2 Peter 3, starting at verse 1.
This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved.
In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder
where is the promise of this coming?
For ever since the fathers fell asleep,
all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.
They deliberately overlook 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.
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.
Good morning, everyone.
I hope you sleep well.
Or if not, you might get some sleep in the next few minutes.
I've been up in Townsville for the last 12 years,
and if you don't know the place, it's quite humid up there.
And then I've been in Bathurst for the last 12 months,
and there's actually no humidity.
They took it.
They took it all and took it to North Queensland.
But there's humidity here,
and so I feel myself sweating for the first time in like a year.
This is not anything related to the passage or the talk.
I'm just noticing it.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you that you speak to us in the Scriptures.
It's just so great to have your Word.
Lord, we pray that your Spirit might apply it to our hearts now as we read it.
Father, help us to understand just the reliability of everything you say to us
and what it means for our life to come and our life today.
And we pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Well, North Queensland, it is great.
It's weird.
It's got a kind of pirate town vibe to it,
everywhere from Rockhampton North.
Wouldn't be surprised to see Captain Jack Black there.
But the thing that I didn't like about North Queensland
was the constant threat of cyclones.
If you were here last night, Matt spilled the beans a little bit.
We have cyclones in North Queensland.
In the year before we got there,
I was speaking to the Lucases about this last night,
there was a big cyclone called Cyclone Yasi,
and it was devastating.
It was very destructive,
and the locals were stinging from it.
Everybody had gone out and bought a generator
and got it wired to their house
because the worst thing about cyclones in North Queensland
is you have no air conditioning
for like a couple of weeks, maybe three weeks afterwards,
and that matters.
If you haven't been there, that really matters.
In a sense, you can get away with your health.
They're pretty good at building houses and stuff now
to protect people,
but the lack of power
and the humidity in the air
after monsoonal rain is phenomenal.
We've had people sleeping at our church
just to get air conditioning
because their area is out.
Anyway, because that happened just before we got there,
people in the community were stinging.
They were really cyclone aware,
and we moved up there,
and we were freaking out
because as you come into North Queensland,
once you get into the cyclone area,
they have these signs saying,
you know, be cyclone aware
when you're in North Queensland.
So we were.
We were vigilant.
We made sure we had no rubbish or debris in our yard.
We'd pull our trampoline, which was giant
because we had five kids down
every time there was any kind of warning of a cyclone.
You're meant to have a cyclone pack.
Our mayor, Mayor Jenny Hill,
used to warn us every year on radio and TV
that you have to have your cyclone pack ready.
What goes in a cyclone pack?
Tinned food,
enough water for four days,
and a torch,
and a transistor radio
so you can hear the communication.
So we got all that together.
But the thing was,
year after year,
there'd be cyclones out in the Coral Sea,
and they'd track close to Townsville,
but year after year,
they would never hit.
Only so many times you can pull
an eight-metre trampoline down
and then put it back together again.
We got a bit apathetic.
We started eating some of the food
in the cyclone pack.
We gave the torch to one of the kids for a camp.
Despite all the talk,
year after year,
a cyclone just never came.
And so, to be totally honest,
we stopped caring.
It seemed like the talk
would just never become reality.
Now, I don't know if you can tell
where I'm going with this.
As Peter writes his second letter
to the church here,
and we come in at chapter three,
he's not writing to get us prepared
for a cyclone,
but he's writing to make sure
we're prepared for the day of the Lord.
Now, the people that Peter's writing to,
they've come to faith in Jesus,
and they've become Christians,
and he just wants them to stay that way
until the day of the Lord's return.
A bit like what I asked you to pray
for my kids yesterday.
That's what Peter wants for these guys.
It's been a long time
since they came to Christ.
He knows apathy is a big risk.
He knows some people are saying
the day of the Lord will never come,
but it's a joke.
So he's writing this
to say,
I assure you that it's not.
God has always done what he says,
and he will continue to.
And I think the question for us
as we read this section is,
do you believe that to be the case?
Do you believe there'll be a day of judgment?
Does it seem real to you?
Or does it seem distant?
A joke?
Let's turn to verse 1 now
and remind ourselves that God always does
what he says he will do.
So I said last night,
look for the theme of the word in this passage.
I think as much as this passage
is about the day of the Lord,
it's about God doing what he says he will do.
So Peter wants to wake his readers up
with God's word.
I'm reading from the NIV 2011 version.
We have all kinds of versions at our church,
and for somebody who's a bit OCD like me,
it really kills me.
I've only been there for 12 months,
but I'm like,
come on guys,
let's get on the same.
Anyway, I'm going NIV.
Sorry about that.
I'm now that person.
Chapter,
Amen.
I'm speaking on,
at another camp later in the year,
on the doctrine of the word of God.
And I just want to assure you,
there is no perfect version.
So just calm down over there, right?
Anyway,
Matt's the one who asked me to speak,
in case you're wondering what I'm doing here.
Peter wants to wake his readers up with God's word.
Have a look from verse 1.
Dear friends,
this is now my second letter to you.
I've written both of them,
as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.
So we're coming in partway through a letter.
You guys have been looking at this in church.
It's chapter 3 of 3.
And Peter's just spent a bit of time warning his readers
about false teachers in the previous chapter.
But we're also,
we're coming in partway through a relationship,
just by starting this letter.
He calls them dear friends in my translation,
and he'll do that three times in this chapter.
But the version that we heard read,
it used the term beloved,
which I think is actually more accurate,
if I can give you that.
Because the people Peter's writing to,
they're beloved of him,
but they're also beloved of God.
They're believers.
He's writing to Christian brothers and sisters
that he's written to before,
and he cares about.
He has a relationship with these guys.
He's got money in the game, right?
He actually cares about them.
He wants their relationship with God to last.
And we find out his purpose in writing
is to stimulate them to wholesome thinking.
Or rather than stimulate,
the word means to wake fully or arouse.
You know, like,
I had my wisdom teeth out a few years ago,
all four at once,
and I had the twilight option.
Go the general option,
that's my advice to you.
But in order for me to come out of that daze,
I needed to be stimulated.
I needed to be awakened.
I needed to be fully aroused.
And that's what Peter's saying
that he's writing to them for.
They might become fully aroused.
He wants them to wake fully to wholesome thinking.
And by that, we find out in verse two,
he means he wants them to lock in
to the things God said,
to God's word,
to the scriptures.
So like a punch drunk boxer
is aroused with sniffing salts
when they've copped too many blows to the head.
Paul wants these guys in their malaise,
in their potential apathy,
to wave the sniffing salts of God's word
under their nose
so they might be aroused.
You get what he's wanting for them?
In this context,
the words that he's talking about
are the words spoken in the past
by the holy prophets.
In the context of this letter,
the words he's specifically talking about,
though, that the holy prophets have spoken,
are the words to do with the day of the Lord.
You guys would have heard the term
the day of the Lord before.
The day of the Lord terminology
has its origins in Amos,
who's a prophet in the Old Testament.
In chapter two, verse six or 16,
one of those two,
in the Old Testament,
Amos speaks about the day of the Lord.
800 years before this letter's written.
And then since Amos chapter two,
the prophets have spoken about it many times,
Malachi being the last,
who spoke about the great and terrible day of the Lord.
So this notion of the day of the Lord,
a day of final judgment,
it's big in the prophets.
Peter wants them to be aroused
from their spiritual apathy
by recalling that God's actually spoken
about the day of the Lord,
about returning to judge
for quite some time.
But he's not just waving
the prophets under their nose,
he's waving the words given
by the Lord Jesus
through the apostles
under their nose as well.
That's the command to live for him
in light of the coming
of the day of the Lord.
What I love about this,
as somebody who was quite cynical
of the Bible
when I first started
checking out Christianity,
is that,
notice in this verse,
the apostle Peter,
he's putting the words
of his peers,
the words of the other apostles,
on the same level of authority
as the prophets.
Did you notice that?
For him,
it's all God's word.
He's trying to be
fully awakening these people
with all of God's word.
He wants them to be stimulated
to understand the truth
that judgment is coming.
How do you wake yourself up
when you're feeling
a bit sleepy?
I'm working at home
quite often these days.
We don't have an office
where I work now.
So I find it easy
to get there.
There are a lot of sleep options
in my house.
We set it up that way.
But I can't afford to do that.
I have to actually be
at my desk concentrating writing.
So to wake myself up,
I'll get up
and I'll go for a walk.
I'll have coffee.
Probably eight out of ten times,
I'll go to the fridge
and eat something,
which is reflected
in my stature at the moment.
All those things,
I'm just trying to do
so that I kind of
snap out of it,
you know,
come and sit back
at my desk,
feel refreshed.
Peter's doing that
with the word of God.
He wants to stimulate them,
wake them from their sleep.
Now I want to ask you,
are you spiritually sleepy?
Or are you stimulated
like somebody
who's had sniffing salts
waved under their nose?
I mean,
let's be honest.
It's very hard
not to be spiritually sleepy
in our culture,
in our society.
Ninety percent
of our country
just gets on with life.
You know,
we work as though
this world
is all we'll ever experience.
There's no tangible
mention of God
in the experience
of most Australians
everyday life.
We focus a lot
on work,
on sport,
on the kids.
I mean,
family's such an
important thing,
isn't it?
It's very easy
to sleep
and to slumber.
It's very easy
to find yourself
thinking,
I'd be interested
in that
if I could be bothered,
but I couldn't
really be bothered
because I've got
so many other
more important things
going on in my life.
There's about,
I reckon,
two or three years
when you first come
to Christ
if you go through
that process,
if you haven't been
raised in a Christian family
where you might be
passionate,
where you might be
filled with zeal
like the psalmist
going to the temple
and then the malaise
sets in
and, you know,
sometimes you have kids,
sometimes you have sickness
and it's all like
little shots of anesthetic
and before you know it,
you can barely open
your eyes
to the reality
that the day
of the Lord
is coming.
Peter says here
the key
to that not happening,
the key to being
fully stimulated,
the key to being
fully awakened
is to recall
the things God said
in the scriptures,
especially
about
the day of judgment
and how to live
for him.
If we wave that
before our eyes,
it'll be like
a cold bath.
it'll be like a,
I guess if the world's
like a slow drip
anesthetic,
the word of God
will be like a slow drip
adrenaline,
just keeping our eyes
open to the truth
that the Lord
is coming back.
How do you go
at recalling things
God said
in his word
to keep yourself awake?
Do you engage
with it each day?
If I said to you,
what are you reading
in your Bible
at the moment
over morning tea?
I won't,
don't worry.
I know there's a lot
of pressure
associated with that,
but I'm giving you
time to think of something
just in case I do.
I've got five kids,
I ask them that question,
I can tell when they're lying.
They just say
what I'm not reading
just in case I ask them
about it.
Do you engage
with God's word?
Do you remind yourself
of the coming judgment?
Do you remind yourself
daily of how you ought
to live in light
of the reality
that the Lord
is in fact returning?
I can say
in my life
there are lots of things
I don't do
that I should do
as a Christian.
Matt mentioned last night
that I'm not
some mythical creature.
I don't know
if people were thinking that,
but I just want
to let you know
that there are lots
of ways in my life
that I fall short
in my faith
and there are lots
of frustrations
and there are lots
of things that I've
been battling with
since I became a Christian
that I feel like
I've made zero progress on.
But there is one thing
that I do do,
I'm not trying
to flex here,
but I try and read
the Bible each day.
Now I don't hit
100%, right?
Yesterday morning
I only read it
with the kids,
I didn't read my own,
that's my day off,
sometimes I get lax
on that day, right?
But I do generally
try and read
the Bible every day.
And I'll tell you what,
if I didn't,
I would be
passed out.
I would have
fallen away.
Because the world
is shooting me
with anaesthetic
every single day.
And without
the word of God
I would be asleep
to the reality
that the Lord
is in fact
going to return.
Every day
I wake up twice,
once with coffee,
with Kath.
So we've got this thing,
when we were
at Bible College,
Peter Jensen's wife
gave a talk
to the Women's Chapel
about how
Peter made a coffee
for her
so that they could
sit up and read
the Bible each morning.
And then Kath came
and said,
oh, Peter makes a coffee
for his wife every morning,
you should do that for me.
So we started doing that
and it was really helpful
until I realised
if I pretended
I was asleep,
Kath would get up
and make the coffee.
So that happens
more often than not now.
But we have the coffee
to wake up
and then we read
the Bible
and we wake up again
to the spiritual reality.
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So I guess
if there's application
for the first point,
it's are you
waving the sniffing salts
of God's word
under your nose each day
to arouse you
from spiritual apathy?
If you are not,
wrestle yourself
back into that habit.
Pray to God
that he'd help you
to get back into it.
Peter wants his readers
to awaken
by recalling God's word.
But it's more than
just spiritual apathy
he's concerned about.
There's spiritual attack
as well
from verse 3.
There are people
who ridicule
what God says.
Have a look
from verse 3.
It says,
Above all,
you must understand
that in the last days
scoffers will come
scoffing
and following
their own evil desires.
To scoff at something
is to mock it,
to ridicule it.
Like last night
when Matt said
Jason's a Dragons fan,
I could hear the scoffing
permeate through the room.
In the last days,
that is the time
between Jesus'
first coming
and the day of judgment,
people will ridicule
God's word.
They'll ridicule
the idea
that there will ever
be a day of judgment.
They won't even
look into it.
They won't see
its history.
They'll just ridicule it.
Like none of you guys
here probably know,
the Dragons have won
11 premierships in a row
and they're quite a noble
team to support.
It's not a joke.
There's actually
a very reliable
and anchored history
to the scriptures.
The most robust document
that we have
from ancient history.
Yet people will mock it
without regard
for any truth
and their lives
won't be altered by it.
In fact,
they'll just follow
the end of verse 3 says
their own evil desires
and why wouldn't they?
Because they don't believe
there'll be a judgment
from God.
So why wouldn't they?
Look what they'll say
in verse 4.
Where is this coming
he promised?
So the question
isn't about the coming
the question is about
the reliability
of his promise,
isn't it?
Where is it?
He's not coming
is what they're saying.
There'll be no great
and dreadful day
of the Lord.
The Lord's not intervening.
He spoke about it
800 years ago
through Amos
and nothing has changed
since he first spoke
about it.
In fact,
they say in verse 4,
ever since our ancestors
died,
everything goes on
as it has since
the beginning of creation.
Have you seen any signs
of the Lord coming back?
Like how long
have you been
on this earth for?
Like 10 years?
20?
30?
100?
Has anything changed
they say?
God's not intervening.
He hasn't since
he made the world.
Which is interesting language
because it suggests
that people doing
this mocking,
they're not atheists,
they believe in
some kind of creator,
not an interventionist one,
but they're saying
since the creator
created the world,
nothing's changed.
According to them,
the idea of a great
and terrible day
of the Lord
is preposterous
and their reason is
because he's never
intervened before.
Why would we think
he would in the future?
Peter says to his readers,
this is what you're up against.
Not just your own apathy
but this external attack
as well.
People saying
God won't do
what he says he'll do.
A bit like the weatherman
in North Queensland
telling people in Townsville
a cyclone's coming.
What a joke, right?
Do you know what
the standard response
to people in Townsville
when a cyclone
is tracking in
in the Coral Sea is?
The standard response is
it'll probably drift south.
That's what we say.
Because it just never comes.
It's a joke, right?
So,
I've just been through
a basic course
in Christianity
back in Bathurst.
It's called
Christianity Explored.
If you haven't heard of it,
it's really good.
I've been doing it
for a long time now
and they're just about
to release an updated version
on March the 12th.
So,
this current course
that I'm doing
is the last time
I'll ever see Rico
in his kind of
early 2000s
dress attire anyway.
It's a great course.
I love it.
People have become
Christian through it.
Lots of people haven't
but it's actually really,
I found it really helpful
to explain the gospel.
Anyway,
one of the questions
we got to
last Tuesday night
was,
do you believe in hell?
Do you believe
in eternal consequences
for rejecting God?
This is non-Christian
people in the room.
Do you believe
there's a thing
called hell?
And,
a lot of people
don't.
They actually
genuinely
don't believe
that such a thing
could exist.
They've seen
nothing in their
day-to-day life
to suggest
there'll be judgement.
Some of them
will talk about
Little Nicky,
the Adam Sandler movie
which makes a mockery
of the whole thing.
For those of us
that are older,
we'd have the
Looney Tunes,
right?
That make a mockery
of it.
Do you think
hell's real?
Do you think
there are eternal
consequences
for rejecting God?
Even for Christians.
Have you,
and I've been up
in Queensland
for more than a decade
so I'm a bit warped
with my thinking.
No offence.
Your people
are really strange.
But there's a
guy in Townsville
who stands
opposite
Stockland
and he waves
a sign
Stockland's
the Myers
and it says
repent
and believe
for judgement
is coming.
And we talk
about it at church
and it's a bit
of a joke,
right?
And we kind
of feel sorry
for the guy.
You ever seen
that sort of thing?
Is it a joke though?
It's not,
is it?
According to
the word of God
the Lord
is coming back
to judge
the living
and the dead.
Peter says
to his readers
don't be,
don't get caught
up in the mockery
because he
ends this section
by saying
they haven't
remembered
that God
always does
what God
says he'll do.
Have a look
from verse 5.
But they
deliberately
forget
that long
ago
by God's
word
the heavens
came into
being
and the
earth
was formed
out of
water
and by
water.
You know
in this section
Peter's,
he's drawing
our attention
to the power
of God's
word.
The faithfulness
of God
to follow
through
on what
he says
is evident
everywhere
since the
history of
creation.
These mockers
who talk
about things
not changing
since the
beginning
of the
world
deliberately
forget
the very
thing that
they affirm
in mocking
it.
That God
created the
world.
He made
it by
speaking.
He spoke
and it
happened.
He separated
the waters
above from
the waters
below.
Peter's
reminding
his readers
that from
the very
beginning
God
speaks
and it
actually
happens.
In
verse 6
he reminds
them of
the great
flood
that we
associate
with
Noah.
God
spoke
back in
Genesis
6.
He
intervened
in
creation.
So this
is God
speaking
again.
But he
spoke
this time
to judge
and guess
what?
It
happened.
God
spoke
about coming
judgment
and it
happened.
What Peter's
saying is
not only
when God
speaks
does it
happen
but when
God
speaks
about
judgment
it
happens.
And he
will do
it again.
He says
in verse 7
by the
same
word
that
reliable
faithful
powerful
word
of God
the
present
heavens
and
earth
by which
he
means
all of
creation
are
reserved
for
fire
the
refiner's
fire
where the
ungodly
will be
destroyed.
Don't
listen to
the
mockers
Peter
says.
They
forget
the
power
of
God's
word.
They
forget
that
God
always
does
what
he
says.
That's
why
Peter
says
you
need
to
wake
up.
You
know
the
12
years
we
lived
in
Townsville
no
cyclones.
Such
a waste
of
time
pulling
the
trampoline
down.
Halfway
through
our
time
there
my
wife
put
a
chicken
coop
under
the
trampoline.
She
put
chicken
wire
around
the
edge
because
it's
8
meters
wide.
It's
quite a
clever
use
of
time.
Traumatic
for the
chickens
when the
kids
are
on
the
trampoline.
Pulling
the
trampoline
down
just
became
a
whole
lot
more
chaotic
so I
stopped
bothering.
12th
year
we
got
one.
fences
blew
down
trees
blew
down
trampolines
everywhere
loads
of
towns
will
have
no
power
for
days
in
the
humid
heat
of
summer
who
would
have
thought
weather
warnings
would
ever
come
true?
Well the
answer is
we all
should have
shouldn't
we?
Because
they have
before.
And if
we heed
the word
of the
weatherman
who we
all
acknowledge
is
fallible
how much
more ought
we heed
the word
of God
that is
infallible?
the
God
who
always
does
what
he
says
even
with
judgment.
How
foolish
not
to.
You
know
there's
a time
in the
book
of Acts
where
the
apostle
Paul
is
speaking
to
a
bunch
of
non
Christians
in
the
public
square
it's
in
Acts
17
and
he
says
this
bear
with
me
here
because
you'll
be
thinking
what's
this
all
about
I
thought
we're
just
about
finished
we are
don't
worry
this
is
Acts
Paul
says
this
now
God
commands
all
people
everywhere
to
repent
for
he
has
set
a
day
when
he
will
judge
the
world
with
justice
by
the
man
he
has
appointed
he's
given
proof
of
this
to
everyone
by
raising
him
from
the
dead
let's
just
unpack
what
that's
talking
about
that's
Acts
17
verse
30
and
31
you
know
Jesus
said
he'd
be
crucified
and
rise
from
the
dead
at
least
three
times
you
can
read
it
in
Mark's
gospel
and
you
know
what
he
was
crucified
he
died
Mark
tells us
he died
as a
ransom
for
many
he
died
to
make
it
possible
for
sinners
like
me
to
be
reconciled
to
God
he
took
the
penalty
of
sin
he
took
God's
wrath
on
himself
on
the
cross
wiping
me
completely
clean
paying
in
full
and
finally
for
sin
on the
cross
we see
God
following
through
on his
promise
to judge
sin
I don't
know if
you've
ever thought
about it
like that
before
but on the
cross we
see God
following
through on
his promise
to judge
sin
because
on the
cross
God's
judgment
fell
fully
and
finally
on the
sin
of his
people
for the
sin
of his
people
on his
son
God
intervened
in human
history
despite what
the mockers
say
to deal
with human
sin
God
said he
would do
it
and he
did it
but
Jesus
also
said
three
times
he
would
rise
and he
did
and according
to the
apostle
Paul
that is
proof
that people
can be
raised
it's
proof
that we'll
all be
raised
and it's
proof
that the
whole world
will be
judged
with justice
by the
Lord
Jesus
the
resurrection
of Jesus
is proof
that God
will do
and has
done
what he
said
he will
do
one day
the risen
Lord
Jesus
we will
all stand
before him
as judge
so
Paul
says here
in Acts
it's time
to repent
it's time
to wake
up
it's time
to stop
ignoring
God
it's time
to turn
back to
him
it's time
to accept
his offer
of forgiveness
to fall
on your
knees
and to
live
with him
as Lord
now having
proven
judgment
is coming
into the
world
the apostle
Paul says
it's time
to repent
and Peter's
readers
back in
2 Peter
chapter 3
you know
what's
great
they seem
to have
done
that
they are
his beloved
brothers and
sisters in
Christ
like many of you
here in this
room
but even
though they're
already saved
he says
I'm writing
to wake
you up
I want
you to
wake up
recall
God's
words
judgment
is coming
God
always
does
what
God
says
he
will
do
let's
pray
heavenly
father
we thank
you so
much
for
revealing
your
plan
for
salvation
through
the
Lord
Jesus
Christ
to
us
in
your
word
father
thank you
that you've
brought
many of us
here in
this room
to faith
in the
Lord
Jesus
thank you
for the
freedom
of knowing
our sin
has been
paid for
that we've
been
washed
father
thank you
for the
Lord
Jesus
Christ
but father
help us
to
to open
our eyes
to wake
up to
the
reality
that one
day
the
Lord
Jesus
will
return
and
will
stand
before
him
as
judge
father
help us
to
live
in
light
of
that
day
in
the
face
of
the
scoffing
in
the
face
of
our
own
slumber
father
help us
to
cling
to
your
word
that
always
comes
true
father
entrenching
us a
habit
to
drip
feed
ourselves
with
it
every
day
that
we
might
remember
the
truth
of
the
great
and
terrible
day
of
the
Lord
from
which
we've
been
spared
through
the
Lord
Jesus
Christ
we pray
this in
his name
Amen
Thank you.