Grace Bible Church Gillette, Wyoming

2. This was Peter’s second letter, which we know as 2 Peter. However, Peter may have written more than two letters to this group of believers as some have suggested.

3. Peter states that this is the second letter that he is stirring up their minds by way of reminder. Some maintain that, as important as 1 Peter is, it is not necessarily a reminder. The word “mind” was only used once (1Pe 1:13), and “remind” was not used at all.

4. Nevertheless, this admission gives more weight to Peter’s authorship than it raises questions.

B. Stirring up Their Minds

1. Peter’s desire to “stir up” (diegeirō - wake, arouse, or literally stir up cf. Joh 6:18) his readers was previously mentioned in this letter (2Pe 1:13).

2. He particularly wants to stir up their minds, which is a reference to the continual teaching and re-teaching of the apostles and the engaged minds of believers.

3. In this way, these believers maintained a “sincere” (eilikrinês - proven by the sun or heat, like gold; figuratively it can refer to moral purity of mental hypocrisy) mind that was not double, divided, or contradictor, but able to discern the truth (cf. Php 1:10).

4. This is simply called reminding the church of God’s truth (Php 3:1; Rom 15:15; 2Th 2:5; Jude 5).

5. …the minds of the godly become dim, and as it were contract rust, when admonitions cease. But we also hence learn, that men even endued with learning, become, in a manner, drowsy, except they are stirred up by constant warnings. It now appears what is the use of admonitions, and how necessary they are; for the sloth of the flesh smothers the truth once received, and renders it inefficient, except the goads of warnings come to its aid. It is not then enough, that men should be taught to know what they ought to be, but there is need of godly teachers, to do this second part, deeply to impress the truth on the memory of their hearers (Calvin)

C. Spoken Words of the Prophets and Apostles (2)

1. What was it that Peter’s readers were reminded? The words of the prophets and the apostles. Here Peter put the apostles on the same level as the holy prophets of the Old Testament.

2. Peter had already given the definition of Scripture and the process of inspiration through the prophets (2Pe 1:20-21).

3. Scripture, its words and meaning, originated from God and were communicated to and through the OT prophets by the Holy Spirit.

4. What about the apostles of the New Testament? God communicated His Word in the same way through the apostles.

5. Peter later confirms that the apostle Paul was an inspired of Scripture (2Pe 3:15-16).

6. Peter’s point was that in contrast to the ignorant false teachers, Peter and the other apostles have the only truth from God just as the OT prophets did.

D. Spoken Commandment of the Savior

1. The phrase, commandment of the Lord, is qualified with “by the apostles.” In other words, the apostles did not quote the Lord’s commandment verbatim in this instance (though there were other times when that is exactly what they did, cf. 1Co 7:10; 2Jo 5-6), instead, the Lord spoke through the apostles in teaching, instructions, and commandments. A parallel passage in Jude 17 give us the same sense of the apostles’ words.

2. What was the commandment then that was given by the apostles? It would be the teachings, writings, and warnings given by the apostles not only about the kingdom on earth, but also the future kingdom and the Second Coming, as well as the rejection of it by false teachers (cf. Jude 18-19).

3. The apostles of Christ filled the 260 chapters of the NT with about 300 references to the second coming. NT revelation about the Christ coming to gather His own, warnings about eschatological judgments, information about the establishment of His kingdom, and teaching concerning God’s bringing in eternal righteousness, are the irrefutable proof for the second coming of Christ and the judgment of the wicked. (MSB)

II. SARCASM AGAINST THE 2^ND COMING (3:3-4)

A. Present in the Last Days (3)

1. Peter’s readers were to know and continue to know these things as first importance. They were to especially know that many of the false teachers would reject and ridicule the Second Coming.

2. The last days refer to the entire period between Christ’s first and second coming. These are some of the events that take place in the last days:

a. Christ appeared in the “last times” (1Pe 1:20).

b. God has spoken through His Son in the “last days” (Heb 1:2).

c. The Church Age exists during the “last days” (Jam 5:3).

d. There will be difficult times in the “last days” (2Ti 3:1).

e. False teaching and antichrists will appear in the “last hour” (1Jo 2:18).

f. False teachers will mock God, the Bible, and the Second Coming in the “last times” (Jude 18).

g. There will be a falling away in the “later times” (1Ti 4:1).

h. This was Peter’s exact point “that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking” (2Pe 3:3).

B. Mockers Will Come with Mocking

1. “Mockers” (empaiktês - by implication false teacher, to make fun of, ridicule) will always be present until the end of the age until God completely silences them.

2. Mocking implies an underlying unyielding pride and a hardness toward God and His holy word. The scoffer refuses to submit to God's Word and stirs up trouble wherever he goes. (Hurt)

3. What is it that they are mocking? The answer is, they mock at anything that has to do with God, His Word, His promises, His warnings, and His judgment. All of the elements are included in Christ’s Second Coming. Therefore, false teachers focus in on mocking Christ’s coming.

4. There have always been mockers at God’s judgment or deliverance (Isa 5:18-19; Jer 17:15; Ezek 12:21-24; Mal 2:17).

5. Peter already intimated some of the ridicule in the form of false accusations of inventing or following myths in regard to Christianity (2Pe 1:16).

C. Following after Their Lust

1. These false teachers followed their own lusts and were immoral as depicted previously by Peter (2Pe 2:10, 14, 18).

2. However, there is a connection between being immoral and mocking God. They mock God in order to deny His existence, thereby freeing themselves to carry out their sinful lifestyles.

3. Anthropocentric hedonism [man-centered pleasure-seeking] always mocks at the idea of ultimate standards and a final division between saved and lost. For men who live in the world of the relative, the claim that the relative will be ended by the absolute is nothing short of ludicrous. For men who nourish a belief in human self-determination and perfectibility, the very idea that we are accountable and dependent is a bitter pill to swallow. No wonder they mocked! (The Second Epistle of Peter and the Epistle of James [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1968], 127)

III. OBSERVATIONS AND APPLICATIONS

A. Biblical Preaching Stirs Minds and Hearts

1. Lest they should be wearied with the Second Epistle as though the first was sufficient, he says that it was not written in vain, because they stood in need of being often stirred up. To make this more evident, he shews that they could not be beyond danger, except they were well fortified, because they would have to contend with desperate men, who would not only corrupt the purity of the faith, by false opinions, but do what they could to subvert entirely the whole faith. Calvin

2. This is what biblical preaching accomplishes. It stirs up the mind not only to refresh God’s truth, but also stirs up the heart for action.

B. Scripture is the Believer’s Ground for Confidence

1. When our enemy cannot deceive us with lies, he resorts to sending scoffers who ridicule God's Word, seeking to cause us to "abandon ship" and to forgo and forget the very Word they mock, the Word which prophesies of their ultimate defeat and eternal destruction. Let us hold fast to this faithful Word, for the only way we can recognize the errors of the mockers is by comparing their teaching with the teaching of the holy prophets and apostles, i.e. the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Scripture is always the test of error and the ground of confidence for believers. (Stedman)

C. Mockers Confirm God’s Word

1. A prophecy which has been abundantly fulfilled. You need not go far to find them; they come in the form of living men, and they swarm in the form of their books. They are to be met with almost everywhere; like the locusts, they fill the air, and hide the light of the sun: There shall come in the last days scoffers Every time a blasphemer opens his mouth to deny the truth of revelation, he will help to confirm us in our conviction of the very truth which he denies. The Holy Ghost told us by the pen of Peter that it would be so (Spurgeon).

Grace Bible Church · 4000 E. Collins Rd · PO Box #3762 · Gillette, WY · (307) 686-1516