In the sermon titled 'The Delay is Longsuffering,' Jason Dohm addresses the skepticism of scoffers questioning the promise of Jesus' return. Referring to 2 Peter 3:8-9, Dohm explains that the perceived delay is not a failure of promise but an expression of God's longsuffering and mercy, allowing more time for repentance. Drawing an analogy between human time perception and God's eternal view, Dohm emphasizes that what seems like a long wait to humans is but a brief moment to God. He uses a 'math problem' to highlight the vast difference between human lifespan and God's eternal nature, illustrating that one day is as a thousand years to the Lord. This understanding should instill a sense of proportion, urging believers to worship God for His patience and to use the time granted wisely by repenting and believing in the Gospel. Dohm encourages reflection on God's nature and the importance of living a life that reflects repentance and faith, emphasizing that the delay is purposeful and consistent with God's promises.

This morning in preparation for the message we're going to read verses one through nine. Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle, in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before you before by the Holy Prophets and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first, that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. 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 that then existed perished being flooded with water by the heavens of the earth which are now preserved by the same word are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly man but beloved do not forget this one thing that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, But that all should come to repentance. Well, our text is a brief one today. We only have two verses, but that's going to be no help for the length of the sermon there, unfortunately. They're just packed with meaning, and I'm not sure the hour will do it justice. The scope is 2 Peter 3 verses 8 and 9.

The title of the sermon is, The Delay is Long Suffering. The scoffers have thrown down a gauntlet in last week's text. They're mocking that Jesus hasn't come back yet. They say, where is the promise of his coming? As if the promise had failed, as if he's never coming back.

So Peter answers the scoffers this week. We're in the final chapter of 2 Peter. We only have three more sermons after today before we're out of the Peter's all together. We'll be going to Ezra and then to Nehemiah. We settled on that this week.

A grand total of 23 chapters and my guess is it'll take us more than a year, less than a year and a half to get through those 23 chapters. But I'm very excited about it. I'm already starting to read through them repetitively, and you might do the same, because they're wonderful books. They're about coming back from captivity. It's about the people of God coming back from Babylon.

So there's a rich treasury of application for us personally. We're all coming back from activity. No one was born saved. It's a rich treasury of application for the church. We're in a time of apostasy, where there's a lot of unsoundness in the church.

And we have to come back and rebuild the walls and try to figure out how God wants to be worshiped and change. And so there are applications from the people of God coming back from Babylon that are going to help us personally and in our church life. The context from last week was the scoffers, they're challenging God, they're throwing down the gauntlet with God by saying, where is the promise of His coming? They think the promise has failed and they think that he's not really coming back. The scoffers have taken a fact that nobody denies, nobody wants to deny, and the fact is that Jesus hasn't come back yet, And they've willfully drawn the wrong conclusion.

Now people take facts and draw the wrong conclusions from those facts all the time. This is a step worse than that. They've willfully done that. What that means is it serves their purposes to draw that conclusion from this fact that Jesus hasn't come back yet. The agenda for that is they don't want to be governed by God.

They say, this promise has failed, therefore the whole thing is fraud, therefore I don't have to be governed by God. That's the line of reasoning. So they took a true fact that we all acknowledge, Jesus hasn't come back yet, and they've drawn the wrong conclusion, but they did it willfully. They did it with an agenda to throw off the government of God. So to these scoffers, Peter in our text this week in verses 8 and 9 comes back with a two pronged argument.

Verse 8 is the first prong to his argument. Verse 9 is the second prong. The first prong is, we don't think rightly about time. As Peter comes back at the scoffers, the first thing he says is, you're thinking wrongly about time. The second prong to his argument is that the delay is actually the mercy of God.

That's where the title of the sermon comes from. The delay is long suffering. It's not God loitering. As we go to the text, let's pray. Oh God, be high and lifted up in the preaching of your word.

May we see you as you are. May you put yourself on display by the words that you gave to Peter to give to us. Thank you for speaking to us, Lord. If you were silent, we wouldn't know what you were like, but you have not been silent. So now, may you be highly exalted for being what you have revealed yourself to be through your holy word.

We pray it in Jesus' name, Amen. So let's read chapter 3 verse 8 together again and then talk about it. But beloved, do not forget this one thing, That with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. Peter starts out by saying, but beloved. So here we know that he's drawing the contrast.

So he's folding in the beloved and he's setting them in contrast. In contrast to what? In contrast to the wicked scoffers. And so he says, but beloved, he draws the contrast and he says, do not forget this one thing. Here he starts to develop the contrast because he used the same word in verse 5 of the scoffers.

He says they willfully forget. So wicked scoffers are forgetful with an agenda. And Peter doesn't want his beloved brethren to be anything like that. He says, they are forgetful, don't you be forgetful, beloved. This is the line of argumentation.

Occasionally, God gives us a math problem to give us a sense of proportion. This is what's happening in verse 8. God is giving us a math problem to give us a sense of proportion that will help us because we don't think rightly about things. We don't think rightly about ourselves, we don't think rightly about God, and sometimes we need math, the gift of math to help us. In maybe a year ago, we were in Matthew 18.

God gave us a math problem to help us with our sense of proportion. It was the parable of the unforgiving servant. It has to do with a servant who owes his master 10, 000 talents. We're Anglo, we're English origin and are speaking and we go right over the top of that. But a Jew listening to that would know how much a talent is and know how much that debt is.

So when we do the study and find out for a common laborer it's 200, 000 years of work. It's just a debt that you could never work off. In a thousand lifetimes, you'd still be short of paying off the debt with your labor. So God has given us a picture of the debt that we owe, so we no longer would think wrongly about the debt. We'd have the wrong sense of proportion and think we only owe God a little.

And here he comes with this parable and he gives us a math problem and he says your debt is 200, 000 years of labor. And we learn to think differently about ourselves and our status before God. Well, God is doing something like that by giving us the math problem this week. I had to spend some time this week just staring at the ceiling. What does it mean that one day is as a thousand years.

Well, let's start with the math problem. One day times 365 days times a thousand years is 365, 000. So there's the math. So the ratio of our time and God's view of it, how God relates to it, is 1 to 365, 000. That's the math.

That's the ratio. One is you. 365, 000 is God. But it's more than that because the thousand is figurative. This happens all the time in scripture, particularly with the number 1000.

In Psalm 50 verse 10, God says he owns the cattle on a thousand hills. But that's just a mean big number. There's got to be a thousand hills in North Carolina with cattle on them. It's one state and one country on one continent. So God doesn't just own the cattle on the hills in North Carolina.

That would be 10 hills in every county in North Carolina with cattle on them. I think the number is probably too small even for North Carolina. This just gives you a sense of the scale. The ratio, even that ratio, even 1 to 365, 000, doesn't do it justice. It's just exploded out in your mind.

Just like the debt of 200, 000 years doesn't really do it justice. It's just to get you off of this position where you're thinking too much of yourself and too little of God. So God gives us a math problem to give us a sense of proportion. Now think about the implications of this. Think about your life and a busy day, a really busy day, in a long to-do list.

And you're pressing all day long. You're scurrying. You're rushing. And you know there's no way that everything on the list is going to get a check mark. There's just no way because The 24 hours binds you just It determines how much you can get done.

Think about a busy day and your to-do list and how the day binds you and how you can't get it all done on some days. Is this resonating with anybody? Does anybody have busy days where you're bound by the day and The deadline is just never you're just never going to be able to get from here to there Because of what days are like for human beings Peter's telling us that God is not like that. God is nothing like that. God doesn't have frantic days where he is rushing around to get everything done that he wants to get done.

Never. His days are never like that. A day is like a thousand years to God. He's not rushing from one thing to the next in his days. It's not what it's like.

He's not bound by the shortness of a day. God is not a superman. God is not a Superman. God is not like you, but just faster, smarter, stronger. I'm so thankful for verse 8.

I'm so thankful for having to wrestle with verse 8 this week because I think of God as Superman. But the Bible doesn't reveal him to be that. He's not just a faster, smarter, stronger version of me. A day for him is like a thousand years. Pick a day of creation.

Go to Genesis 1. Here's a homework assignment. Go to Genesis 1 and pick a day and then just meditate on the accomplishments of the day for God. My favorite day is Wednesday, day four. Sun, moon, stars.

Billions of galaxies, every galaxy having billions of stars. Pretty sure Moses didn't know that when he wrote it, but now we know it. We can look out further. Just Wednesday for God. Just an average Wednesday for God.

Not more able on that Wednesday than any other. But the fourth day of creation, he made the sun and the moon and the stars for him a day is like a thousand years to you and me. And a thousand years is as one day. Here Peter is drawing from Psalm 90 verse 4. And also in Psalm 90, later in the chapter, the psalmist David talks about a human lifespan he says it's 70 years if you're really strong it's 80.

So that means that doing the conversion, again our math problem that helps us with our sense of proportion, 80 years to a lifetime with a lot of strength. So we're going to give ourselves the benefit of the doubt in our math problem. We're going to give ourselves 80 year lives. We're going to assume that we're all strong. Twelve and a half lifetimes then is your thousand years.

So you come and go from birth to grave and you've got strength and vigor to get you to the 80 year mark. You come and go 12 and a half times. It's a day for God. The total span of your lifetime, and again, and again, and again, and again, to the 12 point mark and then half, and it's been a day for God. Just a day for him.

Why? Because he is from eternity to eternity. It's like nothing to him. That means your life span, your 80 years of vigor is two hours. Two hours for him.

This is why the Bible says that we're like a breath, we're a vapor. We're like the grass of the field, which is today. Tomorrow it's gone and its place doesn't even remember it anymore. That's you and me. That's not God.

Our vigorous lifespan is two hours for him. That's the math problem that gives us a sense of proportion about what this God is like. By this math, the quote unquote delay of Jesus' coming is two days, so far. Now when Peter's writing this, it's 64 AD, maybe 67 AD, 40 years from when Jesus was crucified. I mean, the time, the gospel dispensation is just getting started.

Now it's 2, 000 whole years later. It's two days to God. It's nothing. This is no delay to God. Turn to Psalm 90.

So Peter's pulling from Psalm 90. So there's some good, helpful things that surround and provide the context for Psalm 90. Psalm 90. This is Moses. Psalms of Moses are pretty rare.

But here is one, Psalm 90. A prayer of Moses, the man of God. So Moses is praying this. Verse 1, Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, wherever you had formed the earth and the world even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.

You turn man to destruction and say, return, O children of man, For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night. You carry them away like a flood. They are like a sleep. In the morning they are like grass which grows up. In the morning it flourishes and grows up.

In the evening it is cut down and withers. Now skip to verse 10. Verse 10, the days of our lives are seventy years, and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off and we fly away. Who knows the power of your anger? For as the fear of you, so is your wrath.

So teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Moses in Psalm 90, Peter in 2 Peter chapter 3 is giving us a heart of wisdom. He's teaching us to number our days. He's setting us alongside God so we can see what we are and what He is. He is even from everlasting to everlasting, from eternity past to eternity future, He is God.

And our lifespan is just two hours to Him. Oh friends, worship this God. Oh friends, worship this God. Worship the God who is revealed to us in his word. A day for him is like a thousand years.

He's not rushing around today. A thousand years is like a day. He is from everlasting to everlasting. He is nothing like us and he is eminently worthy to be worshiped. That we would bow down before this God and enjoy Him forever.

It's great help to do the math. It brings us into the right sense of proportion on things. And it causes us to fear Him, which is the beginning of wisdom, and it's the beginning of knowledge. You start to know things. You start to grow in wisdom the day that you bow down before this God and fear Him.

Back to 2 Peter, verse 9. 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 9, The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. In verse 9, Peter gives us the Lord's long-suffering toward us. He's teaching us that we should not despise the delay in His coming, but that we should be glad for the delay in His coming. The delay in His coming means you got a life.

The delay in His coming means that you got as many days as you needed to repent and believe the Gospel. Peter says what God isn't concerning the promise of the coming of Jesus Christ. He says what God is concerning His promise of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. God isn't slack. It's right there in the text.

He isn't slack. The NASB and the ESV and the NIV render it slow. God isn't off schedule. He's not slow. He's not slack concerning His promise.

The Greek word that is being rendered there means to delay or to loiter. Be one of the meanings of that word. If you go to the convenience mart you're going to see a sign, no loitering. They want you buying. They want you to come in with a purpose, to spend your money there.

They don't want you to come there and just stand around the door with no purpose. Aimlessly lingering, that's what loitering means. Aimlessly lingering. There's no purpose, you're just hanging around. And The convenience store doesn't want that.

They want you to come in and lay down your dollars and be on your way. So have a purpose when you go to the gas station. God isn't like that. He's not loitering. Everything regarding the time of the fulfillment of his promise to return and judge the earth has a purpose.

He is not loitering. He is completely purposeful. He's not aimlessly hanging around. Some are counting the slackness of God. They think he's loitering, and they're counting years, months, weeks, days.

Still hasn't come. And they think that Christians are making excuses for their God who is never going to come. They think that Peter is just making excuses because it's never going to happen and that the delay is inconsistent with his promise. So that's the question, isn't it? Is the delay inconsistent with the promise that he made or isn't it?

And I want to just declare with great joy and confidence that the answer to that is emphatic, unmistakable, that the delay is completely consistent with the promise. In Matthew 24, about a little over half way through the chapter, in Matthew 24 verse 36, Jesus opens a new section. It's the same sermon, but he's beginning to talk about this coming at the end of time to judge. And in Matthew chapter 24 verse 36 he says this, but of that day and that hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven but my Father only. Nobody knows the day He's coming.

The angels don't know the day He's coming back. So he starts by saying that. Nobody knows. And then he tells three parables. Boom, boom, boom.

One right after the other in quick succession. And here's what they are. And here's the bearing that it has to the delay in His coming. Matthew 24 verse 48 we have the parable of the faithful servant and the evil servant and in verse 48, Matthew 24 verse 48 we read, But if that evil servant says in his heart, My master is delaying his coming. And that gives him confidence in his evil, and then there's a reckoning, and he's cut in half, and he's given his portion with the unbelievers and the hypocrites.

So in the first parable that Jesus tells in Matthew 24 about His coming, about the promise of His coming, He gives us a servant who says, My master is delaying His coming. The second parable is in Matthew 25. Again, it's the same sermon. Jesus didn't know about the chapter break. Same sermon, Matthew 25, verse 5.

We have the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. Some have put oil in their lamps, some have no oil in their lamps. Then we read in Matthew 25 verse 5, But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. The parable of the wise and foolish virgin. The bridegroom is delayed explicitly when they go to sleep.

The third parable begins a few verses later in Matthew 25 verse 14. It's the parable of the talents. And in Matthew 25 verse 14 we read, For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country. Not going to be back tomorrow necessarily, going to a far country. And then in the same parable a few verses later in Matthew 25 verse 19 we read, after a long time the Lord of those servants came and settled the council with them.

After a long time. And so the delay is not incompatible with the promise. It's part of the promise. Explicitly part of the promise. You don't know the day or the hour, so you shouldn't presume that he's coming back tomorrow.

But you also shouldn't be put off by a delay. My master is delaying his coming. But while the bridegroom was delayed, after a long time. And this is just what the Lord's people need, isn't it? Not so much confidence that we'll think we have all the time we need to repent, Because that might not be true.

For a generation, whenever that generation is, that will not be true. They will not have a tomorrow to repent. And we don't know whether it's our generation or not. We just don't know. It might be.

It might be. So God is not slack. He's not loitering, aimlessly hanging around, absentmindedly unconcerned about his people. God isn't slack. God is long-suffering.

So Peter has said what he isn't. He isn't slack. Now he says what he is. He is long-suffering. N-A-S-V-E-S-V-N-I-V render this patient.

He's long-suffering or patient. Of the translational options, I like long-suffering. I think it fits so well with what is really happening. God is suffering long with sinners. Consider this, Matthew 5 verse 45, this is Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount speaking of the mercy of God.

Matthew 5, 45, he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. God is so kind even to unrepentant sinners. The sun came up on them today. They got another day to repent and believe the gospel and be saved. And it's a gift.

It is the kindness of God. Or consider Jesus in Luke chapter 6 verse 35. It says that God is kind to the unthankful and evil. This is God. He's kind to the unthankful and evil.

That's every unregenerate heart. Even those who are regenerate would say, wow, there's too much unthankfulness in this heart. Too much evil in this heart. He's kind to the unthankful and the evil. Why wait, God?

Why not deal with the problem, God? The wages of sin is death. Pay the wages. Don't suffer the indignities from sinners another day. You deserve all honor and glory, but men will not honor you.

They harden themselves against you and they blaspheme you and they scoff and they will not be governed by you. Why are you waiting another day? That's a better question than where is the promise of His coming. With Every passing minute, objects of his compassion are repenting and believing and being saved. With every passing minute, Objects of his compassion are repenting and believing and being saved.

What is the cost of that to God? He's being blasphemed with every passing minute. He's dishonored with every passing minute. But he's long-suffering. He's willing to suffer long to bring in the objects of his compassion.

Where would you be right this minute if Jesus had come back before you repented and believed? I mean right now, right this minute in time, where would you be? You got saved when you were 12, what if you'd come back when you were 11? Where would you be right now? You'd be in the place where you beg for one drop of water to be put on your tongue.

You'd be in the place where you beg for one drop of water to be put on your tongue. They beg for one drop of water, just a little relief, and there is none. But he suffered the indignities of all your rebellion, and your scoffing, and your sins. He was long suffering. The text says that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

He's not willing that ESV and NASB render that. He's not wishing. He does not desire that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Is that a statement of universalism, meaning that no one will perish? No, of course it isn't.

You would have to isolate these verses from their context to come to the conclusion that no one will perish. This sits in the context of verses 6 and 7 where Peter says that the world did perish. The ancient world did perish by the flood, except for eight. In verse seven, he says that the heavens and the earth now preserved by the word of God are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. So this is no articulation of universalism where no one will perish.

Is this a statement that leaves God unable to do what he wants? No. Consider Isaiah 46 verses 9 and 10. We should have this one memorized. Isaiah 46 verses 9 and 10.

Remember the former things of old, For I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me. Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things that are not yet done. Saying, my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. This is from the mouth of God.

His counsels will stand. He will do all his pleasure. He's not unable to accomplish. He has declared the end from the beginning. So he is not at our mercy, we are at his.

What Peter is saying is that no one perishes because God delights in the death of the wicked. People perish when they will not repent. People perish when they harden their hearts. They will not acknowledge God as God and they will not be thankful and so God gives them over to a depraved mind. They will not repent.

They harden themselves against a good God who has sent Jesus Christ. Listen to Ezekiel 33 verse 11. We should memorize this one too. I'm going to end up doling out a lot of homework today. Ezekiel 33, chapter 11.

As I live, says the Lord, I take no pleasure, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways, for why should you die, O house of Israel? People do not perish because God has a secret pleasure in the death of the wicked, but because they will not repent. Consider God's heart of mercy towards people. In Exodus 33 verse 18, Moses says this to God, Please show me your glory.

And then in chapter 34, God passes before Moses and he announces himself. I'm sure this is Trinitarian, but I don't know exactly who's doing what. But he's announcing himself as he passes by. In Exodus 34, verses 6 and 7, we read this, And the Lord passed before Moses and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. In the first verse, I'm tracking with God when He announces Himself.

He's the Lord God, He's merciful and gracious, He's long-suffering, He's abounding in goodness and truth, He's keeping mercy for thousands, He's forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. I'm okay so far. And then he says this, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. How can this be? How can God be that and that without explanation?

How can He be merciful and forgive transgressions but at the same time by no means clear the guilty. Christ. Christ. Christ. In Romans 3 verse 26, Paul says that God is just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

He explains Exodus 34. God is the same, rolled up into one. He is just. He by no means clears the guilty. And He is the justifier for giving sins and transgressions and iniquity because of Christ for those who have faith in Jesus.

It's not an overlooking of sin. It's a transferring the wrath against sin and the guilt of the sin to the substitute, Jesus Christ. That sinners perish in unrepentance is not a sign that God is hard-hearted. Peter is making this argument that sinners perish in their hardened and unrepentant state is not a sign that God is hard-hearted. That one sinner is saved is a sign that God is soft-hearted.

That one sinner would be kept back from what they deserve is a sign of the tenderness and mercy of God. Now multiply it by his people. None of us have deserved anything but separation from this holy God. The mystery is not that unrepentant sinners perish. The mystery is that God has mercy on some.

If we want to know the heart of God, we look to Jesus. In Luke 19 verse 41, it's the triumphal entry passage. And in Luke's account, Jesus is entering, he's riding on the donkey, and he's weeping over Jerusalem. This is the heart of our God. This is the heart of our Lord and Savior.

He comes into Jerusalem, he's weeping over the city of hardened, unrepentant sinners, and then he goes to the cross to lay down his life to purchase a people. This is the heart of God. In Romans chapter 2 verses 4 and 5, Paul is talking about a stiff-necked people who are judging everyone else, but they will not deal with their own sin. Here's what Paul writes in Romans 2 verses 4 and 5, Or do you despise the riches of His goodness? Do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering?

Not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance. But in accordance with the hardness and the impenitence of your heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Paul is talking about that day when the scoffers will no longer say, where is the promise of his coming? Because he comes. Because he comes.

And those who have remained in their hardness of heart, in their refusal to repent, will have despised the riches of his goodness, his forbearance, his long suffering, not knowing that his kindness leads to repentance. The delay of God shouldn't be an opportunity for scoffing. It should be an opportunity for repentance. You See that? God's delay, His waiting two days in His own timing.

God's delay shouldn't be an opportunity for scoffers. It should be an opportunity to repent, for sinners to repent. It's His kindness that leads us to repentance. In conclusion, let's talk about us. I have a two-part homework assignment.

So memorize those verses, whichever ones I said. And two more things. Number one, worship the God of the Bible. It's time to sweep away the God that we made in our own image who's a super us, who's a little faster and smarter and stronger than us. And isn't the God who is worthy to be worshipped.

It's time to devote ourselves to the Word of God and learning what our God is like. By seeing how he's revealed himself to be in the scriptures. May God loom large in our eyes. May he be every bit as big and glorious as his Word reveals him to be. So part one of your homework assignment is just to take some time to meditate on with the Lord a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day and think about how unlike you that is.

Secondly, Do something about the mercy of God. The delay is long suffering. Do something about it. God has given us another day. It's not because he needs time to get stuff done.

On Wednesday, he made the sun and the moon and the stars. The delay is not God working on his to-do list. The delay is his long suffering and giving repentance, giving sinners time to repent. Do something about the mercy of God which has been extended. If you're not a Christian, repent and believe the gospel.

Today is the day of salvation. Do not put off repenting. One more hour. Repent and believe the gospel. If you're not sure, if you're a Christian or not, then repent and believe the Gospel.

The difference between Christians and non-Christians is that non-Christians need to repent and believe the Gospel, and Christians need to keep repenting and keep believing the gospel. There is no place in the Bible for people who just do nothing but wring their hands about whether they are or aren't. Repent and believe the gospel today. And then wake up tomorrow and repent and believe the gospel. And then wake up the next day and repent and believe the gospel.

And then wake up the next day and repent and believe the gospel. If you find yourself with the ability to do it, it's because God has been kind to you. If you're a Christian, live for him. We have time to be conformed into this image, this glorious image of his son. We look nothing like him.

We need to look more like Him. We are bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your members. May your arms and your legs, and your mouth, and your ears, and your eyes be His delivery of glory. The delay is His long-suffering.

It's his mercy. Let's give thanks. Father, I thank you. What a rich two verses. I know another sermon, and maybe a better sermon, could be preached from all the things that I left out.

But I thank you for the truth that there is in your word that it is a well that we never hit the bottom of. Oh God, we just look at just these two verses and we marvel about the breadth of who you are. You're nothing like us. Help us to know you and to see you as you are. Make us ready for heaven.

Lord, in Jesus' name, Amen.