Preached Sunday, March 30, 2014 from 2 Peter 3:8-9
Theme: We will not be shaken in our faith by the seeming ‘delay’ of the Lord’s return if we keep certain things in mind.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
The people to whom the apostle Peter wrote his second letter were facing some very serious challenges to their faith. You can’t go very long in a serious commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ in this fallen world before you do; and in that respect, those early Christians aren’t any different from us. Many of the same challenges that they faced to their faith are the ones we are facing as believers today.
But I’d like to suggest that there is a particular challenge to the Christian faith that has gotten more and more difficult as the centuries have passed along. It’s the challenge that is the subject of this morning’s passage from 2 Peter. It’s one that we share in common with our early brothers and sisters in Christ; but one that is—I think—a harder challenge for us today than it was for them in their time.
It’s the challenge presented to us by the seeming delay in our Lord’s promised return.
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Shortly after our Lord was raised from the dead, as He stood speaking with them, the disciples watched as He ascended before their very eyes into the clouds. The Bible tells us that “while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:10-11). That glorious promise—the promise of our Lord’s return to this earth—has been the constant hope and expectation of the church for the past two-thousand years.
But think of it! It’s been a ‘hope’ and an ‘expectation’ for two-thousand years now! The message of the gospel has spread around the world in that time; and countless multitudes of people have come to trust and believe on the Lord Jesus and have been transformed by faith in Him. They have trusted in that promise since it was first given. But the unbelieving world looks on at the fact that—two-thousand years later—we’re still waiting; and it laughs and scoffs at our long-standing hope. “Do you still actually believe that Jesus is coming?” they ask. “Isn’t two-thousand years enough time to get a clue? Hasn’t it been sufficiently established by now that it’s all a myth?—that He isn’t coming?—that He never really was coming? Isn’t it time to give it up? Isn’t it time to move on?”
That, of course, was the very kind of talk that the early Christians had to hear. It’s one of the reasons that the apostle Peter had written to them. In the third chapter of his second letter, he told them,
Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder), that you 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, knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to 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 creation” (2 Peter 3:1-4).
Over thirty years had passed by since the Lord’s departure—and the Lord still had not come. Those early Christians didn’t waver in their trust in the promise of God—even through times of ridicule and persecution and trial. But it was, no doubt, hard at times to bear up under the mocking of the unbelieving world all around them. And as much as their faith in the promise of the Lord’s return had been tested back then, it has been tested in ever-increasing ways for the followers of Jesus with each passing century. As hard as it was for them to bear up under the mocking, it’s even harder for you and me today—nearly twenty centuries later!
But what Peter told his fellow-believers about the scoffers of their day is just as true now as it ever was. He told them;
For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men (vv. 5-7).
You see; the scoffers were only looking at their own times; and had chosen not to acknowledge certain things about the past. They had chosen to “willingly forget” those things; and as a result, they lost a sense of history. They assumed things were as they had always been; and had willingly forgotten that the world on which they dwelt wasn’t always what it then appeared to be. Planet Earth had a beginning; at which point it was given form by the word of God. It also underwent a tremendous cataclysmic change at a very important point in its history because of the judgment of God—being transformed by the world-wide flood. The evidence of this—and the implications of that evidence—is willfully ignored by them; and so, naturally, they do not believe that the same world upon which they then dwelt could ever change, or that it was destined for yet another judgment by the word of the Lord.
If what Peter says in verses 5-7 about this world is true, then it puts the past two-thousand years of our waiting for the Lord’s return into perspective. It helps us understand why it is that His promised return seems to be delayed; and even more, why it is that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been graciously allowed by God the time to spread across the world throughout the past twenty centuries—resulting in the salvation of countless numbers of people throughout history.
And the apostle Peter puts all this very plainly in our passage this morning. It’s a passage that not only explains the reason for the seeming delay, but that gives encouragement to our hope in the Lord’s return—with each passing day of waiting! And more, it even gives us the exhortation to live for Jesus with even greater fervency in the times He has placed us—and to be eager to tell others about Him while we can. Peter wrote;
But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
It is harder for you and I to bear up under the scoffing of unbelievers than it was for those early Christians. Let’s admit that. Modern scoffers have past two-thousand years of seeming-delay to point to as they mock. The world seems to be getting worse and worse. Unbelief is growing more prevalent and more bold in its scoffing. Things seem to be getting more and more out of control. People seem to be given over to sin in increasing levels. The Christian faith is made to appear increasingly irrelevant. And our hope in the return of the Lord is being made to appear more and more ‘quaint’ and ‘old-fashioned’ and ‘unreasonable’.
But that’s exactly what the Scriptures promised would happen. We’re told that the Day of the Lord will come unexpectedly—like a thief in the night. We’re told that it will be as it was in the days of Noah—when everyone was carrying on with life as usual; ignoring the warnings that God gave them, until the promised flood suddenly came upon them. Peter tells us very specifically “that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to 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 creation”—just as they, in fact, are doing today. And each new onslaught of “mocking” simply confirms what the word of God says that it would—that we’re growing closer and closer to the day of His unexpected return!
It’s more crucial than ever that we bear-up in our faith during such times; and that we cling ever tighter to the promise of Jesus’ return. And as this morning’s passage shows us, we will not be easily shaken in our faith by the seeming ‘delay’ of the Lord’s return if we keep certain things continually in mind.
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Peter had written, you’ll remember, that the scoffers “willingly forget” certain things. That word “forget”, in the original language of his letter, means ‘to allow something to escape notice’—to not keep it in observation. And he uses the very same word when he goes on to tell his fellow Christians om verses 8, “But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” The “one thing” is—I believe—meant to be understood as all that he is telling us about the return of the Lord in verses 8-9. And while the world may choose not to notice such things, he urges us to make very sure that we don’t allow what is said to escape our notice.
First, consider that the apostle Peter urges us to . . .
1. REMEMBER THAT GOD IS ABOVE ‘TIME’ IN HIS ETERNALITY (v. 8).
Peter tells us something about God in these words. He tells us that—with the Lord—one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as one day. But I don’t believe he means for us to think of those things being actual time constraints in the experience of God. Rather, I believe he means for us to understand that as a figure of speech—that God, in fact, does not experience the constraints of time at all—whether long periods of time or short. He is outside of and above ‘time’. A day means just the same as a thousand years to Him, because He is not under the limitation of either of them!
Peter is here quoting from Psalm 90:4; and I believe it would be helpful to read the verses that are around it. That whole Psalm, in fact, is about how the God of our salvation—the God who judges this world—is above and beyond the limitations of time that frail, mortal human beings like us are under. In that Psalm, Moses wrote;
Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth,
Or ever You had formed the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.
You turn man to destruction,
And say, “Return, O children of men.”
For a thousand years in Your sight
Are like yesterday when it is past,
And like a watch in the night.
You carry them away like a flood;
They are like a sleep.
In the morning they are like grass which grows up . . . (Psalm 90:1-5).
Time means a great deal to us. We live under the constraints of it. But time means nothing to our eternal God. He is above and beyond it all. It’s not right, then, to look at God’s promises from within the constraints of time and judge Him as being “late” in His actions, or as “early” in keeping His promises, or even as doing something “just in time”. He sits above the whole range of time itself and decrees all that will occur in it—whenever, and wherever, and however He chooses. It is all—for Him—one great, eternal ‘now’.
Therefore, what He decreed from before time is never late or outdated to Him—though it may seem so to us. In Isaiah 46:9-10, God Himself says,
“Remember the former things of old,
For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like Me,
Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things that are not yet done,
Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
And I will do all My pleasure’ . . .” (Isaiah 46:9-10).
And so; what this means for us, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, is that we need to keep the bigger picture of things in mind. God has established His purposes, and they will be fulfilled by Him when He—in His divine wisdom—knows best to fulfill them. Nothing for Him will be “late”. It will all be done by Him on time in His great eternal “now”.
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A second thing that Peter would tell us—very much a consequence of the first—is . . .
2. DON’T MISTAKE GOD’S DELAY FOR ‘SLACKNESS’ IN HIS PROMISES (v. 9a).
Peter goes on to say, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness . . .” (v. 9a). And just think—How do some count slackness? In our own experience of human relations, whenever someone seems to be “slack” or “slow” in doing something that they promised to do, how do we interpret their actions?
We might think that such a person is being forgetful. They made a promise; and since it still remains undone, we might thing that they forgot about it. But that’s not true of God. God will never forget one of His promises. Our Lord Jesus will certainly never forget to return for us. After all, we are so precious to Him that He willingly came to die on the cross for us in order to take us to Himself. How would He forget those that He came to this world to die for?
In Isaiah 49:15-16, the Lord Himself says,
“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
And not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Surely they may forget,
Yet I will not forget you.
See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands.
Your walls are continually before Me” (Isaiah 49:15-16).
As Christians, we know what it means that He has inscribed us on the palms of His hands, don’t we? He was nailed to the cross for us! He forever bears the prints of those nails in His hands. How could He ever forget to come again for us?
Or we might think that someone who is “slack” is unwilling to do what they said. They made a promise that they still have not kept; and we assume after a while that they didn’t really mean to keep—that they never really wanted to. But that’s not the case with our Lord. He is very willing to come for us and take us to Himself. He even said that the great desire of His heart is that we be with Him forever and behold His glory.
During His last night with His disciples, the Lord Jesus prayed to the Father and said,
“Father, I desire that they also whom You gave me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24).
Think of that! When He prayed, He had an opportunity to ask the Father for whatever He wanted. You can be sure that whatever the Lord Jesus asked for would be given to Him! And what He wanted most of all is us—with Him in His glorious presence—forever! Of course He is willing to come for us! I believe He is sitting at the right hand of the Father—poised with excitement—awaiting the Father’s permission to go for us and take us to Himself!
Or we might even think that someone who is “slack” is just being lazy. They made a promise; but now won’t put forth the effort needed to keep the promise they made. But that’s not at all true of our Lord. He set aside the eternal glory He enjoyed with the Father for a time, left the throne of heaven, and came to this earth to suffer and die for us! What an unspeakable act of sacrifice that was! He has extended the greatest possible effort for us! And now that He has redeemed us by His own blood, He will most surely do whatever it takes to bring us to Himself!
He told His disciples,
“In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:2-3).
We may be ‘slack’ in the keeping of our promises to one another. That’s because we are fallen and fallible. But let’s make sure we understand that the Lord is never slack concerning His promises to return—not in the way that other people may count slackness. He is very faithful to His promise, very willing to come for us, and very able to do whatever it takes to bring us to Himself forever!
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If that’s the case, then His apparent “slackness” must have another reason. And it does. That reason is ‘mercy’. Peter finally goes on to urge us to . . .
3. RECOGNIZE THAT GOD IS LONGSUFFERING IN HIS JUDGMENT (v. 9b).
Peter says that our Lord is not slack—as others count slackness; “but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” That means that our Lord’s apparent delay in coming for us is a matter of mercy—to allow others that He has chosen for Himself the time that is needed to believe the gospel and be saved.
Did you know that it is God’s expressed desire that all people be saved? Some people consider that an unbiblical idea. And of course, we have to be careful not to express that idea in a way that truly would be unbiblical. It would be unbiblical, for example, to say that because God desires for all people to be saved, then all eventually will be saved. That’s a theological error called Universalism. The Bible tells us very clearly that some will not be saved. After all, just a few verses earlier, Peter spoke of “the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (v. 7).
But even though some will not listen to the gospel, believe on Jesus, and turn in repentance and be saved, it is nevertheless God’s genuine desire that all be saved and come to repentance. In Ezekiel 18:23, we read;
“Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?” says the Lord God, “and not that he should turn from his ways and live?” (Ezekiel 18:23).
Of course He has no pleasure in the judgment of sinners! He desires their salvation! In Ezekiel 33:11, He tells the prophet;
“Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’” (Ezekiel 33:11).
We find the same testimony in the New Testament. In Romans 2, the apostle Paul wrote to people who thought that they were too much more righteous than other sinners to have need for salvation; and he told them;
And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? (Romans 2:3-4).
As He says in 1 Timothy 2;
For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:3-4).
This means that the reason for the apparent delay in our Lord’s return—and with that return, the final judgment—is that ours is a merciful God who is compassionate and longsuffering; and who is giving fallen humanity all the time that is needed to turn to Him in repentance and faith. When the very last of His chosen ones finally believes, then the Lord Jesus will come—and not one minute before then!
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I heard a story once about a little boy who had fallen off a dock and into the water. His father saw his son fall and dove in to rescue him. But the father couldn’t find his boy. He came back up to the surface for a frantic gasp of air, and then dove in again. He swam around in the murky water and couldn’t see his child. Finally—just faintly in the darkness of the water—he saw the tiny boy under the dock—clinging tightly to the pier. The father swam over, grabbed him, and brought him up to the surface where others could take hold of him. After everyone was safe, the father asked his little boy what he was doing holding on to the pier like that. The child said, “I was just waiting for you, Daddy.” He knew—with absolute confidence—that his father would come for him in time.
I believe that’s the sort of faith we’re to have in the Lord Jesus when it comes to the promise of His return. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is forever faithful; and His purposes remain the same throughout time. Even though the world mocks and forgets His promise to return, let’s make sure you and I do not.
First, let’s remember that the seeming-delay is a matter of grace. This is the time to make absolutely sure that you have your trust in Him; so that when He returns, we are ready. In the translation of verse 9 that I’m using this morning, Peter said, “but is longsuffering toward us”—but the best ancient copies of the New Testament have it that Peter said that God is longsuffering toward “you”. That’s the best and most reliable version of the text. And that means that you and I need to personalize these words. Don’t just look around at the sinners in the world. Look at the one in the mirror! Make absolutely sure you are ready! And then—as those who have indeed placed our trust in the cross of Jesus—let’s be faithful to tell others about Him while we can. And finally, let’s make sure we never let anyone sway us from our confident expectation of His return!
When He finally comes back for us, we will be so very glad we did not allow ourselves to be swayed from His promise, and that we kept trusting in His return!