Ezekiel 17-19, Job 6, John 8:31-47, 2 Peter 3:1-9

2 Peter 3:1-9:

Peter is writing to stimulate his readers to “wholesome thinking.” He is reminding them of the teaching of the Old Testament prophets, and the Word of God in Christ Jesus that is taught through the apostles in the New Testament. In other words, he wants them to think biblically. This is his great goal. And how much it is needed today.

But now in particular, he is focused on a particular approach of the false teachers that he is counteracting. These false teachers will be scoffers. They will sneer and look down their noses at anyone who believes what the Bible says. How relevant is this Word of God! How many people are there like that today who sneer at biblical Christianity. And especially that sneering will be focused on a key doctrine that Christians believe, namely the coming return of Jesus Christ.

These sneering false teachers will say that Jesus has been a long time coming, that it has been ages since he first came, and where is this “coming” again that you talk about? But what they forget is that in the same way God promised that the flood would come in judgment on the world (and it did), so he also promises that there is a coming fiery judgment, the day of judgment, and that day will also come. If they think that this return of Jesus is taking a long time to happen, they forget that for God, time moves at a different pace. He is not bound by our time or our conceptions of time. With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day.

In fact, the reason for Jesus’ delay is simply because God is patient. He is waiting to give those that we preach to, the world around, the opportunity to repent before judgment comes.

The right application of this coming return of Jesus, then, is to preach the gospel and to repent and believe in Jesus. Would you do that? Would you take fresh courage in your hands, Christian, and preach the gospel? Non-Christian, would you repent and turn to Christ and ask for his forgiveness? The day is coming, the fiery day of judgment, when it will be too late. But it is not too late today. Now. And therefore turn and repent and put your trust in Christ.