2Peter 3:1
The theme of the book is BE PREPARED.
I. \\#2Peter 1:1-21\\ Christian Character
A. \\#2Peter 1:1-2\\ Salutation
B. \\#2Peter 1:3-11\\ Growth in Christ
C. \\#2Peter 1:12-15\\ Goals of Peter
D. \\#2Peter 1:16-21\\ Grounds of Belief
II. \\#2Peter 2:1-22\\ Condemnation of False Teachers
A. \\#2Peter 2:1\\ Danger of False Teachers
B. \\#2Peter 2:2-3\\ Deception of False Teachers
C. \\#2Peter 2:3-9\\ Destruction of False Teachers
D. \\#2Peter 2:10-22\\ Description of False Teachers
III. \\#2Peter 3:1-18\\ Confidence in Christ’s Return - For Peter’s readers to
be properly prepared, they would need to know what the finish line was.
How can one make it to the finish line if they don’t know where it is?
The finish line for every believer is the return of Jesus Christ.
A. \\#2Peter 3:1-10\\ Mockery in the Last Days
B. \\#2Peter 3:11-18\\ Maturity until the Lord Returns
III. \\#2Peter 3:1-18\\ Confidence in Christ’s Return
A. \\#2Peter 3:1-10\\ Mockery in the Last Days
1. \\#2Peter 3:1-2\\ Peter’s purpose restated
a. \\#1\\ "second epistle" - The fact that this is a SECOND
EPISTLE means there had to be a first and further argues for
Peter as the author of both First and Second Peter.
b. It also implies that this letter is written to the same
individuals as First Peter.
1Peter 1:1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered
throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
c. These are churches scattered through Asia Minor.
d. "I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance" - Peter
mentioned his purpose of stirring up the believers’ memory in
\\#1Peter 1:12-15\\. He repeated that purpose here.
e. \\#2\\ That ye may be mindful" - Peter wanted these believers
to have the Word of God in their mind. Of course, Peter was
thinking of some specific words concerning the coming of our
Lord.
2. \\#2Peter 3:3-4\\ The attitude of doubters
a. \\#3\\ "Knowing this first" - Before getting to what God’s
men had declared, Peter again prophesied what would befall
the church and the world.
b. "in the last days" - In the last days of God’s dealings with
the church.
c. "shall come… scoffers" - Scoffers are not just those who
doubt the veracity of God’s Word, but those who take a delight
in saying so.
d. "walking after their own lusts" - As with false teachers, so
the scoffers are carnal and bound by lusts. It would appear
that the main reason one rejects Bible truth is lusts. Those
who will not repent of their lusts attempt to justify their
rebellion by attacking the creditably of the Bible.
e. \\#4\\ "Where is the promise of his coming?"
(1) One of the scoffers primary arguments is, "If Jesus were
going to come, He should have come by now."
(2) "all things continue as they were" - "Things," they say,
"just go and on."
(3) Of course the fact that Jesus has not come in no way means
that He will not come, but such are the weak arguments
that are put forth in an attempt to move the unthinking
away from the truth.
3. \\#2Peter 3:5-8\\ Peter argued against this assertion with three
truths.
a. \\#5-6\\ Peter argued that their premise is not true. ALL
THINGS HAVE NOT CONTINUED THE SAME.
(1) \\#5\\ "they willingly are ignorant" - Peter asserted
that there is something they have deliberately left out.
(2) "the word of God" - What they omitted is written in the
Bible.
(3) \\#6\\ "the world that then was, being overflowed with
water, perished" - The scoffers left out the fact that
God has already destroyed the world once with a flood.
(a) The scoffers argument is that all things continue as
they have from the beginning, that there is no
evidence of any god intervening in the affairs of
mankind.
(b) Yet both the Bible and science demonstrate that God
has intervened in sending a world-wide flood.
(c) If God has intervened, it stands to reason that He
could intervene again if He wanted to do so.
b. \\#7\\ Peter argued that God’s power (not His neglect) is
keeping things as they are UNTIL Jesus returns.
(1) "the heavens and the earth… are kept in store" - God
is using His power to keep creation as it is.
(2) "reserved unto fire against the day of judgment"
Until His appointed time of judgment.
(3) These tells us that the coming of Jesus that he was
speaking of is not Jesus’ coming for the church (the
rapture), but Jesus’ coming to judge the earth (the
advent).
c. \\#8\\ Peter argued that time means nothing to God.
(1) \\#8\\ "one day is with the Lord as a thousands years,
and a thousand years as one day" - Peter was simply saying
that time has no relevance to God.
(2) God is not bound by time.
4. \\#2Peter 3:9-10\\ Peter’s Conclusion
a. \\#9\\ "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise"
(1) Peter states that God will had not forgotten or delayed
what He has promised.
(2) "but is longsuffering to us-ward" - Rather, God is showing
us mercy and grace.
(3) "not willing that any should perish, but… come to
repentance" - Not wanting us to perish in damnation but
to be saved.
(4) What some call God’s slackness is actually God’s mercy.
He has delayed His coming so that one more soul could
come to salvation.
b. \\#10\\ But the day of the Lord will come"
(1) Yet, the day of Jesus’ coming, the day of judgment, will
come.
(2) Peter told of the events of that coming.
(a) "as a thief in the night" - Not that those in that
day will not know when he has come, but in that they
will not expect it. A victim does not expect the
thief.
(b) "the heavens shall pass away" - Creation shall
dissolve and cease to exist \\#2Peter 3:12\\.
God does not just renovate the old. He replaces it.
(c) "with a great noise" - While no one knows for certain
how God will dissolve the created, it appears to be
on the atomic level. Perhaps the noise is of an
atomic explosion, with every atom being separated
from its pair. Perhaps it is the sound of a
galactic fire storm, with matter crackling under the
heats high temperatures.
(d) "the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth
also… shall be burned up" - Regardless of how God
does it, it will be by heat.
(e) God used water to destroy the earth the first time.
He will use some form of heat the last time.
B. \\#2Peter 3:11-18\\ Maturity until the Lord Returns
1. \\#11\\ The Question
a. "Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved" - Peter
referred to what he had just revealed.
b. "what manner of persons ought ye to be" - If one knows that
everything that exists will be dissolved, what affect would
it have in your lifestyle? Peter’s point in writing this
epistle was to remind the saints of truths that, if retained,
would drastically alter their behavior.
c. "in all holy conversation and godliness" - The question is
directed to the believer for he is the only one who is
concerned with living a holy and godly lifestyle.
2. \\#12-13\\ An Activity - Such knowledge should cause a holy
activity.
a. \\#12\\ "Looking for… the coming of the day of God"
(1) The one who has such knowledge should start watching for
the day to come. That kind of knowledge should never be
forgotten.
(2) "the day of God" - Seems to refer not to the Day of the
Lord, when the world will be dissolved, but to \\#13\\,
a day when NEW HEAVENS AND A NEW EARTH are begun. This
is the eternal state which God has PROMISED
\\#Rev 21:1\\.
b. \\#12\\ "and hastening unto the coming of the day of God"
(1) Peter does not mean we can rush God’s plan.
(2) HASTENING can mean "to urge on" or "to hurry."
(3) The idea is that we should both desire and pray for this
day to come.
3. \\#14-16\\ An Answer
a. \\#14\\ We should be diligent to stay clean.
(1) \\#14\\ "be diligent" - The word means "to give effort."
This is the third time in this epistle that Peter has
told us to devote ourselves and our energy to the
accomplishment of a work of character
\\#2Peter 1:7, 10\\.
(2) "that ye may be found of him in peace" - With the
knowledge of such a somber judgment laying ahead, it is
important that the believer have the peace that God
provides.
(3) "without spot" - Peter mentioned how the false teachers
were "spots" and "blemishes" \\#2Peter 2:13\\. Here he
challenged the believers, especially in light of this
future judgment, do not be the godless spot which
detracts from what God is doing.
(4) "blameless" - This is a term used in relations to the law.
As knowledgeable Christians, we should not violate God’s
commandments.
b. \\#15\\ We enjoy the patience of God.
(1) "And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is
salvation" - Peter mentioned \\#2Peter 3:9\\ that God is
not willing that any should perish. God’s desire that men
be saved causes His justice to suffer a long time,
allowing more to be be saved.
(2) "even as our beloved brother Paul… hath written" - Peter
refers to Paul’s writings (perhaps \\#Romans 2:4\\) as
additional support for God’s patience.
(3) \\#16\\ "speaking… of these things" - Peter’s
familiarity indicates that Paul’s letters were both well
circulated and well accepted by the early church. Paul
would likely have been imprisoned or perhaps already
martyred for Christ by the time Peter wrote this epistle.
(4) "which are some things hard to be understood" - Peter
acknowledges that some of Paul’s writings are difficult
to understand.
(5) "which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest" - And
some of what Paul wrote, as with all Scripture, is
resisted by those who are both spiritually ignorant and
unstable,
(6) "unto their own destruction" - Those who do resist the
Scriptures, do so to their own demise.
4. \\#17-18\\ An Admonishment
a. \\#17\\ "Ye… seeing that ye know these things" - Based on
everything Peter had written, he draws his letter to a close.
(1) "beware lest ye also, being led away with the error"
(a) Peter warned his readers not to get caught in the
coming web of false teachers and their errors.
(b) "fall from your own steadfastness" - If caught in
the wicked’s web, even sound and STEADFAST believers
would fall.
(2) \\#18\\ "But grow in grace and in the knowledge of…
Jesus Christ" - Rather than following error, grow in the
power, mercies, and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
b. "To him be glory both now and for ever" - And to Jesus be all
the praise and worship!
<Outline
Index> <Close Window>
