‘THE PROMISE OF HIS COMING’

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on July 3, 2019 under AM Bible Study |

AM Bible Study Group: July 3, 2019 from 2 Peter 3:1-7

Theme: To live for Jesus as we should in the present, we need know how to keep His promised return constantly in view.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

Some people may think that ‘the return of the Lord’ is an optional doctrine—an interesting one; but not necessarily essential. But it’s very essential to our faith. In fact, the second coming of Jesus is as important a doctrine to our salvation as His first coming.

You see; in our Lord’s first coming to this earth, He embraced full human nature, took the guilt of our sin upon Himself, and died in our place on the cross. By that atoning sacrifice, He has delivered us from our sinful past and brought us into the favor of His Father. But our salvation isn’t fully accomplished until we are brought into a state of eternal glorification with Him, and are made sharers together of His own present human perfection. That’s the full consummation of Jesus’ saving work for us. He didn’t die just to save us from our sins. Our salvation is finished when we’re fully glorified; and that’s what happens at His second coming.

And it’s our Lord’s second coming that is the great theme of the third chapter of 2 Peter. In the first chapter, the theme was the sufficiency of Jesus’ atoning work for us in the past. It was summed up in 1:3; where we’re told that we now have “all things that pertain to life and godliness” by faith in Him. The second chapter flows from that; but with a different emphasis. In Chapter 2, Peter urged his brothers and sisters in Christ to beware in the present time of false teachers who would arise from within their midst and draw them away from their sufficiency in Christ. And now, the third chapter builds on that warning and looks toward the future—urging his fellow believers to remember the promise of the Lord’s return, the ultimate judgment, and the promise of a new heaven and a new earth. In 2 Peter 3:1-7, he wrote;

Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder), that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men (2 Peter 3:1-7).

* * * * * * * * * *

Chapter 2 dealt with some hard issues. But Peter takes a very compassionate tone in the third chapter. He began it by calling his readers “Beloved”. He was telling them the things he said in Chapter 3 because he loves them. First notice how Peter urges his beloved readers to …

1. BE MINDFUL OF THE PROMISE OF JESUS’ COMING (vv. 1-2).

He wrote; “Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder), that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior…” (vv. 1-2).

‘Remembering’ is an important part of our Christian faith. And that was a particular goal for Peter in this second letter. He wanted to be ‘careful’ to ‘ensure’ that his readers ‘always had a reminder’ of the things they needed to keep in mind (1:12-15). Notice how Peter puts this in our passage this morning. He wanted to “stir up”, or “arouse”, or “awaken” the pure minds of his brothers and sisters “by way of reminder”. He felt compelled to give this ‘written reminder’; even though they were already “established in the present truth”. That’s so often the way it is with us; isn’t it? We may know the truths of Scripture and may even be “established” in them. And what’s more, our minds have been made “pure”; which really means that these things have been made plain and clear by our having been sanctified and brought into the light of day by God’s grace. Our thinking has been redeemed; and we have a capacity to grasp spiritual truth. But when it comes to everyday practice, we often forget the important doctrines of the faith. It’s important, then, that we have a continual ‘reminder’ of our Lord’s soon coming.

Peter wrote that this was “that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior”. The word “mindful” in the original language (mnymoneuō; translated “recall” in the NIV) speaks of something stronger than merely “remembering”. It speaks of something already known; but keeping it in mind in such a way as to consider it carefully. And what he is wanting his brothers and sisters to be so carefully mindful of is “the words” that had been spoken by prophets of the Old Testament era and the commandments that had been passed down by the apostles of the Lord. In other words, Peter wanted them to be reminded of and to carefully recall the promises of Scripture—certainly with regard to all the truths of our faith, but particularly with regard to the events that surround our Lord’s second coming.

You and I cannot live as God wants us to if we are not continually calling to mind and thinking about the truths of Scripture and applying them to our every-day walk. In order to live as we should in the light of our Lord’s second coming, we need to be reading regularly from God’s word; so that our hearts are filled with the promises of that coming.

Now; when it comes to the Bible’s promises about the second coming of our Lord, we will need to brace ourselves for the ridicule we will receive for believing those promises. Few people mock the idea that Jesus walked this earth the first time; but many mock the idea that He will come again to judge the people of this earth. And so, Peter went on to urge his readers to …

2. BE PREPARED FOR THE SCOFFERS OF THE PROMISE (vv. 3-4).

He urged his readers to be reminded of the promises; “knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation’” (vv. 3-4).

He said that these scoffers would come in “the last days”; and this speaks of the long period between our Lord’s ascension to the Father, and the time of His return. As soon as our Lord was raised from the dead and ascended back to the Father, “the last days” began; and we are living in them today. But as we draw closer to the consummation of those last days—and to the day of our Lord’s return—the more we can expect the scoffers to arise. As we move further from the time of His departure, the world will say that our Lord’s return is growing less and less likely. And yet, this growing indifference is, itself, a sign that the day of His return draws near. Jesus once said;

But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be (Matthew 24:37-39).

And notice why it is that Peter says they scoff. It’s because they are “walking according to their own lusts”. The mocking of scoffers is not because the return of our Lord doesn’t seem logical. It’s not for rational reasons that people scoff; but rather, for moral reasons. They mock and scoff because they are committed to their own sinful passions; and the return of the Lord Jesus as Judge of their sin is an offense to their rejection of God’s rule in their lives. Revelation 20:19 tells us that, in the vision that was given to him of the Lord’s return, the apostle John saw “the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army.” Imagine the armies of the unbelieving world being so committed to their rebellion against Him that they will actually seek to do battle with Him at His return! No wonder they mock at the idea of His return now!

And finally, notice what Peter says they will say in their scoffing. “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” Their mocking is based on a supposed uniformity and continuity of the present state of the world. “The natural world”, they say, “is now as it has been for hundreds of millions of years.” And yet, this is a denial of what both Scripture and scientific evidence plainly tell us.

This is something that Peter wants us to ‘know first’—as a matter of first importance. Scoffers will come; mocking the whole idea of the Lord’s return. Increasingly, the effort will be put forth to make us look foolish for believing what the Scriptures say about the story of Creation, and the ancient flood, and about God’s providential care over what He has made. Scoffers will seek to ridicule us out of holding faithfully to the promise of our Lord’s second coming. But don’t be surprised or put-off by such efforts. Don’t let yourself be mocked into letting go of faith in God’s promises!

And we have substantial evidence for our expectation of the Lord’s return. If the story in Genesis tells us the truth about the creation and the fall and the flood, then scoffers are wrong about what they say about the uniformity of the natural order. It would mean that the way things are now is not how they have always been. God has once visited this world order powerfully, in the past, with terrible judgment. One archaeologist has written that there are are “no less than thirty-three separate racial records among people and races who are living today” of an ancient worldwide flood (Robert T. Boyd, Tells, Tombs and Treasure [Baker Book House, 1969], p. 72). And God can bring such a visitation upon this world again; just as He has promised in His word.

This leads us to how Peter urges his readers to …

3. BE INFORMED ABOUT THE EVIDENCES FOR THE PROMISE (vv. 5-7).

Peter wrote this about the scoffers: “For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water” (vv. 5-6). Peter is here telling us something quite remarkable—but something that is also validated by science. It’s that this planet on which we live has already experienced a cataclysmic change from one state to another.

“For this”, Peter tells us, “they willfully forget …” The word in the original language for “forget” is a word that speaks of something “not being noticed” or “escaping notice”. But this isn’t describing a mere slip-up of the memory. Peter says that these scoffers “willingly” allow these things to escape their notice. They choose not to take into account the evidence of the transformations that this world has already undergone through the flood; and they deliberately refuse to allow the testimony of it to enter into the equation. And what do they ‘willingly forget’? First, they willingly forget that by the word of God “the heavens were of old”. Peter first specifies the heavens in this way to show that creation of the heavens by the word of God predates the earth in the unfolding of the Genesis story. Genesis 1 says that God created the heavens and the earth; and that the earth was “without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep” (v. 2). How long it was in that form after the creation of the heavens, and how it came to be in that state, is not something that we’re told. But whenever we hear someone saying that the earth could not be only six-thousand years old because of the evidence of the immense age of the universe, we should remember that the age of the heavens has nothing to do with the age of the earth. God has already told us in Scripture that—by His word—”the heavens were of old”.

They also ‘willingly forget’ that, by that same word of the Lord, “the earth” was “standing out of water and in the water”. Landmasses of the earth were not fixed from the beginning. We’re told that God spoke, and the waters of the earth were gathered together in one place so that dry land appeared—that is, from out of the midst of the waters that covered the earth. And they further forget that the earth that then took shape in those six days of creation was dramatically transformed many centuries later by the flood—”by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water”. In fact, the difference on the earth after the flood is so great that Peter refers to the pre-flood earth as “the world that then existed”; as if it existed no longer. The world in its present form after the flood is quite different from the world as it existed before the flood. The geological, archaeological and empirical evidence shows that the earth has, in the past, been altered by a great cataclysmic event. It would be convincing to anyone who will not ‘willfully forget’ it.

The change of the world that was into the world that now exists occurred because of the judgment of God. And that change gives sufficient reason to believe that the world can yet again be impacted by the judgment of God. Peter writes; “But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (v. 7). What was once formed out of water by the word of God, and then transformed by water by the word of God, is now reserved for fire by the same word of God. What Peter was speaking of here is explained a few verses later in 2 Peter 3, when he wrote;

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up (2 Peter 3:10).

* * * * * * * * *

The unbelieving people of this world may choose to willfully forget these things; but let’s make sure that we do not. Let’s work hard to be mindful of the promises in the Scriptures concerning the return of the Lord, and of the judgment to come, and of the new creation. Others may mock and scoff; but let’s not allow ourselves to be harassed into rejecting our hope. Instead, let’s be informed and aware of the evidences of how this world has already experienced the judgment of God—and that it will happen yet again. And as Peter says later in this letter,

Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation …” (2 Peter 3:14-15a).

EA