It's About Time

Good afternoon, everyone! It's always nice to see our wonderful hall completely filled up with people, and maybe overflowing a little bit. Glad everyone's here with us today. Well, it's about time! No, really, it's about time. Really. That's the title of my message. It's about time. I can think back to grade school. I don't know if any of you had to do a project like this, but when I was... I can't remember exactly. It might have been third or fourth grade. We had to do a project.

The teacher had us pull out a piece of paper and said, if you had one more day left to live, take out a piece of paper and write down the things that you would do if you had one day left to live. And I can't honestly remember exactly what I wrote down, but then she went around the class and the different students read off the different things that they would do if they only had one day to live. And being third or fourth graders, you know, it had to do with going out to the amusement park, going out to the park, going out at that time to the arcade, things like that. All the things that a young person, a child, would want to do if they had only a short amount of time left. What about us today? What would we do if we only had a fixed amount of time left to live? How would we act if we knew that Jesus Christ was going to return tomorrow? What if it was six months away?

What if maybe we knew it was three years away? How would we act and what would we do? And maybe more importantly, and what I'd like to spend a little time thinking about today is, do you think it would be a good time to know exactly when Jesus Christ is going to return? Or when your life is going to come to an end?

Or would it not be a good thing? I'll give you a moment to think about that. If you'll turn with me to Jonah 3, I'd like to look at a few events in the Bible and just look at the stories and how they went in terms of people knowing that they were given a certain amount of time. I think as we go through them, they create an interesting progression as we go through these stories. And time's an interesting psychology, isn't it, for us as people in terms of how we deal with things. We have deadlines immediately on us compared to when we have deadlines that might be some time away.

Turn with me to Jonah 3. We'll just read verses 1 to 4 to remind ourselves of the setup for the story of Jonah. And this, in chapter 3, is after the famous part that probably, if anybody knows any story about the Bible, Jonah is probably one of two or three that they're likely to know. We're skipping past the eaten by a fish part. He's already been spewed out on the ground. He's getting a second try. Okay, Jonah 3, starting in verse 1. Second chance here, the Word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, arise and go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you. And so Jonah arose, and he went to Nineveh according to the Word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey and extent. And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day's walk. And he cried out, and he said, yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So in this situation of Nineveh, they were given notice, forty days notice, that they had to repent or they would be destroyed. Now Nineveh at that point in time was a very powerful capital city. The king was there, and we don't know exactly what different situations went on, but for whatever reason, the people listened, and they obeyed, and they repented, didn't they? And because of that, God spared the city. Now the Bible doesn't tell us exactly why they decided to repent. But what we do know is that the tight time frame that they had, those forty days, had to focus the mind. You know, when you think of a dead mind that's just a little over a month away, and you're told that things don't change, you're going to have complete cataclysm, you act differently pretty quickly. Perhaps some of us have received a medical diagnosis like that that says, if you don't change this in your life, these certain things are going to happen to you, and they could happen in a very short period of time. Those types of things tend to grab our attention very quickly, don't they?

Another thing I always think about in terms of how the mind focuses and priorities immediately change when there's a near-term crisis is when I think about 9-11. I wasn't really thinking about it until yesterday, but actually tomorrow is the anniversary of 9-11, isn't it? I guess it'll be 17 years.

And probably all of us can remember, if we're old enough to, you know, had conscious memory at that point in time where we were when we heard the events of 9-11 happening. And I was always struck by the stories of people on some of the airplanes as they were trying to piece together through cell phones, discussions with their relatives, what it was that was happening, what they were willing to do. I think it was Flight 93 that went down on its way to DC after being hijacked. The priorities of the people on that airplane changed in an instant, didn't it? As soon as they understood what it was that was happening, what it was they were likely in the middle of as they were on that hijacked airliner that was heading for Washington, DC, they were willing to set aside all of the other priorities that they might have had in their lives. It's ridiculous to think that one of the businessmen on the plane would have sat back and said, well, this will sort itself out, get out his laptop and keep working. Of course not. It'd be ridiculous, right? And these people, as far as we know, went, in this case stormed the cabin and tried to stop the plane from going on. Priorities changed in an instant. And not just for people who had relatives that were involved, for all of us who were watching this unfold. Knowing that something's happening that close and right upon you has an ability to concentrate the mind. How many of you remember the churches the week after 9-11?

I remember our congregation coming into it and it was pretty somber mood. It was pretty quiet. And I remember the day after that on Sunday, and I would say all of the churches in the United States were full, weren't they? Again, those events concentrated the mind. And what is it that happened over a period of time? As that day went away, went farther into the distance, people began to return into the old habits that they had. Because these external factors, these external forces that come in, if we don't allow them to change us from the inside, they have a momentary effect on us that cause a change in our habits for a certain period of time, but not in any enduring sort of a way. Let's look at another section of Scripture and look at somebody that had a little bit more time than just 40 days. We'll talk about King Hezekiah. I don't know how much anyone remembers about King Hezekiah. There's lots of kings written about in the Bible.

If we look at first and second Kings, we look at the book of Chronicles. A lot of stories in those different passages about the kings of Israel and Judah. King Hezekiah was the king of the southern kingdom of Judah, and he lived at the time that the northern kingdom of Israel was taken into captivity. So he lived at a very kind of a turning point in the history of those two kingdoms. The two had already split apart, the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah, and there were armies and major powers that were pressing the nations of Israel and Judah from every side. That's purposely the way that God set up the land so that people had to rely on him. His people had to rely on him in order to be saved from all of the different powers that were around them.

Now Hezekiah was known as one of the most prosperous and one of the most righteous rulers of Judah. In the first 14 years of his reign, he took over from a father who was pretty corrupt, and he began to throw away all of the idol worship that was going on within Judah. He wiped out the groves and the high places. He reinstituted the temple, fixed it up again so it was close to its original splendor, and reinstituted sacrifices and all the ways of keeping God's law that the people of Judah had been taught to do. And probably the crowning achievement, and I wouldn't really call it achievement, but a miracle that was performed by God during Hezekiah's reign was the slaughter of the armies of Assyria. I don't know if any of you remember that story, but King Sennacher of Assyria had come. He was one of the powers that came in and was going to take over Judah. And imagine, here you are, King Hezekiah. For 14 years, you've ruled, you've tried to rule in a righteous manner, you've set up worship of God in the temple in the way that everything was taught, and then a hundred, more than 185,000 soldiers come and camp outside the city to besiege it. And they were hurling insults back and forth up to the wall and back, probably traded ambassadors to try to make peace. Everything was refused. And Hezekiah, in a very poignant part of the Bible, takes this letter that's written by Sennacher of, and he carries it in front of God, and he kneels down before God, and he shows him the letter. He says, God, for your glory, please spare us. And when they got up the next morning, what did they find? They found 185,000 dead Assyrian troops in their tents. An incredible miracle. There's nothing you could call it other than a divine miracle that was performed. Sennacher had to leave, apparently with whatever was left of his army. It would appear that not all of them were killed, and when he went back home to his country, two of his sons conspired and killed him. Hezekiah received complete deliverance. It's actually something that happens after that that I want to talk about for a few moments now. While he was still at a pretty young age, probably in the mid-40s, he fell ill. If we turn to 2 Kings 20, we'll see what happens at that point in time. 2 Kings 20, and we'll start in verse 1.

So in those days, Hezekiah was sick and near-death. 2 Kings 20, verse 1. And Isaiah, the prophet, the son of Amos, went to him and said, Thus says the Lord, Set your house in order, for you're going to die and not live. So the prophet of God said, This is it. Time's up. And that was going to be the end of his life. But Hezekiah wasn't ready to face that. He turned his face towards the wall in verse 2, and he prayed to the Lord, saying, Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before you in truth and with a loyal heart. And I've done what was good in your sight.

And Hezekiah wept bitterly. You can only imagine how he felt. Imagine somebody a prophet of God, especially after seeing a miracle like he saw with all the soldiers of Assyria slain outside the walls. I would bet at that point in time he pretty much believed whatever it was that God said through Isaiah. And it happened, though, in verse 4, before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, Return. Tell Hezekiah the leader of my people, Thus says the Lord, the God of David, your father. I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears, and surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord, and I will add to your days fifteen years. I will deliver you in this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David. So in our first example we saw forty days. The people in Nineveh were given forty days to repent. Now in this case, after Hezekiah was given only a day to live, God granted him fifteen years. Fifteen years of time. Now it's a really extraordinary circumstance. I can't think of really any other examples in the Bible. Perhaps there are some where people were given an exact amount of time to know that they still had to live.

Could probably come up with a couple if we thought of it. He knew he had fifteen years. What did he do with that time? What would you do if you knew you had fifteen years? Does it give you the sense of urgency that forty days does?

No, it really doesn't. Maybe it's time to go for vacation for a little while and then get serious about things. Maybe take four or five years to have some fun and then focus again. Let's see what Hezekiah did. Turn with me to 2 Chronicles 32. 2 Chronicles 32. We'll start in verse 24. Chronicles does a bit of a synopsis of the things that were happening in these King's lives. So in verse 24 is basically a summary of what we just read.

It says, In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death, and he prayed to the Lord, and he spoke to him and gave him a sign. So in verse 25 it says, Hezekiah did not repay according to the favor shown to him, for his heart was lifted up. Therefore wrath was looming over him and over Judah and Jerusalem. Then Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the Lord did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah. Hezekiah, in verse 27, had very great riches and honor, and he made for himself treasuries for silver, for gold, for precious stones, for spices, for shields, and for all kinds of desirable items.

And then in verse 31, However, regarding the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, whom they sent to him to inquire about the wonder that was done in the land, God withdrew from him in order to test him that he might know all that was in his heart.

So a little bit cryptic here, maybe, if we don't remember the story, but let's think briefly about what it is that happened. He's given 15 years time. What we read is that pride came up during that time. Again, we're talking here about a king in his first 14 years who was on fire. He threw down all the high places, he destroyed all the places of idol worship, he restored worship of the true God.

Then he was given another 15 years to live and his pride began to take over. Talks about the riches that he had. This reference to the princes of Babylon, amazing story of deception. Babylon, which is one of the other major powers in the region, sent ambassadors or spies really to see what it was that was going on. They wanted to understand how the nation of Assyria, how their army had been destroyed.

And they also wanted to kind of spy out and see what it was that was going on in Jerusalem because sooner or later they were going to attack. Now they were smart and they knew that if they looked like they came from a near distance then they'd be suspected. And so what they did is they weathered all their clothes and garments. They made everything look as though they'd been wandering through the the deserts and the countryside for a long period of time.

They said they'd come from a very, very far country. And Hezekiah and his pride took these people in and he opened up all of his storehouses and he showed all of the wealth of his country and exactly where it was locked up in his storehouses to these people.

This is the test that God was talking about Him to know what was in His heart. It's interesting, it doesn't say here that He sat these folks down and He talked to them about the wonders of God and how God delivered them from Assyria. He showed them His physical treasures. And so we get an idea of how His mind had shifted during that 15-year period of time.

It also talks earlier on here in verse 26 about how Hezekiah humbled himself in the pride of his heart. And this was after verse 25 where it talks about some of the things he had begun doing. The fact is the prophets had to come to Hezekiah during this 15-year period of time and tell him because of his pride that Judah was going to be struck down.

He repented again and God said, because you've repented, this will not happen in your lifetime. It will still happen to Judah, but I'll spare you Hezekiah from it happening within your lifetime. So the 15 years of time that Hezekiah had weren't used as well as you would think they might have been.

Coincidence? I don't know. Let's look at another section and let's expand the time frame even a little further. Turn with me, if you will, to Genesis 6.

Genesis 6. Now this story probably ranks at the top of any Bible story that anyone could think of. It's a story of Noah. We're not going to talk about the ark in this case, but we'll talk about the beginning of the section where Noah is going to build the ark and the flood coming. Genesis 6 starting in verse 5.

Genesis 6 verse 5, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth. He was grieved in his heart, so he said, I will destroy man who I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I'm sorry that I've made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. That's interesting.

We don't know that much about Noah. We know his name. We know the names of his three sons. We don't know the name of his wife or the wives of the three sons.

And there's not a whole lot else that we know either. Now verse 3 indicates, though, in terms of time frame, the other important thing I want to point out in this story. And it tells us in verse 3 that God said they'll have 120 years. So God looked down on the earth at the time of Noah, saw everything that was going on, and said, I have, there's a hundred and twenty years time and this is going to come to an end. Now what do you think happened within that 120-year time period?

Did Noah hire local contractors to help him build the ark? How'd he get the blueprints? The earth topography was really completely changed after the flood, so we don't really know whether he was building the ark on dry land or whether he was building it on the shore of a lake or a river or on a seacoast.

Hard to really know because everything in terms of how the earth was set up in that area of the flood has changed since then. So we can we can guess, but there's not a lot that we know. Did people make fun of Noah while he was building the ark? I think the common conception is that he was in the middle of this desert building a boat and everyone was there laughing at him while he was building it.

The Bible doesn't actually tell us much about that. It does tell us in 2nd Peter 2 verse 5 that he was a preacher. So we can believe from that account that he was not only building the ark, but he was warning the people that there was something coming. And if the account says it was 120 years, it's a guess, but I would guess that Noah had an inkling of how much time there was. And if he had an inkling of how much time there was, I would guess that he told people about that as well. Did some of them repent at first because of what was predicted to come? We don't know. What we do know is that when the flood did come, everyone else was wiped out. All living people. Only Noah and his sons and their families survived. So we looked at three different periods of time, haven't we? 40 days resulting in repentance, 15 years resulting in laxity followed by a level of repentance that kept Hezekiah from suffering the consequences of what was happening, and 120 years which resulted in no one being saved. Now I'm not going to say that any of this is a formula that you live by, but it's interesting that these time frames are indicated in the Bible. And the way that people react is often driven by the amount of time that they have to work with or their perception of the amount of time that they have to work with. Perhaps you've heard the saying that money doesn't corrupt character, it actually reveals character. I find that a pretty telling saying. And the fact is that people who act nasty when they have a lot of money are probably people who are pretty nasty to start with. They just have a greater capacity for it as they have more wealth.

And the opposite can be true as well. I think the same is true of time. Time also does reveal character. Time reveals, I would say, everything. Because within the passage of time, you can even see that biblically, all things will be known.

1 Corinthians 13 tells us prophecies will pass away and we will know in time what everything meant. Right? With the passage of time, everything is known. So what does all this have to do with the day that we're observing today? If you're asking that question, then you're still awake and that's a good thing. Turn with me, if you will, to Matthew 24. And we'll actually read a little bit more about Noah in the context of the things that we understand will happen at this time that we observe during this day. Feast of Trumpets, as we know, is a time when we look forward to the second coming of Jesus Christ. And as Mr. Thomas pointed out last year in the sermon that he gave on trumpets, it's like two sides of a coin, isn't it? How you view that event, how you think of that event, is either very positive or very negative depending on where you stand with God. If we are the people of God, if we are converted, we're following Him, we have His Spirit, it's a time we look forward to with great anticipation. Jesus Christ returning with His reward.

All of the things that we're suffering from today taken away and our opportunity to live eternity with Jesus Christ under His rulership and His government. If we reject Jesus Christ in His way, it's a terrible time. It's a reason why in the Bible it's called the great and terrible day of the Lord, because the cataclysm that will come on the earth as part of Jesus Christ's coming and the resistance of people to Him is going to be a terrible time. So let's read a little bit more about this in the context of our topic. It's about time in Matthew 24, verse 36. But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only. As the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of man be. So here Jesus Christ, this Olivet prophecy, takes us right back to Noah in those 120 years. A couple of really interesting things to see there, right? One is what he's basically saying is life was going on as usual, right? They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage.

Now, that meant literally, I think figuratively, that's meant to say, look, they were living their lives. They were going about their daily lives as though nothing was going to change. What I find really interesting is in verse 39 where it says they did not know until the flood came and took them all away.

Because in Genesis it says there was 120 years. Peter tells us that Noah was a preacher of righteousness, so he had to be telling them. So it's not the fact that they didn't know. It's at some point they didn't care anymore and they didn't believe it. They'd heard this crazy man with the big boat going on and on for over a century and it was time to tune it out. Because at a certain point in time it can't possibly be true, can it? That was the mindset and the attitude that was going on. In verse 40, then two men will be in the field, one will be taken, and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill, one will be taken, and the other left. Now talking about the return of Jesus Christ. Watch therefore in verse 42, for you don't know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed 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. So talking here about watchfulness and readiness. Not like the people at the time of Noah, who said, well it's all going on like normal anyways, so there's nothing we can do or we don't believe him anyway, but being watchful. Then going on in verse 45, who then is a faithful and wise servant whom his master made rule over his household to give them food and do season. Blessed is that servant whom his master when he comes will find so doing. So doing. Doing what?

Well that servant was hired by the master for a job. The job, in this case, in the parable was taking care of the household. Now it wasn't unusual at that time, we see it as well in the parable of the talents, at that time you might have somebody who owned a lot of land, a lot of goods, and he would have stewards working for him. In the parable of the talent, there's three of them. In this situation, there's one mentioned. And when that person might go away on a long trip, maybe running one of the trade routes to go trade for more goods, he would leave behind a servant or a group of servants to take care of his things.

And those people were left with a very specific job. Now travel being what it was at the time, that person could be gone for a couple of years. It could be a season or two before the master of the house would return again. And so everything would be left in the hands of a very trustworthy person with one job, and that is to make sure that when the master returned, that everything was at least in the condition in which it was left, or if we look at the parable of the talents, to see that the servants had multiplied the resources that were left with them in order to create more for their master. That's exactly what's being referred to here. So in verse 46 again, it says, Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.

Assuredly I say to you, he will make him ruler over all of his goods. But if that evil servant says in his heart, my master is delaying his coming, and then begins to beat his fellow servants to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and an hour that he's not aware of, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites, and there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So we see two different outcomes that can happen, whether we're looking at the people in the field, one take and the other left. We look at a person who might know or not know that a thief is coming and take the precautions. We see a servant that's either doing what his master left him to do or not. Two very different outcomes, depending on what happens with those things. Now we don't know for sure that the passage of time is going to cause laxness, and in fact if we're living our spiritual lives the way we should, it doesn't. But we see the examples that are here in the Bible and they're given to us in the context of this day that we observe today to warn us, to tell us it's about time. It's about how we use our time. It's what we do with the time that we're given. It's our viewpoint towards the time that we have between now and when Jesus Christ does return, or as many have experienced over the centuries, the time that we lose our physical lives, the times that we die. We think of all the Christians who have ever lived their lives, the vast majority of them have died without the return of Jesus Christ.

How we use our time in either case is the same. So there are two prisms through which we can view this time. We can look at it either as a pause in the action, maybe a bit of a time to coast and enjoy, kind of like what we saw Hezekiah doing. We could view it as perhaps a hitch in God's plan. Something went wrong.

God had to do another lap, so it's going to be another century before He returns.

Kind of what's illustrated in the servant that we just read about in this passage in Matthew 24. Maybe an extra season goes by before the master comes back and he starts thinking, hmm, well he went out on a ship. Maybe there was a shipwreck.

Maybe he died at sea. Maybe none of this matters anymore. Maybe I can just take these goods and live the high life because he's never going to return.

Or perhaps we even think about it as evidence that God's Word is not true.

Go back to the people at Noah's time. Again, they had to have been preached to by Noah. We were told he was a preacher of righteousness. But something happened within those 120 years that made everyone shut off.

They didn't believe it anymore. The passage of time with nothing happening led them to believe that the words that they were hearing were meaningless and useless.

The other viewpoint, rather than looking at things as a pause in the action, is to view this time that we have as an opportunity for God to develop his mind in us. This day is a reminder in that sense that there is an end to his plan and we have to be ready for it.

Now that end to his plan might be the end of our physical lives or the end to his plan might be during our lives that Jesus Christ returns. But one way or another, for each and every one of us sitting in here, we will experience an end point, an end point to God's plan for us. And this day in part is here so that we can focus our minds on that. So we have an annual reminder that even though life continues to go on, there is an end point and we have to be prepared for it. Now it's stated in different ways in the Bible. David prayed to God and said, help me to number my days.

We read in, I think it's Ecclesiastes, it's better to go to the house of mourning than into the house of joy. All ways to get us get across this same theme that we need to use the time as a way for God to develop his mind in us. I think sometimes about the old book, The Cat in the Hat. Now my household when I was growing up were not big Dr. Seuss fans.

My industrious German mother believed that Dr. Seuss was teaching us to be relaxed and careless.

That's probably true, in a way, actually, if you read The Cat in the Hat, right?

Because what do the kids do in The Cat in the Hat book, right?

First they're told, don't let anybody in the house. They let this creepy-looking cat with a funny hat in her house. And then they just start goofing off and throwing toys everywhere. And then The Cat in the Hat teaches you, at the last minute, when you see mom or dad walking up the sidewalk, you can get out the magical machine that has 12 arms and you just start scooping everything up and putting it away so that the moment mom walks in the door, everything's perfect. Just like real life, right?

But if we're honest with ourselves, and I have to be honest with myself in this regard as well, how often do we have that mindset of the cat in the hat when it comes to the time that we have?

When we have a deadline, we have to get something done.

How is it that we treat that? Oh, I've got a week.

I'll go goof off for a while. I'll come back to it a day or two beforehand. We've all done that. I certainly have. I certainly do.

It's not the way that we can treat our spiritual lives because our lives are about the time, the time that we're given. So in the remaining short bit of time that I have, I want to just look at three passages that talk a little more about how we use our time as we're waiting for the return of Jesus Christ. Sometimes even that phrase, waiting for the return of Jesus Christ, can imply being passive. That's not what it's about because we're not supposed to sit back and wait. We're given time as an opportunity to do things in our lives. Let's go to Ephesians 5.

We'll read verses 15 through 21 of Ephesians 5.

Here we see the phrase, redeem the time, if you want to put a header related to this scripture. Redeem the time.

Ephesians 5 verse 15. See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time for the days are evil.

Therefore, do not be unwise but understand what the will of the Lord is. Don't be drunk with wine in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and submitting to one another in the fear of God. Now, if I could paraphrase that for a moment, I would call that Christianity 101. The definition of redeeming the time that's laid out in here, right? Making sure that we're not giving ourselves up to just living a wild life and giving into every desire that we have. Making sure that we're uplifting our brethren, spending time with them and helping them.

Giving thanks to God for all the things that we have and submitting to one another. It's exercising God's Holy Spirit if you're going to summarize the things that are written here. It's doing that hard work of applied Christianity. That's what redeeming the time is.

That's one of the things that we're told to do with the time that we have.

Let's look at a second passage.

For the second passage, we'll go to 2 Peter 3.

2 Peter 3. And if you want to put a header of this, it would be to remember the sure nature of God's plan. To remember the sure nature of God's plan.

That's really what this Holy Day is about, isn't it?

Reminding us that as life goes on, we come back again to this center point.

Understanding that God has a plan, understanding the stages of that plan, and the future fulfillment of it that's going to come.

2 Peter 3. Let's start in verse 1. Peter says, 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 might be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandments 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, but 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. So it's interesting, Peter here brings Noah back into the story, doesn't he, referring to the flood.

But what he's saying is something bigger than that.

How often do we reflect on God's word and the enduring nature of God's word?

It's summarized right here in this passage. By God's word the heavens were made, and the waters parted, and the earth created. By his word prophecy was given. We look back at the prophecies in the Bible, a dominant theme of the prophecies in the Bible is the coming of Jesus Christ.

Without a doubt, we know that that was fulfilled.

There's no other reasonable thing that you can say when you look at all the evidence that's there. And by that same word there are prophecies that Jesus Christ will return a second time.

And that's why Peter talks in this section about the fact in verse 5 that people willfully forget. Because you have to take God and you have to put him completely out of this context. You have to take his word and set it completely aside. Because if you believe in his word, you can't deny the fact that these things happen, are happening, and will happen. All things that were done by his word. Peter is getting that point across here and saying, look, God's word endures. And through all of these things we know that he is working.

And even though it's in this section that the phrase that we sometimes quote that a day is with God like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day, that comes up next here in verse 8. And it comes in this context of saying, look, God isn't reckoning time the way we are. We might look at a period of time like the 120 days of Noah and say, so much time has gone by this couldn't possibly be true anymore. But Peter says, no. A thousand years to God's like a day. It's like a blink of an eye. How can we say the temporal time that we're dealing with suddenly means that God's word isn't true and that his way is not valid?

It's not the case at all. Put yourself in the shoes also this audience that this was written to. Peter was a witness to Jesus Christ's crucifixion. He walked with Jesus Christ for three and a half years.

The people that he was preaching to might, some of them, actually have seen Jesus Christ listen to him preach. If they didn't, chances are they were only one or at the most two layers removed from somebody who had. So when these things are talked about, people lived these things. They experienced them as contemporary events in a way that we could only think of. It's like when we talk about 9-11.

That immediately strikes a chord within us because we know it happened.

Even though none of us, I think, were there in the World Trade Center, we were there in terms of being in that time, knowing people to whom this happened and the news affected us. That's the way it was for these people with Jesus Christ. They lived in that time.

And even then, he's saying, in this short period of time, less than a generation that passed away, people were already scoffing and saying, oh, this second coming thing, it's been 30, 40, 50 years, however long it was at that point. Not so sure that's going to happen anymore. And he's warning them to watch out for this.

Let's look at the third point in terms of time, and one passage that describes this, and looking at time as an opportunity for our salvation. Time as an opportunity for our salvation.

We'll stay in 2 Peter 3 and we'll move down to verse 10.

2 Peter 3 verse 10, but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, hearkening back to what we read in Matthew 24, right? Or if we'd known the thief was coming, the house would have been locked, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. And therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, without spot and blameless, and consider that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation. Let me repeat that last phrase, because I think it's really important in the context of what we're talking about.

Consider that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation.

You know, the long suffering, or what you might otherwise think of as a delay of Jesus Christ's return, some people it's going to lead them to scoff and to say, you can't believe any of this. It says here that we need to use this and understand it as our salvation, our opportunity to do these things that are talked about here, turning ourselves to godly conduct, exercising his spirit, looking forward to that new heaven and new earth that we look forward to at this time of year.

Then in verse 17, you therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware, lest you also fall from your own step-fastness, being led away with the error of the wicked, but grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Given some very specific things to think about here in terms of how we view time, view the time from when Jesus Christ ascended up into heaven until when he will return and how we use that time, an opportunity to benefit from his long suffering. You know, if we look back at Hezekiah, Hezekiah, by God's long suffering, was given an extra 15 years. Unfortunately, he didn't use that time as well as he could have. God honored his repentance, and he didn't see the cataclysm fall on his nation, that God promised would happen. But that was only by the mercy and by the grace of God that that happened, because the things that he did in that 15 years of additional time that he was given did not reflect viewing that as the long suffering of God leading to salvation. For him, it was an opportunity to coast, to look at the things that he'd amassed, and to get more, and to think about how great he was going to go down in history as a great king of Judah. How is it then that we look at the time that we've been given? We've seen three passages in terms of how we can view it, talk about redeeming the time, and viewing it as a long suffering of God.

And there are many other passages in the Bible that we can think of in this way.

But as we wind up, and I'm going to say this is my conclusion, and you can say it's about time. And it is. I'd like to encourage everyone, as we're keeping this day of trumpets, as we look forward to things that are going to happen, we're not told the day or the hour, and that's by design.

We've seen three examples here about how time was given to different people, and sets of people, and how it caused them to react.

And I think for deliberate reason, because of that part of the human psyche, God's not going to tell us when it's going to happen. Perhaps when the time is very, very near, it will, but it's not something that's in the Bible. And in fact, even the passages that we read, Jesus Christ Himself, says He doesn't know the day or the hour. It's not been given by God. But what has been given to us is time. We have an ability to use that time. We have a responsibility to use that time. We look forward to the time when Jesus Christ will return, and we can look forward to continuing to use the time before His return, to use that long suffering of God to continue to develop ourselves and our salvation growing in His way.

Wish you a very meaningful Festival Day.