Sunday School: Scoffers Will Come With Scoffing (2 Peter 3:1-7)

You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a New Testament book. On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament, and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series. Here's Pastor Gabe.

The Hope of Christ’s Return in 2 Peter 3

Well good morning. If you will open please to 2 Peter chapter 3. We've got this Sunday, the next, and the week after that to finish up 2 Peter, and then we will begin in 1 Thessalonians. So 2 Peter chapter 3, I'm going to begin by reading from verse 1, we'll go through verse 13, and I think only getting through about verse 8 this morning as far as we'll get in our lesson.

But let's start here in 2 Peter chapter 3 in verse 1. This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles, knowing this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, where is the promise of his coming?

For since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation. For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God, the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being deluged with water.

But by his word, the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord, one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.

The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some consider slowness, but is patient toward you, not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. 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.

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

But according to his promise, we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, as we come to this word today, what a wonderful joy and promise that we've received in just these 13 verses.

As we look around us and see the chaos that is happening in our world, the uncertainty of tomorrow, not knowing whether the next breath we take will be our last, and yet we have this beautiful promise that is given here.

We are waiting for, we're looking for a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells, in which all the evil and trouble and tribulation of this world will be gone, will be done, and we will dwell forever with God in your perfect holiness and righteousness.

I believe it stirs in us all the more, those words of John at the end of Revelation. Come quickly, Lord Jesus, Maranatha, and may that be our prayer every day, looking not for peace and tranquility in this world to be our hope, but our blessed hope is Jesus Christ and the promise of your eternal kingdom.

It's in these things as we explore this further in your scriptures today, we ask for clarity and guidance in Jesus' name and all God's people said, amen. So we look here at the start of chapter three.

This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder. This is the sequel, Peter is saying, to the previous letter that Pastor Tom had taken you through, and that was 1 Peter.

This is the second time also that Peter has said this, because he mentioned in chapter one, the need to have to repeat these things to the people of God again, so that they're reminded of them, so that they know the good word of these promises and the instruction that's been given us by Christ, that we would continue to be fruitful in these days.

While we're waiting for the revealing of our blessed hope, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, may we continue even in these days to be fruitful and good servants of our Savior. As I've been working on the curriculum for First Thessalonians, which is where we're going next, and it's not just this class, but many of the other Sunday school classes are doing it as well.

I believe Gary Camp just finished up First Corinthians and he's going to be doing First Thessalonians as well. So a lot of our classes are doing this together as I've been working that curriculum out.

You know, there were among the Thessalonians, this comes out more in Second Thessalonians than First Thessalonians, but there was among the Thessalonians a certain laziness. We're not really told exactly why there was a laziness that existed among the Thessalonians, but many of them were not working, they weren't doing anything.

And so Paul had to encourage them, you see it in First Thessalonians, we gave you an example to work. We did not take anyone's bread. We could have made you provide for us because that's how you should be about supporting the apostles or supporting whatever preacher would come to you.

Provide for his living, provide for his way of life. We could have expected that from you, but instead what we chose to do was not take anyone's bread, we decided to work so we could provide for you an example of somebody who's supposed to work.

You get to Second Thessalonians and it becomes an even sharper rebuke there. Paul says, if there's anyone among you that's not willing to work, he doesn't even get to eat. Discipline such a person and have nothing to do with him so that he would fear God and know to do his labor.

So we're not told exactly why the Thessalonians weren't working, whether it's like a spirit of laziness, whether the city was so well to do that some people just thought, hey, we're a productive, luxurious city.

We're doing well as Thessalonians. Why work? Why do I need to do anything? So there were some who were praying off of the charity of the wealthy and they weren't working at all. We don't see that happening in our culture today, right?

But there is some speculation I read from a couple of scholars that thought maybe even some in the church in Thessalonica weren't working because they were anticipating the day of the Lord. He's coming back any day now.

Why do I got to work if Jesus could come back tomorrow? So I'm just going to sit back and relax and wait for Jesus to arrive. And Paul has to rebuke the Thessalonians and say, no. Now, the letters 1 and 2 Thessalonians are not rebuking letters, not in the spirit that we see like Galatians and 1 and 2 Corinthians, but there's still a rebuke there of those among you who are not working, let them not eat.

There's still work that we need to be doing. Paul urges this of the Thessalonians. Peter is urging this of his hearers here. We need to be working. If we're not working, we'll prove to be unfruitful. Go back with me, if you will, to 1 Peter.

Let's go to, sorry, not 1 Peter, 2 Peter 1. Don't go all the way back to 1 Peter. Just a couple of chapters to 2 Peter 1. So remember where Peter gave this instruction about showing or proving, affirming your election and calling in Christ.

This is in 2 Peter 1, beginning in verse 5. Did I get all my numbers right that time? 2 Peter 1, verse 5. Now, for this very reason also, applying all diligence in your faith supply moral excellence. And in your moral excellence, knowledge.

And in your knowledge, self-control. And in your self-control, perseverance. And in your perseverance, godliness. And in your godliness, brotherly kindness. And in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these things are yours, you exhibit, you show these qualities, and they are increasing.

You're growing in them as well. They render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the full knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. So what kind of work should we be doing? What will that be looking like? And there's the list right there, especially as it comes to how we engage with one another within the church, how we live, how we fellowship with each other.

We're growing in godliness, in brotherly kindness, and in love. And we're maturing in these things. Always productive in these things until the day of Christ. Labor in them, and they affirm your calling and election, and render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the full knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I don't know how well you remember Pilgrim's Progress. Those of you who have read it, if you haven't, you need to. But Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, there is a character in that story whose name is Atheist.

And Atheist appears in Pilgrim's Progress right before a Christian falls into despair. And Atheist is coming with his mocking, right? That's where we are in 2 Peter right now. So, in 2 Peter chapter 2, or sorry, 2 Peter chapter 3, again, messing up my numbers, that there are mockers that are going to come following their own lusts.

They come with their mocking, saying, where is the promise of his coming? Since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation. Now, this certainly isn't an atheist speaking here as Peter has personified him in 2 Peter 3, 4.

But nevertheless, you have those atheists and agnostics who scoff. I encountered one online last night, in fact. Somebody that every question that he asked of me about my faith, he had some sort of derogatory term.

So, he would quote something from the Bible and he would say, now, what do you say about this, dummy? You know, that's, I mean, everything was just some sort of a mean, however meanness he could throw in there just to make me feel foolish and stupid.

This was a guy with a PhD at Michigan State University even. So, this wasn't, you know, just some anonymous troll online. He identified himself and very much wanted to assert that he was much smarter than I am.

So, these people come with their scoffing, they come with their mocking. And when we listen to the scoffing and we listen to the mocking, and if we happen to be persuaded by those arguments, it can lead to despair.

And that's what it led to with Christian. You are listening to those comments and your mind is just filled with that. And if you are not rinsing out that toxicity with the word of God, those negative words just kind of hit there, they sit there and they dwell, and it feels awful.

You know, Tom mentioned it this morning in the sermon. I've mentioned it recently too, and you've probably heard it from many others. Sometimes you just need to turn the news off. Just stop reading it, stop watching it, and go read your Bible.

Not that we should be uninformed, but all news comes through a certain worldview. Nobody just delivers to you neutral news, right? It's all from a certain worldview. So you have to be careful with the worldview that it's coming at you through.

But even that said, you have to be careful with how much of that you're absorbing. News by its nature is almost kind of, you know, fashioned to be bad. You only hear the bad news. You don't hear the fun, uplifting, fluffy stories that happen around you and even within your own community.

It's like you have to go look for the good news. Everybody's willing to give you bad news. Because they fill you up with bad news and they fill you with terror, it keeps you coming back. News in our culture, in our capitalistic society, is a commodity.

So if they can give you something that makes you fearful, then you want to come back for more. And they never actually resolve the story, they just have another bad news story for you today. So sometimes we just need to turn those things off because it will fill us with despair.

And if we have jobs that we work all week long that are secular in nature, you don't have a whole lot of filling your mind and heart with the things of God. The world's certainly not going to want to give you those things.

And so to rinse out that toxic stuff that has come into your mind that can cause you to despair, you got to come back to the word of God. You have to be reminded of the promises of God. And Peter does that so pastorally here in chapter 3.

Scoffers come with their scoffing, but take heart. God's not slow to fulfill his promise. He's working right now. If there's any delay by our human perception as we're watching these things unfold, if we're wondering where God is in the midst of this, if there's any delay, if we would perceive by our humanness a delay, it's for this reason, that God doesn't want you to perish, that he wants all to come to repentance and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, in context, when Peter says that in 2 Peter 3, he's talking about the elect, that those who are elect will come to repentance and salvation. We will examine that further next week. We won't get into the nuts and bolts of that necessarily today.

But here as Peter is continuing to encourage, as he's continuing to stir up, Pastor Tom does the same today in the sermon. And one of the things that I wrote down, he doesn't say it this way, it might come out in the sermon next week because he talks more about like a good tree bears good fruit, a bad tree bears bad fruit.

That's where we get to next in the sermon on the mount. So as he was talking about those things today, I wrote this down. This was among my sermon notes this morning. The evidence of fruitfulness is not more people.

The evidence of fruitfulness is faithfulness. And a lot of times we're expecting to see the evidence of fruitfulness will be more people. What are we seeing that's going on in the culture and even in the church right now?

There's kind of a weaning that's happening, isn't there? Like those who are not faithful are being weeded out, if you will pardon the expression. Those that weren't really truly genuine and enduring in their faith to begin with are being weeded out of the church.

We're being shown who is truly faithful to the promises of God and who is not. I've been listening to a podcast called The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill. It's about Mars Hill Church and the increasing fame that Mark Driscoll experienced throughout the 2000s and early 2010s.

And then just suddenly it was all gone, just immediately. He resigned, the church fell apart, Mars Hill fell. Hence why the podcast is called The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill. Now, when the podcast began, it was rather interesting and I was intrigued by it at first.

The most recent episode that broke this week was ridiculous. So I don't really recommend, it doesn't sustain itself all the way through the podcast. It works for the first few episodes, but then just kind of plummets after that.

So unfortunately, it's not one that I can recommend. But one thing that Mike Cosper, who's the host of the program, one of the things that he kind of exposes as you go through the different interviews and things like that, he doesn't, I don't think he necessarily does this deliberately.

It's just as he's talking to different people who were part of Mars Hill during those extremely quote unquote fruitful years. When there was thousands of people that were attending this church, multiple services that they did on Sunday morning.

What you will hear over and over again from those persons who attended Mars Hill Church is that there was so much fruit. Yeah, Mark was doing something that was bad. Yeah, he would do these things over here that were kind of suspicious.

We're like, I don't know if you should do it that way. Or we would do our services like this and it would be totally outside the realms of orthodox ecclesiology. And people are looking at this going, I don't think we should be doing church like that.

But look at the fruit. Like, how can you argue with the fruit? There's so many people and so many are coming in to get baptized. Thousands of people. Look at the fruitfulness. My friends, fruitfulness is not more people.

Because what ended up happening to all those people? Where are they now? Where is that church? It doesn't even exist anymore. Now, there are some that remain faithful. They went on to other faithful churches.

But a vast majority of them did not. And in fact, it's interesting to hear the interviews that Mike Cosper has with some of these people. You can tell when he's interviewing them, and they'll even straight up say it.

They're not believers anymore. They were part of the church and they worked in the church, but they're not even Christians. They're not even walking with the Lord anymore. And they'll talk about those days when I was at Mars Hill.

Yeah, it was silly and we were doing this, that, and the other. And we all thought it was great at the time. But now I look back on it and I kind of regret it, you know? So more people does not equal fruitfulness.

The evidence of fruitfulness is faithfulness. And Peter seems to allude here in 2 Peter 3 to helping the church understand the majority of our experience, the majority of our experience as Christians in this world is going to be the world mocking us.

That's generally how this is going to go. Peter says, this is the second letter that I've written to you, and I'm writing to you for your benefit to stir up your sincere mind by way of reminder. I'm reminding you.

Reminding you of what? Of Christ, of the coming of Christ. Don't despair. Do not let your heart be troubled. I was reminded so much this week watching the news, watching statistics and different things over various different subjects, hearing reports that would come into the church that Barry had died, that someone else had passed away, someone else had gotten sick, was quarantining at home, all these different things.

It was bombarding us all week long, and it was a week full of meetings on top of that. I had a lot of meetings this past week. And yet, I was reminded of these words of Jesus saying to his disciples, in this world, you will have tribulation.

You will have trouble. Now, understand when Jesus says that, that's a promise, okay? Not a very uplifting promise, but it is a promise. In this world, you will go through tribulation. But then, you have the next promise.

But take heart. Jesus says, for I have overcome the world. Now, for us as Christians, that's good news. For those who are not believers, that's actually quite bad news. Because they're part of the world Jesus has overcome, and destruction is coming upon them if they do not repent.

We need to know that for a couple of reasons. First of all, so that we would not go the way of the world and then also come into judgment. That's number one. Number two, so that we would recognize those people around us who are lost, who do not know Christ, are coming into judgment.

So that we would share the gospel with them and they would understand, because of my sin, I deserve the wrath of a holy God. But God is merciful and gracious to send his son who died on the cross for my sins and rose again from the grave so that by faith in him, I'm saved.

Saved from what? It's a question I asked early on with all my kids so they would understand what salvation means. What does it mean to call Jesus savior? What has he saved us from? The first child, of course, I asked this of was Annie since she's the oldest.

She was about five or six years old when I remember her saying, well, he saved us from our sins. I said, that's correct. What else has Jesus saved us from? And Annie, who memorized verses faster than any of our kids, if those of you have ever even had a conversation with Annie before, you know how smart she is.

She reads more books in a week than I do. She knows her verses and she knows Romans 6 .23 even at the age of five and responded, well, the wages of sin is death, so Jesus also saves us from death. So that's correct.

He saves us from our sin. He saves us from death. What else does Jesus save us from? And she thought about that and she couldn't come up with an answer. She said, I can't think of anything else. I said, Jesus saves us from the wrath of God.

As I heard Steve Lawson say a number of years ago, God saves us for himself, by himself, from himself. We are called by Christ to be children of God. And by becoming children of God, we're no longer children of wrath, to be destroyed by the judgment of God that is coming against those who do not know God, but continue in unrighteousness.

As we've been talking in the previous weeks going through 2 Peter 2, we're saved from our sin, we're saved from death, we're saved from judgment, the very wrath of God itself. When we have faith in Jesus Christ, this is what Jesus saves us from.

And again, it's necessary for us to know this, my brethren, so that we don't go the way of the world and so that we preach the gospel to the world. That the world may know Christ and be saved from the judgment that is to come.

So Peter's stirring up, by way of reminder, here in the churches that have received this letter. 2 Peter 3, verse 2, that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles.

Now, there are some times where prophets and apostles are used to denote those who are teaching in the New Testament church era. For example, Ephesians 4 .11, where it says, God gave the prophets and the apostles, the evangelists, the shepherds, and the teachers to prepare the saints for the work of ministry, okay?

So their prophets and apostles are talking about in the church age. Those prophets that went out from the apostles speaking the apostolic word. They're not themselves apostles who had seen the risen Christ, appointed by Christ to be apostles.

But they speak for the apostles continuing in that apostolic ministry and even affirming apostleship, that this came from the apostles that were sent out by Christ through the signs and the miracles that they did.

In Acts chapter 15, Silas, you remember Silas? He partnered with Paul there for a while in some of the missionary work that they did throughout Achaia. Silas is mentioned there in Acts chapter 15 as a prophet.

So he's a prophet that speaks the apostolic ministry that was given by Christ to his apostles. But here in 2 Peter 3 .2, I think that the prophets that we're speaking about here is not in the New Testament church context.

We're even talking about the Old Testament prophets. They were the ones who spoke of the Christ who was to come. They are the ones who spoke even there in the Old Testament about a king who would reign and bring judgment out on the whole world.

We see that in the Old Testament as well as in the New. And so remember the words spoken beforehand, beforehand by the holy prophets. So we're talking before, before the present age, the church age in which we live, there was a word that was spoken about the Messiah who comes and fulfills the word of the prophet.

But there are even yet things that the prophets spoke about that have not yet come to fulfillment. So the prophets spoke of things fulfilled in Christ. There are other things that the prophets said that have not yet been fulfilled, though those things also will be fulfilled in Christ.

And namely, we're talking about judgment. We're talking about the day of Christ, that final judgment that will come upon the whole world. So you have words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets, and remember the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles.

So that's present. You have words that were spoken beforehand, came from the prophets. Remember what Peter said previously in chapter one. This is verses 19 through 21. We have as more sure the prophetic word to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

Know this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes by one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by the will of man. But men being moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God, right?

So Peter has already talked about the prophets, the prophecies that had been made beforehand. He brings that back up again by way of reminder. Remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles.

And he talked about apostleship there also in chapter one as Peter being one of those eyewitnesses to the majesty of God that was revealed on that holy mountain when Jesus was transfigured before them, before Peter, James, and John.

And they heard the voice of heaven say, this is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased. Peter talked about that in chapter one. So he brings back again, kind of like summarizing everything we've talked about thus far.

Chapter two was dedicated to the warning against false prophets. He comes back to remember the true prophecies, remember the true word of God that came from the prophets and came from the apostles. Consider now verse three, knowing this first of all, that in the last days, mockers will come with their mocking following after their own lusts.

That's 2 Peter 3, 3. Go back to chapter two, verse one, 2 Peter 2, 1. But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves, verse two.

And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them, the way of the truth will be maligned. Go back to chapter three, verse three again. Knowing this, that in the last days, mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts.

Same thing, right? Same thing we saw in chapter two, verses one and two. We're seeing here in verse three. This is Peter summarizing, like a good pastor preaching a good sermon, he's summarizing all the points he's made thus far.

Good teaching in chapter one, bad teaching in chapter two. Remember the good teaching, avoid the bad teaching. Now, what is the rotten fruit that's being produced by the bad teaching? Well, you have sensuality and lust that's mentioned there, but you also have this mocking.

So the scoffers, as Peter talks about here in verse four, this is not necessarily the false teachers that he just talked about in chapter two. It could be those false teachers, but it's also the people who follow them.

So what's the result of their false teaching? It's gonna be mocking that we're in the last days. People who follow after teaching, false teaching will not understand that we're in the last days. We're presently in the last days.

You go on to the next letter immediately after 2 Peter and you have 1 John. And John says in 1 John, this is the last hour, we're in the last hour. There are two ages, there's the present age, there is the age to come.

We're in the age that is referred to now as the last days. From the time that Jesus ascended into heaven and the giving of the Holy Spirit came, we've been in the last days this entire time, 2 ,000 years.

So this is the age prior to the last age, which is the age that Christ is ushering in when he returns. So the scoffers, the mockers, they say, where's the promise? Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.

Now, as I mentioned, these are not atheists, right? Cuz the atheists would not be saying beginning of creation. They're gonna deny that this is creation. You could certainly have some version of this that would come from an atheist or from an agnostic, but you're probably talking about in Peter's mind, as he's kind of relaying this to people, you're talking about false converts, number one, those who claim to be of Christ, but really are not.

And you're also talking about the Judaizers, so those who do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah anyway. And so you're talking about this judgment that's coming, talking about Christ coming in judgment, where is that?

For ever since the fathers fell asleep, the prophets, those who had came previously before us, or even going back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the fathers, ever since they fell asleep, all continues, just as it was from the beginning of creation.

We have good times, we have bad times, but none of this is ultimately going to end. That's really kind of the word of the scoffer here. There's not a finality to all of this. Sometimes times are good, sometimes times are bad, just do the best with the times that you're given.

That's the word of a scoffer. Verse five, for when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God, the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being deluged with water.

But by his word, the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. By the way, right here, Peter is speaking of the noetic flood as a historical fact.

So my friends, we should read the noetic flood in the book of Genesis exactly the same way as Jesus referred to it and Peter referred to it. It was a real event, it actually happened, this isn't mythology.

And it's not some sort of a story that Moses writes into Genesis that's supposed to be some sort of allegory for something else. It actually happened exactly the way that it happened there. And Peter is saying, there was a world that existed before the flood in a certain way, that world has since been destroyed.

It escapes their notice. Those of you who have the English Standard Version, it says, they deliberately overlooked this fact. I love that wording, right? They deliberately overlooked the fact of the judgment that came in the flood of Noah, for since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.

That's what the mockers continue to say. The world at that time was destroyed, it was deluged with water, and by his word, the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

Let me finish with this, and we'll stop right there. You can turn with me if you want to to Matthew 24. So I believe here, Peter is repeating something he heard his Savior say. He heard Jesus teach himself in the section of Matthew that we have, that's called the Olivet Discourse, Matthew 24 and 25, where Jesus talks about the end from the Mount of Olives.