Sermon Tone Analysis

Let’s recap 2 Peter: The first chapter dealt with divine power, divine promises and divine nature.

The second chapter dealt with false prophets.

And, now, the third deals with Jesus’ coming again.

.2

(Jude 17)

Now in this chapter we are reminded to keep a hold of Scripture and to keep them in mind.

This simply means we are to actively trust what they say and do them.

The reason is that the view of Scripture as being the Word of God will continually come under attack and those who teach it, allegedly, will do their best to undermine it.

Attacks from without and attacks from within.

Those of us who remind ourselves of the Words of Scripture continually will be able to hold on and see the error or the truth of what is being taught.

Notice how Peter puts the words of the prophets of the Old Testament and the words of the apostles’ on the same level.

He knew that his own words were inspired of God too:

.3

(Jude 18)

Scoffers will come in the last days.

Hmm.

What Peter understood by the last days is surely a reflection of our day and time – these really are the last days, it portends the end of human history.

Scoffers are those who ridicule our faith.

But what is marvellous about this is that though they make fun of those who hold the Christian faith they are fulfilling the very Scripture they mock for it says they will turn up!

These are people of the world living for the here and now according to how they feel they will do.

Walking according to their lusts.

Yes, they are not content to live the self-indulgent lifestyle they are wanting to drag Christians into it as well – the reason for their scorn of our faith is

we are light and it shines upon their darkness

they want us to give up our faith for they think it is ridiculous in our scientific age that anyone could hold such beliefs –

and so that we will join them in what they are doing making no judgement of them.

‘Where is the promise of His coming?’ they ask.

Yes, all things are continuing as before but the fact He has not come yet is not God failing His promises but giving ample opportunity for them to turn to Him.

They don’t believe He is coming and the mocking is that all things continue since the creation which they also do not believe.

And why would they after being trained so well in our schools and universities and internet and TVs that we are in a universe that spontaneously came into being through an explosion?

But this is such a ridiculous idea which they prefer to believe rather than believing that God created the world, If anything we should be scoffing at them! Has anyone ever seen an explosion create anything except devastation?

Certainly no good things come from explosions.

On what planet are these so called scientists?!

Note, also, that these people say that since the fathers fell asleep, that is died, all things carry on as before.

But are they not also avoiding the issue of their own demise?

They know that they too will die for that is the way of the world but even at this fact a fist is shaken at it for they say that we don’t believe God created us, therefore we are not accountable to Him, therefore we will live how we like for when we die that is the end anyway.

Yes, if I believed there was no God then I would live in such a way for even Paul said:

These people made light of God’s coming judgment, because to acknowledge the truth of it would mean that they would have to change their lifestyles.

It has always played out this exact way—(Ill.

People in Noah’s day—Matt.

24:38–39; People of Sodom—Gen.

19:14.

Ill.

People in our day!)

Men love their sin too much to turn their lives over to the Lord

.4

But they wilfully forget.

Yes, their consciences, their natural selves, know the real truth but will not face up to it – that by the Word of God the universe came into being.

Scripture knew well in advance that people would dispute that God created the cosmos and that evolution would be the prevailing theory, a so-called scientific understanding that cannot stand up under own scientific rules.

They would rather believe that by chance life started, by chance we exist, by chance we happen to be on a planet in the golden zone just the right distance from the sun for life to prevail(!) than believe that God is the One who created and sustains His creation.

They wilfully forget.

That means that deep down they really do know the truth but now they have believed the lie so long that they cannot give it up for their whole worldview is based upon it – and to believe that God did it all would turn their lives upside down, something that they are not prepared to do.

When they come to Christ, as some do, they do not want to let go of their belief system and well-meaning Christians who are equally duped by the world system say you can hold both as true.

No wonder there is confusion in the Church.

Eventually you have to wonder whether anyone will hold to Scriptures in the Church.

No wonder Jesus wondered out loud:

Yet, Jesus was there at the beginning:

.5

Where it says that the earth standing out of water and in the water it is understood that this refers to the 2nd day of creation when the water was separated from the land.

Some believe further:

That a water canopy surrounded the earth in the early days of its existence, protecting it from the harmful effects of the sun.

This water canopy perhaps created a "hothouse" effect which made possible the tropical plants and the large reptile like creatures which we know as dinosaurs.

Some even cite this canopy as the reason for the longevity of man as described in the early chapters of Genesis.

.6

But the Flood brought about a great change in the earth's climate and topography.

But these unbelievers are also willing to forget what God has done to those who refuse His reign in their lives.

They know that they are deserving of judgment but are not willing to repent, loving the darkness more.

Almost all the ancient communities around the world have stories of a worldwide flood – God has left Himself a witness of what He did to those who were wicked.

God destroyed the wicked of that time as we can also read in the only true, real and accurate account found in Genesis 5-8.

The point is that not everything has continued as it was from the beginning – it was interrupted by a cataclysmic event that radically changed world history.

This event was also scoffed at by the people of the time against Noah and his family but as Jesus said in

God, not them, is in control of the universe.

Since He is in control, He can break into time anytime He chooses and can do as He pleases!

God is intimately involved with what is going on, on the earth.

If God was willing to destroy all who lived in Noah’s day then He will not have any qualms about doing it in our day.

The Heaven and Earth is still preserved and sustained by God but it will be destroyed by fire come the Day of Judgement.

Water came the first time which is devastating as we know, for we only need to remember the Asian Tsunami and the Japanese earthquake to see what water can do.

And God promised never to destroy the world again through water.

.7

But it will be destroyed by fire.

We can remember how shocking it was when Grenfell went up in flames or think of the explosions of fire that happened in China 4 years ago in the port city of Tianjin which was evacuated to a 2 mile radius.

Fire is a fearsome thing and there are always fires going on especially at this time of year.

And here we are told that the universe has a reservation to be destroyed by fire.

A reservation that will certainly be honoured.

The streets are filled with protests these days, especially a group that calls itself ‘Extinction Rebellion’, which is a dangerous group.

It may be peaceful now but their manifesto is violent.

All these people clamouring and worried about the end of our world, of people and yet want policies that will destroy the way of life for people here and elsewhere and make them hell on earth.

What is interesting about all this is their rebellion against God.

Yes, we have been called to be good stewards of the world but it is for the benefit of people.

This world will not be destroyed by man-made climate change.

We also have to remember God will have the last word: the world will be destroyed by Him by fire:

What God has started God will end.

There was a time in Noah’s day when God had enough.

There will be a time in our day that God will say enough.

Enough of the rebellion and sin.

He’d rather see all people turn to Him but we all know that will not happen and as a result people will have to take the consequences for rejecting Jesus.

The perdition or judgement of people is coming.

A way of escape though has been made:

.8

But God’s promises should not catch us out for what He has promised He will do.

A thousand years as is one day to the Lord.

How is this?

Well God has existed for all eternity and will exist for all eternity to come.

The timescale of this earth is just like a blip on the radar which is seen one moment and gone the next.

Time is a creation itself by God – will time cease to exist in the future, who knows.

But the point of this verse is to say that God’s perception of time is not the same as ours.

We have a little understanding of this for we say when we were children a day lasted a very long time but now we are older the days pass by and before we know it 40 more years have passed.

By His accounting, Jesus has not even been gone 2 days yet.

The world is only 6 days old.