All right, well, let's look back
and get back into our discussion here, back in 2 Peter. Now, in chapter one, In verse
16, Peter says, for we have not followed cunningly devised fables
when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. So Peter here
says that any of this talk about the second coming not happening
or that the resurrection has already taken place is, as he
puts it here, is cunningly devised fables. And he says that those
are not, you know, Jesus told us that he was coming back. We
were told that he would return bodily. And he told us that,
uh, matter of fact, Peter himself seeing the glorified Christ,
whenever he was on the Mount of Transfiguration and seeing
that that was something that was going to happen eventually,
whenever he comes again. Uh, and so, uh, he had that given
to him. So we have the word of Christ,
uh, that has been given, not only by the Holy Spirit as he
recorded the things that Christ said, but also that he taught
the apostles that they too had handed down. Because I mean,
we see here, he says, when we made known unto you the power
and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul had mentioned a
few times in his epistles, those things that he had taught those
churches were not those things that he had come up with on his
own, but the things that he had actually been handed down by
Christ himself. Christ had given him the things
to say and said, go say it. And that's what he did. And so
we see that the apostles were laid into the church as a foundation
first, because that is who he spent most of the time with while
he was here on earth. They were with him all the time.
They heard all of his teaching publicly and privately. And so
he explained to them and give them all the things that he wanted
to be taught in the church. And so whenever that church began
to gather and those apostles began to share all those things,
because not everybody was able to follow him around everywhere
he went. And then, of course, after the day of Pentecost, we
see that the number of the disciples grew exponentially. And so all
these came at a quick time that had not been underneath that
teaching of Jesus. Now the first few that came,
the 120 that were in the upper room, they were ones that had
been accompanying with Jesus off and on throughout the whole
time he was here. But they heard those things,
but we're talking about now these people that have come to Christ
on the day of Pentecost and afterward, because we learned that there
was about 3,000 on the day of Pentecost. We learned that there
was more thousand after that. So we're looking at roughly,
you know, around eight, seven, 8,000 people at the church of
Jerusalem. That's a pretty good number of
folks. And then whenever they were scattered,
because the Bible said that they were all scattered and only the
apostles stayed, That's a lot of people to be
scattered out everywhere. And so, Peter is reassuring them,
remember, this was taught to us to teach to you, and this
is what we give to you, so don't be listening to all these fables.
We gotta realize that also, too, that we need to let this word
of God be our only rule of faith, and we need to not listen. And I'm not discouraging people
from reading other things and everything, but whenever you
read them, you always need to read them in light of the scripture. What does the scripture say?
Judge those things in righteous judgments against what the word
of God has said. So we have this word of assurance
that Christ is coming back and that this is something that we
should keep before us in our view. Now, back in the chapter
three, We see that Peter begins to confront the denial of this,
just kind of up front in chapter three. Look at verse one and
two, it says, this second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you,
in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance,
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 Savior. Then remember what the prophets
preached. Remember what all of us apostles
have preached about Jesus Christ. He says, keep this in your memory.
These are the things that Jesus has given to us. These are the
things that Jesus has commanded. Remember in Matthew, Jesus said,
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded.
So not only are things to be hoped for, but also the things
to be done here, Jesus has given to us. What did the prophet say? Again, you can turn with me if
you want, otherwise I'll just read it here. But back in Malachi
chapter four, in Malachi chapter four, starting
in verse one it says, For behold, the day cometh that shall burn
as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly
shall be stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up,
saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root
nor branch, but unto you that fear my name shall the son of
righteousness. Now you notice that the word
son is capitalized. Speaking of Christ the son of
righteousness Arise with healing in his wings and ye shall go
forth and grow up as calves of the stall So here the prophets is talking
about that last day talking about the coming of Christ They were
preaching that there's going to come a day whenever Christ
comes and whenever he comes Everything is going to be burned up Now
you remember whenever God judged the world during Noah's time
and he flooded everything. After everything was said and
done, he made a promise. What did he promise? What did
he promise Noah? That he would never flood the
earth again, right? He never would destroy the earth the way
that he did. And so Noah seen that promise and he put a rainbow
in the sky as a seal of that promise, showing that he would
never do that again. Now, he didn't say he's never
gonna destroy the world again, he said he's never gonna destroy
it again by water. He also didn't say he would never
destroy cities by fire or water, okay, because we've seen both
happen, right? Okay, the destruction of Sodom
and Gomorrah isn't the end because it was only the city that was
destroyed cities that were destroyed by fire. So that's not the end.
We've seen floods destroy cities. We've seen flooding destroy all
of you know, southern part of Louisiana, these last few years,
we've seen lots of flooding and even places up in the middle
part of the United States, we've seen flooding destroy whole cities.
So the Lord has not ever flooded and destroyed the whole world,
maybe someone's particular little world, but not the whole world.
And he's not destroyed the world by fire yet, but here Malachi
says, that the day cometh that shall
burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, all that do wickedly
shall be stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up." There's gonna be a day that comes
like that, brethren. That's a fearful thing. That's
an imminent thing that's gonna happen. There's no stopping that. But it says, but unto those who
fear God, fear His name, His power, His authority, shall the
Son of righteousness, Jesus Christ, arise with healing in His wings,
and He shall go forth, and ye shall go forth and grow up as
calves of the stall. So we see that that was what
the prophets preached about the second coming. Whenever he speaks
of the commandment in verse two, he says, remember he says, that
you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before the
holy prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord
and Savior. What he was talking about there
was possibly what is found And let me turn back here to it so
I can make sure I don't misquote it. Matthew 24 and verse 42, he says, this is Jesus,
and this whole passage that he's talking about here in Matthew
24 is talking about the end of the age, the signs of his coming.
And in verse 42, he says, watch therefore, for ye know not what
hour your Lord doth come. So he commanded the apostles
to watch and let it be known that I want to
come. And whenever I come, I want to
come. And it's going to be like a thief of the night. Matter
of fact, our passages talk about that. It says in verse 10, 2
Peter 3, 10, but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in
the night. I'm. How many of y'all have heard
the way I heard growing up that that meant a rapture? He was
coming to rapture the church away. That's not what that's
saying, okay? Now, my kids have never heard
differently. They've grown up hearing what
I've believed. They've never heard that but I grew up being
taught that you know that Jesus is gonna not come fully back
He's gonna come partially back. He's not gonna come down onto
the earth. He's just gonna Come down into
the sky or something and he's gonna call all the Christians
all the church they call the church he's gonna call the Christians
and home to be with him. And then at that point, there's
gonna be a seven year tribulation where he's gonna rain down wrath
upon the earth and upon the people that's left here. And that inspired,
that train of eschatology thought has inspired all kinds of books
like the Left Behind series, the movies, The Left Behind,
The Thief in the Night series, all like that. And they use this
as he's coming as a thief in the night to snatch him away.
Okay, that's not the intent of this. The intent of this is his
suddenness. He's coming back without warning,
without suddenness. He's coming back like that, okay? In verse 10, he says, but the
day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. See, whenever
you're asleep in the bed and not thinking about it, you're
not sitting there thinking, Oh, there's a, there's a, uh, there's
a thief that's going to break in. You know, I'm ready for him.
You know, now what do you do? You go to bed and you're not
thinking about it. And all of a sudden you hear the door kicking
in. There's the thief. He's there all out of nowhere. Unexpectedly. Uh, it came in. I mean, they don't, you know,
a thief doesn't call you ahead of time. So I had one break into
your house next Tuesday. Uh, so whether you're there or
whether you're not there, beware, I'm coming. You know, he doesn't
do that. What does he do? He comes unannounced
and bust in and there he is. That's what Peter is trying to
get through here. The day of the Lord will come
as the thief of the night. Not that he's going to come down
and secretly snatch everybody away. You know like the movies
I remember I'll never forget that movie that it all it starts
out with you know Of course it starts out with that song at
dirge, you know, there's no time to change your mind you've been
left behind But it starts out that movie starts out where you
hear a guy's electric shaver And his wife walks in and there's
the electric razor just kind of laying there in the sink and
his clothes are kind of dropped down on the floor like he's lost
all of his clothes and been, you know, and she's realized
she's been left behind. Oh no, where did he go? And all
that stuff. You know, that's what they think.
They think that Jesus is going to come and sneak away. But what
does it say there? But the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night in which The heavens shall pass
away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat, and the earth also and the works that are therein
shall be burned up. Now that doesn't sound like some
secret rapture to me, does it to you? I think everybody is
going to notice that coming, right? I mean, it's gonna be
hard to miss the heavens passing away with a great noise. It's
going to be hard to miss the elements of this creation melting
away with fervent heat. And if we read in other scriptures,
the Bible says that whenever he comes at the last trump, that
that trump will sound and his voice will be as many waters.
We've had the opportunity to go to Niagara Falls whenever
you stand, even though where we were standing was way away
from the falls, it was loud. You could hear all that water
coming over and it was loud, just the roaring of the water.
And the Bible says that whenever he comes and his voice will be
as many waters, it'll be like that. It'll be a fanfare. It'll be loud. There'll be a
lot of stuff going on. The Bible says that whenever
he comes, the dead in Christ is gonna rise. Those who are
here will be caught up to meet them. together and will be with
the Lord. All this is going to be dissolved
and everything that's going to be an eventful thing. So we see
that this is speaking of something that is gonna take place. And so in Matthew, Jesus says,
watch therefore, for you know not what day the Lord is coming. That's what he means by a thief
of the night. It's gonna be unexpected. Matter of fact, whenever they
tried to pin him down, when is your coming again? He said, it's
not for you to know the times and the seasons of these things.
Only the Father in heaven knows these things, okay? It's not
for you to know these things. Why? Again, It'll be the same
way as if we didn't believe in the second coming. We'll have
the same effect. If you knew Jesus was coming
on this day, how are you going to live? You know, if I knew
that Jesus was coming on a certain day, I wouldn't live in expectation.
I just kind of lived my life, but as the day approached, it
got closer and I knew, oh, it's coming, it's coming, it's coming.
So I'm getting myself ready. Whenever my grandma calls and
says, you know, hey, I want to come up and stay the week with
you guys. OK. Now if she tells us that
three or four weeks in advance or a couple weeks in advance
even, you know, what do we do? We carry on about our regular
routine. We do what we do. But the closer
it gets to the time for my grandma to come visit, you know what
we start doing? We start going to the grocery store and we get
all the things that granny likes to eat when she's here, get all
the stuff that granny likes to do. We get the house all extra
clean for whenever she comes. I mean, We get all that we start
preparing because we know this is the day she's coming. So we
get ourself ready for her coming. Well, there's no hope in that. There's just a known expectation
that it's going to happen. Well, we have a known expectation
that it's going to happen, but we don't know when it's going
to happen. And so the reason that the Lord has designed it
this way is that the people of God might be continually trusting
Him, looking to Him, always waiting for Him, because in that, that
is God's way of working in them, hope and power for godly living. And so he's telling these men,
watch, because you don't know when the Lord's come, so live
as if I could come at any minute, okay? Now again, I want to make
this clear. This isn't some brow-beating,
taskmaster whipping, I'm going to come, so you better be doing
good. you know, or else when I come, I'm going to whip you
when I get there. You know, that's not what we're
talking about. No, this is talking about is an earnest, whenever
granny comes, it's an exciting thing. It's not a dreadful thing.
It's an exciting thing when granny comes. Why do we, why do we get
the house all clean? Why do we go do all the things
that we do? Why? Because we're excited for her
return and we're looking for it. And so we're wanting to do
the things that And I don't mean this to be in an idolatrous way,
but we want to do the things that are pleasing to granny. And so whenever she comes. Not
that if we don't do those, she's going to quit being my granny.
And I'm going to quit being her grandson. And they're going to
quit being her great-grandkids. I mean, that's not going to happen.
The relationship's not going to be. And if she comes and our
house is dirty and we don't have the grocery done, she's still
going to be happy to see us. We're going to be happy to see
her. She's not going to disown us and everything. So what I'm
saying is it doesn't have anything to do with our salvation, but
it has everything to do with how we live this life and how
we perceive the things in this life and our experience of the
salvation. This is the way in which God
has ordained that the child of grace is kept in hope and kept
in walking in obedience. One of the things he does is
not only to give us his word, but he also gives us that inward
hope and desire for godly living because we know that our king,
our master, is soon to return. Now, look at verses three and
four. Again, he's talking about these false teachers again. Verse
3 and 4, knowing this first, that there shall come in the
last day 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. So, if you'll notice, these men
here are actually, these scoffers, are actually ordained of God.
Have you ever thought of that, contemplated about that, or even
realized that? These scoffers that Peter is
talking about here are actually ordained of God. Turn with me,
keep your place there, and turn with me over to Hebrews. Look in chapter one in verse
one. Look at what God says here. God,
who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto
the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things,
by whom also he made the world. Okay? So by Christ, the world
was made. The last days, he's spoken by
Christ, the one who made the world. Okay? God has spoken in
times past before the ministry of Christ began. He spoke in
times past by the prophets. Now we just read a while ago
that the prophets were one of the ones who had talked and the
apostles. But now he says, hath in these
last days spoken unto us by his son, whom he hath appointed all
things. Now, back in our verse in Peter,
look at verse four. The scoffer says, where is the
promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep,
all things have continued as they were from the beginning
of creation." What they're saying is this is
a rejection that Christ is actually resurrected. Okay? Where is the
promise of His coming? But especially when they said,
For since the fathers fell asleep, All things continue as they were
from the beginning of creation. So nothing's changed since the
beginning of creation and all things are the same as whenever
our fathers fell asleep. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David. Nothing's changed since their
days. Everything's still the same. And so it says, the laws of nature
are the same. Everything continues on. Everything
is unchanging. They basically are saying, hey,
the sun rises, the sun sets, summer, winter, spring, fall,
morning, evening. Day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day
5, day 6, day 7, day 1, day 2. I mean it's just over and over
and over again. Thousands of years. Everything
is working and doing the same thing over and over and over
and over again. So what these men are saying
is that this is going to continue from
now on. It's not going to happen. Where is the promise of his coming?
He promised that he's coming and look, he's not. Nothing's
happened. Now, they're not bringing up
the fact that he's already been here. That was a coming. But they're speaking as if he's
not coming at all. Period. Where is this promise
of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep,
all things continued as they were. Now Peter's not talking
about Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. He's not talking about them.
He's talking about the Old Testament saints. So he's saying that there's
not been anything that's really gone on since even when Jesus
came. It didn't change anything. Nothing's
changed. So we should expect that it should
go on and on and on and on for all the time. And you know, that's
kinda what a lot of people may believe, I guess. They may not
believe, even those who, I wanna word this just right so I don't
misconstrue what some person might say, but even though that
there are some who believe the return of Jesus Christ is coming
at some point, They don't dwell on those things. They believe in theory, or in
doctrine, or in their mind, Jesus is going to come again. But day
by day by day, they don't think about those things. See, Jesus
said, watch therefore. You know not what hour your Lord
might come. We're instructed to keep these things before us,
but There are some who believe in theory or in doctrine, Jesus
is coming, but every day that they live, they live not looking for him, not waiting
on him, not expecting him to come. And they just think, well,
everything's just gonna continue on the way that it continues
on, and it's always gonna continue on that way. But brethren, let
me, make a word of clarity here that what these men are saying
especially when they says all things continue as they were
from the beginning of the creation that's not true that's not true
either you know it may seem like that's true but that is not true
and Peter deals with this he deals with this a few different
ways But he deals with this look in verse five And let me read
down to verse seven and let's find out what he does to deal
with that thought that train of thought He says for this they
willingly are ignorant of okay. So number one Peter is telling
these guys. Okay, whenever somebody comes
in and says that among you just know hey, these guys are ignorant
okay, these guys are ignorant of what Christ has said and 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. Okay, so they said, there's a
big change. It didn't stay going the same.
But the heavens and the earth which are now by that same word
are kept in store, reserved under fire against the day of judgment
and perdition of ungodly men." So he's saying the same word
that brought destruction on the world and said destroy the world
and all the rains and floods came, that same world now is
saying hold everything back and keep it as it is until this time
and at that time, then it will rain down fire. So he's saying
everything is constrained and work in God's time for God's
purposes by his word. Okay. So the first thing that
these teachers ignore is that the world was made by God and
that everything is, is ordered by him and hangs in balance. And in its times, by His Word. It's just waiting for His say-so. For Him to say, OK, think of
this. Whenever Moses and the children
of Israel crossed the Red Sea and God parted those waters,
OK, and they walked across on dry land. Whenever they walked
across on dry land and Pharaoh's army started coming through here,
it was by God's Word those waters came. Those waters were being
held back. That time of destruction for
that Egyptian army was imminent. And those men going by and those
waters being held up, that wasn't God being slack. into the destruction
of the enemies of men, it was long-suffering. He held those
waters back while all of Israel got through. Once all of Israel
got through, by his word he withdrew and all the water came and drowned
the enemies. Okay? And so that's what he's
explaining here in 2 Peter 3.9 that he's not slack as others
count slackness, as those scoffers, as those who think things are
just going on and on and on and on. No, he's doing like he did
in the days of old. Okay? He's either withholding
judgment or he's bringing judgment. At this time right now, he's
withholding judgment or destruction Until the law in his long-suffering
until all of his elect have come in Just like in the Red Sea until
all of them crossed across safely Then once they all the intended
ones made it to the other side that he intended to make to the
other side Then he'll bring down the destruction Same thing here
with the fire though. He's holding all the fire back
and until everyone that he desires to be brought to safety is brought
to safety. And once they're brought to safety,
boom, it all comes. And so, see, these men are not
understanding the working of God. See, if they're willing
to think about it, they would realize that the course of natural
events is more locked into one pattern than God is. If God is
free to speak a new word, then nature is free to change. Now,
what do I mean by that? See, they're saying that all
things continue the same, season after season, day after day.
All these things are continuing as it did from the beginning.
And so now they begin to think, okay, well, this is just a natural
order of things. I'm kind of a science guy. I
like a lot of science stuff. I do a lot of, you know, I like
to do a lot of research about science and about, of course,
the earth and all the stuff about the earth and about the sun and
the moon and all that kind of stuff. And in so doing, we see
that there are cycles, that there are patterns. The earth has a
form and God has made it in a certain way and he's given it a sun and
a moon and all these things and these patterns and how the stars
rotate and the sun rotates and the moon rotates over the earth
and how it gives for us light and day and seasons, and that's
how God had planned it from the beginning. So we see all these
things, and we look at that, and you can easily look and say,
well, there you go, God's basically kind of wound everything up,
give it in the natural order and said, there you go, that's
gonna be like that from now on. And scientists has even come
in and said that there are all these laws, there's the law of
relativity, the law of gravity, the law of thermodynamics, the
law of this, the law of that, and they've placed all these
laws and they've based those laws on what they see in God's
ordaining of these constant things. And so they presuppose that that
can never change, that it's a law and it cannot ever change, okay? Some men say, well, there's a
law of gravity. Well, we've seen the Lord Jesus
defied the law of gravity, didn't we? Not only did he walk across
water, but he also ascended into heaven, defying gravity, gravity. quote unquote, gravity. You know,
we see that there is a law that two atoms cannot take up the
same space, matter cannot take up the same space, that if one
atom moves into a space, that another atom can't occupy the
same space. Okay, well, that's not true either
because we see that Jesus walked through the walls in the upper
room, that he went from one place to another and he appeared there. And he also said that he was
in two places at one time. So he was able to occupy two
places at one time. He was able to go through other
matter. I mean, so the laws aren't affected
by God. Now these are little trivial,
maybe some, maybe trivial things. I mean, to me, a guy walking
on water and ascending into heaven and walking through walls and
disappearing and being in two places at one time, I mean, those
are pretty spectacular things to me, at least. But think of
these things, brethren. God said, let there be, and out
of nothing came something. And if God, who has ordered the
workings of this world, can say, let the waters destroy the earth,
and boom, here it all comes and it's destroyed. If God can say,
send fire and destroy the world, He can change any law He wants.
We don't know, He's not revealed it in Scripture, but we don't
know tomorrow, He may make this whole way that we understand
the earth topsy-turvy. He may change everything. We
don't know. We don't know those things. So
God can change anything. So the laws of nature are all
kept together by God. Now, Ecclesiastes kind of talks
about that. Everything is given a season,
a time, a purpose. God has given these, so we have
these for a purpose and everything. But if God chooses to stop those
things or end those things, it's His not only prerogative to do
so, then it doesn't matter what men thinks is solid or what men
thinks is ongoing or forever or reciprocal or a law, at the
word of the Creator, it can change. So the very fact that these men
have this mindset that everything is the same and nothing has changed
and nothing will change, They're ignorant of the power and the
control of God. That's one of the things that
they are ignorant of. If God would choose to raise
his voice and destroy all things, he could destroy all things. Another thing that these false
teachers are ignoring is that they have not continued the same
as they were from the beginning. Again, I mentioned the flood. Okay, that was a change in things. There was a change in things
whenever Jesus came and blind began to see, deaf began to hear,
lame began to walk, dead men began to come alive, you know. These things were not the same
as they were. So God has changed some things,
so all this is not the same. Now the second thing that Peter
gives, and we'll probably get close to being done here in just
a few minutes. The second thing that I see here that Peter makes
clear is that this whole understanding of time, see they're thinking
that Jesus hasn't come back and that he's slack because it's
been so long. Well again, I remind you, Peter
is writing this and Peter was alive when Jesus said these things
and he was coming back. So we're not talking about a
really long period of time. when Peter wrote these things.
I'm not exactly for sure when this, when these letters were
written. I don't think my Bible has the
dates. I've not learned when the certain
books were written, but you know, let's just say, you know, we
know Peter was a grown adult when Jesus was here. And let's
just say he lived to be Because at this point, men were not living
long like they were in the beginning. But let's just say he lived to
be, you know, say he lived to be 100 years old. Okay? You know, so we're talking about
maybe 70 years. Okay, but we know that's not true because
we know that the scriptures begin to be formed and to be brought
together. 80, 70, Jerusalem was sacked by Rome. We see that, I can't remember
now when Peter was killed, but let's just say, you know, however
long it was, that's still not a long time. Because here it
is, 2,000 years, basically, since then. And in 2,000 years, Christ
has not come back yet. So people can say, see, that's
a lot longer than those guys were. Those guys had only been
waiting for 20, 30, 40 years, maybe, you know? They'd been
waiting for 20, 30, 40 years, and they thought, well, He must
not be coming because it's been 20 years. Well, what about 2,000
years? Now it's been 2,000 years and Jesus has come back. I can
see it's easy for somebody maybe to scoff at that who's not been
given a hope. See, I look at that and here
I've been 43 years on this earth. And in 43 years, I've been hearing
people, because I've grown up in church, saying Jesus is coming
back. Jesus is coming back. But you
know what? I'm not antithetical to that. For some reason, I'm
not antithetic. I'm not, I'm not saying, well,
he's not coming back. I've been alive for 43 years
and hearing that my whole entire life. And they've been saying
that for 2000 years and he ain't given up. Why? How come we're
not saying that? Because we've been given that
hope. We've been given that hope. But here we see that this man,
he thinks that Jesus hasn't come back because it's been so long.
But what does Peter say? Look at verse eight, he says, But
do not, but beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day
is with the Lord as a thousand years. We could put in a thousand
years to us. One day with the Lord is like
a thousand years to us, and a thousand years to us is like one day with
the Lord. Okay? So, you know, I'm not saying,
he's not saying that's exact, that one day is a thousand years,
and a thousand years is one day. He's using a metaphor, it's like,
meaning that time isn't the same with God as it is with us. Okay? And so he says, okay, it's been
2000, for us, it's been 2000 years, that's just like a couple
of days to the Lord. Okay? So what Peter is trying
to convey is that time is not the matter. Okay? The promise
is the promise. No matter how long it takes for
that promise to be fulfilled, the promise will be fulfilled.
If you remember, when Genesis began, there was the promise
of the coming Messiah. Right? Whenever God cursed the
serpent and cursed mankind, he said, I will put enmity between
you and your seed and her seed, meaning Christ
and Satan. There's gonna be enmity, but
he said, but he will crush your head. That was God prophetically
telling that Christ was gonna come and that was like, 2,500
years before Christ came. 2,000 years before Christ came. So, it wasn't a long time, it
didn't seem like. It was a long time to them, but
it wasn't a long time. Now it's been 2,000 years since
Christ did come, and we keep thinking, you know, these are
long periods of time, but it wasn't. It wasn't a long period
of time to God. So the criticism that it's delayed
and means that he hasn't come back is dumb because the promise
was made that Christ is coming 2,000 years before he came, but
that didn't mean he wasn't coming. He came, right? And because there's
been 2,000 years it's transpired since his first coming doesn't
mean that his second coming is not coming. It's coming in his
time. He will come at the appointed
hour that he is supposed to come. And so God's experience of time
and our experience of time are different. Now I hear people
say a lot of times that God is outside of time because he's
immortal and eternal. You know, I don't know whether
that's true or not. I don't know. Them are theological things.
I don't know. The Bible doesn't say that. I know one thing, God
is dealing with us in time. God is in time. Jesus came and
he was in time. And yet he was eternal, immortal. He was in time. But whether or not, I mean, it
doesn't matter. God speaks to us in time, and He says that
it's not a long time. He says He'll be coming again
soon. So, you know, we've got to look
at these things in the perspective of how the Bible puts them, not
by how our finite minds perceive them. Let me give you a good example
of this. Especially for us adults, we
know this to be true. We have found that as we've grown
older, it seems that time goes by a lot faster. It goes by pretty
quick. I remember whenever I was a kid,
especially during the summertime, we'd get out of school for the
summer. And man, that summer seemed like forever. We'd go
run and play all day long from the time the sun came up to the
time the sun went down. Or even sometimes afterwards,
we'd be out playing kick the can in the dark or something.
But we'd be playing all summer long, and it seemed like the
summer lasted forever. And then as I got older and everything, It didn't seem to be that way.
I mean, summertime kind of went by pretty quick. And then as
now as I get older, it just seems like yesterday this happened
or that happened. It seems to go by faster. Has
time changed? No, our perception of time has
changed. Things go by a lot quicker than
it seems like. This year went by, 2016 went
by fast to me, it seemed like. I mean, still seven days in a
week, 24 hours in a day, 365 days in the year. So, I mean,
there wasn't nothing different about it, but my perception of
time is different. Have you ever, have you ever
went to, went and sit in on a lecture or went to something that was
just boring? Man, I remember there's been
a few times that we've had At work, I've had to sit in on
some demonstrations and webinars. Matter of fact, I had a webinar
not too long ago on a new dental machine that we're selling for
vet use. And I was down in my in my bedroom
at the computer and this guy's doing this webinar with me and
my boss and he's at his place and I'm at mine. We're logged
in and we're sitting here and that thing was like an hour and
a half long and I mean I'm just sitting here and I dozed off
a couple times in the middle of this webinar and it just because
it was boring to me and it seemed like that thing went on forever. But you know, whenever we go
and do things that we like to do, it seems time goes by fast.
Whenever you go on vacation, it seems like, man, that didn't
take long. I mean, man, we've gone. When
we go to church camp, I mean, we're gone a whole entire week,
but yet we get down there, and before you know it, we turn around,
and it's time to go home. You know, why? Because we enjoy it.
It's fun. It's something we like to do.
And whenever we do that, our perception of time goes away. So it's easy to see that, yeah,
it can seem like a long time whenever it's just boredom and
nothing really exciting about it to you. But if it's exciting
to you, you know, I look now at the Lord coming and as I made
the statement a while ago, it's been 43 years that I've been
alive and been hearing this ever since I was a baby. through my
grandparents and parents and growing up in church and everything. And now I look at, you know,
the Lord could come at any time. And it seems like, you know,
43 years of waiting on the Lord hasn't seemed like very much.
And 43 years has not seemed like a really long time. Now, you
know, to you guys that may be older, you know, 43 years ain't
much, young man, you know. You know, Sister Louette has
been here for a little bit longer than that, and maybe, you know,
I can do that, stand on one leg. But, you know, 43 years goes
by, and it goes by pretty quick. And we think, Every person that's
lived has had their 43 years. Every person that's lived however
many years they've had has had that. And by the time they get
to the end, they think, you know, that really wasn't a very long
time. You think back, it was a long time. I mean, 43 years
don't seem like much compared to 90 or 100 or whatever. But
43 years is a long time. I've lived with my wife now longer
than I lived with my mom and dad. I've now lived with my wife
more than I lived with my family growing up. I mean, I think of
that and I thought, man, because it seemed like I was with my
family forever before I met her, and it seems like I haven't been
with her very long. But I've actually lived with
her longer than I did with my mom and dad. And so time is just
kind of wonky. This is what Peter's saying.
You guys gotta get this perspective that yes, it may have been, if
you write down the numbers, it may seem like a long time to
you, but it's not a long time. And don't count that long timeness
as God going back on his word. It isn't. And so that's why Peter
goes on in verse nine, he says, the Lord is not slow about his
promises, as some count it. God is not slack concerning his
promise, as some men count slackness, but is long suffering towards
usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance. Paul says in, Romans chapter
11 until the full number of the Gentiles come in before the kingdom
comes, before the end arrives. So whenever we look at this,
and this is what I try to talk about, especially with people
that think that this is talking about God wanting everybody to get
saved. This longsuffering isn't a longsuffering to everybody,
it's a longsuffering to his people. Because when the full number
of his elect have come in, That's what he's waiting on to come
back. So Peter is giving the assurance to his people, the
elect scattered throughout all these, also called the brethren,
also called the us word here. He's giving them assurance saying,
You're hearing these scoffers say Christ is never coming back.
And so they're making it into a negative thing that Christ
is not keeping his promise. Don't look at Christ not coming
back as a negative thing. Look at it as a positive thing.
The reason he has not come back is because he has purposed that
he should lose none. That all for whom he has died
for will come to him. And so he's not gonna lose one
person. And so until that last person
for whom Christ died, until that person comes, he is long suffering
and holding back the destruction. Until all of us who are purchased
by his blood come in. And once that full number come
in, he's gonna let down the floodgates. So don't count his slackness
or his waiting as something as a negative thing, but a positive
thing. He is patient and long-suffering, waiting until we have been brought
in. And once we have been brought
into our conversion and our understanding and our knowledge of Him, our
new birth, every one of those children of grace from Adam all
the way down to where we are now and wherever it goes in the
future, every one of those who are going to be born of God,
whenever that last person that is in God's list of names to
be born again is born from above, then it's time for Him to come.
And so it's not a negative thing. See, the false teachers take
God's patience and they turn it against God as evidence that
Christ isn't coming back. But matter of fact, the purpose
that Jesus said that I'm not willing that any should perish,
but all come to repentance. Well, if he's meaning all, everybody
in the whole entire world that's ever been, then Jesus isn't coming
back, is he? Do you realize that? This right
here, even though you can prove that this is talking about the
elect only just by going back to the context, but just by that
statement alone, that the reason he hasn't returned is because
he is long-suffering to us, we're not willing that any should perish,
but that all come to repentance. That's why he hasn't come back
yet. He is waiting for all to come to repentance. And if he's
talking about everyone everywhere, Jesus will not come back because
there's already been people that's died that has not come to repentance. There are people living here
today that has not come to repentance. And we know that there will be
people that will not come to repentance in the future. So
Jesus is giving the assurance through Peter that I am coming
back, but I'm not coming back because I'm waiting for all to
be brought to repentance. I'm bringing my sheep into the
fold, and until they're all brought in, I'm not coming back. But
when they come in, once I've brought them all in, and all
the sheep are back into the fold, then I will come back. You remember Jesus give the illustration
of the lost sheep? lost sheep that was there. He
left the ninety and nine and he went in search for the one
sheep that was left or that was that was that was gone that was
lost and he did not come back to the fold until he reached
that lost sheep. Now apply that million fold to
however many elect he has. He is going and retrieving all
of his lost sheep and bringing them into the fold. And once
he brings that last one into the fold, the fold will be complete
and he will be back for good. And that's what his promise is. So We shouldn't take Christ's
promise of his return and his long suffering until his return
as something negative, but we should let that be hope for us. We should let that be a catalyst
for godly living. We know he's coming back. Don't
think he's not. He is. And it's not gonna be
long as we think it's long. But it's going to be at the right
time after he is completed bringing in all his sheep. And once they're
all there, he will come. So let us live that way. And as he says again in the third
chapter, verse 11, seeing then that all these things shall be
dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation
or holy living, and godliness, looking for and hasting unto
the coming of the day of God, wherein the heaven being on fire
shall dissolve and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.
Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens
and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved,
seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may
be found of him in peace without spot and blameless. So let the
second coming of Christ be to you a catalyst for godly living
and for hope. Anybody got any questions? Comments? We all say, even so, come quickly,
Lord Jesus. All right. Well, let's bow and
have a word of prayer, and we'll be dismissed, and we'll go back
and have some lunch. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank
you today for your mercy and your grace. We thank you for
the time that we have together as brethren. And Lord, we just
ask that today, Lord, that you might be with us and that you
might minister to us through these things that's been said.
We're thankful, Father, that you've given us the great and
precious promises of Christ. those that pertain to our legal
salvation, those that pertain to our practical salvation, those
that pertain to our future salvation. Father, we realize that Your
Word cannot be broken, that You are not as a man that lies, that
You cannot lie. And so, Father, we trust that
these words that You've spoken to us, these promises that You've
been given, will come true and we look forward to that day and
hope and father we also thank you that by these things we can
see this and we pray that you might build up our faith build
up our heart to follow and live after the way that you have called
us to live in your word lord may we be examples before other
men And Father Lord, I just thank you again for this opportunity.
It's good to be back with the brethren today, Lord. I thank
you for the safety that you've given everybody over the last
few weeks, gathering us again today. What a blessed time and
how much we miss those times of being together. I even ask
now, Lord, that you be with us as we go back and eat, that you
bless the food to the nourishment of our bodies. We also, Father,
we want to lift up Mindy to you today, Lord, with all that's
going on with her lawyer and her divorce and the things that's
going on, the things that you know all about. But Father, we
pray that you'd give her grace, that you'd give her peace, that
you'd give her confidence in you, Lord, that you might calm
her anxieties about everything. And Lord, that you would have
your perfect will in all that and that you'd be glorified in
all that. Lord, again, we thank you for all that you've done.
We lift up Brother Ed to you also. Lord, we don't know where
he's at. We don't know what's going on
with him. Lord, I pray that he is safe and that he is warm.
Lord, I pray that you're keeping him I pray, Lord, that you just might provide for him and also for
those young men that he has raised. Lord, we pray for their salvation,
as well as all his children. Lord, we just pray those things.
We know that you're able to do that. Again, we ask you to bless
this time together, bless this day, and it's in Jesus' name
we pray, amen. Is everybody going to be here
next week? No plans on being gone for anything? You guys like
to have the Lord's Supper next week? Not had it in quite a while. Alright, we'll have the Lord's
Supper then next week.