2 PET 3:8-10
INTRO: When I was a boy, we often sang for the invitation song Theres A Great Day Coming. In the chorus is the question are you ready? are you ready?. On one Lords day morning a little girl in the row of pews just behind me said loudly, Im ready! That just about broke up the people who were within earshot. My mother had a very hard time continuing to sing and keep from laughing aloud. Well, there is a great day coming. In our text it is described as the day of the Lord. In scripture that expression usually refers to Gods judgments. So, yes, there is a great day of judgment coming. The appropriate question in light of that fact is this: are your ready for that day to come?
1. Gods calendar is not like ours
a. at v. 5 Peter had referred to the deliberate forgetfulness of scoffers
b. in their belief in uniformitarianism they did not acknowledge the flood
c. and they were not acknowledging the coming of the great day of judgment
d. there was one thing Peter wanted his readers to remember vividly
e. Gods calendar is not like ours!
f. Ps 90:4 - scripture had revealed this fact for many, many years
g. God is not bound by space and time as we are ... He sees with a perspective we lack
2. Gods promises are kept
a. true, God may well delay the coming of the great day
b. but not for the same reasons human beings might delay to keep promises
c. for us passing time allows forgetfulness, change of plans, change of circumstances, indifference, etc.
d. and we have a tendency to judge God by our own limitations, standards
e. a problem here? Eccl 8:11 (do we tend to become complacent, negligent?)
f. a historical lesson? Ex 17:14 with 1 Sam 15:1-3a - several hundreds of years had passed between the offence and judgment ... but God did not forget
g. Isa 46:11 - ...I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass...
3. Gods patience has a purpose
a. scoffers mistook Gods longsuffering for neglect or indifference
b. to the contrary, His patience had a very serious purpose, reason
c. Gods desire is that no one should perish ... but that all should repent
d. Ezek 18:30-31 - the implication of 2 Pet 3:9b is that repentance would be toward God ... toward obedience ... toward change of life
e. notice, too, 1 Pet 3:19-20 with 2 Pet 2:4 ... it is apparent that the patience of God, the waiting of God, while the ark was being built provided a time for the preaching of Noah
f. does not this passage, then, speak of the great need for evangelism?
g. for a lost world the evangelistic interest of the righteous is the only hope ... should we not have the same desire, attitude as did Noah?
4. Gods patience will have an end point
a. the day of the Lord will come - brother Woods notes that the verb will come is in the emphatic position in the Greek text (p. 186)
b. no matter what scoffers may say, this is going to happen!
c. when? Mt 24:42-44 ... like a thief ... unannounced
d. 1 Thes 5:1,2 - Peter certainly would have recalled Jesus words ... and knew what Paul had written ... even John (Rev 3:3) wrote of the thief in the night coming of the Lord
e. on that day there will be no place to hide, not place of safety on this earth
f. the material universe shall melt with fervent heat
g. all of the works of men, as lasting as they might have seemed, shall be burned up
h. this picture of what will happen exceeds even the that of the great universal flood ... at least then the earth and universe remained ... and the ark carried Noah safely
i. how all of this will be accomplished we are not told ... and speculation is idle
j. but it will come ... this end point to Gods amazing patience
CLOSE: Yes, there is a great day coming. So, when the roll is called up yonder, will you be there?
Cecil A. Hutson
11 December 2005
You Must Hear the Gospel
Romans 10:17
You must hear the gospel and then understand and recognize that you are lost without Jesus Christ no matter who you are and no matter what your background is. The Bible tells us that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) Before you can be saved, you must understand that you are lost and that the only way to be saved is by obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ. (2 Thessalonians 1:8) Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6) “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Romans 10:17)
You Must Believe
Hebrews 11:6
You must believe and have faith in God because “without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6) But neither belief alone nor faith alone is sufficient to save. (James 2:19; James 2:24; Matthew 7:21)
You Must Repent
Acts 3:19
You must repent of your sins. (Acts 3:19) But repentance alone is not enough. The so-called “Sinner’s Prayer” that you hear so much about today from denominational preachers does not appear anywhere in the Bible. Indeed, nowhere in the Bible was anyone ever told to pray the “Sinner’s Prayer” to be saved. By contrast, there are numerous examples showing that prayer alone does not save. Saul, for example, prayed following his meeting with Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:11), but Saul was still in his sins when Ananias met him three days later (Acts 22:16). Cornelius prayed to God always, and yet there was something else he needed to do to be saved (Acts 10:2, 6, 33, 48). If prayer alone did not save Saul or Cornelius, prayer alone will not save you. You must obey the gospel. (2 Thess. 1:8)
You Must Confess
Romans 10:9
You must confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. (Romans 10:9-10) Note that you do NOT need to make Jesus “Lord of your life.” Why? Because Jesus is already Lord of your life whether or not you have obeyed his gospel. Indeed, we obey him, not to make him Lord, but because he already is Lord. (Acts 2:36) Also, no one in the Bible was ever told to just “accept Jesus as your personal savior.” We must confess that Jesus is the Son of God, but, as with faith and repentance, confession alone does not save. (Matthew 7:21)
You Must Be Baptized
Acts 2:38
Having believed, repented, and confessed that Jesus is the Son of God, you must be baptized for the remission of your sins. (Acts 2:38) It is at this point (and not before) that your sins are forgiven. (Acts 22:16) It is impossible to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ without teaching the absolute necessity of baptism for salvation. (Acts 8:35-36; Romans 6:3-4; 1 Peter 3:21) Anyone who responds to the question in Acts 2:37 with an answer that contradicts Acts 2:38 is NOT proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ!
You Must Be Faithful Unto Death
Revelation 2:10
Once you are saved, God adds you to his church and writes your name in the Book of Life. (Acts 2:47; Philippians 4:3) To continue in God’s grace, you must continue to serve God faithfully until death. Unless they remain faithful, those who are in God’s grace will fall from grace, and those whose names are in the Book of Life will have their names blotted out of that book. (Revelation 2:10; Revelation 3:5; Galatians 5:4)