Sunday School: Waiting for a New Heavens and a New Earth (2 Peter 3:12-18)

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. 2

Peter 3, beginning in verse 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, 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.

Therefore, beloved, since you are looking for these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, spotless and blameless, 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, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things that are hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the scriptures, to their own destruction.

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, 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.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for the word that you have guided us through as we've been reading through 2

Peter over the summer, and I pray these are things that we take to heart.

It hasn't been just something where we do our duty and sit through a Sunday school class, but we've heard the word of God proclaimed.

We've heard the warnings about those false teachers that are agents of Satan to malign us, to lead us off the path and to our own destruction for those who would follow in the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, as was written in 2

Peter 2. But rather we follow in the way of Christ. We desire that true and sound teaching that did not come from the mind of any man, but from God, as delivered from the

Savior himself, as was heard proclaimed by angels, as was appointed to the apostles, and has since gone out to the world these 2 ,000 years of church history.

May we hold fast to these promises, looking forward to the coming of the end, the coming of our

God and King, Jesus our Lord, in whose name we pray, and all God's people said, amen.

So we have once again the warning of Jesus coming 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.

Now oftentimes this reference to Jesus coming back like a thief is often spoken of as being a reference to a secret rapture that's going to happen, and we don't know it's going to take place.

Nobody's even going to know it's happened. And you've seen all of like the apocalyptic Christian fiction films, okay?

That's all they are. They're apocalyptic. They're a guess about the future. They're not based on really anything solidly scriptural, even the

Left Behind series, or the Left Behind movies, or any of those other films. I think most of the action films that you find on PureFlix are very much based in like apocalyptic return of Christ, or what that's going to be like after Jesus comes back, and then you have the

Christians that are left on earth, or those who are being made Christians after Jesus has come and snatched up the church.

So you've got all those films that exist in like PureFlix. All that's fiction, okay? They can base that off of things that they read in scripture, but none of that comes from scripture.

The one that I remember from back in the 70s, I was not alive in the 70s, but that was when this film came out,

Like a Thief in the Night. Anybody know that movie, Like a Thief in the Night? That was shown to me when I was in middle school, and it was meant to terrify us, you know?

Oh, Jesus could come back at any moment. There's been some times where I've wondered, like I've prayed and I've asked

God, is my faith something that's real and genuine? It's deep down inside me, to my core,

I have really been transformed for Christ. Is that true, or have I deceived myself?

Do I just pretend like I'm a Christian, but I'm really not saved? I've had those moments where I've tested my own faith before the

Lord and asked him to show me, through his word, affirming in my heart that I truly believe that Jesus Christ is the

Son of God. Is the truth really there in me and my heart? When I was living in Abilene, Kansas, I lived right next to a railroad track.

I mean, really, you could have opened my apartment window and thrown a rock hard enough and hit the railroad track.

That's how close I was to the railroad. I loved it. I grew up around trains. When I was a little kid, we lived in Pennsylvania, we were about a block away from the railroad track, but you could see the train go by from my bedroom window.

It was like the best bedroom I ever had as a kid, being able to look outside, see the train go by.

And my bedroom even had an attachment to the attic door. And upstairs in the attic, I had a train set.

So it was the best room for a little kid to grow up in. And so to have an apartment, for a couple of years

I lived in this apartment that was so close to a railroad track, I felt like a kid again. It was like, I'm right next to trains,

I get to watch trains go by. So as I was in this season of asking, is the word really all the way down in my heart?

Is it transforming my mind and my thinking? There were nights that I would be laying in bed, and this was when

I first moved into this apartment, and the trains would come through at like 2, 3 o 'clock in the morning, blasting horns, blaring as it went by.

Whenever I would talk on the phone, Becky and I started dating each other while I was living in this apartment. We'd talk to each other on the phone.

I'd have to stop and wait for the train to go by before we could resume our conversation. So anyway, first couple of nights

I'm living in this apartment, trains go by, you hear these horns blasting. I kid you not,

I'm waking up, sitting bolt upright in bed going, Jesus, Jesus is coming. That's it, that's the trumpet sound.

That's where I was in my mind. So that was kind of affirming to me.

I was like, so even when I'm sleeping, God's truth is still guarding my heart.

I still believe, I'm still looking forward to that day of Christ returning that I'm waking up rejoicing at train horns thinking that Christ has returned.

So anyway, we know by what Paul says, and we're going to go through this when we go through 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, that the announcement of Christ's return is going to be like that.

It's going to be loud, it's going to be bright, and the whole world will know about it.

So there is not a secret rapture that happens, and then everybody's left wondering, well, what just happened?

We don't know. We're just kind of mysterious, guessing there's a pile of clothes there on the ground, I don't know what happened to that person.

The reference to Jesus coming back like a thief is not a reference to a secret rapture. So again, Christ is returning, but his return is going to be loud, and it's going to be witnessed by the whole world.

The reference to a thief, Jesus talks about in Matthew chapter 24, and it's simply a reference to understanding that the thief is unexpected.

Those who do not know that Christ is returning, who do not believe in Christ, they're not looking forward to his return.

We've already read about them here in chapter 3. They're those scoffers who say, where is the promise of his coming?

Since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the very beginning of creation. So, they're not looking for anybody.

They're not expecting Christ to return. So when he does come back, it's going to be like a thief.

He's going to return, and it'll be unexpected for them. For those of us who are in Christ, and we are looking forward to that coming, his return won't be like a thief.

So it's only like a thief to those who are not looking for the return of Christ. For those who do know that Christ is returning, his return is expected.

We're looking for him. And that's why Jesus gave the signs to the disciples, here's what to look for in that day, that we may anticipate and know the season in which

Christ will return. It won't be something that will take us by surprise. In Matthew and in Luke, Jesus talks about the wicked servant who is not looking for his master's return.

Instead, he eats and drinks with drunkards, and he beats and reviles his fellow servants.

This is in Matthew 24, this particular parable. And then the master is going to return, and he's going to bind that wicked servant, and he's going to toss him out with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

So for that wicked servant, the return of Christ is like a thief. But for the servants who knew that Christ was coming back, these are the servants who hear him knocking at the door and open it.

That's exactly the reference that Jesus makes in Revelation 3 .20, where he says, behold, I stand at the door and knock.

Whoever opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. This is in reference to the same parables that Jesus told in Matthew and in Luke regarding the servants who are tending the master's house.

They know the master is coming. When the master comes knocking on the door, they've been looking for the master's return.

So they open the door, the master comes in, eats and drinks with his fellow servants, those who did faithfully the work of the master.

But those who did not do the master's work, who hated their fellow servants, who went out and ate and drank with drunkards outside the house, they will be among those who will be judged when

Christ returns, when the master comes back. So the day of the

Lord comes like a thief for those that we have been talking about here that have been scoffing about the return of Christ, who are saying that day isn't coming.

The heavens will pass away with a roar on that day. That's not silent. The elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be found out.

No one can hide from Christ. And especially at his return.

We read in the book of Revelation about kings that hide in the mountains, people that go up and they cover themselves by the rocks, and they'll say, rocks fall on us so that we may be hidden from the king, from Christ.

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

So this is the exhortation here. Peter is not just saying this for our benefit. Hey, don't worry, guys, the wicked people are going to be judged.

You who are in Christ, you won't be judged, you'll get to go to glory. That's not just the objective here of why

Peter is writing. He certainly says those things, but it has exhortation to it. Because we know those things, there's therefore a response that we're supposed to give to it.

We know that Christ is coming back. We know he's going to judge the living and the dead. So how should we respond to that?

So Peter gives exhortation. That word, to exhort, basically means to tell you to do something.

And good preaching is not just informative. Good preaching is not just telling you about things that the

Bible says. Good preaching is also going to include exhortation. Remember that the apostle

Paul told Timothy that all of scripture is God -breathed and is useful for instructing, for exhorting, and for training, and teaching, and righteousness.

So exhorting, you're using God's word to tell someone to do something that they may follow in faithfulness according to the instruction of God.

Paul said to Titus the same thing. In Titus 2, he says, rebuke and exhort with all authority.

And exhortation, is it rebuking, turn from false teaching, exhorting, do this.

Here's the sound teaching. Here's the right way that we should walk. So Peter does so here. What kind of people ought you to be in holy conduct and in godliness?

We know that Christ is returning. It's not just something that we know and we sit back and kick up our feet and say, okay,

I've checked my get out of hell free card. There's nothing else now that I need to do except wait for the return of Christ.

Now, Peter says you need to be holy in all your conduct. You need to be growing in godliness, which means as you live here on this earth, you desire to become more like Christ.

And that is a work that started on the day that you came to Christ and it will continue until the return of Christ.

Paul saying to the Philippians in Philippians 1, 6, I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it at the day of Christ.

So that work continues until we join Christ together in glory.

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.

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

So we're looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God. Now, don't misread that passage because there are many out there who have used this statement that Peter makes, hastening the coming of the day of God, and they have used that verse to say that we get to control the day that Christ comes back.

If we would just do these things, then we would hurry up the day of Christ's return.

Ellen G. White, who is the founder of Seventh -day Adventism, she made a proclamation that Christ was going to return in her lifetime, and it was going to happen on this day.

She said a day that Jesus was going to return. Now, the ironic thing about that is that Seventh -day

Adventism came out of the Millerite movement, and the Millerite movement fell apart exactly because they were making prophecies that weren't coming true.

The Millerites were hearing their own teachers and apostles saying that Jesus is going to come back on this day, and their teachers were telling them, so you need to sell all your stuff, get rid of all your goods, and have it all taken care of and gone by this day because that's the day that Christ is returning.

So that's what they did. They listened to their teachers, they sold all their stuff. Day of Christ comes, he doesn't return.

Day of Christ, according to their false prophets and apostles, right? They say Christ is coming back, he doesn't come back, and now what?

They don't have anything. They gave all their stuff away. They have no job, no money, no possessions.

What do you think happened to that movement? Everyone left it. There's no Millerite movement to this day because of that, but it branched off into two false teaching movements.

Seventh -day Adventism, does anybody know what the other one was? Not Mormon, the

Jehovah's Witnesses. So the Millerites became the Jehovah's Witnesses. Charles Taze Russell, who kind of took over after Miller, when the falling apart of all of that, and then

Ellen G. White became the prophetess, and James White was her husband's name, not to be confused with Dr.

James White, okay? So James and Ellen G. White, they became the leaders of this

Seventh -day Adventism movement. But anyway, Ellen White made this proclamation that Jesus was going to return and that he was coming back on this day.

And just like with the Millerites, that day came and went. Now, she didn't make the same error as Miller did by telling all of her followers to sell all their possessions and everything, but nonetheless, the same error was repeated and you got the same result.

Jesus said quite plainly in Matthew 24, no one knows the hour or the day.

It's amazing how many false teachers, no, but I've got it figured out. Not even the son knows,

Jesus said, but apparently, they know something that even Jesus didn't know. We know the day that Christ is going to return.

So Ellen makes this proclamation, the day comes and goes, that doesn't happen. So what does

Ellen White say to her followers to try to cover over this mistake? Well, the reason why

Jesus didn't return is because you weren't praying hard enough. It's because you weren't doing this, that, and the other, and that's why

Christ didn't return. So she blamed it on her followers. She, according to her, got her prophecy right, but the

Seventh -day Adventists just didn't pray enough. Mike Bickle, who is the founder and pastor of the

International House of Prayer in Kansas City, this was a church that was hugely influential in my area of Kansas where I was preaching, he has said the same thing.

He has said that we can usher in the return of Christ through prayer.

Now, he even claims that Jesus himself told him this. So he's doing more than just twisting the scripture here in 2

Peter 3, he's proclaiming a word that he says came from Christ personally to him to tell to people that you need to pray and you need to continue to do these works of God, and if you do that, then you will hurry up the day of Christ and he will come back faster if we would just be faithful to fulfill these things.

What does the scripture say about that? The Apostle Paul to the Areopagus in Acts chapter 17, when he was preaching there at Mars Hill, he said, there is a day which is fixed on which

God will judge the world through one man, and he's shown who that one man is by raising him from the dead.

There's a day that is fixed on which judgment will happen. It's not something that we can hurry up.

God knows exactly the day that he is appointed upon which he is going to return. We don't change anything about that mark that God has set.

So what is meant here then by Peter when he says in 2 Peter 3 .12, we are looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God because of which the heaven's burning will be destroyed and the elements will melt with intense heat.

Well, we don't do anything to change the progression. We don't do anything to hurry up that particular day, but we desire it.

And that's what's meant by hastening. You've heard the expression quicken, you know, referring to somebody who is a convert to the

Lord Jesus Christ, their heart is quickened to believe in him. And so may our hearts be hastened to long for that day.

We're not slow to believe in Christ and to do what he has called us to do, but we respond right now.

That's what's meant by hastening. We're looking for the return of Christ. We're hastening the coming of the day of God.

So you don't delay in what God has called for you to do in the here and now.

As we have read here in 2 Peter 3 that God is patient, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.

He is patient toward you as we look forward to his promise, the fulfillment of his promise of the return of his son.

So we're looking for, we're hastening, we're immediately responding to the work that God has called us to do.

If your heart has been transformed in Christ, then you will respond right now to what

God is calling you to do. You won't delay in doing it, you'll do it immediately. This is something as a parent that I've tried to work out with my children as I'm raising them up in the discipline and the instruction of the

Lord. Having to tell my kids, son or daughter, if I tell you to do something and you delay in doing it, it's the same thing as if you were to tell me, no,

I'm not doing that. It's disobedient. Delay is disobedience.

And so if mommy or daddy tells you to do something, you say, yes, ma 'am or yes, sir, and you do it. If you delay in doing it, you've disobeyed your parents.

And it's the same with the instruction that we have of the Lord Christ. If he has instructed us to do something, let us respond to it now.

For our response now is that sanctification that we are receiving as we're being shaped more into the image of Christ, being conformed to godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God.

Knowing that on that day, the heavens burning will be destroyed, the elements will melt with intense heat.

So let us not invest ourselves in things that will perish with the world in judgment. We invest ourselves in those things that are eternal,

Christ and his spirit within us. Verse 13, but according to his promise, we are looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

If we long for that day when we'll be with Christ in his kingdom in which righteousness dwells, then how much more should we be citizens of that righteousness even now while we're living on this earth?

So we pursue the things that make for godliness. We desire to do the things that Christ has told us to do.

We want to be holy. As Peter had said in his previous letter, calling back to the instruction that God gave to Israel, be holy for I am holy.

And so Peter says to the church, be holy because God is holy. We desire that holiness.

So let not your flesh be tempted by the ways of this world. Continue in righteousness and godliness until Christ returns or your body dies and you go to meet with him whichever day comes first.

Now, we have one last section to finish up here in 2 Peter 3. Before getting to that, are there any questions and comments about verses 10 through 13?

Awesome. Let's keep going. So verse 14 here, Peter says, therefore, beloved, since you are looking for these things, okay?

So he's told us, look for them. Be diligent servants, looking for the return of the master.

And now that he's got your attention, since you are looking for these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, spotless, and blameless.

James 1 .27 says that religion that God our Father finds pure and faultless is this, to help orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

You know, the part of James 1 .27 that gets emphasized the most is the helping orphans and widows in their distress, right?

Hear that one a lot. So our good Christian duty is to help those that are in need. But we don't spend as much time emphasizing the last part of that instruction, keeping yourself unstained by the world, that you not go the ways of this world, that you not follow those teachers who are promising you things in your flesh, that you would give up the gospel to go after worldly things.

There was a time in my Christian walk where I was drawing lines in the sand and believing in myself that as long as I don't cross this line, then

I'm being holy. But if that's the way that I'm living, then my desire is still for the sin and not for Christ.

Just trying to think, how close can I get to the sin without actually doing it so I can enjoy the pleasures of that sin and still be in God's good graces?

Well, I'm not walking in the grace of God. I kind of like the sin. I kind of want that.

I like the way it made me feel. So what if I just, you know, draw a line right there and I can get this close to it and as long as I don't cross that line,

I can enjoy it a little bit and still call myself a Christian? Where's my attention?

What am I looking at? Am I looking at God? I'm looking at my fleshly appetites.

I'm looking at the world's offerings. I'm not focused on Christ, I'm focused on myself.

And so, to keep oneself unstained by the world means that you're not following the temptations of your flesh, you're not following the temptations of Satan, you're not following the temptations of the world's offerings.

Your focus is not on sin, your focus is on Christ. And if your attention is fully devoted to Christ, you're nowhere near this other stuff.

You don't even need to be drawing lines in the sand and asking questions like, can I do this and it not be sin? It's a very common question that a pastor gets asked, especially of those who are less mature in faith.

Pastor, can I do this? Is it sin if I do this? The answer to that question is if you have to ask, you probably shouldn't be doing it.

We have our attention and our devotion focused on Christ. Be diligent to be found by him in peace and spotless and blameless.

And if our attention is on Christ, then we're doing those things. Just as the Apostle Paul said in Galatians chapter 5, if we're doing the fruit of the

Spirit, if we're showing, if we're producing the fruit of the Spirit, then we're not doing the works of the flesh because those two things are contrary to one another, they're opposite each other.

So let us be focused on those things that are spiritual and not on those things that are worldly or fleshly.

Consider once again, and Peter says this again about the patience of our Lord Christ, he says in verse 15, consider the patience of our

Lord as salvation, just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you.

So Peter hearkens to Paul's letters, the things that Paul has written about.

And where Peter says, consider the patience of our Lord as salvation, he's saying, Paul has written to you about the same thing.

So apparently, whatever churches that are receiving this letter are also churches that have received

Paul's letters, and in fact, were developing among themselves a kind of canon, a kind of biblical canon was already being established at this time, where those letters that had been written by Paul and some of the other disciples and apostles that had gone out to the churches had been copied down and distributed among the churches.

So a New Testament canon is starting to form even before the New Testament is completed. So they know these letters of Paul, they've had these letters, they've heard what

Paul has written in them, and Peter says that Paul has written about the patience of our Lord as salvation.

Now, this is something that we're going to see when we go through 1 Thessalonians, that the apostle Paul speaks of things there in 1

Thessalonians, exactly what Peter is saying here. Paul makes a reference in 1 Thessalonians to Christ's return as being like a thief.

He makes a reference to the judgment of the fire of God that is coming to burn up all things. He makes references to the return of Christ, and he makes references to God being patient, not wanting anyone to perish, but those to come to salvation on that day.

Yes, brother. Yes. Referring to the millennial reign?

No, it's talking about the day of Christ and his return. Yes, Christ returns with fire.

So let's go to 2 Thessalonians. I'll show you this. So 2 Thessalonians 1, let me start in verse 5.

This is a plain indication of God's righteous judgment so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which indeed you are suffering.

Since it is right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, same thing we've heard from Peter in 2

Peter 2, and to give rest to you who are afflicted and to us as well at the revelation of the

Lord Jesus from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire.

So the fire of the judgment of God comes with Christ in his return, executing vengeance on those who do not know

God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will repay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the

Lord and from the glory of his might. When he comes to be glorified in his saints on that day and to be marveled at among all who have believed, for our witness to you was believed.

So on the day of Christ, the saints marvel at the return of Christ, but what happens to those who did not marvel at Christ and did not believe the gospel?

They're burned up with the fire of the judgment of God. So we see those things as they're recounted to us in Scripture as being the same event, that Christ returns and his return will be with fire.

There will be judgment on the day of Christ. In the book of Zechariah as well, where it talks about that the day of Christ return is a day of wrath.

It says a day of wrath is that day. But as Paul says to the Thessalonians, you've not been destined for wrath.

So we who are in Christ do not suffer under the wrath of God. For us, that's a day of salvation. But for those who are not in Christ and do not believe the gospel, that's a day of great judgment.

Yes, sir. At the beginning of the 1 ,000 -year reign? Yeah, I believe that all of that is happening on the same day of Christ's return according to what we have given in Scripture.

I do not believe in a seven -year period of tribulation, no. I know that not all of you share that belief.

We'll talk about those things as we go through 1 Thessalonians. What I want to assure you though as we go through that is

I'm not going to say to you that you have to believe it my way or you're wrong.

What I am going to present to you is according to what 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5 say, here's the different interpretations.

So if there is someone here who is premillennial in their eschatology, you will still come away from that lesson believing in your premillennialism.

Maybe you'll change your mind. I don't know. But I will also present to you an amillennial position and a postmillennial position.

Now, to tease this to you as well, on Sunday night, we're about to go through all of this together.

For those of you who regularly attend Sunday evening, you've heard this. And those of you who don't, here's my teaser for you now.

So on Sunday night, we're going to go through every position regarding eschatology. Mark Mills is going to preach on dispensationalism, on premillennial eschatology.

David Atterbury is going to preach on classical premillennialism, historic premillennialism, and what the difference between that and dispensationalism are.

I'm going to teach on amillennialism, which is also technically a postmillennial position. So I'll give a kind of an overview of postmillennialism as well.

That's three different nights. Then on the fourth night, all of us preachers are going to be together in a

Q &A that's going to be led by Pastor Tom. And so we'll be taking questions from the audience then as well.

So you'll have the opportunity to see that among your pastors, there are different views of eschatology.

How are we able to cooperate and do these things together when we believe different views about the end times?

That's what you'll get to see, and hopefully also demonstrating to the church that there is a fellowship that exists among us that has different views of the end times.

We don't quarrel over these things. But in fact, we heed the words of the Apostle Paul at the end of chapter four in 1

Thessalonians when he said, encourage one another with these words. Please do not split the body over different views of eschatology.

We're not meant to break apart. Why are there so many different views? And by the way, all these views base their understanding of the return of Christ in Scripture.

This is not extra biblical. So why are there so many differing views concerning the order of events at the return of Christ?

We all believe he's coming back. We may just disagree on the order of events and the timeline in which these things happen.

Why are there differing views? Because it's prophecy, and because prophecy is difficult to understand.

And so we'll go through those things together. I encourage you to be a part of it. And if you can't attend on Sunday night, those messages do get put on the website, so you can listen there as well.

Yes, ma 'am. I think we're starting next week. I think it's

Sunday night next week, yeah. So I believe David has the first message, and then

Mark Mills does the second one on dispensationalism, and then I've got the third one on amillennialism, and then the fourth

Sunday, which would fall in October, I believe. The fourth

Sunday in that series. That's when we're going to have the Q &A. Continuing on, 2 Peter 3, let's finish this.

That's why I got 10 minutes here. So 2 Peter 3, coming back to verse 15, our beloved brother

Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, verse 16, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things.

The same things, the return of Christ, the judgment of God, in which are some things that are hard to understand.

In Paul's letters, there are things that are hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort as they do also the rest of the scriptures to their own destruction.

Now, the immediate context that Peter is talking here is concerning the day of the Lord. Paul talks about some men that he had to put out of the church because they were preaching that the day of Christ had already happened.

That's heresy. Christ has already returned, the resurrection of the dead had already taken place, and you missed it.

That's a view that we refer to today as full preterism, and that is a false teaching.

And so Paul had put men out of the church for teaching such a thing. So that's

Peter's immediate context here is concerning the day of the Lord. But there are many other things you probably know about that teachers take and twist out of Paul's letters because they do this with all the rest of the scriptures.

It's not just Paul's letters, it's the whole Bible. They will take teaching from the Bible, twist it to their own destruction.

There was a book that was published recently, I think it came out either this year or the year before, entitled,

The Making of Biblical Womanhood. It is published by a woman by the name of Alison Barr.

She is a historian that is at Baylor University. And in the book, page 56, she says the following,

I could not teach because of his belief that Paul told women to be silent and not exercise authority over men.

What if Paul never said this? Jen's going, what?

What if Paul never said? What if Paul never actually said 1 Timothy 2, 11 through 12? That's basically what she's saying.

Where Paul says, I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man, rather she is to remain silent.

A woman is to learn quietly in all submission is what Paul says there. Beth Alison Barr says, what if he never actually said this?

That's how she gets around that instruction from the apostle Paul. Women can preach, women can be pastors, because maybe

Paul never actually said that anyway. What other scriptures is she twisting to her own destruction?

I mean, if you're willing to cut that part of the Bible out and throw it away to make it sound better to me, what else are you going to cut out so that it works better?

Friends, if you take the teachings of Christ, and that very much is the teaching of Christ. It comes from the apostle

Paul. He's an apostle sent by Christ. If you take the teachings of Christ and you change them into something that you like a little bit better, then you're not believing in Christ anymore, you're believing in a

God of your own making. And that's what people do when they take the teachings of Paul and twist them like that.

They distort them to their own destruction. They do this with the rest of the scriptures.

So, Peter here even equating Paul's words with the rest of scripture. But something else we need to recognize in this that Peter says, we need to recognize the danger of twisting scripture, right?

So, those who twist the scriptures, they twist Paul's words, they twist the other, they twist the words of Moses, they'll even twist the words of Christ.

What happens to those who twist the scriptures? They go to their own destruction. So, how careful must we be in our reading, in our handling, and even in our communicating the word of God to someone else?

We need to be careful with this because in our ignorance, and Peter says here, they do this in ignorance, but in our ignorance, we twist the scriptures to our own destruction if we do not handle it in the right way.

Going on in verse 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.

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. And that's the way that I finish the sermon this morning as well. So, today, if you didn't sit in first service and you're going to be in second service,

I'm teaching through 2 Peter 2. Pastor Tom asked that I would do a sermon on that.

All of my class has already heard this. So, I'm taking like the five or six weeks that I taught through 2

Peter 2 and condensing it down to one sermon. So, everything that I have to preach today is not going to be new to anybody who had sat through those classes.

And I conclude the sermon with those very words that come from the Apostle Peter. So, we know about, we have now heard as we've gone through this letter, we've heard about the true teachers who teach things that come not from the minds of men, but came from God.

And they were eyewitnesses to his majesty, as Peter talked about at the beginning of the letter. We've heard about the true teaching.

We've been warned about false teachers that we had all the way through chapter 2. And then in chapter 3, we have the warning of the day of God that is coming to judge those who walked in lawlessness, but to save those who walked in righteousness.

And so, in light of these things that have been taught, you, therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you will not be carried away by the error of unprincipled men, and you will fall from your own steadfastness.

Remember the instruction that Peter gave in chapter 1, where he said, if you do these things, and he listed those out,

I think it's in verses 5 through 7, if you do these things, they keep you from being unfruitful and falling from the way of righteousness.

So, don't follow in the way of unprincipled men, follow in the instructions of God given by his men, and you will remain steadfast to the end.

Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. How do you do that? How do you grow in the knowledge of our

Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? The word, that's right. You're doing it right now.

When you sit under the teaching of the word of God, when you open up the

Bible and read it, and you ask for wisdom from God, James 1, 5, if anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

And that work that Paul talks about in Philippians 1, 6, that work that Christ will complete on the day of Christ, that is the work that is going on in your life as you read the word of God, and you apply it, and you live according to it.

You are learning about Jesus, and you're learning about how to be more like your

Savior. To him be the glory both now, meaning that we live to the glory of God now, and to the day of eternity when we will be with him in glory forever.

Amen? Amen. That's the last word of 2 Peter. So, we have completed our study of the book of 2

Peter. Any other questions or comments or criticisms about my view of the end times?

We have just a couple of minutes here. What's that? Yes. Well, this was a blessing, and Pastor Tom has asked that I continue preaching as we go into 1

Thessalonians. I was blessed to be able to do this with you, and I thank you for allowing me to in this class.

Pastor Tom is not giving up this class. He's still coming back to teach through this as well. So, as we go through 1

Thessalonians, he'll also be involved in some of this teaching a few of those Sundays. And since we're calling this the pastor's class, and David Atterbury, as of the members meeting last week, has been added to the pastors of First Baptist Church, you'll probably also hear from David Atterbury in this class also.

And so, thank you for attending, and I thank you for the summer that you gave to me to be able to go through 2

Peter. God bless, and may these words bury deep inside your heart and continue to live them out as you walk in faithfulness to God until the day of his return.

Let's pray together to the Lord. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your goodness, and we thank you for the promises that you have given to us in your word.

And this promise is a promise of forgiveness of sins. It's a promise of deliverance from this world and the judgment that is coming to the world.

It is the promise of your eternal kingdom. And as Christ said to the church at Laodicea in Revelation 3, he who endures to the end,

I will give to him a place to sit with me on my throne. May we remain steadfast in these things to the day of Christ.

We long for that day. We hasten ourselves for that day that we may pray with the

Apostle John at the end of Revelation who said, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Until that day, we know you are doing a work right now in this present.

You're doing it in our hearts. You're doing it in the world around us. May we not be discouraged by the things that we see, but we continue to hold steadfastly to Christ, knowing that he said these days would happen, but better days are to come.

We ask all this in Jesus' name and all God's people said, God bless you.