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.