2 Peter 3:1-10: The Day of the Lord

2 Peter 3:1-10: The Day of the Lord

We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the book of 2 Peter, and today the next passage we come to is 2 Peter 3:1-10. It says,

1 This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2 that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, 3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, 6 and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. 8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.  

May God bless the reading of his Word.

Let’s pray: Father, we’re told that the one who delights in your Word is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in season and that has leaves that do not wither. We want to be that tree. So please, open up your Word to us this morning so that we can be rooted in your Word, nourished in your Word, and sustained by your Word. Holy Spirit, use the things taught in this passage to change us from within. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.I once heard about a conversation between a university student and a pastor. The student said to the pastor, “I’ve decided that I don’t believe in God.” The pastor then replied, “Okay, but would you mind describing for me the God that you don’t believe in?” So, the student did. And he proceeded to paint a portrait of a divine being who was totally unfair, terribly cruel, and altogether lacking in any kind of moral virtue or goodness. After the student was done, the pastor said to him, “Well, we’re actually in the same boat—because I don’t believe in that kind of a god either.”

And I think that was a great answer, because the Bible describes God not as the cosmic monster that many people imagine but rather as a loving God, a merciful God, a gracious God, and a good God. Regarding God’s goodness, Psalm 34:8 invites us, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” Likewise, Psalm 136:1 says, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.” And Psalm 119:68 declares, speaking to God, “You are good and do good.” So, God’s goodness is a pervasive theme throughout the psalms and also throughout the rest of the Bible as well. 

Yet in order for God to truly be good—as the Bible says he is—it’s necessary that he oppose what’s evil and that he be committed to punishing those who do evil. Imagine a judge who never punished any of the criminals who were brought before him. Even when child molesters or murderers were brought before him, he still refused to punish them in any significant way. I’m sure most of us would say that that judge isn’t good but rather not good—or even evil. Similarly, God would be evil as well if he didn’t punish evil. 

So, even though the idea of God’s wrath and coming judgment isn’t at all a popular idea in our highly sophisticated society—and is indeed regarded as taboo—it’s nevertheless an essential characteristic of any God who’s truly good. God’s commitment to punish those who do evil isn’t a mark against his goodness but is actually an expression of his goodness. I’ll say that again: God’s commitment to punish those who do evil isn’t a mark against his goodness but is actually an expression—or a manifestation—of his goodness.

So, when the Bible talks about God’s wrath and the punishment he’ll one day inflict on those who are evil, it’s completely unapologetic about it. The biblical authors aren’t embarrassed about God’s wrath, nor do they dance around the subject or “beat around the bush” when it comes to God’s future judgment but instead tell us very plainly about it. And our main passage today of 2 Peter 3:1-10 is no exception. This passage teaches us that God will bring judgment upon this world in his perfect timing. That’s the main idea. God will bring judgment upon this world in his perfect timing. And Peter goes into some detail about the certainty of God doing that and about what exactly God will do. 

Look with me first at verses 1-4. Peter writes, 1 This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2 that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, 3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” 

So, Peter says that he’s writing this letter—just as he wrote the letter of 1 Peter—in order to stir up his readers and urge them to “remember” first of all “the predictions of the holy prophets.” In countless places throughout the Old Testament, the prophets predicted that severe judgment would come in the future. Looking back, we now know that there were, of course, numerous times when God poured out judgment on the nation of Israel because of their persistent rebellion—and that those smaller and localized instances of judgment were part of what was being predicted. But they were merely a taste of the ultimate and climactic judgment that’s coming not just on the people of Israel but on the entire world. 

For example, God declares in Isaiah 13:11: “I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.” We also read this in Malachi 4:1, “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.” And as I mentioned, there are a multitude of other examples as well that all predict God’s future judgement on the entire world.

In addition, back in our main passage, Peter mentions not only “the predictions of the holy prophets” but also “the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles.” This refers to the numerous warnings found throughout the New Testament—written by the apostles—about God’s future judgment. Just to give one example, Paul writes in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 about God granting relief to his persecuted people 7 …when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels 8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might. In fact, examples are so numerous that I think it’s fair that that the coming day of universal judgment is one of the most clearly taught realities in the Bible—and not just in the Old Testament but in the New Testament as well. 

Nevertheless, Peter tells us in verses 3-4 of our main passage that “scoffers will come in the last days.” By the way, the phrase “last days” in the New Testament refers to the period of time between Jesus’s first coming and his second coming. So, in the language of the New Testament, we’re currently in “the last days.” And Peter says that we should expect to encounter “scoffers” who will openly ridicule the idea of Jesus coming back to judge the world. They’ll ask “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” In other words, these scoffers are claiming that nothing like a worldwide judgment has ever happened in the entire history of the world. Instead, from the very beginning, the world has simply operated according to natural laws and an entirely predictable system of cause and effect. 

And I think that’s also a fairly decent representation of the basic mentality that many people today have as well. You can almost picture them looking out the window and being like, “Jesus? I don’t see any sign of Jesus coming back. It just looks like a normal day outside to me—and it’s been that way ever since this world began. Why would any rational person think things will ever be any different?”  

Yet, according to Peter, those who scoff at the idea of Jesus’s return are doing so not as the result of any objective evaluation of the situation but rather, as Peter says at the end of verse 3, because they’re committed to “following their own sinful desires.” In other words, scoffers have a vested interest in denying the second coming of Jesus. Quite simply, they desire to continue following their sinful desires without having to worry about any future consequences. As one commentator phrases it, “they desire to live in a universe without moral accountability.” 

And you have to appreciate it when, on certain relatively rare occasions, they’re actually honest about that being the case. For example, one prestigious philosophy professor from New York University named Thomas Nagel writes, “I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God … it’s that I hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that.” Yet, of course, this kind of admission is certainly the exception to the rule. Usually, people simply scoff at the idea of them having to one day answer to God for the way they’ve lived. 

And Peter responds to the scoffing of these scoffers in verses 5-6: 5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, 6 and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. So, according to Peter in the beginning of verse 5, these scoffers “deliberately overlook” the facts of the situation. Think about that. It’s not that those who scoff about the return of Jesus are unintelligent or uninformed but rather that they’re deliberately overlooking something that they should be paying attention to. 

And what might that be? Well, according to Peter, God’s already demonstrated his willingness to judge this world on at least one occasion in particular—and that would be the worldwide flood God brought about in Noah’s day. Peter states, “the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.” As you’ll recall, the claim of the false teachers Peter’s combating is that this world has been operating without any intervention from God for as long as it’s been in existence. Why would we imagine that there will be any worldwide judgment in the future when there’s never been anything like that in the past? 

Yet, as Peter reminds us, those who make such an argument are “deliberately overlook[ing]” the fact that there’s actually been something incredibly similar to that in the past—the worldwide flood recorded in Genesis 7. So, basically, Peter’s argument is that God’s already judged this world once, so we can be sure that he’s not afraid to do it again. And he’ll actually do it in a way that’s even more dramatic and consequential. 

As Peter explains in verse 7, “But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.” In other words, just as God judged the world in the past with water, he’ll judge it in the future with fire. 

And Peter refers to this as “the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.” “Judgment and destruction.” Now, one thing I want to point out is that the word “destruction” here doesn’t mean that the ungodly cease to exist. There are some who teach that those who die in a state of rebellion against God don’t go to a place of eternal torment but rather are simply wiped out of existence by God. Yet that’s not what the world “destruction” here means. It’s entirely possible and actually quite common to speak of something being “destroyed” without implying that it doesn’t exist anymore. 

For example, if a house catches on fire and the fire does a massive amount of damage to the house and makes the house uninhabitable, we might say that the house has been “destroyed.” That doesn’t necessarily mean the house has ceased to exist but rather that it’s been damaged beyond repair. We might also speak of a car being destroyed or a phone being destroyed or a book being destroyed and mean not that they no longer exist at all but rather simply that they’re ruined. So, for something to be destroyed quite often simply means that’s been ruined. 

And the reason we can be confident that that’s the sense in which Peter’s speaking of “the destruction of the ungodly” here in verse 7 is because of the numerous other verses in the New Testament that clearly teach that those who die in a state of rebellion against God go to a place of eternal torment. 

Consider Revelation 14:11, which states, “And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night….” Notice that it doesn’t say they burn up and cease to exist but that “smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever.” And it’s not just the smoke that’s eternal—as some have erroneously claimed—but their torment that’s eternal as well. The second half of the verse makes that clear when it says that “they have no rest, day or night.” 

In addition, consider Matthew 25:46, where Jesus states, “And these [the wicked] will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” The word “eternal” in the phrase “eternal punishment” seems pretty clear. And just in case someone might be tempted to try to come up with a way to make “eternal” not actually mean “eternal,” they’d have to do the same thing with phrase “eternal life” in the verse. Because notice how Jesus speaks of “eternal punishment” as something that’s parallel to “eternal life.” So, if hell isn’t “eternal” in the sense of continuing on forever, then neither is heaven. 

So, back in verse 7 of our main passage, when Peter speaks of the “destruction of the ungodly,” he’s teaching not that they’ll cease to exist but rather that they’ll be utterly ruined. And this will happen, he says, on “the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.”

Peter then elaborates on what will happen on this great “day of judgment” down a few verses in verse 10, calling it “the day of the Lord.” He writes, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.”

“The day of the Lord” is a phrase that’s actually used many times in the Bible—in both the Old and New Testaments—to speak of a time of intense judgment—and quite often to speak of the time of intense judgment that will mark the end of this present world. And Peter states that this “day…will come like a thief.” This means that people won’t be expecting it. It’ll catch people off guard. One moment, they’ll be going about their lives in a completely normal fashion and with no particular sense of urgency, and the next moment they’ll realize to their horror that the time has come for them to face God and be judged by him. 

This “day” will also be marked by immense chaos throughout the universe. “The heavens [that is, the skies above] will pass away with a roar,” Peter says. Even “the heavenly bodies” such as the other planets and the stars “will be burned up and dissolved.” And as for the earth, Peter says, the earth and everything that’s been done on it will be exposed. Such will be the day when God judges people for the sinful things they’ve done. 

And I realize that all of this is very sobering. Yet, as I said at the beginning, keep in mind that God’s wrath against sin and his judgment of those who do evil isn’t a mark against his moral goodness but is actually an expression and a manifestation of his moral goodness. 

You see, God’s wrath against sin is a lot different than the wrath that you or I might experience in various situations. When we think about wrath from a human perspective, we might picture someone totally losing their cool and going off on someone else. One good example would be road rage. It’s utterly irrational and out of control. And that’s what human wrath often is. It’s often nothing more than a blind rage overtaking us. 

Yet God’s wrath is strikingly different than that. A theologian named J. I. Packer says it this way: “God’s wrath in the Bible is never the capricious, self-indulgent, irritable, morally ignoble thing that human anger so often is. It is, instead, a right and necessary reaction to objective moral evil. God is only angry where anger is called for….Would a God who took as much pleasure in evil as he did in good be a good God? Would a God who did not react adversely to evil in his world be morally perfect? Surely not. But it is precisely this adverse reaction to evil, which is a necessary part of moral perfection, that the Bible has in view when it speaks of God’s wrath.” 

So, this great day of judgment that Peter predicts isn’t God having a cosmic temper tantrum because he didn’t get his way or him expressing wounded pride because some people didn’t worship him. Instead, it’s a morally righteous response—and indeed the only righteous response—to those who have done evil. 

Yet there might also be some who are wondering about another aspect of all of this. And that is, why is Jesus taking so long to return? I mean, think about all the evil that’s being done in the world and all the atrocities that are being committed around the globe. Why is Jesus letting it all continue for so long? 

In addition, along those same lines, we might also occasionally find ourselves feeling a little uneasy about the fact that Jesus hasn’t returned yet. We read back in verse 4 about scoffers expressing doubt that Jesus will ever come back. They’ll basically say, “Where is Jesus? I don’t see him.” And as we hear people mocking in that way, even those of us who are Christians might begin to wonder at times, “You know, where is Jesus? He said he was going to come back, but it’s been over 2,000 years now, and there’s still no sign of him.”

Well, Peter addresses that question in verse 8. He writes, “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” So, essentially, God operates on a completely different timetable than we do. 2,000-plus years isn’t a long time for God. He actually exists outside of time and therefore has a totally different perspective on time than we do. So, a single day might as well be a thousand years, and a thousand years might as well be a single day. 

Peter then continues in verse 9: “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” So, this is why Jesus hasn’t returned yet. This is the reason. He’s being incredibly patient with people—because he actually doesn’t want anyone to perish under his judgment but instead longs for everyone to repent of their sins and be spared from his judgment. 

Think of the way that a loving parent with a rebellious child who’s now grown up and left home feels toward their child. Even though their child might not want to have anything to do with them and might refuse even to talk to them, the parent never stops loving their child and never stops longing for their relationship with their child to be restored. That’s similar to the way God feels toward those who are living in rebellion against him. He doesn’t want any of them to perish but longs to see all of them come to repentance. And that’s why Jesus is delaying his return. He’s giving people more of an opportunity to turn to him because that’s what he wants them to do. 

There are also other passages as well that give us similar windows into the very heart of God. In 1 Timothy 2:4, Paul describes God as one “who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Also, in Matthew 23:37, Jesus laments, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” Notice there that the reason certain people remain estranged from God and will one day suffer his judgment isn’t because God’s in any way hindering them from coming to him. Rather, even though God longs to gather them to himself, it’s they who are “not willing.” 

So, when you think about it, hell isn’t something that God inflicts on people against their will as much as it is something people essentially choose for themselves. J. I. Packer writes, “The decisive act of judgment upon the lost is the judgment which they pass upon themselves, by rejecting the light that comes to them in and through Jesus Christ. In the last analysis, all that God does subsequently in judicial action toward the unbeliever…is to show him, and lead him into, the full implications of the choice he has made….The unbeliever has preferred to be by himself, without God, defying God, having God against him, and he shall have his preference. Nobody stands under the wrath of God except those who have chosen to do so. The essence of God’s action in wrath is to give men what they choose, in all its implications: nothing more, and equally nothing less.”

You might think of it this way. For those who are parents, if one of your children is a picky eater and doesn’t want to eat the nice dinner you’ve prepared for them, you might tell them that they can either eat that dinner or go hungry. So, perhaps they agree to those terms and decide to go hungry. In that scenario, it’s not like you’d be guilty of withholding food from your child. Rather, it was their decision not to eat. And that’s the way it is with God’s judgment as well. 

You see, God’s provided a way for us to be saved from his judgment. Even though he wasn’t under any obligation to do so, God loved us so much that he actually sent his own Son, Jesus, to come to this earth and rescue us from our sins. Jesus did that by becoming a real flesh-and-blood human being, living a perfectly righteous life that fully satisfied the requirements of God’s law, and then dying on the cross to pay for our sins. Jesus voluntarily offered himself up as our substitute and took on himself the punishment our sins deserved. He was then raised from the dead and is therefore now able to save everyone who puts their trust in him. 

This means that, if we’ll turn away from our sins and put our confidence in Jesus to rescue us from our sins and from the judgment our sins deserve, that’s exactly what he’ll do. And in fact, he longs to do that. He has his arms wide open, waiting for us to do that. 

So, if you haven’t yet looked to Jesus in that way, understand that the storm of God’s judgment is coming. The storm clouds are quickly approaching, the wind is beginning to howl all around you, and you’re about to find yourself in the midst of a storm that’s fiercer and more dreadful than you can even imagine. In fact, it’s only by God’s mercy that that storm hasn’t come upon you already. So, where will you go to escape that storm? Where could you possibly hide from the almighty God of the universe? Where can you flee where his wrath won’t overtake you? 

My friend, flee to Jesus. He’s standing by even now ready to receive you with his arms wide open. Let him be your shelter. Run to him, and hide yourself in him—with the understanding that he’s the only one who can save you from the wrath that’s coming. And you’ll discover that he’s not reluctant to do so. Instead, he longs for you to turn to him and put your trust in him for rescue. As Peter has already said so well, he’s “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” And that includes you. 

In addition, for those who are already Christians, let me encourage you to seek to cultivate within yourself God’s heart for those who are far from him. Here in 2 Peter 3, we see an incredible window into the heart of God and the care he has for those who are far from him and the longing he has for them to come back to him. So, seek to cultivate that same heart within yourself. You might even consider going home this afternoon and praying for that very thing. Pray that God would give you his heart for those who are far from him. 

You know, one very concerning tendency I observe among some Christians today—especially in our politically charged climate where people on different sides of the political aisle seem intent on devouring each other—is confusion about who our enemy actually is. The Bible’s very clear in Ephesians 6 that we don’t battle against “flesh and blood” but rather against the demonic forces that are operating behind the scenes. In other words, our enemy isn’t those on the opposite side of the pollical aisle from us but rather the demonic forces that are behind a lot of what we see happening today. So, make sure you’re clear about that. Don’t mistake the people around us who have been taken hostage by the enemy for the enemy. 

Instead, understand that Jesus has left us here so that we can be missionaries to them. And that involves loving them and seeking to cultivate within ourselves God’s heart toward them. God doesn’t wish that any should perish but that all should come to repentance—and that should be our longing as well. The sight of so many people who are estranged from God should break our hearts and cause us to long for their salvation and pray for their salvation and seek to lead them to salvation. So, ask God to give you his heart toward those who are far from him.