Thank you for this morning. Thank
you for the opportunity to open the scriptures. And we pray that
you would be our teacher. Show us that which will more
endear our hearts to our God, our savior, our comforter, our
preserver. In the name of Christ, we pray
it. Amen. Now last week, we finished setting
forth the fundamentals of the grace of God, at least as far
as I was going to go with them. But now I'm going to begin, and
I'm not sure how many weeks this will take, but I want to deal
with some scriptures that people will throw up in your face in
opposition to the things that we have been teaching. I call
this section Problematic Scriptures. But in truth, it's not the scriptures
themselves that pose a problem. It's how people misuse those
scriptures. In 2 Peter 3, verses 15 and 16,
we read this, that our Lord's patience means
salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the
wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all
his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters
contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant
and unstable people distort as they do the other scriptures,
to their own destruction. Now, Peter tells us here that
there are scriptures which are difficult to understand and that
there are those who will take these difficult scriptures and
other scriptures and twist them to mean something other than
what they meant. Now, if the Apostle Peter could
have trouble understanding some of what Paul wrote, we should
not be surprised when other people also experience some difficulty
with scriptures. In fact, we must always keep
in mind that we might have the wrong interpretation of a particular
scripture. The proper response for those
who are opposing that which is true based upon some misunderstanding
of a scripture It's not to denounce them. It's not to blast them
with bombast. It is instead to graciously correct
them. And the Apostle Paul teaches
us that. And I mention this because it is something that I've seen
in a lot of preachers, myself included, more so in my younger
years than now, but that error is brought up in messages and
then soundly denounced, and you cannot help but detect there
is in those denouncements a significant bit of self-righteousness in
what they're doing. And it's a shame that we who are partakers
of the grace of God and who have received vastly more than we
deserve, that we should ever look at someone else who maybe
doesn't understand things quite as well as we do and look down
on them as though they are something less than us. Rather, in all
things, in all conflicts, our place is to simply try to correct
them with the truth. Henry Mahan used to say the best
way to prove that a stick is crooked is to lay a straight
stick next to it. And so what we do is simply tell
the truth the best we can, and show them the meaning of the
scriptures. Now, there are some who are merely
mistaken. They are people of honest faith,
operating in good faith. They just happen to be wrong.
And that was true of us at one time, and I'm sure on some scriptures
it's still true. And so we treat them. with grace
and simply try to instruct them properly. Then there are those
who, due to stubbornness of heart, a rebellious heart against the
truth, when they come upon a scripture that seems to say something that
they don't like, they will twist it to mean whatever they like
or if they see some scripture that
seems to say what they like, and they feel they can use it
to contradict some point of truth, then they will accept their interpretation of that
scripture without giving it any serious consideration. So that's the kind of scriptures
we're approaching here in this portion of our lessons, and that is that we're
looking at those scriptures which are most often misunderstood
or twisted in order to form some sort of objection to the grace
of God. Now let's restate what we mean
when we speak of the grace of God. Throughout this series,
we have spoken of grace as the favor of God towards sinners,
expressed in His eternal purpose to save them, His Son's work
in taking their place by bearing their sin in the presence of
God and enduring the punishment that they deserved, and it's
expressed in His Spirit's work in calling them and preserving
them and perfecting them until the day of Christ. So God's grace
begins with an attitude within his heart towards sinners. And then it expresses itself
in actions that he has taken. And these actions find men in a lost condition. in a condemned condition. And
when God's gracious works are finished for them, in them, with
them, they are like Christ. So this business of salvation
by grace is that work that finds people dead in trespasses and
sins, and through various works of God They are made to be like
the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we say that this salvation
is by grace, we mean that at no point in that whole process
does the strength, will, or works of men enter in as the deciding
factor between who is lost, who remains lost forever, and who
is saved. Now that's kind of a long and
involved definition of grace. It's a theological definition
of grace, but it's necessary because people use the word grace,
but they don't always mean what the scriptures mean when they
say grace. So what we have set forth in
the lessons to this point is that nothing of the strength,
will, or works of men is decisive in distinguishing the condemned
and the blessed. The time will come when all shall
stand before God. And there will be those on His
left and those on His right. And it will be obvious that there
is a great difference in them. And that great difference is
owing entirely to the will, the power, and the works of God.
That's what we mean by grace. All of God, nothing of man. Now, people will even go so far as
to say they believe that, but then they'll prove that they
don't actually believe it when you tell them what that means,
how that works itself out. And then they begin to bring
up these scriptures Most people believe that God desires the
salvation of every individual and has done all that he can
do to bring that salvation to pass. They believe that Jesus
Christ died for every individual human being that has ever existed
or will exist. that he bore the sins of every
individual in the presence of God and paid their penalty, and
they believe that the Holy Spirit desires to draw all men to Jesus
Christ. But that view of God's activity
is in conflict with the scripture's use of the word grace. So virtually all arguments against
salvation by the grace of God alone are founded on the idea
that God's gracious actions in behalf of sinners is equal for
everyone. And that's normally how it's
presented. And to say that it's not is a shock to many. And as soon as you make some
of the points such as Nowhere in the scriptures does it say
that God loves every individual. Nowhere in the scriptures does
it say that God intends to save every individual or is trying
to save every individual. Nowhere in the scriptures does
it say that Christ died for every individual or the Spirit is calling
every individual. And they're like, you know, I've
never heard that before. And then they dig through all
of their evangelistic verses that they've been taught. Things
they've been told to say to people in order to convince them to
make a decision for Jesus and they throw those up in our faces.
How do we handle them? Well, we handle them by giving them
the correct understanding of these verses and show them how
that they're not defining words properly or they are quoting
scriptures out of context And the context makes the scripture
mean something completely other than what they're thinking. Now,
the most commonly quoted scriptures that are put up to defend the
belief that God desires the salvation of every human being are 2 Peter
3, 9 and 1 Timothy 2, 4, at least in my experience. If you get
into a discussion with people on these matters, they'll throw
these up in your face. See, 2 Peter 3, 9 says that God
does not want any to perish, but all to come to repentance. And 1 Timothy 2, 4 says that
God wants all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the
truth. Now here's the thing, we don't deny that those verses
say that. But we're going to look at those
two verses, of course we won't get through both of them today
by any means, but we will see that What they want those verses
to mean is not what they mean at all. They have taken them
out of their context, and they have also used such universal
terms as all, any, world, and things like this. They have used
them in a way that Greek doesn't use them, and really English
doesn't use them the way they commonly use them either. Now,
let's begin with 2 Peter 3, 9, in which it is stated, and you
can turn there if you want, 2 Peter 3, 9, in which it is stated that
God does not want any to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
Now, this statement sounds very much like God wills the salvation
of every individual. He doesn't want anybody to perish.
He wants everyone to repent. But it means that. It leads us
to that conclusion only if we take it out of its context. So
let's read this scripture within its context, beginning in verse
8, 2 Peter 3, verse 8. But do not forget this one thing,
dear friends. With the Lord, a day is like
a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord
is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness.
He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone
to come to repentance." Now, virtually every translation that
I looked at has got some weaknesses here. They give some of these
words broader meanings than what is appropriate. For example, where it says, not
wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
Actually, it just says, not wanting any to perish, but all to come
to repentance. Now, it's important that that
distinction be made because, particularly in the Greek language,
words like all, any, every, all y'alls, all that kind of stuff,
it's always defined That is, it'll say, you know,
I want everyone in that city, or I want all that hear my voice,
or something like that. But then when the word just stands
there bare, all, any, every, you have to determine from the
context who he's, what group he's talking about. You see,
Peter is not speaking. to an indiscriminate group here.
These words, when Peter wrote these words, they were not written
to the world. And they should not be spoken to the world out
of context like that, as though when he said that God did not
want any to perish, but all to come to repentance, as though
that is some general statement concerning every individual.
And I'll show you that. Now first thing to note is that
Peter is teaching about the coming of the Lord and specifically
why he hadn't come yet. The Lord had made a promise that
he would come and according to when they date the writing of
this book, that had been anywhere from 35 to 40 years before. So 35 or 40 years has gone by
and the Lord has not fulfilled his promise to come back. And
so, in verse 8, Peter gives a reason. He's saying, now there's scoffers
that are asking, where's the promise of his coming? You find
that in verse 4. And he says, well, here's one reason. That
with the Lord, a day is like 1,000 years, and 1,000 years
are like a day. Now, Peter's not saying, as the
folks in my religious upbringing would say, When the Lord says, I come quickly,
that that really might mean thousands of years from now. That's not the way the Lord deals.
I mean, the Lord is honest in the way he talks. He told his
disciples in Matthew chapter 24, 25, when he was talking about
the end of things, he said, now this generation won't pass away
till all of this has been fulfilled. And it amazes me how many people
will do theological gymnastics trying to figure out how that
means those things aren't even fulfilled yet 2,000 years later.
Well, if you look at those scriptures, the Lord was talking about the
destruction of Jerusalem. He wasn't talking about the end
of the world altogether. And that did happen before that
generation passed away. And here he is speaking primarily
to Jews, because he was the apostle to the Jews, he was thinking
about their world, and he said to them in 1 Peter, the end of
all things is near, and it was. It would happen five, six, seven
years after he wrote this. But he says to them, remember,
your lifetime, which seems so long to you, as you grow up and
pass through youth and into adulthood and then on to old age. You think
a long time has gone by. From God's perspective, this
is just a blip. Now that doesn't make it so that
God can say, you know, I'm coming soon, but 2,000 years he hasn't
come. That would not have been honest
on God's part. But it probably could stretch
longer than what we might think. And then he goes to this. In
verse 9, the Lord is not slow in keeping
his promises. Some men understand slowness.
And by that, he's saying he's not that the King James uses
the word slack. He's not slacking off is what
he's saying. God isn't, you know, he made that promise, but really,
OK, I'll get to it. Just leave me alone. That's not
what it's. That's not why he hasn't come back yet in this
day. He says, here's the reason. He is patient
with you. He is patient with you. Now, it's vital that we understand
this matter of patience, because if we look at 15, it says, bear
in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation. Whatever this patience is that
Peter is talking about, up here in verse 9, whatever it is, is
it results in the salvation of those for whom he exercises this
patience. In fact, I don't know of any
translation that makes it quite as strong as what Peter is makes
it here in verse 15. He's not just saying as a matter
of fact that the Lord's patience means salvation. He is giving
a command, it's in the imperative voice. He says, consider this
to be true in your heart. Understand that this is the way
things are. God's patience brings salvation. so those for whom he was being
patient in verse 9 shall be saved, period. Now it says here back
in verse 9, he is patient with you. Now once again the translation
and it's not that I pretend to be a Greek scholar but there
are a lot of good Greek resources out on the internet that someone
with a rudimentary understanding of Greek like me can do some
research in these things. It'd be better translated, he
is patient unto you. With the idea being that he is
patient for your sake. For your sake. And I make this
distinction because the word translated patient he puts up
with. The King James used the old word,
and it's a good word, long-suffering. It's as though the Lord's suffering
something. He's having to put up with something. And he does
it for a long time. In fact, the first part of this
word translated patience or long-suffering is the word macro, M-A-K-R-O,
and we get our prefix M-A-C-R-O, meaning big, from that word. So he's putting up with a lot.
Who is he putting up with? Well, he's not putting up with
the believers. Why? They aren't rebels. Yes,
they sin. Not only that, whatever long-suffering
God shows toward us is not what's resulting in our
salvation. These people were already saved.
I mean, they'd already experienced the grace of God. So they weren't
going to perish, and they had already repented. So who is it
he's putting up with for their sake? The unbelievers. Now, an example of this is found
in the story of Noah in 1 Peter 3, verse 20. It says that God
waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being
built. Now, the word translated patiently there is the same one
that we find in 2 Peter 3.9. God said in Genesis 6 that in
120 years he was going to destroy mankind. And then he warned Noah and We don't know how long it
was between when he said, in 120 years I'm going to destroy
mankind, and when he told Noah about it. We just know, here's
what he said to Noah, the end of all flesh has come before
me. Now you build an ark this big, make it out of this stuff
and all that, and you and your wife And your sons and your sons'
wives will get in that ark. Now, Noah's oldest son was 100
years old when they got on the ark. It was 120 years before
the ark that God said, I will destroy all mankind in 120 years.
Now I don't know if God waited for a while before he told Noah
or if he told Noah this right away and he was not only saying
to Noah, I'm gonna bring a flood and kill all of mankind and by
the way, you're gonna have three sons and they're gonna get married
and they're gonna get on this ark too. But if it was in that
20 year period between when he first said he's gonna destroy
the world and when Noah's oldest son was born, told Noah sometime
during there, he was telling Noah, he was prophesying, you're
going to have a family. Now, God says that by promise
to Noah that Noah, his three sons, and the four wives of those
four men would all be spared from the flood. What must happen
in order for that to come to pass. Three sons must be born. They must grow to a sufficient
age to find wives. And the ark must be built. And God waited all that time,
not because he was putting up with Noah and his three sons
and what they were doing. He put up with the rest of the
world because he was not willing that any of Noah's family perish,
but every one of them should be brought to repentance and
get on that ark that had been built. Now that's how Noah's flood is
described and how the patience of the Lord in that day was described.
And then you come back to 2 Peter 3, verse 9, God's not slow in
keeping His promise. Noah preached about that coming
flood. We don't know how long, but he
was a preacher of righteousness. And we assume he was preaching
that even before he knew about the flood. But when he started
talking about the flood and when he started building that ark
and telling people what it's for, you can imagine as a lot
of time went by, people saying, well, where's that flood you're
talking about? Well, it wasn't coming until
Everyone whom God had determined to put on that ark had been born,
and that ark had to be built for them to be put on it. Now,
the ark, of course, is a picture of Christ. That had already been
built. Christ had suffered and died
and become our ark through God's wrath. That's already done in 2 Peter
chapter 3, 9. What hasn't been done? Not everyone
whom God has already determined shall be upon that ark, Christ
Jesus, has been born yet. In fact, seeing that the destruction
that Peter was talking about was the destruction of Jerusalem,
and primarily this letter was written to Jews. He was saying
God has not yet gathered out of the Israelite nation all of
those He has determined to save before He destroys it. And so
Rome can't come in and destroy Jerusalem, tear down the Temple,
slaughter the Jews, and scatter them to the four winds. until those whom God has determined
to save out of that group have been brought to repentance and
not made to perish. Think of how rebellious most
of the Jews were in those days, and God kept putting up with
them and putting up with them. Why? Because among them, in fact,
let's look back at 2 Peter 1, verse 1. We'll find out who this
letter was written to. It's written to those who through
the righteousness of God, of our God and Savior Jesus Christ,
have received a faith as precious as ours. These words, the whole
book, are written to those who believe the gospel. And by extension,
it's written to everyone who will in time to come, believe
the gospel. And Peter says in 2 Peter, this
is the second letter I've written to you, so we can go back to
the first letter and see who that was written to. Peter, an
apostle of Jesus Christ to God's elect. God did not say to the world.
I'm not willing that any should perish, but that all should come
to repentance. He said that to his elect. He is long suffering for their
sake, not willing that any of them will perish, but that every
last one of them will come, will repent, will be brought to repentance. So this scripture, far from teaching
that God is trying to save everybody, that that's His desire, what
it is is an assurance that God will not do anything that will
result in even one of His elect not being saved. He will put
up with anything and everything that we could do until the last
of His chosen has been brought in. Now, once the last of God's
elect of that day, living there in Jerusalem and all that, once
the last one was brought in, God, He lowered the boom. He
did it by way of General Titus and the Roman army. But He didn't let the Romans
come until the last of His elect had been pulled out of that group
destined for destruction. And we can expand that. There
is, in this world, a chosen people. Some of them already know they've
been chosen. God has revealed himself to them.
He has applied his grace to them. And they have been brought to
repentance, and they will not perish. But the fact that the
world still stands proves that there's more of them. There's
more of them out there. There are some of God's elect
who will someday have the same precious faith as all of God's
people have had down through the ages. And until the last one of them
is brought in, this world will not be destroyed. Because God
is not willing that any of his chosen ones would perish, but
rather that every one of them be brought to repentance. And
in that, you and I who believe, find our assurance. He's not going to destroy us
with the wicked. When the time comes to destroy
the wicked, he'll get us out of the way. He'll wait till the
last one is, as they say, under the blood, protected. And then he'll pass through the
Egypt of this world and slay. So our hope is not in this universal
but frustrated grace of God. It's in the sovereign and completely
successful grace of God. All right.