Good morning and welcome in today. Today we’re going to take a look at a passage of scripture from..
2 Pet 3:3-9
3 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.
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:
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.
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.
9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
let’s begin this morning by looking at this word scoff. He teaches that there will be scoffers walking after their own lusts. To scoff means to treat something with contemptuous disregard. People will be manifesting this feeling towards the teachings of scripture.
Contemptuous means that they feel or express deep hatred or disapproval. It’s feeling or showing contempt.
Because they are walking after their own lusts, they are actually believing a lie. They do not want to turn their ears to the truth, but desire to walk after their own sinful living. The Bible teaches something, but they reject it. Jesus says it, but they will not listen. The reason why is because they love their sins more then Jesus.
To scorn is to treat with contemptuous disregard. In the church we have the teachings of Christ. This group of people have turned away from those teachings and pay no attention to them. What they do is completely ignore them.
Remember, Jesus was very upset insomuch that he threw over tables and made a scourge when he went into the temple. He cared for the Jews so much that he died on the cross so that they could have forgiveness for their sins. The problem was that there were numerous people who would not listening to what he was preaching. He was teaching the things of God’s Heavenly Kingdom and they were treating him with scorn. What they were trying to do is figure out a way to get him. Disregard is the action or state of disregarding or ignoring something.
There are a lot of things that we can ignore in this world, but the people who we are talking about today, ignore the scriptures. They ignore the promises of God. They ignore what Christ clearly teaches. Instead of becoming faithfully obedient to him, they simply paid no attention. That’s what’s going to happen. They are going to turn their ears away from the truth and be turned unto fables.
They deliberately pay no attention to the things that they have been taught from God’s Word. Sometimes the word disregard is used to mean neglect, implying that something important is not being taken care of.
The Apostle taught Timothy not to neglect his faith. If you neglect something it means that you really don’t care about it. Have you ever seen an abandoned building in a town somewhere that’s been there for a hundred years and nobody’s bothered to take care of it? It’s slowly starts to fall apart and decay. Neglect means to fail to pay attention to something or to not do enough to properly care for it. So again, he’s warning about people here who are going to neglect their faith.
3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,…
A scoffer is somebody who treats something with contempt. They show scornful disapproval. Why are they doing it in our passage today? Because they don’t want to believe the truth of scripture anymore. They choose to walk after their own lusts.
The lust that we are speaking of here is a longing desire or eagerness to possess something that you shouldn’t have. People can lust after riches, money, possession and Gain.
It’s generally defined as a strong desire for something. Instead of walking in the truth, these people are going to walk after their own lusts.
4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming?
Even in that statement, you can see that they were not believing the truth about Jesus’s return. They weren’t believing any judgment later.
…..for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
So again, they were rejecting the truth that Jesus is going to return.
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:
6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
The Apostle teaches that they are willfully ignorant. If you are ignorant, it means that you lack knowledge, information or awareness about a particular thing. Now, if somebody has preached the scriptures to you for many years, you are no longer ignorant, because you know what the Bible says.
Somebody who is willfully ignorant decides that they want to forget about everything that they’ve been taught. Willful ignorance is defined as when people believe that the things that they have learned are false. That’s what I’m saying, instead of believing the truth as they’ve been taught they will start to believe a lie.
Willfully ignorant refers to those who lack the information or facts because they choose to forget them.
So he is speaking about people today who know the truth, they have been educated in the truth, but they turn away from it. They are scoffers who choose to forget the things that they have learned. They become forgetful hearers willfully. They really don’t believe in the Judgment that’s coming. There’s no fear of God before their eyes.
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.
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.
9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
The reason why Jesus hasn’t returned yet, is not because He is slack, but He wants more people to turn to Him in faith. He wants more people to come to him and get forgiven by him. He wants more people to believe in His message of love and truth. Slack means a spell of inactivity or laziness. Our Lord is not slack. Look at the world and the universe He created! The Lord is long-suffering which means he shows great patience towards this sinful world. Long suffering means to be patient and endure lasting offense or hardship that people do towards you.
Someone who is long suffering puts up with a lot of trouble and unhappiness. Look at that the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ. He cares for this world so much that he laid down his own life at the cross to cover our sins, but yet people hated him. God doesn’t want anybody to perish. He wants everybody to come to repentance.
Repentance is a surrendering of your heart and your mind to God as your sovereign. Instead of believing a lie you begin believing God’s truth. Instead of believing what’s wrong, you start to believe what’s right. Instead of walking In the flesh, you begin to walk in the spirit. That is what repentance is, and the first step is to believe in the one who died on the cross for you. It’s coming boldly to the throne of grace in time of need.
True repentance begins with an apology of what you have done wrong. It’s saying, you are right God and I was wrong. That change in our hearts and our minds leads to a changed life when you are filled with faith.
Just remember that the scoffers spoken about in our passage today know what the Bible teaches, it’s just that they choose to turn away from it and act like there’s not going to be any judgment later on for what they do.
Instead of admitting and confessing their faults, they choose to willingly forget what they have been taught.
God doesn’t want anybody to perish, but we have to acknowledge God’s truth.
I think that’s where I’m going to stop for right now, but Lord willing we’ll talk to you some more tomorrow till then, bye-bye everybody
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 