2 Peter 3:1-10
Subject: The Day of the Lord Judgment
Theme: Christ will come again to judge this world as He
promised; therefore, trust Him and grow in His grace.
Do not attach your hopes for a meaningful life to things that will not exist
tomorrow.
Introduction: First-century
Christians were familiar with the words of the Old Testament prophets about
Christ’s Second Coming. In addition
there were the promises of the Lord Himself and the constant reminders of
apostles. This is where Peter begins his
focus, with the Scriptures and their reliable instructions for waiting saints.
Lecture:
I.
Remember the Words of Scripture (2Peter 3:1-10). Peter Issues a
Reminder that “the Day of the Lord” will come as
the Prophets Predicted. His purpose was to
“stir up” and stimulate wholesome thinking; that
is refresh their memory relative to the promises of the Lord’s Coming
and provoke them to live meaningful lives in light of His Coming.
A. Remember
Christ Will Return for Worldwide Judgment As The Prophets And Apostles Stated
(3:1-2). Peter points out the unity of this letter with the
former one, and the consistency of his teaching with that of the prophets and
apostles. The Bible really is the only true safeguard in days of declension.
1.
Be Mindful Of The Words Of The Holy Prophets (3:2). The only way Peter’s readers could recognize the
errors of the heretical teachers was to compare their teaching with the
teaching of the holy prophets
and apostles. Others, like
Peter, referred to the holy prophets (Luke
1:70; Acts 3:21; Eph. 3:5), whose words
were oracles regarding the day of the Lord and related topics (Psa. 102:26; Isa. 34:4; 51:6; 54:10; Jer. 31:35-36). As Peter had already reminded his readers in
1:21, “holy men of God” spoke words given to
them by the Holy Spirit, which were therefore utterly reliable.
2.
Recall Also The Commandments Of Our Lord and Savior and
Of The Apostles (3:2). The commandment of our Lord
and Savior refers to His teachings, which were then
proclaimed by the
apostles (Matt.
5:18; Heb. 1:11-12; 2 Pet. 3:7-12; Rev. 6:14; 20:11). These are Jesus’
teaching relative to end time events as a whole proclaimed by the apostles (Jn.
14:26). Our Lord and Saviour is the final authority
behind both prophets and apostles (Eph. 2:20) and He said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away” (Matt. 24: 35; Mk. 13:31; Luke 21:33): Trust the teachers
of the established Christian Faith instead of these false teachers (Jude 17).
This is Peter’s counsel.
3.
Look to God’s Word for Completely Reliable Teaching! Peter’s
linking the prophets and apostles placed them on the same level of authority
(Eph. 2:20). This also suits Peter’s earlier purpose of distinguishing the true
servants of the Lord from the false. Believers do well to recall the writings of both Testaments regarding the
Lord’s Return.
B. Remember Scoffers
Will Attempt to Cast Doubt On These Predictions (3:3-7). They
do so because they choose to ignore the power of the Word and the Flood of
Noah’s time.
1.
Scoffers Deny The Lord’s Return Because Of Their Own
Lustful Desires (3:3).
i.
Scoffers are the false teachers who deny Jesus Christ (2:1) and
His return (3:4). Jesus had said these heretics would come (Matt. 24:3-5, 11,
23-26), and Paul had written the same (1 Tim. 4:1-3; 2 Tim. 3:1-9). Peter
echoed these same type of warnings. The word Scoffers,
together with the reference to “their own lusts” and evil desires, suggests
that the false teachers of chapter 2 are still in mind.
a.
Those who give
way to their own lusts always mock at any incentive or motivation to holy living.
b.
It seems they
reject the prophecy of Christ’s return because of their sensual desire to live
in carnality. The faithfulness and veracity of the predictions is not really
the primary issue at all.
ii.
Peter understood
that we are living in the last days,
the period of time between the Lord’s First and Second Advents. “Knowing this first” means “above all” (as in 1:20), that
which is foremost in importance. Christians are to make a priority of remember
this. They should not be blown away by the arrogant and blasphemous denials of
these men. Rather they should see in them a definite indication that the end of
the age is nearing.
iii.
Again Peter
indicated their scoffing is
accompanied by “their own
lusts,” that is evil desires (see
2 Peter 1:4; 2:10, 18; Jude 16, 18). These mockers follow their own passions; they are happy in
their sin and love their lifestyle and do not want to change (3:3). So, having
rejected the knowledge of God, they fearlessly indulge their appetites. They
advocate permissiveness with total disregard of any impending judgment. It was
arrogant snobbery and disdain for the idea of a coming judgment that led to their
sexual perversion.
2.
Scoffers Challenge The Lord’s Return To Judge The
World On The Basis Of A Misconception—‘things have never changed before’ (3:4).
i.
Their primary
scoff has to do with the coming of Christ to judge (3:4). Their attitude is, “Where is the promise of His coming?”
meaning, “Where is the fulfillment of the promise?” But what do they
mean by His coming?
a.
Do they mean
Christ’s coming for His saints, which we speak of as the Rapture (1 Thess. 4:13–18)?
It is doubtful that these scoffers know anything about this first phase of the
Lord’s return.
b.
Do they mean
Christ’s coming with His saints to set up His universal kingdom (1 Thess.
3:13)? It is possible that this could be included in their thinking.
c.
But it seems
clear from the rest of the passage that they are thinking of the final
judgment of God on the earth, or what is commonly called the end of the world. They are thinking of
the fiery destruction of the heavens and earth at the end of the Millennium.
ii.
Their conclusion
is based on the careless hypothesis that “since the
fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of
creation.” Rejecting this promise, rests on the hypothesis of
uniformitarianism. They say that nature invariably follows uniform laws, that
there are no supernatural interventions, that there is a natural explanation
for everything. This is the view that the cosmic processes of the present and
the future can be understood solely on the basis of how the cosmos has operated
in the past. There is almost an incipient deism here which rules out divine
intervention in the universal order. In a universe governed by natural laws
miracles, mockers argue, simply cannot happen. Therefore they say Jesus Christ
could not come again.
3.
Scoffers choose to ignore the Creation, the Power of God’s
Word, and the former world’s judgment of the flood (3:5-6). H. L. Willington said, “They utterly and eternally
close their minds to those truths revealed in both God’s world and in His
word. “For this they willingly are
ignorant of” (3:5). An agnostic is
therefore not a person who says “I can’t believe,” but rather “I won’t
believe.” They are without excuse. (See
Rom. 1:18-20)”
i.
They willingly
ignore the reality of Creation and the pre-flood world—the heavens and the
earth were created by the Word of God (3:5).
It was J. Walvoord who observed, “Peter met those arguments head on by
reviewing some ancient history. Just as water by God’s command played a
significant role in the early formation of the earth, so water also was the agent for
destruction of the earth at God’s command.”
a.
The scoffers
deliberately ignore one fact—the flood (3:5). God did intervene at one
time in the affairs of men, and the specific purpose of His intervention was to
punish wickedness. If it happened once, it can happen again.
b.
It is a withering
indictment of these men that they are willfully
ignorant. They pride themselves on being knowledgeable. They profess to be
objective in their reasoning. They boast that they adhere to the principles of
scientific investigation. But the fact is that they deliberately ignore a
well-attested fact of history—the deluge. They should take a course in
geology!—W. MacDonald
ii.
They willingly
ignore the catastrophic worldwide flood of Noah’s time which altered the
heavens and the earth significantly (3:6-7a).
a.
From its
inception, the earth was stored with the means of its own destruction (3:6). It
had water in its subterranean depths, water in the seas, and water in the
clouds above. Finally God released the waters from below and above (Gen. 7:11),
the land was inundated, and all life outside the ark was destroyed.
b.
“The world” (kosmos) refers to inhabitants, since the earth
itself was not destroyed in the Flood. Similarly in John 3:16 “the world” (kosmos)
means the globe’s inhabitants (John 1:9; 3:17, 19; 4:42; 6:33; 7:7; 15:18-19;
17:14, 21, 23, 25; 1 John 2:2; 3:13; 4:14). It is “the world” of people who “perished.”(3:6)
c.
The critics
willfully disregard this fact of history. It is interesting that the flood has
emerged in recent years as the object of bitter attack. But the record of it is
written in stone, in the traditions of ancient peoples and modern, and best of
all, in God’s Holy word.
iii.
Obviously God has
intervened in human history before! God the Creator is also God the Judge. In
His sovereign will, any change in process can occur at any time for He designed
and controls these “natural” processes. The scoffers deliberately (“willingly”) forget God’s Creation and the Flood,
an interesting contrast with Peter’s constant reminders to his readers to
“remember” (2 Peter 1:12-13, 15; 3:1-2, 8). The scoffers deliberately put aside
God’s Word and then complained
that God was not doing anything. Interestingly Peter was both a creationist and
a believer in the universal Flood (his other references to the Flood: 1 Peter
3:20; 2 Peter 2:5).i.
2.
Scoffers fail to realize the current world is
sustained by the Word of God and will be judged by fire (3:7).
i.
Clearly the
current world is being sustained by the Word of God (3:7). When God created the earth, He
seeded it with sufficient water to destroy it. In the same manner, He seeded the heavens and the earth with enough fire to destroy them (3:7).
a.
In this nuclear
age, we understand that matter is stored-up energy. The splitting of an atomic
nucleus results in the fiery release of enormous quantities of energy. So all
the matter in the world represents tremendous explosive potential. At present
it is held together by the Lord (Col. 1:17, “by Him all things consist”). If
His restraining hand were removed, the elements would melt. In the meantime the heavens and the earth are being reserved for fire until the day of judgment
and perdition of ungodly men.
b.
In the past the
world was destroyed in the Flood by God’s Word and by water; in the future it
will be destroyed by the same Word and by fire. Having decided to judge the world (2:3-4, 9, 17), God is
simply holding the earth on layaway. It is reserve, “being stored
up like a treasure” for fire and
kept (“guarded”
or “held”) for judgment. --(Adapted from Walvoord)
ii.
Certainly this
world will be judge in the future by fire in the day of judgment (3:7).
a.
Verses 7, 10, and
12 are the only places where the New Testament depicts the future destruction
of the world by fire.
Isaiah (66:15-16) and Malachi (4:1) associated fire with the return of the
Lord. “The day of the Lord” (2 Peter 3:10) includes the Tribulation, the
Millennium, the great white throne judgment, and the destruction of the present heavens and earth. At the
great white throne after the Millennium, ungodly men (the wicked dead) will be judged and then thrown into
the lake of fire (Rev. 20:11-15). This, as Peter wrote, will be their day of judgment (2
Peter 2:9) and destruction. After
they are cast into fire, the heavens and the earth will be destroyed by fire.
iii.
God has the power
to “break in” at any time and accomplish His will. He can send rain from heaven
or fire from heaven. “But our God is in the heavens: He hath done whatsoever He
hath pleased” (Ps. 115:3).
iv.
Obviously God is
directly involved with the world currently and will supernaturally intervene
again in the future. God intervened catastrophically before (in the Flood), and He will do so again.
C. Remember God
will Judge the World in His own Timing (3:8-10). He
delays judgment to save repentant sinners, but He will eventually destroy this
world entirely.
1.
The Lord is eternal by nature and not locked into our
reference of time (3:8).
i.
Once again, Peter
exposed the ignorance of the scoffers. Not only were they ignorant of what God
had done in the past (2 Peter 3:5), but they were also ignorant of what God was
like. They were making God in their own image and ignoring the fact that God is
eternal. This means that He has neither beginning nor ending. Man is immortal:
he has a beginning but not an ending. He will live forever either in heaven or
hell. But God is eternal, without beginning or ending, and He dwells in
eternity. Eternity is not just “extended time.” Rather, it is existence above
and apart from time. Peter was certainly referring to Psalm 90:4—“For a
thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a
watch in the night.”—W. W. Wiersbe
ii.
Why then the long
delay in God’s judgment? Why is the Lord so long in coming? Well, we should remember that God is timeless
(3:8). He does not live in a sphere of time as we do. God counts time
differently than does man. After all, time is determined by the relation of the
sun to the earth, and God is not limited by this relationship. People see time
against time; but God sees time against eternity. In fact time only seems long
because of man’s finite perspective.
iii.
With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. He can expand a day into a millennium, or compress a millennium
into a day. He can either spread or concentrate His activities.
iv.
Once again Peter
challenged us to know and remember this also (“be not ignorant of this one thing”). The scoffers forget (3:5), but
believers should not. Christians should recall Psalm 90:4, which Peter quoted.
2.
The Lord is longsuffering for the time and desires to
save more sinners (3:8-9).
i.
God has promised
to end the history of ungodly men with judgment. If there seems to be delay, it
is not because God is unfaithful
to His promise (3:9). It is
because He is patient and merciful. He does not want any to perish. His desire is that all should come to repentance. He purposely
extends the time of grace so that men might have every opportunity to be saved.
This is the heart of God toward sinful rebellious human beings who constantly
offend His gracious and holy heart! He
suffers with men and even extends the opportunity of grace so that many more
will be saved.
ii.
Since a thousand
years are as one day to the Lord, we cannot accuse Him of delayed fulfillment
of His promises. In God’s sight, the whole universe is only a few days old! He
is not limited by time the way we are, nor does He measure it according to
man’s standards. When you study the works of God, especially in the Old
Testament, you can see that He is never in a hurry, but He is never late.
—Wiersbe
iii.
The scoffers did
not understand God’s eternality nor did they understand His mercy. Why was God
delaying the return of Christ and the coming of the Day of the Lord? It was not
because He was unable to act or unwilling to act. He was not
tardy or off schedule! Nobody on earth has the right to decide when God must
act. God is sovereign in all things and does not need prodding or even counsel
from sinful man (Rom. 11:33–36).
God
delays the coming of Christ and the great day of fiery judgment because He is
long-suffering and wants to give lost sinners the opportunity to be saved. “And account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation”
(2 Peter 3:15).
God’s
“delay” is actually an indication that He has a plan for this world and that He
is working His plan. There should be no question in anybody’s mind whether God wants
sinners to be saved. God “is not willing that any
should perish” (2 Peter 3:9). First Timothy 2:4 affirms that God “will
have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” These
verses give both the negative and the positive, and together they assure us
that God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezek. 18:23, 32; 33:11).
He shows His mercy to all (Rom. 11:32) even though not all will be saved.
If
God is long-suffering toward lost sinners, why did Peter write, “The Lord... is
long-suffering to us-ward”? Who is meant by “us-ward”? It would appear that God
is long-suffering to His own people! – Wiersbe, Warren W.: The Bible
Exposition Commentary
3.
The Day of the Lord is certain to come unexpectedly
and destroy the heavens and the earth (3:10, 12).
i.
The Day of the
Lord will come! (3:10)
a.
“The day of the Lord” describes end-time events that begin after the Rapture
and culminate with the commencement of eternity. In the middle of the 70th week
of Daniel the Antichrist will turn against the people of God in full fury (Dan.
9:24-27; see 1 Thes. 5:2; 2 Thes. 2:2-12). “The day of the Lord” also
refers to any period when God acts in judgment. It was used in the OT to
describe any time when God punished evildoers and triumphed over His foes (Isa.
2:12; 13:6, 9; Ezek. 13:5; 30:3; Joel 1:15; 2:1, 11, 31; 3:14; Amos 5:18, 20;
Obad. 15; Zeph. 1:7, 14; Zech. 14:1; Mal. 4:5). In the NT it is a period of
time with various stages:
1)
It refers to the
Tribulation, a seven-year period when God will judge unbelieving Israel (1
Thess. 5:2; 2 Thess. 2:2).
2)
It includes His
return to earth when He will inflict vengeance on those who do not know God and
who do not obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus (2 Thess. 1:7–10).
3)
It is used of the
Millennium when Christ will rule the earth with a rod of iron (Acts 2:20).
4)
It refers to the
final destruction of the heavens and the earth with fire. That is the meaning
here in chapter 3.
b.
It will be
unexpected “like a thief in the night.”
1)
When the Lord
does come, it will be both
surprising and catastrophic. It will
come as a thief—that is, unexpectedly and destructively. This
simile was used by our Lord Jesus (Matt. 24:42-44) and repeated by others (1
Thes. 5:2; Rev. 3:3; 16:15).
2)
Having refuted
their false claims, Peter then reaffirmed the certainty of the coming of the Day of the Lord.
When will it come? Nobody knows when, because it will come to the world “as a thief in the night.” Our Lord used this phrase
(Matt. 24:43; Luke 12:39) and so did the Apostle Paul (1Thes. 5:2ff). When the
world is feeling secure, then God’s judgment will fall. The thief does not warn
his victims that he is coming! “For when they shall say, ‘Peace and safety’;
then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child;
and they shall not escape” (1 Thes. 5:3). –Wiersbe, Warren W.: The Bible
Exposition Commentary
ii.
It will cause the
heavens to “pass away” and out of sight (3:10).
a.
In the
catastrophic inferno at the end of the Millennium, the heavens (the earth’s atmosphere and maybe the starry
sky, not God’s abode) will disappear
with a fantastic roar, which in some way will involve fire (2 Peter 3:7,
12). This certainly means the atmospheric heavens, and may mean the stellar
heavens, but it cannot mean the third heaven—the dwelling place of God.
b.
It will cause the
very “elements” to “melt
with fervent heat.” As they pass away with a deafening explosion, the elements will
be dissolved
with fervent heat (3:12). The elements here refer to the constituent
parts of matter. All matter will be destroyed in what resembles a universal
nuclear holocaust.
c.
It will consume
the earth and all the works of mankind will burn up. Not only the works of the
natural creation, but all civilization will be consumed. The great capitals of
the world, the imposing buildings, the phenomenal scientific productions are
all marked for utter destruction.
iii.
The Day of the
Lord will gravely affect the heavens and the earth (3:12).
a.
The heaven shall
be dissolved with fire
b.
Many Bible
students believe that Peter here described the action of atomic energy being
released by God. The word translated a great noise in the King James
Version means “with a hissing and a crackling sound.” When the atomic bomb
was tested in the Nevada desert, more than one reporter said that the explosion
gave forth “a whirring sound,” or a “crackling sound.” The Greek word Peter
used was commonly used by the people for the whirring of a bird’s wings or the
hissing of a snake.
c.
The word melt in 2 Peter 3:10 means “to disintegrate, to be
dissolved.” It carries the idea of something being broken down into its basic
elements, and that is what happens when atomic energy is released. “Heaven and
earth shall pass away,” said our Lord (Matt. 24:35), and it appears that this
may happen by the release of the atomic power stored in the elements that make
up the world. The heavens and earth are “stored with fire” (2 Peter 3:7, wuest), and only God can release it.
