Living in Anticipation of Christ's Return, Part 1 A

And so, we're waiting for the presence of Jesus Christ which will be the glory of the eternal day of God, which will be the jewel of the new heavens and the new earth. And if our life is right, we have no shame because we have no unconfessed and repeated sin, then we can eagerly anticipate the coming of Jesus Christ. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. The Puritan Matthew Henry said that anyone would be alarmed if he knew he had only a month to live, and yet people are careless even though no one knows if he'll live another day. Of course, you can't be sure how long you're going to live. What's more, you don't know when Christ will return either. That demands a different approach to day-to-day life, a perspective the rest of the world doesn't embrace.

You might call it expectant living. On today's broadcast, John MacArthur will show you why living in expectancy of the Lord's return is crucial to living the way God desires. It's part of John's study titled, Where in the World is History Headed?

And with that lesson now, here is John MacArthur. Second Peter chapter 3, we're looking at the last section of this epistle, verses 11 through 18. Peter has unfolded divine revelation in this great epistle for the purpose of safeguarding the church from the incessant onslaught of false teachers.

Chapter 1, he gave us some very important instruction about how to make sure that we're in a right relationship with God. Then in chapter 2, he described the characteristics of false teachers. And then in chapter 3, he has been refuting their main error in whatever assembly Peter was directing his attention. Obviously these false teachers were attacking the Second Coming. So in the first ten verses of chapter 3, Peter has done a masterful job of refuting those who deny the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. So chapter 1 really laid a foundation by talking about our own relationship to the living God and making sure it is as it ought to be.

Chapter 2 gave us a very clear insight into what to look for as we assess those who offer themselves as true teachers but are not. And chapter 3 then deals with arguing for the truth of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. And so as we have completed those first ten verses, we have to say that Peter really has dealt a death blow to the purveyors of lies about the return of Jesus Christ. He has unmasked the false teachers in this epistle. He has armed all Christians who read it and understand it for protection. He has obliterated their errors about judgment and the return of Christ.

And now the epistle is nearly over. Powerfully he has affirmed the truth that Jesus will come. And we should really thank him for that.

The world should thank him for that. The unregenerate world even should be grateful that history has a goal, that history has a purpose. If Jesus is not coming, if there is no judgment, if God's not going to intervene, think about what that means. It means that men are left with absolutely no hope, no future, no nothing. William Barclay gave three superb examples from heathen tombs of what happens when men reject the view of history that says it has a goal, a climax and God will intervene through the coming of Christ and bring history to its proper end. One of those tombs expresses heathenism. It says, I was nothing, I am nothing, so thou who art still alive, eat, drink and be merry. When there is no goal for history, when there is no end, when there is no future, heathenism prevails in some hearts and you live any way you want to live.

After all, there's nothing to hold you back. And then it says on one of the tombs, once I had no existence, now I have none. I am not aware of it. It does not concern me.

And that indicates that for some there was nothing but apathy. I don't really care. I haven't had any existence. I don't have any now.

I won't have any. It means nothing. Finally having no goal and no end in history leads to despair. Another tomb from ancient times says, Caridas, what is below? Deep darkness.

But what of the paths upward? All is a lie. Then we are lost, quite an epitaph for a tomb, whether it's heathenism or apathy or abject despair.

Without God intervening in human history, without having a goal for history, without having a purpose for history, without having an end for history, without having the righting of wrong, life takes on absolutely no meaning at all. And so even those who do not know Christ should be grateful that He's coming back to make it right. But beyond that, Peter's not so concerned with unbelievers as he is with Christians. He is concerned that we as believers have a proper understanding and a proper response to the return of Jesus Christ. And so before he can close this epistle, he has a final thing to say.

One writer puts it this way. With the little remaining strength at his disposal, he grips his quill more tightly and with a firmer hand inscribes upon the parchment before him the final words in his faithful attempt to strengthen his brethren. The sands in the hourglass of time are slipping away and soon with neither voice nor pen will he be able to serve the Savior here among the sons of men. Savage men are closing in upon him and perhaps already the sentence of execution has been passed. Very soon perhaps brutal hands will drag him away to the cursed tree where he will be crucified. As he contemplates the immediate possibilities and reviews again the words he has just written, he wonders whether there may not be need for one further emphasis. He decides there is and he pens the final words. The final words begin in verse 11. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, says Peter, what sort of people ought you to be?

Stop at that point. Having just made it very clear that Jesus is coming, he now poses the very, very important issue. What does that mean to you?

What kind of person should you be? If you know that Jesus is coming, if you are anticipating what he calls the day of God, what he calls in verse 18 the day of eternity, if you are anticipating the final state, the glorious future, the eternity that God has planned for those who love him, how should it impact your life now? If you're looking forward to that final heaven, that final glory, shouldn't it have some very, very strong implications for how you live?

Now keep this in mind. He uses the phrase here the day of God as we shall see. He uses the phrase in verse 18 at the very end, the day of eternity. Both the day of God in verse 12 and the day of eternity in verse 18 refer to the eternal state.

He says if you're longing for that eternal state, that new heaven and new earth, that glorious eternity, if you're longing for that, it ought to have an impact on your life. We don't long for the day of the Lord. That term is used in verse 10.

That's a term of judgment, destruction and damnation. We're not longing for the day of the Lord. We're not longing impatiently for God to come in furious final damning judgment.

We know it's inevitable and it's a painful thing to think about. But we long for what comes after the day of the Lord, namely that eternal day of God, the eternal state of righteous glory. When as Paul says in 1 Corinthians, everything resolves in God in His ultimate glory. So Peter says, look, if you're waiting for the coming of the great day of God, the eternal state, the glory that shall be yours in the presence of Jesus Christ when He comes and sets up His eternal glory, if you're waiting for that, verse 11, and you're anticipating beyond the destruction of the day of the Lord, what sort of people ought you to be?

What sort of people ought you to be? That phrase, since all these things are to be destroyed, takes you back to verse 10 which says 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 takes you back to verse 7, the present heavens and earth by His Word are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

Now since we know that's going to happen, since all these things are to be destroyed in this way which will usher in the day of God, the eternal state, the eternal glory, what sort of people ought you to be? Now you'll notice in verse 11 there's no question mark. Even though at first sight it appears as a question, it is not a question. It is an exclamation.

In fact, that little phrase what sort of people comes from a very unique Greek term, potipus. It doesn't actually ask a question at all. It marks an exclamation of astonishment.

It does not expect an answer. It could be translated this way, how astoundingly, how astonishingly excellent you ought to be. When he says what sort of people ought you to be, implied in that is at what level of excellence ought you to live?

Exclamation point. When you know that you're going to see beyond the day of the Lord the day of God and eternal glory. That is a straightforward challenge to Christians to conform their lives to the reality of eternity. If Jesus is coming to reward you, if Jesus is coming to take you to be with Himself, if Jesus is coming to build for you a new heaven and a new earth, if Jesus is coming to deliver you from judgment and to usher you into the great eternal day of God, if Jesus is coming to take you into the kingdom of eternal righteousness, that ought to impact your life. In other words, if you have been made for that, created for that, redeemed for that, sanctified for that, then you ought to begin to live in the light of that. That's what Peter is saying. Beloved, if this is what we have been saved for, how we ought to live even now to be consistent with our destiny.

In fact, in 2 Corinthians 5, 9, Paul would add his voice to Peter's point. He says, "'We have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.'" There's coming a time when we're going to receive an eternal reward. We're going to all stand before that judgment.

At that point in time when the Lord judges the secrets of our hearts, every one of us will have praise from God and we will enter into our eternal reward. What kind of people ought we to be then? We're not living for this world. We're aliens, strangers, foreigners. We as Christians are not a part of this world system.

We don't love the world, neither the things that are in the world. It's not our place. We are pilgrims. We belong to a heavenly place. We look for a city whose builder and maker is God, a city not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. What kind of people ought we to be? At what level of excellence ought we to live, he says? So belief in, confidence in the glory of the coming day of God in which we will dwell forever in righteousness with Him compels us with some implications. Peter lists a number of them. First of all, there is a general statement in verse 11.

Look at it. What sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness? And that's the arena in which he is speaking. Whatever kind of people you're to be, it is in the area of godliness and the area of holiness that he is speaking. Holy conduct refers to action, godliness refers to attitude. Holy conduct refers to the way I live my life, godliness refers to the spirit of reverence within me by which I live my life. Holy conduct refers to that which rules my behavior and godliness refers to that which rules my heart. And so he is saying, what kind of person ought you to be in heart and in behavior, in motive and in action, in attitude and in duty?

Both terms, by the way, are in the plural, untranslatable in English, but in Greek they just take the concept of holiness and godliness and spread it all over life. It's as if he is saying, what kind of person should you be in holinesses and godlinesses so that it's just spread over everything, every area of our life. This is Peter's final message. This is his last word.

And as you know, tradition tells us he was crucified and he was feeling unworthy to be crucified like his Lord, so he pleaded to be crucified upside down which he was. But his final word is this, we're headed for glory. What kind of person should we be in the arena of conduct and heart, holiness, godliness in view of this glorious future?

That's really the issue. What is the answer to that? What is the answer? The answer flows starting in verse 12, down through verse 18. What should it be that characterizes us? Let me give you a little list and we'll cover it. Expectation, pacification, purification, evangelization, discrimination, maturation and adoration.

Now you don't need to get those down, I just want to kind of give you a little feeling for the flow. Those are the things that should mark us out in holy conduct and godliness. Frankly, this implication of the Second Coming takes us back to 1 Peter chapter 1. I need to draw you back there, 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 13. Peter says, therefore gird your minds for action.

That's the outside again. Be sober-minded, that's the inside. So, you know, get your conduct right and your attitude right and there we are with that holy conduct and internal godliness again. And he says, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

There's that same concept. Live in the light of that unbelievable grace that is going to be bestowed upon you when Jesus is fully revealed in all His glory and sets up His eternal kingdom. Live in the light of that and it will impact your action and it will impact your mind or your heart, your inner being. Then he says, as obedient children, 1 Peter 1.14, don't be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior. He's calling again for holiness in the light of living for eternity. Holiness then is to extend to all areas of life, all matters of life. That's consistent with where we're headed.

That's the direction we ought to take. Verse 15 makes this very important point, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves. If we are God's children, if we're headed for His kingdom, we should behave in a manner consistent with that identification. You remember back in Matthew 5, 48 at the very beginning of the New Testament when the first recorded sermon of Jesus is given, it says, therefore you are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. The Apostle Paul said in Colossians, set your affections on things above and not on things in the earth.

Paul said our citizenship is not in the earth but in heaven. In other words, we are to live in the light of glory and that compels us to a level of holiness and godliness that is absolutely pervasive in life. Hope makes us holy. Hope makes us holy. Now, since someday we're going to be with Him, how do we begin in this process of holiness?

What are the component parts of making us the kind of people we ought to be? First, let's call it expectation. First point, expectation. Notice verse 12, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God on account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning and the elements will melt with intense heat. But according to His promise, we are looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Here is the concept of expectation. Since I am headed for eternal glory, since I am going to be a citizen of God's eternal kingdom, since I am going to be delivered from the day of the Lord to enter into the eternal day of God, I should be living in expectation of that.

Pretty obvious. Let's look at verse 12 and just see the component parts of this tremendous truth. Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God. It's as if Peter is saying you certainly shouldn't be afraid of it.

You certainly shouldn't be worried about it. You ought to be like those of whom Paul speaks and with whom he identifies himself in 2 Timothy 4.8 when he talks about those who love Christ's appearing. You ought to be like John who said, Even so, come Lord Jesus.

Like Paul who said, It's nice to be here, far better to depart and be there. You ought to have a longing in your heart for the coming of the day of God. That verb looking for has the idea of expectancy, has the idea of waiting with a watchfulness, alert to the Lord's arrival. That word hastening adds the idea of eager desire. Not only are you watching and waiting, but you're eagerly desiring that it happened. You're not just waiting for it, you're waiting for it and you want it very badly and you want it soon.

That's the idea. Instead of living in fear of the future and fear of judgment and fear of the day of the Lord, you live in holy eagerness. You live with that 1 Corinthians 16, 22 word, maranatha on your lips, come Lord, living constantly in desirous expectation.

What does that mean? That means that I'm going to be dealing with some issues in my life. That means I'm going to be dealing with some things in my life so that I can say I want Him to come because I know when He comes I won't be ashamed at His coming. First John 2 talks about not being ashamed when Jesus comes. Chapter 2 verse 28, When He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.

If my life is right, then I'm not going to be ashamed, I'm going to be eager and I'm going to be anxious and I'm going to be desirous that Jesus come. That little phrase, the coming, again that wonderful word perusia, it literally means the presence. It could read looking for and hastening the presence of the day of God. And if you take that word perusia and just kind of move it through the New Testament everywhere you find it, it emphasizes a personal bodily presence of Jesus Christ. It's not the presence of an event. It's not the presence of a place.

It's the presence of a person. And so we're waiting for the presence of Jesus Christ, which will be the glory of the eternal day of God, which will be the jewel of the new heavens and the new earth. And if our life is right, we have no shame because we have no unconfessed and repeated sin, then we can eagerly anticipate the coming of Jesus Christ.

We long for Him to return. That's John MacArthur, pastor, author, and chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary, Where in the World is History Headed? That's the title of John's current study of biblical prophecy here on Grace to You. John, what we're seeing in this study about divine wrath and what's ahead for our world, it really is terrifying to think about.

So here's a question. Is the fear of judgment a legitimate motive for turning to Christ? Is fear a healthy thing to cultivate?

Well, absolutely. And I think it's summed up in a statement the Apostle Paul made to the Corinthians when he said this, because of the fear of the Lord, we persuade men. God intends to terrify sinners. What purpose would be in God's mind to reveal so much about hell? Jesus talked a lot more about hell than he did about heaven. He talked about the weeping and wailing, the gnashing of teeth, the eternal darkness, separation from God, the horrors of hell.

And he talked about it frequently. And the warnings, not only of our Lord throughout his ministry, but the warnings that come from the other writers of the New Testament and the dire warnings of realities in the book of Revelation of what is to come, indicate that God endeavors to generate fear of judgment. You have that even in the Old Testament. When God first came down on Mount Sinai to give his law, the place was terrifying. Fire and smoke and the people were terrified at the arrival of God. And God was saying, this is my law, and with this law comes fiery, fierce judgment.

It was almost like a preview of hell when he brought his law down on Mount Sinai. So, no, fear is a very important reality in the gospel. I tried to do that in a message I gave during the COVID event on a Sunday about who you should really fear or what you should fear.

You shouldn't fear a virus, but you better fear God, the one who destroys soul and body in hell. So knowing the fear of the Lord, says Paul, we persuade men. That also is a missing element in contemporary preaching and church ministry. When do you hear people trying to terrify sinners with the reality of judgment?

It's a failure. It's disobedience. It's a disregard for a motivation that the Lord Jesus himself used to bring sinners to faith. Thanks, John. And friend, to give you an even better understanding of the fear of the Lord and how cultivating godly fear leads to blessing, let me encourage you to download the message John just talked about.

It's called The Damning Deception of Empty Words and Empty Hearts. It's available for free in MP3 and transcript format at our website, so get in touch with us today. Our web address is gty.org and the name of that message again, The Damning Deception of Empty Words and Empty Hearts. Also at the website, you can read articles on the Grace to You blog, you can supplement your Bible reading with three different daily devotionals, and you can download all of John's messages from 56 years of his pulpit ministry.

Find all of that and more at gty.org. And keep in mind that through Friday, May 9th, nearly all of our items are available at 25% off the regular price. That includes our flagship resource, the MacArthur Study Bible. The Study Bible has nearly 25,000 footnotes that help you understand the meaning of every passage, and it makes a great gift for Mother's Day or Father's Day. And for the students in your life, it's an excellent graduation present, so take advantage of our reduced prices. Place your order by calling 800-55-GRACE or go to the website gty.org. Now for John MacArthur and our entire staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Be back tomorrow as John MacArthur continues his study, Where in the World is History Headed? It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time, on Grace to You.