November 10 2013 Steve Rahter 2nd Peter 3 11 -18

Sunday November 11th2nd Peter 3:11-18I heard a story about a pastor who visited an elderly man. The Pastor said, “At your age you don’t you think you should be thinking about the hereafter?” The older man replied, “Oh, yes, I do…all the time. No matter where I am - in the living room, upstairs, in the kitchen, or down in the basement - I ask myself ‘What did I come in here after?’”In the final verses of his second letter Peter asks us the same thing, “In light of the second coming of Jesus and the coming judgment of the world by fire, shouldn’t you be thinking seriously about your remaining days on earth and of the hereafter?”(Starting 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, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! 13 But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.Do you get what Peter is saying here? He’s saying that if we truly believe Jesus Christ is going to return, that should make a difference in the way we live; we’ll want to concentrate our time, energy, and passion on spiritual things, rather than worldly things.We’ll seek to develop “holy conduct and godliness.” The word "holy" means to be separated or set apart for a specific purpose. So a Christian is someone who isn’t willing to live like others around us normally do. We choose to make a sincere effort to live apart from sin, rather than to wallow in it.Someone pointed out that, "Holy conduct refers to action, godliness refers to attitude. Holy conduct refers to the way I live my life, godliness refers to the spirit of reverence within me by which I live my life. Holy conduct refers to that which rules my behavior, and godliness refers to that which rules my heart.”In addition, Peter says, those who believe in the second coming of Christ should have an attitude of eager anticipation of “the coming of the day of God.”Peter uses the same word here that was used in Acts 10:24 to describe the attitude of Cornelius when he had sent for Peter and was waiting on his doorstep to meet the man who would tell him what he needed to do to be saved.“On the following day (Peter) entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting for them and had called together his relatives and close friends.” Cornelius was eagerly waiting for Peter to arrive. Christians should be eagerly waiting for Jesus to come again. And the knowledge that He IS coming should make a difference in the way we live. A pastor from Chicago wrote this,“When we begin to believe in the reality of the other side, we start behaving differently on this side. This is what drove the disciples out into their world – they had seen firsthand the reality of the other side.”Peter continues to make this same point using one of our favorite words – “Therefore”!14 Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blamelessTHEREFORE, because you know Jesus is coming back; make sure that when He comes He finds you living a peaceful and pure life.Look at what Hebrews 12:14 says,“Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.”1 John 3:3 “And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”If you want a good analogy of the relationship between personal purity and waiting for Jesus to return, listen to this quote from Randy Alcorn’s book “Heaven”,“If my wedding date is on the calendar and I’m thinking of the person I’m going to marry, I shouldn’t be an easy target for seduction.Likewise, when I’ve meditated on Heaven, sin is not terribly appealing. It’s when my mind drifts from Heaven that sin seems attractive. Thinking of Heaven leads inevitably to pursuing holiness. Our high tolerance for sin testifies of our failure to prepare for Heaven.Heaven should affect our activities and ambitions, our recreation and friendships, and the way we spend our money and time. If I believe I’ll spend eternity in a world of unending beauty and adventure, will I be content to spend my whole evening staring at game shows, sitcoms and reality shows? How much time will I want to invest in things that don’t matter?”Peter uses the phrase “looking for” three times in verses 12-14. “Looking” carries the idea of expectancy, of waiting with alertness, of being ready.The first use is found in verse twelve where we read, “looking for …the coming of God.” And then in verse thirteen “looking for new heavens and a new earth.” Then he uses it again verse fourteen, “look for these things.” The word “looking” indicates a continual, ongoing habit or lifestyle.J. Vernon McGee says, "Today we see a lot of careless living, but also a great emphasis on prophecy. I hear people say, “Oh, I’m waiting for the Lord to come!” Brother, my question is not whether you are looking for the Lord to come, but how are you living down here? How you live down here determines whether or not you are really looking for the Lord to come."And if you really want an even deeper perspective on the relationship between our holy conduct and Jesus’ return, take notice that verse 12 says “looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God” Peter literally means that we aren’t just supposed to be passively waiting for Jesus, we are supposed to be trying to “hasten” His return! How do we do that?Well for starters, remember that according to verse 9, which we read last week,“The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”So if we know that God’s delay in sending Jesus is because He is so merciful and wants to reach more people with the gospel, then we should realize that evangelism is one way that we can “hasten” Jesus’ return.In Mark 13:10 Jesus says that before He comes again “The gospel must first be preached to all the nations” so we also know that supporting missionaries can help to “hasten” Jesus’ return.  Don’t you find it fascinating that we, as believers, can actually have an impact on the timing of the second coming of Christ? One writer says, “This understanding should profoundly encourage Christians that our actions do matter!”Peter seems to be reminding us again in verse 15 that the delay in Jesus’ return is solely based on God’s desire to see more people saved:15 and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you,When Peter says that the Apostle Paul wrote his letters “according to the wisdom given him” he is validating the divine inspiration for Paul’s letters. In Ephesians 3:2-3 Paul himself says, “if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you;3 that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief.Paul is indicating that he wrote “by revelation” through God’s grace as the Holy Spirit revealed the mystery of the gospel to him. Peter then goes on in the next few verses to refer to Paul’s writings as “scriptures”, clearly inspired by God:16 as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.When Peter compares Paul’s letters to “the rest of the Scriptures, he’s stating that they are in the same category as the Holy Spirit-inspired writings of the Old Testament, which was the only “Scripture” they had up until then.Peter may not have even known at that time that HIS letters would become recognized as part of the New Testament, but he could see that Paul’s writings were powerful messages inspired directly by God.Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:16“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness”Thank God that He has spoken to us through inspired writers to guide us in the path of truth rather than error. But we need to continually guard the truth and be watchful against any form of error creeping into our thinking. That’s Peter’s final warning to us as he closes his letter:17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, 18 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.In referring one last time to the false teachers, Peter calls them “unprincipled men”, people who ignore all moral laws and restraints.And he says to be on guard so that you won’t get “carried away” by their error and end up “falling from your own steadfastness”. Then in verse 18 Peter gives us the best possible advice for protecting ourselves from danger:“Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”If I am growing daily in my knowledge of Jesus through reading my bible, and accessing His grace more and more each day through worship and prayer, it safeguards me against wrong-thinking and against wrong-doing!That’s why Peter’s final words are words of praise:“To Him be the glory!”