The Willfully Ignorant Ignore God's Coming Judgment

PASTORAL PRAYER

INTRODUCTION

Deliberately Ignore The Warning From God

v. 7-11

The power of God’s Word has been on display in the past.

It has displayed His ability to create and form the universe from nothing

It has displayed His ability to destroy His creation in judgment.

And for all those naysayers out there, God’s Word is currently at work preserving the world for its final judgment.

Reserved for fire… in contrast to the flood of Noah’s day, which was a judgment by water, the next one will be a judgment by consuming fire.

Genesis 9:12-15 (God promised not to use water again)

Hebrews 12:28-29 (let’s offer sacrifices that will be worthy) Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire. 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 (our works will be revealed by fire)

Judgment and destruction... (2 Peter 3:7) the false teachers that Peter warned against will face their day of judgment and will be destroyed (2 Peter 2:12). This has been in the cards for them for thousands of years.

Isaiah 66:15-16 For behold, the Lord will come in fire and His chariots like the whirlwind, to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire. For the Lord will execute judgment by fire and by His sword on all flesh, and those slain by the Lord will be many.

Malachi 4:1 “For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,” says the Lord of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.”

The Lord is not slow about His promise...but is patient… (2 Peter 3:9)

It can certainly feel like since it has been thousands of years since the Lord said He would return, that it is not going to happen. But it seems like Peter penned verse 8 in anticipation of that very argument, with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.

An aside, before we continue on about the coming judgment. Many people use this verse as justification for reinterpreting the days of creation as not being literal days. They say this verse indicates that a day can be any length of time to God (or any length of time can be like a day). However, three facts escape their notice:

This verse is found in the context of coming judgment, not creation.

This verse is a simile meant to indicate that God is outside time and in no hurry to work.

Genesis was written for man’s benefit, not God’s. So why would He utilize terminology that man could not grasp from the immediate context?

Now, back to the judgment text.

The Lord is not slow about His promise (even though many people are thinking it is slow coming), but is patient...not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

This verse does not decree universalism...the idea that God is going to save everyone. Rather, it reveals the heart of God to desire that all men be saved, even though He knows many will reject Him.

1 Timothy 2:4 [God] desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

1 John 2:2

He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.

God, in His kindness and grace, has provided the means of salvation for all men through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus the Christ. And by His mercy, He is delaying His return and giving man the opportunity to repent.

Acts 17:30-31

Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man, whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.

When that day of judgment comes, nobody knows. It will come like a thief. And when it does come, it will be thorough. Jesus warned that the justice is so thorough that the weight of eternal wrath will come upon you and grind you to powder (Matthew 21:44).