It is no accident the Holy Spirit inspired Peter to put this warning about the destruction of the world right after his discussion concerning false prophets. Peter wants the people to understand that just because the number of false prophets increases dramatically, doesn’t mean the world won’t come to an end, or that the God’s plan will be stopped. Proverbs 11:21 and 16:5, "…though hand join in hand…" the wicked shall be punished.

This chapter confirms the scriptures concerning the end days and the conditions thereof. Chapter three ties in with chapter two, continuing the general purposes of the book by stressing continued faithfulness, and strivings for Godliness. The end of the world is coming, the time is drawing near that we will leave this world, the time of judgment is almost upon us. It is time to be faithful. It is time to recognize there are false teachers, and we shouldn’t listen to every teacher. We must recognize there are false teachers, even among our friends, and sometimes even among fellow church members. We must put the Bible first in our lives, heeding God’s Words over the words of everybody else. There is no place for compromise, or turning aside from the eternal truths expressed in the Bible. Now is the time to aid others to understand, but if we compromise eternal truths for temporary comforts, we will be unable to teach anybody anything about truth.

I. This is Peter’s introduction.

A. Most people put their introduction at the beginning of a letter, but Peter puts this introduction at the end.

1. Peter recognizes the first letter he wrote and this letter as the second.

2. II Cor. 13:1, Paul declares that he wrote three letters to the Corinthians, but most people say he only wrote two.

B. I think we would be better of taking God’s word for it, rather than taking the word of fallible man.

II. The phrase "in both which".

A. Peter’s purpose in writing was to cause them to remember once again those things they had first learned.

1. Peter would remind these people of previously learned doctrines.

2. God would use these letters to stir up the pure minds of remembrance for all saints who would read and study these letters.

B. Peter could also be referring to verse 2.

1. Both could refer to the Old Testament and the New Testament.

2. It is very important to study both the Old And New Testament.

3. The Old Testament is our constant example and prophecy concerning the coming Christ.

4. The New Testament concerns the operation of the Lord’s Church and the fulfilling of the prophecies concerning Jesus Christ.

5. A proper understand of these two testaments will lead us to a true understand of God, and the way God works in this universe.

III. Stir up your pure minds.

A. Peter does not intend to "mix" up their minds by the things he says.

1. In this case "mix" means to cause confusion.

2. There is a difference between "mix" and "stir".

B. When something is mixed, there are a lot of parts that make up the whole, but it resulting substance is of no value or use to anybody.

1. There is more confusion than there is anything else.

2. When something is stirred, there is also a lot of parts that make up the whole, but the resulting substance is something that can be used.

IV. He declares their minds are pure.

A. The natural mind is not pure, but is corrupted by evil.

1. The only way a natural mind can be pure is by the Spirit of God.

2. Romans 12:2 - Our minds must be "renewed" in order to understand spiritual things.

3. These people had studied spiritual things in the past, and that had changed their minds from being completely natural to being somewhat spiritual.

4. Phil. 2:5, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:" II Tim. 1:7, "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."

B. By way of remembrance.

1. Peter is not telling them something they have never heard before.

2. This is no new doctrine, but a revival of things once learned and practiced.

3. Sometimes preachers don’t like to preach things that their listeners have already heard.

4. But his is absolutely necessary.

5. This provides a link so the listeners can learn other doctrines.

6. It also renews and stabilizes them more firmly in present doctrines.

Verse 2, That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:

I. Mindful means to be reminded of, or to recall to mind.

A. There are a lot of things to be looked after in this life.

1. A person must look after material things so he will have enough to eat.

2. A person must also look after his family, training them in the way of the Lord.

3. He must also look after his own health, doing what is humanly possible to maintain God’s gift of health.

B. The foundation of all the above things are in the word of God.

1. We will understand how to look after material things by reading how the people of God looked after the material things God gave them.

2. We will understand how to raise our children, using God’s people as an example.

3. We will understand that God will give us health if we will follow his laws.

II. What is supposed to be remembered.

A. The Old Testament scriptures.

1. There are some people who follow only the Old Testament, believing that is enough.

2. They will find the law in the Old Testament, and the prophecies concerning Christ who is come, fulfilling the requirements of the law for them, but they won’t find Christ coming in the Old Testament.

3. They won’t find Christ working in His church in the Old Testament, therefore they won’t understand how they are supposed to serve God during this age.

B. The New Testament scriptures.

1. One of the very first things we understand from the New Testament is that Christ is come fulfilling the Old Testament scriptures.

2. The next thing we understand is that we are to serve Him during this age through the local church Christ established during His personal ministry.

3. If we didn’t use both the Old and New Testament scriptures, we would have an incomplete view of Israel, Christ, and His church.

III. The prophets and apostles wrote the entire Bible.

A. The prophets wrote the Old Testament.

1. There were certain qualifications for a prophet.

a. Deut. 18:18-22 - If a prophet said something in the Word of the Lord, and it failed to come to pass, all of his prophecies were discounted.

b. Ezekiel 33:33 - Prophecies all had two meanings, one that was for the short term, and one for the long term.

c. I Kings 13:1-3 - The fulfillment of the short term prophecies assured the people that the long term part of the prophecy would also come to pass.

2. There were no books of the Old Testament written by a non prophet.

3. II Peter 1:19-21 - Holy men of old spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

B. The apostles of the New Testament.

1. Luke 6:13-16 gives a list of the apostles names.

2. Acts 1:21,22 - gives a list of the qualifications of an apostle.

3. Any religious organization that claims to have apostles in it is a false religion.

4. Any religious organization that claims to have special visions and words from the Lord is a false religion.

5. When the last apostle died, the Word of God was completely written.

Verse 3,4, Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, {4} And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

I. The first thing we ought to understand.

A. Everybody won’t believe what God says.

1. This shouldn’t discourage us, but many times it does.

2. God has saved us and shown us things that help us to live a very satisfying life.

3. We naturally want others to see what God has shown us.

4. When they don’t want to hear what we have to say, it hurts and we don’t understand why they don’t want to listen.

5. We must understand that it is only by God’s grace that we understand.

6. God must reveal to them what He has revealed to us.

B. Some people will openly make fun of Godly doctrines.

1. We should not take this mocking as being against us.

2. They are really mocking God.

II. These scoffers will increase in the last days.

A. It is possible that there have always been scoffers, but as the last days draw to a close, the number of scoffers will increase.

B. We should take notice of them, realizing that they are unwittingly fulfilling prophecies concerning the end times!

1. These scoffers are walking after their own lusts, not after Godliness.

2. They are fulfilling the natural desires of the flesh, and don’t want to believe Christ will come back and stop them from doing the things they plan to do.

3. They have so little respect for God and His plans they believe that simply saying He won’t return will prevent His return.

4. They will certainly be surprised to learn that they have actually been a part of the prophecies concerning His return!

C. It is important to understand that they know about the promise of God to return.

1. It is very likely these people are part of those that Paul told Timothy about in II Tim. 4:3,4.

2. It is one thing to know the promises of God and another to apply those promises to our everyday life.

3. The promise they refer to is a specific promise - that of Christ return.

III. The reason for their unbelief.

A. They have looked to the past as proof that Christ won’t come in the future.

1. This is really quite stupid.

2. Any child knows that if Christ had already come, the promise would have already been fulfilled.

3. A promise is a covenant or guarantee by God that He will do something.

B. They haven’t looked to the scripture.

1. They have applied depraved human reasoning instead of God’s word.

2. They have wasted their lives trying to "undo" what God has done, instead of yielding themselves to Him.

3. These are the false teachers Peter was talking about in chapter 2.

a. They could be saved people like Paul explained to Timothy in II Tim. 4:1-4. I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; 2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

b. They could be lost people who have looked at the true religion, but finally rejected it all.

c. They could be lost people who have never given God’s religion a second look, rejecting it the first time around.

C. Eccl. 3:11 - God has set the world in men’s hearts, so they can’t find out God’s work from the beginning to the end.

1. Men look with eyes of sight at the present creation, and suppose that all things have always been this way.

2. Heb. 11:3 - It is by looking with eyes of faith that we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God.

IV. Since the fathers fell asleep.

A. They recognize that death is a "way of life".

1. They may fool themselves into thinking that death will not come to them.

2. They may fool themselves into thinking that there is no life after death: that when they die all life stops.

B. They don’t understand the reason for death.

1. They don’t believe in the fall of man and the resultant death.

2. They accept death as a necessary part of life without understand why death is that necessary part.

3. Evidently, they never stop long enough to ask themselves why this is so.

4. A man once told me that he could look at the stars and moon in the sky, but he couldn’t think about it very long.

a. If he looked at the heavens and thought about it, he automatically thought about God.

b. Thinking about God was very difficult for him, for he couldn’t fully comprehend who God is.

c. He realized he was accountable to God, but would immediately refuse to admit it.

d. The only way he could cope with the idea was to put that thought out of his mind entirely.

e. Many people put God out of their minds, but they don’t realize that God has not put them out of His mind.

C. The word "fathers" may refer to the prophets, or Godly people of the early churches, who preached and talked about the coming destruction.

1. The scoffers will say that the people who declared the end of the world have died without seeing the fulfillment of their preaching, therefore their preaching must be wrong.

2. That is a very hollow argument since Adam also died without having seen the promise given to him in Genesis 15, concerning the coming savior, fulfilled.

3. That doesn’t mean that the promise wasn’t fulfilled.

As a matter of fact, all of the prophets that preached concerning the coming savior died without having seen their preaching fulfilled.

Hebrews 11:13 - These all died in faith, not having seen the promises fulfilled.

6. That doesn’t mean that the prophecy didn’t come true.

It simply means that it didn’t come true in their lifetime.

8. It is completely amazing how we believe God must do things according to our timetable, when he lives in eternity, which has no time at all!

V. It is important to understand they believe there was a creation.

A. Everybody believes the universe had a beginning.

Even the evolutionists believe in creation.

The evolutionists are caught in their own web with this point.

If evolutionists could only believe there was no creation, that this present world has always existed the way it exist, they would not have to deal with God.

Evolutionists cannot believe there was no creation, because if there was no creation, there is no beginning, thus there is no end.

Evolutionists want to believe there was a creation without God, so they can believe this present world is all there is, and they will not die in their sins and go to an eternal hell, prepared by an eternal God, whom they have rejected.

2. They just don’t believe God had anything to do with it.

3. They foolishly devise their own creation, leaving God and His power and His will out of the matter.

B. Believers know God created the universe.

1. This fact creates a philosophy of the mind that forces them to know that God had a plan in mind when He created the world.

2. Everything in their world is viewed from that perspective and the end result is that God is Almighty, and they are accountable to Him.

Verse 5-7, For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: {6} Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: {7} But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

I. There are three things in these three verses that these people are willingly ignorant of:

A. The condition of the world when it was first created. (See Part III.)

B. The flood during the days of Noah. (See Part IV.)

C. The judgment to come. (See Part VI.)

II. They are willingly ignorant of the things listed in part I.

A. They know what the truth is, they just don’t want to believe the truth.

1. Rom. 1:18-20 - God has revealed His eternal power and Godhead to every human who reaches the age of accountability.

2. John 1:9 - The true light "lighteth every man that cometh into the world".

3. Rom. 2:15 - When lost people see the truth of God’s Word, they will either excuse themselves (and continue in wickedness) or accuse themselves (and turn from their wickedness).

B. It is important to notice that the will of man plays an important part in what the mind will accept.

1. Man has a natural bias away from God, and toward sin.

2. It is only by the intervention of God that anybody will accept the fact of His creating this universe.

C. The first law of thermodynamics.

1. This law states that nothing is new being created.

2. There are new things being made all the time, but the number of elements has remained the same.

B. The second law of thermodynamics. (The law of entropy.)

1. This law states that everything is running down.

2. Everything takes more energy to operate than the energy derived from it.

3. The lost energy dissipates in the form of heat.

Verse 5, For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:

III. The condition of the world when it was first created.

A. They refuse to believe the worlds were created by the Word of God.

1. Genesis 1 declares over and over again that God spoke the world into existence.

a. Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26, 29.

b. Genesis 2:7 declares that humans were the only part of God’s creation not spoken into existence.

c. God formed man from the dust of the ground.

d. Genesis 2:21-23 - God created woman from the rib of Adam.

2. Heb. 11:2 - Believers understand by faith that the worlds were framed by the Word of God.

B. Heavens were of old.

1. This is no doubt referring to the heavens as we stand on the earth and look upward.

2. This would include the sun, moon, stars, and planets.

3. "Of old" refers to the age of the heavens, being about 6,000 years old at the present time.

a. "Of old" could also very well apply to the way God created the world to look.

b. Heb. 11:3 states that the world wasn’t made like it appeared to have been made.

c. God made the heavens and earth to appear older than they actually are.

d. Those people who are looking for evidence of an ancient earth will find what they are looking for.

e. For example: sunlight travels the 93,000,000 miles to earth in about eight minutes. The light from the farthest star would take billions upon billions of years to arrive at the earth. God so created the heavens and earth so the light from the farthest star was already here, therefore it would look like it had made the trip.

4. The heavens were about 4,000 years old when Peter lived.

5. 6,000 years may not sound very old when compared with the billions of years old evolution says the world is.

a. If God through Peter said that 6,000 years is old, then it must be.

b. 6,000 years would be six times older than any man ever lived!

C. Earth standing in the water and out of the water.

1. Genesis 1:6-8 - In the beginning, there was a "water barrier", called the firmament, in the atmosphere which (I believe) acted like a filter to keep the harmful rays of the sun from the earth.

2. Below this firmament, there was more water on the earth itself.

3. Unbelievers are willingly ignorant of this fact because if they accepted this fact, they would also have to accept the fact that God made it, and that God called the firmament "heaven".

D. Why do they refuse to believe in God’s creation?

1. If they believe God created the world, they would be God’s creation, or they would be living on God’s creation.

If they are God’s creation, they would be accountable to God, and they don’t want to be accountable to anybody.

Eccl. 3:11 - "…God has put the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end."

It is as impossible to look at a tree and be saved, as it is to look at the creation and discover how it was created.

Faith is the message of the Bible.

Verse 6, Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:

IV. The flood during the days of Noah.

A. They are willingly ignorant of the evidence of the flood.

1. They have allowed Satan to blind their minds.

2. They didn’t want to believe the overwhelming evidence of the judgment of God in the past.

3. They don’t want to believe in the future judgment of God.

B. If these people can just "reason" away (1) the creation, (2) the judgment of God in the flood, they can also "reason" away (3) the coming judgment of God upon the wickedness of man.

V. The evidences of the flood they are willingly ignorant of.

A. They say the ark wasn’t big enough to hold all the animals.

1. Genesis 6:15 - The ark was approximately 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet tall.

2. It was divided into three stories, giving a total floor space of 33,750 square feet on each floor, for a total of 101,250 square feet on all three stories. Each story could have an 11 foot ceiling if three floors and the roof were each 3 feet thick!

3. The ark held the equivalent of 522 stock railroad cars. Two trains with 73 cars each would be able to carry approximately 35,000 animals.

4. Some have estimated the number of animals on the ark in the hundreds of millions, but the most logical estimates are about 35,000.

B. They said the flood wasn’t world wide, but a local flood.

1. It doesn’t make any sense to me for Noah to build such a huge ark to escape a local flood.

a. It would have been much more logical for him to have simply moved to another part of the world that wasn’t going to be flooded.

b. God could have caused the animals to migrate to another place, so there wouldn’t have been any need for an ark at all.

2. Some say that only the known world was flooded.

a. It just so happens that all of the world was known at that time.

b. Our ancestors had a greater view of the world than we think they had.

3. Some say it was raining so hard that Noah couldn’t tell a mountain from a hill.

a. Noah didn’t write the Bible. God Himself told Moses what to write. To claim that Noah was mistaken about this episode is the same as saying that God was mistaken.

b. I am sure it had quit raining when Noah and his family got off the ark. They knew at that time they were on Mt. Ararat.

C. Unbelievers deny "footprints in the rocks".

1. The Paluxy River Bed near Glen Rose, TX has dinosaur and human footprints in the same place!

2. These footprints are together and they are running. Some say the dinosaur is running from the man. Some say the man is running from the dinosaur. It just might be that both are running from the flood!

D. The fossil records points to destruction. (How do you make a fossil?)

1. For a fossil to be formed, there must be a living creature (plant or animal) that dies and is suddenly covered in sediment before the body decays.

2. The body of any living creature that dies will decompose (two or three days, a week at most) before natural events cover it up (it could take many years for drifting sand or whatever to cover it up).

3. There is a "fossil graveyard" at Agate Springs, Nebraska. There are thousands (800,000,000,000 - 800 thousand million) of bones in this stratum, which runs horizontally for a long distance in the limestone hill. Fossils of the rhinoceros, camel, giant boar, and numerous other exotic animals are found jumbled together in this stratum.

Verse 7, But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

I. The judgment to come.

A. These people haven’t believed the first two conditions of verse 5 and 6, therefore they don’t believe the promise of verse 7.

1. Their not believing the first two conditions didn’t make those things not happen.

2. God spoke the world into existence, and He also destroyed the world by water.

3. God will also destroy the heavens and the earth by fire, whether anybody believes it or not.

B. The heavens and the earth.

1. The flood involved only the earth being destroyed by water.

The final destruction will include both the heavens and the earth being destroyed by fire.

There will be no traveling to another planet to escape the destruction of this world, because all the heavens will be destroyed along with this earth.

C. The phrase "which are now" makes it very clear which heavens and earth are being talked about.

1. I do not believe there is any other "heavens and earth" that Peter was referring to.

2. Some people believe there are more universes than ours, and this scripture is talking about the destruction of this universe, not another.

3. The term "heavens and earth" speaks about the destruction of the entire creation of God, not a local destruction of a part of His creation.

4. There was not a local flood, and there won’t be a local destruction by fire.

D. By the same word.

1. The same word that created the heavens and the earth, and brought about the flood in Noah’s day.

2. This same word will also bring about the destruction of the world by fire.

3. John 1:1-5,14 - This word is Jesus Christ.

a. John 1:3 - Jesus created the world.

b. Genesis 6:6-7 - Jesus was involved in the flood. (Compare the word "God" and "Lord".)

c. All that Jesus has to do is speak and the entire creation will be destroyed by fire.

E. Kept in store, reserved.

1. God still has control over His creation.

2. God is keeping His creation intact for His own purposes and glory.

3. When He is ready, he will destroy it all by fire.

4. We must understand that God didn’t create the world in order to destroy it.

5. He created it for His glory and honor.

6. The world was plunged into sin because of the disobedience of Adam.

God will use that disobedience for His own glory.

Psalms 76:10 - "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, the remainder of wrath shall thou restrain."

8. Eccl. 8:11, "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil."

a. God has kept the world in reserve until the day of judgment.

b. Wicked men have used this "moratorium" as an opportunity to do more evil.

c. They will answer for all of their wickedness.

II. Unto fire and perdition of ungodly men.

A. The world was destroyed by water because of the wickedness of ungodly men.

B. God gave them space to repent, but instead, they devised more wickedness.

C. God is now giving men space to repent, but instead of repenting, they are devising more and more meanness.

D. It ought to be noted that the idea of the world being destroyed by fire was taught by the ancient philosophers.

1. A few of these are: Wetstein, Seneca, Simplicius, and Eusebius.

2. These philosophers didn’t get their ideas from Scripture.

3. They may have gotten it from pure conjecture, or from what was handed down by tradition.

4. However they arrived at their conclusions, they are remarkable consistent with Scripture.

The Word of God is keeping this present earth and heavens in store, waiting for the fire from God to judge two things.

The day of judgment.

Rev. 1:14 - The eyes of Jesus Christ are like a flame of fire.

I Peter 4:17,18 - If judgment will begin at the house of God, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

The perdition of ungodly men.

The word perdition means destruction, or loss.

Verse 7 explains that God will allow wicked men to continue in their wickedness until their wickedness is fulfilled.

Gen. 15:16 - Israel will spend four generations in Egypt because the iniquity of the Amorites isn’t full.

Romans 11:25 - Israel is in darkness until the times of the Gentiles is fulfilled.

These verses show us that God is controlling both sides of the spectrum. He is not only controlling the lost, He is controlling the saved.

When God’s entire plan, then the heavens and the earth will be destroyed, and not one minute beforehand.

Compare to verse 9 - God will let the world continue until all the elect are brought in.

Some of these elect must be born first.

They must grow up and hear the gospel and be saved, then fulfill all the service God desires them to fulfill.

IV. The symbolism of fire.

A. Fire doesn’t completely do away with anything.

1. It simply changes the things it destroys from one substance into another.

2. The first law of thermodynamics declares that there is nothing being created, or nothing being completely destroyed into nothingness.

a. I do not believe the new heavens and the new earth will be a new creation in the sense that God will speak a new creation into existence.

b. I believe he will change the heavens and earth like he will change our vile bodies and make them fit for heaven.

The fact that there is no more sea on the new earth testifies to the fact that fire has changed all the water into something else.

Rev. 21:1 states there is coming a time when there will be no more sea. This is the time of eternity, after this heaven and earth are destroyed and God has created a new heaven and a new earth.

Psalms 72:8 states that Christ will reign from sea to sea. This is the time of the millennium when Christ rules over this earth with a rod of iron for 1,000 years.

Isaiah 65:17 - God here states that he will create a new heavens and a new earth.

The end result of all this is that God will wind up with exactly what He wanted to begin with (before sin), plus there will be many millions of redeemed people who will freely worship Him, plus Satan (all evil for all eternity) will have been put away. There will be nothing left but endless bliss and happiness.

B. Fire from heaven has always been a sign of God’s blessings, or God’s judgments.

1. Genesis 19:24 - Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven.

2. Exodus 3:2 - And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

3. Exodus 9:23 - And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt.

4. Exodus 13:21 - And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night

5. Exodus 24:17 - And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel.

6. Lev. 9:24 - And there came a fire out from before the LORD, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces.

7. I Kings 18:38 - Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.

8. II Kings 1:10, 12 - And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty. {12} And Elijah answered and said unto them, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And the fire of God came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.

9. These are only a few of the passages that show God reveals His power in the form of fire.

C. The Unholy Spirit of Rev. 13:11-14 will be able to send fire to the earth to deceive the people. And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. 12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. 13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.

1. II Thess. 2:11,12, God will send strong delusion to unbelievers through these great signs and wonders that they might believe Satan’s lie.

2. Matt. 24:24, The signs and wonders will be so great that if it were possible even the very elect would be deceived.

3. This event will be to show that Satan has overcome God and is sitting in his throne.

4. Satan is the great counterfeiter.

D. God takes fire back from Satan.

1. God will destroy this world by fire in order to prove once for all that Satan never had the victory over Him.

2. The destruction by fire also lays creates the new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.

Verse 8, But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

This verse does not teach that a thousand years on this earth is equal to one day in heaven, or to God.

This verse teaches that God doesn’t work according to time.

Psalms 90:4 - "For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night."

God lives in eternity, and is not concerned with time. Men are concerned with time because God created us to live in these fleshly bodies in time. Men only has so long to live, therefore is concerned with time. God has all eternity, therefore isn’t concerned with time.

Matthew 24:36 - Those people who try to set a time are wrong.

God and His purposes cannot be measured with time.

1. He has no beginning or end.

2. Peter declares that God is not hindered by our timetables.

3. Men think that is something isn’t accomplished during their life times, it won’t be accomplished.

4. This just isn’t so.

C. God is not limited by time at all.

1. He does things according to His timetable, whether this fits in with what men think or not.

2. Psalms 90:4, "For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night."

3. For men a thousand years is a long time, but to God, it is no time at all.

II. We need to state about here that Peter is not trying to discount the imminent return of Christ.

A. Peter does not set a time table for this destruction.

1. Some have used this passage to teach against a pre-tribulation rapture.

2. Others use it to teach a post-tribulation return of the Lord.

3. Peter does not have in mind to set a time table, rather to confirm that the destruction of the world by fire will come whether anybody believes it will or not.

4. The previous verses in this chapter will demonstrate this.

B. Peter is talking about the complete general picture of the end of time, not just the very small part which deals with the rapture.

C. Peter is the only apostle who does not write concerning the rapture.

1. John 21:18,19, Jesus has told Peter that he will die before the rapture comes.

2. II Peter 1:12-15 - Peter declares that he knows he will die, and these verses show the great burden he has for the people who will remain until the coming of the Lord.

D. Methuselah was given to the people before the flood as a sign like Peter was given to the people after the resurrection of Christ for a sign.

1. Methuselah died the year of the flood.

2. Methuselah was born 687 A.M. and his name means "Man of the dart, or Javelin", "It shall be sent (deluge)".

3. Believers knew than when Methuselah died, the coming judgment of God was very near.

4. Believers can also know that when Peter dies, the destruction of this world is very near.

5. Methuselah died the year of the flood, but the judgment of God didn’t come on the earth immediately after Peter’s death.

6. It is the longsuffering of God that has kept the judgment away for this length of time.

E. The flood didn’t come immediately when Noah got on the ark and God shut the door.

1. Evidently, Noah was in the ark seven days before the first drop of rain fell.

2. We shouldn’t get excited when things don’t happen when and how we think they are supposed to.

God is in control, and we ought to trust Him, regardless of how circumstances look to us.

This verse doesn’t mean that the present heavens and earth will last only 7,000 years.

There are some dispensationalists who believe this.

They say it was 2,000 years from the creation to the flood. (Actually it was 1656 years, but Noah did die when the world was 2006 years old.) This has been referred to as the time of conscience, or the time of the family.

They declare it was another 2,000 years to Christ. This time period is roughly equivalent to the times of the Jews.

They then conclude (accurately) it has been another 2,000 years since Christ. This time is attributed to the Gentiles, or the local churches.

They see from the scriptures that Christ shall reign on this earth for 1,000 years.

Rev. 20:2,3 - Satan will be bound for 1,000 years.

Rev. 20:4 - Christ shall reign for 1,000 years.

Rev. 20:5 - The dead (lost) shall remain in hell until the end of the millennium. After the millennium the lost shall be judged at the Great White Throne Judgment.

Rev. 20:6 - Those that take part in the first resurrection shall reign with Christ for 1,000 years.

Rev. 20:7 - After the 1,000 year reign of Christ, Satan shall be loosed from the bottomless pit where he will gather the inhabitants of the world together, all those that have rejected Christ, and will attempt to fight God. God will soundly defeat all his enemies, and Satan will be cast into the lake of fire, where the beast and false prophet are.