2 Peter 3 - Sharing The Gospel To A Dying World

Hello, and welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. We are Lord Wellen, complete in 2 Peter. Today, we've been walking through the book, Chapter 1.

Peter highlights for these believers the importance of following Jesus, of living out the same type of life that Jesus had given the example for, for them.

And he lets them know, hey, I know that I'm going to be gone here before too long, and I want you to remember these things. And he says, and you can trust what you have heard about Jesus. He says, I'm an eyewitness.

I saw all of it. I saw Moses and Elijah, and it let me know that everything God had said was true. And so I want you to follow Jesus.

He says, there are some people that are not following Jesus. There's some people that are going to come in, and they're going to be greedy. They're going to be immoral.

They're going to be doing all the exact same types of things as the angels in Genesis 6. They're going to do the same things as Sodom and Gomorrah.

They're going to be having the same greed and incitement to sin that even Balaam told the king of the nation that kind of infiltrated Israel a little bit and got him to sin and got him to not have God's blessing in that way.

He says, they're going to be just like them, and they're going to come into your church. They're going to lead people astray. And he says, I want you to be on the watch for who these kinds of people are.

So that you will be able to say, hey, no, that is not the way of Jesus. We are not partaking in that. He says, they're going to ruin some people's faith.

And he says, it's just like what has been before, and I want to warn you that it's coming. Then he says this in chapter 3 and verse number 1. He says, Dear friends, this is now the second letter I have written to you.

In both letters, I want to stir up your sincere understanding by way of reminder. He says, I want you to understand, and so I'm going to keep stirring it up so you recall.

He says, so that you recall the words previously spoken by the Holy Prophets and the command of our Lord and Savior given through your apostles. He says, why did I write these things? I want you to think about the Bible.

I want you to think about what the prophets and Jesus and the apostles have said. He says, above all, be aware of this. Scoffers will come in the last days, scoffing and following their own evil desires, saying, where is his coming that was promised?

Ever since our ancestors fell asleep, all things continue as they have been since the beginning of creation. He says, there's going to be people on there who are going to say, ah, Jesus isn't real. Where is he at?

We haven't seen him. Yeah, he said he was coming very soon. He said he was coming shortly, and yet it's been 2,000 years, so I'm just going to do me.

I'm not going to live my life based on something that was written a long time ago, and I don't see Jesus now, and so I'm just going to do me. But verse number 5, Peter says this, they deliberately overlook this.

By the word of God, the heavens came into being long ago, and the earth was brought about from water and through water. He says God made everything through his word, through what he said.

He says, verse 6, through these, the waters, the world of that time perished when it was flooded. By the same word, the present heavens and earth are stored up for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and the destruction of the ungodly.

He says the word that initially created the world, that destroyed the old world through the flood, is now the one that is waiting that one day will bring judgment once more, not through water, but through fire.

He says in verse 8, dear friends, don't overlook this one fact. With the Lord, one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. Here's what he's saying.

To God, time is nothing. He's the one that created time. He put together all of the elements of our universe that create what we call time, even here on earth, how we do it by the rotation of the sun and the moon.

We kind of keep time by those things. God created all of those. He says God is outside of time.

It's nothing to him. If it's one day here or if it's a thousand years, it's not something that communicates God doesn't care or he isn't involved. He says time is nothing to him.

He says the Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. Why isn't Jesus back? Why over the past 2,000 years?

Why didn't he come before perhaps the Holocaust? Why didn't he come before the Spanish Inquisition? Why didn't he come before the Crusades?

Why didn't he come before many of the things that have happened over the past 50 years? Why didn't he come then? He's patient with us, and he does not want anyone to perish, to die in their sins, but that everyone would come to repentance.

When he comes, there is judgment. When he comes, there is no more second chances. When he comes, it's game over.

So why hasn't God come back yet? He is giving time so that your loved one, your family member, your spouse, your coworker, your neighbor, would be able to have a chance to be saved. That's why he hasn't returned yet.

It's not because he's just arbitrarily waiting for some date for John Hagee to write a book about. He is waiting so that people would be saved.

Man, he's got such a love for people that right now in their wickedness, in their sinfulness, if they were to die today, if he were to come back and the judgment day were to come, they would be abandoned, they would be cast from his presence forever.

But he doesn't want that. So if his will is that no one would perish but that everyone would come to repentance, then we have a call on our life to evangelize, to share the gospel with others. Why?

It's the entire reason why there is not right now a new heavens and a new earth is because God cares about the people in your life so much, the ones that you interact with. Will you share Jesus this week?

It's the entire purpose of why we are here on this planet, to know God and to make him known to others. May we have this same heart of our God that we don't want anyone to die without Christ, but that everyone would come to repentance.

And then Peter here elaborates in verse number 10 on what it means for Jesus to come back, that day of the Lord that was prophesied about in Joel and in Zephaniah. What does it look like when God comes and eradicates all evil?

He says, but the day of the Lord will come like a thief. It's quickly, it's unforeseen. No one was able to go like, oh yeah, it'll definitely be during this time.

There's the old book, 88 Reasons Jesus Will Come in 1988. He says it's coming like a thief. You'll have no idea.

He says on that day, the heavens will pass away with a loud noise. The sky, the atmosphere, the sun, moon, and stars, the entire working of our cosmos will be undone. He says the heavens will pass away with a loud noise.

The elements will burn and be dissolved, and the earth and the works on it will be disclosed.

He says since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, it is clear what sort of people you should be in holy conduct and godliness as you wait for the day of God and hasten its coming.

Here the action that's being insinuated is live a godly life, live a Jesus way, because when the Lord comes back, everything in this world is burning up. It's all going away.

There will be no more, you know, you spent five years saving up for this item or for this pleasure or for this thing, and it's all going to go away on the day Jesus comes back.

He says, so live your life realizing that judgment is one day coming, and you can make a difference in the lives of people. Here I find that phrase interesting.

As you wait for the day of God and hasten its coming, or in speed the coming of the Lord, there's been a lot of discussion on what that could mean.

One thing that even in context of the chapter seems to be the case that Peter is making is as we tell more and more people the Gospel, as we spread that good news to every corner of the world, it makes it so that there is an opportunity for people to

come to repentance. Even as you look at Revelation 4 and 5, there are people that are saved from every tribe and tongue and nation.

And it's not something that, okay, once we get the Gospel to every language, then we know Jesus will immediately come back at that moment.

Scripture doesn't say that, but we have to at least consider what 2 Peter 3 here says of, hey, you want Jesus to come back? You really want him to come? Live a godly life and preach Jesus to those around you.

You want to hasten the day when Jesus comes back and sin's eradicated and there's only God's goodness forevermore? Share the Gospel. That's the way that you hasten his coming.

It's not through looking at our country's politics and government and saying, oh man, things are really bad, and man, this thing is allowed and this thing is not allowed, and man, Jesus really must be coming back soon.

No, no, that's not the way Jesus comes back soon. He comes back soon through the proclamation of the Gospel.

Peter says here in verse number 12, Because of that day, the day of the Lord, the heavens will be dissolved with fire, and the elements will melt with heat. But based on his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells.

He says God's going to remake all of our world, and everything will be made new and it will be right. We won't just be in like disembodied spiritual heaven forever.

We will live on that new earth with our Savior, even as the Book of Revelation details for us. So, big heavy thoughts, judgment day, all of that.

Verse 14, Peter says this, Therefore, dear friends, while you wait for these things, make every effort to be found without spot or blemish in his sight at peace.

He says live your life in such a way that there's nothing in your life that is spot or blemish like with the false teachers. He says live the Jesus way. Adopt those eight things that I mentioned at the beginning.

Believe God. Look to and turn to his word, because you know that all of that's coming. Wait for Jesus to come back, but wait while acting.

Verse 15, also regard the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our dear brother Paul has written to you according to the wisdom given to him.

God not judging evil yet, not destroying evil yet, is because of his love and his patience and his desire that no one would perish, but that everyone would come to repentance. And he says, this is wonderful.

This is the grace of God, just like Paul talks about. Verse 16, Peter says about Paul, he speaks about these things in all his letters. There are some matters that are hard to understand.

The untaught and unstable will twist them to their own destruction, as they also do with the rest of the scriptures. So here he says what Paul has written is scripture. It is the word of God.

It is prophecy that has come from the Holy Spirit and communicating exactly what God wanted us to hear. I do think it's funny that Peter says, hey, Paul writes some things that are hard to understand. Just this friendly rivalry between these two.

Verse 17, therefore, dear friends, since you know this in advance, since you know what's coming, you know the day of the Lord, you know these false teachers, he says, be on your guard so that you are not led away by the error of lawless people and

fall from your own stable position, 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.

As we close out 2 Peter, the thought is this, who will you share the Gospel with this week? We can bemoan the state of our world, or we can hasten, speed on the coming of our Lord Jesus through our witness.

And one of the ways in which we can witness is by giving to Gospel work.

That's why our church partners with the North American Mission Board and the International Mission Board, to be able to have church plants and missionaries go around the world preaching the Gospel to places that we can't individually, physically go,

but we can help others as they go out and do what God has for them. And then may the coming judgment of the day of the Lord, may it remind us of the type of lives that we need to live.

May we live Jesus-centered, evangelism-centered lives, not selfish, not self-centered lives of saying, I want to accumulate more and more stuff or I want to reach this huge position in my company and I don't care what I have to give up in order to

reach it. May we have a desire that says, I want to live for Jesus, I want to love people like Jesus loves them, I want to share the Gospel. God, may you be glorified in my life. May that be our prayer.

Thanks for tuning in. I really enjoyed getting to go through 2 Peter with you and excited for our next study, and you'll see what that is. I forget which day this is dropping, so I might see you on Monday with the new study.