A Word in Season: Looking Forward (2 Peter 3:14)

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What are you looking forward to? What are you anticipating and expecting with desire and delight as one of God's people?

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What really stirs your heart and draws you out in eager expectation and anticipation?

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In 2 Peter 3, the apostle speaks to Christians and says,

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What are those things to which these disciples, together with Peter, are eagerly looking forward?

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What keeps them with their eyes lifted high and their hearts bright with hope?

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It is the day of the Lord that comes as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat, a day in which both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

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You might say that that doesn't sound like something to be looking forward to, but remember that Peter says in anticipation of that day, you ought to be a certain kind of person.

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You ought to be characterized, knowing that all these things will come to an end by a holy conduct and godliness, in which you are looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God.

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That is the day of your eager expectation, that is the day sweetly anticipated, because even though the heavens will be dissolved being on fire and the elements will melt with fervent heat, it is an end and it is not the end, because we, according to the promise of God in Christ, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

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And so the dissolution of these things is not for the Christian a day of dread, but rather a day of hope.

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It is the day when the Lord Christ will return, and our behavior, if we are pursuing righteousness and godliness, is actually a way of looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God.

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It is for us the resolution of every tension. It is the end of every grief and sorrow.

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It is the establishment of the kingdom of God in its glory, so that grace blossoms and never ever diminishes again, never fades, never comes to nothing, never fails.

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There will be a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

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And that is the great desire and delight of God's people, righteousness dwelling in a new heavens and a new earth, perfect justice and peace.

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All is right and all is well in the kingdom of God. The king is present with his people.

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There are no longer any battles to fight. There are no longer any pains to suffer.

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There are no longer any persecutions to endure. There is no longer any tension between the sin that remains in us and the grace that reigns in us.

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But grace has finally conquered all by the power of God, and the likeness of Christ is finally and fully established in every one of God's people.

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And so, beloved, with that in mind, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace without spot and blameless.

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What is the great incentive to peace and holiness among God's people?

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What is it that ought to hold us fast and hold us up and hold us on the road?

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What is it that spurs us on? What is it when pressures and persecutions and pains, when sorrows and sufferings sweep in upon us that ought to keep us going?

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It is this, that we are looking forward to the day of Christ and to the glorious final consummation, to the manifest establishing of his kingdom, for the casting down of all wickedness, the thrusting out of all that is contrary to God, and the bringing in and the setting up and the holding firm of a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

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Let that be what draws out our hearts, Christ in his glory, in a recreation in which he is seen and known as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

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And may we then be found in that day in peace, without spot and blameless, having looked to him every day of our lives now.