God Given Chances (Part C)

God measures time by His purposes, not the tick of a clock. And He kind of meets us there by establishing the seasons for us, but He operates outside of the aging processes and the seasons and clocks that we know.

Time's not an issue for Him. Yet God allows Himself Time, as we know it, to give us chances. Today, Pastor Rick will continue his message called, God Given Chances, as he teaches through 2 Peter Chapter 3. is not going to interfere. Some of them say, well, there is no God, or they just make up some rendering of God that is always tiny.

It's always a small, itsy-bitsy God that comes out of hell's teachings and coachings. They can't believe that God will overrule mankind with the coming of Jesus Christ. And Peter is saying, here they are, scoffing, saying, where's the promise of his coming? You've been talking this Christian rapture stuff, all this time. Where's it coming? Well, let's just tell God he needs to do it now to satisfy you.

Jeremiah, he dealt with this, 1715. That's not the year, it's the verse. Indeed, they say to me, where is the word of Yahweh?

Let it come now. There's nothing new. So Peter could easily have countered, and he probably did when he dealt with these scoffers.

You know what? The other prophets had to deal with the same mockings. And it was just as vain and silly then as it is now. What right has anyone to demand that God fulfill prophecy or do anything in their lifetime? When they say, well, again, if you have a tiny God, then he has no rights.

You have the rights. That's the thing about idolatry. You possess the rights to the God you created. You assign to him what you believe.

And if someone else did it and you join that bandwagon, it's the same thing. As opposed to those who receive revelation from God that is backed up by prophecy as we have, no one else has got it. Verse 5, he continues, Peter talking to the Christians about the scoffers who include false teachers but not only false teachers. He says, 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 then existed, perished, being flooded with water. Very wet two verses for us where he says, for this they willfully forget. Literally, this escapes them by their own will.

In the Greek, it's closer rendering. It's free will gone wrong. You have free will to make your choices. You can make wrong choices.

You can't choose the consequences of your choices. That belongs to God. It's called judgment. There's a judgment of the righteous.

There's a judgment of the unrighteous. Of course, Peter is talking about the activity of the third day where God separated the waters from the land. The global judgment of the flood that he is also talking about is a template from God that there is a greater judgment that God does interfere, that he is given a precedence, that catastrophes can come from his hand.

In verse 6, by which the world then that existed, perished, being flooded with water. Well, things don't continue as they were from the beginning and the geological record is loaded with observed evidence. When I say observed evidence, you can look at rocks of geological record.

You can look at the rocks, the strata. If you can find Immanuel Velikovsky's book, Worlds in Collisions and Earths in Upheavals, two different books, if you can find those books, they're out of print, there you have apparently an unbeliever examining the geological record globally and asking questions that only the Bible can answer. And of course, the world that he lived in, and he was a scholar, the world rejected his premise because they want to believe that God doesn't exist. We even have a group that exists solely to prove that what they don't believe doesn't exist. I mean, it's like let's create a group, maybe we can have a ministry here, the anti-fairy ministry, or like an atheist but it's a fairy. Well, no, that's not right.

You got that. I don't want any fairies. Where we live to prove that fairies don't exist, tooth fairies for example. Could you imagine something as insane as that? We rent a building, we pay all that rent. Well, this evening's meeting, brothers, is we're going to discuss the non-existent wings of a tooth fairy. Or how does such a little thing carry a quarter? You know, so we just keep going on with this. You know, what if you have an alarm system and the fairy comes in and nobody's home? It's just too many questions. So, I know, so the atheists, and they're very serious about proving what they don't believe exists.

No, I don't think there's anybody else like this on earth. Verse 6, for by which the world then existed perished being flooded with water. The Greek word for flooded gives us our English word, cataclysm.

It's interesting how these things, it's cataclysmic in association with the flood, it's cataclysmic. You know, when Jesus talked about the judgment of God on the antediluvians, those before the flood, and the Sodomites, he pointed out, and this is really the only thing he singled out about them, they didn't see it coming. They had every reason to see it coming. Sodom could look at all the other cities and say, they don't do this. They did not.

Their position was, let's get them to do this, as we're seeing today. The floods, those who were flooded out, they had the preaching of Noah, that ark for 120 years, stood there as a pulpit until it was too late. It's the way it is to this day. It was how it was on the cross with the two thieves.

It comes down to choice. Luke chapter 17 verse 26, and as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man. They ate, they drank, they married. They were given in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all.

You ought to say it's not a joke. Likewise, he says, as it was also in the days of Lot. They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted and built. But on the day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so it will be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. So Christ says, let me point this out to you. When the judgment comes on those who are being judged, they didn't see it coming because they didn't want to. That's why Peter says they willfully forget these things.

They dismiss them. Verse 7, 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. He says the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word.

God holds everything together. The hoax of climate, man-made climate change. There is coming a God-made climate change. It's called the great tribulation period, especially those last three and a half years. There is going to be a lot of problems here.

But this man-made thing is of course just a political stunt, but unfortunately, as is the case, it has no shortage of dupes and they are reaching little children with this who are growing up terrorized, whose reason for being is quickly becoming their need to prove that the world is getting hot. Well, we won't stay on that, but we will move forward on this. He says preserved, that is kept in store. Interesting, that word preserved in verse 7 is where we get another English word, thesaurus, the storehouse, the treasure. And he continues by the same word. God is actually God. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3, speaking about Jesus Christ, it says this of him, upholding all things by the word of his power, all things. And there we see Peter in agreement with that, reserved for fire.

Well, God is holding back his strengths. There's no question about that. They estimate the core of the earth to be as hot as 10,000 degrees with a lake of boiling liquid fire, lava even, other hot stuff. I mean, because no one's been there with a camera, so there could be some other things there.

So in another category of fire, I guess. Anyway, you know, miners digging for gold in, I believe it's South Africa. They've gotten so deep, the deepest mine for gold in the world, that the temperature is 120 degrees underground. They're very far down. I don't remember how far, maybe a mile or more, I'm sure.

But anyway, I should have researched that before I brought it up, but then you can Wiki me after service. Sitting there fact-checking me now. Anyway, they can feel that's where the heat's coming from. There's no sun shining on them. It's coming from the core of the earth. My point is, God has charged the earth. He's made it a powder keg. He can ignite whatever portions of it he wants.

With Noah, the springs of the earth released, the canopy of the earth above the earth were released, everything with water was coming from the ground, from the sky. God's got moves. The earth carries its own judgment. That's what Peter is saying here.

It is reserved for fire. There's a built-in system of judgment that God will access when he's good and ready. He says, perdition of ungodly men.

Of course, this is the seriousness of it all. God will not make himself a liar to save souls or feelings. He will not preach on hell and then say, I'm just kidding. I didn't mean it.

I just used it to deceive you to kind of get you to do what? When he says there's going to be a judgment and there's going to be a lake of fire and you will go there if you reject me, he means every word of it. Galatians 6, 7, do not be deceived. God is not mocked for whatever a man sows that he will reap. And if you sow unbelief or rejection against God, you will be rejected by God. What would you expect? Well, I rejected him, I hated him, I stiff armed him all through life and yet I still got into heaven.

It won't work that way. All the ingredients for judgment to burn up this planet are here. And all the ingredients to be saved from a sure judgment of God's wrath, they're here too in the gospel and that's where we come in. He says in verse 8, but beloved, there it is again, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. He's quoting Psalm 90 and there are those that argue over this. Is it a literal day?

He says it's as a day. It says it that way in Psalms, it says it that way here in Peter. He's saying God is not bound by time. That's the simple meaning of the verse. God measures time by His purposes, not the tick of a clock. And He kind of meets us there by establishing the seasons for us, but He operates outside of the aging processes and the seasons and clocks that we know.

Time's not an issue for Him. Yet God allows Himself time as we know it to give us chances. And that's what we are talking about. Verse 9, we come to the kingpin verse of this section. 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. The Lord will not be found neglectful, negligent. We also know what God's will is concerning the lost because He's made it clear in the Bible and when you get saved, you know that. God may delay His purposes, but He does not abandon them.

And that is something that we can't lose sight of. Some suppose God is too lenient, as others suppose that He is not lenient enough. Some suppose He's not lenient enough, and to the point as discussed, they enable sin to continue on. We have whole churches just sort of applauding sin as part of the natural thing of man, and they're right, it is natural, and that is the sinful side. But should the impenitent and those insensitive to others, the scoffers, should they ask, why does God delay?

And they will ask in probably a crude form. Well, one short answer, God is populating eternity through those who believe Him in this life, who receive Him. And He knows the number that He's going to say, okay, I've got the number I set out for, I'm not going to get any more, now it all ends, the harvest is complete. Psalm 50 verse 21, these things you have done and I kept silent. You thought that I was altogether like you, but I will rebuke you and set them in order before your eyes.

How serious is that? How many people that, the story of the Greek gods is they were just humans on steroids, spiritual steroids. We could open this up a little bit more and we're almost done. He says, but as long suffering towards us, the slowness of God is due, the slowness of God's judgment is due to His long suffering. The only reason why He has not opened up the judgment on earth is because He is still saving people on the earth. 1 Corinthians 13, love suffers long and is kind. Some get the suffers long part because they don't have a choice, but they're not very kind. We are to suffer long when it is that, when those are the terms and still retain kindness. The fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness comes right after that. And a lot of Christians are just not very kind.

They won't even say hi to you unless they've got something, you've got something they want. I hope there's no one here. I hope we're not ever that way. This God-given chances that He gives to man, the sin is to repent. It's not I'm giving them chances because I just have nothing else to do. It's because He has a purpose and that is their salvation that they might repent. I think of my time as an unbeliever and my brushes with death.

If I had died in that state, I'd be in hell right now. But God gave me chances, preserved my life. I'm not so, if I can use this word, I don't like using these words, but anyway, I'm not being narcissistic because if God did that for me, He certainly is doing it for everybody else. It's not something, oh, He just loves me, or He's just given me chances.

He's given them to everyone. Psalm 14 verse 1, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt, he continues to say. The ones that say this will deny God. So there must be a reason of extraordinary force and significance that He holds back judgment. I mean, why is He holding back judgment? He did it on the cross when He was on earth, He held back judgment. We all heard Him say that to those that were crucifying Him, dividing His garments, Father forgive them, they don't know what they're doing.

They don't know the magnitude of messing with your son like this. This was beyond just mere sin. But here's the answer, He's willing that none should perish. Luke 23 verse 34, and Jesus said, Father forgive them for they do not know what they do, and they divided His garments and they gambled for them. They didn't know what they were doing, and yet He withheld mercy.

Well, it gets more intense than that in some ways. This limitless power of God, this limitless patience of, well, the power of God is limited, but the patience of God is not. The longsuffering of God is not eternal. It has a terminus, it is a shelf life.

If you could find it in bottle form, it would say, the expiration date, death, when those who die thumbing their nose at God, the longsuffering has stopped. The love is gone. So many nasty characters throughout history, Haman, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, and a host, and a cast of millions. Why did not God judge them? Because other people were involved, and God is doing His thing and extracting from those numbers those who would be saved. So these characters remained unsmitten. It would be so easy for God to strike and destroy, and again, He withholds His wrath.

Why? He is longsuffering and tells us here, not willing that any should perish. Somewhere during those days of those fiends, people were still getting saved.

Some of them wrote books, some of them after the war in the Pacific and the war in Europe. Some of those Christians wrote books about their experiences in those days, not willing. First Timothy 2, 4, speaking of God, he says, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth? That's what God wants. That's not His perfect will. His perfect will gets done.

There's no objection. The sun will shine tomorrow because that's His perfect will, and there's nothing anybody can do about that. But then there is His permissive will, where He permits things even though it's not what He wants. It's not the ideal.

It's not plan A. He allows it to continue on. He did this with Moses, for example, in a less intense way. When Moses insisted that I can't speak, and God said, okay, fine.

Just say it like that, but that's how I interpret it. I'll send Aaron, but I wanted to send you without Aaron. Now you've got Aaron.

And he, incidentally, he makes golden calves. So you're messing up, Moses. Anyway, in the parables of the Lord, he is portrayed as the landowner who suffers.

And then last of all, I sent them my son, and they killed him too. The longsuffering of God. God has not lied to man about hell. This delay is found in Revelation 2 21 also.

He says to the church, I believe it's the church of Pergamos, he says, and I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. God's delay is all about longsuffering, because he wants to save souls in the midst. And those of you who were saved within the last five years, those who were Christians 20 years ago asking for God to come back, if he came back, you would not be saved. God knows what he's doing, and we have to submit to that in spite of pain. So I'm going to close now with a string of verses. We have one portion of the verse to get to again. Ezekiel 33, we all should know this, he tells the prophet, say to them, as I live, says Yahweh, God, or says the Lord Yahweh, Adonai Yahweh, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked should turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways. But why should you die, O house of Israel?

Matthew 23, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks, and then here it comes. But you are not willing. But God was willing. They weren't willing.

He wanted to gather the chicks under his wings. So he says Peter does, but that all should come to repentance. He told another group, unless you likewise repent, you will perish.

He's serious about this. God is willing to save all men, but he never saves anyone against their will. If you insist on not going to his heaven, you won't go to heaven. All right, two more verses and we'll pray. Luke chapter 15, verses 7 and 10, I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 just persons who need no repentance.

Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. What is your purpose in this life? What is our purpose here? To cover up the truth because it offends people or to let them have it with as much love as we can muster? We have to think when we're dealing with somebody. Sometimes they need it straight upside their head.

Other times they need it in doses. We have to figure that out and be committed to it and not so preoccupied with our lives. Now I got to go live that this week because what I say, I hopefully try to do. I close with this verse Revelation 22 17 and the spirit and the bride say, come and let him who hears say come and let him who thirst.

Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. The invitations of God. That's all we have time for on today's edition of Cross Reference Radio. You've been listening to Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia as he teaches through the book of Second Peter. If you'd like to listen to more messages from this series or if you'd like more information about this program, please visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never have to miss a program. Just search for Cross Reference Radio in iTunes, Google Play Music, or your favorite podcast app. What a great way to keep God's word with you wherever you go. We hope you'll tune in again next time as Pastor Rick continues studying through the scriptures right here on Cross Reference Radio.