The fact that we're waiting for the coming of Christ doesn't give us license to sit around and ask His pastor, can you tell me when the end of the world will come? No, the pastor replied, but I can tell you how to be so prepared for it that you need not be afraid if it came tonight. That answer gets right to the heart of John MacArthur's focus today on Grace to You.
He's taking the mystery out of the future, helping you to look to coming events with confidence and joy, and John calls this series Where in the World is History Headed? So now take your Bible, if you're able, and follow along as John begins today's lesson. Second Peter chapter 3, we're looking at the section from verse 11 down through verse 18 under the title, Living in Anticipation of Christ's Return. We've been asking the question, since we have throughout this third chapter been dealing with the return of Christ, the question, What does it mean to us as Christians that Jesus is coming? Peter has been talking about the arrival of the day of the Lord. We noted for you that following the day of the Lord is another great day called the day of God, also in verse 18 called the day of eternity. We as believers are not necessarily anticipating the day of the Lord, that's a judgment. We are anticipating the day of God, that's the eternal day, the day of the new heavens and the new earth. We are joyously anticipating entering into God's glorious eternal creation.
We are longing for that. We do not long for the day of the Lord, the time of severe judgment, the time of damnation on sinners, but we do long for the eternal state of righteous glory in the day of God, that marvelous day when God is all in all. That term, day of God, as you note, appears in verse 12 of this text. And already, though we have not yet entered into the day of God and will not until after the Millennial Kingdom, we already anticipate it. Furthermore, we are already citizens of that eternal state.
Our citizenship, says Paul to the Philippians, is in heaven. We are those who seek a city whose builder and maker is God. And that is the celestial city, the eternal new Jerusalem, the new heavens and the new earth being its final dwelling place. And so we live in anticipation of that eternal glory, that eternal day of God. Verse 11 then says, Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be? What are the implications of the destruction of the entire universe in a holocaust of fire, followed by the new heavens and the new earth, the eternal day of God in which you will dwell? Granted that you are citizens for that glorious day, that eternal kingdom, that eternally new universe, what sort of people should you be? And we notice that that is not a question but rather an exclamation, as if it were to say what sort of people ought we to be?
In what kind of astounding excellence should we behave and live? Since Jesus is coming to judge the ungodly, coming to destroy the sin-cursed universe and replace it with a brand new one made for us in which we will eternally dwell, it should impact our lives powerfully. We are citizens of that eternal kingdom.
How should it impact us? Well, he says it in verse 11, in holy conduct and godliness. Holy conduct has to do with our action. Godliness has to do with our attitude. In attitude and action we are to be separated from sin, holy and godly. Now what does that mean? How does that break down?
What are the components of that? What are the elements of such godly attitudes and godly conduct? Well, with that we draw ourselves into verse 12. Peter's going to give us a series of features or elements or components that fit into the kind of attitude, the kind of action that should characterize us. Here is an expanded definition of holy conduct and godliness.
First of all, it includes expectation. Verse 12 and 13, 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. Notice there in verse 12 he says, we are looking for, we are hastening. Down in verse 13 again, we are looking for a new heaven and a new earth. We should be living then in anticipation or expectation. We went into that in detail last time.
Let's go to the second component, the second element in his instruction here. Not only should we be characterized by anticipation, but let me give you a word and then explain it. We should be characterized by pacification. That is just another word for peace. We should be pacified.
We should be in a peaceful condition. Please notice verse 14. Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace...to be found by Him in peace. Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things...what things? The day of God, the new heavens and the new earth, the eternal state, the glorious kingdom awaiting us in the presence of God forever and ever. Since we look for these things...by the way, the word beloved isolates this to Christians alone and he says, since you look for these things, the new heavens and the new earth with all their glories, you should be diligent. Another way to say that is to make every effort. It stresses Christian duty.
It stresses Christian responsibility. Making every effort to be found by Him in peace. I need to make a brief note about that, be found by Him.
That's quite an interesting comment. When the Lord Jesus comes, you will be found personally by Him. I need to just remind you of that. There will be nothing hidden in that day. There will be nothing overlooked in that day. Everything will be brought to light in the day when the Lord Jesus comes.
We're very much aware of that. It says in 1 Corinthians 4 that when He comes, He will bring to light the secret things in the innermost recesses of the human heart. When He comes, He will bring to light everything we've done in our lives, whether it be good or worthless, 2 Corinthians 5 says. We will be found by Him. That emphasizes that it is He who is coming and it is He who will confront us when He comes. Since we are anticipating all of this, it should be that when He finds us, He will find us having been diligent to live in peace so that He finds us pacified. What does He mean by that? What does He mean that in the event that He comes and when it happens, we should be found in peace?
What is He saying? Well, it could mean peace with God. It could mean that He would find us in a relationship of peace with God, which would be the equal of salvation, according to Romans 5 and Ephesians 2.
But then again, we're already Christians called beloved here. He is writing to believers so it wouldn't seem that He is saying you need to be saved. It could be that He's referring to some unsaved professors in the church who are espousing a salvation they do not possess and that perhaps He is warning them and saying be diligent that when it does come, you will be found genuinely saved. But I think that that's not the primary meaning, though it could be a secondary one. It is also possible that He could mean be at peace with other believers, that what He is saying is that when I come and set up my glorious kingdom, I want to find you living peacefully with each other, the peace of Christian love, the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace as we hear from the Apostle Paul, peace with men.
But I don't think that's best either, although that may be a component certainly. I think what he is saying here is that you be found enjoying the peace of God, personal peace of mind, the peace that comes from a strong faith in the Lord. In Philippians chapter 4, those familiar words are worth reminding ourselves about in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. I believe that he is talking about that kind of peace that guards the heart and the mind, that kind of peace that makes us free from anxiety, that kind of peace that makes us free from fear, that kind of peace that is not less than anxious for Christ to come for fear that He will discover our sinfulness and our shame, that kind of peace that is free from worry about the future, that kind of peace that knows no fear regarding the day of the Lord, the judgment of Christ, world conditions, or whatever because we enjoy the peace of God. It means you have a strong sense of the assurance of your salvation. It means you have a strong sense of the reality of your Christian faith and obedience so that you will not be ashamed at His coming.
It means that you have no fear that you might get caught up or swept away in the judgment of the day of the Lord because you know all is well between you and God. You are completely comfortable with the anticipation of the end of the world and should you know it was coming in the next 24 hours, you could pillow your head in rest and sleep. You'd have no fear. You'd have no anxiety.
I wonder if that's the case. I wonder if you knew if Jesus was coming tomorrow night, what it would be like in the next 24 hours. If you would be living in complete peace, calm, comfort, knowing your account with God is settled up to the very moment and being certain that if the day of the Lord were to begin in 24 hours, the holocaust of God's judgment were to break loose upon the world, all would be well with you. The real challenge of Christian living, beloved, is not to see if you can eliminate every uncomfortable issue in your life. The real challenge of Christian living is not to create a perfect world so you'll be happy but to live in a fallen world as a fallen sinful person surrounded by fallen people in the midst of all the manifestation of the curse, enduring all the pain and having perfect peace that all is well between you and God and that His purposes for you will unfold perfectly as revealed in the Scripture. That is the peace of assurance.
That is the peace of security. That is the tranquility of a man or a woman who knows that all is well with God and fears no shame at the appearing of Christ. So says Peter, as you anticipate the coming of Jesus Christ, you should be living in anticipation and you should be living in a condition of pacification at perfect peace. Thirdly, another component of living in the light of the return of Christ will call purification. Back to verse 14 again.
He says there in verse 14, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent not only to be found by Him in peace but to be found by Him spotless and blameless...to be found by Him spotless and blameless. Now this is in contrast, I believe, to the false teachers. You remember back in chapter 2 when he described the false teachers, he said they were stains and blemishes. In contrast to being stains and blemishes or more graphically scabs and filth spots, you should be spotless and blameless. These two terms speak of both character and reputation. They speak of both what we are in reality and what people think we are. Blameless means my character, what I really am.
There's no spot, there's no blotch on my life. Blameless is my reputation, what people think I am. And I am to be spotless that is pure in reality and blameless that is pure by reputation.
That's how the Lord wants to find us. Pure in reality, pure in reputation, spotless as to our character, blameless as to our reputation. Now there are four possibilities in these words and we have to deal with them realistically.
Let me give you the four possibilities. It is possible that you could be spotless but at least in one sense not blameless. What do I mean by that? It is possible that you could be living a pure and a godly and a virtuous life but in the eyes of the world you are not blameless. That is usually because somewhere in your past there has been a severe stain in your life that has stained your reputation with such a degree of stain that though you now are spotless, people remember the stain. And so while at the time of the coming of Christ all might be well and you would be spotless, it might be that you're not blameless.
For somewhere along the line you brought reproach upon yourself and the testimony of Christ and you have been wearing the blame for that. It is possible to be spotless but not blameless. It is possible to be blameless but not spotless.
It is possible that people don't know the real truth. It is possible that while people think you to be spotless, you are not. That while people think you to be blameless, your reputation is flawless but the truth is you're not spotless. So we say there are some who are spotless and not blameless. There are some who are blameless but not spotless.
There's a third possibility. When Jesus comes, you are spotless by way of character as much as is possible by His grace and you are blameless by way of reputation. Both your life and your reputation are untarnished.
Both your life and your reputation are unblemished. There has never been a stain that has that capability to abide on your life. It is fourthly possible that you are neither spotless nor blameless. By that I mean that you have spots and you've been blamed. You can be both spotless and blameless, you can be neither spotless nor blameless. And in that case, both life and reputation are tarnished and blemished. It is possible then that you can be, as we noted, spotless but not blameless.
That is, you've been restored but the scandal on your life remains in some people's minds. You can be blameless and not spotless, that's to be a hypocrite. You can be both spotless and blameless, that's to be holy. Or you can be neither spotless or blameless, that's to be sinful.
I just draw that out for you so you can see the implications of what is at first glance a rather simple statement. We are to take care of the sin in our lives, that's the point, to live holy lives. When the Lord comes, He wants us to be pure.
How can you be that way? Well, you have to discern your sin, detest your sin, confess your sin, desire the holy life, abstain from temptation situations, be faithful in the means of grace, the spiritual means of Bible study prayer, worship so that you maintain a pure life. The Lord says, that's how I want you to live until I come.
And that's consistent with what you're anticipating in the eternal state. If I am destined for eternal purity, if I am destined for eternal glory, I ought to seek to live that way now. So, Peter says, as we anticipate the coming of Christ, here's the kind of people we ought to be, characterized by anticipation, pacification, purification. Verse 15 takes us to a fourth thought, this is a marvelous one. We are to be characterized by evangelization. We are to be characterized by evangelization. In the time in which we are waiting for this great, glorious, eternal state, he says, verse 15, we're to regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation.
In other words, we are to be caught up in using the time, energy, gifts, life that we have for the purpose of salvation. The Lord is waiting in order that He might save. Go back to verse 9. Some of the critics were saying, well, the Lord doesn't come. He said He would come, but He'll never come. Look how long it's been and He hasn't come. And so Peter says, the Lord isn't slow about His promise as some count slowness, as some men might think Him is what He means. But the reason it appears as though He is slow is because He is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
He's waiting patiently. And back in verse 8, he said, don't let it escape your notice that a day with the Lord is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day so He doesn't keep time like you do anyway. He's very patient, very merciful. God does not wish that any should perish.
He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. God our Savior, 1 Timothy 2, 4, who will have all men to be saved is tarrying and tarrying and waiting and waiting and wishing for those who have yet not repented to come to repentance. When God said to Israel, why will you die, O house of Israel, Ezekiel 18, 31, He underscored His compassion and He underscored His mercy. You see the image of this magnificent, merciful patience in the beautiful story of the prodigal son in Luke 15, son living in the world riotously in immorality, in wasting his gospel privilege and opportunity and his father at home, patient, gracious, compassionate, waiting and waiting and waiting until the son comes home. So it is with God the Father. And so what Peter is saying is, in this time of God's patience, recognize in verse 15 that the patience of our Lord is for the purpose of salvation. The fact that we're waiting for the coming of Christ doesn't give us license to sit around and do nothing. We're not to put our pajamas on and sit on the roof till He gets here.
We're to be involved in the ministry of reconciliation. There's a graphic illustration of this same attitude that comes from the heart and pen of the Apostle John. As the Apostle John was contemplating judgment in Revelation chapter 10, the angel brought him a book and he gave the book to John and he said, take it and eat it in the symbolism. John ate it. He said, it will make your stomach bitter but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey. And I took it and did that and I ate it and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey but when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter.
What is this? The little book represents the truth of God about final judgment, which is bittersweet. It is on the one hand sweet because it ushers us into the day of God, it is on the other hand bitter because it means the damnation of the unbelieving world. The true Christian who is waiting in the time of God's patience sees that the purpose of the patience of God is to extend himself in salvation to sinners. With what attitudes then do we await the day of God, the glorious eternity that God has prepared for us? With what attitude do we await that final glory? With anticipation, looking for it, eagerly anxious that it come and come soon, in pacification that is dwelling in perfect peace because all is well with the Lord, the account is settled up to the moment so that should he come there would be no shame and there is no fear for assurance guards our hearts. Purification, living in virtue, purity of life, both in character and reputation, and then evangelization, making sure that as the patience of God lingers, our zeal to lead men to salvation carries us through the time of his patience. You're listening to Grace to You with the verse-by-verse Bible teaching of John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. Today's lesson is part of John's current series titled, Where in the World is History Headed? Well, today John talked about God's patience, how God is postponing his return so that more people will come to know him, and of course, at some point, God's patience will end. And that brings to mind a question we received on our Q&A line, and John, here's the question.
Please respond after you hear it. My name is Edward, if a person on this side of the rapture misses the rapture, will they have an opportunity to accept Christ after the rapture and make it into heaven? Thank you for your question, Edward, and the answer to the question is yes, yes. There will be sweeping movement of the gospel during the period directly following the rapture. I'm convinced the Bible teaches that the church will be raptured and then on earth will come what is known as the Great Tribulation, seven years of terrifying and destructive judgment leading up to the return of Christ. But at the same time that all this judgment is falling on the earth, there will be the greatest revival in history. There will be people redeemed during those seven years in Israel so that there will actually be 144,000 witnesses from every tribe in Israel.
They will cover the world preaching the gospel. There will even be an everlasting angel flying in heaven proclaiming the gospel. There will be people saved from every tongue and tribe and people and nation who will be rescued out of that horrible tribulation because they will come to faith in the gospel. The book of Revelation parallels the terrifying world cataclysmic judgments with the fact that people will be responding to the gospel, and of course those will be adult people at all different ages who will have missed the rapture and during those seven years come to Christ. That's a very good question, Edward, and we don't ever want to say that, you know, if you miss the rapture, you will never have an opportunity to be saved because that is not what the Scripture says. What we do want to say is you'd be an awful lot better to go in the rapture in the glory of the return of Jesus Christ when he comes to take to heaven his own than to have to endure the horrors of the tribulation, and they are immense horrors. But as far as having an opportunity for the gospel, the opportunities will be great even after the rapture as the gospel will basically circle the earth. And there are even indications in the book of Revelation that it will be on satellite, that it will be on television because every eye is going to see these things, so that opportunity will be there.
A person has his lifetime even if it extends into that period. Thanks, John. And, friend, if you have more questions about the return of Christ, John's new book called Christ Triumphs Over Sin and Death can help answer them. And a reminder, from now until May 9th, we are offering a significant discount on nearly everything we sell. Take advantage of the reduced prices when you contact us today. Call us at 800-55-GRACE or visit our website GTY.org. For the next few days, Christ Triumphs Over Sin and Death is available at 25% off the regular price, so the cost is $11.25 and shipping is free. To purchase your copy of Christ Triumphs Over Sin and Death, call us at 800-55-GRACE or shop online at GTY.org.
And remember, our sale prices apply to nearly everything we sell. Now is the time to purchase any of John's books, maybe The Glory of Heaven, or Twelve Ordinary Men, or Anxious for Nothing, or individual volumes from John's New Testament Commentary Series, or pick up the MacArthur Study Bible. You can place your order at our website GTY.org. Or call us during business hours at 800-55-GRACE. By the way, that number translates to 800-554-7223. And the sale ends on Friday, May 9th, so get in touch soon. Now for John MacArthur and the entire Grace To You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for making this broadcast part of your day and be back tomorrow as John continues to answer the question, Where in the World is History Headed? With another half hour of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time, on Grace To You.
