2 PETER 3:10-13 “WHEN GOD HAS HIS DAY” PART 2
A) One of these days, God’s day is going to come and man’s day will be over.
* Man’s day will conclude, as v.7 tells us, with “the day of judgment against the
perdition of ungodly men.”
* Man’s day will be over and God’s day will begin.
B) When the day of grace ends, the day of God is going to begin.
* That is the theme of the verses we are studying this morning.
* He says in v.10 “The day of the Lord will come.”
C) v.12 “Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God.”
* So I want to talk with you today about some of the features or characteristics
of the day of God when God has His day.
* Now look with me first of all, in the 10th verse at God’s day and .......
(1) THE CREATION
A) The Bible tells us that when God’s day comes, some catastrophic things are
going to take place in the creation.
* In fact, in the beginning of v.11, he says that all these things shall be dissolved.
B) The word “dissolved” there is the Greek word “luo” (loo’-o) and it means
“to loosen or untie, to break up.”
* All of these things, he says, are literally going to come apart.
* All of these things are going to be dissolved.
C) He says the heavens shall pass away with a great noise.
* The phrase “great noise” means a loud explosion.
* Peter says that one day this world is going to come to its conclusion, and the
heavens are going to pass away with a tremendous explosion.
* This world is gonna go up in smoke.
D) There is a second matter I want to point out to you when God has His day.
* 2 Peter 3:11 discusses the day of God and .......
(2) THE CHRISTIAN
A) What does God’s day mean so far to you as a Christian?
* What are the implications of the day of God – The conclusion of this universe
so far as you as a believer are concerned?
* You will notice that he says in v.11 “Seeing that all these things .......”
B) That means a holy life style ... Righteous living and godliness ... Being God-like,
looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God.
* What should be our attitude toward the coming of the day of God?
C) Well, he says, first of all, we ought to anticipate that day.
* You ought to be looking for the coming of the day of God.
D) The truth that Jesus is going to come again and the truth that this whole
world of ours is going to pass away .......
* Has a tremendous moral implication upon our lives as believers.
* The Bible says in 1 John 3:3 “Every man that hath this hope in .......”
E) In other words, the truth of the second coming gives you something to live for.
* It’s a tremendous truth that causes you to live a clean life, to live for Christ every day,
to be the kind of person you would want to be when Jesus comes again.
F) If you are lost, you really don’t have anything to look for.
* If you have never known Christ, if Jesus is not in your heart, then you don’t have
the reason to live as a Christian does. (Phil. 1:21 “For to me to live is Christ,”)
PEOPLE WITHOUT CHRIST ARE PESSIMISTIC
A) I don’t wonder that people without Christ are pessimistic.
* I don’t wonder that people who don’t know the Lord ruin their bodies and fry
their brains with drugs.
* I don’t wonder that people without Christ in their despair commit suicide.
B) If you know Jesus as your Savior, you’ve got something to live for.
* Life has meaning if you know Jesus – There’s a reason for your existence.
* If you know Jesus, then 10,000 years from now, you will be glad you knew
Him and glad you served Him.
* You will still be living for Him and still be praising Him 10,000 years from now.
C) I’ll tell you what a position that puts on your life.
* I think about old Methuselah in the Old Testament, lived 969 years.
D) Have you ever thought about how many clothes he wore out?
* Have you ever thought about how many tons of food he consumed?
* Have you ever thought about that?
E) Can you imagine how boring life could have been in 969 years if that’s all
there was to life .......
* Just so many clothes to wear, so much food to eat, going to the job every day
from 8 – 5 for 969 years – Be a pretty boring existence, wouldn’t it?
F) When you get up every morning, if you know Jesus as your Savior, you can
look forward to that day.
* The average person gets up in America and say, “Good Lord, it’s morning.”
* But the Christian gets up and says, “Good morning, Lord, what You got for me
in this day today?” ... We ought to be anticipating this day of God.
HERE IS A RATHER INTERESTING TRUTH I HAVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE
A) Did you notice in v.12 that we also can be accelerating the day of God?
* Look at that word where he said, “hasting unto the coming of the day of God.”
* Hasting: The Greek word is “pseudo” (spyoo’-do) and means “to speed up.”
B) Jesus used the word to Zacchaeus in Luke 19:5 .......
* He said to Zacchaeus, “Make haste, and come down.”
* He was saying to speed the thing up.
* They say old Zacchaeus came down that sycomore tree so fast that he chopped
all the bark off of it and the sycamore tree has been slick ever since.
C) The Bible says you and I can accelerate the coming of the day of God.
* We know that is true in several ways ... The Bible says we can pray for the
coming of the Lord – “Thy kingdom come.”
* Our prayers have a part somehow in God’s providence of His coming.
D) Winning people to Jesus accelerates the coming of the day of God.
* When the last soul gets saved and the last block is put into the body of Christ
and God’s church is complete .......
* Then the Lord’s going to come for her and take her out of this world.
* When we lead someone to Christ, we are hasting the coming of the day of God.
E) But in some way which is beyond our ability perhaps to understand .......
* Peter is saying that the holy life you live, the kind of life style you live has a part
in hasting the coming of the day of God.
* Now that says some things to me ... That raises some questions for me.
F) One of the questions it raises is this:
* When Jesus returns, will He be anxious to come for me?
* Will He be in a hurry to come for me? ... Will He be looking forward, anticipating
coming for me?
LET ME ILLUSTRATE:
A) It’s the closing day of college and two fathers are on their way to the same college.
* One of those fathers is on his way to pick up his son who has just won the highest
honors in the college.
* He has finished with the highest grade average of any student in the college.
B) He has gone there to get his boy to take him to the award banquet.
* Can you imagine the sense of excitement and the speed with which he hurries to
pick up his boy, but the other father is going to pick up his boy as well.
* But his boy has been kicked out for cheating on his final exams.
* Now which one of those is going to be hasting to get his boy?
C) Will Jesus be excited about coming for you?
* Will Christ be excited about taking you unto Himself?
* Now let me ask you this question – Will you be excited about Him coming?
* When you got up this morning, were you able to get up and say, “Lord, come today,
and come quickly.”
D) In 1 John 2:28, the apostle John suggested that when Jesus Christ comes,
there will be some who will be ashamed at his coming.
* There are some believers who wouldn’t want Jesus to come today.
* I have a feeling that if Jesus were to come today, there are some believers who
would want to clean out some magazines in their house.
E) I’m afraid that there might be some believers if Jesus should come today,
they would run to the refrigerator to get some things out of the refrigerator.
* There might be some Christians who have some sin in their lives that they have
hidden from the eyes of men .......
* But it will not be hidden from the piercing eyes of the Lord Jesus Christ in that day.
F) Would you be glad to see Jesus if He came today?
* The Bible says that you ought to so live – You ought to have such a holy life,
such a God-like life style you would be glad to see Jesus.
G) Look at these words in v.11 “What manner of persons ought ye to be.”
* Those words, “what manner of,” means “from what country.”
* It was used in Matt. 8:27 ... Jesus was asleep on the ship and the storm came upon
the ship and they came to Jesus and said, “Lord, save us, we’re going to perish.”
H) Jesus walked on deck of the ship, looked out over those waves and said,
“Peace, be still.”
* Those winds and waves laid down at the feet of the Son of God like whipped puppies.
* And when the people saw that, they said, “What manner of man is this that even the
wind and the sea obey Him ... What country is this man from.”
I) I’ll tell you where He was from – Jesus Christ was God’s Son from heaven.
* He lived heaven’s standards down in this world.
* That’s the kind of people we ought to be – Like Jesus in this world.
J) You ought to so live, looking for Jesus to come that people would say,
“What manner of person is that ... What makes them live like that?”
* “What makes them have that kind of life style? ... What gives them that joy?
* You ought to make people hungry for Jesus.
K) The day of God in creation ... The day of God and the Christian .......
* The third thing is in v.13, the day of God and .......
(3) THE CONSUMMATION
A) Now this chapter tells us about three worlds.
* In v.6 he talks about the past world ... The world that then was.
* In v.7 he talks about the present world ... The world that is now.
* In v.13 he talks about the prospective world ... The new heavens and the new earth.
B) Let’s just talk about that promised world.
* He says, “We according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth.”
* There is a promise back over in Isaiah 65 – There are other places where the promise
is given, but look at Isaiah 65 ... He says in v.17 “For behold I create new .......”
C) What a promise ... This old world, we have already been told, is going to pass away.
* This world is a world that is spoiled by sin ... Ruined by the fall, spread to every corner
and crevice with the results of sin.
* Rom. 8:22 ....... This world is a world which the apostle Paul says is
groaning and travailing in pain.
D) The Harvard Radio Telescope is tuned now to catch up the sounds of the
universe, the sounds of space.
* They are getting screeches, and beeps, and groans.
* They are just picking up scientifically what the Bible has already told us spiritually,
the groans and sighs of a universe that has been stained, shaken and wrecked by sin.
E) But God says, “When I come, I am going to create new heavens and a new earth.”
* When God comes and the Bible says this universe is dissolved, what that means is
that Jesus is going to pull apart all of the atoms of this universe.
* He is going to take out all of the effects of sin, and then He is going to put it
all back together again ... It’s going to be brand new.
REMEMBER WHAT WE READ IN ISAIAH?
A) He said that it is going to be so wonderful that the former will not be
remembered, nor come into our mind anymore.
* It’s going to be so gorgeous and so beautiful and so magnificent, He says this new
heavens and new earth, you will hardly be able to even remember how this one looked.
B) Now there are some beautiful things in this world.
* The beautiful mountains ....... The ocean and those beautiful waves at sunrise.
* You know that there are traces of beauty in this world that absolutely take
our breath away.
* But if you want just a little glimpse sometime of the new heavens and the new earth,
then you need to flip over to the last two chapters of your Bible .......
C) Because in Rev. 21:1, God says that God will create a new heaven and a new earth,
for the former heaven and earth were passed away.”
* And for two chapters He just lays it on and tells you it’s going to be a wonderful
place, and how beautiful it’s going to be.
D) The street is going to be made with gold and there is going to be a wall of jasper
and gates of pearl.
* It’s going to be glorious ... We have something to look forward to.
* A new heaven and a new earth is coming ... It’s a promised world.
E) It’s going to be a perfect world.
* Peter says that in that new world, righteousness will dwell.
* The word “dwelleth” is the Greek word “katoikeo” (kat-oy-keh’-o) and means,
“to house permanently, reside, to settle down and be at home.”
F) Now righteousness is certainly not at home in this world.
* The righteous one, the Lord Jesus came into this world and they put Him on a cross,
but in that world sin will not have the final say, in fact, sin will not have a say.
* In that world righteousness will reign and nothing that defileth or maketh a lie will enter
into that world and God’s people for eternity will be with Jesus in that new world.
CLOSE
A) Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “I am interested in the future because
that’s where I am going to spend the remainder of my life.”
* Where will you be 50 years from now? – 100 years from now? – 1000 years from now?
B) If you don’t have Jesus, you don’t have a thing in the world to look forward to.
* You’re going to be just like Lot ... Lot had his choice .......
* And he looked over there to the plains of Sodom and Gomorrah and he chose the
things of this world .......
C) And the day came when it all went up in fire and brimstone – It all went up
in smoke ... Lot lost it all.
* Listen, if you chose Jesus today, then a thousand years from now, you will
be just beginning.
D) Young man finished Law School, set up his practice, became a junior partner
in a firm where the senior partner was a very godly, Christian man.
* He and the young lawyer were talking one day and said, “What are your plans?”
* He said, “I plan to make you the best junior partner you have ever had and become
an established member of the firm.”
E) He said, “That’s great, what then?”
* He said, “I plan to become quite well-known and quite successful in the practice of law.”
* He said, “That’s wonderful, what then?”
F) He said, “Well I probably will get married.”
* “That’s good, what then?” ... Well, we’ll have children.” ... “Wonderful, what then?”
G) “I plan to build a magnificent home.”
* “Wonderful, what then?” ... “I plan to become affluent enough to be able to retire
at an early age.” ... “That’s commendable, what then?”
H) “I plan to see all of the places I’ve ever wanted to see in my whole life.”
* “Good, what then?” ... “I guess I’ll get old.”
* “Yes, what then?” ... “I guess out there somewhere I’ll die.”
* “Yes, what then?”
I) The day of God will come and when the day of God comes,
man’s day ends ... The day of salvation ends.
* Right now is the only time you know you have to be saved and to give
your life to Christ and to ensure your eternity.
J) Will you come to Jesus right now?
