This last section of 2Peter, as we have seen, concerns the last days prior to Christ’s second coming. But, this is in connection to the false teachers who will be prevalent in the last days. You’ll remember that this is where Peter was going in the second chapter.

2PE 2:1 "But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you...."

And so, we don’t want to lose sight of Peter’s warnings here when we talk about the last days. He wants us to understand that until Christ comes again we still have to contend earnestly for the faith in a world where false teachers of every stripe are contending against the truth found in Christ.

The very process of contending for the faith necessarily means that we are expectant of our Lord’s soon return. That’s part of our faith in Christ; that His promises concerning this aspect of our salvation will certainly come to pass. And if we are expectant than our hopes run high and our assurance is sure, together with the joy of knowing that, despite the trials in this world, we have a God and Savior who is coming back to take us to Himself.

This is what Peter is trying to instill in every believer, that despite the opposition from the enemy, despite the hardships we all face, despite the false teachers who would try to undermine our faith, our Lord still loves us, is still faithful, and wants us to follow Him despite whatever else is going on around us.

Those people whom Peter addresses in his day really struggled with much of this. Many of them were believing Jews who were ostracized from their families and were also looked down upon by the Gentile world to the extent that many of them were being persecuted for their faith.

Peter is trying to get them back on their feet and walking forward, doing the work of the gospel, while maintaining their sense of spiritual balance in a world which seemed to be out of balance.

He didn’t want them to lose that sense of balance and purpose simply because someone came along and tried to rattle their cage with words and threats that Jesus had abandoned them and had no intention of coming back for them.

And that’s why Peter uses this time element in his argument. He knows we live in a world restricted to time and that time effects every moment of our lives, and so when someone comes along and says, "Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation," we don’t have to be swayed because we trust in the God who created time and uses it to His glory.

When it comes to time Peter wants us to understand that the problem is not with God, it’s with the scoffer who looks at time purely from a temporal perspective and loses sight of what God has done in time in the past, which will effect what He will do in time in the future, as His plan is unfolded. And that’s what we saw last week.

2PE 3:5 "But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water.
6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed."

The past is not to be forgotten, though it is not meant to be lived in, in the sense that we never move forward with our lives. But the past is important because it shows us that the sure plan of God will unfold in the future. And that’s where Peter is going in our text this morning.

2PE 3:7 "By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day."

Here, we see into the future with the help of God’s sure word. The future is that there will be a day when God will bring this present world to an end, though it is being kept in tact for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. After that time there will no longer be a need for the world in it’s present condition which has been effected by the curse of sin.

2PE 3:10 "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare." (Or be burned up)

We addressed this aspect of God judging the world and destroying it by fire in previous studies, and so we won’t go into it in any detail here. But, suffice it to say, that the present world we know, will one day no longer exist. Just as God destroyed the world the first time with water, the future judgment of this world will completely transform it into an inhabitable place for all the redeemed saints in their glorified bodies.

This doesn’t mean we will be restricted to reside in this new world alone since there will also be a new heavens. But, I think the thrust of what Peter is saying in verse 7 is not that there will be new heavens and a new earth as much as how God is faithful to judge those who feel they are above God’s scrutiny and being accountable to Him.

He wants us to know that we have made the right choice in trusting the one true God, as opposed to going the way of the world, which thinks that this world will go on as it has and that there is no God to whom we are accountable, and no Savior to whom we humbly turn to for forgiveness of sin.

Judgment is sure because God is holy. But salvation, not only in the present but also in the future, is sure, because God is loving and compassionate. And that’s the message Peter wants us to hold on to.

By the way, this fiery judgment was spoken of in a number of places in the O.T. Scriptures.

DEU 32:22 "For a fire has been kindled by my wrath, one that burns to the realm of death below. It will devour the earth and its harvests and set afire the foundations of the mountains."

ISA 34:4 "All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved and the sky rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled figs from the fig tree."

ZEP 1:18 "Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the LORD'S wrath. In the fire of his jealousy the whole world will be consumed, for he will make a sudden end of all who live in the earth."

And so, it’s not as though this is a new teaching which only N.T. saints were privy to. Peter is essentially teaching what he had been taught as a Jew all his life. Here he expands on it a bit as the Holy Spirit inspires him to write. He then goes on to explain something else about time.

2PE 3:8 "But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day."

This is a text which we’ve all heard at one time or another. And it’s usually associated with God’s eternality, which is certainly the case. But, there’s more here that we should address.

Notice what Peter says at the beginning of this verse. "But do not forget this one thing..." I also like the way the NASB puts it. "But do not let this one thing escape your notice..."

The implication is that there is a tendency not to meditate on this important aspect of God’s nature and His involvement in the life of man who is restricted to time in this world.

And so, Peter is pointing this out with the specific purpose of having us dwell on this and to remember the truth about who God is. Remembering certain truths is one of those exercises which God is always reminding people to do.

Since the beginning God has done this. When He gave the promise to Adam and Eve that He would send a Savior to crush the power of Satan through the seed of the woman they were also given the promise that God would curse the ground because of their sin.

Evidently, this curse on the ground was something which was not to be forgotten, but rather, passed on to future generations. We see this many years later as being remembered in the case of Noah’s father.

GEN 5:28 "When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son.
29 He named him Noah and said, "He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the LORD has cursed."

Even God Himself recognizes the importance of remembering when He made a promise to Noah after the flood.

GEN 9:15 "I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.
16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth."
17 So God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth."

God was recalling the covenant He made with Noah and the promises He gave to Noah and his family. God would not forget which ensured that He always had Noah’s best interest in mind, which would give comfort to Noah. And for you and I today it should give comfort as well since the same sign given to Noah still exists today every time we see a rainbow.

That should cause us to remember something about the faithfulness of God. Again, we have other instances where God has acted in a certain way and He commands us not to forget what He accomplished as in the case of the Exodus.

DEU 5:15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm."

Here Israel was commanded to remember two very important things:
1) Don’t ever forget where you came from and the conditions of your life in Egypt.
2) Don’t ever forget who delivered you out of Egypt.

Why did God give this command?, which by the way you’ll find throughout most of the O.T. in one form or another. He was always reminding them not to forget this most important event.

The answer is that we have a tendency to forget or to crowd out God’s involvement in our lives as the deliverer that He is and the one who is certainly aware of every event in our lives. The Israelites had to deal with their problems for hundreds of years in Egypt. But finally, God came to their rescue and they were never to forget, nor were their descendants to forget.

This means that the word had to be passed on to future generations who weren’t there. And what about the most important thing we are to remember about our salvation and deliverance from sin? Remember what our Lord instructed at the last supper?

1CO 11:23 "For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread,
24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me."
25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me."
26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes."

"Do this in remembrance of Me." We must never forget where we came from and we must never forget what God has done on our behalf. This is essential to our ability to walk with our God out of gratitude for the life He has given us in Christ.

If we ever forget, or put this aspect of our salvation on the shelf, we will always put what’s going on in our lives as the most important thing to remember and to dwell on, and we will lose sight of what God tells us to dwell on and that’s His Son and the life we have in Him today and forever.

And so, when Peter tells us to "not forget this one thing", he is pointing out the importance of walking with God in the midst of persecution, trials and the false teachers who would teach anything to the contrary.

So, what are we never to forget? 2PE 3:8 ".... With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day."

In other words, God is not bound to time and neither are His plans. You see, Peter realizes that with you and me time is everything in this natural setting on planet earth. We wake up at a certain time each morning, we go to work at a certain time each day and we usually go to bed at the same time each night.

This passage, which Peter puts forth here, is an O.T. passage which I’m sure he had in mind when he recorded it. It’s found in the Psalms.

PSA 90:4 "For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night."

Now it’s important to keep in mind that the text Peter is quoting is a text most Jews would have been familiar with and it seems that this letter was addressed primarily to Jews when he first wrote it, though certainly it was meant for all believers.

But the passage in Psalm 40 speaks of the distinction between God’s eternal nature and the shortness of our lives. It draws attention to the swiftness and the hardness of life here and the greatness of our God who is and who was and who is to come and who has hope for all who trust in Him.

And so, Peter reminds us that yes, in the last days, life will not be any easier than it was in David’s day, who wrote that Psalm, but it is the same God who was with David whom we can trust today, right up to the time He comes again.

And Peter points out that you must not forget that, because this life and the circumstances of this life will always be trying to force that truth out of our minds and hearts. Instead, he reminds us that since God is eternal and is not restricted to time like we are, there is nothing to fear as we trust Him and know that He has all things under control.

Just because Christ has not come back yet doesn’t mean He won’t. Just because the mockers, and our own doubts at times, question His faithfulness, it doesn’t mean they are right.

We count time in a way which measures our advances and our stay on this earth. When we were little it seemed that time was going so slow that we would never advance to where we wanted to go.

I remember when I was in grade-school it seemed like forever before I advanced to Highschool. Eight years in "Our Lady Queen of Martyrs". And finally, after all that time I advanced to "St. Thomas Aquinas Highschool". It was a new and fresh beginning, but it didn’t take long before I was wondering when I would advance to my senior year.

I remember counting the days in my last year thinking, ‘finally I’ll be over all of this bookwork and teachers and classes.’ But, my mom and dad wanted me to go to college and once again the thought of doing more time, four years, just bummed me out to the point where I just took a year off from bookwork.

I never did finish college. I got three years in before I chose to go to Broadcasting School to be a radio announcer. I will say this about school; it was precisely because of school that I met my wife for which I praise my God. But, if I could have skipped all of the time with school and just gotten to that point in my life I would have been happy.

But as you get older, it seems that time begins to fly by. And I’m not sure why that is. I suspect it has much to do with understanding the importance of what we do with our time, as much as understanding that time does come to an end and it’s not to be wasted.

How many of us, when we were younger, had any concept of the finality of life? If we had really understood it we wouldn’t have done some of the stupid things we did that threatened our lives, especially when we were in our teens?

But as important as time is, it is not a problem with God. And part of what Peter wants to do here is to help us put into perspective that if it’s not a problem with God then it shouldn’t be as big a problem for we who have trusted in Him as Lord and Savior.

God wants us to understand that He holds the present and the future. He is the beginning and the end. And so, everything that He does is not bound to time or held hostage by time, despite the fact that it all takes place within time.

And so, just because it’s been some 2,000 years since Christ was here on this earth as a man who came to redeem us, doesn’t mean that He’s forgotten the rest of His promises to mankind or that He somehow has forgotten about us personally.

As far as God is concerned one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like one day, which is just another way of saying that time doesn’t restrict God, nor tire Him out regarding His faithfulness to us, or His sure judgment towards those who reject Him. It’s all the same to Him.

And yet, this is not to deny that He works in time. This is why Peter goes on to say what he does.

2PE 3:9 "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."

You see, Peter recognizes that if a thousand years goes by most people would consider that a slow way to get to the end. We understand time in that way. But what might be considered slowness to some is compassion to God.

In all reality, God didn’t owe anything to man. As soon as Adam and Eve sinned God was well within His justice to have destroyed them at that point. Of course in hindsight, and what has been revealed in His word, we know that God had no intention of destroying man at that point because we know that from all of eternity He had every intention of sending a Savior into this world to save man.

So, it becomes a moot point as to what God could have or should have done when Adam and Eve sinned. But because God chose to redeem men He also chose the time in which the last person would be redeemed. You see, there was a first, which means there will be a last.

It is probable, that since Adam was our federal representative, he was likely the first believer in this world after he sinned. But, in between that time and the end of the world many other people have the opportunity to come to know their Creator by faith in His Savior.

And so, what many see as cruelty by allowing this world to continue in it’s depravity and sin, God sees as an opportunity to bring more people into His kingdom. His patience toward sinful man is being demonstrated and it ought to humble us, because He was patient with us.

We see the patience, or what is often referred to as the long-suffering of God, toward man and it ought to humble us to know that He loved us enough to give us that chance to come to Him by faith to be with Him forever.

Remember, it was partly for fellowship that God created man. If He were to simply destroy man at the beginning where would be that opportunity for fellowship? Where would be that free choice to desire fellowship if God had cut mankind off forever?

This gets into the debate of why God created man if He knew full well that man would sin. But that debate doesn’t take into account that the first day man was created is no different than the last day man will be on this earth, as far as God’s time economy is concerned.

And yet, because God created time He also works within that time frame to show His compassion and love because, contrary to popular belief that God delights in the destruction of the wicked, He only wants us to choose to love Him from our own free wills.

This is why He is patient toward us not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. That’s an interesting phrase because it shows us that though God is patient so that we might come to Him, He wants us to come to Him on His terms. And His terms do not include the idea of continuing in our sin after we’ve been given life.

He wants repentance from us. He wants us to turn away from self and the ways of this world as we embrace Him and have fellowship with Him. One cannot come to God without having a repentant heart. That doesn’t mean we will be perfect from that day forward or that we will never have to repent again, but a repentant attitude shows us and God that this relationship is worth living in.

He wants our hearts and the heart of every person who has been born or will be born in the future, but He also wants us to understand that this world is living on borrowed time. We have a job to do if we’ve received this life and that is to do two things:
1) Appreciate the life you have been given and live in the joy of that life.
2) Give the world what you’ve been given. It’s a free gift to be given away.

And where does that free gift come from? Never forget where it came from. Always remember and bring to your heart and mind where it came from and the love of God which brought it to us.

1TI 2:3 "..... God our Savior,
4 .... wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
6 who gave himself as a ransom for all men - the testimony given in its proper time."

God desires for all men to come to Him. And yet, not all men will choose our Lord and Savior. But may it never be said of us that we were unwilling to give to all men what was freely given to us in Christ.

To Him be the glory forever, the God who has no beginning nor end and allows us to share in His eternity where time will not be an issue any longer, only the sweet fellowship with our Creator God, Jesus Christ.