So thank you very much for having me.
I'm going to just lower this a small bit.
If you want to turn your way to the 2 Peter, where you've been walking through this summer.
I'm going to start my timer here as well.
2 Peter chapter 3.
And we'll be looking at verses 11 to 16 in particular.
So 2 Peter, before we read, 2 Peter is a letter.
And so I think instead of just jumping into a text and reading it in isolation to the rest of the letter.
I think it's better for us to just remember that it is a letter.
And that we should take a running jump at it.
Don't just fly into the text and try to have a bit of context.
So what I did is I read and listened to 2 Peter and 1 Peter over and over again.
To try and get just a feeling and to just really have in my mind exactly what Peter is trying to say to his people.
Peter is at the end of his life and he is writing to them and he is exhorting them.
And so I'd like to just read out kind of a sketch of 1 and 2 Peter.
Just to give us a bit more context so that as we get into the verses we have that running jump to it.
So the Apostle Peter is calling believers to remain faithful to the end.
He says you've been born again to a living hope, a salvation into which angels long to look.
So don't be surprised at trials.
Be holy.
You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.
That you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
For the Lord's sake submit to every institution.
Endure sorrow of unjust suffering and trust the Lord.
Husbands and wives live as God has called you to.
All the time that is passed is sufficient for doing what the Gentiles want to do.
The end of all things is at hand.
Therefore be self-controlled and sober minded for the sake of your prayers.
Again, don't be surprised when persecution comes.
This is to be accepted.
And remember Jesus.
Entrust yourself to a faithful creator just like he did.
Elders, shepherd God's flock well with a right heart.
Everyone, be humble.
You have an enemy.
He is a vicious lion, but resist him and he will flee from you.
Hold fast.
God will restore you.
He will confirm you.
He will strengthen you and establish you.
And in second Peter, brothers and sisters, his divine power is granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.
In other words, you have all that you need for the Christian life.
Therefore, make every effort to grow in Christlikeness.
If you're not growing, you've lost sight of the fact that you've been cleansed from your sins.
And as long as I, Peter, am alive, I'll keep reminding you about these things.
This isn't a man-made myth.
I've seen Christ transfigured on the mount.
So believe me, this is God's word, not an invention of man.
False teachers will come among you as they always have.
They are condemned, but God knows how to rescue his own people and keep the unrighteous under punishment.
These false teachers promise you freedom, but they themselves are slaves to corruption.
They'd be better off if they had never known the truth than that they knew it and turned from it.
They'll laugh at the idea of a promised judgment day.
But God's word is true, just as he called creation into being by his word, so he will call creation to an end by his word.
The day of the Lord is coming.
Like a thief in the night, as Jesus said, the day of the Lord is coming.
And so as we come to verse 11 to 16 of chapter 3, have that in your mind that Peter has been calling, exhorting, reminding us of who we are, what is coming.
The false teachers will come among us, that we have all that we need.
And so let's begin reading in verses 11 with this in mind.
Let's start first in verse 10, I think.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
He's borrowing Jesus' language from Matthew 24.
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 you ought to be in lies 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 burn.
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 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.
Now, I'd like to start off with, as I was thinking through this, I'd like to start off with just saying that I was convicted when I read 2 Peter and 1 Peter.
And maybe you will be too, maybe you have been as you've gone through this summer.
I was convicted of the fact that I rarely give thought to the second coming of Christ.
I don't know, maybe I'm alone in that.
I do read the Word of God, and I love the Lord, but I've noticed that for the last, for months, I could go months, I'd say, without having thought of the fact that Jesus could come back tomorrow.
And it's something that when you think of it, you go, how could I have forgotten something so clear, something that Jesus promised he would do?
And it should be something that I think about often.
I mean, we talk a lot about how Jesus intervened the first time when he became a man.
And Jesus, who in the form of God did not account equality with God, something to be grasped, but he emptied himself by taking the form of being born in the likeness of man and being found in human form.
He humbled himself by becoming obedient, even to the point of death on a cross.
And we should speak about this.
We speak about how Jesus became a man and how he rose again.
But I have noticed, at least in my own life, that I've failed to consider and to hasten the second coming of Christ.
I just realized I've just not been doing it.
Maybe I don't want to be coming across as some sort of apocalyptic nutter, someone who has a sign in their garage, you know, the end is nigh.
And although that is not the gospel, it's not the gospel to go out and show a sign that says the end is nigh.
Because that's not necessarily, specifically Christian.
That is part of the Christian message.
And so I don't want to be a weirdo who only talks about the end times.
But then I don't want to be someone who ignores that part of scripture that calls us.
And so I had to repent of it.
But I want to ask you this morning, try something for me.
Just picture Main Street down in Carragalline.
I was thinking of Balancholic where I live, but I also know Carragalline as well.
I want you to think of Main Street down in Carragalline.
You can see the Carragalline Court Hotel, there's the Catholic Church, there's the Super Valley, there's a little bridge, there's the hill.
And I want you to ask yourself this question.
Do you believe that one day all this will be gone?
Do you believe that?
Do you believe that one day Carragalline will not exist?
That it will be broken down and that there will no longer be that place?
That the house I live in right now won't be there.
There will be a new heavens and new earth.
Now think about that.
Do you really believe that?
That's a big thing to believe.
But I want you to let the weight of that just rest on you.
Jesus has promised he will return to judge the living and the dead.
The universe as we know will pass away.
The towns we live in, the jobs that we work, the houses we live in, there will be no more.
Yet all men will be brought before the judgment seat of Christ.
There will be a new heavens and a new earth.
Some believe that the present universe will be destroyed ultimately.
In other words, that God will destroy the universe and that he'll make a new one from scratch.
While others still hold that it'll be melted down and sort of reduced to its original elements and then built back up.
And I think that that second interpretation is more in line if you look at Romans 8 where Paul says,
And so you see in verse 12,
And you know, I was trying to picture that.
I was like, what?
You know, if I was a director in a film, how would I direct the heavens being set on fire and dissolved and the heavenly bodies melt as they burn?
And what can we point towards?
I'm sure we could hire some really skilled CGI guy to do it.
But the whole idea is that it's humbling and it's scary.
And that only God can do that.
Men can burn down buildings, but we can't burn creation.
And so moving on, I suppose the main thrust of what I want to look at this morning is that in light of this,
in light of the surety of Christ's return,
we should be godly.
It's simply the message.
There's no need to make it somewhat complicated than it is.
But while we wait for Christ, we should try and be more and more like Christ by the power of his spirit.
And so what I'd like us to do is look,
I suppose you could look at, if you want to call it, the verbs that are in these verses.
What does this look like?
Godliness is something that we all as Christians hope to attain to and hope to grow in.
It's not a place you arrive at and go, I'm no godly.
But rather it's a matter of degrees where we come from one measure of glory to the other, more like Christ.
But have a look in verse 12.
So I'm going to look at waiting, how we can wait in godliness, how we can hasten in holiness,
being diligent and counting God's patience as salvation.
So four things.
So the first one being waiting.
Look at verse 12.
So in verse 12 it says,
Waiting for and hasten the coming of the day of God.
We should be waiting for Christ's return.
Waiting is always forward looking.
So if you see someone sitting on the side of the street and you ask them, you know, what are you doing?
And he goes, I'm waiting.
You wouldn't go, okay.
You'd say, well, what are you waiting for?
Waiting always has, it might sound obvious to stay,
but waiting always is something that's in the future that you're waiting for.
It has an object.
And so our waiting is for the return of Christ.
And how do we do that?
It's not a passive waiting.
So if you'd move on just two words later in the verse,
it says that we're hastening the return of Christ.
We don't passively wait.
It's not just to sit there and, you know, like you're waiting for a bus.
You can sit and wait for a bus.
You don't have to do anything.
You don't have to hope the bus arrives alone.
In Ireland you're going to have to do.
But hastening, we don't passively wait.
We actively wait.
And to hasten means to earnestly desire it,
to hurry it along, so to speak.
So how do we do that?
How do we hasten the day of the Lord?
Again, I think it's a pretty straightforward answer,
but when we do all that we can to help accomplish the Great Commission,
we are hastening the Lord's return.
And we should pray to that end.
Look at the end of Revelation.
He who testifies to these things says,
Surely I am coming soon.
Amen.
Come, Lord Jesus.
We should pray that Christ would return.
And we should pray knowing that he will not return
until the gospel has gone forth to all nations.
He will not return to the gospel,
which came through the whole world as a testimony to all nations,
as Jesus said in Matthew 24.
Therefore, we should pray.
On a practical level, look in the news today.
You should pray for Egypt.
There is a power struggle.
And we know from the word of God
that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood,
but against the powers of darkness.
And we know that what's going on there
in that country right now
has implications for the rest of the Middle East.
And someone's going to land up with more power than somebody else.
The dust will settle,
and someone will have power.
And we should be praying,
Lord, whoever it is,
we know that the heart of the king
is like a stream in your hands.
Whoever it is who has power in Egypt
in two years' time or three years' time
when there's stability,
would you please, Lord,
make sure that that person
allows for greater freedom for Christians.
That's how we should be praying.
Look at the news.
Take that as your prayer points.
Think globally and pray
that the Great Commission would be carried out.
And think locally as well.
Am I sharing the gospel with my friends?
Am I using every opportunity
and making the best use of the time?
Because the days are evil.
Verse 14.
We go to verse 14.
Therefore, beloved,
since you are waiting for these,
be diligent to be found in him
without spot or blemish,
and at peace.
I think that peace they're referring to,
you know, think of Romans,
therefore having been justified by faith.
We have peace with God.
Peace.
You don't have to be worrying
is God going to destroy you as a Christian
because his wrath is gone.
There's not any wrath left for any Christian.
God didn't get rid of 90% of it on the cross
for his people.
He got rid of 100% of his wrath.
There is no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ.
We have peace.
And we should seek to live in peace with all people.
But I want us to focus here
on the words being diligent
and without spot or blemish.
And the word diligence here
is the same word that Peter used back
at the start of chapter 1
when Simon was speaking a few weeks ago
on this passage.
He said when he entreats us
to make every effort
to make our calling and election sure.
So he's at the end of his letter now
he's just reminding you
keep going,
make every effort,
be diligent to grow.
It's also the same one he uses in 115
where he says,
you know,
I'll make every effort
to remind you of these things.
I'm going to be diligent
to remind you
to be diligent.
So,
it's a striving,
it's a daily effort
and to be found in him
without spot or blemishes.
Now I was thinking about that,
I was like,
why did he use that kind of language?
I mean,
it's kind of in stark contrast
to what he used in chapter 2.
He says we shouldn't have spots or blemishes
and he actually describes false teachers
as blemishes and stains.
Not that they have stains or blemishes,
they are blemishes.
But I was wondering,
Peter doesn't point out
big inconsistencies
but rather small things,
spots and blemishes.
You know,
if I took you outside,
we drive a silver polo,
it's about 14 years old.
If I took you outside
and I showed you
the bodywork of our car,
it's got dents and scratches.
It's not spring chicken
and it's got a few dents
and a few bumps in it.
Thankfully,
there are no missing doors
or windows.
And that's really handy.
So it's roadworthy.
Now when it comes to cars,
that's fine.
You don't even need a car
to be absolutely perfect
and without blemish or spot.
But as Christians,
I think we can be too easily
fooled into thinking
that godliness is just about
dealing with the missing cars
and windows.
And we just glaze over so easily
the little dents
and the small spots of blemishes.
You know,
I suppose in my thinking,
I kind of think,
as long as I don't crash
with big sins,
then that'll be fine.
But really godliness,
something very helpful
which I'd like to read
to you in a minute,
godliness is really
the sum of a thousand
small things.
If you ever think about
how Jesus lived his life,
I mean,
you think of Jesus
in his ministry,
but I like thinking of,
imagine what Jesus was like
when he was a teenager,
when he was asked
to do something
that no teenager likes
being asked to do
to do the washing
or clean up.
Or what was Jesus like
when he was really hungry
and was struggling
with being cranky?
Or what was Jesus like
when someone,
you know,
when he stubbed his toe?
Or when someone
was just really rude to him
for no reason
and he was trying
to buy something off him?
I mean,
kind of,
that really is godliness
being lived out.
I'd like to read from you
from Kevin DeYoung.
He's an author.
He wrote a book
about holiness,
a hole in our holiness,
we call it.
And he puts it well.
He said,
Holiness is the sum
of a million little things,
the avoidance
of little evils
and little foibles,
the setting aside
of little bits
of worldliness
and little acts
of compromise,
the putting to death
of little inconsistencies
and little indiscretions,
the attention
to little duties
and little dealings,
the hard work
of little,
small self-denials
and small self-restraints,
the cultivation
of little benevolences
and little forbearances.
Are you trustworthy?
Are you kind?
Are you patient?
Are you joyful?
Do you love?
These qualities
worked out
in all the little things
in life
determine whether
you are a blight
or a blessing
to everyone around you,
whether you are
an ugly spiritual eyesore
or growing
into a good-looking Christian.
And although Christ
is speaking
in a different context,
I think it's helpful
to remember his words.
He said,
you know,
one who is faithful
in a very little
is also faithful
in much.
And one who is dishonest
in a very little
is also dishonest
in much.
I suppose if I give
an example
from my own life,
if I'm praying
for Egypt
and praying,
as I described already,
that God,
the kingdom of God
would be further
through that conflict
and that he would
bring peace.
And then I go out
and my wife asks me
to empty the dishwasher
and I'm like,
then I can't separate
the two.
I can't be cranky
with my wife
and then think
that that's fine
because I'm praying
for big things.
That's how we work
out our salvation.
So,
something that's been
very helpful for me
that I would pass on
and that I think
Peter is drawing
attention to here
is spots and blemishes.
Look for those things
that you think,
it's not that small.
It's not any small thing.
It's part of my personality
or I've always been
that way.
But if it's not
in line with the word
of God,
just get rid of it.
Ask him for his help.
Unless you think,
I know what it's like
to be hearing
preaching about holiness
and sometimes
you can just feel
like you're being
whacked over the head
and you can just
find it,
yeah,
I know I should be
better and I'll try
and do better.
But look back
to chapter 1.
We have all
that we need.
We have everything
that we need.
Holiness,
being Christ-like
is not a pipe dream.
It's not something
that the Lord gave us
just so he could
watch us,
you know,
fumble.
He gave us a goal,
Christ-likeness,
and he's given us
everything that we need.
Now we see that
God sovereignly
changes us,
but we have to
pick up and go
and make every effort.
You're not going to
wake up one day
as some,
you know,
holy saint
with a ring around
the back of your head.
We have to
make every effort
and grow.
Be more godly today
than you were yesterday.
Even if they're
small steps,
they're steps nonetheless.
In verse 15,
I want to just
look at a
phrase here
where he says,
count the patience
of the Lord
as salvation.
I've read this
loads of times
and I never really
understood what he
meant by that.
It's not terribly
complicated when I
actually thought about it.
So,
the word count here
can mean to consider
or to deem
or to account,
to think of.
So,
we could put it like this.
We could say,
consider the patience
of the Lord
as salvation
or deem the patience
of the Lord
or think of the patience
of the Lord
as salvation.
So,
to put it simply,
when we consider
why God hasn't
come back yet,
we should understand
this to be an account,
on account,
of his patience.
A patience
with the aim
of salvation
which Paul,
he spoke of
in Romans chapter 2
and he said,
you know,
do you presume
on the riches
of his kindness
and forbearance
and patience
not knowing
that God's kindness
is meant to lead
you to repentance?
God's patience
as an expression
of his kindness
is there
so that sinners
will repent.
So,
if someone comes up
to you and goes like,
oh well,
Jesus is taking
his time
coming back
and they're snacky
but I think you can
just kind of
quickly retort
and say,
that's because
he's giving you
time to repent.
You've got time.
I can't guarantee
you much longer
than this minute
but you have time.
People will laugh
at the fact
that Jesus
is coming back
and they'll caricature it
and think they were
like,
you know,
they'll think
they were kind of
like,
you know,
Armageddon
kind of people
but it is a note
and it is a part
of the gospel
and we should warn
people of the wrath
to come.
So,
when someone says,
you know,
I don't see
any signs
that he's coming
back,
then we can
clearly say to them
that's because
he's giving you
time to repent.
He's calling
his people
to himself
and once that's
done,
there will be
no more time
to repent.
That's it.
Verses 15 and 16,
let's have a quick
look at those again.
Count the patience
of the 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 the unstable
twist to their
own destruction
as they do
with the other
scriptures.
Now,
I want to address
this because
this is part
of the text
I've been given
and it might seem
just a little bit
separate to what
I've spoken of
already about being
holy and how we
should hasten and
wait for the Lord
but it's really
important.
Peter refers to
Paul's letter
saying that
Paul also wrote
about these
things and in
doing so he's
emphasizing the
fact that they're
in agreement
about these
things.
So he didn't
have one
apostle going
I think this
is how it's
going to play
out and this
is what you
should do and
another apostle
going well no
I think you
know they're
all in agreement
and Paul is
we understand
he's passed
away at this
time his
letters are in
circulation
probably for
quite a while
and so he's
going on to
point out that
there are some
things in Paul's
letters that are
hard to understand.
I am relieved
that's in the
Bible.
Because I think
we're fooling
ourselves if we
say that the
Bible is simple
to understand
and I kind of
feel sorry for
people who do
kids Bibles and
they come to
passages that are
really hard to
do which is like
you can't really
get around how
complicated that
is.
Paul was a
gigantic intellect
and he spoke in
ways that are
just that are
really rigorous
rigorous and
strong and
watertight but in
order to be
watertight and
rigorous and
strong they're
quite complicated
sometimes.
But Peter says
that there are
ignorant and
unstable people
out there and
what they do is
they twist the
word of God and
that word can
actually even mean
to torture.
I always like to
think of, you
know, remember
Stretch Armstrong
remember those
toys, anything
like that, any
kind of squishy
toys, you pull
them and you can
twist them but if
you let go of
them they just go
back to the way
they were.
And one of the
great things about
the Reformation I
suppose and was
there before the
Reformation was just
being reminded that
the best way to
interpret scripture
is with scripture
and that we
shouldn't twist the
word of God.
And notice why he
says they twist it
to their own
destruction.
I'm sure every
single one of us
in this room, if
we're being honest,
there have been
times you've read
the Bible and
gone, I wish that
wasn't there.
I'll be honest
about it, I just
wish that wasn't
there.
Whether it's
something that
convicts me or
something that I
think is not fair
and oftentimes I've
gone on to
understand it better
and go, okay,
that's not actually
saying what I
think it's saying
but there have
been times when
I've gone, if
that wasn't there
I wouldn't miss it
in some ways.
But whenever we
change the Bible
it's always a
loss, it's never
again.
Never.
No one ever
wins by changing
the Bible.
And when you
have teachers,
false teachers,
who will, by
ignoring passages
of scripture,
they're actually,
their people are
losing out and
they're only doing
damage because the
word of God in
its entirety is
profitable.
It's good for us.
Some of it is
better swallowed than
chewed, as
Spurgeon said,
but it is all
good for us and
we need it all.
And so when they
twist the scriptures
they do it to
their own
destruction.
And so look at
verse 16 and
this is very
important.
He says about
Paul's writings,
he says, as they
do the other
scriptures.
So they twist
Paul's writings as
they do the other
scriptures.
And so Peter here
I think is clearly
affirming the
writings of Paul
whose letters were
known in circulation
for a while as
scripture.
Some have said
that these verses
are not saying
this, but I
think even aside
from the clear
sentence structure
there, if you
look at the fact
that if we found
Paul's letter,
another letter of
Paul today in
Caracol, if we
managed to find
another letter of
Romans part 2,
we wouldn't hold
that as scripture.
We would say
that's a fantastic
find and we can
get a mind even
more into the
mind of Paul,
a view, but we
wouldn't hold that
as scripture.
And so, what
he's saying is
that if they
twist Paul's
letters, if Paul's
letters and he's
referring to them
as not scripture
and they twist
them, then they're
just twisting
Paul's letters.
They're not
twisting scripture.
If I write a
letter to someone
here about the
Christian faith and
they twist it and
misinterpret it,
they're not going
to get destroyed
for that.
But if it's
scripture they're
twisting, you see
the link?
If it's not
scripture then it
can't be eternally
fately.
And so, that's
just a run
through of those
verses, but I
want us just to
recap.
Ask yourself
again, think about
it this morning,
later today, when
you go to work
tomorrow, whatever
you're doing.
That Christ's
second coming is
coming and that
he is coming
back.
He will come
back to judge the
living and the
dead.
In the meantime,
let us be holy and
about our
master's business,
the great
commission, until
he comes or we
die.
We can also die.
So, one of
those will come.
I used to think
in terms of
motivation, the
fact that one
day I know I'm
going to die, but
I just forgot the
fact that you
might actually die,
Christ might just
come back, and he
might meet you
before you get to
meet him, as it
were.
He might show up
by surprise.
You know, one of
my first passages of
scripture that I ever
memorized, and I hope I
can do it justice this
time.
It was Mark 8.
And he said, you
know, Jesus was
speaking to his
disciples, and he
said, if anyone
will come after me,
let him take up his
cross and follow me.
For whoever would
save his life will
lose it.
Whoever loses his
life for my sake and
the gospel will save
it.
He said, you
know, whoever is
ashamed of me and
of my words, and of
my words in this
wicked and adulterous
generation, of him
will the Son of Man
also be ashamed when
he comes in the glory
of his Father with the
holy angels.
I'm sure I've missed
out a small bit, but
the point being that
Christ will come back,
and as he said
himself, will I find
faith on her?
So let's lay aside
every weight and
every sin which
clings so closely and
run with endurance the
race that is set before
us.
And in closing, I'd
like to just read from
Isaiah 40, which I
think really speaks to
how temporal this life
is and how small we
are really.
Isaiah 40, verses 6
to 8.
All flesh is like
grass, and all its
beauty is like the
flower of the field.
The grass withers, the
flower fades, when the
breath of the Lord
blows upon it.
Surely the people are
grass.
The grass withers, the
flower fades, but the
word of our God will
stand forever.
Let's pray.