there I am going to make it all right. When I get there I am putting everything in
order. When I get there everything
dangerous and destructive is going to be put in its proper place’ [read Isaiah
11:1-13; Ezekiel 36:1-38; Ezekiel 37:15-28 just for starters]. ‘When I get there, when I get there I’m
coming, I’m coming.’ [read 1st Corinthians 15:49-56]. And for that reason it is by far the broadest
subject in the New Testament, the coming of Christ. First Scoffers,
Mockers Will Come Mocking You About Your Belief In The 2nd Coming Of
Christ He says ‘These things are from
the Lord’ “knowing this first” preeminently not first in an order of
things but this just should be preeminent “knowing this first that there
shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts” (verse 3)
scoffers, mockers, people that will make fun of the 2nd coming “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.” (verses 3-4)
You know ‘Where is his coming you talk about all the time where is
it?’ in the last days mockers will come and it says the reason they’re
going to have that attitude is because they’re walking after their own
lusts. What they’re after is something
carnal and sensual and temporary and pleasing in this world, and they’re
willing to sacrifice what they know is true, or make fun of what they hope is
not true for the sake of their own carnal ways ‘This is what we want, this
feels good, I want to do this now. Don’t
tell me about the Bible, don’t tell me about Jesus, don’t tell me he’s coming
because I like my sin, I like the way it feels.’ Sin feels good. If sin felt bad the Bible wouldn’t have to
warn us about it. There’s nowhere in the
Bible that says ‘Don’t hit yourself in the forehead with a ballpeen hammer,’
it just doesn’t say that. Because
you ain’t gonna do that because that hurts.
There’s nowhere in the Bible that says ‘don’t chew up carpet tacks.’ It says ‘Moses esteemed the
reproach of Christ greater than the riches of Egypt, determining that he’d
rather suffer that reproach than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.’
(Hebrews 11:24-27) The Bible is
very clear that sin is pleasurable. And
it says in the last days there are going to be those you know, what they want
to do is they want to continue in their sin and ‘they do not want to hear
the moral standards, the ethical standards, what the Scripture has to say about
what’s right and wrong and the fact that Christ is coming one day and he’s
going to bring everybody into account.’ They
don’t want to hear it. He says because
they’re walking after their own lusts.
They don’t have a Biblical reason.
They don’t have a scientific reason.
You know people who want to embrace evolution, people who want to deny
that Noah’s flood ever happened, it says here they don’t have scientific
reasons, they don’t have Biblical reasons, what they have is carnal reasoning
that drives them. “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.” (verses 3b-4) You
know they’re talking about the Church fathers, these are the last days, I guess
Peter says these will be the last days [when people start saying this I
guess]. ‘Ya ya God created the world,
nothing ever changes.’ And it says
these mockers are going to come. Now you
know what I like about these mockers?
The fact that these mockers come proves that the Word that said they
would come is true. So I’m glad they’re
here mocking because they’re just re-affirming how true the Bible is. And when they give you a hard time say ‘You
know I appreciate your mockery so much because you’re just another evidence
that what the Bible says is the exact truth, thank you very much!’ ‘Where is the promise of his coming? Nothing’s ever changed.’ People Are Willingly
Ignorant About The Evidence Of Creation And A Worldwide Flood “For this they willingly are ignorant
of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out
of water and in water: whereby the world
that then was, being overflowed with water perished:” (verses 5-6) “willingly” means their will is
involved, they’ve decided they are willingly ignorant, that all this was by the
word of God that the heavens were created in the first place and the earth. And
there is just more and more and more and more evidence [order and watch "The
Genesis Code."]. I don’t know
if you saw I think it was a US News & World Report one of the latest
articles talked about Steven Myers it was in "World Magazine"
too whose a Ph.D. he’s a brilliant scientist and he wrote a paper on Intelligent
Design. And his premise was
evolution cannot have happened. Now what
we understand now about the digital code in the DNA it is an impossibility a
fish could never grow to be a lizard and a lizard could never grow to be a dog
and a dog could never grow to be a horse and a horse could never grow to be a
monkey and a monkey could never grow to be a human because there’s a digital
code they are what they are and its impossible.
[Also order and read “Darwin’s Black Box” by the Ph.D. level
micro-biologist and geneticist Michael Behe.
You’ll be able to read about a third of the way into this 1.5 inch thick
book before you get lost in the science (as a layman) but he proves his point
of the master-design and intricacy within living cells right down to the
protein and atomic structure level.] And
one of the editors for Smithsonian in their publication read it and was so
impressed with it and he has three PhDs that he printed it in their periodical
and then the heads of the Smithsonian Institute took so much heat that they
fired this guy who was their editor with three earned Ph.D.s because he printed
Steven Myers thesis whose also a Ph.D. and a brilliant guy. But it caused such a firestorm that people
from all over the world are reading Steven Myers website now and downloading
his whole paper and it’s going everywhere now.
But they’re willingly ignorant they’re willingly ignorant of that. What they said to Steven Myers is "Intelligent
Design" you can’t say that because that insinuates a designer. Duh!
[laughter] This whole premise is
this has to be designed this cannot have happened. They don’t want to hear that. They’re willingly ignorant of this and it
then says “whereby” by the means of water “the world that then was
being overflowed with water perished:” (verse 6) And there’s evidence that the whole earth at
one point was destroyed by a flood. In
fact there are over 270 records that anthropologists and the archeologists have
turned up from around the entire world from different cultures and different
eras and different ages, over 270 records of a worldwide flood. In the Epic of Gilgamesh which goes back to
the Sumerian Tablets it says there that God destroyed the world with a flood
and then when the rain was finished that the guy whoever he names was on the
boat sent forth a dove to see if he found dry land and he tells the whole story
exactly the way the Bible tells it all the way back to ancient Babylon before
Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon. And then it
tells us that in those days the earth was divided in the days of Peleg, the
continental drift. So this story is in
the Incas, in the Aztecs, it’s in the Chinese dynasties, it’s all around the
world that at one point the entire earth was destroyed in a deluge by a
flood. The whole world knows about
it. These people don’t know because they
want to be ignorant. We know and if we
know it seems like everybody should know.
[laughter] The world was
overflowed, it was destroyed with water, it perished. God Says ‘Next Time I
Will Destroy The Earth With Fire’ “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.” (verse 7) So at the end of the flood God puts the
rainbow in the clouds and says next time if I destroy the world it is not going
to be by water it’s going to be with fire.
Peter here says the world now is reserved by the same Word of God that
created the Word of God in the beginning, the same Word of God that brought
judgment on the world that God created, the same Word that was spoken to us by
the prophets and by the apostles that we should take heed to by that Word this
world presently is reserved unto fire.
It will be cleansed and purged by fire ah against the judgment and
against the perdition of ungodly men.
Now first thing ‘Beloved I want your minds to be stirred, I want
you to understand, I want you to keep certain things in mind because mockers
are gonna come and they’re going to try to dissuade you from your faith they’re
going to make fun of what you believe particularly in the last days’ (verses
1-4) You know there’s an
increase in technology, there’s an increase in learning, an increase in
math. People are just as sinful, they
just have more [and better] stuff to destroy us with. The human condition hasn’t changed. But you have the collective years of
technology and discovery and so forth [going back to the 1700s and really
taking off in the 1800s and 1900s to the point now where technology has raced
ahead to the point where man can now erase all life off this planet 40 times
over with just the US and Russian nuclear arsenals. Once is quite enough.] And that’s increasing on a parabola. So know this that you’re going to take heat
in the last days if you believe something so simplistic as “God created
the world, he’s already cleansed it once, and he’s gonna cleanse it again”
people are going to make fun of you.
When they make fun of you, you say ‘Thank you I was expecting you
because the Bible told me you would come.’
How God Uses Time So that’s the first “beloved.”
(covered in verses 1-4). Second “beloved”
“But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with
the Lord as a thousand years, and thousand years as one day.” (verse 8) Now there’s this one point Peter says ‘I
don’t want you to be confused on this issue, and this is it, that
one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.’ [Comment: This principle was proven to be a law of
physics by Albert Einstein. Order and
watch The Genesis Code. This
verse backs up all the laws of Relativity that the speed of time is not a
constant in the universe or with God, Space-Time is variable. Isn’t it amazing how the Bible
"scoops" science every time?]
Important for us to know that because “The Lord is not slack
concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to
us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to
repentance.” (verse 9) OK here’s the
next thing you need to know and he’s saying 'I don’t want you to be
ignorant of this, because it hasn’t happened doesn’t mean that its not going to
happen because a day is with the Lord as a thousand [or 8-billion years] and a
thousand years is with the Lord as a day, he’s outside of time [right! Space-Time, Albert Einstein!].’ He’s not subject to the same rules. You know people are saying 'Oh yea what’s
taking him so long?’ He’s right on
time nothing’s taking him long. A
thousand years is with the Lord as a day.
You may say ‘This has taken so long, why is he taking so much time?’ Well it’s just like a day to him. Of course on the other hand a day it says is
like a thousand years. He can accomplish
in one day what you would think would take a thousand years to accomplish. He can also do that. He’s not bound by time. Now we have a very interesting prophecy in
Hosea, ah you don’t have to turn there I’ll read it to you, Hosea
the last verse in chapter 5 and the first two verses in chapter 6
the Lord says, ‘I will go and then return to my place.’ Now that’s speaking of his first coming. ‘I will go’ he came died on the
cross [ascended back to heaven] ‘and I will return to my place until they
acknowledge their offense and seek my face and in their affliction they shall
seek me early.’ Jesus said that
to the Jews ‘Henceforth you shall see me no more until you say Blessed is
he that comes in the name of the Lord,’ so that Lord says ‘I will
go then, I’m going to return to my place,’ he says ‘until they
acknowledge their offense and seek my face.’
‘Come let us return, they’re going to say this ‘Come let us
return unto the Lord for he hath torn and he will heal us. He has smitten, he will bind us up, after
two days will he revive us, and in the third day he will raise us up and we
will live in his sight.’ After
two days the context is Titus Vespasian when Jesus comes the first time a day
is with the Lord as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day, after two
thousand years, he’s going to return again, that’s where we are now. I don’t know what exact day it’s the mark,
but that’s where we are. [And add
another thousand years going through the 1000 year Millennial Kingdom of God
period (cf. Revelation 20:4-6) and this brings you to the 2nd
resurrection when all of Israel (and mankind for that matter) who have sinned ‘been
born and died’ are resurrected back to life which is prophecied in Ezekiel
37:1-14, the great general resurrection the Jews always looked forward to. There have been various interpretations about
this resurrection but this seems to fit this prophecy to a T as far as the
passage of three ‘Lord days’ or three thousand years from his 1st
coming. For some of those other
interpretations see http://www.unityinchrist.com/plaintruth/battle.htm] Two days have gone by since the first time he
came and returned. And he says ‘in
the third day’ which will be the 7th Millennium Sabbath,
the one-thousand year reign of Christ, in the six thousand year history of
mankind the seventh day is a day of rest the 7th thousandth years
ready to begin soon, it says here ‘in the third day he’s going to raise
us up.’ ‘A day with the
Lord is as a thousand years a thousand years is as a day’ he says
here. And “The Lord is not slack
concerning his promise, as some count slackness; but is longsuffering to
us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to
repentance." (verse 9) [Comment: That great general resurrection back to
physical life spoken of in Ezekiel 37:1-14 seems to fit this verse here coupled
to Hosea 5 last verse and Hosea 6:1-2.
Amazing but this is a veiled reference to that period of time where God
sets his hand to saving the entire world, all those who have lived and died
without a chance for salvation. This
theme is just jumping out of these sets of verses here. I find that amazing although most don’t
believe this interpretation yet and some fight against it trying to limit God’s
grace.] Ezekiel tells us that God takes
no pleasure in the death of the wicked.
Why is he waiting? Sometimes as
Christians we think ‘Lord get us out of here!’ You know it’s bad enough
that there’s cancer, there’s suffering, there’s difficulty ‘Lord Jesus come
quickly! And on top of that now
we’ve got these mockers making fun of us because we’re saying ‘Lord Jesus come
quickly.’ And Peter says ‘I
don’t want you to be discouraged, disillusioned, I don’t want you to count
slackness the way other men count slackness, that’s not what’s going on
here. But he’s longsuffering because he
doesn’t want anybody to perish, but he wants all men to come to repentance.’ I got saved in 1972 I am glad that Jesus
Christ didn’t come in 1971. But I wish
he would come back now, I wish he would come, I’m so selfish now that I’m in,
its ok if he comes. You know what I
mean? ‘There’s a couple billion
people that aren’t saved on the planet, I know that, but I’m in so get us outa
here, let’s get the program moving!’
It’s interesting how we are, isn’t it?
Peter says ‘I don’t want you to be discouraged, he’s not tarrying,
he’s not not fulfilling his word, he hasn’t made a promise that he’s not
keeping, but he’s longsuffering. And the
reason he’s longsuffering is because he doesn’t want anyone to perish, he wants
all men to come to repentance’ and it’s the only time in either one of
Peter’s letters that he uses the word “repentance.” Very interesting it’s his only usage of the
word metanoia, to change the mind.
And what he’s saying here is the lifestyle should change. Remember John the Baptist when he was
preaching repentance he said ‘Bring forth fruit worthy of repentance, don’t
just say ‘I believe in God, oh yea I’m a Christian.’ No, no, no, there should be a change in your
life, there should be a change in our lives if we’ve come to Christ. When we’re born again (cf. John 3) and Christ
comes into our heart then the power is there then to break the power of sin in
our lives (Romans 8:1-9). And yes we
grow as time goes by and we change. But
there should be a definite recognizable change when we come to Christ if
repentance is real, if we are really turning from the world then we’re turning
to the Saviour. If we’re really changing
our mind we’re turning away from something and we’re turning to him. And he says here ‘God is longsuffering
for this reason, because he wants all men to do that.’ He’s using time to serve grace, his
purposes of grace. God is using time to
serve his purposes of grace. And God
measures time morally not by the clock, not by the calendar, he measures time
morally not by length but morally. And
he says they say ‘When Lord?’ and he says It’s like when you see
the vultures gathering when a carcass becomes so rotten and so putrefied that
the carrion are drawn to it,’ he says ‘that is when, when things
get to the point where it gets so rotten that’s when judgment will come.’ And I don’t know how far from rotten we
are. I think were at least at “rot”
[laughter] and I think we might even be at “rott” I don’t know if were to “ten”
yet, but we’re pretty close, we’re pretty close. But God is measuring time morally. ‘The Day Of The
Lord---What Is It?’ He says “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 therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these
things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be
in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the
coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be
dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?” (verses10-12) Notice plural “heavens.” Doesn’t sound like a good day. That day is coming he says. Now he calls it “the Day of the Lord.” The day of the Lord begins at the Rapture [1st
resurrection to immortality] of the Church.
The Day of the Lord begins when God supernaturally imposes his will into
human history taking the steering wheel of everything to himself again. It [the Day of the Lord] goes through the
Tribulation (World War III) it goes through the Millennium to the Great White
throne, that’s the Day of the Lord. It’s
the Day of the Lord because it becomes his day, because he intervenes and he
steps in and takes things under his sovereign control in a way that has not
manifested itself for thousands of years.
But the Day of the Lord is coming.
Christ is going to come like a thief in the night. Were told that. And if you don’t think he’s coming tonight it
might be when he comes. If you weren’t
expecting him to come while we were here studying the Bible for an hour this
might be the hour. It says it will be an
hour that you think not. We know it will
be at 2 o’clock in the morning when the Rapture happens, somewhere. [laughter]
“The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night;” and in
the context of that “day of the Lord” he’s saying “the heavens” plural
“shall pass away with a great noise” study that word “noise,” in the
Greek it means to be crackling and sizzling.
It’s a bad noise. “and the
elements shall melt with fervent heat” now we have the same word
used three times here, you have the word “melt” in verse 10, you have
the word “dissolved” in verse 11 and you have the word “dissolved”
down in verse 12, all them are “to loosen” the same word. Because God is going to “loosen” the
elements. [Comment: When?
In Revelation 20:14-15 which everyone understands as Gehenna
hellfire. In Revelation 20:1 the very
next verse in Revelation God is creating a new earth and new heavens. So obviously verses 14-15 of Revelation 20
and verse 1 of Revelation 21 are part of the same event where all the elements
within the whole universe are “loosened.”
Now what does that mean? Pastor
Joe will explain.] Very interesting
idea. Because the whole idea of fission,
the whole idea of what human beings in their technological advances have done
is they’ve figured out how to split the atom.
They know how to split it, they don’t know what holds it together. [Physicists call that force that holds the
protons together in the nucleus a mysterious particle force they have named “gluons.”] Atomic structure is a mystery because in the
center of the atom you have a group of protons clumped together. And the law of repelling positive charges
says they should fly apart. The other
reason they should fly apart is because electrons that have a negative charge
are revolving around them and that should pull the core of the atom apart. And scientists have theories but have no idea
what holds the atom together. Now we
know from Colossians 1:17 it says ‘Christ is the Creator,
that all things were made by him, and all things consist by him.’
and the Greek word is “cohere, to hold together” that the whole
universe is held together through Christ.
We know what holds the atom together, Jesus does. A very profound idea because that means he
held the knuckles together when they beat his face. He held the thorns together when they went
through his brow. He held the nails
together when they went through his hands and his feet. And he assumed responsibility for a fallen
creation upon himself so that we could be forgiven. But when they [scientists] split that atom
you see the power that’s released. The
power to hold it together is greater than the power you see when it’s
released. It takes the greater power to
make the universe hold together. You
know when they did that Oppenheimer and those guys in the Manhattan Project,
when they were ready to set that first atomic bomb off, you know what they did
the night before they set it off? They
sat around and talked because they didn’t know if the fission process would
continue and incinerate the entire atmosphere of the earth. So the night before they detonated it they
sat around and figured 'Well we’re hoping that it disperses as it detonates
and that it stops.’ [Talk about mad
scientists not sure of what they’re doing.]
But if it starts splitting every atom they didn’t know if that was going
to happen, they figured it will take this long to get to New York, they figured
it out it’ll take this long to get to London, it will take this long to get to
Beijing, it’ll take this long to burn up the atmosphere and get to the other
side of the planet ‘and we’ll all be crispy critters, we’ll all be
toast. But let’s set it off tomorrow and
see what happens.’ They set it off
anyway! Then when they tested the
hydrogen bomb on the Bikini Islands they said it was equivalent to a hundred
million tons of TNT. And when the
President asked the military ‘What are we talking about here?’ And he said ‘Mr. President,’ one of
the generals said ‘Just think of it this way, all of the munitions in World
War II owned by every side, America, Great Britain, Japan, the Italians, the
French, the Germans, the Russians, the complete store of munitions on every
side was equivalent to about 3 million tons of TNT and this weapon will be 100
million tons we surmise.’ And they
set that one off too. [mankind is
nuts.] Now I don’t think this is talking
about a nuclear war here [looking at the Greek for the words “melt” and “dissolve,”
the elements being “loosened” in verses 10-12]. OK?
This is a button that God pushes when he’s ready. And it says he’s simply going to “loosen” the
whole universe, the heavens. Your
space-brothers are not coming to rescue you.
ok? Your UFO buddies are not
coming to bail you out of here. Because
when he does this the heavens themselves “dissolve” “the heavens of heavens”
plural it says, and the earth. Imagine a
nuclear bomb as big as the universe, that’s some sizzling and crackling. [Actually hell, Gehenna fire will consist of
a nuclear detonation 20 billion light-years across and it won’t be slow or
gradual in that sense. And then it looks
like the BIG BANG occurs all over again with a recreated universe and recreated
earth (cf. Revelation 21:1), where the New Jerusalem comes down to rest on this
new earth forever (cf. Revelation 21:1-23).]
He’s going to let the whole thing go.
He’s holding it all together right now.
That’s what it says. Peter says
the day is coming when he’s going to do that.
Revelation chapter 20 tells us about that, it says “I saw a great
white throne and him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heavens
fled away, there was found no place for them.” so there’s this big
crackling, the heavens and the earth dissolve, they’re gone (in verses 14-15 of
Revelation 20) and all there is, is the great white throne and then all of the
dead of every age that are damned that will be condemned are gathered there
before the great white throne and they’re thrown into outer darkness it says ‘whosoever
were not found written in the book of the life of the Lamb was cast in the lake
of fire,’ and then John says ‘And I saw a new heaven and a new
earth, for the first heaven and the first earth they were passed away,’
and he says ‘there was no more sea either.’ (Revelation 21:1) [Calvary Chapels and some other Christian
groups believe all the “unsaved dead,” those who had not accepted Jesus Christ
in their normal physical lifetimes, are all cast into this lake of fire. The Sabbath-keeping Churches of God have a
different interpretation about the “unsaved dead” which can be found at http://www.unityinchrist.com/plaintruth/battle.htm. All prophecy including these about the “unsaved
dead” are secondary compared to the Gospel of Salvation, and this merely makes
them differing interpretations which do not affect the salvation of the
believer. Some like to pound the pulpit
and say any other beliefs other than their own are damnable heresies, which is
not so. Paul said with prophecy we’re
all looking through that darkened glass and thus don’t quite know how to
interpret what we’re looking at. So read it and if you think this interpretation
warrants believing in so be it. We’ll
all find out at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb anyway.] The heavens and the earth are going to
dissolve [in this nuclear detonation], because some people have the Lord coming
back and renovating things [which he will do for the period of time during the
Millennial rule of Jesus Christ, which Calvary Chapels believe also, it’s just
that Peter is lumping a lot of prophecies all together here, he didn’t have
much time left to write or dictate this to Luke, before he was killed. But this “dissolve, loosen” event occurs a
short while after that 1000 Millennial year period] like this is a
fixer-upper. He’ll reign for a thousand
years in his Kingdom [which will be on earth] but there’s something much more
profound than that, that ultimately takes place. Isaiah says it this way ‘For behold I
create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered nor
come to mind. Behold I create, bara
is the Hebrew word “to create something from nothing.” God’s going to start all over, he’s going to
let this thing that’s been corrupted by sin, he’s just going to let it go and
it’s just going to blow up, it’s going to be gone, and he's going to start over
again. Now you and I are not going to
blow up because we’ll have spiritual [spirit] bodies by then. But what that means is you and I are going to
hear our Father say “Let there be light” just like in the Book of
Genesis [i.e. we’ll be able to witness the BIG BANG of creation all over again
and for those of you who love physics this one will blow your mind. To get a good idea of what watching that
event might be like but not necessarily following the exact same creation
pattern as before, order and watch the excellent movie “The Genesis Code”
off of http://www.amazon.com]. ‘Let the dry land appear’ were
going to get to watch him go through creation and watch the new heavens and the
new earth come into existence. I don’t
know, I don’t like anybody telling me I’m a doomsday guy, that’s like the most
positive thing I can ever imagine. I’m
the ultimate optimist, I’m way beyond doomsday, I’m already into the new
heavens and the new earth. I’m not a
doomsday guy, I just want to get that over with so we can get the program on
the road. Do We Have Anything
To Do With When This Judgment Will Come? It’s 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. Seeing
then” now he uses this idea of seeing three times here in the chapter “Seeing
then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of
persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens
being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat?" (verses 10-12)
i.e. do you really believe Christ is coming? I hear people say 'Oh I believe Jesus is
coming, I love to read prophecy books’ it’s (prophecy) not for speculation,
it’s for motivation. I hear people say
they know Christ is coming, they’re living in sexual sin, they’re watching
pornography, they’re ruining their family with alcohol or down in Atlantic City
gambling the family money away ‘Oh yea I believe Jesus is coming,’ like
they’re going to be fine if Jesus comes while they’re doing that. I don’t know about you guys I got saved in
1972 and by 73 I was backslid for a little while and if I were to get stoned
then, and I did then, I was like ‘oh man I’m going to try to read my Bible, oh
Lord don’t come now don’t come now, wait till I’m straight, please don’t come
now Lord oh Lord don’t come now!’ I
wasn’t saying ‘OK here we go, let’s get the show on the road! I know I’m stoned but you can come tonight if
you want to.’ If you believe that he’s
coming if you believe that this is true, John says that ‘any man that has
this hope purifies himself even as he ["he" Jesus] is pure.’ It is the purifying hope of the
Church. Repentance Peter says is
attached to it. “Seeing then that
all these things are going to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought
ye to be in all holy conversation [lifestyle, conduct] and godliness,”
(verse 11) and it’s interesting that Greek word there for “manner” is “foreign”
“what foreign from another country kind of people ought ye to be” and
here’s why you’re foreign “in all holiness of conversation” that’s “lifestyle”
“conversation” “and godliness...”
You should be godly people, people that don’t look like the rest of this
world, you should look like a foreigner.
If you believe this ball of dirt is going to be incinerated and the
heavens themselves are going to be consumed and burn up then Peter says the way
you should be living here is like a foreigner, like an ambassador, like a
pilgrim, you’re here but you’re not from here, that it should effect our
lives. “looking for and hasting unto
the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be
dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?” “Looking for” that’s ‘expectantly,
eagerly’ “looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God,
wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall
melt with fervent heat?" (verse 12) He’s saying that we should live as
foreigners and we should live with an eager expectant looking for the coming of
Christ. It tells us in Romans 8:19
‘that even the creation itself with expectation is waiting for the
manifestation of the sons of God.’
And the Greek word means to have your neck outstretched looking around
the corner waiting for something. It
says the very creation itself was subject to vanity and it is in expectancy
that Christ would come. How then should
we live? It says we should live in a
holy lifestyle, separate, holy means separate.
If you’re a gas station attendant be a holy gas station attendant. If you’re a carpenter be a holy
carpenter. If you’re a cow be a holy
cow. [laughter] Just you know it means you belong to him, you
don’t belong to this world, and in godliness just be living the right way. Now here’s an interesting grammatical problem
in the Greek. I know that’s why you came
tonight to hear an interesting grammatical problem. “looking for” that’s
our attitude ‘expectantly looking for’ and then it says “and hasting unto the coming of the day
of God” Greek scholars are divided right down the middle and qualified
Greek scholars ask is it saying that ‘looking for and eagerly waiting for
the day of Christ’? or ‘Through
our godly lifestyle were looking for and we are hastening the day that Christ
returns’? So there’s this big
question. Do we have an effect when we
pray “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done”? There’s a point in time when the fullness of
the Gentiles are gathered in. I hope
every time we have an altar call here that the last one is here. Do we through prayer and evangelism effect
the world we live in? Do we have
anything to do with when this judgment comes?
Do we hasten it? You can
have two schools of thought here, one of them is going to say you have an error
on one side that says 'God is so sovereign (and he is) and God has
everything under control, there’s no sense evangelizing, there’s no sense doing
anything because whoever is going to be saved is going to be saved and
everything that’s going to happen is going to happen, so there’s no sense doing
anything.’ And that’s stupid. [Comment:
Now even if God never called another human being before the tribulation
that argument is wrong because the Book of Revelation shows multiple millions
of people will come to conversion and salvation through Christ during the
tribulation due to our very witness now and before the tribulation. Our impact though it might seem small now
will be multiplied millions of times over when these folk see what we’ve been
preaching and evangelizing to them has come to pass. People and our friends in the world may not
seem like they hear our message but they do even though they ignore it for the
present. Our evangelistic efforts will
not be wasted in the end. So Pastor Joe
I agree with you that’s stupid.] ‘Go
into all the world and preach the gospel’ were told to do these
things. The other side is people take
themselves so seriously that they think God can’t do anything without them,
Gods’ little helpers. [Oh don’t you love
people like that? Jesus said he could
raise up stones to preach the gospel if need be.] So people err on both sides of this
verse. I think you know as I read
through this if I sit alone with this, and I say ‘Father speak to my heart
as I read this,’ he just encourages me to be everything that he wants me to
be, that I would be yielded. And who
knows if we’re completely yielded and were brokenhearted in prayer maybe that
will push back when he comes because maybe we’ll see great revival in this
nation. [We will, Pastor Joe. see: https://unityinchrist.com/prophets/Zephaniah/REVIVAL.html] Or the other side is if we see a great
revival and the Church is what the Church is supposed to be, and people get
saved faster maybe it’ll hasten the day that he comes. In Nineveh, and Jonah was bummed because he
wanted God to kill them all, he ran in the other direction, the whale swallowed
him the whole story, he comes back and he goes into Nineveh and here’s his
message ‘Forty days and you guys are smoke.’ That’s all he said. ‘In forty days judgment comes,’
and he left and the whole city repented and judgment was set back. [Now judgment did come, Babylon came many
generations later and did smoke the entire city to the point that it charred
the very stones it was made of.] And
Jonah sat outside the city bummed out. ‘I
knew it, that’s why I didn’t want to come here, I knew you were gracious, I
know you’re merciful, and I knew if they heard about it and responded that you’d
be nice to them.’ What kind of
prophet messenger is that to the culture?
[he’s laughing] [But Nineveh was
the capital city of Assyria the arch enemy of Israel. That is why Jonah didn’t want to warn
them.] He sat out there hoping that God
would smoke them anyway. But did he have
an effect on the judgment of Nineveh? So
it’s an interesting challenge for us in this verse. You can stand on whatever side of it you want,
that’s fine with me, I’m going to try to stand in the middle. I heard Warren Wiersby at a Calvary Chapel
pastors conference and somebody asked Wiersby and they said “Are you a
Calvinist or are you an Armeniest?”
And he said “Im neither” he said “I’m no man’s disciple,”
and he said “and I don’t want any man to be my disciple.” He said “If you’re too much of a
Calvinist you rob man of his responsibility.
If you’re too much of an Armeniest you rob God of his glory and his
sovereignty.” He said “I’m not
interested in robbing anybody.” And
he said, he said this to us “Besides that you men are pastors” he said “You’re
called to feed sheep not Giraffes.” You
can think about that. In other
words the food is supposed to be down here where you can get it, it’s not
supposed to be way up there where nobody understands it. So it was a great answer. He said “Charles Haddon Spurgeon was the
most balanced Calvinist that ever lived, he was a five point Calvinist and
challenged people to get saved every week in his church.” I’m off the subject but. “looking for and hasting unto the coming
of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and
the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a
new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” (verses 12-13) “We” I’m glad he got back to us
because this is a heavy set of verses. “we
look for a new heavens and a new earth” and that goes with Isaiah, what
Isaiah said “it’s a fresh” in the Greek it means “new in substance” it’s
fresh. It’s new, it’s created over again
[in this case new matter, altogether new protons, electrons, atoms, perhaps
even with the second law of thermodynamics suspended]. “a new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth
righteousness.” “Dwelleth” is
the Greek word that means “to settle down and be at home.” You know, come on in, take your shoes off and
set a spell, that’s to dwell. It says ‘in
this new heavens and this new earth righteousness is going to be at home.’ Doesn’t that sound good? Righteousness is just going to snuggle up and
be right at home in this new world. That
sounds good to me. ‘Be Diligent About
These Things I’ve Been Telling You So That You Might Be In Peace’ Here comes the next exhortation. “Wherefore beloved seeing that ye look for
such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace without spot and
blameless.” (verse 14) We’re seeing
something again here, seeing that we’re looking for such things. Be diligent to keep yourself because the last
chapter was about the false teachers, mockers, people are going to come
particularly targeting new believers, trying to steal away their faith. He says “be diligent” we have to be diligent,
we have to be mindful he says, we have to be wise not ignorant in regards to
certain things. And we need to be
diligent. God is asking for your
cooperation, you need to be diligent, we need to be in the Word, we need to be
in prayer, we need to be living in such a way that we’re not ashamed when he
comes. He says that, that we live in
such a way that we may be found in peace.
Can you say tonight ‘Lord come Lord Jesus?’ I remember that first year of my Christian
experience struggling and backsliding and I couldn’t say that ‘Come tonight
Lord.’ You know to walk with him is
a struggle and a struggle with the flesh and a struggle with the world, but the
great thing is I can lay my head down every night when I go to bed and say ‘Lord
it would be nice to wake up right around the throne.’ (cf. Revelation
4:1-11) ‘Come Lord Jesus.’ And the only reason we’re ever found
without spot and blameless is because of the righteousness of Christ that’s
imparted to us that we’re living in faith.
You’re never blameless in and of yourself. The Book of Revelation chapter 12 verse 10
says that Satan whose the accuser of the brethren, catagero, categorizes
our sins, ceases not to accuse them day and night before the throne of
God. But it says they overcame by the
blood of the lamb and by the word of his testimony. It doesn’t say ‘Satan accused them of
stuff and the stuff he accused them of wasn’t true,’ no, the reason he did
accuse them is he had some stuff, the reason the enemy accuses us is because he’s
got the goods on us in one sense. But
the way we overcome is through the blood of Christ and the word of his
testimony. Be diligent here to be in
Christ, to be in the Word, be ready when he comes so you can live in peace
waiting for the coming of Christ. People Are Going To
Be Saved Because God's Waiting “And account that the
longsuffering of our Lord is salvation:” people are going to
get saved because he’s waiting “even as our beloved brother Paul also
according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;” (verse 15) And Paul said the same thing in Romans
chapter 2 verse 3 that through God’s longsuffering he’s hoping that through his
mercy people will turn and through his goodness people will come to
salvation. ‘Some People Torture
A Scripture Until It Says What They Want It To Say To Their Own Destruction’ "As also in all his
epistles speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be
understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they
do also the other scriptures unto their own destruction." (verse 16) Now Paul in Thessalonians, Colossians,
Philippians, all of his letters spoke of the coming of Christ. Now Peter’s got some nerve saying some things
Paul said are hard to be understood saying that because he wrote a few things
here that we’re all scratching our heads about.
Notice this “also the other scriptures unto their own destruction.” He just told us that the epistles of Paul
the apostle where part of the inspired Word.
He said ‘Some people wrestle with some of the things that Paul
wrote as they do with the other scriptures.’ Peter realizing that the New Testament
was being written and that Paul’s epistles were part of the Scripture. And he said ‘Some people wrestle those
things to their own destruction.’ It
means it’s an interesting Geek word it was most often used, you ever see one of
those movies where they put somebody on a rack and they stretch him? That means to torture somebody on the
rack. And it says some people do that
with Scriptures, they take a verse and they torture it until it confesses
whatever they want it to say. If you
torture any verse long enough you can get it to say whatever you want, instead
of exegesis its isogesis, they’re putting meaning into it instead of expounding
the Scripture and getting the meaning out of it and understanding what it
says. And you see people do that in the
church, they come up with all kinds of strange ideas because they torture some
text until it confesses what they want it to say. He says there are those that are unlearned
and unstable and they torture the Scripture to their own destruction. “Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know
these things before, beware lest ye also being led away with the error of
the wicked fall from your own stedfastness." (verse 17) Here’s the last “beloved” and the last
“seeing” Seeing what things? What he’s written in these chapters to us,
that we’ve escaped the corruption of the world through lust, through the great
and precious promises that have been given to us, that the Word of God is
dependable, that false teachers will come, that Christ is going to judge the
world even though mockers will come in the last days, that God has given us
promises and that our hope is set on those things and we are looking for it
hasting unto the day of Christ that we should live separate in this world. He says ‘seeing you know these things
before beware.’ Now seeing you
know these things it’s interesting in the Greek “seeing you know these things
before” is prognosko, pro “before” gnosko “to know.” You see these things ahead of time, seeing
you know what the prognosis is. You look
at this world right now, you know my dad had congestive heart failure, then the kidneys
fail, everything goes, and they say that somebody dies of “complications.” That’s what our world is dying of right now,
complications. Because one system is
shutting down, another and it’s just becoming way too complex to keep it all
going, that’s the prognosis. Our present
world is in hospice care right now. “seeing
ye know these things before” you know the prognosis “beware,” be
on your toes, be constantly watching, here’s what he says “lest ye also
being led away with the error of the wicked fall from your own stedfastness.” What does he mean “lest you also”? He uses a grammatical structure that includes
himself “unless you also.” Is he
thinking back to that rooster crowing? ‘lest
you also be led away with the error of the wicked ‘I swore he could count on me and I
told him all the other guys, they might leave but Lord you can count on me,’
and what I got for that was err err err err errrr! So I want you brethren to beware. You know these things lest you also are moved
from your own stedfastness.’ Or
was he talking about when Paul rebuked him in front of the church at
Antioch? Because Peter was out there,
was enjoying the fellowship with the Gentile believers, Barnabas was there and
they were eating Italian sausage and pork roll [it never said that in the
Scripture he’s reading things into this, it was a cultural thing that had to do
with separation between Jew and Gentile, not eating at the same table, and had
nothing to do with the Hebrew food laws of Leviticus 11, there was probably
nothing unclean by the Leviticus 11 standards at that table at this period of
time in Church history] and having a great time and certain brethren came with
James from Jerusalem and it says that then Peter began to draw back, Paul uses
a word for a sailor, he began to trim his sails. And he [Paul] says ‘You’re not walking orthopodao,
you’re not walking straight-footedly according to the Gospel.’ Is Peter talking about that? Maybe he’s thinking about that. But Peter knows that there were struggles in
his own past and in his own life, and he knows that a believer doesn’t fall
from salvation [I disagree with that, Hymenaeus and that other guy Demas went
back into the world, different groups have different interpretations here “once
saved always saved” is one view and “you can fall from salvation” being the
other view, we’ll find out later at the 2nd coming and Wedding Feast
when a lot of doctrinal interpretations will be clarified] but a believer falls
from their stedfastness. And that’s what
he’s warning us about because he wants us to be stedfast, he wants us to have
our feet on the path and he wants us to be making steady progress moving
forward growing in Christ. And he warns ‘you
know the prognosis (for this world) we know these things ahead of time, we see
them,’ he says ‘so let’s beware, let’s guard those things.’ “lest ye also being led away with the
error of the wicked fall from your own stedfastness.” (verse 17b) 'Grow In The Grace
And Knowledge Of Jesus Christ “But” rather than that “grow
in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for
ever. Amen.” (verse 18) King James says “of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ” it literally says this “grow in grace and knowledge from
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” ‘Grow
in grace’ and its ‘continually grow in grace,’ it talks
about a steady growth. He doesn’t say ‘Grow
in spurts, sputter along, have a rollercoaster experience with Jesus.’ He says ‘Grow constantly in grace and
knowledge from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.’ If we grow just in grace we can end up doing
foolish things. If we grow just in
knowledge we end up being heady and being so right were just dead right [i.e.
dead orthodoxy], knowledge puffs up love edifies it. But he gives us this challenge that we should
grow in grace and in knowledge both of them.
Grow in grace and in knowledge.
Paul signs off with grace in the end of 2nd Timothy. John signs off with grace in the end of
Revelation. It’s very interesting Paul
used the word grace (charis) more than any of the apostles because he
had murdered the Church, he had slaughtered Christians and he used grace over
120 times in his writings. Peter uses
grace sparingly and talks about the very-colored grace of God, many hues, many
colors, because he was emotional he was up and down, he needed very-colored
grace, that’s what suited him. John is
the most reticent and he uses the word “grace” seven times. If you read John’s Gospel 1st 2nd
and 3rd John and the Book of Revelation you will only find the word “grace”
seven times in all of his writings. Four
times in the first chapter of his Gospel “that grace and truth has come by
Christ” that we see grace in the face of Christ. Grace for grace he’s given us. Then he doesn’t use it again. Once in 2nd John and then he uses
it in the introduction of Revelation and the close of Revelation “grace” but he
does say this ‘We see grace in the face of Jesus Christ.’ And then he used the word “Jesus” 270 times
in his Gospel, almost more than the other Gospels combined. He says ‘You want to see grace look at
Jesus.’ And then he says ‘Let
me tell you about Jesus.’ And
man does he tell us about Jesus. But
grace, they all commend us in the most difficult of days to God’s grace. Paul warning about the last days commends the
Church to the grace of God, he says ‘only Timothy, he’s the only one I
can trust.’ Peter here too says ‘This
is the way the last days are going to be, scoffers, false teachers,’ but
commits us to the grace of God. John has
the Book of Revelation, sees things that are unimaginable and it ends by
commending the Church to the grace of God.
That’s why we’re here tonight, God’s grace. That’s why we are what we are, Paul says ‘I
am what I am by the grace of God.’
That we’re to grow in grace he says through Titus ‘that grace has
drawn us to salvation teaching us to deny ungodly lusts in this present world
and to look forward to the coming of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ.’ Paul says ‘Grace saved us,
grace keeps us, grace makes us look home.’ Peter ends here by saying “grow in grace
and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him” to Jesus “be glory both now
and for ever. Amen.” We will probably see Peter face to face
before we get back to his two epistles again.
On Wednesday night it’ll be at least 11 years by the time we get back
here. On Sundays were probably five
years away. So I’m hoping to see Peter
before I see his epistles again besides in my own reading. Ah 1st 2nd and 3rd
John read ahead some remarkable, remarkable, remarkable things, I encourage you
to read ahead...lets stand lets pray...[transcript of a connective expository
sermon on 2nd Peter 3:1-18 given by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary Chapel
of Philadelphia, 13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19116] related links: The 2nd Coming of Christ,
the broadest subject in the New Testament.
See http://www.unityinchrist.com/prophecies/2ndcoming.htm
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