Tuesday, October 10, 2017

PT-3 God's Will is Merciful (2 Peter 3:8-10)


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 05/12/2004

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-3 God’s Will is Merciful

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  2 Peter 3:8-10

            Message of the verses:  “8 But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.  9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.”

            We have been talking about God’s delay, delaying in sending Christ to collect His church, as the apostates were making fun of the fact that this promise has not been fulfilled by the Lord.  We mentioned that God has a plan and nothing or no one will stop His plan from being fulfilled by Him, and so since Christ has not yet returned to collect His church it has to be a part of the plan of God for this not to happen yet.  Peter tells us in verse nine that God wants people to come to repentance and be saved, and so because of God’s long-suffering He has not returned to earth yet.  We spoke earlier about when God brought the flood on planet earth and we saw that Noah and his family, as they were building the ark were preaching to the lost people around them for 120 years, thus showing the patience of God.  When God was about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah He patiently waited for Abraham to pray to Him about his concern for the people of those cities.  I just want to say again that God is completely in control, and God is all knowing, and also long-suffering, waiting for people to come to repentance and trust the Lord Jesus Christ’s death burial and resurrection to pay for their sins.  The resurrection of Jesus Christ is proof that God had accepted His payment for our sins.

            Dr. Wiersbe writes “Perhaps Peter was using the word us in a general way, meaning ‘mankind.’  But it is more likely that he was referring to his readers as the elect of God (1 Peter 1:2; 2 Peter 1:10).  God is long-suffering toward lost sinners because some of them will believe and become a part of God’s elect people.  We do not know who God’s elect are among the unsaved people of the world, nor are we supposed to know.  Our task is to make our own ‘calling and election sure’ (2 Peter 1:10; cf Luke 13:23-30.  The fact that God has His elect people is and encouragement to us to share the Good News and seek to win others to Christ.”

            In our next SD we will look more indebt at the word repentance as Peter only uses this word one time in his writings of both letters, and it is an important word for us to understand.

10/9/2017 10:42 AM

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