Confidence in God's Timing

Are we there yet?

Have you ever found yourself getting impatient because you were excited for something but it was taking forever to get to the day to enjoy it?

Last week Peter answered the question “how do we know the Lord is coming again?” Which is an important question. What answers did he give us.

God’s creating everything at the beginning proves He is in control

The flood proves that God send judgment against the unrighteous but save the righteous

But in our passage today Peter answers another extremely important question. “Why is it taking so long for the Lord to return?”

This confusion over when God will return can cause a lot of confusion, in fact it already had. So Peter is going to provide some important answers.

We shouldn’t confuse God’s patience for inability.

Time works differently for God

God is not constrained by time, he doesn’t grow old or weak with time. Time, in a sense, is irrelevant to God. What we see, is in the vast amount of time which God has existed and will always exist, our time is like a speck. 2000 years to God is like 2 days to God. It isn’t a long “wait” to Him.

-We must also remember this is not a literal statement, but an analogy. It isn’t making a comparative time analysis, just making a general description that time doesn’t work the same way for God.

-The point we get from this is that we can’t challenge God’s timing, we couldn’t begin to understand the way God see’s time.

notice Peter said God doesn’t “delay”, some translations say “slow”. But slow is using our own conception of time, while delay emphasizes a choice not based on human time. Delay functions as a challenge to the people who are concerned about God’s ability to oversee all things.

God isn’t like us, He isn’t a slacker. He doesn’t say “well…I’ll get to it eventually” like you might do with your homework.

God knows the perfect timing for all things.

Imagine planning a trip to Disney World, and you have a goal of making it on the most rides as possible. You try to plan out rides that are easy to get on in the busy part of the day and wait till later in the day to do the more fun rides. But maybe your planning is off for one reason or another because there is information you don’t have. But God has every piece of information, He would know how to plan a trip so that you could get on more rides in a day than anyone thought possible. Pick the ride day in the year when no one is going, pick a day that seemed like a rainy day but turned out perfect instead. Whatever it is.

So if God isn’t just being a slacker, than why is He waiting?

Time is a gift from God

Because it is God’s grace for people. He is patient for their sake, to enjoy more time on earth.

Your parent may count to 3 in order to give you more time to become obedient. It is patience, not inaction.

But if we aren’t careful we can take God’s grace as inaction and think “well I didn’t get punished so that must mean that I can get away with it whenever I want”. This is dangerous. Because one day we will have to stand before God and He will be able to account for all our sins.

-These false teachers were using God’s “slowness” as an argument against His coming when they should be using this time to lead them to repentance.

If you tried to steal from Walmart once, you might think you got away from it, but Walmart has very good shoplifting measures that you don’t even see. In fact, they will let you steal until you have enough stuff to charge you with a felony rather than with a misdeamor, therefore you get a harsher sentence.

-Even though this isn’t how sin works, we should be cautious of the same thing, of seeing how much sin we can get away with rather than to be prepared for the Lord’s coming.

In fact, we should be very thankful that God is as patient as He is. In His kindness God gives us more chances than we deserve to believe the truth and hold on to it.

Romans 2:2–4 CSB

Now we know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is based on the truth. Do you think—anyone of you who judges those who do such things yet do the same—that you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you despise the riches of his kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

What this verse also tells us is that God is waiting to allow for the most people to come to saving faith as possible.

-God desires for all people to be saved, but not all will accept the truth

Time moves like a vapor, it is there then it is gone

Peter says in v. 8 that we “shouldn’t overlook this one fact”. He says this because time can lead to us becoming lackadaisical to God’s judgment.

Peter says that “the heavens will pass away” and that everything will “be disclosed” and then we will “wait for new heaves and a new earth where righteousness dwells”.

-We see everything is destroyed.

-No one can escape God’s judgment, there will be nowhere to hide. God will judge all people. As God created all things, He will make all things new.

-This righteousness dwells is God’s righteousness that will fill the entire world with His glory and beauty.

It says the day that God comes will be like a “Thief in the night” this means we won’t be expecting it.

We need to make sure our lives are right with God.

Jesus said that only God the Father knew the day and the hour of His return, therefore we should live each day as if it may be our last.

Peter says in awaiting the day for Jesus return we should be people of “holy conduct and godliness”.

“Only those who are striving after holiness would dare to wish for the coming of the Day of the Lord”. If we aren’t living faithfully to God then we should be even more thankful for God’s patience.

-We remember back to the beginning of the book when Peter told us what it means to live in godliness. That God has given us everything we need through His power in the Spirit.

These false teachers have started to sow doubt in these believers mind about God’s judgment but Peter is reminding them that God will come again and all evil will be destroyed.

-This is in fact good news, not bad news! We should be ready for his return with enthusiasm!

We need to make sure other peoples lives are right with God.

We need to balance urgency with confidence in our salvation

We don’t need to worry each day that if we sin then we might lose our salvation. If we believe by faith then we are saved. BUT we should still live each day by enjoying the opportunity God has given us each day to honor Him and enjoy His creation.

God will make all things new