II Peter 3:11 says, “What manner of persons ought you to be?”  II Peter 3 is the last letter from the apostle Peter.  In the first chapter he tells that very soon he is going to die.  He knows, that just as the Lord predicted to him, very soon he is going to be crucified—He knew that when he wrote this letter.  So, in the letter, in the first chapter, he tells the people how they can be sure of having eternal life.  He tells them that the word of prophecy is more sure than what they see or hear.  In the second chapter he predicts a world-wide apostasy in Christendom after his death.  He spends the entire chapter describing the awful apostasy coming into the Christian church.  In the third chapter he begins to speak about the times in which we are living.  Notice what II Peter 3:3 says: “This knowing first, that they shall come upon the last days, mockers.”

What is this mockery; what are these mockers going to say?  Notice ten things that Peter says will happen in the last days:

1.   There will be mockery and mockers.  (Verse 3.)  Do we see that happening today?

2.   Then they will say, “Where is the promise of His coming?”  (Verse 4.)  This is a statement of unbelief.  The last days are described in the Scriptures as a time of great unbelief.  Most of the world does not believe.  Are we living in that time?  Yes, it is right in our history books.  When the history books refer to past ages, a few hundred years ago, they refer to it as the age of faith.  Have you noticed that?  Many historians refer to the period of time that we often call the Middle Ages and the Dark Ages as the age of faith.  It was a very wicked time, a time when millions of Bible-believing Christians were martyred for their faith, but it was still an age of faith.  Even those who were killing other people claimed to believe in God, to be Christians, and to believe the Bible.  Jesus described the last days as being like the days of Noah.  Were the days of Noah a time of unbelief?  Well, there were only eight people on the ark!  The last days are repeatedly described as a time of great unbelief.  I was reading just the other day that different mathematicians have tried to figure out what the population might have been at the time of the flood.  Remember, people before the flood lived to be almost 1,000 years of age.  Considering that, a woman could probably have children for 300-400 years.  How many children would a woman have in that length of time?  One mathematician, who was working on this, said it would be the easiest thing in the world for the average family to have 18-20 children, so he took the lower number of 18.  By the way, there are people in our time who have a dozen or more children, so 18 is not unrealistic.  If people in our day, living to be less than 100 years of age, have that many children, surely it is not unrealistic to think that the average family in Old Testament times could have 18 children, more or less, when men and women then had much stronger immune systems, and were much stronger muscularly, mentally, and physically.  We know that they had many children, because in Genesis 5, everyone, including Enoch, who only lived here for 365 years and had his first child when he was 65, had sons and daughters.  “Sons” would have to be at least two, and “daughters” would have to be at least two, so in addition to Methuselah, Enoch would have had a minimum of five children, but it could have been six, or eight or ten.  If the average family had 18 children, this mathematician concluded that at the time of the flood the population would have been in the neighborhood of between seven or eight hundred million people.   If the average family had been 20, the number would have been over a billion.  Ellen White says that there was a vast population in the world at that time.  (See Patriarchs and Prophets, 102.)  It is almost for certain that it was hundreds of millions at a minimum, and it could easily have been over a billion.  But out of these hundreds of millions of people, there were only eight people in the ark.  Is that an age of unbelief?  Jesus said it would be like that again at the end, and Peter says it will be a time of great unbelief.  They will be mocking those who are expecting the Lord to come.  They will say, Well, you expected Him to come years ago, and we cannot contradict that.

3.   People will be going after their own lusts.  (Verse 3.)  In other words, they will be following their own human cravings.

4.   They will be expressing unbelief. 

5.   They will say, Since the father’s fell asleep everything continues like it has from the beginning of creation.  (Verse 4.)  That is the Uniformitarian Theory that was developed in the last 200–250 years.  You cut into a mountain and look at the sediment, and you say, Well, we are laying down two-tenths of an inch of sediment every year in this mountain.  So by cutting down so many feet, we can say that this mountain is so many million years old, because we believe that the same sediment that we are laying down every year now has been laying down for centuries.  The same thing happens with the rings on a tree.  Incidentally, concerning rings on a tree, they cannot find any trees that are older than 4,000 years.  Is that not interesting?  They count the rings on the Sequoia trees in California and on the redwoods.  The redwood trees are only 3,000 years old—they would have been 1,000 years old at the time of Christ, but there are some Sequoia trees that are in the neighborhood of 4,000 years old.  There are places where every year there is a layer of ice laid down.  You can look at these ice layers—and this even tempts some Seventh-day Adventist scientists to become unbelievers.  One scientist told me they could dig down through those layers of ice and there are 90,000 of them, so he believes that the world is 90,000 years old.  That is the Uniformitarian Theory.  We see this happening now, and we project backwards.  We dig down through the silt at the bottom of a lake, and we say, Well, it is laying down so much silt every year, and it is so many feet deep, so this lake is this many million years old.  Almost all of geology is built on the Uniformitarian Theory.  In 1979, when we visited my bother Marshall in Pennsylvania, we went to the Smithsonian Institute.  I went through the entire geology building looking for evidence that things were many millions of  years old.  I went to every display in the whole building, and there is only one piece of evidence—the Uniformitarian Theory.  Almost 1,800 years before this theory was developed, Peter said, That is what they are going to say in the last days.  According to Bible prophecy, this theory is proof that we are living in the last days.

6.   They will be willingly ignorant that the heavens were anciently and the earth, out of the water and through the water, existing by the Word of God.  (Verse 5.)  They are willingly ignorant that this world came into existence by the Word of God; it is not something that just developed over a long period of time.  They want to be ignorant; they do not want to remember this.  We have the most startling proof of that today.  I am reading a book entitled, Buried Alive.  It is a book about the researches of an orthodontist who went to Europe and different places where they have the skulls of people like the Neanderthal man, the Pro-magnum man, who were supposed to be millions of years old.  He got permission to take x-ray pictures of some of these skulls.  He began doing some measurements and calculations, and he found information that so startlingly disproved existing theories that his life was actually in danger.  He tells how he was chased and how he fled from the would-be assassins.   About two weeks ago we found out that Robert Gentry, the man who wrote Creation’s Tiny Mystery, which is about how the stones were created, is right now in the process of taking some organizations to court and attempting to sue them.  He wants to sue them because he has written eleven different research reports of his findings on his rock research.  No one has been able to fault his research.  In court, when the evolutionists were asked to refute his research, they said, “That is just a tiny mystery that we cannot explain.”  He has submitted his reports for publication and the journals refuse to publish them.  Do you know why they are refusing to publish them?  Because the Bible says in the last days they willingly, wantonly desire to forget.  It is exactly what the Bible says.  They do not want to remember that the heavens and earth came into existence by the Word of God.  They want to forget that.

7.   The world that then was being deluged by water, was destroyed.  (Verse 6.)  If you look at the sentence structure here, it is part of the same sentence as the one above (verse 5).  This is one of the things of which they are willingly ignorant—the flood.  If any of you find a geology or biology textbook that teaches the world-wide flood about 4,400 years ago, let me know.  I have never seen one.  Our textbooks never acknowledge a world-wide flood; they only talk about an ice age.  Notice what Peter says, “But the heavens and the earth which now are, by the same Word, are kept treasured up for fire unto the Day of Judgment and destruction of ungodly men.”  (Verse 7.)  The Bible teaches that there is fire coming.  The third angel’s message teaches that there is fire coming.  I have never preached much about hell.  I do not like to think about it; I do not like to preach about it; I do not like to talk about it, but it is in the Bible.  We need to recognize that each one of us has a heaven to win and a hell to shun, and we need to always have this in mind when we are talking to other people.  Perhaps it would help us overcome some of our timidity.  When we are witnessing, we are trying to save people from hell and get them to heaven, if they will listen.  Peter says fire is coming; a time of judgment for the ungodly is coming.  Jude 15 talks about the same thing.  Jesus talked about it in Matthew 13.

8.   An overwhelming surprise is coming upon our world.  “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief.”  (Verse 10.)  It is going to be an overwhelming surprise.  The text continues, “in which the heavens with a great rushing sound will pass away, and the elements will be burned up.  The earth will be destroyed and the works in it.”  It is all going to be burned up—our cars, our houses, our possessions.  The only possession we have that will not be burned up, if they are saved, are our children.  People can be saved; things cannot be saved.  Realizing that everything is going to be burned up helps us to evaluate what is important and what is not important.  It is in that context that Peter says, seeing this—that everything around us is going to be destroyed—“what manner of persons should we be in all holy manner of life and godly conduct.”  (Verse 11.)  Is this something important to study, if everything around us is going to be destroyed, and we hope to escape the destruction?  If we want to escape these destructions, what manner of people should we be?  But Peter gives us hope.  He says new heavens and a new earth, according to His promise, in which dwells righteousness.  (Verse 13.)  By the way, what is righteousness?  It is right doing.  Romans 7:12 says that the law is holy and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.  Someone who is a righteous person, lives according to God’s Law; an unrighteousness person does not live according to God’s Law.  “Little children, do not let anyone deceive you.  He who practices righteousness is righteous just as He is righteous.  He that sins is of the devil, for the devil sins from the beginning.”  I John 3:7, 8. 

II Peter 3:11 asks us what manner of persons we should be.  I have listed several things:

1.   A holy manner of life.  Holiness is God-likeness; piety.  So often, in religion, we use certain words over and over, and most of our children cannot understand them.  The average child probably cannot tell you what the word holy means.  Piety, sometimes translated virtue, means moral excellence.  “Wherefore, beloved, expecting these things, be diligent, spotless, and unblemished (or blameless) to be found by Him in peace.”  Verse 14.  What does it mean to be spotless?  Paul uses this term over and over again.  What makes the character spotted?  Sin.  So, if you are without spot, you are without sin.  Remember the sacrifices were to be without spot or blemish.  The Bible tells us what it is that brings the character into condemnation and what it is that makes up a person with a righteous or holy character.  If you want to study this, see II Peter 1:3–8; Galatians 5:22, 23.  The Bible actually gives us more lists of those that bring the character into condemnation.  See: Romans 1:29–32; I Corinthians 6:9, 10; Galatians 5:19–21.  Jesus says that these are the things that defile a man (Matthew 15:17–20); and John gives us three lists in the last of the book of Revelation.  God must have known that we needed to have these things spelled out.  In Revelation 21:5–8 it talks about the one that overcomes and then it gives a list, and it says that the people with these characteristics are going to be in hell-fire.  Revelation 21:27 mentions a short list, and a longer list is given in Revelation 22.  We usually quote verse 14 about those who keep the commandment entering in through the gate, but then if you notice verse 15, it gives you a list of people who will be on the outside.  The Bible gives us lists so that we will know which people are spotted and which people are blameless; who will be accounted pious and holy.   I want you to notice II Peter 3:17:  “Therefore, you, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, guard yourself in order that not with the error of the unprincipled one, sometimes referred to as the wicked one, you might be led away and fall from your own steadfastness.”  This is a command.  Do you suppose when the Bible gives us a command that we should pay special attention to what we are to do?  This is a general command, but it is a command.  It says, guard yourself.  From what are we to guard ourselves?  “The one who walks with wise men, also he will be wise, but a companion of fools (or impious people) will be destroyed.”  Proverbs 13:20.  According to this verse, I need to guard myself concerning my associations.  Will there be those who will lose their faith because they associated with the wrong crowd?  People think this only happens to children and young people, so we are very concerned with whom our children associate.  As adults, we are not immune from our associations. Do you realize, every social association has an affect on us?  We affect the other person, but they also affect us.  This verse can make all the difference between hell and heaven for a lot of people.  The very same principle is discussed in Psalm 1.  We need to guard ourselves regarding our associations.  Oh, someone says, do we not need to be social in order to save people?  Yes, we should.  Ellen White says that is our only reason for being social—we should associate with the ungodly for one purpose only and that is if we are trying to save them.  (See Sketches From the Life of Paul, 299.)  Yes, we have to do business with them.  We could not exist in this world if we did not do business with them, but we do not need to associate with them socially except as we are trying to win them to Christ.  If you are not doing something for their salvation, you had better watch out, because you will be destroyed in the process.

2.   “I will not put before my eyes [What is it that David says he will not put before his eyes; what is it that he says he is not going to look at?] The wicked thing.”  [That is something that is base or worthless.]  Psalm 101:3.  Peter says to guard yourselves “lest you be led away with the error of the unprincipled ones and you fall from your own steadfastness.”  II Peter 3:17.  Let me tell you, this is happening today with frightful speed among those who profess to be waiting for the coming of the Son of man, because they are not guarded.  Are you guarding yourself?  Are you saying, I have a moral responsibility to God, not just for who I associate with, but for that at which I am looking?  Everything at which you look, are you asking, Do I need to know this; is this going to help me to be ready for heaven or is it some base, wicked thing, just for entertainment.  Something that I have learned from observation is that people in our society believe that they are simply being entertained by what they are looking at, but the fact of the matter is, they are being educated, and it is not the Holy Spirit who is educating them.  Always remember that.  If you are a Seventh-day Adventist, and you claim that you are waiting and preparing for the Second Coming of Jesus, Peter says to guard yourself.  David says he would not put any base thing in front of his eyes, and he talks about his hatred for these things.   This is an important principle, and the Bible talks about it in more than one place.  This is something for us to go to the Lord in our own devotions and pray about and ask the Lord to give us wisdom and to give us will power and self-control to only look at that which is pleasing in His eyes.  Would the Lord be pleased with what we are looking at?  Could the Lord sit right beside us on the sofa and could we watch together?  “The sinners in Zion are terrified.  Terror has seized the profane ones.  ‘Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire?  Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?’  The one who does righteousness; who speaks uprightly; who rejects the gain of oppressions; the one who will not accept a bribe; who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed; and who shuts his eyes from seeing evil.”  Isaiah 33:14, 15.   When there is terror in Zion among the profane ones, who is it that is going to dwell with the devouring fire?  Remember, the Bible says, Our God is a devouring fire.  Wherever sin is, when God comes, it will be devoured.  It says it is the person who shuts his ears from hearing about bloodshed and shuts his eyes from seeing evil.   Do you want to be one of those people?  That is how we have to be living if we are going to be ready.  We will have to be guarding what we see.

3.   We not only need to be guarding what we see, but we need to be guarding ourselves as to what we hear.  To what are you listening?  To what kind of music are you listening?  What kind of programs?  What kind of videos are you looking at and what kind of programs are you listening to?  Could Jesus be sitting beside as you look at or listen to the music or programs?  Could you have a good conversation and enjoy them together?  We need to be guarded.

4.   We need to guard what we taste, what we eat and drink.  There are many texts in the Bible about that, such as Isaiah 55; I Corinthians 10:20, 21; Daniel 1:8.  Paul says, “Whatsoever you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”  I Corinthians 10:31.

5.   We need to guard our imagination. Genesis 6 tells us this is the way it was before the flood, and Jesus said it will be this way again just before the Second Coming of Christ, and we must avoid this or we will all perish.  “And the Lord saw that great was the evil of man upon the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all day long.”  Genesis 6:5.  That is how things were before the flood.  The people’s thoughts were evil all day long.  That is the reason for the flood.  Very often sin begins in the imagination.  After a person has been thinking about it for a long time, then he talks about it, and eventually does it.  The Bible has a lot to say about the imagination.  Psalm 19:14 speaks about the words of my mouth and the thoughts, or imagination of my heart.  It says, may they be acceptable to the Lord.  II Corinthians 10:5 tells us that every thought is to be brought into subjection to Christ.  I am not ready for Jesus to come until every thought is brought into subjection to Christ.  My imagination is to be guarded.  By the way, there are good things on which to exercise the imagination.  Ellen White says that we should try to picture the home of the saved; we should spend time trying to imagine what heaven is like.  It is a good exercise for the imagination.  (See Steps to Christ, 86, 87.)  There are good uses for the imagination, but the devil tries to divert the imagination to evil causes so that it is like it was before the flood.

Those are the five things where we need to be guarded.  First, our associations; second, what we see (I am very fearful that many, many Seventh-day Adventists will lose their way to heaven and end up in hell-fire as a result of what they are looking at on their videos and their television sets.  I am not out to point fingers, I just want people to think about what they are looking at and what they are listening to—is it helping them get ready for heaven or not?  Third, what we hear.  Fourth, what we taste, and fifth, our imagination.  “In order that you might not be led astray by the error of the unprincipled ones.”  II Peter 3:17.  What does it mean to be unprincipled?  The unprincipled ones are lustful or licentious.  It has reference to unbridled lust, shamelessness, outrageous conduct, unchaste handling of males or females, and lawless works.  That is the way it is described in II Peter 2:6–10.  To the people who have guarded themselves, who are not being led away by the error of the unprincipled ones into lustful, lawless conduct, the Bible says, “But grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”   II Peter 3:18.

Very soon after penning these words, Peter was crucified.  He knew it would happen, because the Lord had told him that he would be crucified just like He was.  Jesus said that we are all going to take up our cross, but in the case of the apostle Peter, that was more literal than it is for most other people.  It was not just a cross of trials, but a literal cross.  Before his death Peter wanted to write one last time to the churches.  As he comes to the close of his letter, the last communication that he was to have before his own crucifixion, he wanted to appeal to the Christians to not become part of the great apostasy that he saw coming (described in detail in II Peter 2).  And he tells us how we should be guarded and prepared, without spot and blameless.  As he closes his letter he makes this final appeal:  “Grow, grow.”

Will there ever be a time in this world when we do not need to grow in grace?  No, there will never be a time in this world when this will not be applicable.  This is something that you can pray about every morning.  You can say to the Lord, I am commanded in Your Word that I am to grow in grace, and I am surrendering my life to You today, choosing to guard myself, choosing to do my part, but Lord, only You can supply the grace.  We need to do our part—to guard ourselves—but we need to grow in grace, and we need to ask the Lord to bring that miracle about, because only He can supply the grace.   The promise in the Scripture is that He has all of the grace that we need. 

Ellen White says that the strongest hold the devil has on the human race is appetite.  (See Counsels on Diet and Foods, 150.)  One of the things we need to be guarded about, of course, is what we taste, what we eat.  Appetite, passion, the desire for pleasure, impatience, losing our temper—with whatever we are struggling, we need grace if we are going to overcome, but God has all of the grace that we need. 

We have some common temptations, but we all have our own peculiar temptations.  Whatever your peculiar temptation is (by the way, people of different ages have different temptations too—young people have different kinds of temptations than middle aged people, and middle aged people have different temptations than old people), God understands.  He has enough grace for you, individually, and for each one of our churches.  We need to pray for one another individually and for our church family that we will receive an abundance of grace so that when people come to see us or when we visit people, they will see that we have something that they do not have.  They need to see that.  If we do not have something that they do not have, there is no reason that they should want what we have.  But if grace is operating, they will see that we have something that they do not.  Will you pray for that?