2 Peter 3:10-18

3:10-3:18 – Be awake and on guard: the end is coming

This is something that Peter is repeating from his last letter! He is drawing the same application this time, though with different words, it is the same theme. He is saying something like, “Hey, look, this world is going to end, and the only thing we know about this is that it will be soon. So live like Christ matters!” He actually goes into some detail, and although I know this isn’t a science text, what we read sounds like this will be the heat death of the universe, doesn’t it? Maybe we’ll try to say something about that when we get there.

However, with the coming end being almost upon us, and remember, this was written 2000 years ago, give or take a couple of decades, we need to take it seriously. Peter’s admonition to us here is to be awake. See 3:17–“You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness…” Be on guard! Don’t be carried away by the error of the men that Peter discusses in chapter 2. Instead (3:18), “…grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

Peter’s point in this section of text is this: Because we know the world is ending, we need to be prepared for it properly. First, we need to have believed the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the only way of reconciliation with God for your sins. Once you have believed, you have to live by the laws and principles of His coming kingdom in the here and now. If you cannot do that, or if you don’t want to, perhaps you need to go back to the “believe the gospel of Jesus Christ” step, because that is really the answer.

Looking around at the state of the world today, it seems like we are accelerating toward the end of history as we know it. For some, this will mean the end of their world at least, especially the crowd that is already “living their best life now.” For the rest of us regular suffering saints, that is in the future. There is very little difference between living your best life now and the philosophy of “he who dies with the most toys wins.” You go and accumulate what the bible calls “stuff” in the KJV, or “baggage” in the NASB (1 Sam 30:24), and the largest pile wins at the end. But what are you really winning? You are winning wrath. It is no prize at all. Think about it. You succeeding in life is not a guarantee you will succeed after that. And he who dies with the most “stuff” is still dead! No ability to enjoy the stuff you’ve gathered. Ah, the dangers of materialism, yes?

Peter is clear in all of his writings that there will be something after the end of this present world (3:13). Paul talked about it too. John most definitely talks about it! And getting there requires that you believe that Jesus became a man so as to die in your place, and that after accepting that reality, you live like He really did that, because He did!

With that preview, let’s get into the text and see what Peter says to us in his last words to the church ever. I broke the text into paragraphs as follows:

KV12: Look for and Hasten His Coming

12: looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens burning will be destroyed, and the elements will melt with intense heat!

10-13: The End of All Things Is Not the End

14-16: Seek the Required Lifestyle for Him

17-18: The Choice Before All of Us

Here at the conclusion of his final letter to the church, right before his death sentence for being a Christian was carried out, Peter has some words of instruction and encouragement for all of us, all surrounding the coming of the Lord in His return. He suggests that not only do we look for the coming of the Lord, but he suggest we do what we can to hasten the coming of that day. That initially hit me with a bit of a shock, because although I am not what is called a hard determinist, it suggests that we can influence something that God has ordained, and we can, but it doesn’t mean what you think it means. We’ll look at that when we get to verse 12.

Think about it though. The whole world at times is saying that we need to “preserve the planet.” I’m absolutely fine with being responsible in our use of the world, but the only impact man has ever had on the earth is because of sin. Maybe that leads to the dumping of CO2 into the atmosphere and creates “global warming” (by the way I don’t think so and I have a degree in biology from an accredited Canadian university and understand the chemistry they are talking about), but we need to deal with sin in the only way God prescribes: Repent and believe, and we will get to what that means a little later as well, as we usually do. Here, Peter seems to be saying to do the exact opposite of what the world is saying I do. Clearly, we have to examine the text carefully, so let’s get into it and see what Peter is really saying in his letter.

KV12: Look for and Hasten His Coming

12: looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens burning will be destroyed, and the elements will melt with intense heat!

It is clear from the verse that there are implications to our recommended course of action by Peter. These actions will be discussed as we come across them, but let me start by saying that this world IS coming to an end, whether you like it or not. It is your sin that is causing the issue, so let us address this first. Look at what it says in Micah 6:6-8–“With what shall I come before Yahweh And bow myself before the God on high? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, With yearling calves? Is Yahweh pleased with thousands of rams, With ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does Yahweh require of you But to do justice, to love lovingkindness, And to walk humbly with your God?” This has a VERY specific application that can be summed up in three little words: Repent and Believe.

What one must understand is that the gospel of Jesus Christ has NO OTHER RESOLUTION. One must recognize that ALL of us have done wrong in the sight of God and that this wrong has the penalty of death attached to itself. As we discussed last time, we have committed “cosmic treason” toward the King of the Universe, and we must pay the penalty to make it right. Death in a total sense means that for our own sins, we must be eternally separated from the love of God in a conscious and torment-filled place called hell. Now does that sound like your idea of a good time? You won’t ever get anything, you will have no identity or fame, you will only experience pain and sorrow intensely for the rest of eternity. It sure doesn’t sound like a great way to be, and it is a direct result of “living your best life now” so to speak.

God saw all of this dilemma before He created the earth, by the way, and He already had a plan to deal with it. HE would Himself pay the penalty for our sins. Because He had no sin against Himself, He could freely become a man, and as a man die for those wrongdoings to which all of us are given. And that is what He did. God the Son became a human named Jesus and lived a life of complete obedience to God under the Mosaic (really His own) Law. John 8:29 tells us, “And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.” [Jesus speaking] At the right time in history, He gave up that life, orchestrating a provocation of His own enemies under the “inspiration” of their Father the Devil to take it from Him in rage and an attempt to win the whole war. However, it is actually God that won that fight, because God He declared that the price was paid in full (the meaning of His final word, the Greek tetelestai). Now, all those that will repent of their own sins (ask forgiveness and stop doing them) and believe (that Jesus’ death is enough to pay for their sins personally) will be saved from the coming wrath of God that will destroy all those that will NOT turn to Him.

That said, let’s get into the chapter.

10-13: The End of All Things Is Not the End

How many movies or television shows have you seen that in some way deal with the “end of the world” scenarios? I’m actually a fan of the apocalyptic genre as they call it, and you can take it from me that there are literally hundreds of them. Some are good, some are absolute fromage (an absolute favorite of mine), but there is no shortage of movies on the topic. They all follow a general pattern, too. Some catastrophe sets the movie plot in motion (and this can literally be anything from virus to asteroid impact), and the hero or group of heroes encounter impossible odds to survive, and manage to win at the last second, showing that man’s ingenuity is enough to avoid the catastrophic end of all things. That’s ALWAYS the outcome. I defy you to name a non-Christian movie that has a different ending. One of my favorites is Armageddon with Bruce Willis, where he and his astronaut team of oil-rig workers drill into an approaching asteroid and blow it apart with a nuke just before it hits earth. Best part of the movie, Bruce Willis’ character dies to save mankind, right? Not really, he died to save his daughter (Liv Tyler) and her fiance (Ben Affleck), but that isn’t the point. It was his will power, intelligence, and ingenuity, and ultimately self-sacrifice that saved it all at the price of His life. The problem is that it’s all fiction.

This “end of all things” scenario is something that Peter talks about here, and He tells us a couple of things about it. First he tells us we should not fear it, and second, he tells us that nothing can stop it, because to do so, you would have to be Almighty God, and although I didn’t check anyone’s ID here tonight, I am absolutely sure that none of you are Him, and I know that for a fact. He is here, but not bodily at the moment, though He could be if he wanted to be. Let’s have a look at What Peter has to say about this.

10: But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be found out.

Peter is actually in the middle of a statement we began to examine last week, so I’ll quickly review verse 9. In verse 9, Peter talks about the mercy and patience of the Lord Jesus Christ in waiting as long as possible before coming in His wrath against sinners to right the wrongs done by us in that cosmic treason I mentioned earlier and set up His kingdom for all those that would obey the good news that He had died for their sins so they could live for Him instead of themselves. The thought actually began in verse 8, where he talks initially about the destruction of all things, and he’s coming back to that after verse 9, which kind of serves as a parenthetical remark about His mercy and patience in waiting as long as possible. So he’s going to tell us when this is going to happen now, right? NO! In fact he says the exact opposite.
“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.” Now that doesn’t tell you a lot, but I can tell you the intuitive fact that people who steal things to support themselves generally do not announce when they are going to initiate their plans. There is only one sure way to catch the thief in action, and that is to be awake and alert for him when he starts. In fact, the Lord Jesus Himself said this in Revelation 3:3: “So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.” And He IS coming to rescue US, though that is the only detail we really know. Maybe we can talk about that another time. But this is using a very SPECIFIC term, “The day of the Lord.” I won’t take the time now, but this term is used throughout at least the prophets in the Old Testament, and the first use of it in the New Testament is in the Book of Acts, which is a quote from one of meanthem, Joel. It is a reference to the period in which the Lord Jesus would pour out His wrath on all sin and those who will not turn away from sin. That period of time is a figurative one, just like John’s “last hour,” which has lasted a little less than 2000 years now. Without getting into what I could say are the finer details of that period, Peter is giving us information about it.
The heavens will end in a “roar,” which is the Greek roizedon, which literally means the whistling of an arrow, but could also signify the sound of a rushing wind, or the roaring of flames. Even the elements [Gk., stoichea, the little bits and pieces that make up everything, we call those atoms today, will be burned up in a great heat according to Peter. Science has a term for the idea presented here: The heat death of the universe. As a result of that great heat and melting, the earth and all its workings will be discovered or revealed. What that may mean, I have NO idea, so I’ll just move on.

11: Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,

The implication of this is that because God is going to end everything in this fashion, we should really think about the kind of person we are supposed to be. If God has saved us, we should be behaving along the lines of the code of behaviour He has given us in the New Testament. Peter here calls it “holy conduct and godliness.” What does that mean? The easiest way to explain this is to remind you that the Christian should be expressing his reality with God through his behaviour in the world. It isn’t so much a command to work at it but a life lived in obeying our Lord and Master as He commands. We do it because we love Him. Any other reason for doing it is kind of suspect. Godliness is a desire to be like God. Holy Conduct is behaving differently than the world. Both of these things are to be done to please Him. We should notice that the verse ends wit a comma though, and move to the next verse.

12: looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens burning will be destroyed, and the elements will melt with intense heat!

So on top of the holy behaviour and the godliness, we need to be awake and watching for our Master to come! The phrase “looking for” in the Greek is to “watch toward, look for, expect.” Peter knew that He IS coming back! Because no man now knows when, we all have to live in a state of readiness. Remember the thief in the night discussion earlier? It’s like that.
The hastening of the coming of the Day of God. The English here is a little confusing as I indicated earlier. Can men really do anything to hasten or impact what God ordains or does? Let’s think about that. What are some of the attributes of God? First Holy, but also omnipresent. How about omniscient? Wait, Omnipotent! How about His unique attribute of Aseity? I know those were all $50-words of a theological nature, but let me translate that into the common tongue as it were. Our Holy, present everywhere, all-knowing, all-powerful God that is the only being in the universe that can exist by Himself (we cannot). When this God does things, they stay done. When He wills they do NOT happen, nothing can make it happen. Whatever happens is His will, even if He doesn’t tell us. Are we supposed to be able to influence anything He does? Not in that sense. Fortunately, that isn’t what the Greek says. The Greek word is a form of the word speudo, which means “to earnestly desire.” If there is anything we can do to hasten the day of God, it would be to walk in obedience to Him. That in itself won’t directly do anything, but it will cause more people to be saved, and the faster that group contains all the people that God wants in it, the faster His coming will be. This is about as specific as such a discussion can really get, because we do not know anything like God does.
Then Peter tells us more information. Even the heavens will be destroyed by burning. Which heavens? ALL of them. The elements [again stoichea, atoms] will melt in intense heat. See what I mean about the heat death of the universe?

13: But according to His promise we are looking for NEW HEAVENS AND A NEW EARTH, in which righteousness dwells.

The first thing you should notice is that there is an Old Testament Quote! The reference to a New Heavens and a New Earth is a quote from Isaiah 65:17, which reads: “For behold, I am creating a new heavens and a new earth; And the former things will not be remembered or come upon the heart.” This brings me to the point of the title of this paragraph. What comes after the end of all things? I mean it’s over isn’t it? Sure, it is…but after that, a new beginning. A new creation where only righteousness dwells! All evil has been done away with, and God Himself has cultivated everything that will be there. In fact, that’s the real point of our own sanctification, according to people! And this is God’s promise for all of His people, whom He foreknew, foreordained, called, justified, and glorified! Peter, His premiere Apostle said so. Actually so does Paul, and So does the Lord Jesus Himself! We won’t look at that now, but you can take that as a challenge to get into the Scriptures yourself and those are good study topics.

What we actually see here by talking about the end is that it isn’t necessarily the end. It is a new beginning, but only for those that will repent and believe the gospel. Only those that are willing to look past their own pride of ability and ingenuity, and even their own intelligence so-called will join the Lord Jesus Christ in the new creation. If you don’t agree with what I just said, I understand, but it doesn’t make what I haves the case ha said or what Peter wrote any less true. And it is clear that we should adhere to a code of behaviour that expresses that.

14-16: Seek the Required Lifestyle for Him

The Apostle Paul put this in similar language to Peter here. Let’s look for a moment at Ephesians 4:1-3–“Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, exhort you to walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Paul, from his prison cell, where He was for the cause of Christ (and you can read about this in the book of Acts from chapter 9 on), is literally coming alongside the Ephesians (the Greek is parakaleo) to strongly encourage the saints to “walk in a worthy manner.” They he lists of some of the behaviours in that code and encourages the saints to keep the unity in the bond of peace. Peter is saying this very thing here. We must adapt that very lifestyle, and we must do it for the love of Jesus Christ. Let’s see what the text tells us.

14: Therefore, beloved, since you are looking for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless,

Peter starts off the verse with a very big assumption about the people reading the letter, doesn’t he? He assumes that people are actually looking forward to and expecting the Lord’s return and the subsequent end of all things. Or is he making an assumption? No, he isn’t. Remember at the beginning of the letter he identified a target audience? He was writing to believers, and he KNEW they were all looking for and expecting this, because he taught them too.
Peter also talks about the characteristics of that code of behaviour, and states the reason as the end of all things and our joining our Master in the new creation to do them. He starts that list with diligence, which in this case means to hasten to do a thing or exert oneself. To what do we exercise our diligence? To be found be Christ at His return in peace, that state of well being and tranquility that is not dependent on emotion, but rather can override it. In fact, Peter adds that we are to be spotless, which in this usage means free from defilement, and blameless, which word is self-defining. No one can place blame on you for any legitimate reason.
Do you see the point here? We are to be motivated by the coming of our Lord and Master , the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ and the subsequent end of all things to motivate us to the behaviour we should have that is worthy of being His slave, whose we are if we have truly turned from our sin and believed that He has paid the penalty for our sins.

15: and consider the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you,

Remember, the Lord delaying is more patience on His part as He waits for those to turn who will (and He knows who that is already). How do we know? Peter tells us the most interesting thing: Because Paul said so in HIS letter to the church! Wait, what? What does this have to do with Paul now? As turns out, quite a bit, and you will appreciate this. Next verse.

16: as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.

You see, all of Paul’s letters were filled with this kind of detail. If you think about it this is no surprise, Paul wrote about a third of the New Testament, and Peter knew it somehow (I suspect the Holy Spirit led him into that knowledge). And what did Peter say about the letters of Paul? He called the SCRIPTURE! Peter knew that some of the Apostles were writing letters and sermon notes, and other brothers like Luke were involved, and that these things were being shared around to the churches. There were already copyists at work making copies of the letters. It is thought that Polycarp was involved the copying of these manuscripts too!
Peter also stated that some of things that they were writing were difficult to understand, and those who are untaught (not discipled) or unstable (unbelieving) distort them because these things require the Holy Spirit to make sense of them consistently and authoritatively. If that isn’t happening within you, then there are serious consequences for distorting the Scriptures, and they have to do with one’s own destruction, not something I want to go through, honestly.

The lifestyle we need to seek to live and obey to the best of our ability every day needs to be based on our love for our Master and informed by Scriptures. Haven’t we been saying that for years around here? I can name at least three people in the room this evening that think so, and I’m one of them. But you don’t have to think so, because everyone has a choice.

17-18: The Choice Before All of Us

That choice is whether to believe and obey the gospel or not. Everyone has the same choice, and there are no exceptions. Maybe you disagree with what I’m saying, That’s okay, I’m not asking you to agree with me. If you don’t want to do this, no problem. All I ask is that you not stand in the way of others that maybe DO want this. If you are a believer, Peter has some advice for you, so that’s where we will pick up.

17: You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard lest you, having been carried away by the error of unprincipled men, fall from your own steadfastness,

That first phrase is kind of interesting to me. It is the Greek word proginosko, the same word we translate as “foreknow.” This is a good example of how to use it, too. We know something beforehand here. And Peter is saying that because we have that foreknowledge, we must be on our guard Used as it is here in the Greek middle voice, it means to stand guard or keep watch against a condition or set of conditions. That condition in this verse is that we as believers fall out of the course we have been confirmed in, which has the connotation of going off course or being cast ashore in shipwreck.
How could this happen? That is the very reason Peter wrote this letter; it was to warn us of these unprincipled men that distort the scriptures either because they are ignorant of what Irough of God tht says and don’t care about that, or because they are deliberate useful idiots (to apply a Marxist term) who believe everything a false teacher tells them. In either case, you can be carried into error. I’m thinking of a particular brother of the Pentecostal persuasion named Carman Licciardello, whose stage name was simply Carman. From the fruit of his life, and from the love he had to share the gospel, I think he was a believer, but like most Pentecostals, he held men like Kenneth Hagin and Smith Wigglesworth in high regard, and I can show BOTH of these men to be in error. Carman was carried off into that. And I think this has happened before. Tertullian was carried off into the proto-version of Charismania called Montanism, which also believed that God spoke personally to people without the use of His holy word.
My point here is that we know these wolves in sheep’s clothing are out there. We should always have our heresy filters engaged and our bibles actually open. I mean that. Don’t even trust me as a source! Don’t believe a word I say! God is true, and every man is a liar by comparison. Check it all out and do the work yourself. And THAT is connected to the choice that is before us all: will we grow in Christ as a true follower, or will we just…go and do our own thing and not worry about it (the wrong option)? As Joshua said, CHOOSE you this day whom you will serve! Whatever you choose, just get on with it. God is patiently waiting, but He will not wait forever. For the believer, that choice is easy. Next verse. Of earth

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.

That choice is to GROW. The Greek word is one I will share. Auxano signifies the growing that one does, either naturally or spiritually over time. In this case, the word is in the second person plural, active voice, and it means that it is WE who do the growing, and the plural means that this is addressed to the church, not just individuals, Beloved. We are to grow, and we are to grow together! What are we to grow in?
Grace [charis] here means the unmerited favour of our Lord Jesus Christ by His atonement on the cross for our sins. The word is always rendered favour on the part of the give, but thanks on the part of the receiver incidentally. His common grace extends to all mankind, and his special grace extends to those who have turned from their sins in repentance and faith and trust Him for their salvation from His coming wrath.
Knowledge [gnosei, the feminine form of gnosis] represents a seeking to know, to make inquiry of, to seek truth about Him, our only God and saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ. The word here is used of spiritual truth.
Here, Peter cannot help but break out into doxology (and neither can I)! To Him, that is our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, be the glory [that is, good opinion, repute, praise, honour] both NOW…and I need to pause here to remind us all that Peter is probably in a very short while (possibly minutes) being taken out to be crucified, and THAT upside down, because he felt unworthy to die the same way our Saviour had. He is giving Doxology NOW, at THIS point in His life. Beloved, what Peter is saying is that His life was lived in submission to Christ that He deserves. It CAN be done! He is doing it IN us if we are His. It’s called sanctification. When we are done here, He will take us to be with Him forever. Death, even painful death, held no fear for Peter, because he knew his destination AND the One that would receive him there. So it should be for us.
And to the day of eternity is a phrase that is distinct in eschatology. We all know of the Day of the Lord, that begins the final days of earth, to a maximum of about 7 years. The Day of God, the Day of Jesus Christ, these can all be viewed as synonyms. But this day, the day of eternity, that speaks of the eternal state after that 7-year period of the wrath of God and the Lamb, beyond His 1000-year kingdom, and looks into eternity [aion] itself. It is an indefinite period of time that is supposed to stretch on without end. Amen indeed.

I can think of no better way to leave this point than a consideration of what that will look like, and there is no better description that John’s in Revelation 21, where John catches a glimpse of the eternal state. I’ll start in verse 1 and read for a few verses: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He *said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” Then He said to me, “ It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.” (Rev. 21:1-7)

Beloved, if we were to read on through the end of that letter from John, we would read the great invitation from The Son of God and His Bride: “The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.” (Rev. 22:17)

Maybe you’re sitting there, and your heart like mine, is saying, “I want that.” Our Lord is very generous in that He has already paid your fare for passage on this trip. He has died in your place to pay the penalty for every sin you have ever committed. You do not have to wait to clean up your act for Him, He has already paid the worst price imaginable, and set you free to choose Him. You too can come. What you need to do is respond, and you don’t even have to do it out loud. You don’t have to leave your chair. You don’t have to walk to the front. You don’t have to DO anything! He has already done it. What you need to do is respond by repenting of your sins, that is acknowledge that they are sin and turn away from them to God! Believe in your heart that He not only paid the price, but that God accepted that payment and was in fact so pleased with it that Christ rose from the grave to SHOW that the price had been paid, and that the power of sin in your life has been broken, and someday he will take the presence of sin away from your life.

That’s how you get that. Want it. Respond to it. Live it.

That’s what I saw in the text.