The Day of the Lord

November 19, 2023 Download: Audio

2Peter 3:1-13

In this letter Peter exhorts the church to live godly lives. He opens his letter reminding them that they have everything needed to live such a life.

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. (2 Peter 1:3–4)

He doesn’t present it as an option for the believer. People often in the church talk about when they “got saved” which would imply a rescue away from destruction. But that is only half the story. What it means to be saved is much more than saved from destruction. It also means saved to something. Jesus spoke of this in terms of the narrow way, focusing not on what is at the end of the road, but the road itself. Which road are you on? Which “way” are you walking?

Now he focuses on what is at the end of the wide way: complete destruction. It matters how you live. Peter exhorts us to “confirm our calling and election.” You have been called to live a godly life. You have been elected to be a citizen of God’s kingdom; of God’s family. How you live matters because Jesus “saved” you not only from the destruction at the end of the wide road, but from the road itself. You have been saved to live a life befitting of a child of God.

He turns in chapter 2 to warn us of false teachers, for they will come. They will argue that it doesn’t matter how you live. They will follow their own “sensuality” and encourage you to do the same all the while holding on to this idea that you are saved. And so these false teachers instead encourage you to find your own path. Your path can’t be anyone else’s, it must be your own. Only your heart knows what will make you happy. And their argument is built on the momentary pleasure you enjoy as you engage in these sensual pursuits. Peter reminds us that these are waterless springs. They promise to satisfy that thirst in your soul, but are dry in the end.

When we get to chapter 3, what we will look at this morning, we come to another important argument for living now in light of the kingdom of God. Why? Because the day of the Lord will come.

Because the Day of the Lord is Coming, we must live in light of it.