Studiesin

2 Peter Presentation 06

Where Is The Promise Of His ComingChapter 3v1-18

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IntroductionThroughout life we experience the frustration of waiting. The child says, “I can’t wait until its Christmas”, the young adult says, “I can’t wait until I’m married”, the aging employee says, “I can’t wait till I retire”. Now in Rom. 8v20 Paul writes, “For the creation was subjected to frustration”, and it longs to be “brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God”.

Indeed, both redeemed men and women and the whole the created order is waiting for the process of salvation to be completed. And that completion is indissolubly bound up with the second coming of Christ.

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IntroductionThe whole of the N.T. teaches that full salvation is ‘not yet’. Oh, full salvation is coming but not yet! For this reason we read that we are ‘saved in hope’ Rom.8.24. Now the false teachers in the church were attempting to torpedo that hope, and they did so by trying to shift the expectation of the church from ‘not yet’ to ‘not ever’. “You will never see a visible return of Jesus”, they said. And so we should not be surprised that Peter defends this doctrine with such vigour!

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The Importance Of Biblical DoctrinePaul, identifies two human torpedoes, Hymenaeus and Philetus, when writing to Timothy. They taught, “the resurrection of believers is already past and so there won't be a bodily resurrection, only a spiritual one therefore the notion of a powerful, glorious bodily return of Jesus is just a cleverly devised myth”. Cf 2 Tim.2v17. Why would they want to do that? Well by rejecting Christ's glorious bodily return, by playing down the importance of this physical body they created a theological basis for an indifference to sexual morality. They could say, “You are spiritual beings, it doesn’t matter what you do in the body!”

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The Importance Of Biblical DoctrinePeter has already linked false teaching to wrong behaviour, and nowhere is this more evident than in relation to the second coming. It is a matter of historical record that the high moral tone of the church in the early centuries was grounded in the vibrant belief that Jesus was coming again. Whenever that hope was obscured then moral integrity and spiritual vitality has taken a nosedive. In the N.T. the second coming is held out as one of the great incentives to holy living. cf 1Cor.15v51-58; Col.3v4-5; Phil.3v20-4v1; 1Jn.3v3.

When churchmen question Christ’s return, they are not only challenging the doctrinal orthodoxy of the church, they are cutting into its moral fibre.

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The Importance Of Biblical DoctrinePeter confronts the denial of the second coming head on. It is as we allow the truth of God’s word to wash over us and become part of us we are better equipped to defend the truth.

Peter reminds us that the doctrine of the second coming is rooted in the O.T. and not something that the apostles tacked onto the gospel to provide it with a “happy ending”.

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The Importance Of Biblical DoctrineThe case of the false teachers is presented in v 4, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation.”

This is an amazingly modern argument. It states that, the laws of nature are constant and unchanging. The sun has come up and gone down, the seasons have followed each other, for thousands of years in perfect order. Therefore, we must expect this constancy in the future, and any thought that the created order might be transformed at the return of Christ is unimaginable!

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God Is The Author Of Creation Peter develops a threefold response. First, in v 5–7: “But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly”.

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God Is The Author Of Creation The false teachers ignore that the world was made by God and is presently upheld by him. And in the course of natural events the world is no more locked into one pattern than God himself is. We need to guard against the pseudo-scientific notion that nature is a law unto itself. It is not.

Someone has said, “The laws of nature are the patient whisperings of the Almighty. And if he should choose to raise his voice, the cataclysm will come”. God is not hemmed in by the laws of nature that he created. Jesus by walking on water made it abundantly clear that he was perfectly capable of suspending his laws.

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God Is The Author Of Creation Secondly, the false teachers ignored the fact that things had not been constant from the beginning of creation. God brought judgment on the world in the flood of Noah's day with a great upheaval in the natural flow of events. God has shown, therefore, that he can and will alter the course of history in judgment. In the past he did it with water. In the future he will do so with fire at the coming of Jesus Christ. And so it is sheer folly to deny the future cataclysm of Christ's coming just because the course of the world has been so constant for so long.

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God Is The Author Of Creation Peter points out that the previous upheavals of nature are something that these scoffers deliberately forget. There are none so blind as those who will not see! Men often choose to remain blind to God’s plain dealings with them.

Surely we need constantly to pray for discernment to be enabled to understand the events that daily surround us and the things that happen to us.

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A Day Is As A Thousand YearsPeter’s second response is found in v8,"But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” Peter is answering the criticism that Christ has delayed his return so long that we can't really believe he is coming back. God operates with a very different timescale from ourselves - a thousand years are just like a day to him and therefore the so-called delay is a thing of mere human conception.

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A Day Is As A Thousand YearsPeter says that from God's perspective it hasn't been very long. God does not age or forget. He sees all history at a glance. He is never bored, and does not experience time like we do. But even so, since we are made in God's image, we share an echo of God's experience of time. The older we get the faster time flies. We say, "It just seems like yesterday when I was a pupil at school.” Or, "It just seems like yesterday we got married."

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A Day Is As A Thousand YearsNot only age, but joy makes us experience time like God. If you’re bored then time drags on forever. But if you have a super summer holiday, when it comes to an end you say, "It seems like we just got here." Every moment was like a thousand moments packed into one, and you were so taken up with the pleasure of those weeks that you were not self-conscious of the passing of time.

When Jesus returns to earth he could say, “It just seems like yesterday that I was here.” Don’t be hoodwinked by those who say, “after 2000 years Jesus can’t be coming back”. From God's time perspective it is as though Jesus arrived at his right hand the day before yesterday.

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God’s Merciful Forbearance Peter’s final response is found in v9, "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” We must view the delay of Christ's coming as an act of mercy and patience. How different is this picture from the caricature of God depicting him as a harsh vengeful, loveless tyrant. With good cause that scripture reminds us that judgment is God’s ‘strange work’. And when judgment is inevitable, his eyes, like those of Jesus fill up with tears Lk. 19 41-44. If only men could see the infinite yearning of God over them for their salvation.

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God’s Merciful Forbearance The tragic irony was that the false teachers took God's patience, which provided them with an opportunity to repent, and turned it against God as an evidence that Christ was not coming. How many will hang their heads in shame on judgment day when God asks, "Why did you take my ‘gift of time’ for repenting and use it as an argument for unbelief?”

But the day of the Lord will come v10. There is a limit to God’s longsuffering. He will come like a thief in the night - in other words suddenly and without warning.

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God’s Merciful Forbearance Peter’s language is breath-taking - he describes a tremendous trial by fire that will overtake the world, when ‘everything in it will be laid bare’. Our best disguises will fall away, nothing will be hidden from God. This sobering reality that causes Peter to challenge his readers lifestyle. They ought to lead, ‘holy and godly lives’ for such will withstand the fire and emerge as constituent parts of the new creation. The measure in which we give ourselves to holy living, will say something about our belief in Christ’s immanent return. George Whitfield when asked what he would do if he knew Christ would return that day? He replied that he would ‘continue with his day as he had planned!’ Could we say that?

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ConclusionThe return of Christ is presented as an incentive for the greatest moral and spiritual endeavour. And in the process we enter the ‘peace’ mentioned in v14 and are able to stand unashamed before him at his coming. Have we truly begun to live our daily lives in the light of eternity?

Peter encouragement echoes that found in Paul’s epistles. And while some of Paul’s teaching might be hard to grasp so that it is open to misunderstanding and distortion, this cannot be blamed on the limited intellectual capacity of some.

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ConclusionThe key to spiritual comprehension is not a matter of intellect but of heart. An old Scots divine once said, ‘The best commentary on Holy Scripture is a heavenly state of mind’.

Or put another way the Bible yields its treasures only to patient, reverent and submissive study as we sit as willing pupils at the feet of Jesus. That and that alone will enable us to preserve our souls in patience as we await the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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