Living Like Last Days Christians (2 Peter 3:9-13)

Living Like Last Day Christians


2 Peter 3:9-13
9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? 13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
NKJV

What are Peters’ last words to His flock? What is his last will and testament? If you knew you were soon to leave your earthly dwelling what would you want to communicate with us your church, or your family? What would the most important thing be? Jesus had told Peter some thirty years earlier how he was going to die. Peter seems to indicate that he’s received some kind of revelation from God that the time was coming soon. So these final verses in this letter are the things that were the most pressing on his mind and spirit.

Foremost on his mind is the Lord’s return. He doesn’t want them to listen to the nay-sayers who were trying to convince some that Jesus wasn’t going to come back. We have our nay-sayers today as well. MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell said this a couple weeks ago. “The book of Revelation is a work of fiction describing how a truly vicious God would bring about the end of the world. No half-smart religious person actually believes the book of Revelation. They are certain that their God would never turn into a malicious torturer and mass murderer beyond Hitler’s wildest dreams.”

I would say that Lawrence O’Donnell has two problems. He’s an avowed socialist and atheist. As a socialist he understands that socialisms greatest obstacle to their utopia is Christianity. So he has to do whatever he can to destroy it. But aside from that O’Donnell’s comments on the book of Revelation indicates he doesn’t understand the nature and Character of God.

O’Donnell is right; no half smart religious person would believe the book of revelation. But one who has seen his own wretchedness, one who has seen his sin and understands how wicked and filthy it is, and one who has caught a little bit of a glimpse of the glory of God, His holiness, His righteousness, and His justice, has no problem believing Revelation and the Bible.

O’Donnell doesn’t believe in God much less sin. Of course Revelation is an absurd book. But for those who rightly recognize our own sin and the rebellion that is in the world through wicked works have no problem with the book of Revelation. Our only question of God is why He hasn’t judged the world already.

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, He is coming again. He will judge every sin that has not been covered by His blood.

When we talk about sin, we need to remember that God’s holiness and justice demand that every sin be punished? Every sin done in darkness. Every act of adultery, every murder, every theft, no matter how small, every act of fornication, every lustful thought, every self-righteous thought, every sin will be punished. Either Jesus has already faced the wrath of God and has been punished for those sins on the cross, or you will have to face God alone someday in the near future, and you will be punished for your sins forever in hell. We are told in verse nine how we can keep from perishing, we avoid perishing by repenting.

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” Repentance is salvation; it is the inner and outward expression of the work that God has done in the heart. When God removes our heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh, a heart that is tender towards Him, then we will repent of our sins. With our new heart we will recognize the depravity of our sin and we will hate it, we will turn from it in repentance and we will turn toward God.

As Christians I think we need to clean up our language. When we speak of what someone needs to do to get saved, we sometimes tell them they need to accept Jesus. No where in the Bible are we ever told we need to accept Jesus. In reality we don’t need to accept Jesus, He needs to accept us.

Language that is used in the bible is that a person must repent and believe. Jesus’ message when He started His ministry was, Mark 1:15 "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel." NKJV Peter’s message at Pentecost was Acts 2:38 "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” NKJV When Peter preached at Solomon’s Porch he said; Acts 3:19 “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.” NKJV And Paul when he was preaching to the men at the Areopagus in Athens said; Acts 17:30-31 “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained.” NKJV

Faith is synonymous with repentance. Repentance is the visible evidence that God has converted you. In some circles they will say when you witness to someone you should never tell them to repent, because repentance is a work. And salvation is by grace apart from works.

I reject that. Repentance isn’t a work; it’s a gift of grace. Acts 5:31 says;
31 “Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.” NKJV

Again in Acts 11:18 When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, "Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life." NKJV And in 2 Tim 2:24-25 “And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, 25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth. ”NKJV

I believe the best language to use is the language of scripture. Repentance and faith. Repent and believe in the Savior. Now you may need to explain what that means. Repentance is a change of heart, a change of direction; the old Lutherans would even call it a change of affections. We used to love the things of the world, and now we love the things of God. We used to love our sins, now we hate them; it is a change of affections. But that can only come about with the use of the law. Because people have to see themselves as law breakers, and that they deserve the wrath of a holy and righteous God, then when you share the Gospel, they will cling to the Savior out of gratitude rather than a fear of Hell. As Ray Comfort has said, we don’t want fear filled converts; we want tear filled converts, people who have seen their sin and desire to be rid of them.

That’s what Peter is saying here. The Lord wills that all would see their sin as He sees their sin and that they would come to repentance. That they would hate their sin as He hates it, for that would be evidence that they were truly saved.

Peter starts reminding them of the promises of God and the long suffering nature of God. Next Peter wants us to know the surety and the manner of His coming. “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night.” We have two important points in this sentence. First, the Day of the Lord will come. Peter had just said the Lord is not slack concerning His promise and His last promise was that He was coming back. This is an emphatic proclamation of the surety of Jesus’ return. The day of the Lord will come. You can be sure of it, you can stake your life on it, you can rest in it. No doubts, He is coming again.

The second thing he says is that He will come as a thief in the night. He will come unexpectedly. This is what Jesus had taught, this was not a new revelation Peter received. Matt 24:43-44 “But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. 44 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” NKJV

The Lord will come as a thief in the night. We don’t know exactly when He’s coming. But we are supposed to be aware of the signs of the times and we are to be ready at all times. It doesn’t matter if the Lord doesn’t come for a hundred more years, because I might meet him tonight. We don’t know when our allotted days will be up. We don’t know which night our souls will be demanded of us. We need to be ready. Heb 3:12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called "Today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. NKJV We need to make sure today that we are right with God, because we have no promise for tomorrow.

The Lord will come as a thief in the night. One has to stand in wonder at the foolishness of trying to predict the day of Our Lord’s return. But throughout History hundreds have, and every one has been wrong. In the same way those who today tell us they know when Jesus will return will be wrong. For the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Then Peter goes back to what he said in verse seven. 2 Peter 3:7
7 But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the Day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
NKJV

Verse ten Peter goes into more detail “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.” The heavens and the earth are also affected by sin and are in travail waiting for the day of the Lord. They too will be glorified and remade just like we will. This is transformation language, this is purification language. The heavens and the earth will be remade, as he says in verse 13, “According to His promise, we look for new heavens and new earth Where righteousness dwells.

The word "elements" does not refer to the chemical table of elements, such as oxygen, helium, gold, silver, carbon etc. It’s more in the meaning of elements, elementary, basics, rudiments, principles. I think it maybe has to do with the effects of sin on this world, and even the principle powers of this world system that hates God. This will be all done away with. And it says “the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up”. Works will be burnt up. Everything that man has accomplished in his pride will be gone. It sounds like Paul’s white throne judgment, where all of our impure works will be burned up. Every human accomplishment that was done apart from the spirit and glory of God, poof, gone. Paul says that for some Christians they will be saved but all there works will be burnt up. Nothing that is unholy will survive this judgment.

All the monuments of man will be burned up, the Statue of Liberty, the Eifel Tower, the Great Wall of China, Winchester Cathedral; all the works of man will be burnt up. This summer Rachel and I, her two sisters and my two brothers in law, six of us will make a trip to Belgium and Paris. What for? To see the works of man. We will view great monuments and great cathedrals, listen to great pipe organs, and see world famous works of art. While here on Earth, today these have great meaning and value, in eternity they are nothing. They are all monuments to men, not to God. Some day these will all be burned up.

If we are honest with ourselves we have our little monuments, our works. Our houses, our retirement plans, cars, motorcycles, televisions, computers, you name it. When that day comes it will all burn up to make way for the new heavens and new Earth where righteousness dwells.

That brings us up to one of the most important questions posed in the bible.
2 Peter 3:11 “Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God.” NASU

Since all of these man made monuments and systems of man are going to pass away, how should we live? Our world today is a reminder that not only will it pass away, but it is passing away. Both Paul and John tell us the world is passing away. 1 Cor 7:31 “For the form of this world is passing away.”

1 John 2: “And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”

Look at our world today, it is in turmoil, it is in transition, it is a mess. Think about the Earthquakes in the last 14 months. Haiti, Chili, Christchurch New Zealand, and now Japan. The political turmoil, in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Israel and many more places including our country.

When you hear of (Mark 13:8) nation rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines and troubles. These are the beginnings of sorrows. NKJV Jesus said, “Luke 21:28 “when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near." NKJV

These disturbances in governments, cultures and nature are an argument for Holy living. Whenever we hear of these things, it is God preaching a sermon to the world about the vanity of man, his works, his ambition, his art, his fashion, his pleasures, and his proud over-bearing science.

What are we living for? This world that will pass away some day? Really, what we are living for? This body that will someday return to dust? Things that in just a few years will end up in a garbage dump? Pleasures that only last for a fleeting moment but you spend the rest of your life, with it’s guilt, shame, and consequences? Statues, fountains, bridges, monuments to man, all gone. This world will pass away, it will be purified, all the works of man will be burned up, that includes your works, therefore how should you live? You should live holy pious lives.

What’s really important? What are the things that are eternal? I again am reminded of a letter a high school classmate sent out to our graduating class for I think it was our tenth anniversary. She closed her letter by saying that Lloyd and I have determined to travel light in this life since the only thing we can take with us when we die is our family and friends. That is a proper understanding of what the Spirit of God is telling us in this passage. Since all these things will be destroyed, how should we live? We need to live like we are in the last days.

How should we live? We should live lives of repentance and we should be broken hearted over the sin that so easily besets us.

We should believe on Christ, and feed on his word. It should be more precious to us than our physical bread. John 6:27 “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him." NKJV

We should be merciful; knowing that through the Gospel God has been merciful to us. We should live in the Gospel. We should be motivated by the Gospel. If we feel someone has wronged us, our response should be tempered by the knowledge that I have done far worse things to God and he has forgiven me through the Gospel. It should flavor your every response to your fellow man, including your spouse and children. Keeping the Gospel ever before us, and the reminder of how much Jesus has forgiven us will help us be merciful.

We should be grateful. Knowing the judgment that is going to come on this world and all it contains is a reminder to us that we deserve the same thing. We deserve God’s judgment, not His blessings. We are grateful because we acknowledge that it is all underserved.

We are hopeful because all his promises are true. God is not slack concerning His promises. He has given us great and many promises that we can trust our lives to, so we have a hope firmly anchored in Him.

And we are ready for the dissolving of this present world system and all it turmoil and pain. As Peter said, “the day of the Lord will come.” And we are ready, we are tired of our battle with sin and the world, we are ready to go home to be with Our Lord and savior and we say along with John the Apostle, Rev 22:20 He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming quickly." Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” NKJV