Expect the Lord's Return Part 3 - 2 Peter 3:14-15a

1:17Peter gives nine exhortations to us that if we obey them, they will dress us in readiness for our Lord's return. And so we've already looked at five of them. If you'll remember, we expect the Lord's return by number one, remembering the right words. Verse 1: This is now, beloved, the second letter in which I am stirring you up, your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of our Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles. Remember the right words, the words of the holy prophets, and that commandment of the Lord that has come to us through his apostles, the prophets and the apostles. Be remembering them. Second thing, anticipate that mocking mockers are going to come. Know this in verse 3. First of all, that at the last days, mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? Expect it. Mocking mockers are going to come. They will mock.

2:28They will come, they will mock, and they will be wrong. But it's not that God's not coming. It's not that the Lord isn't returning. Their mocking is in vain because you need to know the purpose for his delay. Remembering the right words, anticipating mocking mockers, and knowing the purpose for his delay. Look at verse 8. Do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.

2:59Verse 9. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some account slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. That's why he delays. God doesn't delight in the destruction of anyone, but that all would come to repentance, that all would stop destroying themselves and come to him in repentance. So you expect the Lord by these. Number four, you also expect the Lord's return by understanding the day of the Lord. Verse 10, but the day of the Lord will come like a thief in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat and the earth and its works will be burned up. It's coming. Understand that it's coming and it is a day of final judgment. Understand.

3:54Number five, you expect the Lord's return by looking forward to the day of God. There is a difference between the day of the Lord and the day of God. The day of the Lord is that day of judgment, that day of wrath in which God settle, which Christ Himself settles the accounts and brings judgment upon an unrepentant and rebellious world. But we are not to be looking forward necessarily to the day of the Lord as if we are excited about his judgment. Even God Himself does not wish for any to perish. For all to come to repentance. So God Himself doesn't look forward to the day of the Lord in the sense of He delights in judgment, and neither should we.

4:41But we are to look forward to the day of God. The day of God is that calm that comes after the storm, that eternal bliss for which the day of the Lord is necessary, because we are looking for a new city. Verse 12, we are looking for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Expect the Lord's return. Now I want to add two more to the list today. We're going to pick up, that's all been review. Now I want to pick up in verse 14 and add two more to the list. Look at verse 14. Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. And I'm going to stop there. So, number six, be diligent to be found by him in peace. See that in verse 14? Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace. There's a connection here. You see the logical connection? Therefore, therefore, in light of what's been said, in fact, there's quite a few. If you look at verse 10, there's, but verse 11. Since verse 14, therefore, and since, verse 17, therefore, you get this sense that he's bringing all this stuff to a conclusion. Therefore, in light of what's been said, and notice how he addresses them as beloved. Verse 14, he uses the word beloved. In verse 15, he uses the word beloved again to discuss his brother, in reference to Paul. And then again, he calls them beloved in verse 17. You get the tone? Here's Peter at the end of his life. Beloved, beloved. Be diligent to be found in him in peace. Beloved.

6:38There's a tenderness, a concern as one who's about to leave the earth and he knows it. Great concern for those who have believed his message. Therefore, since you look for these things, the same word is looking forward to it. Same word in verse 12. Since you look forward, since you look forward to these things, what are these things? Well, they refer back to the day of the Lord in verse 10 and the day of God in verse 13. Since you look forward to the day of the Lord and you are looking for that glorious day of God, since you look forward to these things, then he gives the command, be diligent. Be diligent to be found by him in peace, spotless and blameless. Be diligent. Word for it. Diligent is to make every effort, to be industrious, to be zealous for something. I remember my first job. I really wanted to do an excellent job for my boss, and subsequent ones, but first, my first one, I wanted to make sure he always found me working hard and that I would give him the best bang for his buck, that he would find me diligent and that my work would be excellent. And there were, for those of you who spend much time in the working world, you know that afternoon hours gets to drag quite a bit. So I had this habit of whenever I felt that dragginess coming on me, I would jump down and do some push-ups. You know, get the blood pumping. You know, just, I still do this when I'm studying, but jump down, get the blood pumping, okay? And the intent was to, so that I could give him better hours, better time. Well, one day I jumped down on the ground and I was doing push-ups, and in walks the boss.

8:30He looks down there, and I'm, oh, I was really embarrassed. You know, just trying to keep myself mentally alert. He goes, don't say anything. He says, I know what you're doing. And he says, I appreciate it. Keep working. And he knew. But that's the idea of being diligent, trying to make every effort to be found by him in peace. Be diligent. And to be found. Is that word, Eureka? When Christ returns, that he's looking. Eureka, I found it. I found what I was looking for. That's the idea. Christ is the one coming to look for something. It's in the passive. You be diligent to be found. As if God is the one, Christ is the one looking. And your job is, you want to be found by him in peace. You want to be found. You know, it's this, and we know what he's going to be looking for. In fact, in Luke 18:8, he says, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? When he returns, he is looking for faith. And that peace that comes from a confident faith in him, that's the basis of peace. Is those who have a confident faith and believe what he says and are remembering the words, remembering the right words, these he will be looking for. He's looking for faith. He's looking for those.

10:06When my in-laws were out in Israel, they were toured a lot of different things, and they went on this search for this translucent, perfect kind of marble. Okay, they were in a cave, and I'm giving the synopsis. You can ask them for the full story, but they dropped down in the cave looking for this incredible marble. Well, they Found some stones, they picked them up, and Kenny couldn't go much further, but they had some friends that were young and daring and zealous, and they went way down deeper into that cave, and they found some stones. And they came out, and as they were leaving, they gave some of these stones to Bruce and Susan. And then they take him to a stone cutter. And the stonecutter takes these stones, and first they give them the stones that they had picked up closer to the entrance of the cave. And the guy's like, nah, nah, nah. And then he says, oh, but this one, this one, you have found the right marble. This is beautiful. And that's the way Christ is going to come. Looking for faith. Will he find it? It was his question. Will he find you? He will find you. That's not the issue.

11:34The question is, will he find you in peace with him? Will he find you in peace? So that leads us to the question: what is peace? If he's looking, if we want to be found in peace with him, what does that look like? Well, we can describe peace in negative terms, right? Peace is the absence of strife. Wouldn't you agree? A lack of hostility or a lack of being at odds with someone. You know, have you ever walked into a room and you just feel the tension? That there's a hostility, even though no one's saying a word, there may be looks, there may be, but you can feel the tension. Peace is the absence of strife. You remember Israel, right after the exit, Exodus, and in Exodus 16, the whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled and complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and ultimately against God. The grumbling, the complaining, contention, I've got an issue with you, God. And they went on to say, You brought us out so that you would kill us out here in this wilderness. A contentious people. And what Peter is saying here is strive in such a way that as Christ returns, you will not be found at war with God. What about you? What is your relationship with God? Are you contending with Him things? Or maybe things didn't quite go the way you wanted, or maybe life's been a little more of a disappointment to you. The question is: what is your faith? Is it confident in Him? Are you at peace? Or are you contending with Him in large matters or small matters? It's amazing what things we can find to get contentious with God over or each other. But a confident faith isn't reluctant to resign everything to God. Say, God, I don't understand. But I trust. That's why you need to remember the right words.

13:37So we can describe peace negatively, but we can also describe peace positively. Right? Peace involves that reconciled relationship, that state of harmony, being totally on the same page. That is peace. You know, a person that looks forward to the day of God, who truly looks forward to the day of God, will be diligent to be found in Him in peace. Are you truly looking for the day of God? Then an evidence of that is that you will be diligent to be found in Him by peace.

14:12So, how do I do that? How do I be at peace with Him? Good question. How do I strive to have this peace with Him? Well, Peter gives two specific answers right there in the text. Look back at verse 14: Be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless. Spotless and blameless. And He uses that Old Testament imagery of being spotless, unblemished. Remember in Exodus 12:3, when they first started the whole Passover institution, the Lamb was to be unblemished. No defect. And throughout Israel's history, they had to learn this principle: you bring to me things that are unblemished. Unblemished. Things that you bring me the best. You don't give me the leftovers. And over and over, this was ingrained in the whole sacrificial system of Israel. And they were judged harshly. They were disciplined harshly when they started bringing in the lame sacrifices before God.

15:23If you bring lame sacrifices to him, you're not at peace with him. But to be spotless without defect, the idea here, moral defect, without, you are to be genuine in your relationship, sincere, without that fleshly desire. You're to be spotless before him, that your desire, your heart, and goal is to follow the master and not follow your flesh, to be discipled by his ways, not discipled by your flesh, and the life that comes out by following and being tutored by your flesh.

16:05If your heart is occupied with evil things, you will not be found at peace with him. And this deals with the kind of person that you are deep down inside, spotless, spotless. It's incredible the trivial things that we will replace God with. But there's a second thing: blameless. Be spotless, blameless. The idea with blameless is that there's no grounds of accusation against you. And if we think of that in the horizontal realm as dealing man to man and person to person, horizontally deals with our relationships with one another and how we live in front of each other. Are we above reproach, blameless? Do we live in such a way that no one can ever even bring an accusation of wrongdoing against us because we are so blameless in our conduct? We are careful that we do everything above reproach, so there's not even a hint of wrongdoing. Blameless.

17:17And it's a horrible thing. And I think we've all seen this in some degree when a believer falls into public sin. Because what happens when a believer falls into public sin, and not just a leader, it's really bad when a leader falls into public sin. But it's also bad for anyone. Because what happens is there are those who are watching. And they subtly may resign in themselves that this whole gospel thing, it's just a bunch of wishful thinking. Here's a bunch of people, they want to talk about eternity, they're trying to come up with a better way, but you know what? At the end, they're just like us. Just like us. So be you're to be blameless. And now I want to give you a picture, as you put these together, a snapshot of the beautiful bride.

18:13She is both spotless and blameless. Notice the conjunction. She is spotless in her heart and blameless in all her ways. The beautiful bride isn't just, this doesn't appear blameless, but deep down have inward sin and stain. That's what the hypocrites look like. And you can do that. You can get by with man. If man inspects, if man is the final inspector, there are ways that you can look good on the outside, but deep down have some real problems. But the beautiful bride is both spotless and blameless. And her inspector is Christ himself. She's not just interested in being above reproach among man, but above reproach before her Lord. That's the beautiful bride. And that's what we are called to, to that vertical relationship. Christ, be found blameless and spotless before him. He's the one, and he sees all. He knows the depth.

19:21Isn't that an interesting Christ? I want to live in such a way that even you cannot find fault. Wow. Of course, you can't do that without his grace anyway. Because that's there. Just taking him on like that is probably off. But the idea is: be diligent about this, that he is the inspector. Lord, show me the way that I can be blameless before you. That's the idea. If I can just stress what my hope for this little body here at Emmanuel Baptist Church is, my hope is that all of us will strive to be spotless in our walk with God and blameless in all of our actions before Him and before each other. That's my hope for this body. That we'll internalize this principle and that we will seek to be at peace in Him by being spotless and blameless. And, young people, I want to get your attention here, okay? Every young, everybody, but really, young, everybody, young people, that's you in the front row, young people, that's teenagers, college, and beyond. I'm going to give you a profound teaching here. This is those profound moments with the pastor. Maybe we can start that, okay? You guys ready? Profound moments with the pastor. Okay, everybody listening, you know what that let me give you some advice: don't run to the edge of a cliff, blindfold yourself, and dance around on one foot.

20:56It won't go well with you. Get that? Don't go, don't run to the edge. Of a cliff, blindfold yourself and dance around on one foot. Why? You think that's pretty wise not to do that? What's going to happen? You're going to fall, right? There's a good chance. Don't go through life living like that. Profound thought, right? Yet you'd be surprised at how many people live like that. How far is too far? How close can I get to the allurements and taking in sin without going off the edge of the cliff?

21:31Listen, all of you, listen to me carefully. You are living in a society that is radically, radically changing. It's like Satan, that great adversary, is like a fisherman, and he throws those lures out to you, and his lures play on your flesh. Here, come, follow. You are living in a phenomenally pornographic society, and it's getting worse. It's escalating. You are living in a very sexually charged world and it's accelerating. There are two ways that you'll be discipled in life. You will either follow your flesh, take in the allurements of this world, and so become discipled by your flesh, or you will hear the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ calling, saying, Follow me. Me. You will be discipled by him, or you are going to be discipled by your flesh. And I can tell you, the end of the way of the flesh is off a cliff.

22:42Don't excuse your sin. Seek to be spotless and blameless. That's life. You should not be like a person running to the edge of the cliff and blindfolding and dancing on one foot. I'll tell you what you should be like. I was really touched during my stay in San Diego. There was a woman whose husband had gone off on a tour. I think he served several tours in the Middle East. And when he left, she decided, I am going to be beautiful when he returns. She was 100 pounds overweight. And during the whole time that he was gone, she sought to be beautiful for him. And her days were consumed with his return. And so she lost that weight. And she did everything she could so that when he returned, he would find her beautiful. And they caught the moment on tape. They caught the moment as he was coming back there in San Diego Harbor. They caught it. And there she was, wanting to look beautiful. And his reaction was, wow.

24:03That's the way we're to be. Looking forward to his return and seeking to be spotless and blameless. That's the beautiful bride. And if you seek to do that, you will be found by him in peace, for sure. And how good it will be for you. So you expect the Lord's return by being diligent to be found by him in peace. Let's go on, verse 15, the first part of that. Also, you expect the Lord's return by regarding the patience of our Lord as salvation. Verse 15, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.

24:46I want you to understand there's a relationship between salvation and God's patience. We need to dwell on this for just a moment. Patience. It's that forbearing, that long-suffering. We can think of God's patience as a great, big old bucket that has a huge capacity to store up wrath or to hold back his wrath. And eventually, as the day of the Lord has, it will come. It will spill over. You can think of the patience as a great reservoir behind a dam. And God has a tremendous capacity to hold off his wrath.

25:30And that's what makes him glorious. By contrast, an impatient person is somebody who has a short fuse. We know that, right? Flies off the handle, even at the smallest things. We say, oh, that person has an anger problem. Yeah, they have a sin problem. And if God were more like this, nobody would be here. God is glorious in his capacity to restrain himself, to hold back wrath against us. You know, every one of us here owes a great deal to the patience of God.

26:11Every one of us here who is saved owes our salvation to God's patience. God's patience, think about it. He allowed a time for you to develop in your sin. Think about it. He let you develop in your sin to the point that you could understand indeed you were a sinner and in need of a Savior. That takes patience. He doesn't just at first blip incinerate us. He doesn't fly off the handle like that. He has a huge capacity to hold off his wrath. That is the patience, and it is glorious.

26:56That is our God. And if he were anything like us, No one would be saved. But it's profound that God must allow a time for this world to develop in our sin. And He does so that we will come to know our need of salvation. If God was not patient, there would certainly be no salvation. And so you are to regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. And I mean salvation in all of its forms. Salvation in the sense of justification, being redeemed from your sin. God's patience set the platform for Him to justify us in the first place. And that ongoing patience that He sanctifies us as we learn right from wrong, and that we at times give in to the flesh and at times are convicted.

27:57He's there. His patience saves us in the present, and His patience saves us for the future. So there's this important relationship between salvation and patience. You need to understand that. And this should give us the ability in a couple of areas. It should give us the ability to be patient with one another. Be patient with one another. I can tell you, as your pastor, that there are people. People in this room who are working through a lot of issues. Some of those issues are moral. Be patient with them. Some of those issues are personal.

28:42Be patient with those people. God has been patient with you. Some people, it's theological, working through difficult issues. Be patient with them. Some, it's relational or whatever. We are to be a people who are increasing our capacity to hold back our anger. Listen, if you who follow Christ do not show patience, how is anybody going to come to understand that God is patient? The answer is they won't. You are a reflection of our patient God. And so exemplify that. Be growing in your capacity to hold back your wrath.

29:30But there's also another implication of this. We should also be patient with our society. If you've been paying attention to the news, you know, our Supreme Court did a real belly flop this week. Massive, right? Crossed a boundary, a very significant boundary. But the sun came up this morning. God has given us another day of salvation. Every day that he withholds his wrath is an extension of grace. Every day. The people who seek to destroy the institution of marriage are not our enemies. They are the mission field. They have been blinded by the God of this age, and this is how they are going to respond.

30:31They have followed their fleshly desire, and it will end in their destruction. Do not grow hostile, disconnected, but be diligently engaged for gospel purposes. That's the call of the hour. We have a responsibility to our generation. Let me tell you what that responsibility is. Consider back in verse 9 that God desires all to come to repentance. Because of God's patience, there is still time for the gospel to go out to the lost. He still, his waiting means salvation for even some of his severest enemies. And we have a responsibility to joyfully join with him in proclaiming the gospel. You remember when? What gospel joy looks like? You want to know the enterprise that God is at work even now in? You remember in Luke 15, the joy of the shepherd, the one that went out and found the straying sheep? In verse 7, he says, I tell you that in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. And you remember the joy of the Father? In the same chapter, in verse 22, when the prodigal son returned, what does he say? What does the father say? He said to his slaves as he sees the son, quickly bring out the best robe. Harry, that's my son. Put the best robe on him. Oh, and put that ring. Get the ring. Hurry. Give it, reinstate all of his privileges of sunset. Now, hurry. Oh, oh, and put those sandals on his feet and bring the fattened calf. We must celebrate. That's the joy of the Father. That's the joy of gospel men. And all of us are summoned to this evangelistic effort. This is what the patience of the Lord means for us.

32:43We have a ministry of reconciliation. And God is with us in this endeavor. In fact, it's his endeavor. What's the name of this church? Emmanuel. You know what that means? God is with us. With us in a way to bless, in a way, and sometimes that blessing is disciplined, and we've experienced that here. But he is with us. He is with us. It's interesting, during the dark early days of World War II, England's whole existence was threatened. And Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister, was very concerned about the English ability to withstand Hitler's attack. And then something happened that shook his world, that brought him great joy. Pearl Harbor, December 7th, 1941. And after that event, FDR, the President of the United States, calls Winston Churchill. And then after their conversation, Winston Children wrote these words down in his memoirs. To have the United States at our side was to me the greatest joy. Now at this very moment, I knew the United States was in the war up to the neck and to the death. So we had won the war after all.

34:26Hitler's fate was sealed. Mussolini's fate was sealed. Was sealed, and as for the Japanese, they would be ground to powder. That was a moment of joy to realize the strength was behind him. What is our name again? Emmanuel, God with us. The fate of the God of this age is sealed. We have won the war anyway. And his delay means salvation. It does not mean theological consternation. We know why he delays. For salvation. His delay means salvation, not license to sin, as some of the false teachers were teaching. His delay means salvation, not isolation from society, not intimidation by society, and not concession to society, and not accumulation of material wealth.

35:40Salvation is not accumulation. Salvation is proclamation. His patience is proclamation. So we can add these two to our list: to be diligent, to be found in peace. That's how you expect the Lord's return or show that you are dressed in readiness. You can be regarding the patience of our Lord as salvation that will dress you in readiness. It's interesting, in that same time period when the bombs were dropping on England and that great hour of crisis had come upon England, Churchill called upon the nation to rise and to stand up against tyranny. And he said these: when great causes are on the move in the world, stirring all men's souls, drawing them from their firesides, casting aside comfort, wealth, and the pursuit of happiness, it's there that we learn we are spirits and not animals.

36:52You see, animals follow brute instinct. But we are not to respond to our current situation as brute animals, but as noble spirits obedient to the charge of Christ, no matter the cost. There has never been a better time to look more expectantly to our Lord's return. We live among a people who call evil good, darkness light, and bitter sweet. And there will be no better hour to rise up and to walk spotless and blameless under the That sovereign grace of God. So you be dressed in readiness.

37:37And you will be, you will shine a bright light on the gospel and the power of salvation. That's our goal. Let us be diligent for Him to find us spotless, blameless, and at peace. And let Him find us understanding that every moment that we have is another extension of grace for the proclamation of the gospel. Let Him find us like that crazy sower in Mark chapter 4 that was just sowing seed everywhere. Let him come back and find us doing that. How good it will be for you if he does. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I just thank you. And Father, I recognize that there may be some here today who do not know you. And so, Father, I just ask now, Lord, that you would stir their heart and realize that they are now hearing your voice calling, saying, come, follow me. Father, I don't know why you have brought us this unique assembly here today, but Father, I do know that your call is real.

38:57So, Father, for those who do not know you today, I pray that today would be. Be the day of awakening, that they would hear your voice and they will respond in repentance and faith and say, Here am I, Lord. Have mercy. And Father, for all of us here, Father, just pray that you would take the liberty to disciple us more, send your Spirit, have mercy, Father, that we may be more and more like your Son. I thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.