If you will, turn with me to
the book of 2 Peter chapter 3. I have two messages that I've prepared. This is the first of those two. The other will be based on Acts
chapter 20, Paul's farewell address to the Ephesian elders. Let's read here in 2 Peter chapter
3. This second epistle, beloved,
I now write unto you, in both which I stir up your pure minds
by way of remembrance. What's he talking about a pure
mind? He's talking about the mind of
Christ. The mind of the Spirit. A knowledge
of the truth. 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 Saviour, 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. 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. They were
ignorant. of the condemnation of God of
sin. God destroyed everything on this
planet but one man and his family. You think about it. But the heavens
and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store
reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition
of ungodly men. We're in the same standing they
were, except instead of water, we're going to destroy it with
fire. But beloved, be not ignorant
of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand
years, and a thousand years is one day. Because you think he's
late in his coming doesn't mean he's The Lord's not slack concerning
his promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering
to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night, which the heavens shall pass
away with a great noise, And the elements shall melt with
a fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein
shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things
shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in
all holy conversation and godliness? Looking for and hasting unto
the coming of the day of God wherein the heavens being on
shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with a fervent heat.
Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens,
and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved,
seeing that you look for such things, be diligent that you
may be found of him in peace without spot. and blameless,
and account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation, even
as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given
unto him, hath written unto you. If you will turn back with me
now to 2 Peter chapter 3. We're going to be looking at
verses 9 through 15. 2 Peter chapter 3. As I study and
prepare for our worship services, there is a weight and a burden
and it grows heavier on me as time goes on. I know more about
it now than I did when I started. And the more you know about these
things, the heavier this burden gets. I'm responsible to God
for rightly dividing His Word. I'm not set up here to give you
my opinions and theories and what I think ought to be. I'm
up here to tell you, thus saith the Lord. There's a difference.
When you know that and know something of that responsibility, it's
a heavy weight. Luke, I'm speaking in God's stead. That's a heavy weight. I'm responsible for warning guilty
sinners to flee from the wrath to come. Do I warn men in such a way that
they can perceive any kind of desperate Am I coming across
that way? It's not like, well, this is
just a saying. No. No. You know, years ago there was
a river down on the Louisiana side. I forget the name of it.
I heard Henry talking about it one time in an illustration.
And this river got up and a man was driving and he didn't realize
that the water was that high. And it had taken the bridge out,
and he'd come around the corner, and there's the river. I mean,
he just right off into it. And by a miracle of God, he made
it to shore. And he climbed up, and he had
mud all over him, and it was sopping wet, and it was pouring
down the rain, and he got out in the road knowing that the
next guy was going to do the same thing. It may have been
five or six before him. And he was going down the road
and he was waving his hands and telling people to stop. And you
know, 20 some cars ignored him, thinking he was some kind of
a nut out here in the middle of the road, waving his arms. And they went around and went
off into that river and perished. When I warn men, I want you to
know that my warning is sincere. I'm telling you exactly What's
going to happen? He that believeth not shall be
damned. No ifs, ands, or buts. He that
believeth and is baptized. We say baptism ain't got anything
to do with it. Then why did the Lord include
it in that command? Huh? He that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved. I'm responsible to warn guilty
sinners to flee from the wrath to come. And I'm told to feed
the flock of God concerning which He's given me the oversight. If I love Him, I need to feed
His sheep. Feed His sheep. Is what I prepare
sufficient? Is that what you like to eat?
Is that what you're hungry for? Huh? Or do you go home, Man,
he had a perfect opportunity to preach on this and he didn't. Believers like the grace of God. They can eat it up. They love
to hear about the mercy of God. They love to hear Christ crucified. They love to hear about the King
sitting on the throne. They love it. They'll eat it. till they die. And they'll go
on eating it throughout all eternity. These things are weighty matters.
Souls are being weighed in the balance. There's a warfare going
on and what you learn here is what prepares you for the battle.
I went to boot camp back during the fiercest part of Vietnam.
I went through boot camp and I'm telling you, what you learned
in there in 13 weeks Gonna put you right out on the battlefield. 13 weeks. Some of the boot camps
are even shorter. What you learn in here is what
prepares you for the battle. There's a race being run. And
what you learn here will determine how you run that race. We have a life to live and how
we live and walk in this world will be determined by what we
hear and learn in this place. These are weighty matters to
me. I don't just come up with a sermon
because I feel like I need to or I ain't going to get paid.
These are weighty matters. Faith cometh. What's that mean? Like a stream. I go down here
and look, a stream has a current. Where does it come from? It comes
from up that way. It keeps on coming. Faith cometh. It runs like a stream. It's alive. It's moving. It's not something
you did 20 years ago. It's an active principle of the
mind and heart. It cometh by hearing, hearing
by the Word of God. If you read the verses before
this, he plainly tells you how you're going to hear without
a preacher. You're going to go someplace that has a faithful
pastor, and you're going to sit down here, and you're going to
go to hell. Just as plain as I know how to make it. We're
living in what Paul called perilous times. He said perilous times
shall come. He said that 2,500, well not
2,500, but 2,400 and some years ago. Perilous times. Think about it. You don't think that, do you?
You're going to live here, you're going to go to school Monday,
you're going to go back to work, you're going to do this, you're
going to do that. You don't wake up thinking, I'm
going out here in a perilous situation. You don't think it
that way, do you? That's how Paul described it.
Perilous times are going to come. Even being an Antichrist was
at work in the world creeping into local churches, and today
it's filled the world with its lies. God has sent upon men a strong
delusion to believe a lie and be damned because they receive
not the love of the truth that they might be saved. Perilous
times, and I cannot picture the antediluvian world, the world
before the flood of Noah, I cannot picture it being worse than it
is today. Can you? Religion in our day is no more
than an insurance policy. That's all it is, just in case. I'm going to join the church
just in case. I told a man one time that the
Jews, the natural Jews, are not the people of God. I said, he
has spiritual Israel. It's God's Israel, the Israel
of God. That's what it says in the scriptures. Not the children of Abraham. except in a spiritual sense.
And he said, well, just in case, I'm going to be kind to the Jews. It's no more than an insurance
policy. It's a just in case thing. Make a profession. Make a decision. Join the church. Pay your tithes.
You'll be all set. Be all set. Perilous times. Nobody's in trouble with God.
Nobody's desperate. Nobody seems to see that today
is the day of salvation, and if I'm not saved in that day,
I'm not going to be saved. Good possibility you'll never
hear again. Many have come in here and heard
one message, walked out that door. I have no reason to believe
that they'll ever hear another. Does God allow a man to hear
more than once sometimes? Sometimes. Sometimes not. Perilous times. Nobody's in trouble with God.
No one's desperate before God. And no one sees themselves in
the light of eternity. If you die, that's it. There's
nothing else. Grace is gone. Mercy is gone. You've got nothing to look forward
to but an endless eternity of suffering. Joseph Hart wrote this hymn many,
many years ago. And he's talking about the gospel
that he preached. And he said, to understand these
things are right, the way they need to be understood. A grand
distinction should be known. Though all are sinners in God's
sight, there are but few so in their own. To such as them our Lord was
sent, there are only sinners who repent. He is going to save
every sinner, and every sinner is going to repent. What comfort can a Savior bring
to those who never felt their worth? A sinner is a sacred thing,
the Holy Ghost hath made him so. new life from him we must receive
before for sin we rightly grieve. To every sinner who knows what
he is and who he is and why he is our Lord has given exceeding,
listen to this, exceeding great and precious promises that by
these you might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped
the corruption that's in the world through love. Precious
things, weighty things. And the Lord, here's what Peter
said, Peter's listening to these men and they're just throwing
out stuff. The mouth is like, it's the spillway
of the heart. And the heart is nothing but
just full of corruption. And it just spills out, it just
spills out. And he's, ah, eternity. Nothing changed since creation
began. Mockers, scoffers, indifferent. Peter said this, and he's not
talking here to the world, he's talking here to God's people.
And you here this morning, if you're God's people, I want you
to hear me. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise. What
promise? What promise? Well, Jesus Christ
is the promised Redeemer. Is He not? Jesus Christ is the
promised seed to Abraham and his seed where
the promise was made. He saith not unto seeds as of
many, but unto thy seed, which is Christ. He's the promised
seed. He's the promised Savior. He's
the promised Redeemer. Apart from Him, there's no promise
of anything but judgment. Unto them that look for Him shall
He appear the second time without sin unto salvation. It's been a long time, 2,025
years according to our calendar. The great Shepherd of the sheep
stepped onto a cloud in the company of His apostles. And there were
angels there. And he stepped onto that cloud
and was escorted into glory. And having ascended up into heaven,
his father and ours placed a crown of glory on his head and set
him at his own right hand, all power in heaven and earth given
unto his hands. made a high priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. We have a priest who will never
be unseated. I have a king that will never
be unseated. I have a representative before
God, and he's a priest, and he's a king, and he is the Word of
God. crowned Lord of the dead and
the living in this high station, arranging all things, working
all things after the counsel of His own will. At God's right
hand, there's one mediator between God and men. There is no other,
just Him. Christ alone. And as the prophet
of God, His word is law, His word is effectual, His word is
unchangeable. He spoke and it was done. Let there be, and there was.
Read it for yourself. Let there be light. There was
light. Let there be herb-bearing seed. And there was. You think His Word ain't effectual?
I'm going to tell you something. When He speaks, you'll hear Him.
The dead will hear Him. What promise? He's not slack
concerning His promise. What's His promise? Everything
promised in the Son. In Him, it's all yea and no nay. All yea in Him. Everything's
in Him. He's the guarantor. And as the prophet of God, as
the King, His Word is effectual and His Word is untangible. Oh,
what of His people? Why are they still here? Why
is this sinful world permitted to go on? Why must things be
the way they are? Well, Peter gives us everything
we need to know concerning these things. That's what he's dealing
with. He's dealing with the present. The present then, the present
now. Same thing. 2 Peter 3, 9. The Lord is not
slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness,
but his longsuffering. Long-suffering, now listen, to
us-ward. Not to the world. To us-ward. Not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance. Things are the way they are because
God's not willing for one precious soul for whom Christ died to
perish. That's why things go on. And
that's why they're going to continue to go on. He's not willing for
one to perish. Not the least of them. All God's elect are in a spiritual
union with Christ. In God's everlasting covenant
of grace, our Lord was made the covenant surety. It's ordered
in all things and sure because he's the surety. It was ordered in all things.
And He alone has met the demands of this covenant. He alone has
fulfilled all the terms agreed to. When our Lord took to Himself
the body and soul of His elect, all that He accomplished sealed
the covenant promises of God. Sealed in His own blood. Look
at it for yourself over in the book of Hebrews, I think it's
chapter 13. It's the blood of the everlasting
covenant. Everything in that covenant is
sealed by blood, just as it was in that ark of the covenant.
It's all sealed by the blood. When our Lord took to Himself
the body and soul of His elect, all that He accomplished sealed
the covenant promises of God. His blood was the blood of the
everlasting covenant, His righteous obedience was imputed to them,
charged to their account. And when He died, they died.
When God raised Him up, He raised them up. When He ascended into
heaven, they were on the cloud with Him. And when He sat down
in full acceptance of the Father, they sat there with Him. Sealed with Him in glory. And
sin and Satan. Wicked principalities and powers,
Antichrist religion and all of its self-made ministers cannot
take from God what He purchased with the blood of His Son. The Lord knows that in and of
ourselves we deserve to perish. And there's an enemy present
that's willing and able to take you out. He takes men captive
at His will. He rules in the lives of sinners
on a universal scale. They all walk according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience. And every unbelieving sinner
on earth shall wander after the beast whose names are not written
in the book of life from the foundation of the world. But not God's elect. Not his
elect. These things would deceive the
very elect, Christ told us that, if it were possible. But it's
not possible because he won't allow it. That's why he sent
his spirit here. His spirit. Greater is he that's
in you than he that's in the world. That's what John said. Why don't I open this book and
follow after all this crud that everybody else has followed since
the foundation of the world? I tell you why, God's Spirit.
He won't allow it. He gives you eyes to see through
it. He gives you a mind to distinguish the difference, to rightly divide
the truth. I ain't buying into this thing
that everybody's a Calvinist is a brother. It just ain't so. Some of them know the Lord and
some of them don't. Now the principles of it, the
statements of it, I agree with 100%. But salvation is in a person,
it ain't in a cabinet. Without the person, the cabinet
wouldn't be anything. Oh, God not willing for one precious
soul for whom Christ died to perish. So how then do you explain this
interval? How are we to teach it and communicate
it to those who are still living in it? Are you listening? Here it is. God is long-suffering
to us. That's what the interval's all
about. He's long-suffering. What's that mean? Well, let me
give you some things. I'm going to give you eight things
to think about. First of all, the long-suffering of God is
an attribute. It's an attribute of God. God
is love, God is merciful, God is just, God is righteous, and
He's long-suffering. In Exodus 34, 6, God passed before
Moses, put him in the cleft of the rock, and showed him His
glory. And he proclaimed himself, he proclaimed himself the Lord,
the Lord God, merciful and gracious. Now watch this, long-suffering. That's his glory. That's his glory. And abundant
in goodness and truth. And then secondly, God's long-suffering
is a part of his holiness. These things don't operate alone,
they operate together. He's long-suffering and He's
just in it. He's righteous in it. His long-suffering arises from
His goodness and kindness, His wisdom and His love. And then
thirdly, God's long-suffering is an exercise of His mercy. There would be no mercy if God
wasn't long-suffering, wouldn't it? He manifests His mercy in
His long-suffering. He allows you an interval. He allows you time. He allows His people time for
His means to be exercised. It arises from His mercy. Numbers
14, 18, it says, The Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy. Fourthly, God's long-suffering
is a great encouragement to faith and hope. Do I see that? Do I understand
that God's given me another day to look, another day to think,
another day to pray, another day to look on these things?
It's an encouragement. It's an encouragement to faith
and hope, realizing that we're not just alive, but alive receiving
gifts from God, acts of kindness from God, evidences of love and
grace. And it's an encouragement. Fifthly,
the design of God's long-suffering as it's being manifested is to
bring sinners to repentance. That's what Peter said. He's
not willing for any to perish, but that all. All who? All his
people? All those he's been long-suffering
towards should come to repentance. What's that mean? They're going
to turn from themselves to God. Turn from their lies to the truth.
God's going to turn them. And only He can. He longs suffering
to usher. Talking to the Jews who thought
themselves to be on a higher plane with God than he, than
having their deeds clothed in religion. Paul said, and thinkest
thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and
doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Now
listen to what he says. Or despisest thou the riches
of his goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing
that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? That's what
this longsuffering's all about. And then sixthly, God's longsuffering
is a restraint of his anger. Turn with me to Psalm 103. Think of the old world before
the flood. only one preacher on earth. People tell me, well, you think
you're the only one in the world knows the truth. Noah was. He was. There was one other, but he died.
He died just before Noah walked onto the ark, Methuselah. Only
one gospel preacher left in the earth. The building of the ark
being done by a handful of people must have appeared to the world
to be in slow motion. That church don't ever grow. I don't want no part of it. Be
careful. Didn't see much difference in
the ark the next day either. It must just seem like it. Man,
six men. You couldn't go down to Davis,
Lomassey and get your lumber. You had to go out there and cut
down a tree. Had to take a broad axe and score it. And then you
took a foot ad and you got it back. You had to shape that piece. Every piece that went in there
had to be cut. And all the junk cut off of it.
Everything that wasn't a ship had to be cut off of it. 120
years. Noah preached. Worked on that
a whole hour. And the world acknowledged him.
They mocked him. They laughed at him. Laughed
at him. Called him Reverend. Reverend
Noah. Old Reverend Noah. He's down
there preaching. Judgment. My God wouldn't do a thing like
that. You ever heard that? I've heard
that. We don't believe in a God like
that. Salvation in an ark? It never rained. Well, you need
a ship. We don't need salvation from
a flood that's never been preaching. You may not have to listen to
Noah. I'll go down there. There's a
church right down the road. I'll go down there. I don't need
to listen to Noah. No, you don't. You can die in
the flood. You mean I have to hearken to
you? I have to hear what you're saying? Long suffering? You want
us to believe that we're living on borrowed time? Oh, my. Think about it. Look here in
Psalm 103, verse 8. The Lord is merciful and gracious. And slow to anger. Boy, ain't you glad he is. Slow
to anger. I'll tell you, I'm so stressed
out and tired of building this house, I'll lose my temper over a piece
of bubble gum, anything. I'm just tired, tired. He's slow
to anger. He's slow to anger. And listen,
he's plenteous in mercy. and he is at mercy. Verse 9,
he will not always chide. What's that mean? That means
he won't contend with, he won't continue to rebuke, he won't
continue to plead with or hold a controversy with, he will not
always chide, neither will he keep his anger forever. He hath dealt with us, he hath
not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us according to
our iniquity. That is not yet. Not yet. God's longsuffering
is a restraint of His anger. And here's another thing clearly
revealed to that. God's longsuffering is an extension
of His mercy to them that deserve His wrath. When he said, every imagination
of man was only evil continually, that included Noah. Yeah, it did. It included his
sons and their wives. It included everybody on this
earth. Go back and read it again. All
mankind. He said, it repents me, I have
remade me. That's how bad man is. Listen to this, Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. The Lord was long suffering,
wasn't he? Death is a solemn thing, there's
no coming back from it, no hope of mercy after it. And I'm going
to tell you something, it's coming for us. Every tick of the clock, every
motion of its hands, is an extension of God's mercy toward them who
deserve His wrath. Luke woke up a few weeks ago, had no idea he was going to have
a heart attack. And the kind he had, and the blockage he's
had, it normally results in death. But he's still here. How come? God is lonesome. I should have been dead a hundred
times. And then lastly, God's long-suffering
is a period of deferred justice for a season. For a season. Why don't you listen to this?
This is what God says through his prophet Solomon over in the
book of Proverbs. He said, I called. You here this morning? You're being called. Being called. Called to do what?
To obey His commandment to believe? He's not begging you to believe.
He's commanding you to believe. I called, God said, and you refused. I stretched out my hand and no
man regarded. But you... Now listen to this. You have said it not all my counsel, and would none of my reproof.
What's he talking about? Well, he worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will. You refuse that counsel. When crucified, Christ said,
they did what God's hand and God's counsel determined before
to be done. Paul preached the gospel and
in so doing declared all the counsel of God. God willing more
abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of
his counsel confirmed it with an oath. But you set aside all
my counsel. You didn't want to know about
my counsel. You didn't want to know about my will. You're more
interested in your will. Your lust, your desire, your
life, your this, your that. And you would not have my approval.
I also, listen to this, this is God talking. I also will laugh
at your calamity. And I'll mock when your fear
comes. It's coming. Yes, it's coming. It's coming
for all of us. Then shall they call upon me.
But I won't answer. They'll seek me early then. They won't sleep five minutes
before church and throw a rag on and come on into church. No,
sir. No, they're going to seek me early then, but they're not
going to find me. They would none of my counsel.
They despised all my reproof. Therefore, they're going to eat
of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own
devices. God's long suffering is a period
of deferred judgment for a season. He that being often reproved,
hardeneth his heart, he hardens his neck, he'll suddenly be destroyed,
and that without remedy. So what is a proper accounting
of the long-suffering of God? That's what I titled the message,
a proper accounting. 2 Peter 3.15, and account that
the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation. Long-suffering
is an exercise of His mercy. It's an encouragement to faith
and hope. It's a restraint of God's anger.
It's an extension of His mercy. It's a period of deferred judgment.
And all those who believe God and are looking to Christ realize
that they're living in a brief period of time because God's
not willing for His people to perish. I'm not here to just do whatever
pops in my head to go do. Russell, I'm here as a servant
of the Lord. Period. Will He allow me to have
other things? Could be. Could be. But that's
not why you're here. Don't get it confused. Don't
get it confused. This is the day of salvation.
The day of reconciliation. It's the day of mercy and grace,
and there may not be another. May not be another. You seek after the Lord, then
don't harden your heart. Don't do it. Don't do it. That's
what them folks did back in the wilderness. Well, they just went
right on marching. They went right on with Moses,
went right on. They drank out of the water the
rock, they ate the manna that fell down from heaven. They partook
of the same, everybody. Yeah, but their carcasses stayed
in the wilderness. God said they're not going to
enter into my rest. And let me tell you, he tells
you in Hebrews chapter 4 what the problem is. Unto them was
the gospel preached as well as unto us, but it didn't have any
effect on them because it wasn't mixed with faith in them that
heard it. They didn't believe. They didn't
believe. Oh, today if you'll hear His
voice, harden not your hearts. Don't harden your hearts. Every
waking moment, let this poor sinner account that the long-suffering
of God is salvation. Not just for me. I've got unsaved children. I'm
in no hurry for God to destroy the world. I'm in hope that by
His grace He might save them yet. I'm to account this time, this
space that we have. We have neighbors that are lost.
They're lost. We have children that are lost. Relatives lost. You hear what
I'm saying? How am I to account for this
time? I'm to account that this long-suffering
of God is salvation. I'll tell you why it's long-suffering.
To save. To save. Oh, let me take advantage
of that. Huh? Let me understand that. Let me get on that wagon. Salvation. Salvation. Oh, as long as the
sun rises, God's still calling out people, still saving sin.
Huh? Don't put it on. You know somebody
needs to hear? Tell them where they can come
here. They might laugh you to scorn like they didn't know.
They might. Might not. Might surprise you. One day I
was asking, I went. Huh? One day you was asking,
you went. Oh, tell them to come here. Come
here without hearing. It's not gonna be any fast. There's
not going to be any salvation. We're just wasting time. God help us to know that. I need
to be reminded of that every day. I'm preaching this message
as much for me as I am for you. I need to know that. I need to
think on that. I need to live that way, think
that way, and act that way every day.