The Day of the Lord, Part 1

For Bible students, few topics seem to ignite our imagination quite like prophecy. We're curious to know what the future holds, especially when global tension and natural disasters create such uncertainty. Well, today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll continues our study in 2 Peter. In this portion of our study, we're looking at the third chapter beginning at verse 7. It's here that Peter gives a fascinating preview of things to come. Chuck will also share a few precautions for how to approach the subject of prophecy.

He titled today's message, The Day of the Lord. If there is one thing all of us hate to do, it would have to be waiting. Wouldn't you agree? Delays make us irritable and obnoxious, downright demanding at times. We want what we want, when we want it, don't we? Not one of us finds delays easy to accept.

Let me give you an example. You're at the grocery store, you have a busy evening ahead of you, so you pick up a few last-minute items. You choose the checkout stand with only two people in line. The checker is obviously new on the job, you find out, and slowly but surely she finally gets to you.

Just then, you guessed it, her cash register runs out of tape. She isn't sure how to change it, so again, you have to wait. How's your response?

Here's another example. It's dinner out with a family night. You've fasted most of the day, so you can gorge yourself at your favorite restaurant. You're given a booth and a menu, but the place is really busy, and it's short two servers, so there you sit.

Hungry as a buffalo in the dead of winter, after 15 full minutes, you have nothing on your table but that same glass of water and a menu you've begun to gnaw on. Again, you have to wait. How's your response? Let's take it to global now, okay? Let's look at it broadly. What about all the evil and injustice in our world? Why doesn't God hurry along and clean up this mess? Specifically, why doesn't God strike my neighbor with lightning for weed-eating my begonias?

Well, if you're like me, these delays reveal much more about my selfish, demanding heart than they do my desire for what's right. How refreshingly different is the Lord our God? He waits for that time the Bible calls the Day of the Lord with perfect patience.

Oh sure, he wants peace on earth and justice, but he delays in bringing all that about. He patiently waits, and for good reason. In the second letter that Peter wrote, the apostle reveals the purpose behind the seeming slowness of God. I'm reading for you today from 2 Peter 3, verses 8-13. Peter writes this, But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which 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. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because 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.

You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into 2 Peter with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to download his Searching the Scriptures studies by going to insight.org slash studies. And now the message from Chuck titled The Day of the Lord. Those of you who are as old as I remember the days when the subject of prophecy was probably the hottest subject you could deal with. As a matter of fact, it was known among preachers in Christian circles that if you really wanted to get a crowd together, you could announce a prophetic theme, and it would do the trick. People seemed to come out from under the rocks to hear what scripture teaches about future events. As a matter of fact, I recall serving when I got out of seminary alongside a man named Dr. Dwight Pentecost, whose name is familiar in prophetic circles. I was his assistant pastor for a few years and got to know him well and got to know his life real well, and I hold him in highest regard to this day. But one of the things I remember in conversation with Dr. Pentecost is his concern.

In fact, he would express it with a bit of a sigh. He said, you know Chuck, I can go to these various places and speak, and invariably they want me to speak on some theme of prophecy, and I'm of course happy to do that. And he said, it would be nice, however, on occasion just to be asked to speak on the love of God, or on the person of Christ, or on something unrelated to prophecy. But he said, you know, I have observed that when that kind of subject is announced, you immediately notice a smaller number in the congregation. But when there is an emphasis on something about the future, there is an enormous amount of curiosity regarding future events, and people seem to just come out from everywhere to hear what God's word teaches about future events.

I think he's right. There is something, even though we are not living in a day now where prophetic themes are as popular, or there is as much emphasis on it, it seems, that there is still a great deal of curiosity about the world as it begins to unfold the events related to scripture, as far as prophecy is concerned. The comedian Bob Hope put it this way, it's a wonderful world, it may destroy itself, but you'll be able to watch it all on TV.

Hardly, hardly. Charles Kettering said this, we should all be concerned about the future, because we will have to spend the rest of our lives there. Maybe that's the reason it causes such curiosity in all of us. If you wonder if people are still curious about the future, let me ask you a question no one has ever asked you. How many times have you seen an unopened fortune cookie at a Chinese restaurant?

Isn't it amazing? There may be four at your table and they may serve you eight fortune cookies. All eight will be opened, just out of strange sort of curiosity. I've always felt that believing in fortune cookies sort of led to a crummy life, but that's another subject. Now, back to things that matter. 2 Peter 3, since you don't like my jokes, I suppose we better turn to what's far more important. In the third chapter of 2 Peter, this man turns his attention to the future, and when he does so, I think he gets his reader's attention as at no other time. And it is because we are dealing with future things that I would like to start by addressing several facts of a general nature about future things. They are perhaps my warnings. They are, through the years I have spent in ministry, a bit of wisdom I would like to pass on to all of you as it relates to future things. So let me get those things off my chest before we actually get into the text of this small section in Peter's third chapter of 2 Peter. And I have four things in mind.

First is this. While some things are revealed, still much remains a mystery. While some things about the future are revealed, much of the future remains a mystery. And I realize we have many prophetic passages of scripture, a great deal of truth set forth about heaven and the kingdom and hell and the judgments, etc. Still, much of it is mysterious.

One of the marks of immaturity is the tendency to read more into the biblical text than it states. So be careful about that. Live comfortably with big chunks of the future remaining a mystery. Don't try to unravel all of it. Here's the second thought. When searching for answers, leave a lot of room for questions.

All of us by nature with our curiosity want answers. And while I say that, try not to make agreement on future events a basis of fellowship. I ache when I hear war stories about places of ministry where you must agree at every point with the church's position or the pastor's position more often on some future matters in order to have fellowship here. If there is a lot of mystery yet remaining, and if there are more questions than there are answers, and indeed there are, then be careful about making the whole panorama of prophecy a basis of fellowship with another believer. Which brings me to a third, a general comment about future events. As you stand firm on certain points, be patient and tolerant with those who do not.

Sort of ties in with my second comment. As you stand firm on certain points, be patient and tolerant with those who don't. Perhaps they will someday see it as you see it. Perhaps never. That calls for patience and a great deal of tolerance.

And fourth, perhaps the most important of the four. Though no one knows all of the details, don't hesitate to stand firm on the things that are clearly revealed. Let me repeat that. Though no one knows all of the details about the future, don't hesitate to stand firm on the things that are clearly revealed. I have been to funeral services and sat in the audience and listened to an individual who presents sort of a melange of things about tomorrow that sound terribly uncertain.

And many of those things are not uncertain. Death is sure. Judgment is inevitable. There is a literal heaven. There is a literal hell. There will be a literal standing before our God. There will be the resurrection of the dead. There will be a time when we will give an account of our lives before God who made us and gave us our souls. Those things are sure. And there isn't a lot of wobble room in there.

Now as to the timing of them or the sequence of how they fit together, that part is debatable. And that's the part I'm saying don't break fellowship over. But when the truth is set forth at places in great clarity, and I hope we will see that this evening, at this time in our study, then don't be afraid to embrace it.

Let it speak for itself without reading more into it than is there and without holding back when the truth is set forth. Now as Peter writes his last letter, he is writing to people who are away from home. They are lonely. Perhaps some of them are confused. They are living in a day of persecution, very difficult times.

They are living in uncomfortable situations, some of them in extremely temporary quarters. And on top of that, adding insult to injury, there are scoffers and mockers, you'll notice in chapter 3 verse 4, who are saying, where is the promise of his coming? For ever since our fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation. Why would you ever think, Christians, that there is going to be some kind of return of Christ, when in fact God has never intercepted the events of life or invaded time once things got rolling?

And Peter is quick to answer as we saw last time. They deliberately and willfully overlook the fact that God has already interrupted the events of life. In bringing a flood, and in bringing the flood he brought judgment to all who were not in the ark. And in light of the fact that God has done it before, in no other logic, certainly in legal logic, since there is a precedent for this, the case is the flood, I can assure you there will be another time where he will intervene, and that will be a time when Christ himself will come back.

But these people are surrounded by such scoffers. And look closely at verse 7. But the present heavens and earth by his word are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

That was where we ended last time. Now, this is a prophetic subject, and the actuality of that statement has not yet taken place, but it will. And if God says it will, then count on it, it will. All of the details are not known by anyone. As to the exact day, no one knows. And as far as the sequence leading up to that day of judgment, it's debatable.

And the jury's still out. Scholars are on each side of the argument, and most of them reputable, careful, concerned students of the text. Now, for those who read Peter's words in the first century, living in such discomfort, longing for the return of Christ, I'm sure their ears perked up when they heard, or when they read, the present heavens and earth by his word are being reserved for fire.

What does that mean? And knowing that it would create such interest on the part of readers in that century, and were Christ to delay his coming for the centuries to follow, Peter goes further into the subject in verses 8 through 13. Now, what about these heavens and earth mentioned in verse 7? By the way, it is a reference, I believe, to the present heavens as we know them, the atmosphere surrounding this globe, and the present earth is a reference to where we live and have our being.

This planet, earth, that has been flung into space by the creative, masterful hand of our God. Now, all the things we see, and the elements about us, including the stellar spaces above us, and the ocean depths below us, all of these things on this present earth and in the present heavens, according to this verse, are being reserved for fire. Now, let's get very specific with Peter as our guide in answering what that means, and he begins with a warning in verse 8.

Do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved. And I think he has in mind the scoffers who were saying, the Lord promised to come back and all this time has passed, obviously he is not coming back, as we just saw in the early part of the chapter. And so with that in mind, the script of the scoffers and the mockings of people, he says, don't let this fact escape your notice, beloved, writing to Christians, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. I think what that verse is saying is that God has a mysterious timetable, mysterious from our vantage point. Understand, his timetable is perfect and right.

Ours gets a little jumbled and foggy and confusing and fuzzy. But from our vantage point, the timetable of our God seems mysterious. Peter has in mind Psalm 90 verse 4, which says, For a thousand years in thy sight are like yesterday, when it is past, or as a watch in the night.

If you love music, you know that Isaac Watts wrote a hymn entitled Oh God, Our Help in Ages Past. And in the fourth stanza, he picks up the same thought as Peter does from Psalm 90 verse 4. He writes, A thousand ages in thy sight are like an evening gone, short as the watch that ends the night before the rising sun.

Meaning what? Meaning this, that what comprises time on earth in no way impacts God's master plan in heaven. He dwells above and apart from the clock, the 24 hour day. With him, a thousand years are like a day. And one snap of your finger, one split second is like to us, a thousand years.

In other words, they are not congruent triangles. The scoffer made his point on the basis of earth time, suggesting God doesn't keep his promises. He said he was going to come back and all of these years have passed and he hasn't come back.

Forget it, he's not coming back. Wrong, says Peter. God is often appears as late in acting, but he is never delayed. You see, you cannot use a wristwatch and determine God's game plan for the future.

So don't try. His timing is beyond the clock. And rather than seeing his delay as uncaring and negligent, see it as merciful and as patient. Verse 9, for example. What appears as God's mysterious timetable becomes salvation's patient plan in the verse that follows. Now let's read the two verses together.

Do not let this one fact escape your notice. Another way of saying, never forget this, beloved. That with the Lord, one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise.

As some count slowness, but is patient toward you. Not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. It's one of the great verses in the New Testament.

I smile when I read it because there is such hope in it. Let me put it this way, God deliberately holds back the events of the end. The ultimate ending is on hold temporarily to give the maximum number of people opportunity to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord is not slow, he's patient. The Lord is not tardy, he is deliberately waiting. The Lord is not indifferent, he is merciful. That's what verse 9 is teaching.

Just think, now let me make it very personal. What if his son had returned, what if judgment had come on this earth two days before you had believed? Aren't you grateful that God delayed the judgment plan? What may seem slow is in fact very merciful. Hold on here, go back to 1 Timothy 2 verse 3.

Just a few books back. 1 Timothy 2, 3 to 6. Yeah, there it is.

Hurry up, I want to get there to this thing. I want you to see this. 1 Timothy 2 verse 3. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior. Look at this, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. That's his desire, that's his wish. Now it won't happen, but that's on his wish list.

He hasn't willed it so, but he wishes it. He wishes that all would be saved and all would come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. One of the clearest verses on salvation you could ever use.

Memorize it, use it, share it. It helps clarify the gospel message. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all, the testimony born at the proper time. One God, one mediator, the man Christ Jesus, so that you might understand that you, a lost person, can come to know God through faith in his son, the only mediator between you and the God who made you. Let the scoffers scoff, let the mockers mock. Peter says, don't let it escape your notice that God's timing is not like man's and God's heart is not like we would expect.

He waits, patiently waiting. And furthermore, it is designed to get you and me in gear for living in the days in which we live to make the message known. Yes, God has delayed his plan for judgment, but it's clear that the day is drawing near. You're listening to Insight for Living and a message that Chuck Swindoll titled The Day of the Lord. To learn more about this ministry, visit us online at insightworld.org. As we pause for just a moment, I want to remind you that Insight for Living offers a number of ways to deepen your understanding of 2 Peter. For instance, if you're accustomed to waking up in the morning and spending a few minutes reflecting on the Bible, Chuck and his creative team have prepared online study notes for you. We call this feature Searching the Scriptures. These study notes are interactive, meaning you can type your thoughts directly into the online document, or feel free to print out the PDF and use the notes during your personal quiet times. To access these Searching the Scriptures study guides for Chuck's daily messages, go to insightworld.org slash studies.

And that's not all. Insight for Living also provides a daily devotional we call Insight for Today. Thousands in our audience are already taking advantage of this free offer, and you can too.

A fresh new edition is sent directly to your email address every day. To subscribe to receive Chuck's daily devotional, go to insight.org slash devo. And then bear in mind it's your voluntary donations that make it possible for us to provide these daily visits with Chuck and the many resources designed to foster your walk with God. These days have been a little more financially lean for nonprofit ministries like Insight for Living because our listeners break from their normal routine to vacations. So your gift today will help close that gap, and we'd like to say thank you for responding to the need. To give a donation today, call us. If you're listening in the United States, call 800-772-8888 or give a donation online at insight.org. I'm Bill Meyer. Hear more teaching from Chuck Swindoll regarding the Day of the Lord next time on Insight for Living. .