In his sermon titled 'The Certainty Of The LORD's Promises', Trent Moody explores 2nd Peter chapter 3, verses 1 through 9, emphasizing the unwavering certainty of God's promises despite the presence of scoffers who question the promise of His coming. Moody highlights that God's seeming delay in judgment is not slackness but a demonstration of His patience, allowing time for all His elect to come to repentance. He underscores the importance of remembering the teachings of the holy prophets and apostles, urging believers to remain steadfast in faith and not be swayed by those who mock. Moody reminds the congregation of the ultimate judgment that awaits, comparing it to the days of Noah, and stresses the necessity of being prepared for the Lord's return. The sermon also touches on the timeless nature of God, who is not bound by human perceptions of time, and encourages believers to place their trust in the certainty of God's word.

2nd Peter chapter 3 we'll be looking at verses 1 through 9. Thinking upon this theme, the certainty of the Lord's promises, the certainty of the Lord's promises, Thus says the word of the Lord, Behold 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 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 lust and saying Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continued 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 the water and in the water by which the world that then existed perished being flooded with water. 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.

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 towards us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Let's pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, Lord we stand before your Word this morning in need of it Father. We need to be corrected, we need to be instructed, we need to be trained by your word, O Lord.

Lord, that we would be fully equipped for everything that you have for us. And Lord, as we consider your text this morning that you have for us, that you have us in, I pray Lord that the certainty of your promises would rest upon us that we would not waver that we would not doubt that we would not be like scoffers who doubt your promises help us Lord not to walk by sight but to walk by faith By faith in the Word of God and the Son of God and we pray and we long for the day when you come again. Come quickly Lord Jesus. Amen. You may be seated.

The certainty of the Lord's promises, subtitled in a sense, would be this, the patience of God does not negate his promises. That's what we see here. So as we begin, there was a verse in the book of Ezekiel that really caught my attention that I felt like really brought this whole passage together found in Ezekiel 39 verse 8. And the Lord says this, Surely it is coming, and it shall be done, says the Lord God. This is the day of which I have spoken." We have the promise of the Lord, the Lord God of heaven and earth, who makes this statement saying, this day will come.

And because the Lord has spoken and the Lord cannot lie, it is sure. It is so sure it is as if it has already happened because when the Lord speaks it will be done. I really want that to rest upon your souls this morning that when God speaks it is certain. All of the promises in God are certain they will come to pass. So as we consider this in verses 1 and 2, we see that he begins this section of this first part of this chapter 3 with the certainty of the words of the apostles and the prophets.

And what Peter is doing here is really helping us to see the importance of filling our minds with the whole counsel of God's Word. We live in a day and age when so many people want to negate anything that is in the Old Testament. But here, Peter is telling us in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that we need to be mindful of the words of the prophets. And not only the prophets but also the apostles of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So Peter's purpose in writing this epistle is that he wants us to have the certainty of God's Word.

Rest your souls there. God speaks and it will come about. You can rest there. He says this, 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 by the Holy Prophets and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Savior. First, the thing I wanted to point out is this.

When you come to a passage like this that is concerning the promise of God's, the day of the Lord, God promising that there will be a day coming and that there is a day coming when God will judge the works of all men. There is not a man, there is not a woman, there is not a child who will escape that day. Many believe that they can escape these days, but none can escape these days. But notice how Peter begins this section of scripture. This is a heavy passage of scripture.

This is speaking of the day of the Lord, but look how he begins. Beloved, Peter is a pastor at heart And brothers and sisters I want you to understand this morning that is my affections towards you beloved. Don't hear this message as coming in as as being something that I'm I'm laying a heavy weight upon you although it is a weighty passage I want you to hear this first, beloved. Your elders love you. We pray for you.

We're concerned for every one of you and we're thankful for you. Let that rest upon your soul." He says this, beloved I now write to you this second epistle. Interestingly here in chapter 3 that he tells us this. He's reminding them I'm writing you the second epistle. They knew he was writing a second epistle.

I believe this is partly for our sakes that we understand that who he was writing to in this second epistle was also who he was writing to in the first epistle and here a little bit later this is actually a very helpful interpretive key for us in understanding verse 9 and we'll look at that later on in this message. But this second epistle here that Peter is writing to a certain and specific group of believers this morning as I'm preaching this word that this is going out to believers but even in the midst of this congregation there are those here no doubt from there's little children here but also perhaps older who are here who do not know the Lord. They know of the Lord but they do not know the Lord. The same, no doubt, was the case with Peter's congregation that are the people that he was writing to here. So he's telling them, he's writing the second epistle to them, And he's confident of something, of many of those who are listening to him.

And he says this, he says, I write to you the second epistle in both of which I stir up your pure minds. Peter as the great shepherd, great under shepherd that he was and the elder of these and as he's writing to these different congregations here in these people he was wanting them to understand one his love for them but also his confidence of their faith he wants them to understand that he's writing to them to stir up what he has taught them before. He's wanting to stir up my way of reminder. I've often said that Peter is the apostle of remembrance because he's always saying, I want to remind you of this. I write this to remind you and just in case you forget, I want to remind you.

He says it, if you take different words here, but it could be four or five times that he mentions this, that he wants to remind the reader of what has been said. So this morning, that's really all I'm doing. I'm not telling you anything new. Everything I'll say this morning, you know these things. But it's always important that we have reminders of the truth of God's Word.

So again, Peter is aiming to stir up their minds by telling them these things and reminding them of the truths that he has spoken to them before, not only himself but also the prophets and the apostles which were before. And I want to point something else out that may be obvious but perhaps not. Peter tells them that they have pure or sincere minds regarding the truth. However, he writes to remind them because even though they may have pure minds regarding the truth, he wanted them to understand that this does not exempt them from being liable to be led astray in some point of error. As Christians we all must be on guard constantly that even though we may have pure minds and sincere minds towards the Word of God that we love God's Word we study God's Word you need to understand that we are still liable we are still in in danger of being led astray in some form or in some point of doctrine.

God does not desire us to be like children who are tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine, but he wants us to be established and to be stable in the Word of God. So even though he is encouraging them by saying that they have a pure mind he wants to remind them these things so that they do not be led astray with the errors that he's been talking about. If you've been here through this series on 2nd Peter, he hits on false teachers just constantly. He's pouring out this huge passage here in 2nd Peter telling them to be on guard against false teachers. They come in every form of fashion, they have all sorts of errors that they're spreading out there, and they're wanting to lead those unstable souls astray.

So you beloved, be stable, be steadfast in the Word of God." That's his encouragement to the reader. That's his encouragement to us. And so we must be continually on guard against error and constantly purifying our minds. That's what Paul tells us in Romans, that we are transformed by the renewing of our minds. We are constantly bringing our thoughts under submission to the Word of God and let God through His Word renew our minds.

As one commentator noted, he said, such minds need to have truths often brought fresh to the remembrance, though they are truths which they had before been familiar. Have you ever done that? Have you heard some truth or perhaps read a passage of scripture and you know you've read it before but it hits you afresh like you've read it for the first time. That's what the word of God does. It washes over us and it renews our minds and it brings back these familiar passages again that God wants to use for our sanctification and for our growth in the knowledge of the Lord.

And so Peter reminds them of not only what he is saying but he's wanting to remind them as he says here in verse 2, that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets. Now we quoted a passage this morning regarding the Word of God, that it's not of any private interpretation, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit of God. And so we can have confidence in the Word of God. It was written by holy men who were moved by the Spirit of God. And so this word is sure, it is steadfast.

He wants them to see and to understand that the Old Testament prophets have something to say. And I want to tell you the Old Testament prophets have something to say to us this morning as well. We need to hear the Word of God. Now I'm going to quote from a New Testament book, but he's speaking about someone from the Old Testament. The book of Jude is such a parallel to 2nd Peter, it's really astounding.

But in Jude chapter 1 verse 14 and 15 Jude says this, now Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied about these men also saying, Behold the Lord comes with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment on all to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. So the Old Testament prophets have something to say to us. Also in Psalm 50, the psalmist writes, the mighty one, God the Lord has spoken and called the earth from the rising of the sun to its going down out of Zion the perfection of beauty God will shine forth our God shall come listen and shall keep silent and shall not keep silent a fire shall devour before him and it shall be very temptuous all around him. He shall call to the heavens from above and to the earth that he may judge his people. Gather my saints together to me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice, let the heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge, say law." And so as 2nd Peter is writing this, he is combating, as we will see in just a few moments he is combating the false teaching of the scoffers who deny that the Lord will return and so we want to hold fast to what has been told to us.

Daniel 12 verse 2 says this, and many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. This is the sure word of God. Do not doubt it. The Lord Jesus in Luke 12 verse 35 said this, Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning, And you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the Master, when he comes, will find watching.

Assuredly I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat and will come and serve them and if he should come in the second watch or come in the third watch and find them so blessed are those servants but know this that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allow his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect." This is the sure and certain word of God. God has spoken. It will come about. I want to read this last verse again.

Therefore you also be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour. You do not expect. Do not think to say to yourself, I have all the time in the world. Do not think to say to yourself as we will see the scoffers will, where is the promise of his coming? They doubt that he will come because he has not come.

That is foolish reasoning, brothers and sisters. Do not reason in your heart like that. Next, I want to look at verses 3 through 7 at this, the certainty of the scoffers in last days. Now certainly we could say that the last days are from the time of Jesus' ascension until now and until the end. These are the last days and what has has distinguished these days is that there are scoffers.

If you doubt that, just go right down here to Raleigh or into Wake Forest or any other town and step out onto the street and begin to preach God's Word. You will instantly find scoffers. They will come out of the woodwork. You will find them. Go to the abortion mill.

Scoffers will be there and you will find that they are ready to argue with you over the Word of God they will deny the judgments of God so look with me in verse 3 he says this knowing this first he wanted to to set this precedent here He wanted us to feel the weight of this thing. Scaffers will come in the last days. So the last days, Jude describes them as this, but you beloved remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. These are the scoffers. That's how he's describing them here.

They walk according to their own lust. What is it that motivates a scoffer? It is their lusts. This is not just a fleshly or sexual type lust, but this is a lust nonetheless. It is a lust of everything and anything that brings them a form of pleasure.

They walk according to their lust. That can take many different faces. That can come in many different ways, but they are motivated by their own lusts. They walk in their lust and their lust keeps them in the state of willful ignorance. You see they love the pleasures of the moment.

They love the pleasures of the moment. In fact they love it so much that they're willing to sacrifice the future for the moment. Have you ever found yourself there? Perhaps to enjoy the pleasures of sin for the moment, not considering the future consequences of indulging in that. I think we have all been there.

They have the love of pleasure. They worship the God of their pleasure. In fact, they are hedonist. They love pleasure. They prefer the opposite of what is spoken of about Moses in the book of Hebrews in chapter 11.

Listen to what the writer says regarding Moses. By faith, Moses when he became of age he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he looked to the reward." Scoffers are not so. Scoffers choose rather to avoid the affliction of the people of God and rather prefer to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the treasures of this world to be greater riches than entering into the reproaches of Christ, for they are short-sighted and do not consider the judgment of the Lord." You see, Moses looked to the reward. Look to the reward. Scoffers look to their instant pleasure.

What a difference. You see, the scoffer's argument is this, And they say in verse 4, Where is the promise of his coming? Have you ever had someone tell you that? Where is he? There's been many scoffers who have tempted God and profaned and blasphemed the name of the Lord by saying, well if he's real let him strike me dead right now.

Scoffers they are. And they do not consider what we will learn in a few minutes about the long-sufferingness of God. You see these scoffers live by their senses. They've not seen the Lord. They've not seen the coming of the Lord.

They've not seen the judgment of the Lord. That is because they're not looking. These scoffers live by their senses. What they see, what they hear, what they taste and touch and feel, and if it's not there, it's not real. That's why I prayed this morning that the Lord would help us to walk by faith and not by sight.

Where is the promise of His coming? You see, they reason that if it has not happened yet, it will not happen. Matthew Henry says this, there will be scoffers in the last days under the gospel, men who make light of sin and mock at salvation by Jesus Christ. One very principal article of our faith refers to what only has a promise to rest upon, the coming of Christ. And scoffers will attack it till our Lord is come.

They will not believe that he will come because they see no changes, therefore they fear not God. What he never has done they fancy he never can do or never will do. And thus it was like that in the days of Noah when he was building the ark. They mocked him, they did not believe him until they were shut into the ark and the rain started to fall. Can you imagine how they clamored to the ark?

Let us in, let us in. And they could not get in because they were scoffers. The day of judgment had come. They could not enter in. Upon what do they base this reasoning?

We spoke about this in our men's meeting just a little bit. Uniformitarianism. They say all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. It's always been like this. They deny catastrophism which acknowledges that this world was once destroyed by a flood.

Notice what he says here. Where's the promise of his coming? Verse 4, since the fathers fell asleep all things continued as they were from the beginning of creation and notice what he says in verse 5, for this they willfully forget. They willfully willfully forget that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water by which the world that then existed perished being flooded with water. They willfully forget.

The King James says it this way, they willingly are ignorant of. In the Greek it means that they're dumb on purpose. Not really, but that's the idea. Listen to this. Now I say that this dumb on purpose is tongue-in-cheek, but listen to how this lexicon defines the thrust of this willfully ignorant.

It indicates not only willing something, but also pressing on to action. It's not just this desire but it's a desire that moves you and presses you into action. It means to will as the equivalent as to purpose to be decided upon seeing one's desire to its execution. In other words, they have a desire and it's so strong that they press upon it until it moves them to execute the action of ignorance. Dumb on purpose.

They are moved that way. Why are they moved that way? Because they are scoffers. They hate God. They don't believe God's word.

And therefore because of their willfulness, they reject the things of God. In other words, they work hard at keeping themselves ignorant of the promises of God's judgment. They come up with every excuse known to man. They come up with every reasoning and every argument that they can figure out to remain in ignorance regarding the day of the Lord. And they base it upon because it hasn't happened yet.

Young person, you may be here this morning and you've never trusted in Christ and you're not believing that this day can come upon you because it hasn't yet. Don't be like the scoffer. That day will overtake you, Jesus says, as a thief in the night. And then it will be too late. There will be no hope.

When the door of the ark was shut, there was no more hope. God destroyed everyone in the entire earth, except for those whom he put in the ark. That day will overtake them with such overwhelming force that they will be astonished. And my fear is this, that there are some here today who will be like that. I pray that it's not so.

Please heed the word of God. Listen to what Romans says. Romans 1, 18 speaks of this, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness because what may be known of God is manifest in them for God has shown it to them for since the creation of the world his invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. You will be without excuse on the day of judgment." They are willfully ignorant of the Word of God regarding two specific things, which I have alluded to. And the two main things are this, they're willingly ignorant of the creation.

For by the word of God, the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water. Now, I don't want to get too much into this, but just a theory and my belief and understanding of this is that when God created the earth that he separated the dry land from the water that was on the earth but also that there was a water canopy of water above the earth or in the atmosphere and I have reasons part of the reason that I believe that is Genesis 7 11 says in the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, the 17th day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened. Again, I don't want to spend too much time with that, but I believe that gives us an understanding of what was taking place which basically made this earth like a big greenhouse and thus everything was would grow just prolifically it was beautiful it was lush and then this happened they're ignorant that that world was held together and created by the Word of God.

Notice what he says, by the Word of God they willfully forget that by the Word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water. They reject creation. We see that everywhere in our society and around this world and in the culture. They reject creation. Why?

Because if there's a creation, there is a creator. But they love and worship the creation more than the creator. And they suppress that truth in unrighteousness. Next, they are willingly ignorant or willingly forget regarding the flood, verse 6, by which the water that then existed perished, being flooded with water. They reject that.

Again, remember what this willfully means. They press themselves to the point of executing upon their desire in having ignorance towards the flood. What is the big deal with the flood? Not only is it a huge deal regarding creation and understanding how God created all things, but the big thing about the flood is this. The flood was God's demonstration of His Judgment upon sin.

They say, for where is the promise of his coming? They forget the flood. The flood demonstrates God's wrath upon sin. They willfully reject that. They willfully remain ignorant in that.

They will turn themselves in somersaults to try to get away from that fact that God has judged the world and he will again. But in the end, the second judgment, a full judgment, it will be the end. So think of this. It's interesting that the ungodly today, they want to use the sign of God's covenant that he will not flood the world again. They use that symbol to flaunt in the face of Almighty God to exalt their pride in their own sin.

Is there any limit to man's rejection of God? The very symbol that God gives to be a declaration of His covenant that I will not destroy the world by water. And we rejoice in that. Every time we see it, every time my children see it, they say, Dad, look there, that's the covenant. God will not destroy the world by water again.

And yet they fly it as a flag as if they are shaking their fist in the face of God and say, you cannot tell us what we will do. We will do our own thing. And you cannot stop us, they think. But the next judgment will not be by water. To their own devastation, God will bring judgment, but not by water.

The second time, Peter tells us in verse 7, this next judgment will be by fire. Look with me in 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." I want to note a couple things here that the world now is being, and the heavens and the earth are being preserved by the word of God. This little phrase could really easily be overlooked and not dug into, but consider what we have here. Peter is telling us that God, by his sovereign Word, is preserving the heavens and the earth just like he did before. We must live in light of this truth.

Colossians chapter 1 verse 16 and 17 say this, for by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers all things were created through him and for him and he is before all things and listen and in him all things consist this word consist means to stand together in Christ all things stand together it means that the whole universe is held together by the power of the Word of Christ. If he was to let go, everything would cease to exist. He holds it all together. Keep this in mind because it's really going to exalt what I'm going to speak about here in just a moment. Christ, by His Word, holds it all together.

You think you're living as an autonomous human being, that you come and go and do whatever you want to do? No. Christ holds it all together. All of the natural laws of science and the natural laws of the universe that we think that we just so depend on like gravity, it just happens because that's the way it is. No.

Christ holds it all together. Without Christ holding it, it would cease to exist. And so would you. Every atom in your body. If you've ever studied any kind of science and understand atoms and how all those things work and the electricity even that our bodies have and the power by which God has created the atom that it holds itself all together.

Christ holds it together for his purpose. And it's reserved. So he preserves but he also reserves. It's preserved by the Word of Christ and reserved for the fire until the day of judgment in perdition of ungodly men." Isaiah 66 says, when you see this your heart shall rejoice and your bones shall flourish like grass. The hand of the Lord shall be known to his servants and his indignation to his enemies.

For behold listen when the judgment day comes it's going to be just like what he says. Our bones will flourish like grass. The hand of the Lord shall be known by his servants and his indignation to his enemies. The same judgment will bring for God's people joy and for his enemies indignation. For behold the Lord will come with fire and with his chariot like a whirlwind to render his anger with fury and his rebuke with flames of fire.

For by fire and by his sword the Lord will judge all flesh and the slain of the Lord shall be many." Daniel 7, 9 says, I watched till thrones were put in place and the ancient of days was seated, his garment was white as snow and the hair of his head was like pure wool. Picture is just like in Revelation, doesn't it? His throne was a fiery flame, its wheels a burning fire. Revelation 20, 13 says, the sea gave up the dead who were in it and death and Hades were delivered up to the dead who were in them and they were judged each one according to his works then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire this is the second death and anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Scaffers scoff at that.

But there is coming a day when judgment and destruction will overtake the ungodly. And hear me again, beloved, hear these things. These are hard things, but I say, beloved, hear them. Listen to me. You who have not come to the Lord.

Last week you were called, come. The spirit and the bride say come. You who are like the scoffer in your heart, who are willfully ignorant, willfully suppressing the truth of God, maybe not outwardly, but inwardly you reject these things. You doubt these things. You scoff at these things.

You have doubts as to whether these things are true? There is a day coming when there will be no more opportunity to come to Christ. Today He says, come. Come unto me, Christ says. This is the day of salvation.

Do not be the one who says, Lord, Lord, I've gone to church in your name. I've listened to sermons in your name. Have I not lived a moral life in your name? He will say, depart from me and my friend, you will be without hope if you've never come. Not come to church, not come into the waters of baptism but if you have not come to Christ.

He is your only hope. You see all those people during the time of the flood, they were not saved if they found a raft to hold onto. They were only saved if they were in the Ark. And that Ark today is Christ. If you're not in Christ, everyone outside of the Ark perished.

But everyone in the ark was spared. Come. The spirit and the bride say, come. Do not delay. I plead with you, come to Christ today.

And then lastly, I want us to look and to consider the certainty of the Lord's coming. All of these things are the certainties, the certainty of his promise, and now we have the certainty of his coming. Verses 8 and 9, but beloved. Notice again, bookends almost, if you will, of Peter's heart towards his people, Beloved and beloved. He wants you to know that you're loved.

He wants you to know that you're cared for. He wants you to understand that his heart is for you. He doesn't want you to be thrown, tossed to and fro by the scoffer. He doesn't want you to be tripped up by the scoffer. Don't fall into the lies of the scoffer.

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. You see Peter calls the believer again and again beloved. Do not forget this one thing. He's calling them again.

Remember, I'm writing for you to remember these things. These things are true. These things are certain. Lest you too begin to think that God's judgment is delayed. You see, God's perspective of time is different than our perspective of time.

His ways are not our ways. And we look. You know, really what this means very simply is God is timeless. He's not on our schedule, we're on his. He is not bound by time, He's the great I Am.

He's the eternal present one. What is a thousand years to us is a moment to him. Psalm 90 verse four says, as was quoted this morning, for a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday and when it has passed like a watch in the night. But His judgment is not late. His judgment is not late.

As we look around at this world and we see the corruption of the things that are going on, note this, his judgments are not late. God is not late. God is not slack concerning his promise. God's never late. He's always on time.

Who is man to counsel God, the maker of time itself, on scheduling and punctuality? And who is the pot to declare to the potter? What have you done? He is God. It is we who speak words without wisdom.

God is not slack but has a plan and a purpose in delaying his coming. Not that it is delaying in the sense from our perspective it's a delaying, but from him everything is working exactly like he wants it to. Don't doubt this. Be confident in the Word of God. I want to boost your confidence to trust in the Word of God.

I believe every word of it, jot and tittle. And no scoffer will cause me to stumble. No scoffer is going to cause me to doubt, Lord, where is the promise of your coming? Lord, your coming will be as certain and as sure as the beginning. It will happen just like you determined it to be.

The question is this, What is it that is holding back God from coming in judgment? That's our question. Why is he delaying? Why does it seem like so long? And truly, I'm astounded at the forbearance of God.

When you read the news, when you look at what's going on, when you go down onto some of these streets and you talk to people and you see the wickedness of the things that are going on and you think, how does God not rain down fire on this world instantly? Rightfully so he would. When you consider all the blasphemy, all the idolatry and all the whoredom, how patient is our God? You remember what I was talking about just a minute ago in Colossians chapter 1 when I spoke about Jesus Christ holding all things together by the Word of God. By His power He holds it all together and now consider the longsufferingness of God.

And when you hold those two things in your hand, it makes his longsufferingness, his forbearance, his patience explode with bigness. How does he hold back? What moves God to hold back? And what I want to tell you here and what holds him back, I pray and I hope, will move you into such a sweet place. We see that God was long-suffering in the days of Noah.

1 Peter 3.20 says, who formerly were disobedient when once the divine long-suffering waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared in which few that is eight souls were saved through water." So God has demonstrated this long-suffering. How long did it take Noah to build this ark? It was over a hundred years. He's out there and I don't know how exactly he did all this. I'm sure his sons were helping him and maybe he even hired some other.

I don't know. It took him a hundred years to build this. God said I'm going to destroy the world and then he waited a hundred years. And every day they're out there working on this ark. And we know from the New Testament that Noah was a preacher of righteousness.

So he wasn't only building but he was also preaching and in a sense I think building the ark itself was a proclamation of righteousness. It was a proclamation that God would bring judgment upon a sinful world because every intention of their thoughts of their heart were only evil continually. And so this demonstration of what he was doing was a demonstration of the longsufferingness of God and the patience of God and every day as he was building that ark God was longsuffering. He waited as in the days of Noah and he is doing that today. And once he brought Noah and his wife and his sons and his sons wives into the ark, the ark was closed and judgment came.

I want to paint a picture here for you. God is long for you. God is long-suffering. He says in verse 9, toward us. Who's that?

You remember when I started this in verse 1 I said that verse 1 was really going to help us to interpret verse 9. Bible's open please. Verse 9, he's long suffering towards us. Who are the us? Well, turn to verse 1 quickly.

Verse 1 says, Beloved Allen, I now write to you this second epistle. So the same people that he's writing the second epistle to, he wrote the first epistle to, and so in order to understand this interpretive principle of context we should ask the question who's he writing to? Who's us? Beloved, we know that. Well who are these beloved?

Turn back to 1st Peter chapter 1 verses 1 and 2. This is why context is so important. Notice what he says in verse 1 of 1 Peter 1. He writes, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the pilgrims of the dispersion in Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in sanctification of the Spirit for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ grace to you and peace be multiplied." He's writing to the elect. Who are these towards us that he says that he's being long-suffering with, it's to the elect.

He is long-suffering towards the elect. That's who the us is. The us are the beloved. The us are those who are elect. Well, we need to find something out about this.

Who are these elect people? You may think when it says that he's long suffering towards us that he speaks of every single person in the whole world but as this context shows it is not that way. You see, I want to go back to the ark just for a moment. Who was going into the ark? Who was God holding back the waters of the flood for?

God's very clear in Genesis 6 that He was going to destroy, He told Noah, I'm going to destroy the whole world. I'm going to destroy everybody in it except you, your wife, your sons, and their wives. Very specific. And I've just shown you who Peter is writing to and one of these important rules of interpretation helps us to understand that we actually have to go all the way back to 1 Peter to understand he's talking to the elect. The elect are the chosen of God.

Paul makes this clear so who are these and when did this election happen? Notice what he says in 2 Thessalonians 2.13 maybe just write a note because of time, 2 Thessalonians 2.13, Paul writes, but we are bound to give thanks to God always for you brethren beloved of the Lord because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth." So when was this choosing this election of God from the beginning? Acts 13 48 says Acts 13 48, Now when the Gentiles heard this they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. So the writer of Acts tells us that before they believed they were appointed because it was those who were appointed who believed. The converse is also true those who were not appointed did not believe So he's writing to the elect of God.

What is holding God back? John 6 37 says this, all that the Father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out. God is waiting on the entirety of the elect to come to faith and repentance in Christ. God not willing that any of us, the elect, should perish but that all the elect should come to repentance. Thus Jesus said in John 6 39, This is the will of the Father who sent me, that of all that he has given to me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up in the last days.

How many of God's chosen people will Christ fail to redeem? None. So just as in the days before the flood God was long suffering, He waited over a hundred years while building the ark and then bringing the people into the ark, Noah, his wife, his sons, and their wives. Before he brought the judgment upon the world, it is the same with this judgment of fire until all of the elect are brought into the Ark of Christ, then the judgment will come. So the real reason for God's seeming delay is that he's not willing of any of his elect to perish, but that all of them should come to repentance.

Every last one will come, every last one will be saved from the wrath to come. Now you may think to yourself, why doesn't God just go ahead and save them all and let's move on with this thing? Why does he tarry? That's in the mind of God. I don't know.

All I know is God is patient. Why didn't he just give Noah an ark? I don't know. But God had something in mind when he calls Noah to build the ark and God is patient. He's not like us.

We want everything to be instant. God is patient. And he's willing to wait. As 1 Thessalonians 5, 9-11 says, For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him therefore comfort each other and edify one another just as you also are doing so listen how should you view the delay of God's judgment how do we view it We view it as the proof of God's forbearance and his desire to save everyone for whom Christ died. Everyone.

For whom Christ died. Everyone. God will not be frustrated in losing those whom Christ died for. Everyone. 2nd Peter 3.15 says this and it gives us really a clear answer and consider, so here's what we need to do, and consider that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation.

I don't know who the elect are and neither do you, but God does. And we're going to proclaim the gospel to every creature until the totality of the number of God's elect come into the Ark of Christ and we will consider that the long sufferingness of our God is salvation to every last one of them. Now you may ask and I'm sure you have and maybe will, How can I know if I am of the elect? That's a great question. Here's the answer.

If you come to Christ in repentance and faith and follow him all the days of your life, you will prove that you are. That's how you know. You come to Christ. Just like Scott was proclaiming last week, come. The Spirit and the bride say come.

He who hears, come. He who is thirsty, come. You're not going to come to Christ and say Lord save me. And he says I'm sorry you're not the elect. Never.

Because all that the Father has given to me, Christ says, will come to me. So the call to you this morning, if you're not trusting in Christ, is come, come to the fountain of living water and He will by no means cast you out. That's the glory of the gospel. He will by no means cast you out. Do not think that you can know any other way.

Do not think that maybe it's in your DNA or maybe somehow AI can tell you the answer to this thing. Only God knows in the mystery of providence. He knows who you are. Listen to what Jesus says again. John 6 37, all that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out.

You have no fear of being rejected by God. Come. Come. Come to the fountains of living water. God has called me to preach the gospel to you this day.

And he has ordained that every last one of his elect will come to him in faith and they will never be lost. So how can you know? Come. Come to Christ in repentance and faith and you will know as John says in his epistle of 1st John, these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. Come.

Let us pray. Our gracious, most holy and righteous Father, most glorious, most long-suffering, most patient, most loving, You who call sinners to come, would you call them to come by your spirit today? Oh Lord, save today. Lord, we are so thankful that you are patient. We're so thankful that the longsufferingness of the Lord is salvation.

So Lord, I pray that you would strike from the minds and thoughts of everyone here today of why do you delay. Lord we know why because your seeming delay is salvation. So Lord would you call all of your people to yourself and bring glory and honor to the name of Christ. And we ask it in his holy name. Amen.