I post and share SO MANY PHOTOS that I am sure some may think that is all that I do...Not really, I just use that as a Break-a-way. So, to show that I do other things.... :). I thought that I would share with you my first point...on a NEW MESSAGE that I am WORKING ON....I have two more POINTS to go, but have been working several hours already. When I was a pastor, I would often work ten or eleven hours just preparing my Sunday School lesson. I still believe that it is important and necessary to work hard in ones sermon preparation. THE CHARACTER OF GOD AS REVEALED IN THESE PERILOUS DAYS TEXT: 2nd Peter 3 Evangelist W. Max Alderman INTRODUCTION: I was told many years ago by a faithful student in the Word to go to your 2nd Epistles to study eschatology. The 2nd Epistle of Peter bears witness to that truth. We can be enlightened as to how God feels about the sinfulness and the wickedness of a lost humanity in these last days, as we study the 2nd Epistle of Peter. We certainly should know that the Word of God rightly predicted the sinful state of man in 2 Timothy 3:13, another 2nd Epistle in the New Testament, when it said But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. I want to consider Gods Character and His attitude towards sinful humanity as we examine our Text: Considering, The Integrity of God; The Indignation of God; and The Insistence of God in these perilous days! I. THE INTEGRITY OF GOD (Vv. 1-10A) A. The Integrity of God Questioned... Why would Gods integrity be questioned...but it is, and it was. The reason is not to difficult to explain, when one understands the way Satan really works. Going all the way back to Genesis 3:1, Satan asks at the end of that verse...Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? That first question of Satan was asked to inflict doubt in the Garden of Eden as it involved Eve. He then told a lie as it also involved Gods Word. He has been questioning Gods Word every since and Satan has been putting doubt in the minds of men as it pertained to the integrity of God every since, as well. 1. They questioned the time of His coming... (Vv. 3,4) It has been over 2000 years since the Lord promised His return, and many are questioning and showing doubt because He has not returned...The fact that Christ has not come does not make Christ a liar, and that is what Peter addresses in his Epistle for the benefit of the doubter. They were doubters then, and they certainly are even more today.... 2. They questioned the truth of His creation... The work of creation was also questioned and it still is. You will not or at least will find it very difficult, if not impossible, to find one public broadcaster that talks about God being the Creator. They may say that there are those in the religious world who profess their belief in the God of Creation, only to remind the world how wrong they are. Those of us who believe the Bible and do not question it, have a genuine faith in the God who created and made all that there is.... B. The Integrity of God Explained.... (8,9) With Peters own martyr approaching, he but wants to stir the hearts of the fainthearted who were casting away their confidence in the return of the Lord. He spoke of the attitude that men had towards the promises of God and then he explained what seemed either a failure of God to either keep His promises regarding His coming back again, or why there was such a delay. Rather than God being a liar who was not going to do what He said, or was putting it off, Peter gives argument that the seemingly delay was because of Gods patience, instead. 1. It was explained with a positive statement... (V. 9) 2nd Peter 3:9 is such a positive and also an uplifting statement that gives strong indication to what is going on in the mind of God: The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. God, who is the God of eternity and who always has been and always will be, has a much different measuring stick than what we have. To somewhat explain, time in human terms, Peter said that a day with the Lord is a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day... Notice how Harry Ironsides, the Commentator worded this truth: Because these wilfully ignorant men do not see the evidences of this they deny what they do not understand, and, “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil,” as we are told in the book of Ecclesiastes (Ecclesiastes 8:11). If judgment seems to tarry it is not because God has forgotten, but rather because of His deep concern about lost men whom, in His loving-kindness, He still desires to save. Our thoughts are not His thoughts, neither are our ways His ways, but as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways above our ways, and His thoughts above our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8). A thousand years may seem a long time to men whose span of life very seldom reaches a century, but one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. Not two days have passed, therefore, according to the divine reckoning, since the Lord Jesus went away after giving the promise, “I will come again” (John 14:3). It is not, then, that the Lord is slack regarding His promise, as men are disposed to think, but His heart still goes out to those who are persisting in rebellion against Him; and He waits in grace still proclaiming the gospel message, and offering salvation to all who turn to Him in repentance, because He is not willing that any should perish. (Harry Ironsides) Part two and three still working on....:)
Posted on: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 16:07:31 +0000