God is Patient – 2 Peter Ch2v1to7

Sermons Archive - Greenview Church

(0:00 – 0:48)

Good evening, everyone. We’re going to be continuing our series this evening on God is, and tonight we’re going to be thinking about God is patient. It’s a very big subject, and there is an awful lot of evidence throughout Scripture about God’s patience, whether it’s explicit or implicit.

It may be through phraseology or different passages, but there is a lot there. We’re not going to get through all of it, so this is probably just a top line to go and study yourselves on God’s patience. To help us navigate the subject within the time that we have, we’re going to focus on 2 Peter.

(0:48 – 3:26)

We could jump about all over Scripture, but actually it’s probably better just to focus on one passage. It is a bit of a longer reading than we maybe normally have, but 2 Peter 2 and 2 Peter 3 are good in bridging the context of God’s patience through the Old and the New Testament as he refers to both. So we’re going to read initially 2 Peter 2, verses 1 to 7, and that’s page 1,222, 1 and 3 twos in the church Bible.

So 2 Peter 2 and verse 1. But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them, bringing swift destruction on themselves. But many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.

In their greed, these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them and their destruction has not been sleeping. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment, if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others, if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly, and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless.

And then we’re going to read 2 Peter chapter 3. Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.

Above all, you must understand that in the last days, scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, where is this coming he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation. But they deliberately forget that long ago, by God’s word, the heavens came into being, and the earth was formed out of water and by water.

(3:27 – 5:13)

By these waters, also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word, the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. 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, instead he is patient with you, not waiting, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.

The heavens will disappear with a roar. The elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives.

As you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming, that day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness dwells. So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with God.

Bear in mind 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 of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort.

(5:14 – 6:06)

So they do the other scriptures to their own destruction. Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard, so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. To him be glory, both now and forever.

Amen. This is the word of God. What is Brexit all about anyway? That ran through my head, and I think probably out my mouth as we arrived at Spanish passport control, as we found that coming from the UK meant standing in huge, slow-moving queues to get through border control.

(6:08 – 7:09)

People from the EU, who had busier but faster-moving queues, the UK seemed to take forever. On the way back to Edinburgh, though, it was all hunky-dory. I’d parked the car in the airport car park.

I got fast-tracked through passport control. Who needs Brussels anyway? Isn’t patience great when everything’s working for you? But when it’s not, it’s really not good. Maybe it’s just a bit of an insight into my irrational thinking, or my impatience, I have to say.

But it’s also a bit of an insight into human patience, or lack of it. The dictionary definition of patience is being the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, problems, or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious. So, I want a gold star on that one, not.

(7:11 – 9:33)

We could define God’s patience using a similar definition. What we could do is we could just say, well, God’s like that, but he’s better at it. He’s just more consistent at the definition than we are, and that’s the job done.

Head home for the football. Tragically, we’d be making God in our own image. We’d be robbing him of every other attribute at the same time.

We would be defining his attributes by our standards, which are corrupted. We’d be saying, God is just like us, despite the fact that we have seen through our studies, and it was Colin who went through the study on God’s holiness, that God is other. He’s very different from us.

So, as we look tonight at the attribute of God, his patience, it will not do, it just won’t do to say that God is like us, and his patience can be defined by the definition of human patience. So, our job tonight then is to define what is this attribute? What is patience when we talk about God’s patience? Well, a good place to start is what does Scripture actually reveal about God’s patience? But let’s look at a few questions which might help our thinking as we go through this. How can we define God’s patience? What does it look like? And there’s plenty of historical evidence within Scripture.

We’re not going to go through a fraction of it, but there is plenty of evidence in Scripture for God’s patience. Why is God patient? What’s his purpose? How should we live as Christians if we understand what God’s patience looks like? Now, when we start off in this, the same, I think Andy explained this last week as well, it’s important to emphasize that the attributes of God cannot be separated out. God is unity.

(9:35 – 11:25)

We heard last week, Andy described him as simple. In other words, there are no different parts to God. I am who I am.

The essence of God is God, something beyond human understanding. We only separate out these attributes as we will tonight so that we can identify from Scripture and creation, Scripture being God’s special revelation and creation being His general revelation. And in order for us to understand more of God and by our human mind who He is as much as we can understand.

But trying to define God’s patience in Scripture can be confusing. Patience often gets very mixed up with other attributes, other more obvious ones maybe that we would identify straight away. So, for example, in many verses you will see God’s mercy and God’s patience together.

That’s an obvious one. How do you separate God’s mercy and God’s patience? I find it helpful, and I don’t often read literature from the 1700s, but I did find this definition from a chap, I say chap from the 1700s, Stephen Charnock. The Puritan and his definition between mercy and judgment, and it’s an important…mercy and patience, and it’s an important definition, is mercy respects the creature as miserable, patience respects the creature as criminal, i.e., we require justice for our sin.

(11:27 – 12:08)

Maybe easier on that is mercy pities him in his misery and patience bears with the sin, which engendered the misery in the first place and is giving birth to more. So, simply saying, I think what Stephen Charnock is saying that in his patience, God bears with us as we sin, then he deals with the result of sin through his mercy. So, those are quite different attributes of God, and to miss the distinction would be to miss an important aspect of God’s character.

(12:09 – 15:42)

As fallen human beings, God shows great patience as we continue to offend Him through our fallen state, our rebellion, and our sin. Scripture itself is very good at defining God’s patience. In fact, God Himself defines God’s patience.

In Exodus 34 and 6, as Moses is accepting the law, God passes in front of him. And as he passes in front of Moses, he proclaims, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness”. Now, the phrase in there, slow to anger, is actually patience.

It’s also used for perseverance, restraint, and tolerance. And it comes from a Hebrew phrase, areh. So, if you’re on holiday this year and you’re looking for an ancient Hebrew phrase to use at the beach, there you go, there’s one, areh, patience.

And that is used throughout Scripture to describe God’s patience. Again, Numbers 14, we see this word coming out again, when the Israelites have rebelled against God, and Moses pleads for God’s forgiveness. Moses reflects back in Numbers, and he says, the Lord is slow to anger.

He uses the phrase, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished. He punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.

And in Nehemiah 9, as the priests of the Levites, praise God, they acknowledge the people’s rebellion. If you remember, this is when Moses is receiving the law, and the people create a golden calf that they start worshiping to rebel against God. They pushed Him away, the one that brought them out of slavery.

And yet, Nehemiah 9 and 17, they refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked, and in the rebellion, appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. Such was their sin.

But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love, and therefore, you did not deserve them. So, what is God’s patience? What’s the definition? Slow to anger in the face of sin. He shows great forbearance.

And even for fallen mankind who is rebelling and sinful. It is reflected by Moses, by Nehemiah, and several other people throughout Scripture. We haven’t even gone near what he did with the Egyptians, with the ten plagues, for example.

Not one, not two, ten for each of the gods that they were worshiping, so that they would turn to Him. Such is God’s patience. So, we know what it is, but then we go to our second point.

(15:44 – 16:25)

I’m going to head into 2 Peter, as we read, 2 Peter chapter 2. Now, just to remind us, 2 Peter was most likely written from a Roman jail, as Peter was awaiting his execution for his love of the Lord. He was about to face martyrdom. And one of the reasons I picked Peter when we’re talking about patience, Peter wasn’t really known as being the most patient guy in Scripture.

You remember all the incidents of Peter. I really identify with him. I remember the transfiguration as Peter walked across the water towards the Lord.

(16:25 – 20:12)

He almost became the first submariner disciple. He was so impetuous and impatient. And yet, when we read through Acts, and when we read Peter’s letters, we see a huge transformation in Peter’s life.

Even in his own writings, we see perseverance and patience that Peter has developed. The divine patience that he experienced after all his impetuous and impatient behavior. Can you imagine as he sat beside the Lord at the Sea of Galilee and looked into his eyes? The divine patience that he experienced after all his mishaps, impatience, and impetuousness.

Peter has learned to trust in God’s patience. He wants the churches he’s writing to now to do the same. They’re about to go through even more difficulty, and he wants them to understand God’s patience, and he wants them to grow under it.

Not just understand it, but to grow under it and have hope under it. Peter, from the start of chapter 2, is concerned about how the churches will deal with these difficulties, and he wants the churches to understand God’s patience using history. This is why we read chapter 2. And this is history that they will already know.

And this is with the aim of getting them to understand God’s patience, even in the face of trials. Peter takes them back to Genesis, even to the time that God dealt with angels. And again, you might think, how relevant is this? It’s extremely relevant when we look at the history of God’s patience.

In verse 4 of Peter 2, the angels are placed in chains of darkness, facing judgment. He then takes them back to Genesis 6, to the days of Noah, a theme Peter has raised in his letter again and again. It’s in 1 Peter, and it’s in chapter 3. Noah, like the people he’s writing to, lived amongst ungodly people like us, like our world, a people who God would judge for their sin.

In Genesis 5 and 6, we see through the genealogies that many men had proclaimed the name of God, yet the people had clearly rejected him. They didn’t want to know anything about him. In fact, in verse 5 of chapter 2, we’re told that Noah was a preacher of righteousness himself, and the people were aware of God, and the people chose to ignore him.

God was patient with them through all that time. His judgment wasn’t immediate. In fact, if you read through the genealogies, it was some 2,000 years that God’s name was proclaimed, 2,000 years.

It took over 100 years to build the ark, and yet they rejected God, but God was patient. With Lot, the sins of the people in Sodom and Gomorrah, they had offended God so much that He was going to bring judgment on them and destroy the cities. In Genesis 18, Abraham pleaded for the lives of the righteous people in the cities.

(20:15 – 24:26)

God went in and searched for 50, 40, 30, 20, 10. Each time He went in, and He searched for righteous people, the patience of God. Not immediate judgment, but He searched for those who were righteous.

What’s He teaching the churches, and what have we learned about God’s patience historically? Well, we learn this, that God is slow to anger. God’s patience with man is different from that of the angels or heavenly beings. Why? Mankind is given an opportunity for redemption, which they are not.

God perseveres and forbears with man, even though through many years of sin and rebellion. We can also see a very important differentiation between God’s patience and man’s patience. God’s patience is not with things, circumstances, or time.

God’s patience is with man. That’s a very big difference. Peter reminds us of this in chapter 3 in 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 like a day. God is outside of time and space. The only reason we define things by time and space is because that’s what we understand.

As we go through Scripture and we define the attribute of God and God’s patience, we’ll see His patience is defined by how He deals with man. Judgment in the time of Noah and Lot was assured because of their sin. God gave them the time to repent and ignored them.

God’s judgment was never, ever in doubt, and God’s knowledge of the rebellion was never in doubt. See, the thing is that human patience implies powerlessness and lack of control. I can testify to that.

Not with God though. Peter tells us that God is in control and He’s outside of our calendar. The circumstances He knows, His timing, we only understand His timing from our clock.

God has no timing attached. It’s only our definition. A. W. Pink says this, we would define the divine patience as that power of control which God exercises over Himself as opposed to our weakness and lack of control, causing Him to bear with the wicked and forbear so long in punishing them.

And Peter says to the churches, all these principles of God’s patience that I’ve just shown you from history and defined, they apply to you and they apply to us. It’s many years since the Lord has walked on the earth. It’s many years since the promise of His return.

He hasn’t yet. Does that mean He won’t? Do you doubt it? Is that the theme of why Peter is writing to them? Maybe you’re thinking, and let’s be honest, maybe you’re thinking, what the people are saying is right. Maybe He’s not there at all.

Maybe He’s not coming back. Maybe that’s how we live our lives. School’s tough.

(24:28 – 24:41)

The classes that would tell you that all this stuff is nonsense, getting to you. Maybe witnessing to friends and family is becoming tougher and tougher. They laugh at your faith.

(24:42 – 25:08)

Is that church stuff really worth it? Do you still go there? Are we any different to the people in Peter’s day? Because that’s the situation that Peter is writing to in chapter 3. As the scoffers say, where is this coming He promised? He’s not here. We’ve gone through generations. People have come and gone, and still there is no sight of Him.

(25:10 – 25:14)

Nothing’s changed. We’re going to go on with our lives and do what we want. God’s not there.

(25:16 – 26:48)

And by the looks of it, they might now start denying the existence of God altogether. Just like I’ve mentioned, these people are just the same, and that’s why Peter’s writing to the church. He sees this difficulty for them.

Now, notice the wording in verse 5. But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s Word, the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. Is that not the way it goes? Isn’t it that what we hear today, in fact, there is almost a whole industry debate. Go onto YouTube and you’ll get nothing but debates about does God exist, atheism exists.

It’s all over YouTube, if you have a look, or probably any other media website. Christ hasn’t returned in what we think is a reasonable time frame, therefore God doesn’t exist. Pretty clear, isn’t it? He’s not there.

Isn’t that the argument? That’s the one that they’ve got, where it says that in the last days they will come scoffing and following their own evil desires. They have deliberately shut out God, deliberately they will do as they want. On the 1st of April of this year, Richard Dawkins was interviewed by Rachel Johnson on LBC radio.

(26:50 – 27:55)

When asked about Easter, he said that he’s a cultural Christian. This is Dawkins. Not a believing Christian.

He’s at home in the Christian ethos. He goes on to talk about how he would choose Christianity over any other religion. It seems decent.

Pretty good. See, the problem is that when men decide to follow their own evil desires, there comes a point when they get what they wish for. That when they shut out God, they get something that they don’t really like.

Dawkins was bemoaning the takeover of our culture and our morality by religions and cultures which were harsh and difficult to live with. Dawkins is an example of somebody who’s got what he wished for. But what he’s saying is, there’s no judgment because Christ’s not coming back.

(27:56 – 28:13)

See, Roman 1 tells us that we are without excuse if we see creation and not the Creator. And that’s his problem. And that’s the problem of the churches that Peter is writing to.

(28:15 – 28:47)

And to reassure them, Paul takes them back to the Creator. And in verse 5, by words from the heaven, by his word, the heavens came into being. It’s inescapable that the one who created the world was behind the floodwaters of chapter 2. Referenced here again in verse 6, and the fire of Sodom and Gomorrah is raised again in 7. His patience gave the people of the time a way of salvation, and they refused it.

(28:48 – 33:37)

His judgment came after many years of tolerance, perseverance, forbearance. As sure as he is the Creator, it will happen again. After many years of forbearance, Christ will return.

That’s what Peter tells us. And there will be judgment for those who have ignored God. But don’t get too concerned by the things of the world, its refusal to bow the knee and its mockery of God.

Don’t get too concerned. That’s his point to the churches. Look at history.

Look at what’s happened. It’s going to happen again, but how can he be so sure? Well, Peter had the early writings of the Scriptures. Of course he did.

However, I think Peter is giving us a perspective from prison that probably nobody else could. He says in chapter 1, verses 16 and 17, for we do not follow, this is his second letter as well, for we do not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of the Lord. Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses, eyewitnesses of His majesty.

He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to Him from the majestic glory saying, this is my Son whom I love. With Him I am well pleased. Peter saw the majesty of Christ.

Along with James and John, he witnessed it himself on the Mount of Transfiguration. He heard the very voice speak of His Son, the very voice that brought creation into being. Can you imagine that? Now, he’s speaking with a bit of authority, but let’s not forget the ultimate historical event that demonstrates God’s patience.

It was the cross, and Peter was an eyewitness of the events of the cross. I wonder, as Peter wrote this letter when he was considering in the darkness of a prison cell, I wonder if he considered how God could have held back how He could have used His forbearance, His patience from punishing man’s sin on man over all these years as he saw, as Peter saw, the reality of the cross. How His creatures had rebelled against His mercy, His grace, and His love, and indeed His plan for redemption with His chosen people.

How they could spit in His Son’s face, how they could nail Him to a cross and mock Him for being king of the Jews. He didn’t wipe out humanity. After all these centuries of patience, His Son is nailed to a cross.

How can we or Peter really explain the patience of God as he saw His Son crucified by the cross, by the ones He created? How can we fathom the depths of His patience bearing with His creatures’ sin? Is it any wonder that this previously impatient, impetuous man takes the time to write to the churches as he’s about to die? Which brings us to the purpose of God’s being patient throughout man’s rebellion. Why is God patient? Chapter 3, verse 9, the Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Paul says in Romans 2 and 4, with the same thought of you, show contempt for the riches of His kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to salvation, repentance. His purpose is the cross and our redemption. That’s the purpose of God’s patience.

(33:38 – 34:04)

If you don’t know Christ as your Savior tonight, when will you respond? To God’s patience. How often will He say, we’ll speak again as you turn and walk out the door? He’s patiently waiting for you to repent and to take Christ as your Savior. Don’t be diverted by the sound of the scoffers.

(34:04 – 35:06)

Paul says that there is also another aspect with regards to our redemption. But for that very reason, I was shown mercy so that in me the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His immense patience as an example for those who would believe in Him and receive eternal life. Paul talks of how the dramatic change in his life through God’s patience and how through his life and death, others would hopefully come to Christ.

There are many others through history who have come to Christ because of the change in the lives of friends and relatives. God’s patience and His salvation has been made known to countless others through the lives of those who have been saved. I wonder if that will be the outcome of last night.

Who knows? God’s been patient. He’s patient with Glasgow. He was patient with Glasgow last night.

(35:08 – 35:22)

His patience in bringing us to redemption should encourage others to seek Christ through our love. The purpose of God’s patience is our redemption. He wants all men to be saved.

(35:24 – 38:05)

The depths of His patience, mercy, and love towards us is demonstrated wholly in the cross. And that’s why we’re gathering here tonight for communion, to remember that it is the purpose. And our final point, and very quickly, so how should we live as Christians under God’s patience? We’ve just talked about why God is patient, and is that not a good enough reason to be patient with others, how He has been patient with us? Paul in Galatians 5 and 22 says this, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Against such things there is no law. Surely the purpose of the fruit of the Spirit is to attract others to Christ by the way we live and interact with each other. If the Lord can show His forbearance to sinners, we can show it to those who are outside of Christ in the same way.

Roger Steer writes of George Muller in his book, Delighted in God. He writes this, George Muller prayed every day for five friends that they would come to Christ. After 18 months, one came to Christ.

After five years, another. After six, another. And shortly before he died in 1898, his fourth friend came to Christ.

He didn’t see his fifth friend come to Christ because he came several years after George Muller died. That is a great example of our perseverance and how we live and pray for others. Of course, when we walk through life with our fellow Christians, we bear with them in trials, we uphold them in prayer.

Sometimes we just bear with them, because that’s what we’re asked to do. Sometimes we just show that forbearance and patience and perseverance that God has shown us. I want to leave you tonight with Paul’s letter to Titus, encouraging us on how to live as we wait patiently for the Lord.

(38:07 – 38:38)

In Hebrews 10, reminds us that the Lord is patient. He’s patient until His enemies are made a footstool because He is coming back. And as we wait patiently, as Peter is asking the churches to do in the face of difficulties, and He’s thinking about all of that history that He’s taught them about and His own experience, He’s encouraging them to wait patiently.

(38:38 – 39:24)

And Titus 2, 11 says this, for the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, while we wait for the blessed hope, the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, our great Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He’s coming back.

Peter’s encouraging us through history, through his personal experience, that God is patient, patient beyond any human attribute, but He’s coming back. Amen.

The post God is Patient – 2 Peter Ch2v1to7 appeared first on Greenview Church.