The Final End of the Universe Part I 2 Peter 3:1-13

Three years ago, during the pandemic, COVID -19,

I took a pause on the sermon series that I was doing at that time, and that was a sermon series through Matthew.

And what I did instead is I took 12 weeks to go through the end times.

And what I did is I went chronologically through what does the Bible say about how the world is going to end.

You might wonder, well, why did I do that during COVID? Well, of course, the answer's obvious. It had kind of an apocalyptic feel to it.

Scripture talks about, in Matthew 24, 8, that there are birth pains. And birth pains are these contractions that women here who've had a baby know exactly what this is, these contractions that increase in frequency and intensity as the birth nears.

And so Jesus, in Matthew 24, 8, says, as he's giving all these signs about the end, what he says is that these are but the beginning of birth pains.

So these signs happen, they increase in frequency and intensity as the end nears.

And of course, COVID -19, we don't exactly know what happened there, but what we can say is that in some way, this is pointing toward the end of the story.

And as the end of human history approaches, Scripture describes several major events that will take place.

Four years ago, when many of you were not here, but you were somewhere else, but now you're here and I'm so glad that you are here.

And by the way, all these sermons from four years ago are recorded online as I preached, mostly to empty pews, because it was kind of during COVID, people were kind of coming back during that time.

This sermon series, we took a close look at each of these major events, as I mentioned, in chronological order.

And we started by looking at the final seven years predicted in the book of Daniel, known as Daniel's 70 weeks.

We looked at the several places in Scripture that also describes the pre -tribulation rapture that before this final seven years, the church, the bride of Christ will be caught up into the air.

First Thessalonians four is one of these places. You'll be caught up into the air and you will meet the Lord in the air.

We also looked at the rise of the antichrist and false prophet, which is described in several places in the

New Testament, but most clearly in Revelation 13. And then we looked at the three stages of the wrath of God that is poured out on rebellious humanity in the book of Revelation.

These three stages of God's wrath are shown through the seven seals, the seven trumpets and the seven bulls.

We also saw the important place of Israel in the end times and why there will be a 1000 year reign of Christ on the earth.

I love John MacArthur's quote about how we properly understand the end times.

He says, if you get biblical interpretation right, you get the end times right, okay?

You get biblical interpretation right, you get Israel right, you get Israel right, you get the end times right.

So Israel does hold a very important place in how this world is going to end.

All of these events scripture describes will happen at a time only known by the father.

As Jesus said in Matthew 24, 36, not even the angels in heaven, nor the son, but only the father.

Of course, in Jesus' divine nature, he knows. In his human nature, he does not know.

He's waiting to hear the word from his father to go get his bride that is on the earth.

And of course, Jesus explains this in what's known as the Olivet Discourse. And this is found in Mark chapter 13,

Matthew 24, and Luke 21. And what's interesting is that he gives us all these signs about the end.

And Jesus makes the statement that no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the son, but only the father.

Nobody knows the day or the hour. And some people take this to mean that we have no idea.

That we're pretty much completely in the dark. But they miss what this whole chapter is about in the first place.

And that is, he gives us signs. Well, why does he give us signs? So that we know that the end is near.

So what Jesus is teaching in the Olivet Discourse, in Mark 13, in Matthew 24, in Luke 21, what he's teaching is that we don't know the exact time, but we do know the general time.

Okay, let me say that again. We don't know the exact time, but we do know the general time.

There are enough signs that have taken place. The biggest one that started this was in 1948, when the nation of Israel was formed.

And it was formed in a day, as prophecy predicted.

This tells us that history won't go on for hundreds or thousands of more years.

Now, in the middle of the 20th century, people thought the end would be very close. And here we are in 2024.

But that being said, the Lord is patient. We are going to see that in this text in 2

Peter 3. He gives people signs and calls all people everywhere to repent and put their trust in Jesus before this world comes to an end.

And sometimes, remember I mentioned that sometimes people say hundreds or thousands of years into the future, this or that is going to happen.

I hear Christians saying this, not just secular people, Christians saying this.

And when I hear them say this, what comes to my mind is this, what Bible are they reading and what world are they living in?

I have a newsflash, the world won't be here a super long time from now.

This doesn't mean I'm setting dates. If you set dates, that's a telltale sign that you have a false prophet on your hands, okay?

We're not setting dates, but we do look at the signs, whether it's natural disasters, whether it's economic, whether it's the nation of Israel, whether it's the globalistic push that's taking place before our eyes.

Our church is a church that talks a lot about, we do talk about the social justice movement. And the social justice movement has an intimate relationship with this globalistic push that's taking place all over the world.

Well, this is a sign, right? This pluralistic mentality of all these religions coming together where the only religion that is the problem is biblical

Christianity, that's happening before us. This is a sign. These are all things that point ahead to the reality that Jesus is going to come back.

And as the end approaches, things will be dark, but as the bride of Christ, the church, what we believe in this church is that we will be raptured and we will not go through the great difficulty of the final seven -year tribulation.

But what the world is going to experience in that time is God's judgment on the earth.

And we look at all the evil that's happening everywhere and we wonder, why does the

Lord let this happen? When is He going to step in?

And the Bible gives us the answer. And that answer is He is going to step in during the final seven -year tribulation.

I mentioned already the judgments, the seal judgment, the trumpet judgment, the bull judgment.

What the Lord is going to do in that time is He is going to pour out

His holy wrath on the earth. And what's interesting is that what is coming to this earth in the future is the worst calamity that has ever taken place on this earth.

And you might say, how could there be a worse calamity than the flood?

Okay, so 4 ,300 years ago, this entire planet was destroyed by a flood.

The early chapters of Genesis tells us this story. But Jesus actually tells us that what is coming is worse than that.

In Matthew 24, verses 21 and 22, Jesus said, for then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be.

And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would survive.

But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short. Okay, so what

He's saying here is this is going to be a seven -year period. And all the destruction that's going to be poured out, all this judgment that's going to be poured out on rebellious, sinful humanity, it's going to last seven years.

And if it didn't last seven years but went longer, no person would make it out alive.

Three -fourths of the world will perish during the final seven -year tribulation.

And the worst of it is gonna happen in the second half of the seven years, which is known as the great tribulation.

So the Bible describes this future history of the earth, but maybe the most interesting and most sobering reality of the future is that this present world we live in will one day be completely destroyed.

And not just the present world, but also the hundreds of billions of galaxies that make up the universe.

Now earlier I mentioned that some Christians think that this world is going to go on for hundreds or thousands of years.

And when Christians say this, they are thinking like the world, as they ignore the signs given in scripture and observing the events taking place right before our eyes.

This world and this universe are on borrowed time. I was reading a story one time about a museum in Arizona that predicted what the

Grand Canyon and the region around it is going to look like thousands of years from now.

I was also watching another science documentary and what they said is that if humanity doesn't first annihilate the planet, this world is only going to be around for a few billion more years because what's going to happen is that the sun is going to run out of juice.

And of course, without the sun, I hate to break it to you, we won't survive. The people of this world are planning on being here for a long time.

And you can see it, they are desperate. This is why there is so much concern over climate change.

You have these movies about, these science fiction movies of, we got to get off this planet, we got to go to this other planet that's safer.

Many secular scientists think that humanity is negatively causing large amounts of carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

And this leads to the temperatures warming. Their concern is that there will be excess melting that will put our planet underwater.

This is why they are saying we need to do something about this by lowering the level of carbon emissions.

But how should Christians think about this? Well, the Bible tells us how it's all going to end.

Genesis 8 .22, the Lord said this, while the earth remains, this is after the flood, while the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall be over.

Shall not cease. That's a promise. Well, guess what? We are 4 ,300 years after that promise, and guess what we have?

All of this. The Lord has fulfilled his promise. He keeps this earth going until he's done with it.

And as we will see in the text in 2 Peter 3 this morning and in the coming Sundays, there will be a future warming of the earth, but it is not going to come from humanity.

Rather, it's going to come from God as he brings judgment. Finally and forever bringing this present earth and present universe to an official end.

And as he does this, the end of the Bible tells us in Revelation 21 and 22, I read Revelation 21 this morning, that he will create a new earth and a new universe.

That's what he means when he says a new heavens. That's the universe and a new earth. That's planet earth.

And as he does this, as he creates all of this, it's going to be a wonderful place.

As we read this morning, no pain, no sorrow, no death.

God's people will be with their creator forever and ever. This is where we are moving toward.

And as I mentioned, the place in scripture where the very end, the very, very end is described is in 2

Peter 3. So I encourage you to turn there with me at this time. Now, one week ago,

I mentioned that the intensity of chapter two as Peter went after false teachers for an entire chapter.

Chapter two of 2 Peter is the most extensive rebuke of false teachers in the entire

Bible. And this is the most, in chapter three, is the most extensive description of the end of the universe.

What I'm gonna do is we begin this sermon. This is actually a three Sunday sermon. There's lots in these 13 verses.

I'm gonna read chapter three, verses one through 13, and then we will start to dig into it.

This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them, I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the

Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.

They will say, where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.

For they deliberately overlooked this fact that the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God and that by means of these, the world that then existed was to lose with water and perish.

But by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the

Lord, one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief and then the heavens will pass away with a roar and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

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

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

Here's our big idea over the next three Sundays, what this text is calling you and me to do.

Understand that God's biggest judgment for this rebellious world is reserved for the very end.

Okay, we need to understand this. His biggest judgment for this rebellious world is reserved for the very end.

And we're gonna see five facts the world must know over the next three Sundays. And this morning, we're only gonna do one.

We're gonna start with the first fact. And that is this, mockers will rise up by denying

God's creation and Christ's consummation. Okay, mockers are gonna rise up denying

God's creation and Christ's consummation. We'll see this in verses one through four. Once again, in verses one and two,

Peter stirs them up by way of reminder. And then he says in verse two, you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the

Lord and Savior through your apostles. What we read here is that Peter has written two letters and we're very familiar with this because before we went through, before we have gone through second

Peter, we went through first Peter. And when I introduced both letters, we talked about the fact that Peter has written both of these letters.

And what he has been doing is he's been reminding his readers what they have already been taught.

And of course, this teaching came from the apostles. It came from Christ to the apostles and it was passed on to them.

And several decades have passed and these truths from scripture are what they need to hear.

The apostles, the reason they're called the apostles is because they witnessed the resurrection of Christ.

And they not only witnessed the resurrection of Christ, but Christ specifically appointed them to this position to be messengers, to tell the world

God's word and God's plan. And in first Peter one, one, we learned that Peter wrote this letter to churches in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia.

These believers needed to be reminded about Christ's redemptive work accomplished at the cross and how to live as Christians in this world.

Peter has laid this out as we have seen in both of his letters, he has done this in both first and second

Peter. But he also reminds them about the future coming of Christ. In the first letter, he reminded them about the second coming of Christ.

And he did this, for example, in first Peter five, four, when he mentioned the chief shepherd appearing.

And the chief shepherd, of course, is describing the Lord Jesus Christ, that when he appears, he will reward the faithful.

The chief shepherd is gonna come back and Peter, like all

New Testament writers, emphasizes that he is going to return to this earth.

He came the first time 2 ,000 years ago on a rescue mission to save sinners.

He came the first time for salvation. He's coming the second time to gather his people and to bring judgment on this earth.

And in this passage we are looking at in second Peter three, Peter describes, as we have already read, and we will take a closer look at, not only the second coming of Christ, but also the very end of the universe.

It goes without saying that this is a fascinating, but also very sobering passage.

In verse two, what Peter is specifically reminding his readers about is the predictions of the prophets in the

Old Testament and the predictions carried on by the apostles in the

New Testament. This is what we call biblical prophecy. And we live in a time when the return of Christ is fast approaching, but very few churches talk about it.

I don't think I'm out of place saying that. There's actually been books written about this, War on Bible Prophecy.

I know Ron Rhodes wrote a book about that recently. It's true. I was on a

Zoom call this week with other pastors, and these are really solid shepherds.

These are shepherds who not only preach the truth of God's word, but they also defend against false teachings that are out there.

And on the Zoom call, one of the faithful pastors made a comment about one of the other pastors who was woke, pushing social justice and really compromised.

And what this pastor let out of his mouth was very interesting. He said, I haven't talked about the return of Christ in years, which is quite the remarkable statement.

When you look at a church, what is it that a church should be talking about, should be focusing on?

A church should focus on what the Bible focuses on. In other words, we should cover everything the

Bible covers. 27 % of the Bible is prophecy.

What this means is that a regular topic that Eureka Baptist should be covering is biblical prophecy.

Now, as I say this, some churches only talk about biblical prophecy. We don't want to do that because we are to follow what

Acts 20, 27 says. We are to teach and preach the whole counsel of God.

Okay, so we talk about marriage in this church. We talk about parenting. We talk about evangelism.

We talk about false teachers. We talk about what is the gospel. We talk about what is basic Christian living look like.

We talk about all these things, but we also talk about how is the world going to end?

Because the Bible talks a lot about it. Old and New Testament writers predicted end times events.

And right here in our text, Peter is reminding his readers about the end and not just the end, but the very end.

And as we are about to see and what he tells his readers and future readers, namely us, is that he is still coming, even though many out there say this is a fantasy.

So let's read what many in the world say to followers of Jesus who are anticipating, looking forward to the unfolding of end times events with the return of Christ right at the center of it.

Verses three and four, this is what they say. Knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.

They will say, where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.

So what the text tells us is that there will be scoffers. A scoffer is one who mocks or makes fun of.

Unbelievers do this all the time to Christians, especially many atheists, many aggressive atheists in our day who are particularly hostile toward biblical

Christianity. In 2011, there was a billboard in California created by atheists that said, the rapture?

You know it's nonsense. 2 ,000 years of any day now.

And if you were to ask any secular scientist, academic or news media about the return of Christ, they would laugh.

And what they would say is what our text says in verse four. Where is the promise of his coming?

For ever since the fathers fell asleep, things have continued as they are now.

Now when the text says that the fathers fell asleep, to whom is this being referred to? This is either early humanity or these scoffers are pointing to Old Testament biblical fathers like Adam and Noah and Abraham.

This text is probably referring to the biblical fathers because these scoffers are mocking biblical history by saying ever since these first humans were written about in your book, ever since they died, the world has continued as it always has been.

Now in the previous chapter, religious false teachers were the focus as we looked at that in detail.

These are those who claimed Christ, but they were really pushing a false gospel. So they kept the

Christian veneer, but they were really false teachers. Now in chapter three, Peter shifts to a different group of false teachers.

These are secular false teachers. So none of these people are claiming the name of Christ.

They don't claim the Christian veneer, but they mock Christianity and specifically they're mocking the return of Christ.

And what these secular false teachers are saying as Peter describes, is that the world is going to continue the way it has always operated since its beginning.

And we should not expect it to come to an abrupt end like Christianity says it will. And as I already alluded to, the secular world believes that things are going to continue as they are from one generation to the next, since they believe this is how the world has always gone.

The unbelieving people who say this are a mixed bag. Some believe in a creator

God, but they don't believe in the story of the Bible. They don't believe that God is judge.

For example, there were many who lived during the enlightenment period several hundred years ago who would be in this category.

This is essentially what Deus believed. What the Deus believed is that God would create everything and he would let everything run like a clock, but he was not involved in the affairs of humanity.

So in other words, there is really no story. It's just he set it up this way and go live your lives and I'm going to go on vacation somewhere.

I mean, that's kind of what Deism believes. A great example of this in the history of our country is

Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States. Thomas Jefferson was basically a

Christian Deist. He believed people should follow biblical morality, but he made a

Bible that took out all the supernatural elements. So it's unclear whether he even believed in the afterlife.

So two to 300 years ago, there were lots of intellectuals that believed what Thomas Jefferson believed.

They thought they were smarter than God. Now in our day, it's hard to find a Deist, but there are lots of atheists.

There are lots of people, especially among the intellectual elites. They go to the extreme believing that there is, then there are others who will not be so bold and they'll call themselves agnostics.

And what they believe is that we can't really know that there is a God, which like atheism is bankrupt intellectually.

But do you know what scripture teaches? Scripture teaches that there are no such thing as atheists or agnostics.

Romans 121 says, "'For although they knew God, "'they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, "'but they became futile in their thinking "'and their foolish hearts were darkened.'"

In Romans 121 and in the end of verse three in our passage, we see what the root issue is in these unbelievers who do not believe in the one true

God of the universe. The root issue as to why they don't believe has nothing to do with their brain and has everything to do with their heart.

It's because of their sinful desire. As Peter writes in the second half of verse three, "'Scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing "'following their own sinful desires.'"

People do not want there to be a God who is judge of the universe. People love their sin and they love it so much that they reject the

God of the Bible who is described as a good and loving God, yes, but He's also a God of justice and will not let any sin go unpunished forever.

Exodus says that He's a God gracious and merciful, abounding in steadfast love, but He will by no means clear the guilty.

So this understanding explains why so many in our society, especially the elites in our society, hate

God, mock biblical Christianity, and laugh at the thought that Jesus is gonna come back to this earth.

They love their sin. They want to continue in their sin and all this talk of God and the reality of judgment gets in the way of their sinful lifestyle.

English writer and philosopher, Aldous Huxley, he's most well -known for the book,

The Brave New World. Huxley wrote this in a work titled,

Confessions of a Professed Atheist. And this is so interesting because he actually tells the truth here.

What I just told you, that they follow their own sinful desire and that influences their denial of God, their denial of the return of Christ.

Most of them, deep down, they know it's true, but this guy actually says it. Listen to this.

Huxley writes, I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning.

Consequently assumed it had none and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption.

The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in understanding what is reality.

He's also concerned to prove that there is no valid reason why he should personally not do just what he wants to do.

For myself, as no doubt for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation.

The liberation we desired was simultaneously a liberation from a certain political and economic system and a liberation from a certain system of morality.

We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom.

Wow. Wow. Well, thank you, Eldess Huxley, for actually telling the truth.

What we already know to be true, what the Bible says to be true, they deny

God, not because he's not there. I mean, think about this. How do you go through a beautiful summer day and not see that there is a

God who created this, that there's a good, loving, and wise God who created this?

It's common sense. Everybody knows it to be true. So why do people reject it?

It's because they don't want to believe there's a God who's going to judge them. So these are the scoffers.

These were the scoffers in Peter's day. These are the scoffers in our day.

Romans 1 .22 says, "'Claiming to be wise, they became fools.'" So if you are a follower of Christ, this world views you as foolish.

This world views you as not enlightened. But you know what the Bible says? You are the wise ones.

You are the ones who truly understand the world as it is. So who are the foolish ones?

Well, the ones who in this world say that they are wise. We live in an upside -down world.

Everything is backwards. The secular world is blind, and they are the ones who mock those who believe that God created the world, that Christ is coming back.

And as you endure their mocking, in the end, you will be vindicated. We had

Jeff Kleewer speak here at our conference about a month ago. And in his book,

War -Torn Church, which by the way, we have plenty of copies still left over that you can take one if you haven't had one yet.

In this book, he says, time and truth go hand -in -hand. I love that quote.

Time and truth go hand -in -hand. Eventually, you can see the truth.

Eventually, those who are on the side of truth are vindicated. And that's how it's gonna be in this world.

Those who belong to Christ, those who are on the side of truth, will be vindicated.

Think about how incredible this passage is. What Peter is saying to his readers is that in the near future, to the people of his time, people were going to mock.

And in the far off future from Peter, our time, people are still mocking.

So whenever you hear someone mocking the return of Christ, this is remarkable. This prophecy is being fulfilled right in your midst.

The scoffers are innumerable. They're everywhere. And 2

Peter 3 said it would be so. Peter, in this inspired letter, predicted that this would take place.

And it took place in his day. And it certainly is taking place in ours as Christ's return nears.

So understand that God's biggest judgment for this rebellious world is reserved for the very end.

And the first fact the world must know is that mockers will rise up mocking

God's creation and Christ's salvation. So this is what we have looked at today.

And next Sunday, we are going to look at another historical event that these people deny.

And that is the global flood. And so this will be very interesting to see. And this global flood points ahead to another calamity, a greater calamity that will come on this earth in the future.

But this time, let's bow our hearts in prayer. And Father, as I pray here,

I just want to start off by praying that if anybody here does not have a relationship with Jesus Christ, I pray that this day that that person would put his or her trust in Christ to have his or her sins forgiven, the righteousness of Christ counted to them, and that they would forever be yours.

That they would not face this future judgment, but that they would be safe in your arms and in your joy forever.

So that's my prayer, Lord. And as we look at this, help us to be amazed at the reality that this is unfolding in our time.

The Word of God said it would be this way. And here it is in our midst.

And we are amazed at the accuracy of biblical prophecy. And Lord, as we look at this passage, and we looked at it today, and we're going to look at it the next two

Sundays, I pray that this would give us an anticipation for His return, and that we would live

God -honoring lives as we anticipate that return. In Jesus' name,