II Peter 3:9 is probably the stickiest verse in this entire epistle. It is the most abused verse in II Peter. Some of you may be thinking that I should probably save it for some service other than a Sunday morning. But it deals with the subject of salvation, and so it becomes fair game for an evangelical message.
As an introduction, I’d like to abuse one of the messages Brandon Harrell shared with us a couple weeks ago. Let’s think about at the parable of the Prodigal Son with just a little twist. Let’s say that “a certain Christian man had two sons.” His older son followed him to the Calvary Baptist Church on the outskirts of Capernaum. That older boy made a profession of faith in Christ. He was baptized and joined his parent’s church. He attended all the services, sang in the choir and sometimes read the scriptures in the worship service. He gave every outward appearance of being a child of God. But then there was the younger son. He was trouble – He was a rebel; he defied his parents’ rules; he ran with the wrong crowd. And he sinned against God without remorse – he swore; he shoplifted; he smoked; he bullied. He resisted church attendance, and when he did attend he never paid any attention to the preaching. Of course, he didn’t read the Bible his parents gave him, and he never prayed. He didn’t even close his eyes at the dinner table when his father expressed thanksgiving for the food. And then at the earliest opportunity the boy ran away from home, becoming the family’s black sheep. “He took his journey… and… wasted his substance and his life with riotous living.” As he left his father’s house, he basically spit on his father’s religion. He scoffed at the promises of the Word of God which his father took so literally. He professed to be an agnostic, but he wasn’t really. He was a simple, old-fashioned idolater, worshiping the god of secularism. His world revolved around himself – selfish pleasure; selfish pride; selfish sin. But his foolish wisdom brought him to poverty, and in God’s will famine consumed his life. He began to be in want, and eventually he became a slave to his ungodly society.
Jehovah – the God of that Christian family – the God of the boys’ father – was watching all of this. He knew the pain the parents were feeling, and in a sense He felt it too. But God knew that the prodigal would one day return home, repenting of his sins. The Lord knew that he would humble himself before Him, before his father and before the cross of Christ. God’s knowledge wasn’t prescience – it wasn’t based on what His omniscience told him would happen. God’s knowledge of that boy’s return and repentance was predetermined and guaranteed by the Lord himself. The child’s name had been written in the Lamb’s book of life before the foundation of the world.
Nevertheless – God let that wicked child run wild for a while; the Lord permitted him run his life into the ground. He let that boy eat himself up with the diseases of immorality, drugs, alcohol and personal abuse. He was patient with him; He was longsuffering toward the boy, enduring his sins and blasphemies. The Lord, in another way, was also longsuffering toward the boy’s parents. That poor Christian father, kept yearning for his son’s return, and praying for his salvation. But the Lord didn’t answer their prayers within the time-table they set before Him. But then at the time of HIS choosing, GOD gave that prodigal the repentance necessary to return home. He gave to the boy the gift of faith – “I will arise and go to my father; maybe he will forgive me.” In my version of Jesus’ parable, not only did the father forgive his son, but so did the Saviour. “This my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And the family began to be merry.”
Now, I’ll try to tie this into the apostle’s words here in II Peter 3:9 using these four points: God’s PATIENCE; God’s PEOPLE; God’s WILLINGNESS and God’s DEMAND. “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
First, consider, God’s PATIENCE.
We are living in a world filled with scoffers, publically questioning – “where is the promise of his coming?” We are surrounded by skeptics, agnostics and “experts” who are spreading doubt and contradictions. The world and the devil hate the Bible, and they hate true Bible Christianity. They are trying to train our children to join them in their denial of divine creation and divine wrath. They are attempting to turn us all into prodigals – wasters – wanting and wasting everything. Using their vain imaginations, they refuse to believe that a kind, loving, grandfatherly god could destroy an entire globe full of people. With their predetermined ideas, they say that God’s watery judgment didn’t happen – despite the evidence which surrounds them. These things, “they willingly are ignorant of” – verse 5.
So – the elderly Christian father of Capernaum’s First Baptist Church, watches his son go off to the far country of the state university. He knows his son has little interest in education; he knows he’s there to enjoy the sins of university life. But he is quite sure that the boy will swallow, hook, line and sinker, the modern atheistic philosophies. And yet he is patient, and he is faithful in prayer for his wayward son. Over and over again he says to himself – the Bible says, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” – Proverbs 22:6. He patiently waits for his son to return, keeping his eye toward the horizon
And the Lord is patient too. The God, who is attacked by all the world’s “ism’s,” is not only patient, but “longsuffering.” That second word adds “suffering” to the thought of endurance. Patience can be a painful experience; it can be highly emotional. It often involves an attack upon someone’s love. “The Lord is not slack… but is longsuffering…”
As I said in our last message, I don’t understand the ETERNALITY of God. I know that time is contained and confined within the transcendent God. I don’t know how that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” But I do know that when the Son of God hung on the cross for less than a day, He suffered sin’s eternal punishment on behalf of millions of believers. The infinitude of God can enveloped all seventy-five years of my sins, and the eternity of judgment that my sins deserve in less than six hours of divine time. And yet – there is a sense in which the Lord patiently agonizes over the wasted years of the prodigals He intends to save. He puts up with our rebellion, our fist shaking, our deliberate sins – often for years. He is longsuffering. “O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever” – Psalm 107.
Now, in the light of this longsuffering of God, consider the PEOPLE in this verse.
This is the first spot where controversy and misunderstanding come up in this verse. “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise… but is longsuffering to us-ward…” Who are the “US” of this verse? There are many who believe that this verse is talking about God’s patience toward the prodigals. But doesn’t the context teach us that the longsuffering is toward the prodigal’s Christian father?
“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… Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers… For this THEY willingly are ignorant of… But, BELOVED, be not ignorant of this one thing… The Lord is not slack concerning his promise… but is longsuffering to US-WARD, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
Without trying to say that God is not patient toward the prodigals and unbelievers of this world… He is… Doesn’t this particular verse say that the Lord’s longsuffering is meant to bless US – God’s beloved? You have a child who cannot understand her need of a redeemer; she doesn’t see herself as wicked. Since she denies that she is a hell-bound sinner, she doesn’t need a heaven-based Saviour. Or you have a son at university studying heathen philosophies, atheistic biology and evolutionary geology. Or you have a friend who is addicted to meth and is dealing and stealing to support his habit. You love these people, and you long that they might enjoy the freedom and new life in Christ. Peter says to you – to us – “Be assured Christian father, your Saviour-God is longsuffering.” The Lord, to whom one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day, wants you to be as patient as He is. Christian, don’t loose your patience; don’t become angry with the time God is taking in answering prayers. Let God share His longsuffering with you. Remember that He knows exactly when that erring child will be brought to repentance and faith.
Even after twenty years of near despair, we must not give up. Because “the Lord … is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” Keep praying; keep witnessing; keep your eye on the horizon watching for the prodigal’s return.
With that we come to God’s WILLINGNESS.
Here is the second area of controversy and confusion in this verse. “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise… but is longsuffering to us-ward, NOT WILLING that ANY should PERISH, but that all should come to repentance.”
The primary problem of the scorners and scoffers earlier in this chapter, was their misunderstanding of God. The number one problem of this world is NOT a mis-definition of sin; it is a mis-definition of GOD. The false god of the secular world is not transcendent. He is not above all things. He is not in control of all things. The God who is worshiped in many places is not given the attributes of God. The god who is preached in most churches today is not sovereign and not omnipotent. And the god of many churches is not impeccably holy.
“The Lord – Jehovah – is not slack concerning his promise, as [the scoffers] count slackness…” The God of the Bible not only CAN keep His promises, it is guaranteed He will keep His promises. The God who destroyed the world in the days of Noah, and who has promised to destroy the world with fire in the near future – will do what He said. And the God who created all things can take a soul that is spiritually dead and create eternal life in him. He has promised to redeem many, and many He will redeem. “For the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life ransom for many.” That is not a potential salvation; it is a guaranteed salvation. The god who is preached in most churches – even in most Baptist churches – is not the glorious God of the Bible. Most churches preach a god with limitations and failures – not a God of omnipotence and sovereign authority. He is a god who tries really hard to save all the world’s prodigals, but since most of them won’t help him he fails. That is not the God of the Bible.
Peter tells us that “the Lord… is not willing that any should PERISH.” A great many Baptist preachers tell their people that God is not willing that anyone die the second death. Not only is that not what scripture after scripture declares, that is not what Peter is saying. What is the context of this verse? Peter says, “The heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word [of God] are kept in store, reserve unto fire against he day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” Verse 10 – “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” What will happen when the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men takes place? What will happen when the heavens pass away with a great noise and the elements melt in fervent heat? What will happen to the people when “the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” Those who are not among God’s “beloved” will “perish.” They will die. Their hearts will stop beating. This verse isn’t talking about eternal life and eternal death, it is talking about physical death.
God did not originally create men to die. He created man to enjoy the Lord for ever. But then when Adam sinned, which precipitated death. And now death is an appointment all his children must keep. It is one of the promises of the holy God. The unbeliever says, “where is the promise of his coming?” Where is the fulfilment of God’s promise? And where is the promise of physical death? I am seventy-five or I am ninety-five and I haven’t died. I have defied God all my life, and I’m still here to spit in His face. “Where is the promise of his coming?” The guarantee of God’s promise is enveloped in His patience, longsuffering, and loving kindness. “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years,” because God is giving the prodigals of this world time to repent and return home.
Paraphrasing Paul in Romans 2 – “Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest…” We might say, “it is inexcusable and foolish to judge and scoff at God for not sending you into immediate hell…” “for wherein thou judgest … thou condemnest thyself…” “Thinkest thou this, O man… that thou shalt escape the judgment of God” if you continue like this? “Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? The patience and longsuffering of God are being showered down upon you pointing you to repentance. But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds.”
The Lord has not yet poured out His fiery fury on this sinful world, because His time is not yet come. The Lord has given twenty-five years or sixty-five years to that prodigal, giving him time to repent. “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise… but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
And with that we come to God’s DEMAND – repentance.
I said a few minutes ago that the true and living God is not being uplifted and preached in our world today. Churches are preaching a watered down gospel, because they worship a watered down God. The Saviour of a great many “Christian churches” is so weak that anyone can push Him around. Sinners today are being told that to simply ask Jesus into their hearts forces or entices God to save them. Sinners today don’t have to kick off their shoes to approach God’s burning bush. They are told they can be forgiven of their sins, even if they have no desire to quit their sins. That is not the salvation of God; that is not the gospel of the true God. That ignores the demand of God.
Ezekiel “say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; REPENT, and TURN YOURSELVES from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations.” After Jesus returned from His victory over Satan’s temptation, Christ “began to preach and to say, REPENT, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” You could lawfully apply one aspect of that kingdom to God’s judgment of this world’s kingdoms. Repent, because the final judgment is on its way. The message of the Lord Jesus in Luke 13 was, “except ye REPENT, ye shall all likewise perish.” The message of Peter on that great Day of Pentecost was “REPENT and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” Later he declared, “REPENT ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.” Paul, looking out on the sceptics and scoffers of Athens authoritatively declared, “the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to REPENT.”
As Peter tells his friends by way of this letter: “Be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets…” And don’t forget “the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour…” What commandment was that, Peter? “The times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to REPENT.” “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise… but is longsiffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to REPENTANCE.” In the light of our sins, and under the shadow of God’s coming judgment, Peter doesn’t plead with people to simply believe on the Lord Jesus. He doesn’t tell anyone to ask Jesus into their hearts, or stop committing sin, or join some good church. He says that God is graciously and patiently giving sinners time to repent.
Repentance is the need of the hour. When sinners repent, they find room for faith in the Saviour. When sinners realize exactly how prodigal they are in the sight of God, they are in the right posture to look up to the Lord Jesus for forgiveness, trusting His saving grace.
Peter tells us that repentance is the need of the day, the need of the hour, the need of this scoffing world. And the practical application is this: Is repentance still YOUR need before God. Don’t talk about your love for the Saviour, if you can’t also talk about your wretched condition in His sight. Don’t speak about God’s forgiveness of your sin, if you haven’t begun to hate those sins.
Have you ever repented toward God? Is your faith in Christ to not only forgive you of your sins, but to deliver you? If not, then you are still a prodigal in that far land of sin and destruction. “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise… but is longsiffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to REPENTANCE.”