About this sermon
Since God will dissolve the present heavens and earth, Peter asks what sort of people believers ought to be: people of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming day of God. Christ’s return is a motive for holy living. The danger is not being too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good but being too earthly minded to be of any heavenly good. According to God’s promise, believers wait for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells, as Isaiah 65 and 66 foretold, and that hope encourages faith and diligence.
Sermon transcript
Well, please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word as we continue our study and consideration of 2 Peter. We are nearing the end of this marvelous yet short epistle, and tonight we’re going to focus on 2 Peter 3, verses 11 through 16, although I’ll begin reading at verse 10 and read through the end of the chapter, but our focus again will be on verses 11 through 16. So friends, let us hear God’s Holy Word. You can find that, by the way, on page 1209 in your Pew Bibles. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they are burned?
But according to His promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by Him without spot or blemish and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.
Amen. Let’s pray for the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching of His Word. Immortal, invisible, God only wise, you are indeed glorious. You dwell in unapproachable light. You are a God of infinite, white-hot holiness. And yet, Heavenly Father, you have revealed yourself to us in your Word and supremely in your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the living Word, who is our Savior. We thank you, Heavenly Father, that we can approach your throne of grace because of Christ our great High Priest, who died for our sins and rose again for our justification, that we might receive the gift of eternal life. And we thank you, Lord, that in your sovereign grace you have effectually called us unto faith in Christ and that we are united to Him. And we thank you, Lord, that you continue to build us up in our faith and to strengthen our union and communion with Christ by your Spirit and through the Word.
We ask, Lord and Father, that you would do so this evening as we consider this portion of your Word. We ask that you would edify us, strengthen us, encourage us, challenge us through this portion of Scripture. And Lord, equip us through the Word tonight that we might serve you well in our daily callings and vocations in the week ahead. Once again, be with us and bless us and set a guard over my lips, Lord, that I might speak only that which is faithful to your Word. We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, Amen. You may be seated. If you’re following along in your sermon outline, there’s six words you can be listening for in my sermon this evening. And the title of my message tonight is Hastening the Coming Day.
And it’s interesting, it’s providential that we consider this portion of 2 Peter this evening because it ties in well with what I preached on this morning. We see that the theme of the Day of the Lord is a very common theme in Scripture in both the Old Testament and the New Testaments. Well, dear ones, the Bible teaches that one day, one day, our Lord Jesus Christ will return in glory. He will not come the second time in secrecy or obscurity. He will come in the clouds of glory for all the earth to see. And He will usher in the new heavens and the new earth wherein righteousness dwells. This return in glory that we believe in, this future return of Christ is known as the doctrine of Christ’s second advent or the second coming. On the last Lord’s Day evening, we learned that the apostles predicted that scoffers will arise in the last days and deny the second coming.
In the context of our passage, the particular scoffers that the apostle Peter probably had in mind were the false teachers that he was warning his original readers about in this the antinomian false teachers that we learned about back in chapter 2. In verse 4 of chapter 3, Peter tells us that these scoffers would point to the observation that thus far in history, things have gone on as usual since the beginning of creation, which led these scoffers to wrongly assume that as things have continued ever since creation up to this point, things will continue to go on in the natural course of events into the future. And so if you look at verse 4 of this chapter, Peter says, they will say, these scoffers will say, where is the promise of His coming? Forever since the fathers fell asleep, probably referring to the patriarchs, the ancient fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.
And isn’t it the case that even today, friends, in the context of our contemporary culture, there are multitudes of unbelieving scoffers and non-Christians who would use the same kind of reasoning as these first century scoffers that Peter counteracts here in his epistle. Today’s scoffers might say something like, hey, listen, Christians, it’s been 2000 years since the time of Christ. If your savior is really going to return in glory as you claim that he will, then what’s keeping him? Why has he been delaying so long? Why has he not come back yet? Well, of course, in verses 5 and 6 of this chapter, Peter responds to this by pointing out to these scoffers, scoffers in his day, and this could be pointed out to scoffers today, that these scoffers deliberately forget God’s supernatural interventions in the past.
And as two examples of such past supernatural divine interventions, Peter mentions the creation of the universe in the very beginning by the word of God’s power, and he also mentions the flood judgment, the destruction of the ancient pre-Diluvian world by the flood judgment that took place in Noah’s day. Peter’s point is that just as God was able to work suddenly, supernaturally, and catastrophically in the past, so he is indeed able to do so again when Jesus returns in glory to usher in the new heavens and the new earth wherein righteousness dwells. The return of Jesus will be a surprise. It will not be expected. It will be just another day like today, but he will return in glory when it is time for him to return. But then Peter goes on to remind us that the reasons for the delay in our Lord’s second coming are that God is, first of all, God views time differently than we do.
His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways are high above our ways. And his view of time, because he is above time, is different from our view of time. And also, God is patiently giving sinners time to repent. He is waiting until all of the elect are gathered in from the four corners of the earth. As it says back in verses 8 and 9, it says, 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. In other words, God’s perspective on time is not your perspective or my perspective on time. And then he goes on to say, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise. Just because he’s been delayed doesn’t mean that he will delay indefinitely.
The Lord is not slow to fulfill the promise of his return, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. Nevertheless, nevertheless, the day of the Lord is certain to come, even though it has been delayed for gracious purposes, as it says in verse 10. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. It will be unexpected and sudden. And then what will happen? Then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Well, friends, in our passage for this Lord’s Day evening, the Apostle Peter, having affirmed the doctrine of the day of the Lord and our Lord’s second coming, having affirmed that doctrine in our passage for this evening, the Apostle Peter turns our attention to the moral and ethical implications of believing in Christ’s second coming and believing in the final day of the Lord.
See, believing in the doctrine of the second coming is not just a matter of checking off a list of orthodox doctrines that you affirm and making note of that intellectually in your mind. Certainly, we must believe a sound doctrine, but we don’t just believe sound doctrine for the sake of believing sound doctrine. is something that is meant to grab hold of us and impact us, impact our lives, beloved. So Peter’s point is that if we really believe that our Lord Jesus is coming back, and indeed he is coming back on that final day, on that day of the Lord, in order to destroy this present world order and in order to usher in the new heavens and the new earth wherein righteousness dwells, if we really believe these glorious truths, this blessed hope, well then we ought to be a people who live godly, righteous lives in this present age.
Lives that anticipate the holy and righteous lives that we will enjoy with the Lord in the new heavens and the new earth. And so as we turn our attention for our text for today, for this evening, consider first Christ’s second coming as a motivation for godly living. Christ’s second coming as a motivation for godly living. It says in verse 11, since all these things are thus to be dissolved. He’s been speaking of the day of the Lord when Christ returns and the old heavens and earth will be dissolved. And we, you know, I spoke a little bit last Lord’s Day about different views about what that’s going to look like. Is there going to be a total discontinuity between the present creation and the new creation or is there going to be continuity? Is it going to be more of a renewed, purified new heavens and new earth?
With that issue aside, since there’s going to be a radical transformation, a radical change when Jesus returns in glory, since all these things are thus to be dissolved, he asks a very pointed question. And this is a question that each and every one of us needs to take to heart. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, since Jesus is coming back, we know not when, but since he’s coming back and since he’s going to usher in a new heavens and a new earth where in righteousness dwells, the question is what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness? Now, of course, this applies to us individually. This is a question that we as individual believers need to take to heart. But this is also addressed to the church.
We as the church are to consider what sort of people are we to be as God’s people in this present age as we anticipate the blessed hope, the return of our Lord. And it goes on to say, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God. Notice the day of the Lord, the day of Christ’s return is called the day of God. Christ is God incarnate, Emmanuel, the word made flesh. You know, perhaps you’ve heard the complaint on the lips of unbelievers, sometimes unbelievers and skeptics and those who are cynical about Christianity or who have had perhaps an unpleasant experience with the church. They will often say things such as claiming that Christians are allegedly too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good. You ever heard that before? Are you Christians? You’re too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good.
And some professing Christians and some professing Christian churches have reacted against that that kind of what I would call a false accusation by by by going into the social gospel and so forth. And that’s not the right way to respond to such observations. But the allegation is there that Christians are often too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good. We’re thinking so much about the future and about Jesus’s return that we neglect to fulfill our responsibilities and duties that God has given to us in this present life. Now, of course, in one sense, it is possible that for Christians to be guilty of this at a certain level. It is possible for Christians to be hyper pietistic. That is to say to be so focused on future heavenly realities that they neglect their present earthly duties.
But you know, when you think about biblical heavenly mindedness, we are called in scripture to be heavenly minded. And if you are biblically heavenly minded, it’s not going to lead you to neglect your earthly duties, your worldly responsibilities. Indeed, it is going to incentivize you and motivate you all the more to live your life for the glory and honor and praise of the Savior who died for you, who rose for you, who reigns for you and intercedes for you and who is coming back for you on that final day. And so when you think about the saying too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good, a false saying, at least when it comes to genuine biblical heavenly mindedness. And so we should not be so concerned about being too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good.
Instead, from a biblical standpoint, we as followers of Jesus Christ should be more concerned about the danger of being too earthly minded to be of any heavenly good. And this is what I think Peter is addressing here. He’s saying, look, since Jesus is coming back, how should that impact your life here in this present age? Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, since a new world is coming, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of what? Holiness and godliness. What does this imply about earthly mindedness? Well to be earthly minded is to set your mind on things that have no lasting eternal value. Things which will ultimately be dissolved, be destroyed as we learn in verse 11. All these things are thus to be dissolved. And so we should not be obsessed with and we should not be focused on loving the things of this earth, especially the things of the world as a fallen system.
Now don’t misunderstand to clarify what I’m saying. This is not to say, beloved, that the things of this earth are somehow bad or that we should not have any concerns about practical daily living. After all, we are Christians. We are not Gnostics. The Gnostics believed that the material world was at the very least inferior to the spirit world or were indeed evil. They say the body is evil and so the goal of salvation for the Gnostics was to get rid of the body because the body is bad. But that’s not what God says. God is the creator of the body. God created a good creation in the very beginning. God created all things and what was his assessment of what he created? He says it’s very good. God created a good creation. The things of this earth were created in the beginning by a good God and are themselves, at least in and of themselves, good.
And scripture calls us to be good stewards of the blessings of earth that God has given to us. But when I’m speaking about being earthly minded or worldly minded, I mean loving the things of the world more than loving the things of God. And especially loving the world in the negative sense of that term, in the sense of the world system that is under Satan’s influence, which is in rebellion against God. We are not to love the things of the world, especially the world system, in rebellion against God. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, thus, in other words, in the way described in verse 10, the created order, while good as originally created from the hands of God has, of course, been impacted and corrupted by sin and needs to be purified and refined by God’s holy fire so that all sinful and corrupted things will be burned away.
Beloved, the things of this fallen world system are only temporary and are ultimately to be burned up in God’s righteous and holy judgment. So to be worldly minded and to live a worldly life, a life that’s focused only on this present age, a life that is dominated by love of the world, the flesh and the devil, to be worldly minded and to live a worldly life is ultimate foolishness. It involves valuing that which God abhors and inverting the true priorities of an authentic life. It is to opt for that which has no ultimate future, that which is perishing, that which is doomed to destruction. Instead, what should our mindset be? We sang that beautiful hymn earlier in the service, May the mind of Christ, my Savior, rule my heart in everything. It’s a beautiful hymn.
We should have the mind of Christ, not worldly mindedness, earthly mindedness, but the mind of Christ. And one of the ways that we have the mind of Christ is by setting our sights on what the Lord has planned next on the schedule of redemptive history. And so we learn here in verse 11 that belief in the second coming of Jesus Christ should produce holy and godly living. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of what? Holiness and godliness. In view of the destruction this sinful fallen world is headed for, we should live as those whose citizenship is in heaven. Because brothers and sisters, if you belong to Christ, if you are in Christ, your ultimate citizenship is in heaven. Turn with me if you would to what Paul says about this in Philippians 3 verses 17 through 21.
Paul writes these words, and he’s exhorting, and remember Paul is writing this from prison. Paul is in prison for the gospel of Christ, and he says this to the Christians that he writes to. He says, brothers, join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us, for many of whom I have often told you and now tell you, even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. He’s burdened by those who oppose the gospel and who walk as enemies of the cross of Christ, and he goes on to say, their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and they glory in their shame with, notice this, with minds set on what? Set on earthly things. That our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
Dear listener, are you living as a citizen of heaven, or is your life worldly and earthbound? In fact, let me ask you, are you a citizen of heaven? Is your ultimate citizenship in heaven? Only as you trust in Christ by the grace of God, only as you turn to Christ, offer to you in the gospel in true faith and repentance can you be assured that your citizenship is in heaven. Repent and believe the good news tonight. Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us take to heart our identity as a people of destiny. As Peter goes on to say in verse 12, we are to be waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and heavenly bodies will melt as they burn.
Beloved in Christ, we are to be a forward-looking people. We are a people with a destiny. We are a people living between the times, between the time of our Lord’s first advent and his glorious future second advent. By God’s sovereign grace, we are a people destined for glory. We are destined for glory. This is not our ultimate home. We’re simply strangers here. We’re pilgrims on the way. And we are called as pilgrims to wait for and hasten the coming of the day of God. Now waiting for it is one thing. We’re all waiting for Jesus to return. But this terminology of hastening the coming day of God is more active in its focus. The NIV translates it as speeding its coming. We are to speed the coming of the day of God. What does that mean?
It makes it sound like we can make Jesus return or we can shorten the time of his return in some way. Dr. Kistermacher, who is, again, he is a Reformed Bible commentator, but he says this in his commentary about this. He says, this is a startling statement, a statement of hastening the coming of the day of God. This is a startling statement indeed. Peter is saying that we have a vital part in shortening the time set for the coming of God’s day. Did you realize that? You say, well, how does that make sense? And how do we do that? How do we hasten the coming day of God? How do we speed the time of our Lord’s return? Well from the context of this passage and the overall context of 2 Peter, indeed the overall scriptural context, we hasten the coming of the day of God.
We hasten our Lord’s return through such things as godly living, missions and evangelism, prayer and worship through these spiritual means. But of course, some would say, wait a minute, pastor, I thought we were Reformed here. I thought we were Calvinists. We believe in God’s absolute sovereignty. And so we know that in terms of God’s sovereign decree, the return of Christ, the day of Christ’s return is fixed from eternity. So how can we hasten the day? How can we shorten the time for our Lord’s return? And of course, there is great mystery here. Of course, the day of our Lord’s return has been fixed by God’s sovereign decree. And of course, Jesus is certain to return precisely when the Father intends for him to return at the preordained time. But at the same time, in terms of the historical process leading up to our Lord’s return, there is a sense in which we participate in hastening the Lord’s return.
And that’s why it’s legitimate for us as the church to pray, Maranatha, come Lord Jesus. We pray for the Lord’s return. We pray for the Lord to hasten his return. This is not contrary to God’s sovereign decree, but it is an outworking of that decree in the mysterious plan and purposes of God. Remember, God uses means to accomplish his purposes. And so, for example, some of you have non-believers, unbelievers in your life, you’re praying for their salvation. We know that if they are elect, they will be saved in God’s timing and according to God’s way. But we’re still encouraged to pray for the lost, aren’t we? Our prayers for the lost to be saved and our attempts to share the gospel with them and bring them to church and encourage them to use the means of grace do not contradict God’s sovereign plan or purposes, but are part of how God carries out his purposes.
And the same thing when it comes to hastening the day of our Lord’s return. And that brings me to my next point as we move along. These last two points will be brief. Consider the promise of new heavens and a new earth as an encouragement to faith and hope. In verses 12 through 13, we see the promise of new heavens and a new earth as an encouragement to our faith and hope. It says in verse 12, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn. But according to his promise, there’s a promise, according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. When God makes a promise, does he keep his promises? Of course he does.
We wait his promise, even as we hasten the day of the Lord. Now the Old Testament background for this reference to the new heavens and the new earth in which righteousness dwells is, of course, the book of the prophet Isaiah is one passage, Isaiah 65, 17 through 25, which was read earlier in the service and also Isaiah 66, 22 to 24. I’m just going to read that passage very briefly, Isaiah 66, verses 22 to 24, it says this, For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your offspring and your name remain. From new moon to new moon and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the Lord. Again to quote from Dr. Kistimacher, he says with the word new, Peter teaches that this new creation will come forth out of the old creation.
In other words, and again, this is disputed among some, even among some reformed scholars, but I agree with Kistimacher here. It’s not that God’s going to totally annihilate, totally get rid of the present creation and start all over. It’s not new in the sense of brand new, fresh from the hand, the creative hand of God, rather as Kistimacher says, the word new, with the word new, Peter teaches that this new creation comes forth out of the old creation. That is, the old has given birth to the new. And then he quotes from Henry Alford, who compares the new creation, the new heavens and the new earth to the new world that arose after the flood of Noah. Alford says the flood did not annihilate the earth, but changed it. And as the new earth was a consequence of the flood, so the final new heavens and earth shall be of the fire.
So it will be a purifying fire. Believer, let the truth of the coming new heavens and new earth encourage your heart as you fight the good fight of faith. Let it strengthen your faith and your hope as you look forward to the promise of his coming. But finally, remember that the Lord’s patience means salvation. We learned that in verses 14 through 16. Again, Peter addressing his readers in a very pastoral tone. He says, therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, what are they to do? What are we to do as we wait for the return of our Lord and the day of the Lord? Be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace. In other words, continue to walk by faith and pursue godliness and holiness as you await the coming of the Lord.
Not only that, he says, and count the patience of our Lord as salvation. Count the patience of our Lord as salvation. Again, Christ is not returned yet because he’s being patient. He’s being patient as the gospel call is going out and as the elect are being called into the kingdom and to faith in Christ through the call of the gospel. And so count the patience of our Lord as salvation. And oh, how patient he is. How patient he is. If you look back in your life, believer, you can look back on times when your faith has been shaken, when you’ve had ups and downs, and perhaps you’ve had times when you’ve wandered far from the Lord, but he’s been patient with you and he’s drawn you back. The Lord is incredibly patient. He’s slow to anger.
He’s abounding in steadfast love and covenant faithfulness. Don’t take his patience for granted. Don’t presume upon the grace of God, but rejoice in the patience of the Lord because the patience of our Lord is salvation, as Peter says. And not only that, Peter also brings the apostle Paul into it to confirm what he’s saying. He says, just as our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him, which by the way indicates the wisdom given to Paul, that’s Peter’s recognizing the fact that Paul’s writings were given by divine inspiration, divine wisdom coming from the Lord. Verse 16, as he does in all his letters, when he speaks in them of these matters. And then he goes on to say, and if you’ve read Paul’s writings, I think you can resonate with this.
He says, You ever find that when you’re reading Paul? There are some things in Paul’s writings that are hard to understand. Even Peter thought so. So don’t be discouraged when you have trouble understanding Paul at times. But there are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures. By the way, this language of the other scriptures implies that Peter recognizes the divine inspiration of Paul’s apostolic writings. And so again, Peter reinforces what he had already said in verse nine, he reinforces that in verse 15, as he talks about the patience of the Lord. And he also, and the apostle Paul again, taught similar things. And by the way, this verse, verse 15 and 16 puts to rest any theories that would see a tension between Paul’s teachings and Peter’s teachings.
Peter and Paul were both apostles of Jesus Christ, and they were united in their doctrine. And again, notice that Peter regards Paul’s letters as being on the same level as the other scriptures, which implies that the apostles recognized each other’s official apostolic writings as holy scripture. And so should we as well. So friends, as we hasten the day of the Lord Jesus, the day of his return, let us remember that the Lord’s patience is salvation. And let us praise God for his incredible patience toward us and his goodness to us. Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you and praise you that Jesus will one day return in glory. We thank you for your patience toward us. We ask that you would grant us the grace to be patient toward others, especially towards those who are yet outside of Christ.
May we bear patient testimony and witness to the good news of Jesus. And we pray that by your spirit, you would give us the grace to hasten our Lord’s coming. Lord Jesus, come. Come quickly. In your name we pray, all of God’s people said, Amen. Let’s close our time of worship by rising and we’ll sing as our closing hymn, number 281. Rejoice, the Lord is King, 281.
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