2 Peter 3:1-13

Christianity means a bold claim. It doesn't offer you advice to live your best life. It announces that Jesus, the man who walked around Nazareth 2000 years ago is the son of God. He has been appointed king of all the earth and he is coming back to judge the world.

That's the announcement of the prophets and the apostles. Jesus is coming back. And that's a bold claim. It's not the kind of thing that you can ignore and say, well that's nice for you but it's not high property. If it's true then Jesus is your king. And judgment day is a reality that no one can avoid. This is the bold claim of Christianity. Jesus is coming back.

But there's just one problem with that claim. It's been 2000 years and there's no sign of it. Jesus left this earth around AD 33 and he promised that he would come back. But after 100 years, nothing. After 500 years, still nothing.

A thousand years. 2000 years. We've been waiting 2000 years for Jesus to come back. You might start to think Christians are looking a bit silly. This bold claim, Jesus is coming back, isn't it starting to sound a little less confident?

If Jesus really is coming back. If Jesus really is coming to judge and rule, where is he? Why is it taking him so long?

Well that's what people were saying when Peter wrote this letter. There were false teachers in the church and look what they were saying in verse 4.

They will say, where is the promise of his coming?

They scoff at the idea of the judgment day. If Jesus is coming, where is he? You can't seriously believe in a day of judgment.

So in this chapter, Peter is tackling that question of Jesus is really coming to judge. Why is it taking so long?

This question is immensely important because what we believe about the future changes everything about how we live now.

What we think about this claim of Jesus' return determines the whole direction of our present lives.

Look at the false teachers. They're skeptical about this day of judgment. And so how do they live now?

Well, verse 3, it says, scoffers will come in the last day with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.

If there's no future judgment, sin as much as you want. What you believe about the future affects how you live now.

And so Peter really wants to remind the church of the future and how it affects the now. Look at verse 1.

This is now the second letter that I am writing to you below it.

In both of them, I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder.

You should remember, number 1, the predictions of the holy prophets.

In other words, the day of the Lord is coming.

And, number 2, the commandments of the Lord and Saviour through your gospel.

That's the way of life that's expected of us.

The fact of godliness matters.

These two things go together.

Jesus' return and our present godliness.

So we have to tackle this big question.

We need to be completely sure about the future.

If Jesus is really coming to church, why is it taking us so long?

All we're going to see first is, Peter says, remember the flood.

That's our first point, remember the flood.

But false teachers have an answer to their own question.

Why is it taking so long for Jesus to judge?

Because, they say, God has set the world running and then left it to do his own thing.

Have a look at verse 4.

They will say, where is the promise of his coming?

For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.

Things just carry on the way they always have.

People are born, they live their lives, they make a few babies, and then they die.

And the cycle continues.

The sun rises and it sets.

Life goes on, round and round, and nothing ever changes.

So why do you think that God is going to step in and judge?

Can't you see that he never intervenes?

There's no reason to think he's going to suddenly judge the world.

Isn't that pretty similar to what a lot of people think today?

If there even is a God, he must have set the world going, but then it's pretty obvious that he's just left us to it.

He never shows up.

Everything continues the way it always has.

Peter says that's false.

That's complete rubbish.

Things have not continued the same way since creation.

There was a massive discontinuity.

Have a look at verse 5.

For they deliberately overlooked this fact,

that 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 deluged with water and perished.

Do you see what he's saying?

God has intervened before.

He has judged the world before.

And this was not a small intervention,

where he stepped in on a small scale.

The whole world, the entire planet was flooded with water and perished.

And they've conveniently forgotten this major catastrophe.

He's talking there about the time of Noah.

We read in Genesis that the Lord saw that the wickedness of mankind on earth was great,

and it breathed him to his heart.

So the Lord said,

I will blot out mankind who I've created from the face of the earth.

And he brought a flood on the whole earth,

like nothing that had ever happened or has ever happened since.

A full scale judgment on the world against sin.

This wasn't a local disaster.

It wasn't like the floods you get in India or a tsunami in Japan.

This was a disaster on a scale that we have never seen.

Europe, Asia, Africa, every continent, every country was covered in the floods.

No one escaped.

We've heard of world wars where the loss of life was devastating.

We've heard of genocide where people were being decimated.

But this is beyond all of that.

The virtual extinction of the entire human race because of the judgment of God.

And the point Peter really wants to make is the flood was decreed by God's word.

God was not passive.

He's not a passive observer of our world.

He is the creator and the judge.

Look at verse 5.

The earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God.

God created the world by his word.

And verse 6, by means of means, that's by means of his word and by means of water,

the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.

In other words, God created by his word and he judged by his word.

By the same word, he created the world and flooded the world.

The flood was not a tragic accident.

God decreed it by his word in order to judge the world.

What are you to make of this?

What does this tell us about the kind of future that we should expect?

What are you to tell us?

Verse 7.

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.

God sent the flood by his word and by the same word, he will send fire.

This verse says clearly that there is a fire coming on the earth.

This earth that we live in now will one day come under the fire of God's judgment.

This is not a myth or a story or something made up by the church to keep people under control,

to keep people behaving.

This is God's word.

Judgment day is coming and the ungodly will be destroyed.

So Peter says remember the flood.

There is a precedent for the coming judgment.

Just as he sent the flood on all the ungodly, it is certain he will send the fire too.

Even when we're kids, we learn to expect things in the future based on what we've experienced in the past.

When you're a kid, you test your parents.

Kids will always test you.

That's what they do.

They push boundaries.

But if you have parents who are consistent, you soon learn that that's not going to work.

When I was a kid, it took me a while to learn that if my parents said something, they will always follow through.

If they told me, be home by this time, or they will be troubled the first couple of times, I was like, not worried.

I wasn't taking them seriously.

But I soon learned.

So the next time, I knew what was coming.

They set the precedent.

When you've pushed the boundaries a few times and you've felt the consequences, you learn to know what to expect.

You know from previous experience.

Peter is saying, we have previous experience.

That God will follow through on what he says.

There will be a judgment on the ungodly.

But the false teachers say the reason judgment is taking so long is because God has left the world to just carry on the way he always has.

But Peter says, no, we know he's coming to judgment because we have a past example to float.

But that still leaves us with the question, why is he taking so long?

And what we're going to see is he delays so you will repent.

That's our second point.

And he delays so you will repent.

Verse 8 says this.

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved.

That with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.

Peter's quoting Psalm 90 here.

And Psalm 90 compares the shortness of human life with the infinite length of God's life.

We are bound by time.

We have a very limited amount of time.

Our lives are just a tiny glip in the face of eternity.

It's a bit like a mayfly.

Do you know how long the lifespan of a mayfly is?

It's 24 hours.

They live for one day and they die.

Now if mayflies could think, they think, we're crazy.

You know, we spend eight hours, eight hours a night sleeping.

That's a third of their whole life.

If a mayfly could talk, he'd say, why on earth do you spend so long lying in bed doing nothing?

Because the mayfly's perception of time can't be compared with a human.

A day is like a thousand years.

God is outside of our tiny time frames.

When humans criticise God for his slowness in fulfilling his promises, they don't know what they're talking about.

It's like the mayfly criticising your schedule.

But having said that, God is not oblivious to the passage of time.

He created time.

He has a reason for setting the appointed time for the judgment day.

There's a reason that the judgment day wasn't yesterday.

What is that reason?

Verse 9.

The Lord is not slow to fulfil his promise, as some count slowness.

But is patient toward him.

Not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Peter says God is not procrastinating.

He's being patient with you.

He delays so that you will repent.

Isn't that amazing?

These false teachers are scoffing.

Where are you then, Jesus, if you're coming to church?

It's been a long time.

And all the while, he's being patient with them.

He's giving them a chance to repent so they won't perish when judgment comes.

It says there, God does not wish that any should perish.

He doesn't please God when sinners get destroyed.

In Ezekiel 18.23, God says,

Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked?

It says there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

He's a God of great grace, mercy and compassion.

you know with all this talk of

the judgment of God against the ungodly

the flood and the fire and the destruction

you could think that God is an

angry, tyrannical

God who just flies off the handle and

wipes everyone out and everything gets better

that couldn't be further

from the truth

God is incredibly patient

why has Jesus

waited 2000 years to return

because he's patient

he warns

and warns and warns

he warns us to repent

and be saved, he doesn't want you

to be destroyed in the fire

God is just

and he will punish sin

in justice but he gives us chance after chance

to repent so we will not

perish when that day finally

comes

we know don't we that God is

sovereign, he's in control over

salvation but that doesn't change the fact

that his heart loves

to see sinners saved, he delays

so you will repent

this word

repent isn't really used much

outside of church

but if you're new to church

this word repentance just means to have

a complete change of mind

you are heading in one direction

and you're converted

your mind is changed

you do a 180

and go in the other direction

in other words

we turn from

living a life of sin

and rebellion against God

and we start to live

for him

but the shock here is

who has been told

to repent

who is God waiting for

verse 9 says

he's patient towards

you

I've often heard this talk

evangelistically

God is holding back

the judgement

so that the people

out there in the world

will be saved

and come into the church

and they won't face

judgement

and that's true isn't it

but that's not actually

who Peter's focusing on here

he's talking to

people who in the church

just before he calls

beloveds

these are people

in the church

the same people

he's been addressing

the whole letter

so when he says

God is patient towards you

he's talking to us

he's talking to people

in the church

the whole point

of this letter

has been that

the church

the visible church

is a mixed bag

you've got

those false teachers

in the church

who Peter says

will face judgement

then you've got people

in the church

who escaped

from the sinful ways

of the world

but are being enticed

back

to a life of sin

and Peter is saying

to them

repent

before it's too late

God is being patient

with you

if you're part of the church

don't miss the fact

that this message

is for you

don't think

this is for

my unbelieving friend

who doesn't come to church

Peter's speaking to us

sitting in church

today

he's saying

if you're in the covenant community

if you're in the church

but you're living in sin

you need to repent

God is being patient

with you

so that you won't perish

in the church

imagine

a father

who sees his kid

steal gum's purse

from the dresser

he sees it happen

but he doesn't do anything

he could have gone

straight down there

to punish his kid

for what he's done wrong

but he waits

why?

because he's waiting

for something

that dad

is giving his son

a chance to change his mind

and to bring the purse back

so he waits

God is waiting for us

to repent

and we have to ask ourselves

are we living in unrepentant sin?

have we been enticed

into a double life

where we're in the church

and yet

we're

we're living in sin

Peter emphasizes

sexual sin

in this letter

but it could be anything

when we're comfortable

in our sin

when we're

we're okay

with

we're living

our old way of life

instead of fighting against it

are we living in sin today?

repent

God is

patient with us

he's holding back

the judgment

so we will reach

repentance

so we've seen

God delays

so that you will repent

but Peter says

make no mistake

the day of the Lord

is coming

have a look at verse 10

but the day of the Lord

will come

like a thief

and then the heavens

will pass away

with the war

and the heavenly bodies

will be burned up

and dissolved

and the earth

and the works

that are done on it

will be exposed

the day of judgment

will come like a thief

what does Peter mean?

well if you're

a professional thief

do you call the people

who you're going to burble

in advance

and send the point

you're with them

I'm going to come

and rob your house

on Thursday

at 10pm

if that's okay

of course not

it's not like

being a plumber

where they know

what day

and what time

to expect you

they come at a time

that's unpredictable

the point is

to not get caught

and Peter's saying

the day of judgment

will be unpredictable

you can't predict

when it's coming

it will come like a thief

without notice

unpredictable

but inevitable

it's coming

you just don't know when

what will happen

on the day of judgment

we read just now

in verse 10

that the heavens

will be dissolved

and the earth

will be exposed

what does that mean

Peter has told us

that the heavens

and the earth

are being stored up

for fire

on the judgment day

there will be fire

and this fire

will have a different

effect on the heavens

than it has

on the earth

it will burn away

everything above us

in order to expose

everything around us

sometimes we think

that the earth

is going to be

completely annihilated

and a totally new one

will be created

but the bible

seems to teach

a radical

renewing

and recreating

of the same earth

that already exists

it will be radically new

but it's still

the same earth

Peter says here

the effect

the fire

will have on the earth

is to expose

not to destroy

it's a bit like

what happened

with the flood

the flood was

like a decreation

of the earth

a reversal

of God's creation

order

and yet he didn't

flush the earth

down the sink

he didn't destroy it

he renewed it

and that's a picture

of what the final

judgment

will be like

when the fire

comes

it will expose

the earth

but not destroy

it

so what will

it expose

verse 10

says the earth

and the works

that are done

on it

will be exposed

the works

done on the earth

everything we've

ever done

will be exposed

it will be exposed

whether we have

stuck

with Jesus

whether we went

back

to our old

sinful ways

whether we gave

in

to the seduction

of the false

teachers

that's why he

calls us

to repent

and that's why

he's taking

so long

because he wants

everyone

to reach repentance

he wants you

to reach repentance

so repent

before judgment

day

God is gracious

he's not out

to get you

instead he's

engaged himself

to save all

who are his people

repent and believe

in the gospel

and you will be

saved

we've been asking

this question

if Jesus is really

coming to church

why is it taking

so long

and it's not

because God

has left

our world

to just keep

on going

as it always

has

God has

judged before

and he will

again

but he delays

so we will

repent

the way we live

now

is based on

what we think

the future holds

and Peter wants us

to know

judgment is coming

the works that are

done on the earth

will be exposed

and now is the time

to repent

let's pray

Thank you.