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April 16, 2023

The Title of the Sermon is “Remembering the predictions and the commandment”

We are reading Peter’s instructions to the Church as he neared the end of his life. Peter reminded the Church to strive for the virtuous life, the importance of the Transfiguration and that, the Scriptures are reliable. We saw Peter devote one-third of his second letter to false teachers in chapter two. Chapter three mirrors the teaching of chapter one but in reverse, so we know that Peter wanted to emphasize these points. We also get a glimpse into the problems and opportunities that the first century Church was dealing with. I see four points to chapter three. Peter wanted the church to …

1 Remember the Scriptures.
2 Remember that scoffers will come.
3 Remember that everything is going to burn.
4 Remember we need to focus on personal holiness and godliness.

READ 2 Peter 3:8-18

11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness - and godliness, 12 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!

• We briefly covered verse 11 a couple of weeks ago to tie these messages together, but we will examine verse 11 more closely here.
• Dissolved = lyomenōn = to loosen, undo, dissolve, anything bound, tied, or compacted together (Thayer)
• What will it take for the universe to be gone: When God says, “Be unbound” to the universe.
• I think that is exactly what will end up happening. >>
• Listen to Colossians 1:17, “And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
• If God commands ever atom in the universe to be unbound we are going to see a fireworks show like non other!
• Peter’s conclusion, is that this world is not worth focusing on. He instead tells the Church what to focus on in 11b. >>
• “holiness” = ceremonially consecrated (Thayer); to be set apart from the common; pure, clean (Abbott-Smith in LSJ) COMMENT
• “godliness” = reverence, respect; piety toward God (Thayer); earnestly compliant in the observance of what God has told us to do through His power.
  • DeYoung wrote, “The hole in our holiness is that we don’t really care much about it. Passionate exhortation to pursue gospel-driven holiness is barely heard in most of our churches. It’s not that we don’t talk about sin or encourage decent behavior. Too many sermons are basically self-help seminars on becoming a better you.”
  • DeYoung’s makes an important point. >> We make holiness something it is not: a better form of worldly living; then we slap a godliness label on it.
  • So we should think of holiness and godliness in concrete ways in an applicational context: godliness is to act like the Son through God’s equipping in this life–nothing less. COMMENT
  • NEVER FORGET: I act like God because of God and I participate by submitting and humbling myself, by dying to myself.
• We are also to be in a state of “waiting for” the coming day of God.
  • The day of God is what brings about the Big Melt.
  • What is the world’s gloom is our victory!
• “hastening” the coming of the day of God.
  • The Gk. word speudontas may mean “hastening” (ESV) may also mean “urge on” (LSJ) or “desire earnestly” (Thayer, cf. Amp. & Peshitta)
  • If he meant “urge on” or “desire earnestly” or a “looking forward to” then he would have meant that we should look forward to the awesome event, for it brings with it our home of righteousness.
    ^{(See note 1 below for all the commentary of Constable on the idea)}
  • Most commentators agree with the ESV translation “hastening.”
  • But that leaves us with a paradox: Since the Father knows the last day of the world, how can believers hasten it?
  • I believe the Father knows the expiration date of the world. >>
  • But we must also account for verse not only like the one we have this morning but also like when Jesus proclaimed in Matthew 24:14, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
  • Utley said it well: “This is a difficult expression because of our modern mindset which depreciates paradox. God is sovereign and has set the date for Christ’s return, but the actions of believers (i.e., prayer, witness, godliness) may change the date (i.e., sooner or later). This is the covenant aspect of biblical truth which is so confusing to modern western people.”
  • Is God affected by His children’s actions?
  • Here we are dealing with the doctrine of doctrine of the impassibility vs. passibility.²

A Couple of great quotes here:

• Moo wrote, “Christians need to remember the ultimate, ‘bottom-line,’ purpose of biblical eschatology: to make us better Christians here and now.” (p 202)
• Wiersbe wrote, “The purpose of prophetic truth is not speculation but motivation …” (2:466)
• In other words, Peter’s main message is not about when the day is, but what we should be doing in response to the day that ends things as we know it.

13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

• Some see this as a renewal others as Version 2.0. COMMENT
• Wait is easily overlooked as being part of the Christian character.
• Waiting in this context means in part to be satisfied with what God is doing now but with a hopefulness towards His promises while doing what His will is.
• Almost certainly Peter had Luke 12:35-48 in mind.
• It begins, “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks."

APPLICATION

• 14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace
  • Barclay wrote that, “… we cannot escape from the certainty of the entry of God into our own experience.”
  • We will be found.
• We are suppose to be found by Him without a spot or blemish and in peace.
  • An acceptable OT sacrifice could not have a spot or a blemish.
  • This passage explains an action that it takes to be without spot of blemish:
    • V. 14 Diligence
    • “God does not reward the lazy.”
    • God does the work; we participate–with diligentness.
    • This morning: what are our spots and blemishes?
• We are suppose to be found “at peace” as well.
  • To be at peace in this world, we must be content with were God has placed us as such a time as this. We have to know that He’s got these situations under control. We have to have confidence in His ways and in Him as our God.
  • Peace with our fellow man.
  • Peace ought to be the hallmark of the Christian’s home, business, church, and heart.
• Peter continues with his application in verse 15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation,
  • This is part of the time for sanctification. This is our time to master what God has commanded for us and equipped us to do.
  • God is giving us time to get our house in order so we are not embarrassed at His coming.
  • Wow, God is waiting for us to become more sanctified in diligence.

Peter took the time to explain that he and Paul were in concert on these matters: Verse 15b just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 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.

• “The difficulty in Paul’s letters stem from the [great profoundness] of the God-given wisdom they contain.” (Blum, p 1075)
• It’s the more difficult passages of the Bible that the ignorant and unstable twist to teach their junk theology, their errors and their lies.
• The false teachers and their adherents can quote Scripture, but they do it out of context for their purposes. (Blum, p 1076)
• Our goal is to correctly divide the word of truth on our own!

17 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.

• Twisting the Scriptures leads to “destruction.” In a time when the Christian church is plagued by heretical cults and false teaching, Peter’s warning about the irresponsible use of Scripture is important. Correct exegesis must be a continuing concern for the church. (Blum, p 1076)
• The Church was to know that people twist the Scriptures and that by giving these twisters an audience, believers were putting there own proper theology on the line.
• "The word ‘error’ is planē, ‘a wandering, a straying about,’ a roaming here and there. (cf. Wuest, p 76)
• We don’t want to loose our “stability” (the word used only here in the NT) = firm condition, steadfastness: of mind (OBU); being fixed, standing still, fixedness, of steady light; mutual support, buttressing (LSJ)
• When you and I believe error we become unstable.

ILLUSTRATIONS

• Galatians 2:11 But when Cephas [Peter] came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. 13 And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

• Solomon from 1 Kings
  1 Kings 3:12b, "Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you.”

The end of Solomon’s life …

1 Kings 11:4, “For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.”

APPLICATION

• The point: If the lead Apostle Peter can blow it theologically with a crowd, if Barnabas, being discipled by Paul, can be confused theologically, if Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived and ever will live is susceptible to false teaching then you and I are susceptible to false teaching.
• You and I can be carried away by false teachers. And there is no shortage of them.
• Christians are constantly exposing themselves to false teaching via YouTube, podcasts, and peers.
• This can cause a wandering.

Instead of losing our “own stability” we are to look at verse 18 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.

• We grow in two things here:
• grace: when we are growing in grace we are agents of grace.
  • How do we grow in grace? >>
  • We grow in grace by not forgetting the grace God gives us.
  • Forgive as we have been forgiven. Longsuffer as God has longsuffered with us.
• We need to grow in knowledge: when we are growing in knowledge we spiritually grounded in truth.
  • The more accurately we learn about God and how He interacts with us should cause us to interact with others in the ways that we ought to.

APPLICATION

• Study the Bible, read the Bible.
• I have experienced people having a real casualness in handling the Scriptures.
• When you are talking about the Bible, 100% accuracy better be your goal.
• Learn some English >> MBS
• To grow in grace we have to show grace to people.
• To understand Jesus is to know what He has accomplished for us—to the depth of His accomplishment.
• Everything is going to melt. Therefore we are to be focused on our sanctification: growing in holiness, godliness, patience, and grace.
• “To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”

Note

¹ Constable’s commentary notes on “hastening”:

The Greek participle translated hastening (speudontes) sometimes means desiring earnestly (RSV margin).[216] If Peter meant that here, the sense would be that believers not only are looking for the day of God, but also desire earnestly to see it (cf. vv. 8-10; Matt. 24:42; 25:13).[217] The AV has “hastening unto” implying that Peter meant that believers are rapidly approaching the day of God.[218] Yet the word unto needs to be supplied; it is not in the text.

Most of the translators and commentators, however, took speudontes in its usual sense of hastening. They assumed that Peter was thinking that believers can hasten the day of God by their prayers (cf. Matt. 6:10) and their preaching (cf. Matt. 24:14; Acts 3:19-20).[219] Believers, according to this view, influence God’s timetable by their witnessing and their praying, and as they bring people to Christ (cf. Josh. 10:12-14; 2 Kings 20:1-6; et al.).[220]

“Clearly this idea of hastening the End is the corollary of the explanation (v 9) that God defers the Parousia because he desires Christians to repent. Their repentance and holy living may therefore, from the human standpoint, hasten its coming. This does not detract from God’s sovereignty in determining the time of the End … but means only that his sovereign determination graciously takes human affairs into account.”[221]

The day of God may be a reference to the time yet future in which God will be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28), namely, the eternal state.[222] This will follow the creation of the new heavens and new earth (Rev. 21:1). On the other hand this phrase may be another way of describing the day of the Lord.[223] The day of God in Revelation 16:14 refers to the time of the battle of Armageddon, which will be at the end of the Tribulation. Consequently, I lean toward taking the day of God as another way of referring to the day of the Lord. The antecedent of “because of which” is the day of God. God will burn up the present heavens and earth (“elements”) because of that day (i.e., because the day of the Lord has reached its end).

² For an explanation of this doctrine, see the Got Questions’ article, “What is the doctrine of the impassibility vs. passibility of God?” at this web address:
https://www.gotquestions.org/impassibility-of-God.html.

Works Cited

Scripture quotations [unless otherwise noted] are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Click here to access the works cited web-page for this document, save those marked as “Notes” or “Other Works Cited”–if any. Most of these cited works correspond to the verses they are outlined with. In the case of general background information and references, one will find cited material with the Bible books the citations are associated with. ¶ Furthermore, there may be numbered notes that are URL linked; these are usually retained numbered notes from Thomas Constable’s, “Dr. Constable’s Expository (Bible Study) Notes.” These links are preserved “as is” at the time of this work’s formation and sometimes include other citation information from Constable.

Other Works Cited

DeYoung, Kevin. The Hole in Our Holiness. Crossway, 2012, pg. unknown. As quoted by thepastorsworkshop.com.

Blum, Edwin A. “2 Peter.” The Expositor’s Bible Commentary—Abridged Edition: New Testament, ed. Kenneth L. Barker and John R. Zohlenberger III, et al., Zondervan, 1994. Sourced from archive.org.

Moo, Douglas. 2 Peter, Jude. “The NIV Application Commentary,” ed. Terry Muck, et al., Zondervan, 1996.

Wuest, Kenneth S. In these last days: II Peter, I, II, III John, and Jude in the Greek New Testament for the English Reader. WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, eighth printing, 1972. Sourced from archive.org.

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