Well, I'm glad to be here this
morning. I'm thankful for the Lord's grace
and mercy to us all and thankful to be able to have fellowship
with this assembly and be identified with you with the gospel. And
I hope you'll continue to pray for us, just a small group and
gathering around the the gospel of God's glory. I want you to
turn this morning for a few minutes to the book of Genesis in chapter
5. I try to always remind folks that
the scriptures say that these things were written for our admonition. These Old Testament Scriptures
were written for our admonition, those of us upon whom the end
of the age should come. And that's where we're at. So
as we read even portions such as the one I want us to read
this morning, there's a reason for God giving it to us. It's not just page filler. If
you look down in verse 21 of Genesis 5. It says, And Enoch lived sixty
and five years, and begat Methuselah. And Enoch walked with God after
he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Enoch were
three hundred sixty and five years. and Enoch walked with
God, and he was not, for God took him. And Methuselah lived
an hundred eighty and seven years, and beget Lamech, and Methuselah
lived after he beget Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years,
and beget sons and daughters. And all the days of Methuselah
were nine hundred sixty and nine years, and he died. I was thinking about it this
morning. Of all the biblical names that there are in this
book, the name Methuselah may have been the one I heard first,
because I can remember growing up and people talking about other
people being old, and they'd say, He's nearly as old as Methuselah. But the name Methuselah means
something like this. When he is gone, it will come. When he is gone, it will come. And the it having to do with
the flood. That is, the judgment of God
that came upon all the earth. And I believe that he pictures
at least two sure things. And, of course, the first one
would be the sure judgment of God. That is, the sure and certain
judgment of God against sin. Some people do not believe that
God's threats are as real and as sure as his promises, but
they are. upon the inhabitants of all the
earth. God says when he is gone, it
will come, and that is exactly what happened. But maybe more
than that, I believe that he is a wonderful picture of the
long-suffering and the mercy of God. He gives us so many things
wherein He shows us and reminds us and pictures for us how that
God is merciful and long-suffering to His people. If you remember
Moses, even after he had seen all the things that he had seen,
and it would appear that by what people seem to want to see in
our day, if they could just see one or two of the things that
Moses saw, that they'd surely believe and they'd surely be
happy. But Moses, after he had seen
all the things that he'd seen, he requested this of the Lord. He said, show me your glory. your greatest glory. And in Exodus 35 it says that
the Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord
God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and
truth. keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no
means clear the guilty." You know, it's an accusation that
is leveled against those of us who preach and believe the sovereign
grace of God. We don't really believe that
God is a God of mercy and love and grace. But he says this is
his greatest glory, his sovereign mercy and his long suffering
to sinners. As a matter of fact, in Psalm
86, the psalmist says, But thou, O Lord, art a God full
of compassion, and gracious, long-suffering, and plenteous
in mercy and truth." Now, I say that Methuselah is not only a
picture and a witness to the sure judgment of God on this
world against sin. When he died, the flood came
on all the earth. But I say he's also a witness
and a picture of the mercy of God and the long-suffering of
God because this man Methuselah lived the longest of any man. He lived to be 969 years. And so when God says of him in
providentially giving this name to him in what it signifies,
when he is gone it will come, though it surely shows us the
sure judgment of God on this world against sin, it's also
a demonstration of His long-suffering. He lived the longest of any man
that has ever lived. In other words, God waited all
that time, and He withheld His judgment in mercy. If you remember the Apostle Peter's
words, he says that God in that day, he says, the long-suffering
of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was a-preparing
wherein few, that is eight souls, were saved by water. Now, eight souls, that doesn't sound like a statistical
happening really in our day, does it? Eight souls. But you
see, the picture here is that God was long-suffering. throughout all those long years,
he caused that man Methuselah to live all that long time in
order for the salvation of all his people. You see, in our day,
a man's success, it seems like, especially a preacher, is determined
by how many he supposedly gets saved, to use the term they use. But you see, God's glory does
not depend on how many he saves. His glory depends on him saving
everyone he purposed to save. And His glory depends on the
way that He saves them in a manner that is consistent with Himself. And so in this hour, these 969
years, He waited, and as He waited, He demonstrated His sovereignty
and His right and his rule which he exercises
not only over all his creatures but over all things. He made this man who was undoubtedly
a sinner just like we are and who I know had problems because
it says that over all that long time He begat sons and daughters,
and so in the midst of all of that, God preserved him, not
so he could have some kind of celebrity status as the oldest
man on the earth, but that so he could demonstrate the long-suffering
of God. And He always does so, and the
Bible says that He waits. The old theologians had a term,
I came across this a long time ago, but they referred to the
leisure of the eternal. And by that they meant something
like the God cannot be hurried, and God cannot be stopped, and
God maintains His own schedule in the affairs of heaven and
earth, and He does so for a reason, and He is oftentimes seen to
thee waiting. He waits. Why did God wait? And more especially, maybe to
us, why does God wait right now? I don't know about you, but I
find when I look around at what's going on in this world, almost
on every I find out that I see things that
make me just say, God, why don't you just bring all this to a
close? Why don't you just wrap all this
up? We know that His promise is that
He will not destroy the earth again by water. But he's made
another pledge, and that is that he will purge this earth with
fire, and he will bring about this regeneration or transformation
that will precede the great eternity that lies out before us, and
the church is always found saying, Like it's said in the book of
the Revelation, Behold, come quickly, Lord Jesus. I don't know about you, but the
older I get, the less fascinated I'm finding myself with this
world. Like that old hymn we sing sometimes
about Jesus being a rock in a weary land. This is a weary land. And so why does God wait? Why does He show Himself long-suffering? Well, it's just simply this,
to save all. is to save everyone of his. I thought about it once and I
certainly would not say that I'm the I'm right in this, but
I've often wondered why that it says and why he did save as
it says there in Genesis 8. I need thinking on that. Why
eight? Well, you know, numbers seem
to have some kind of significance in the scripture, and I was thinking
about it one day. The number that always seems
to stand out is the sevens. You know how in scriptures there's
always seven of this and seven of that, all the clean animals
and things like that, seven and all. And I just thought about
it. Maybe it's like this. that this 8 is that 7, that perfect
number, plus 1. That's all His people in the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is long-suffering, and all
that we see God bringing to pass at this very moment And permitting
to go on in this world is simply God being merciful to those that
he purposed to save in Christ. Time will not stop. The earth will not perish. Global warming will not consume
us. The water will not dry up and
go away. A nuclear bomb will not destroy
the earth as long as God has one sheep
to bring." That's what the shepherd said. He said, have I that are
not of this foe, them also I must bring." Why? Because His glory depends on
it. Because the justice of God requires
it. Now, I hear a lot of disparaging
remarks made in recent days about this so-called legal salvation. As if to say that there is something
wrong with a salvation that is spoken of in legal terms when
most of the biblical words in the New Testament that are used
to speak of salvation such as redemption and justification
and ransom and all, they all are legal words. I love the justice
of God because I know this, I know if the Lord Jesus Christ went
to the cross and there on that cross before the justice of God
paid the debt of the sins of His people, that same justice
required that every one of them be saved, that every one of them
be called, that every one of them be brought to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, if it takes ten million more years. Now, I don't know much about
the timetable passed. But I can just about guarantee
you that as far as the timetable future is concerned, time will
go on for as long as God requires it to go in order to save every
one of his people. Do you remember what the angel
said to Lot? Lot, he's hum-haw and he's like
us. We don't have any real sense
of the urgency of an hour. So Lot, he's just kind of hanging
around. He's clutching on to all his
earthly possessions and connections and such as that. But remember
what the angel said to him. He said hastily. and escape thither, get out of
Sodom right now. For I cannot do anything until
thou become thither." Now, I'm sent of God to wipe out this
whole place. But I can't do anything as long
as you're here. Why? Because he was righteous
lot. I remember I was preaching one
time. I don't know much now, but I knew even less then, but
I knew a little bit. And I was preaching in this little
country church that I had once been the pastor of when I didn't
know not an inkling of the gospel. And somehow they asked me back. to come back and preach to him
later after the Lord had revealed the truth to me. And by the way,
that was the only time I went back. But I went back and I was
talking about righteous law. This woman came to me after the
service and she said. I do not see how you could ever
say that law was righteous. From what I read about him, you
know. I said, well, I said that Lot
was righteous, but I'm not really the one that counts. The Spirit
of God said he was righteous. And he was righteous and seen
righteous by God in the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the only
way you will ever be. The angel said, I can't do anything
until you're out of here. And that's the whole thing. God
is long-suffering. Turn over to 2 Peter, 2 Peter chapter 3, because here the apostle Peter
is led by the Spirit of God. He alludes to that judgment that
was passed, and he also speaks of the judgment that's coming.
And he says that by virtue of the fact that God promised and
sent the first one, he's also promised and he will send the
second one. All right, listen to him in 2
Peter chapter 3, beginning in verse 3. He says, Knowing this
first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking
after their own lusts, 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. That was a lie. They hadn't continued just as
they were from the creation. There was a fall and there was
a flood. He says, 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, whereby the world that then was being overflowed with
water perished. But the heavens and the earth
which are now, by the same are kept in store, reserved under
fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. 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." Now, that tells me
that my clock and your clock and God's clock are totally different. There's a man out in California.
Supposedly, it believes something about grace. And some years ago,
he predicted a time and a date of the second coming of Christ.
And needless to say, the Lord didn't come. But now he's done it again. He
miscalculated. No, a day is with the Lord as
a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day. And the reason
is, the Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count
slackness, but is what? Long suffering. Long suffering to us. To God's people. To every one
of Christ's sheep, to that people he gave to his son in that everlasting
covenant, to the people that he loved in Christ before the
world began, he's long suffering to us were not willing that any
any being a pronoun, I believe, that must refer to the nearest
object to it, this usward, not willing that any of the usward
should perish, but that all should come to repentance." He's not willing that any of
his people perish. but he's willing that every one
of them should come to repentance toward God in faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ, and he is long-suffering until it happens. He's long-suffering,
but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night,
in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise,
And the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also,
and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Well, it looks like that could happen at any time
to me. But it hasn't. And it's just
like it was in the day of Mephisto. He waits. that he might show
mercy. Paul writes in Romans 9 and he
says, What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his
power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of
wrath fitted to destruction and that he might make known the
riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had aforeprepared
unto glory." You know, I look at my children and my family, my
friends and my neighbors. And I want to see them know Christ
so bad. And I don't sometimes understand
why that things happen to them or to me
or in this world when it only seems it makes things worse to
me. But in Isaiah 30. He says this, And therefore will the Lord wait,
that he may be gracious unto you. And therefore will he be
exalted, that he may have mercy upon you. For the Lord is a God
of judgment, and blessed are all they that wait for him. He said the Lord waits that he
might be gracious. That's what he was doing in the
Fusilier's day. That's what he's doing in this
day. And I pray he'll give us eyes
and ears and hearts of faith to believe. preach his gospel,
pray and ask him to show himself mighty to save and glorify himself.