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You're listening to audio from Faith Church Indie. This spring we're studying the book of 2nd Peter, learning about how we can find our anchor in God during unsteady times. Now here's the teaching. 

The Word of the Lord as written in the book of 2nd Peter chapter 3 verses 8 to 13. But do not overlook this one fact beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people are you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn. But according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. 

This is the word of the Lord. Well, we believe Jesus is coming again. We believe he's coming back. 

We believe that the church will be glorified with him. We believe his enemies will be made his footstool. We believe every tear will be wiped and mourning will be stopped.

And we believe this will all happen soon. You believe that? I hope so. We've been wrapping up our academic year in our GROW ministry here at Faith Church.

We started off with the Nicene Creed, which opens We Believe. And our theme this year in our classes and in our deep dives has been We Believe. We've been focusing in on the propositional truths of the Christian faith. 

We started with that Nicene Creed, the earliest short summary of the Christian faith. Among other things, it asserts that he will come again to judge the quick and the dead. We've had a GROW class meeting this year that has gone over our church's doctrinal statement, which, among other things, teaches he will come again. 

We've had classes on creeds and confessions and worship. And one class actually went through the catechism that our Faith Kids ministry uses. And so, as adults, went through that catechism. 

It's a 52-week-long catechism. It's called the New City Catechism, but it's got old roots. It's based off of the reformers' traditions of the Heidelberg and Westminster catechism. 

And just last week, I had the privilege of teaching the final week of that class. Week 52, the 52nd in a year-long series, question 52 reads, what hope does everlasting life hold for us? Answer, it reminds us that this present fallen world is not all there is. Soon, we will live with and enjoy God forever. 

Now, that little phrase, live with and enjoy God forever, that's a callback to the first question in this 52-week catechism, which I'm sure more of you are familiar with. Since it seems universally true, we're all really good at starting year-long things and not necessarily finishing them. So more of you might be familiar with question one, what is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. 

And we will enjoy Him forever, and all this will happen soon. Soon. We all have different definitions of soon. 

I think the varying definitions of soon probably are why most marital feuds begin with the very process of getting to this building, maybe this morning, right? Like, are you ready to go? Soon. Well, good, because church starts soon, so I'm glad we're all on the same timetable. If you can't tell, this one's maybe a little bit of advice for me.

Slowness kind of irritates me. I'm not necessarily the most patient guy. I know that I'm not the only person in my household that struggles with impatience, though, and I know this because of how many times I walk into the kitchen, and the microwave is stuck on four, not four o'clock, not 12.04, just four.

Zero, zero, colon, zero, four, which you all know is the precise number of seconds that somebody was not willing to wait any longer and push the button. And if the food was too hot, probably not even blowing on it, just a hush, hush, hush, hush, until it goes down. We're all a little impatient.

Some more than others. Some people probably leave their microwaves on six. I don't know. 

Patience is rare, but because I'm so impatient, oftentimes, I will mistake patience. When I see patience being lived out, I will mistake it for laziness or an unwillingness to act, hesitation. I'll mistake patience for slowness. 

You ever do that? Our text today says that the Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise, as some count slowness, but He's patient toward you. He's not slow. He's not lazy. 

He's not afraid to act. He's not impotent. He will act.

But He's patient, and I want us for a few minutes to soak on patience and understand, at a deeper level, what that means for us before we move on, so we can appreciate, appreciate God's patience. So open your Bibles, if you will. We're in 2 Peter 3, beginning in verse 8. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord, one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as one day.

Pretty tough to make a church on time with an attitude like that, I'll say. Peter's actually referencing a psalm here. It's Psalm 90, and I won't make you turn there with me, but I think Peter's audience was probably very familiar with that psalm.

And so Peter's able to reference that psalm very quickly, and then download for them sort of a frame of mind, a mindset, an outlook that helps them to understand where he's going. And so we're going to do the same. We ought to do the same, to be a little more familiar with what he's referencing in Psalm 90.

Psalm 90 is the only psalm attributed to Moses. A lot of psalms are attributed to David or Solomon. Some of them are unsigned, but there's only one psalm that's attributed to being written by Moses.

Moses, the guy who spent 40 years exiled from Egypt, and then another 40 years wandering the desert on his way to the promised land, 80 years of his life before he could finally see a culmination, before he could finally realize what God had been doing in his life. That's patience. And even in the end, he wasn't able to enter into the promised land, but he hoped and he trusted in what God had promised for his nation, for his people.

So listen to these words that Moses writes in Psalm 90. The years of our life are 70, or even by reason of strength, 80. Who considers the power of your anger and your wrath? Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

Return, O Lord, how long? Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. As many years as we have seen evil. For his context, 400 years.

400 years the Hebrews suffered under oppression and slavery in Egypt. And as Moses writes these words, they have escaped. They have seen the 10 plagues.

They have seen waters parted. They have seen God's power to rescue them, and yet they're not established. Do you guys get that? They've seen this power and they've heard of this land flowing with milk and honey, but they're living in tents in the desert.

Peter here in his letter, he's drawing on that same sentiment as he's writing to early believers in the church. They've seen the risen Christ. They've watched healings and miracles.

They have seen the gospel change lives. They have seen sinners, drunkards, debauched people, oppressors, enslavers, swindlers. They've seen them repent and turn and devote their lives to God in lives of holiness and reverence.

And then they've seen them get beaten for it. Their families, societies turn against them, their properties seized. They have beheld Christ in his glory.

They have heard him promise, I will come again soon. And yet here they are still suffering. Why? Look at verse nine with me.

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. Patient toward you. Think about that.

He's patient toward you. He doesn't want you to perish. He wants you to reach repentance.

Except if you're here worshiping in this body, if you read the words that we read together that I see in Creed, you believe that, you're trusting in Christ for your salvation, then you have reached repentance, right? And so it's easy to think, well, all right then, well, let's get on with it. But in 64 AD, as Peter wrote these words, to believers suffering, you hadn't, not yet. And God for whom a thousand years is like a day and a day is like a thousand years, our God waited patiently for you.

Just like Moses in Psalm 90, we need to consider the power of God's patience. God watched in 64 AD as the church, as people that he loved, he had rescued, he had suffered and died for, he watched as they suffered. They suffered in ways that we struggled to really imagine sitting here in our climate-controlled worship center.

The original readers of this letter were suffering and they were wondering, why is he taking so long? See, they had met, and many of them had even known personally, the turn the other cheek Jesus, the walk the extra mile Jesus, the love your neighbor Jesus. But enduring what they were enduring, it is not hard to understand why some of them were a little ready to meet table-flipping white horse sword mouth Jesus. When will that Jesus show up? And these words preserved by God's providence for us today teach us the answer.

He was being patient, church, toward you. He wasn't lazy, he wasn't afraid, he wasn't unwilling to act. He's not slow, he's patient.

He waited and watched wars, plagues, famines for 2,000 years for you. Maybe you're here and you've already beaten Moses's prediction. Remember when I read from Psalm 90, by some reason of strength, you've made it to 80.

And if you're here and you have already beaten Moses's prediction and you're in your 80s, and maybe you came to know Christ at a young age, that still means that just before you were born, just before you were able to place your faith in Christ, that God watched the Holocaust. He watched and waited, waiting for you. If you're in your 60s, you grew up in the shadow of Vietnam.

You knew families that were missing sons. You may not have known why when you were a child. When you were coming of age and you were looking for mentors in that generation just before you, many of them wouldn't talk about their 20s.

Not because they couldn't remember, but because they couldn't forget. And thousands of men buried in trenches and in foxholes prayed, how long, oh Lord, return? And he was patient. He was waiting for you.

Those of us in our 40s grew up in the shadow of nuclear threat and woke up one morning to the news of a bombed federal building in Oklahoma City. 168 people dead, including a daycare full of children. If white horse sword mouth Jesus had shown up and done what he had promised for so long to do, look at the suffering that could have been avoided.

And yet here you are in this church called by his name, worshiping him. He waited for you. The rest of us have watched 9-11, Columbine, Sandy Hook, COVID, the invasion of Ukraine, endless war and suffering in Israel and Palestine.

Now Iran. I don't know about you, but almost every new headline that I read makes me pray more and more like Moses did. How long, return? But just a few weeks ago, new believers were baptized here in this church.

The gospel is preached in Indianapolis. Lives are being transformed by God's power in this church. I don't understand his timeline, but I can say this.

Praise God, he is patient toward you. Not wanting any to perish, wanting each one to reach repentance. And if you sit here today, knowing the Lord, Peter urges you.

Peter, who after penning this letter, rolling it up and handing it to a messenger, suffered and died for his faith in Jesus. Peter implores you in verse 15 to count the patience of our Lord as salvation. He says, do not overlook this fact with the Lord.

Days like a thousand years, a thousand years is like a day, but he is waiting for all. Not just all of Peter's generation, but he has waited for each and every one of us here today. The apostle Paul wrote about this same idea in Romans chapter nine.

And I like the way he puts it. He says, what if God, Paul wonders, what if God desiring to show his wrath and make known his power, desiring each time that he sees his marred and sinful image bearers making an even bigger mess of things, causing more and more suffering. He desires, he deeply wants to make known his power and show his wrath.

And he can, and he will, he alone has the power to, and he will bring justice upon all of these evils that I just listed. Make no mistake. God is not like that parent that you may have known or may have been at one time.

You know, like I'm gonna count to three, one, two, two and a half, two and three quarters. No, he is not, he's not hesitating. He's not lazy.

He hasn't forgotten that he made a rule. He's not unwilling to carry it out. Everything that Peter's readers endured and everything that has happened since, all the heinous things that I just listed, he was not absent.

He had not forgotten. But while witnessing it all, Paul says that he's strongly desiring to show his wrath. He's ready to flex and end the wickedness that saddens him.

What if God, Paul wonders, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power? Has endured with much patience. Vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. What if he did that all the way to the present day? What if he did that, Paul writes, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory, even us, even us, even you.

He is patient towards you. He's not willing that any of you should perish. So he has been incomparably, unthinkably, unimaginably patient.

Praise God. We can count his patience as salvation. But verse 10 continues that the day of the Lord will come like a thief, Peter writes, like a thief.

Do you remember the first time that your parents left you home alone? Maybe they were going on a date. They probably left soon. They probably left you with some instructions, what to eat for dinner, maybe a short list of chores to get done before they returned.

These date nights, you know, they weren't just for the dates. They were training grounds. Kids in the room, pay attention.

They were training grounds. So with a list of chores and an undefined time of when mom and dad would return, when did you do the chores? I know on more than one occasion, I would see headlights in the driveway and I'm like, oh boy. And I was scrambling to get all the dishes in the dishwasher.

I'm sure I didn't eat whatever they told me to eat for dinner. I probably had a pile full of hot dogs, which would eventually become evident because the microwave was probably still stuck on four. Peter doesn't want for us to wait until we see headlights to consider our lives.

In fact, we should not be presuming upon early warning signs. Headlights in the driveway, the sound of the garage door slowly going up, right? There are some who believe that there's a list of events that have to happen first and then Christ will return. My take on it is everything that has to have happened for Christ to return has happened.

Now, we don't have to agree on that, that's fine. But you can't read Peter's words and assume that you can presume upon early warning signs before you get your life together. That's what he's saying.

We shouldn't live our lives as though we get advanced notice. Christ will come, Peter says, like a thief. And when that happens, what will happen? Look at verse 10 with me.

The day of the Lord will come like a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a roar and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. And in case that was unclear, Peter reiterates the exact same point in verse 12.

The heavens will be set on fire and dissolved and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn. You've probably noticed that New Testament authors, they like to associate this coming judgment with fire. Very often, multiple authors in multiple places associate this day of the Lord with fire.

Why is that? Well, there's a few thoughts. A few weeks ago, Pastor Tom talked about the flood. In the ancient world, floodwaters were kind of a trope for chaotic destructive forces.

So the picture is God preserving life by his power, withdraws that preserving power for 40 days and 40 nights in the flood narrative, right? And the waters wash over and destroy everything. It's a chaotic destructive force. So fire similarly was viewed as a chaotic destructive force.

Without a fire hydrant every quarter of a mile, without smoke detectors and big red trucks to pour copious amounts of water on a fire, if a fire got out of control, it could destroy a lot very quickly. And so fire may be literary imagery for destructive chaos. Another literary view on fire is that it's a refining or a testing force, right? It would remove the dross and show the impurities and how pure gold was.

You see that idea actually present here in Peter's words. He talks kind of like that. He says that the works done on earth will be exposed or literally found.

There's a third possible interpretation. That interpretation says that the New Testament authors, they constantly use this image of fire to describe the coming judgment because it's going to be fire. Yeah, I mean, listen, sometimes Bible nerds like me, we can get a little wrapped up in metaphor and imagery and literary techniques and things, and it's very possible.

I don't wanna dismiss the fact that Jesus Christ may return and we will rush out to meet our glorious Savior, worshiping Him, and He will hold His arms up and He'll try to quiet the throngs of crowds. And when He finally gets us quiet to where He can address us, He might say, does anyone have a match? And I imagine that there will be a lot of commentators and Bible scholars that will just be aghast, right? And He's gonna be like, listen, you guys made this way too complicated. I don't know, maybe not, maybe that doesn't matter.

There's different schools of thought on it. But what the real meaning behind this, Peter makes sure is clear, is the implication. Fire will reveal the true worth of how we chose to live our lives while we waited for His return.

Again, the Apostle Paul addressed the same idea in his writing. In his first letter to Corinth, chapter three, he writes, each one's work will become manifest for the day will disclose it because it will be revealed by fire and fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.

If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through the fire. Fire has a way of stripping away things that don't last, things that aren't solid. A few years ago, we were hiking in the Smokies and we came across a series of stone chimneys, just hearth fireplace in a chimney.

And if you got closer and you looked around, you could find the outlines of where a log building might have been, but fire had tested these cabins and what was going to last, lasted. Does that make sense? Peter is saying that as fire comes, the heavens and the heavenly bodies, the magnificence that we see in the night sky, great lights, mesmerizing powers that to Peter's audience were so mesmerizing, so mysterious, and many of them attributed supernatural power to these lights, the magnificence and the splendor of the moon, stars, and even the sun, the fire of the Lord will melt them away. They do not last for eternity.

The earth, terra firma, the tallest mountains, the widest oceans, the untamable power that every culture and every people have associated with waters and the storm, they don't last, they are ash. And if that's the case, look at Peter's question in verse 11. Since all these things are to be destroyed, sorry, since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness? What sort of people? Notice, he's not asking what kinds of deeds.

He's not asking what things you ought to do, nor is he asking what things you ought to avoid. It's not about amassing a list of deeds or avoiding certain sins. Peter's not asking his readers to do deeds that survive the fire.

He's asking them to be the kind of person whose life belongs in the new creation. Remember those little tests of trustworthiness that your parents gave you? They weren't. They didn't just want to know that you would do the adequate amount of work to maintain the house.

They wanted you to be the kind of person that maintained a household. They wanted you to be the kind of kid that trusted them when they told you what to eat for dinner. See the difference? Not the kind of kid whose good actions outweigh his bad actions, but the kind of kid whose behavior shows all that it means to be a part of this family.

Yes, with rules and restrictions, with benefits, reliance, and even submission. Living in such a way and conduct that says, this is what it means to be a part of this family, and I belong here. What sort of people ought you to be? What kind are you? Not just what you do, but what you're really made of.

By examining your customs and your tendencies and your traditions, what group would a casual observer associate you with? Would, as Peter says, would people say you are godly? So what sort of people ought you to be? Peter answers, holy, godly, waiting for, and hastening the day of the Lord. Holy, godly, waiting for, and hastening the day of the Lord. What sort of people ought you to be? The sort of people who are not building for here and now because they know that this won't last.

The sort of people who knows that they are set apart for something different. Set apart, holy. I hope you can remember that from our Leviticus series.

Set apart, holy, conspicuously God's own. What sort of people ought you to be? Godly. This word might not mean what you think it means.

Godly is not to insinuate similarity to God. Godly is not God-like. It's a word that means like pious devotion.

It's often describes deep worship. So godly is not God-like. It is God-devoted, it is God-centered.

Since all these things are to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be? Holy and God-focused, God-devoted, God-centered, not just doing deeds that you think may placate the coming wrath of God, but doing a life, living a life that implicates you as being one of God's people. And his people, verse 12 continues, are those who are waiting for and hastening the day of the Lord. What was the feeling in the pit of your stomach when you heard the garage door slowly going up and you knew that mom and dad were about to walk through the door? Was it, oh no, I thought I had more time? What sort of people ought you to be? The ones who will one day joyously, eagerly, without fear of retribution, without shame or regret, shout with joy, he is here.

Do you eagerly await that day? Because you know, once he returns and he is reigning in this world, once he has reigned here, once he has judged, you will finally be where you really belong. I think that's what Peter has in mind when he says to hasten the day. Not that we should be looking for things that we can do to speed things up.

If getting ready for church in the morning has taught us anything, it's are you ready yet? Doesn't hasten anything. It's not that we are going to speed Jesus up. It is simply saying that he has in mind the sort of people that are so eager, they just can't wait any longer.

And living lives that reflect the fact that they would rather the day be here now, they would rather be living in the new creation than in this one where they know it will all be dissolved anyway. What are we waiting for exactly? Look at verse 13 with me. According to his promise, we are waiting for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

A place where righteousness dwells. Righteousness, you might recall, it's the same root word as justice. And that is definitely what Peter has in mind here.

His readers, he knows, are desperately waiting for justice to be done. They're waiting for God's wrath, his just wrath to end the evil that oppresses them. But a place where righteousness dwells is also a place where society is ordered around God's standard of justice.

So it's going to be a place where the first is the last, where the weak are blessed and the poor are fed and those who want to lead serve and the meek inherit the land. The theologian John Howard Yoder put it this way. When God lets down from heaven the new Jerusalem prepared for us, we want to be the kind of persons and the kind of community that will not feel strange there.

What sort of people ought you to be? A person who shows they really belong there. A place where righteousness dwells is a place where justice is finally and fully done. And it is, justice is not done yet for one reason.

Not because he's weak, it's because he's patient toward you. He's not willing to lose a single one. He wants each and every one to reach repentance.

But he desires to make his power known and to show his wrath. And though he has been patient, the day will come like a thief without warning and every work done on earth will be exposed. What sort of people ought you to be? When fire reveals the true worth of the life that you have lived, waiting for Christ's return, what sort of person will you have been found to have been? He has waited for you.

He's waited for you. How are you waiting for him? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, your son taught his followers to pray thy kingdom come.

And we pray that. Lord. Lord.

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