OUR GOD OF PATIENCE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

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.

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.

2 Peter 3:9,15

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Think about the nature of our relationship with God before He sent His Son Jesus. Every created person, starting with Adam and Eve, had sinned and fallen short of His glory (Romans 3:23). They lived in the presence of their sin-despising Creator and Father with no chance of redemption as it was something they were incapable of doing for themselves. And given that God hated sin, His judgment was sure for the sinner who had no hope for being rescued and saved.

But as Jesus proclaims in the third chapter of John’s Gospel, God so loved the world and everyone in it that He didn’t wish for them to perish. And so He sent His one and only Son to be the final atoning sacrifice ever needed, the Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world (John 1:29). All anyone needs to do in order to gain salvation and eternal life is simply believe in Jesus as Savior. That’s it.

And so it is and has been for more than 2,000 years now as the Christian church has elevated to its place of stature among world religions from its once meager beginnings. Throughout the world, a majority of people have at least heard of the name of Jesus and been given the opportunity to place their trust in Him. For those who have not yet decided to follow Christ, we should note that God doesn’t immediately terminate them for their indecision. No, our God isn’t like that and we’re reminded of His divine, perfect sense of patience when we read our two verses today from the third chapter of Peter’s second letter. Look again at these words here:

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.

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. Vv.9, 15

These words come on the heels of a section where Peter calls out the scoffers within the church who had mocked the very promise of Jesus regarding His second coming. They were essentially saying, “Where is He? Things seem the same as they’ve always been. Nothing is different and it feels like nothing will be different in the future.”

In yesterday’s message, we saw Peter responding to these scoffers and informing them that God’s concept of time isn’t the same as ours. You’ll remember the Word of God conveying that to the Lord, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day.

The bottom line was that the Lord is not limited in time as human beings are. He is infinite and not pressed or pressured to try and get something done as if He is under some imposed deadlines. He’s not slow at keeping His promised but rather moves in His perfect time and in His perfect way to accomplish His perfect ways.

Our God is also a patient God. Think about how easily He could have dispatched an angel of death to strike down those mocking Him. They would be wiped out before they knew what happened, completely obliterated for insulting the Lord Almighty.

But that’s not the ways of our God for He is patient with His people, “not wanting anyone to perish” but rather “come to repentance”.

Need an example?

When Jesus was brutally executed by crucifixion at Calvary, we know He wasn’t alone there. On either side of Him was two criminals, thieves who incorporated evil brutality and violence into their sinful work or at least this is what the Greek suggests. What lends to the matter that these two men were more than just simple petty thieves is that they were being crucified and you wouldn’t find this happening to people for minor offenses.

So unlike Jesus, both of these men actually were guilty and had earned the death penalty but their responses on the cross towards what was happening couldn’t have been more different.

You probably know the story. One of the crucified criminals actually joined in with those on the ground and ridiculed Jesus. The other first rebuked his partner in crime, acknowledging that they deserved the punishment while Jesus was being treated unjustly, before simply asking Jesus to remember Him when He entered His Kingdom to which Jesus relied with these amazing words:

“Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in paradise.” Luke 23:43

God could have executed either or both of these criminals well before they ended up on the cross next to His Son but He instead exercised incredible, holy patience, a patience that meant salvation to the repentant criminal right before his life on earth ended.

Today, the Lord, our God, continues to display a patience that we’ll never be able to achieve. Maybe you are someone who has decided to live your life for the ways of the world or your own selfish desires, openly sinning before your God who despises what you’re doing but rather than bring His wrath, He’s has opted to wait for you to come to Him, much like the father watches for his prodigal son to return home in Jesus’s parable (Luke 15:11-32).

My prayer for you today is that you will make today the day of your salvation and honor the Lord’s patience by committing your life to Jesus and living in His ways, the ways of righteousness that God requires and desires. You’ll never regret it.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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