God is Patient
2 Peter 3:3-13
A man was out driving one day, when he came upon a yellow and black sign that read: “Detour – Road Under Repair.” Two months before, the man would have obeyed the sign and taken the detour. But now he was sitting behind the wheel of a brand new, four-wheel-drive, high clearance, sports utility vehicle. To him it wasn’t a detour; it was a challenge. He maneuvered past the sign saying, “Let’s see what this thing can do.” A washboard road, no problem; slippery gravel, no sweat. After about 23 miles, he came to the end of the road. It stopped at a ravine that dropped 40 feet straight down and was 30 feet across. Needless to say, he turned around. As he was approaching the original detour sign he noticed another message hand painted on the back of the first. It read: “Welcome back, doubting Thomas.”
Obviously that man wasn’t the first person to doubt the sign’s accuracy. And yet its message was true; the warning was real. In our Epistle Lesson for today, St. Peter was dealing with the same kind of people. He refers to them as ‘scoffers’ – people who doubted the accuracy of the most important sign of all, the Bible. They doubted the truthfulness of God’s Word. He’s probably referring to the Gnostics, false teachers of his day and age, who denied Jesus’ first coming in the flesh and emphasized a secret, esoteric knowledge as the way to salvation, rather than faith in Jesus Christ. In our text they were sarcastically mocking God, saying that He was never coming back again. Their question was: “WHERE IS THIS ‘COMING’ HE PROMISED?” After all, it had been about 35 years since Jesus said He was going to return, and still He hadn’t shown up yet.
Interestingly enough, their question is actually a form of Hebrew expression, which implies that the thing asked about does not exist at all. In other words, they were denying Jesus’ second coming, denying the idea of Judgment Day or a time of moral accountability. And their supposed proof of this was their claim that nothing had changed since the beginning of creation; that God simply let things go merrily along without ever intervening. Apparently they had forgotten about things like the Flood, the judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah, examples from the New Testament like what happened to Ananias and Sapphira, and the signs of the end that Jesus spoke of, which we’re witnessing even today, things like earthquakes, famines and floods. As a matter of fact, St. Peter specifically says that they ‘deliberately forgot’ about those things – a word in Greek which means: ‘to hide from view’ – which is to say, that they closed their eyes to truth of God’s Word and insisted that His timing was all messed up and His promise was invalid!
It reminds me of the man, who once stood up at the Speaker’s Corner in London’s Hyde Park, making full use of the opportunity to mock the Lord. He said, “People tell me that God exists, but I can’t see Him. People tell me that there is a judgment to come, but I can’t see it. People tell me that there is a heaven and a hell, but I can’t see them.” Smug and satisfied in his unbelief, he stepped down from the podium, while another man struggled up. The second man said: “People tell me that there is green grass all around, but I can’t see it. People tell me that there is blue sky up above, but I can’t see it. People tell me that there are trees nearby, but I can’t see them. But then, there is a reason. You see, I am blind!”
My friends, such is the blindness of unbelief. Not too surprisingly, it still exists today. There are many people, who scoff at the Bible and mock God, saying that there is no Judgment Day, no time when He will return to punish the wicked. For instance, one of the most popular philosophies today is the teaching of universalism – the idea that there is no hell, that God’s love is so universal in the end He will save everyone, that no one will be condemned to everlasting punishment. This false teaching of universalism is taught in most of the cults, which also emphasize a secret and esoteric knowledge as the way to salvation, instead of faith in Jesus Christ. But universalism is also part and parcel of all the Lodges, from the Masons to the Eagles and Elks. And it has even crept into many of the mainline liberal church bodies, who say that it doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you believe in something, and that all paths lead to heaven. But sadly, those other paths lead only to hell. For that kind of false teaching is obviously the same kind of scoffing and mocking of God that went on in Peter’s day.
It is very much like Robert Ingersoll, who in the late 1800’s regularly spoke out against the Savior and the Scriptures. At one of his lectures, he reportedly took out his pocket watch and said: “I’ll give God a chance to prove that He exists. I challenge Him to strike me dead within five minutes!” The minutes crawled by. Those in the last seats said they could hear the ticking of Ingersoll’s watch. When the time was up, Ingersoll smiled and sneeringly said, “You see! There is no God! I am still very much alive!” That’s when a Christian lady stood up and said: “You didn’t prove there is no God. You just proved that God isn’t taking orders from atheists today!”
Boldly that woman spoke up for the truth of God’s Word. And yet, too often, dear friends, we miss those opportunities to witness. Maybe we’re too afraid. Maybe we’re too lazy or apathetic. Or maybe, we ourselves have bought into the lies of the false teachers in our text. Maybe we’ve closed our eyes to the truth of God’s Word. For example, we may wonder, “If God is so good, then why did my loved one get cancer? If God cares so much about me, then why is my home-life so messed up? If God is so gracious, then why do I struggle with so many burdens?” Simply put, we may doubt God’s power and goodness or the truthfulness of His Word. And when that happens, then like the scoffers in our text, we are following our own evil desires.
It’s important to note that in our text, the word desire literally means: ‘to place your soul on something.’ In other words, to stake your life on it. Whatever you focus your energies on, whatever you spend your time on, whatever you would stake your life on – that is your desire. And if it’s not God and His Word, there’s a problem. You see, you and I are daily tempted by the fanciful toys of this world – the wisdom and wealth, the power and pleasure, the security and success it has to offer. We are tempted to stake our soul and our life upon those things rather than on God’s Word. And if often happens very slowly. Not in one big jump, but little by little we begin to transfer our attention away from God towards those things. And by nature we all succumb to that pull – the pull of sin and Satan that leads inexorably to death and hell.
That’s why St. Peter urgently pleads with you and me to remember God’s mercy and not take it for granted. In verses 8-9 he writes: “BUT DO NOT FORGET THIS ONE THING, DEAR FRIENDS, WITH THE LORD A DAY IS LIKE A THOUSAND YEARS, AND A THOUSAND YEARS ARE LIKE ONE DAY. THE LORD IS NOT SLOW IN KEEPING HIS PROMISE, AS SOME UNDERSTAND SLOWNESS. HE IS PATIENT WITH YOU, NOT WANTING ANYONE TO PERISH, BUT EVERYONE TO COME TO REPENTANCE.”
What a beautiful message of mercy. God’s timing is not messed up, nor has He forgotten His promise to come and rescue us from this evil world. Instead, He is patient with you and me. Some translations say that He is long-suffering. That means that God suffers through our sins and doubts, He puts up with all the garbage that we dish out and still loves us. In the Old Testament, it’s translated as: ‘long-pinioned,’ having a long wingspan. It’s like an eagle that is so strong that no matter what storms and difficulties it encounters it can keep on flying. In the same way, God promises to bear us up on eagle’s wings, to bear our sins away and carry safely through the storms of life. That is how God is patient with you and me.
In fact, the word patient, actually means: ‘to keep something at bay.’ And that’s just what God does to our sin – He keeps it at bay, so that it cannot destroy us. More than that, He removes it completely. That was His plan in Christ the Crucified. Like opposite poles on a magnet, Jesus’ death on the cross separated us from our sins as far as the east is from the west, so that they can no longer come near to condemn us. And as we daily confess those sins and turn them over to Him for forgiveness, He sends them hurtling away to the farthest corners of the universe. And He forgives us time after time after time in the Word and Sacraments, because that’s what His loving patience is like.
Not too long ago, I heard about a group of drivers, on an Pennsylvania interstate, who were going along at a pretty good clip, which is to say they were speeding, when all of sudden they saw a highway patrol car coming down the ramp. One after another, the cars’ brake lights flashed on and they slowed down to the posted limit. Still, every single driver kept glancing in his rearview mirror, impatiently waiting for that moment when the officer would pull of the road. After a few miles, the patrolman activated his bull horn and broadcast this message: “I’m not a Pennsylvania State Patrolman. I’m from Connecticut. You can speed up now!” And of course, the impatient drivers did.
Like those drivers, we too are often impatient – impatient with God and His Word, thinking that He’s not moving fast enough. And in our impatience, we often give into our sinful desires and the ways of the around us, forgetting that God is always watching us, and that He’s coming back some day for Judgment. Thankfully, though, God is overwhelmingly patient with you and me. He doesn’t simply wink at our sin or overlook it like the highway patrolman, because He knows that that would destroy us. Instead, He does something much better – He forgives our sin and saves us from it, through the blood of Jesus Christ His Son. And you see, that’s precisely why He delays His coming. As St. Peter said in our text: “HE DOESN’T WANT ANYONE TO PERISH, BUT EVERYONE TO COME TO REPENTANCE.”
In other words, He stays His hand of judgment, so that more and more people can repent and receive the gift of salvation. As a matter of fact, the Greek text actually says that ‘God makes room for all people to repent.’ In other words, He’s the One who causes us to repent and brings us to saving faith in Christ. He makes room for us in heaven, so that we will have a room in the mansion He has prepared for us. And He does that by the power of the Holy Spirit working in the Word. That’s why it’s so important that we wisely make use of the time He’s given us, by daily reading and studying His Word ourselves and sharing that Word with others, not waiting for someone else to witness, but going out ourselves to share the Gospel with others, so that we are all ready when He comes again to take us to our New Home, the new heaven and earth, the home of righteousness. May God grant it to us, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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12/06/2005