2 Peter 3: 1-9
Hebrews 10: 24, 25 (to ‘some’), 37
Joel 2: 28-32; 3: 13, 14
Genesis 24: 10, 11 (to ‘well of water’), 54-58, 61
What I have in mind to speak about is the effect of the Lord’s tarrying, or apparent delay, on every believer and on every man and woman. He has gone to heaven. He has not come back yet. When He will come back, we do not know. That is not ours to know. Scripture says that times and seasons are in the Father’s hand, Acts 1: 7. But I tell you this, everyone here, His tarrying is going to have an effect on your life whether you are a believer or an unbeliever, whatever you are. There is not one of us in this room can escape the effects of the apparent delay of Christ in not coming back. Is that true? I am sure it is true.
These dear believers in Peter’s second letter were Jews. They had a knowledge of Scripture. They were Jews that were scattered in the dispersion; that is, they had left Jerusalem and scattered. At this point in their history they were about to suffer the destruction of Jerusalem by the emperor Titus, around AD 70. Peter is warning them and encouraging them. He says they are going to find that mockers would arise “walking according to their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming?”.
We are in the days of the mockers. They pass by this hall and other churches and pay little attention. Over a lifetime you can see what a change there is. It used to be in the villages where we came from that there were several churches, and people filling the churches every Lord’s day. Many are empty now. That is the state of things. If you pass by Straiton Retail Park, it is full of cars every Lord’s day; there is plenty social life, plenty trade and commerce. Christ is outside. What a scene! “Where is the promise of his coming?” The noticeboard is out there, announcing the preaching ‘if the Lord will’. “Where is the promise of his coming? for from the time the fathers fell asleep” so it is until now. Burials take place in churches, in this hall and other places. People continue to die: “Where is the promise of his coming?”
Well, Peter reminds them here, first of all, of divine judgments. This may be a little obscure; “earth, having its subsistence out of water and in water”. “Out of water and in water” refers to the initial state of affairs in Genesis 1: 2. God began in the next verse to prepare the earth for man. He cleared the waters and made the dry land appear. Then the next matter is, “by the word of God, through which waters the then world, deluged with water, perished”. That is Noah’s flood. What is Peter saying? He is telling these dear disciples to remember God came in in judgment and cleared the scene before, and He is going to come in in judgment and clear the scene again. He says, “But the present heavens and the earth by his word are laid up in store, kept for fire unto a day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men”. Men may not realise that there is only a limited time. Finally, it will be judgment. You may say, ’What a forecast! What kind of gospel are you preaching?’. There is one bright verse in this passage. It says, “one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day”. Then scripture says, “The Lord does not delay his promise, as some account of delay, but is longsuffering towards you, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance”.
What a God! He says, ‘I am waiting’. Who is He waiting on? On persons that do not know Christ, but, more than that, on persons who know Christ. Life is before you. What is it going to be? The time that remains, what is it going to be? Thank God for this word, “longsuffering towards you, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance”. What a good thing it is to come to repentance! I trust we have all had some experience of it, and that the children will come into it, “repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ”, Acts 20: 21. What is the apostle saying? Jesus is the Saviour of sinners; Jesus is the Saviour for me. That is what he is saying. Christ is still the Saviour. We can receive the remission of sins. Why? Because His blood has been shed on the cross. What a moment when He said, “It is finished”, John 19: 30! Then one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side. Malice pierced His side; love expressed itself in the blood of Christ coming forth:
Thy blood love’s answer gave
(Hymn 230).
Dear friend, you can trust Christ as your Saviour, and your sins are forgiven.
What if I sin afterwards? It is still forgiven. You can never be lost once you come to Christ in reality. You can never be lost. What a blessed hope! So God has waited nearly two thousand years. Peter wrote this almost two thousand years ago, about AD 60, before AD 70, and it is still true today. I say, friend, when you come to Christ, you find blessing and salvation, comfort and consolation, but it is a test to men, mockers. Will they believe? God in His patience has waited. God’s patience is waiting, and He is waiting on you to come to Christ.
And it is also a test for the believer. Christ’s apparent delay is a test for the believer. What is your life going to be? Is it going to be for Christ or is it going to be for yourself and for the world? Every one of us here has a life to live, whether it be long or short. What is your life going to be?
Well, I come to Hebrews 10. Now this is written to believers too, like the believers that Peter wrote to. It is written to Jewish believers of the dispersion. As I said, they knew the Scriptures; so when Peter referred to the earth being “out of water and in water”, they knew about God’s writings in the Old Testament. It was not unintelligible to them. So here again the writer is writing to them advising them to flee Jerusalem. This again was just before AD 70 when Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus, and they did flee. They left their homes and fled, set up homes elsewhere. There were no policemen in those days to protect their homes. In this passage in verse 34 you will find that their houses were plundered when they were at the meeting; so such happenings and other tests caused some of them to stay home, and miss the the Lord’s supper. “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together”, I understand, refers to the Supper, especially. Never overlook the Lord’s supper! Always bear it in mind! Some dear believers were “forsaking the assembling of ourselves together”. Christ had not come yet. They were in suffering and persecution, and what was the worth of it? Do not forsake the Lord’s supper. You will get something for your soul. Do you know, friend, when you take the loaf and break it and eat of it, and when you take the cup and drink of it, what are you saying? What are you saying to yourself? I “announce the death of the Lord, until he come”, 1 Cor 11: 26. Everyone here who took part in the Supper this morning was saying when they did that act, I “announce the death of the Lord, until he come”. Who do you announce it to? I announce it to you and you announce it to me. I believe in faith that Christ will come. He has not come yet. But I “announce the death of the Lord, until he come”. Take part in the Lord’s supper! It is a preservative for you through the week. Week after week, partake of the Lord’s supper! “And the first day of the week, we being assembled to break bread”, Acts 20: 7. Let that be a habit! What a precious habit to have the privilege to gather with the saints!
And then the scripture says, whatever your testings may be, “For yet a very little while he that comes will come, and will not delay”. He will come. Do you have faith in that? Do you have any faith that Christ is going to come? You have great testimony in Scripture that Christ is risen. That is the fundamental matter. Christ went into death, His blood was shed, but He came out of death and was seen, and not only was He seen, but Peter says in Acts 10 that they ate and drank with Him after He was risen from the dead (v 41), a blessed Man, a real Man. He did not have to eat for His subsistence, but He did it to show He was a real Man. They saw a real Man leave this earth when “a cloud received him out of their sight”, Acts 1: 9. Do you believe that? So the angel said that He shall come again in like manner, v 11. He will put His foot on the Mount of Olives, Zech 14: 4. He will do that. He will come again. Be encouraged, Christ will come again, but do not forsake “the assembling of ourselves together”. Let it be a habit to be present at the Lord’s supper! You may not be able every time, but let it be a habit as long as you have your health and strength and ability, and circumstances do not on some occasion prevent you. I know occasionally things may prevent us from being at the Supper. That is not what I am speaking about. I am speaking about what is characteristic. It says here, “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together”. That is a test. Time is a test; life is a test; the Christian pathway is a test. What is my life going to be? Is it going to be for Christ or for myself, and my pleasures? What is it going to be? It applies to every man, every woman and every child: Christ or the world? “What then shall I do with Jesus, who is called Christ?”, Matt 27: 22. “Let him be crucified”, they declared. You would not align yourself with the crucifixion of Christ? No, I do not believe anyone here would do it, but remember the test! One week after another week the Lord Jesus says, ‘Remember me’. I want you to grasp hold of the sense of divine affection, Christ’s affections to have you remember Him. If you do not remember Christ, be exercised to do it if you are a lover of the Lord Jesus: “this do in remembrance of me”, Luke 22: 19. Be among those who say when you partake of the bread and the cup, I “announce the death of the Lord, until he come”. I believe Christ will come. What a hope! May it be your portion!
Then I come to Joel. Now, Joel deals with the Old Testament but he also prophesies in relation to the New because you will find this verse that I read in chapter 2: 28 in Peter’s preaching in Acts 2: 17. He quotes it to affirm the pouring “out my Spirit upon all flesh”. God said it in this passage here. Wonderful things that God said in Scripture! He did not just say, ‘I am going to pour out my Spirit on the Jew’ - I am speaking about the nation of the Jews. No, He said, “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh”, a divine secret. God had a secret at this point in time and Judaism or the Jew, whom He had taken up, did not understand, but God understood. Then He discloses His mind when the Spirit comes. Speaking to the Jews, Peter asks if they did not remember the Scriptures. Do you not know what the Scripture says? God said through Joel, all these years ago, five or six hundred years before, “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh”. Then He says, “And I will shew wonders in the heavens and on the earth …”; and then in verse 32, “And it shall be that whosoever shall call upon the name of Jehovah shall be saved”. “Whosoever”: not just the Jew or the Greek, but all the nations of the earth if they call upon God’s name shall be saved. “Whosoever shall call upon the name of Jehovah shall be saved”. That is a wonderful thing: the Spirit came and the Spirit has continued here. He has been here for the two thousand years that the testimony has been here. He has been indwelling persons and He has been seeking persons, but judgment is about to come. We are tending to the close of the dispensation.
God’s house is filling fast.
The day will come when it will no more be said:
Yet there is room! (Hymn 70).
There is still room today, but, friend, there are “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!” People are not prepared to make their mind up: Christ or the world; Christ or my pleasures; Christ or my ways; Christ or my will. They ponder and ponder and ponder. In one sense we all come through a “valley of decision”. Do not tarry there! Make Christ your choice! “What then shall I do with Jesus, who is called Christ?” “Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16: 31): that is what Paul says to a man. Do not tarry in the valley of decision!
I was at a preaching once and the brother preached from this scripture appealing to his audience not to tarry, to make a decision for Christ. There was an older man present. He came most Lord’s days to the preaching. A member of the audience told me that those who knew him were very concerned about him. When asked about his soul’s salvation he always says, ’I am keeping my options open’. What a thing! ’I am keeping my options open’. Do not tarry, friend! Do not put off decisions in life! You may reach a stage in the government of God where you are unable to make a decision. What options do you have if you are lost? If you have not come to Christ, what options do you have? If you are in a state of unbelief, you are lost. You are a sinner. What are the options? The option now is to take Christ as your Saviour, but you have no option other than that. If you do not take it up now, you may never be able to take it up. I leave that word with you. Be warned! Do not procrastinate! Do not put off decisions that are vital in life! “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!” You will find people like that all around you. Unbelief is at the root of it, despisal of Christ, despisal of the gospel; so beware!
Now I come to Genesis 24. I have taken up this passage and want to explain it. The servant here is a type of the Holy Spirit, and Isaac speaks of Christ in glory. Paul says the Old Testament gives “types of us”, 1 Cor 10: 6. The passage illustrates how the Spirit has come down seeking what is for the divine heart, for Christ’s heart, seeking believers for the heart of Christ. That is what is announced. He finds a young woman. It could be a young man. Rebecca is her name. She is by a well of water. He seeks to captivate her life for Isaac, that is for Christ. Now, the servant comes to this city. The note (‘b’) says it is ‘Syria of the two rivers’, Aram-naharaim. It says, “and he arose and went to Aram-naharaim, to the city of Nahor”, but he does not abide in the city. This is a word to believers as I am applying it tonight, and to young believers with life before them. It is a city and he comes along, and the Holy Spirit (the servant in the type) is looking for someone prepared to follow Him to where Christ is. Where? In glory! This young woman is like someone who never yet understood the fact that Christ was in glory. She was by the well of water. She was not in the city; she was not by the rivers; she was not in the commerce or social life of the city of the two rivers; but she was by a well of water. She was in an area where she was protected in her father’s house. And she knew Isaac, as a soul may know Christ, but she had other exercises to learn. What exercises do you have to learn when you come to Christ as Saviour, when you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit? Typically she receives the gift of the Spirit. He speaks to her heart.
Has the Spirit of God spoken to your heart? Has He spoken to my heart? We need this all the way through, dear Christian friends, not just to start with. The Spirit of God has to speak to our hearts, to keep us on the narrow way, the way of Christ’s pleasure. It says, “for our commonwealth has its existence in the heavens” (Phil 3: 20), our associations of life. Her associations of life may have been amongst the people of God, and she was to be encouraged in that and set her life for Christ. That is what I want to lay on all our hearts. There are a good number of young people here and there are those in middle-age too, a little older, but there it is: life, what is it going to be? Are you prepared to go where Christ is in glory? Your life will be different. It will not be by the rivers of the city of the two rivers where you will find your pleasure. You will find it amongst the people of God, find it amongst the fellowship of God’s people. There are many Christians on this earth. You will find this kind of life among them. So the Spirit speaks to her heart and says, ‘Will you come with me? I will take you to a Man in heaven. I will take you and make your life enriched. I will speak to you about a Man in glory. I will speak to you about Christ in glory. I will bring you into a way of life where things are not finished by death. I will bring you into an area of life where you have a light and a hope’.
And you are in a race. Have you ever been in a race? What do you do? Everything is given up to win that race; so this is what I am speaking about in Genesis 24. Read Philippians chapter 3; I cannot go into the fulness of it tonight. You will find Paul says, ‘I am all out. I am leaving everything behind that does not matter to me. I want Christ in glory. I am going to find my associations of life amongst persons who are waiting until their bodies are changed’. That is what he says: ‘I have a body of humiliation but I am waiting for another body, a body of glory. I want to run that race and finally I will get it’. Every believer will get it in Christ, but he says, ‘I want you to come into the race and lay aside things that do not matter, “every weight, and sin which so easily entangles us” (Heb 12: 1), things of this life that would entangle you’. This is for everyone here, not just for one or two, every one here. What is your life going to be? Where are you going to find it? What are you going to do? Are you going to commit yourself to the Lord and to the Holy Spirit and ask His guidance and help to put your foot in the pathway, the divine highway? You will never regret it. You will have problems, trials in life, too, but you will have One to support you, help you through, and you will have a joy that you can never experience otherwise.
So what I wanted to come to was that the Spirit captivates the heart for Christ. The Spirit of God does that. Then somebody says, ‘Just put it off for ten days! Do not start yet ! No, do not start yet! It is a good thing to have before you, but do not start just yet! Just put it off for a time and have your pleasures where you are!’. There was to be a journey before her, and it was her mother and brother that wished to delay her in this setting that I am speaking about. They said, ‘Just wait a few days, or ten days’; they had little appreciation, as it were, of Christ in glory, but she had. What do they say, “Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go”. It says, “And Rebecca arose, and her maids” and then it says, “And the servant took Rebecca, and went away”. Where is he going? To another Man in another world! Isaac was coming from Beer-lahai-roi, ‘Well of the Living who was seen (or “who reveals himself”)’, note ‘c’, Gen 16: 14. She is going to meet Christ in glory. On the way the Spirit of God says, ‘I will help you. I will teach you about that blessed Man. I will bring you into companionship with persons who are on the same way as you.’ What a thing, what a challenge, what a reward, to be in the pathway that is leading to Christ in glory!
Well, I leave these thoughts with you for His Name’s sake.
Loanhead