This message emphasizes God’s promises and patience, as described in 2 Peter 3. It highlights the importance of faith, repentance, and readiness for the Day of the Lord. Believers are encouraged to live holy lives, share the Gospel, and trust in God’s plan for a new heaven and earth where righteousness dwells.
“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9 ESV
“But the day of the Lord will come 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; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner [of persons] ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness.” 2 Peter 3:10-11 NKJV
“But based on his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. Therefore, dear friends, while you wait for these things, make every effort to be found without spot or blemish in his sight, at peace.” 2 Peter 3:13 CSB
A CHRISTIAN MESSAGE
By WARD PIMLEY
PASTOR / JOURNALIST / AUTHOR
We are in the Last Days. We have been in the “last days” since Pentecost, and we’re still in them. We do not know how many days remain until the Lord returns for His faithful followers.
We have been in the Last Days since Pentecost, and we’re still in them. We do not know how many days remain until the Lord returns for His faithful followers.
We call that return the “Rapture,” and there is dispute within the Christian world as to whether there will be a Rapture, and if there is one, when it will take place.
- Some faithful believe we move directly into Christ’s Second Coming without a Rapture. That’s the Amillennial position.
- Some believe there will be a Rapture, but it will come at the end of the Tribulation, just before the Second Coming of Christ, when He will establish His millennial rule on the Earth. That’s the Post-Tribulation position.
- Some believe there will be a Rapture, and that it will occur during the seven-year Tribulation period. That’s either the Mid-Tribulation position or the Pre-Wrath position, depending on whether the Rapture takes place exactly half-way through the seven-year period or whether it occurs slightly afterward when the Sixth Seal judgment is opened.
- Finally, some – encompassing most of the evangelical community – believe there will be a Rapture and that it will take place before the Tribulation starts. That is the position of this pulpit and the church we serve. That’s the Pre-Tribulation position.
Whichever you believe, we do not break fellowship with those who hold a different position, especially since God in His wisdom has decided to give us clues but not defining details.
In other words, strive to understand as best you can the events and calendar of what we call The Last Days, but don’t become so doctrinaire in your position that you lose the humility that allows you to recognize that God the Father alone is sovereign, and He alone has the final act under His control.
Your view, or my view, could be wrong. If God wanted to make the point crystal clear to us, He would have done so. He chose not to.
For now, just focus on the apostle Peter’s writing that God wants everyone to be saved, so He is patiently giving people time to repent.
in our study of 2 Peter 2, we looked at the apostle’s admonition to be on guard for false teachers who would slither into the church with their demented doctrines, their erroneous theology, and their wayward practices – agents of Satan, often dressed in clerical clothes, sent to destroy the church Jesus Christ vowed to build on solid Rock.
In our final chapter of this small book, Chapter 3 of 2 Peter, the apostle urges us to maintain our faith in God’s judgment, knowing that He is not late in fulfilling His eternal promises, but is merciful and patient.
Don’t be disillusioned. The Day of the Lord – Judgment Day – will come in its appointed time. Until then, your job – and my job – is to prepare ourselves for that time and encourage as many others as we can reach to join us. The ship is leaving the dock; the train is leaving the station, and God – the captain and conductor – is shouting, “All aboard! All ashore who’s going ashore.”
We have three parts to today’s message, each anchored by one of the text verses quoted earlier: God Is Patient, The Day of the Lord, and God’s Calling on Our Lives.
PART 1. God Is Patient
“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9 ESV
FOR MANY YEARS after I became a Christian in November 2010, this verse was my “life verse,” the one verse that meant the most to me. The reason? It emphasized God’s patience.
I was overwhelmed by the goodness of a God who could be so patient with me as to wait on me, not call judgment down on my head, not end my life or create more hardships than I could manage. Yes, I had finally reached repentance, to use Peter’s words, and I was “saved” from Hell’s eternal fires.
To say I am relieved would be an understatement. I am giddy with joy – even though I am not always happy – but I am filled with the joy of knowing that my Redeemer lives, and someday He will call me Home to be with Him, that where He is I may be also.
As a Christ-follower, my job now is to share that message of hope and salvation with you and others I meet. I might not always be faithful in doing so, because I’m not always certain if this moment is the right moment to key up a discussion of spiritual matters, but I do pray for those moments to occur and ask God to prepare me for them so I will be ready to share my testimony when they are presented to me.
That is what Jesus has commissioned each one of us to do when we submit our lives to Him. He has given us the right to share the Gospel message. We do not need anyone else’s permission to tell them what God has done for us, but we do need to live our lives in such a way that others will be willing to hear what we have to say.
- Our talk needs to match our walk, and our walk needs to match our talk.
Trying to share the Gospel when our lives are not a testament to the Lord’s message will make us nothing more than what 1 Corinthians 13 calls “noisy gongs or clanging symbols.” We will fill the air with our breath, but we won’t be witnessing to God’s saving grace or His healing power.
Therefore, we must be on guard every moment to ensure our actions and our reactions reflect the light within us. Jesus has commissioned us in Matthew 5 to be “the light of the world.”
That light is the light of the Lord that lives in the hearts of all who call on His name, who believe in His saving grace, and who have been redeemed or reborn.
So, God is patient with us, calling us into His kingdom. If you haven’t felt called yet, then today is your day. Do not let it pass without calling on His name.
The Bible says (2 Cor. 6:2; Rom. 10:13/Joel 2:32; Acts 2:21) “Behold, today is the day of salvation” and “all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Yes, God is patient, but when patience has run its course, it gives way to judgment. God is patient, but He is not stupid.
Don’t take advantage of His patience; instead, take advantage of it and turn your life over to Him while you can. You’ll be glad you did.
PART 2. Day of the Lord
“But the day of the Lord will come 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; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved what manner of persons ought you to be in holy, conduct and godliness.” 2 Peter 3:10-11 NKJV
THAT IS QUITE a dramatic image, isn’t it? It says here the heavens and the earth will melt with fervent heat. Well, Peter isn’t done yet. In fact, as we read in verse 12, he says the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they are burned!
Is that supposed to give us the shivers? To be honest with you, if I were not a believing Christian, that would downright scare me, and I would not want to be around at the time.
But, true to His word, our God promises us a restoration that will surpass in beauty and wonder our current world. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves because that verse, and the promise it contains, will be the third focus of our message.
Here in the second part of our message, we ask this: What is God trying to tell His people in these verses that detail the destruction of the known world?
God, through Peter, is using symbolic language to say He is going to refine the world the way fire refines gold, the way fire purifies gold, the way fire burns away the impure elements to present gold in all its splendor. Jesus is not returning to destroy the world but to judge the world and eliminate the evil spawned by Satan and his demons.
The Bible throughout its many passages tells us that the universe has been stained with human sin, that even the physical elements of creation “groan[] and suffer[] the pains of childbirth” (Rom. 8:22 LSB) as we wait for God to restore order.
When God acts, as Romans 8:21 NKJV tells us He will do, His creation “shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.”
Something magnificent is happening here, and Peter wants us to be prepared for it. What does that entail? He gives us the clue in this verse in our text passage: “what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness.”
Here it is in verse 14 (NKJV): “Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless.”
Now, it starts to make sense, doesn’t it? The coming promise of the Day of the Lord is to give us an impetus, an incentive, a heads up, if you will, to straighten out our lives, to smooth out our wrinkles, to – as the saying goes – “get our act together.”
But we know we don’t do that on our own, that we need God’s power to make that happen. In John 15, the Lord Jesus warns us to “abide” in Him and He promises to abide in us so that we might bear “much fruit.” He says: “For without Me you can do nothing.”
Earlier, I said that if I were not a believing Christian, I would be frightened at the violent imagery depicted of the world dissolving in fire and heat, but these words of assurance from God – as we’ve seen, spoken directly from Jesus and spoken through the apostles Paul and Peter – should bolster our confidence in this merciful God who, as our first passage told us, is “patient” with us, not wanting any of us to perish.
He is calling us to surrender our lives to Him, and then He will impart within us His Holy Spirit, which will restore our brokenness, our weakness, our defeat into lives that reflect the Lord’s light and salt.
PART 3. God Calls Us
“But based on his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. Therefore, dear friends, while you wait for these things, make every effort to be found without spot or blemish in his sight, at peace.” 2 Peter 3:13 CSB
ALL OF WHAT we’ve discussed so far leads up to this verse, and I find the promise it contains for us to be the cherry atop the sundae, well worth the wait, that pot of gold we keep expecting at the end of the rainbow.
Well, in a manner of speaking, that pot of gold is real.
God will create “new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.” The current heavens and earth have been sin-stained, and God, like a springtime house cleaner, is going to wipe away the dust and cobwebs and polish the furniture and wax the floor and change the lightbulbs.
He is going to make “new heavens and new earth,” and we are invited to join Him in living there.
Not to do the housecleaning. No, He is going to do that because He wants it done right.
He is going to design it; He’ll pick out the furniture and the window treatment; He’ll hook up the platinum TV with surround sound; He’ll set up the popcorn maker to spit out tasty treats while we watch a spellbinding movie that He will pick out.
Now, Peter doesn’t mention anything about the popcorn, the TV, and the movie, but he does tell us that we need to get ready for this new world our God promises, and that means we ought “to make every effort” to be without spot or blemish.
That is, to be sinless. To be obedient. To be faithful. To be loving. To be considerate of others. To serve those in our world.
You know the drill. All of those things God has been telling us from Genesis on, we are to be aware of and dedicated to doing … with God’s help.
- Proverbs 3:5-7 NKJV, Solomon says: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil.”
- King David says in Psalm 119:105 NKJV: “Your word [is] a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.” That is another way of saying that God will lead us if we let Him.
- Finally, we can’t let this point go without once again claiming the Lord’s promise in John 15:5 NKJV: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
QUESTION: How are YOU preparing for the Lord’s return? Are you spending daily time with the Lord in prayer, Bible reading, and meditation?
If you are not doing that, why aren’t you? Do you think you are exempt somehow from life and life’s responsibilities? Do you think God is not making a claim on your life? Do you think Satan has forgotten about you? Do you think that how you spend your day does not matter in terms of your eternity?
My prayer for each of you is that you will see that your life in whatever situation you face is as important to God as is the life of anyone else, even those who are placing their lives on the line to care for others, even those who you think are more righteous and more Godly than you are.
Here’s a news flash: No one is more Godly or more righteous than you are. We are all in the same boat. We are all flawed, and we all need God’s saving grace.
You. Matter. To. God.
FINAL WORDS
THIS LESSON COMPLETES our study of Peter’s letters. We worked our way through 1 Peter 1-5 and now 2 Peter 1-3.
Here’s a quick recap of what Peter wrote to his generation and ours in his two letters:
- God is patient with you, and He has promised you a better life in Heaven.
- You are a chosen people, and you should always be ready to tell others your testimony; that is, why you have hope amid despair.
- Submit your will to God, and live out the Gospel for His glory.
- Beware of false teachers and their false doctrines, and believe in the grace and peace that God offers.
- Finally, the day of the Lord is coming, when He will judge the earth; so be ready for His coming. Live out the Gospel because you want to please Him.
Here’s a chapter-by-chapter recap of Peter’s two letters:
- Although you may suffer in this world, better days lie ahead for us all in Heaven. (1 Peter 1.1)
- God uses our life experiences, even our troubles and tribulations, to prepare us for Heaven. (1 Peter 1.2)
- We haven’t seen God, but we can still believe in Him. (1 Peter 1.3)
- God’s Word is eternal and universal; it needs no refinements to make it relevant to the times. (1 Peter 1.4)
- We are a “chosen” people; that is, God “chose” us to be His people, to love us, and to sustain us. (1 Peter 2)
- We should “always be ready” to share with others the peace and joy in our hearts. (1 Peter 3)
- We should be “salt and light” to the world for God’s glory, not our own. (1 Peter 4)
- We must “submit our lives” to God because God loves the humble and will raise them up to glory. (1 Peter 5; 2 Peter 1)
- We should be on guard against false teachers and their deceitful doctrines. (2 Peter 2; Jude)
- God maintains His promises, and we can take comfort in that fact. (2 Peter 3)
Between our study of Peter’s first letter and his second letter, we took up a two-part series of living lives without regret and God’s promise to restore the lost years to those who love Him and have trusted Him for their salvation.
A personal note:
For the first 10 years after giving my life to Jesus Christ in November 2010, I picked 2 Peter 3:9 as my “Life Verse.” [A life verse is a verse that encapsulates or summarizes a person’s calling or life experience.] That verse tells us that God is patient with us, calling everyone to salvation.
I loved the reassurance that God was patient with me, of His goodness, of His love that He wanted me to be a part of His Kingdom.
However, as I grew in my faith, a few years ago, I switched my life verse to Galatians 5:25, which says: “If we live in the Spirit, let us walk in the Spirit.”
That basically means our actions should support our words, and our words should support our actions. I was confident enough in my new salvation that I felt a responsibility to so live my life that it would be a living testimony to that faith and to God’s goodness and love.
I did not want to talk a big game without supporting it with the way I lived, and I did not want to live out the Gospel without sharing a testimony with others or telling them about the joy my salvation has given me.
As you grow in your faith walk with the Lord, you might find yourself changing your life verse to reflect better your growing spiritual maturity.
Nothing in this world is more important than our relationship with God, with who we think He is, and what we acknowledge He wants from us. Nothing.
Your eternal destiny depends on how you respond to that calling. God calls each of us to believe in Him, and He promises great rewards for those who answer the call.
If you have not said “yes” to God before now, this is your moment. If you have said “yes,” then join us in praise.
PRAYER / BENEDICTION
ALMIGHTY GOD, as we sing Your praise, we know from the praise hymn that You are a “Good Good Father, that’s who You are, that’s who You are;” and “We’re loved by You, that’s who we are, that’s who we are.”
Lord, if anyone here today does not know You in a personal way as both their Savior and their Lord, can You change that today in this very hour.
You said no one comes to the Son without the Father calling them, so please, Lord, call them. You said at “the right time” would be the time of salvation. Lord, please make this hour “the right time” for those who may not know You.
Hear our prayer, O Lord, as we pray together in our hearts:
“Lord, I believe Jesus is Your Son and that He died on the cross for my sins; I believe He is calling me to give Him my heart and soul. Lord, forgive my sins and wipe my slate clean, and enter my life as both Savior and Lord from this moment on. Lord, I give you my life, that I will have eternal life with You.”
Lord, for those already walking with Jesus, we pray continued strength and faith for them to stay in Your will, to be salt and light to those around them, and to be a comforting and encouraging presence wherever they are.
We thank You, Lord, for Your goodness toward us. We praise Your name, and we love You and worship You. In the name of Jesus, we raise this prayer.
“[Now may] The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” — 2 Corinthians 13:14 ESV
AMEN and AMEN
Ward's Words | BY WARD PIMLEY 