An imperative perspective for the work of evangelism By Sam Waldron

Before our brother comes to speak to us, I want to read from the second letter of Peter,
the second letter of Peter chapter 3, and we'll read from verse 1 through to the first part of verse 15.
2 Peter chapter 3, from verse 1 through to the first part of verse 15.
While you're finding your passives, just a reminder that after our brother has finished addressing us,
we plan to have a short break so that you can get a cup of coffee and a biscuit, a cup of tea and a biscuit,
and we plan to put the seats into a semi-circle and then you'll have opportunity to hear a little bit about
our brother's background and his church and an opportunity to ask him some questions.
So when we've finished the first part, if you'd like to get your cup of tea or coffee fairly quickly,
then that'll allow us to make maximum use, the best use of the time that we've got available to us.
So let's read 2 Peter chapter 3 from verse 1.
Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you.
I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.
I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets,
and the command given by our Lord and Saviour through your apostles.
First of all, you must understand that in the last days, scoffers will come,
scoffing and following their own evil desires.
They will say, where is this coming he promised?
Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.
But they deliberately forget that long ago, by God's word,
the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water.
By these waters also, the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.
By the same word, the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire,
being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
But do not forget this one thing, dear friends.
With the Lord, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day.
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.
He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.
The heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire,
and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?
You ought to live holy and godly lives, as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.
That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire and the elements will melt in the heat.
But in keeping with his promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.
So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.
Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation. Amen.
Please take your Bibles, if you've closed them, and turn back to the passage read in your hearing, 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 15.
And while you're doing that, if you're doing that, let me say what a delight it has been to meet your pastors, Pastor Siebert and Pastor Callan,
and to have fellowship with them and a delight for me to be here to address you this evening.
Our text this evening is 2 Peter 3, 15 and the first half of the verse.
And regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation.
Before we come to the exposition of that little phrase of Christ, a word to us, let us pray again.
2 Peter 3 and verses 3 through 13 provide us with Peter's view of prophecy.
Now, most prophetic teaching in our day has very little practical value.
In fact, not a few evangelical Christians are quite turned off on prophecy because of the kind of worthless stuff they've been taught in the past.
Well, Peter's eschatology was not worthless.
His view of prophecy, his view of eschatology, the doctrine of last things, had immediate practical relevance to his readers.
And that's why after he completes an overview of his view of prophecy, having told them about the old world and the now world and the new world to come,
he begins to make practical application of that view of prophecy, that view of redemptive history he's laid out in 2 Peter 3.
First of all, he makes a practical application of it to his reader's conduct in verse 14 and then to his reader's thinking in verse 15a.
In verse 14, there is an imperative for Christian conduct.
Be diligent to be found by him in peace, spotless and blameless.
There is an imperative for Christian conduct based on the fact that we look for these things,
a reference to the burning up of the heavens and earth and the emergence of the new heavens and new earth, verse 13.
But also on the basis of that prophetic perspective that he's laid out in the previous verses,
there is this imperative in verse 15a for Christian thinking and regard.
That's a word that addresses his reader's minds and the way they think and regard, account.
You see, there's a word, this word may also be translated account, as in the work of an accountant who spends most of his time using his brain, not his brawn, you see.
And regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation.
Now, it is this imperative for Christian thought in verse 15a that will be the focus of our attention this evening.
For this imperative for Christian thought may be more specifically entitled an imperative perspective for the work of evangelism.
An imperative perspective for the work of evangelism.
And we're going to examine this text under three headings, Lord willing, this evening.
First of all, we'll look at the key idea of verse 15a, then the common interpretation of verse 15a, and then the encouraging applications of the text as well.
First of all, the key idea of the text.
And that, of course, is contained in the words, the patience of our Lord.
There's the key idea.
Now, this is a reference, this reference to the patience of the Lord, to one of the key dimensions of Peter's prophetic view that he's laid out in the previous versions.
This patience of the Lord is one of the great eschatological realities of which he has been speaking.
In fact, in one sense, it's been the key thing he's been speaking about.
And the words patience and the word regard have already been used in close proximity to one another in the same verse previously in this chapter in verse nine.
If you go back there and read, the Lord is not slow about his promise as some...
Now, here's the word translated regard in verse 15, as some count or regard slowness is the same Greek word, but is patient toward you.
And there is, again, the same Greek word as one translated to patience of our Lord in verse 15.
And so between verse 15 and verse nine, there are the most intimate connections.
Verse 15 simply, in a sense, reminds Peter's readers of what he's already been talking about in verse nine.
The patience of our Lord is salvation, Peter says.
You remember what I said in verse nine.
The Lord is not slow about his promises, some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.
The patience of our Lord means salvation.
You remember I've already spoken to you about that.
Now, that's an imperative, Peter says, for your Christian thinking.
Now, this patience of our Lord, which is the key idea, both in verse 15a and also in verse nine,
you remember was an idea that had been the source of mockery or the occasion of mockery by the false teachers that Peter has been addressing through 2 Peter chapter two and into chapter three.
Verse four and verses three and four remind us of what these false teachers, these mockers were saying.
Verse three of our chapter says, know this first of all, that in the last days, mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lust.
And what were they mocking?
Well, he tells us in verse four and saying, where is the promise of his coming?
For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.
You see, they're saying, where is the promise of his coming?
They were mocking, and the occasion of their mockery was this delay that they perceived, this inexplicable delay in the coming of the Lord.
And Peter describes that delay from the Christian perspective in verse nine and verse 15 as the patience of our Lord.
So don't you see that it's this very patience of the Lord that was the occasion of the mockers mocking.
It was because the Lord of the Lord's patience in returning that they concluded that he wasn't coming at all.
And so you see this idea of the patience of the Lord has been a very key idea in the entirety of chapter three.
The patience of the Lord has been the source or occasion of a blasphemous denial of Christ's coming by the mocking false teachers, which Peter has been addressing and speaking of.
Now, that being the case, because this has been the sort of the point of attack by the false teachers in verses eight through 10,
Peter has given a threefold defense of the of the second coming of Christ.
He's giving a given a threefold defense or apologetic in which he has insisted on the reality that Christ is going to come again.
And he's endeavored to refute the mockery of the false teachers.
He's given three thoughts that he sets up as defenses, so to speak, for the second coming of Christ.
In verse eight, he has said that we must not judge this delay on the part of our Lord by our human perspective on time.
Notice what he says in verse eight.
But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.
See, the false teachers may think this is an inexplicable amount of time that Christ has been waiting to return,
and they may think that that is a reason to deny his coming.
But Peter is saying that's because they have a very wrong, a very human view of time.
Our Lord's view of time, says Peter, is not the same as our view of time.
A one day with the Lord is a thousand years and a thousand years is one day.
Now, what's so fascinating about this statement of verse eight is that Peter is thinking of the 90th Psalm.
You remember the Old Testament loose language much like this in Psalm 90.
Please turn back there for a second, because it opens a window on Peter's view of the identity of our Lord.
Peter is saying our Lord's delay in his coming is not something to be wondered at,
if you understand that our Lord is not restricted to a human view of time.
Psalm 90, verses one through four.
Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.
Before the mountains were born, or thou didst give birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting,
thou art God.
Thou dost turn man back into dust and dost say, Return, all children of men.
Now notice the language.
For a thousand years in thy sight are like yesterday when it passes by.
See, of whom is he speaking here?
Well, he's speaking of the one he's called Jehovah in verse one.
He's speaking of the one that he's called God in verse two.
And he says, With Jehovah, with God, a thousand years in thy sight are like yesterday when it is gone.
But you see, it is now this view of time, this divine view of time ascribed to Jehovah,
to the one that the psalmist calls God, that is now attributed to the Lord Jesus Christ in verse eight.
In verse eight, when he speaks of that the Lord, with the Lord one day is a thousand years,
and a thousand years is one day, he's speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And if you just read the entire chapter, that becomes very patent.
It's the Lord's promise to come back that he's speaking of in verse nine when he says,
The Lord is not slow but has promise.
So you see, in referring to this view of time that is different from our own, he is assuming what?
He is assuming that our Lord Jesus Christ is God, is Jehovah, and has a divine view of time, you see.
But now, that's his first line of defense.
We'll not think it's strange that the Lord has delayed so long in his coming
if we adopt the divine view of time that a thousand years is his one day,
because then it means that he's only been two days in coming back in the last 2,000 years from the divine view.
But there's a second defense for the Lord's second coming that Peter gives us in this passage,
and that's found in verse 10.
And here I can only touch lightly because this isn't our main point,
but I think it's helpful for you to see this.
Verse 10 gives us a second defense of the Lord's delay in coming back.
It says, The day of the Lord will come like a thief.
Now, that's interesting language because it takes us back to our Lord's prophecy in the Olivet Discourse.
In the Olivet Discourse, Jesus had taught in Matthew 24, we don't have time to turn there, verses 36 to 51,
that he was going to return like a thief.
That if the master of the house had known what hour the thief was coming,
he would have stayed awake and not allowed his house to be broken into you.
Remember the language there in Matthew 24.
But Jesus says, I'm going to come like a thief.
And following that statement, there's this parable which speaks of the fact
that there is going to be good and evil slaves.
The good steward that the master leaves in charge of his other servants,
or the bad steward that when he sees that his master is not returning says,
my Lord delays his coming.
And then what's he begin to do?
He begins to eat and drink with the wicked and to beat his fellow servants
because he has concluded that his master is long going to delay his return or perhaps never to return.
Well, you see, that's exactly what the false teachers and mockers had done.
They had turned the delay in the Lord's coming into an excuse for their own evil and wicked way of life,
of their taking advantage of God's people, of their fleecing God's sheep.
And that's described in 2 Peter chapter 2.
What's Peter saying when he says, but our Lord will come like a thief?
He's saying, look, we shouldn't be moved by these false teachers and mockers.
They think the delay in Christ's coming is a reason to doubt his prophecy.
There's no reason to doubt his prophecy.
Our Lord himself predicted that he would wait long enough to come,
that he would give men an excuse to say, my Lord delays his coming.
In Matthew 24, Jesus implies that he would wait so long to return that evil stewards
and false teachers would arise doing exactly what these false teachers were doing here.
And so the existence of these false teachers, the existence of their mockery and their evil lifestyles,
there's no reason to doubt Christ's promise.
Actually, the fact that these false teachers had come with their mocking
was a fulfillment in itself of Christ's prophecy that he was going to come like a thief
and he was going to wait long enough to come that some wicked professed teachers of Christianity
would begin to deny his second coming in his body and in glory.
And so Peter says that's another reason why you shouldn't doubt Christ's second coming.
These false teachers are simply themselves the fulfillment of prophecy as implied in Matthew 24.
But now it is with Peter's third line of defense of Christ's second coming found in verse 9 that we are most concerned.
What is the thrust? What's the point of verse 9?
Well, you see, the mockers were challenging the Christians with the derisive question,
where is the promise of his coming? Why hasn't Christ come back?
If he's coming, why hasn't he come back?
Well, Peter answers here in verse 9 that the delay in Christ's return is not problematic
when you understand its reason.
When you understand why Christ has not yet returned, you will not be stumbled by it.
You see, this delay in our Lord's coming, which has given rise to the mockers' mockery
about where is the promise of his coming, this delay has the very best of reasons.
Peter is referring to this when he says,
Regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation.
He is patient towards you, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
You see, our Lord's delay has the very best of reasons.
It is that men should repent and turn to God.
It is that they might be saved.
You see, this is the most momentous of all reasons that could be given for Christ to delay his coming.
And so we must not doubt his coming when we understand what a good reason there is for it.
You see, it's true, even with us, that the more important something is,
the longer we are willing to wait and delay our timetables for it.
If I'm been away at work all day in my office at our church building in Grand Rapids
and my wife wants to speak to me before she leaves to do some errand or other in the evening,
she may wait five or ten minutes and delay her schedule,
but if I'm not home, she can just talk to me later in the evening, you see, and she can do that.
And so five or ten minutes is all that little conversation she wants to have with me may warrant
in terms of her waiting before she leaves.
Now, I hope that if United Airlines calls up and tells me that I'll be a couple hours late
getting into the airport in Grand Rapids next Monday,
and then I call my wife, that if the plane is coming in at 1040 instead of 840 as it's supposed to,
that the fact that I've been away three weeks would be a good reason to wait a little longer, you see.
We're willing to wait a little longer for things that are worth waiting for.
If they're important enough, well, what is more important than the salvation of men's souls?
Didn't our Lord Himself say, what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
There's no more important purpose in terms of humanity than the salvation of the souls of men.
And you see, is that great and momentous purpose that is the real cause of our Lord's patience?
Not delay so much as patience.
And you see, if these foolish false teachers had known it, if they had known that God's patience
was really a remaining but quickly running out opportunity for them to repent of their wickedness
and turn to God and not perish but be saved, they would not have looked at our Lord's delay
as a reason for mocking but as a reason for turning to God in fear and repentance, you see.
So Peter's defense of our Lord Jesus Christ's supposed delay in His coming is that it has the very best of reasons.
This then is the reality assumed in our text, the patience of the Lord.
Now the delay in Christ's return then has for its momentous and serious justification
nothing less than the salvation of the eternal souls of men.
Its explanation is that He is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
And that provides a fully adequate rationale for even 2,000 years of delay in our Lord's coming.
But we must now look more closely at the reality of the patience of the Lord
and a question about it which has often been asked by evangelical Christians.
And that brings me in the second place to the common interpretation of the text.
There is water down here, good.
The common interpretation of the text.
Now you now know what I'm talking about, don't you? I see smiles on faces already.
It's usually assumed that the meaning of both our text, verse 15a, and verse 9 is obvious and easy.
The common evangelical interpretation of this text is that these verses teach that our Lord, our God, wants all men everywhere to repent and be saved.
Every man without exception to repent and be saved.
And that, it is said, is the reason why Christ has not returned.
That He is waiting because He wants to give everybody a chance to be saved, all men everywhere an opportunity to be saved,
and He's waiting to return until that happens.
Have you ever heard that interpretation? Of course you have.
Now, I have three things to say about that common evangelical interpretation of the text.
And the first thing I want to say about it is that it is a theologically possible interpretation.
I said, a theologically possible interpretation.
What I mean by those words is this.
It could be that Peter is teaching that God wants all men to come to repentance.
It could be that he is teaching what theologians have called the common grace of God and the free offer of the gospel.
It could be that Peter is teaching that because the Bible does teach those doctrines.
In a number of places, the Bible teaches that God sincerely desires the repentance.
And in that way, the salvation of all who hear the gospel.
Turn over, for instance, to John 534.
John 534 is an interesting example of this.
Later in this passage, it's very interesting, Peter, pardon me, our Lord,
is going to tell these Jews that he's addressing that he has come in his father's name and they've rejected him.
But if another comes in his own name, they will receive him,
which is basically a prophecy of what happened in the final days of Jerusalem when false Christ and false messiahs arose
and the Jews went running after them almost as if they knew in their desperation that they really had rejected the true messiah.
And we're desperately trying to find out that their deepest and most feared suspicions about their folly were wrong.
And so Jesus prophesies that when another false messiah comes later in this passage,
these people whom he's addressing will in mass embrace them, although they reject him who comes in his father's name.
Now, all that's very interesting in light of what Jesus says in verse 34.
He is speaking of John the Baptist and of John the Baptist bearing witness to the truth
and how they were willing for a while to believe what John the Baptist was saying even about Jesus' own identity as God's son.
But now he says, but the witness which I receive is not from man.
He says, I don't need John the Baptist testimony.
The witness I receive is not from man.
The father is giving me every week, every day to do tremendous signs and miracles.
I'm speaking the father's word. I'm living the father's will.
I don't need John the Baptist human testimony.
The witness I receive is not from man, but I say these things that you may be saved.
I'm not referring here to John the Baptist testimony for my own sake as if I needed it.
I've got better testimony than John the Baptist.
But I remember that you people out there were for a while willing to bask in the light of John's testimony.
Verse 35, he was the lamp that was burning and was shining and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.
So I refer to John the Baptist that you remember his testimony and if in the past you were moved by it,
you might be moved by it again in order that you might believe who I am and be saved.
I say these things to you, says the son of God, that you might be saved.
This is a statement of Jesus Christ's intention as God's son and God's word to the Jewish nation that they should be saved.
And this is a statement not addressed just to the elect, but addressed to this indiscriminate multitude of Jews,
some of them who would die in their sins, according to John chapter 8,
some of them, according to this very chapter, who would embrace false messiahs and die in the destruction of Jerusalem in their sins.
And so you see the Bible teaches here that God does sincerely desire the repentance and in that way the salvation of all who hear the gospel.
The same thing is taught in Acts 3, 26.
God for you first has raised up his son that he might turn every one of you from your sins, Acts 3, 26.
And again, some of the classic text in the Bible back in Ezekiel also addressed to the Jewish nation.
Ezekiel chapter 18, for instance, teaches the free offer of the gospel and God's common grace in the gospel.
There the prophet Ezekiel declares on behalf of the Lord God,
do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, rather that he should turn from his ways and live?
Also over in Ezekiel 33, 11.
Ezekiel 33, 11. Say to them, as I live, declares the Lord God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked,
but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways.
Why then will you die, O house of Israel?
See, these are statements that beyond all dispute, teach the great doctrine of the free offer of the gospel.
Teach that God, in terms of his perceptive will, desires men to repent and to turn to God and be saved.
And lo and behold, this is not just the somewhat novel interpretation of an American pastor in the 20th century.
Lo and behold, even John Calvin thought that this was what 2 Peter 3.9 was teaching.
Listen to John Calvin's comments on 2 Peter 3.9.
So wonderful, says Calvin, is his love towards mankind that he would have them all to be saved
and is of his own self prepared to bestow salvation on the lost.
But the order is to be noticed that God is ready to receive all through repentance so that none may perish.
For in these words, the way and manner of attaining salvation is pointed out.
Every one of us, therefore, who is desirous of salvation must learn to enter by this way.
But, it may be asked, if God wishes none to perish, why is it that so many do perish?
To this, my answer is that no mention is here made of the hidden purpose of God,
according to which the reprobate are doomed to their own ruin.
But only of his will is made known to us in the gospel.
For God there, that is to say in the gospel, for God there stretches forth his hand without a difference to all,
but lays hold only of those to lead them to himself whom he has chosen before the foundation of the world.
Now this is John Calvin's interpretation of 2 Peter 3.9. What's he saying?
He's saying 2 Peter 3.9 is not talking about election.
2 Peter 3.9 is not talking about election, says Calvin.
It's talking about the free offer of the gospel.
It's talking about what Romans 10 speaks of.
When there, Paul quotes the Old Testament that says of God,
All day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people.
There in Romans 10, God likens himself to a preacher of the word stretching out his hands,
inviting people to come, and people won't come. Israel won't come.
And John Calvin says, that's the picture we have in 2 Peter 3.9,
of a God holding out his arms to men, inviting them to repent.
He says, now, of course, all of that's not to say that God doesn't have a hidden purpose.
That there isn't this secret will of God whereby he goes beyond simply holding out his arms to men
and he actually reaches out his hand and brings some to repentance.
But Calvin says, though that's true, though there is such a thing as the electing purpose of God,
though there is such a thing as the irresistible grace of God towards his elect,
that's not what 2 Peter 3.9 is talking about.
It's talking about the free offer of the gospel. So says John Calvin himself.
And so it would not contradict either the message of the Bible or sound Reformed theology
if the passage did teach the free offer of the gospel.
Before I come to my next point, let me say that if you are to have any hopeful prospects
for the growth and usefulness of this church, if you are to be really committed to biblical missions,
if you are to reach your own city with the biblical gospel,
if you are to plant churches in your needy country, then you also must have with the Bible
and with historic Reformed theology a whole-souled, whole-hearted commitment
to the free offer of the gospel and the common grace of God offered to men in that gospel.
Any so-called Calvinism which makes you stutter when you offer Christ to men
is the enemy of the gospel of Christ and the hopes and prospects of this church.
Any theological logic or carnal reason which deduces from election or particular redemption
a compromised and constricted offer of the gospel is not genuine logic,
is not historic Reformed theology, but is proud and carnal rationalism.
May God ever give you as a church the grace to avoid that kind of carnal logic.
And let me say to you this evening, some of you young people, some of you children,
you must never, never think that because your pastors preach about the doctrine of election
that your only duty is to sit there until something zaps you,
until something happens that will make you think,
oh, I'm one of God's elect, God wants to save me.
No, where you're sitting there this evening, each one of you,
God this evening is holding out his hands to you.
He's saying, why will you die? Why won't you repent? Why will you go to hell?
See, he's saying that to you.
And God in Jesus Christ is calling you to repentance and you must never think,
well, it doesn't matter what I do, I'm probably not one of God's elect, if God wants to save me, He will.
If you are responding that way to the teaching you've been receiving,
then you are corrupting the word of God.
And you will never be saved until you embrace Jesus Christ as he's freely offered to you in the gospel.
And you cannot say, well, I don't know if I'm elect. That doesn't matter.
It doesn't have anything to do with it.
You must receive Jesus Christ as he's offered in the gospel.
And until you do, you will certainly go to hell.
Only when you finally wake up and embrace the Lord and give yourself to him,
will you know yourself to be saved and then discover that you were elect.
But your duty is not bound or grounded in the fact of whether you're elect or not.
You don't need to know that.
You need to embrace Jesus Christ and come to him, whether you know anything about that or not.
Because the gospel is, here in John 534, the words of our Lord,
I say these things to you that you may be saved.
But having said that, with regard to the common and popular interpretation of our text,
that it is, in a certain sense, a theologically possible interpretation,
I must proceed to say that though it is a theologically possible interpretation,
I do not believe that it is an exegetically proper interpretation.
Let me explain what I mean.
When I say I don't believe it's an exegetically proper interpretation,
the word exegetical is referring to the proper way of interpreting the Bible.
You know the supreme rule of interpreting the Bible, or at least one of the supreme rules?
The supreme rule is context is king.
We must interpret the Bible according to context.
We must not rip text out of their context and make them mean anything we please.
We must understand the flow of thought and interpret them according to the flow of thought in the original passages.
Context is king in interpreting the Bible.
And that's why I say that though in the abstract it might be theologically proper to say that there is the free offer of the gospel,
that's not what Peter is talking about here, notwithstanding John Kelvin.
Though it is true, you see, that God desires all men everywhere to repent and be saved according to his perceptive will,
according to his revealed will in the gospel,
this is not, I am persuaded, what Peter is teaching here.
There are contextual considerations, things about this statement in its original context,
which I think make it impossible to see 2 Peter 3.9 as a reference to the free offer of the gospel.
Let me give you two things from the context that I think make that impossible.
First, the first contextual consideration, which refutes the interpretation,
which sees here the free offer of the gospel, is that Peter explicitly says in verse 9,
The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you.
Or, some of your Bibles may read toward us.
But what I'm about to say isn't changed by that textual variant.
Whether the proper reading is toward you or toward us, everything I'm about to say stays exactly the same.
What I'm about to say is this.
I have counted 24 occurrences of the word you or your in 2 Peter in my own English translation.
24 occurrences, and every last one of them refer to Christians in their distinctively Christian identity.
In each case, the reference is to those who possess distinctively Christian characteristics.
What am I saying?
I am saying that every time in 2 Peter, every one of the 24 times in 2 Peter that Peter says to you or you or your,
he is not talking about everybody in general, all men in general.
He is talking about the Christians to whom alone he is writing.
Now, this is interesting because Peter says that this is the second epistle he's written to these people.
2 Peter 3, 1.
This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you.
Where's the first letter?
Well, you know where it's at. It's in 1 Peter.
Go back to 1 Peter 1 and verse 1 and notice who Peter wrote the first letter to.
What's it say there?
Peter, an apostle to those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
who are chosen, who are elected according to the foreknowledge of God the Father by the sanctifying work of the Spirit
that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood.
You see, 1 Peter was written to whom? God's elect.
Anybody want to argue with that?
1 Peter was written to God's elect. 2 Peter is written to the same people.
Who's that? God's elect.
And now Peter says in 2 Peter 3, 9, God is patient toward you.
Now, even beyond that, go back and look at 2 Peter chapter 1 and read the first four verses with me.
Simon Peter, a bondservant, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith as the same kind as ours.
Remember I said it wouldn't make any difference if we adopted the interpretation to us-ward or to you?
Well, here's why.
Because if it's to us, it's still a reference only to Christians.
A faith as the same kind as ours.
Peter's referring to himself and his fellow apostles.
And so whether it's to us or to you, the point remains the same.
It's not talking about everybody in the world.
It's talking about a restricted circle of people, Christians, God's elect.
Our faith to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior.
It's not everybody's God and Savior.
He's our God and Savior.
You see, us would be a reference only to Christians.
Our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,
seeing that his divine power is granted to us, everything pertaining to life and godliness,
through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence.
For by these he is granted to us his precious and magnificent promises,
in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature,
having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence in your faith,
in your faith, supply moral excellence.
What's he assuming?
The people he describes in the second person plural pronoun, you have what? Faith.
Paul tells us another place, all men do not have faith.
But these people have faith, and they are to add to their faith moral excellence.
You see, the point I'm making, and we could simply read all of 2 Peter,
and you don't have time for me to do that tonight,
is that in every last occurrence of the terms us and you in 2 Peter,
the reference is not to all men in general,
but to Peter's distinctively Christian readers whom he views as God's elect.
Now another interesting proof of this is in chapter 3 itself.
Four times at least in 2 Peter chapter 3, Peter addresses his readers as beloved.
Verse 1, this is now beloved, the second letter I am writing to you.
Verse 8, but do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved.
Verse 14, therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, verse 17,
you therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard.
Who are the beloved? Are the beloved everybody in the world?
Well, you know that's not the case.
These beloved are those whom God in love predestinated, Ephesians 1.4,
to the adoption of sons.
So you see, when we come to verse 9, and Peter says God is patient toward you,
it is absolutely to ignore the entire context of 2 Peter to say that the you
is a reference to everybody in the world.
No, it is plainly a reference to Peter's Christian readers viewed as God's elect.
Now, the second thing about the context that I think makes this reference
of the verse plain is this.
The second thing that makes it plain that we're not talking about here about God's
general common grace to everybody in the world, or at least all those who hear
the gospel, is this.
It has to do with the reason for God's patience in verse 9.
Why is God being patient?
Clearly, so that men may repent.
Now, think with me.
He is waiting, says Peter, with the intention that none should perish but
that all should come to repentance.
Isn't that what he says?
Now, if this means that he is waiting till everybody without exception repents,
then he's going to wait a long time, isn't he?
In fact, he's going to wait forever because the Bible teaches that it'll never
come a day when everybody will have repented.
And if he's waiting till everybody has a chance to repent, I want to know when that
is because children will continue to be born to the human race indefinitely,
I suppose, and we have to give every one of those theoretically still possible to
be born children a chance to repent?
You see what I'm saying?
If we put into this verse the notion that God sincerely desires all men to be
saved, then the patience of our Lord is going to have to go on forever.
And the implication would be that he will never come back because if he's waiting
till everybody is saved or even till every potential man has a chance to be
saved, which is not what the text says, but if that's what people want to say,
he's never going to come back because the Bible says that'll never happen.
And so if he is waiting till all men have a chance to repent,
when will that be?
I hope you see the problem.
The patience referred to here has a clear termination point,
the second coming of Christ.
Now, if that termination point is delayed because God wishes all without exception
to come to repentance, the implication is plainly that Jesus will never return.
And Peter can't possibly be saying that.
You see?
So my second response, having said that it's a theologically possible
interpretation, I've said in the second place in my responding to this common
evangelical interpretation that it's not an exegetically proper interpretation.
The reason for the patience and the people he's addressing make that plain.
So in the third place, I come to say in responding to the common evangelical
interpretation, I come to say that the only interpretation,
which is both theologically possible and exegetically proper,
is that Christ is being patient until all his elect people are saved.
Christ is being patient until all his elect people are saved.
We say, when will that be?
You can sit there, when will all God's elect people be saved?
We don't know.
We don't know when all God's elect people will be saved, do we?
And that means that in the language of scripture, you must not boast yourself
of tomorrow because you don't know what a day will bring forth.
You may not have tomorrow to repent.
All God's elect may have been saved by tomorrow.
Do you know for sure that won't be?
And therefore, you can't boast, and you have only the present to repent.
But you see, I say the only theologically possible and exegetically proper
interpretation is that Christ is being patient until all his elect people are saved.
Now, what Peter is therefore teaching is that the Lord is delaying his return
in order that all his elect may be saved.
He is patient towards you, not willing that any, and we should supply the words,
of you should perish, but that all of you should come to repentance.
It's a reference to God's elect.
Now, there are several things in the context that clearly establish that meaning, I think.
First, if we take the idea that an eternity passed, God elected an exact number of men to salvation,
and we understand that that's what Peter's talking about in this verse,
then the verse makes perfectly good sense, doesn't it?
We avoid all those problems about how long it's going to be until everybody has repented
because it's not talking about everybody repenting.
It's talking about all God's elect repenting.
And you see, what Peter is saying then is absolutely clear and natural.
God is being patient in Jesus Christ until every last one of the elect is saved,
and then with that mysterious number of the elect is saved.
When the fullness of the Gentiles have come in, when all Israel has been saved,
then God's mystery will end, and then the seventh trumpet will sound.
You see, that's what he's talking about.
Only this interpretation is consistent with the idea that Christ is delaying his return
until a certain defined purpose has been fulfilled.
But the second of these considerations which demand this interpretation,
that is referring to God's elect, has already been mentioned.
The long suffering spoken of here, I remind you, is not long suffering toward everyone.
It's not long suffering toward them.
It's long suffering toward you.
And the you is a reference not to everybody in the world,
but to Peter's beloved Christian readers,
to those that he describes as chosen according to the predestination of God
in 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 1 and 2.
In other words, it is Peter's elect readers that he is addressing.
Now, if we adopt this interpretation that Peter is saying,
God is being patient till his elect repent and are saved,
it points us to a very interesting implication.
You know what that implication is?
Let me state it this way.
Even the elect would perish if they did not repent.
Even the elect would perish if they did not repent.
What are you saying, Pastor? What, are you teaching us Arminianism here?
No.
But if we're right about how to interpret this text,
if we're right about how to interpret 50 other biblical texts,
even the elect would perish if they did not repent.
Turn over to a confirming text, 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 10.
2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 10.
It says the Apostle Paul, verse 9,
for which I suffer hardship, this Gospel I'm preaching,
even to imprisonment as a criminal.
But the word of God, he says, is not in prison.
For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen,
God's elect,
that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus
with it eternal glory.
Oh, but Paul, just a second. We've got to straighten your theology out here, Paul.
Don't you realize that the elect will be saved no matter what you do?
Don't you realize that the elect will be saved no matter what they do?
And you know what Paul would say to you?
He would say, no, I don't realize that.
No, I don't realize that the elect will be saved whether the Gospel is preached to them or not.
No, I don't realize that the elect will be saved whether they repent or not.
I don't realize that at all because that is not my view of election.
You see, so often when talking with people, sometimes we make very, very loose
and easily to be misinterpreted statements.
Oh, you Calvinists believe that people will be saved no matter what they do.
And we're inclined to say yes, but we shouldn't.
We do not believe that the elect will be saved no matter what they do.
We believe that the elect will repent and be saved.
And there's a big difference, a big difference.
You see, even the elect would perish if they did not repent.
That's why Christ does not yet come back according to this text.
God has elected some to be saved.
Some of those who he has elected have not yet repented.
Therefore, Christ is patient because if he came back before they repented,
the implication of our text is what?
They would perish.
They would perish.
You see, election does not mean that people will be saved no matter what they do.
It means that they will certainly repent and be saved.
It means that they will in due time repent.
Election does not make repentance unnecessary.
Election does not make preaching the gospel unnecessary.
It only makes preaching the gospel effective and repentance certain.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
Election is no pillow and it has never been a pillow.
Biblical election has never been a pillow.
Sew into people's head to allow them to sleep through gospel warnings.
It was never intended for that purpose.
And when people turn it to that purpose, the fact is very simply that they have a wrong view of election.
They have a false view of election, one that is just as false and just as damning in its own way
and perhaps more damning than the idea that taught by Arminians.
Election is no pillow for any impenitent person made so that they can sleep through warnings to repent.
The last thing that makes this interpretation absolutely imperative
is the imperative that I turned you to starting off this evening of 2 Peter 3.15.
There we read, and regard the patience of the Lord to be salvation.
Note well, we are to regard the patience of the Lord to be salvation, not the opportunity to be saved.
He does not say, regard the patience of our Lord to be the opportunity to be saved.
Well, that may be true, but that's not what he says.
We are not to regard the patience of the Lord to be the possibility of being saved or the potential salvation of men.
Peter exhorts us to regard the patience of the Lord to be actual salvation, to be salvation itself.
You see, divine election must be referred to here because only divine election brings people actually to be saved.
And Peter says, we're to be absolutely certain about this. We are to think this way.
We are to regard the fact that Christ doesn't come back to mean that people will be saved.
Regard the patience of the Lord to be salvation.
You see, the great truth of divine sovereignty and salvation and God's unconditional election of men to salvation
is crucial to our hopes for our churches.
If this church is to have any hopeful prospect of being useful in biblical missions and church planning,
it must be firmly grounded on the unshakable rock of divine election.
Only this will enable you to preach the biblical gospel with the confidence of success.
The biblical gospel will save men because God has purpose that it would.
The biblical gospel will save men because God has decreed that it should be so.
And as long as Christ doesn't return, that decree remains in effect.
And furthermore, it's only the truth of God's sovereign election and irresistible grace that will nerve men and women
for uncompromising faithfulness to the biblical message and the biblical methods of the gospel.
You see, the biblical gospel is too hard.
The biblical methods appear too foolish to seem effective to those who lean on the arm of flesh.
Only those who know that God gives the increase will be faithful to God's message and God's means.
You see, Paul knew that even Apollos, even he himself might plant and Apollos might water,
but even those means would be ineffective unless God gave the increase, 1 Corinthians 3.5.
God must give the increase.
And you see, the biblical methods are too foolish to please God to save men by the foolishness of preaching, Paul says.
And the biblical gospel with its hard demands of faith in Christ as Savior and Lord and repentance from dead works to serve the living and true God,
those are terms that any man with a realistic view of his fellow Australians or his fellow Americans are going to know.
They're not going to be happy with those kind of demands.
And the pressure will be unbearable to soften those demands unless a man believes there is something more than man's free will that's going to bring people to repentance.
There's something more than unaided human resources that are going to make the gospel effective
until a man believes that God himself in fulfillment of his own eternal decree and electing purpose will make that gospel affected and those foolish methods effective.
Unless a man believes that, eventually he's going to cave in because he knows that no human resources will make that kind of gospel preached in those kind of ways effective.
See, the doctrine of election is absolutely foundational for any hopes in our prospects with a building of churches on the gospel of Jesus Christ, on the biblical gospel, and not on the reasonable facsimile thereof preached by most evangelicals today.
But now we have seen then the key idea of the text, the patience of the Lord, its common interpretation and our responses to that interpretation.
And now we finally come to its encouraging applications.
Now there are a wealth of practical applications that we can make here.
It's interesting to observe that Christian life and duty involves not only a certain way of acting, but a certain way of thinking.
Don't we get ourselves into problems as Christians often because we think, well, God is only concerned about how I act.
But my mind, well, that's outside of what he's concerned about.
No, God is concerned about how we think.
But now the second thing that we might learn from this is that we have here in our text a biblical cure for heart sickness in Christians.
That's another direction we might pursue.
Hope deferred, says the Bible, makes the heart sick.
The Puritan Nisbet makes a general application of our text to times when God delays the fulfillment of our promises, of his promises to us.
When he delays our hopes, when he defers our hopes, the Puritan Nisbet says the way to quiet our hearts under the delay of the performance of promises is to have the much exercised with the consideration of that work which the Lord is about during the delay.
How much it serves for the advancement of our spiritual and eternal welfare.
In other words, what Nisbet is saying is, you know, if you're having a struggle with deferred hope and you hope for something,
perhaps a woman longs to have a child or a young lady longs to be married or a man longs to be in the ministry or he longs for that promotion at work.
And the way becomes long and it's deferred.
And you see, there's a tendency for his heart to become sick and for him to become bitter and cynical.
Nisbet is saying, here's what you should do when you're in that kind of situation.
You should remember that God has good reasons for the delay.
That's the general doctrine of our text, isn't it?
God has good reasons for why Christ doesn't come back yet.
And he has good reason for the delay in all your hopes as well.
When God is delaying the fulfillment of our desires and his promises, we ought not to fall into discouragement, unbelief or cynicism.
We ought rather to believe that God has a good reason for the delay.
If possible, we ought try to consider what that reason might be.
And if we can, on the basis of God's word probing our consciences, discover what that a reason might be, then what would be wisdom on our part to fall in line with God's reason?
There may be good reasons. There may be things he wants you to learn by this deferred hope.
But we may be certain that he doesn't want you to learn by deferred hope to be discontent, bitter and unbelieving.
There are things he wants you to learn.
Don't miss God's lessons, because you see, the sooner God's purposes are fulfilled in his delay, the sooner your hopes will come.
Right?
As soon as God's purpose in delaying the return of Christ is fulfilled, the sooner Christ will come.
Now, I know all these things are certain according to God's decree, aren't they?
But God uses means.
And that's what I'm saying to you.
But now, we could elaborate on those things in great detail.
But I simply want to make three statements about the work of evangelism in our text.
All right?
And then I'll be through.
First, we learn three truths that every church must always hold together if it's going to engage in the work of evangelism.
There are three truths that we have seen tonight as we've tried to expound our text that are biblical truths.
And each of them is a fundamental pillar.
You know, kids, you need at least how many legs if a table is going to stand up.
You can get by without four.
You need three at least, right?
If you take away, if you have a three-legged stool or a three-legged table, you just take away one of those legs, what's going to happen?
It's going to crash, right?
Now, a four-legged table, it might stand up for a little while.
But the three-legged table is not going to stand up if you take one of the legs.
It's the same thing with the biblical gospel.
And there are three legs in the work of evangelism that we must have if the table is going to stand up.
The free offer of the gospel, divine election, and the necessity of repentance.
You see them?
They're all right there as we've expounded our text in the context of the Bible.
The free offer of the gospel, divine election, and the necessity of repentance.
How often people have said, well, you know, those things don't fit together.
You can't have divine election and the free offer of the gospel.
And certainly, we don't want to tell 20th century Australians or Americans that they have to repent.
We've got to kind of leave that for a second stage.
And we'll tell them about how nice it is to be a Christian, how lovely it is to be a Christian,
and how all they have to do is believe in Christ as their savior.
And later on, we'll tell them that there is such a thing as the wrath of God and they must repent.
No.
You see, there must be these three things held together.
The free offer of the gospel, the necessity of repentance, but then we've got to also bring in divine sovereignty.
We can't just go in the direction of human responsibility.
We've got to have confidence that God will make such a hard and difficult and demanding gospel effective in men who love to go their own way.
And so we've got to have the doctrine of election too.
All of these things are necessary to be held together if we are to engage in the work of evangelism.
But then the second thing we learn about the work of evangelism is this.
We learn a tremendous encouragement to the evangelistic mission of the church.
A tremendous encouragement to the evangelistic mission of the church because this text demands that we adopt a God-centered perspective.
Evangelism is the purpose of God.
You see, God does have a purpose yet to save his elect in this age.
We may be absolutely certain of that.
You know why we can be so certain?
Well, unless, you know, I missed it while I was on holiday with Jim the last couple of days, Pastor Hogg,
I didn't hear the voice of the archangel or the trump of God.
Did you hear it here?
Anybody hear the crack of doom today?
You didn't.
Well, it's good.
I'm glad to hear that.
Neither did I.
And you see, you know what that means?
The Lord is still being patient.
Now, how should we think about that?
What does that mean, the fact that Christ didn't come back today?
It means salvation.
That's what it means.
It means that God isn't through saving his elect.
That's what it means, right?
It means that God isn't through saving his elect.
You see, Peter wants us to have this God-centered perspective.
God is doing something.
We're only his hands and his fingers.
God is doing something.
He's going to do something.
You see, if we adopt this God-centered perspective, then the most important thing in our minds won't be.
Now, how can we most make ourselves ingratiate ourselves with the lost?
Well, that's the perspective of most evangelism today.
The supreme thing is how can we most ingratiate ourselves with these lost carnal people?
And that's why the church is turning into a circus,
because that's what lost carnal people like is circuses, all right?
But you see, what this gives us is a God-centered perspective.
If we believe there's God that's saving people, then we're going to use God's means,
and we're going to try to be pleasing to God,
because we know that if we're pleasing to God, then he'll save people.
And what are God's means?
Well, a lot could be said about that,
but there are at least four means that I think the Bible makes very plain
that God says he's going to use to save people.
He's going to use the proclamation of the word of God
through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe.
He's going to use holy living,
because, you see, it's the holy lives of his people that give cutting edge to their witness.
He's going to use earnest prayer.
I will be entreated of for these things, says the Old Testament.
If we believe that God saves sinners, then the most important thing we can do is ask God.
We have not because we ask not.
And God also uses a well-ordered and pure church life.
You know, I was recently counseling a young lady
who was looking at the prospect of having to give up for adoption
a baby that had been conceived in her as a result of a rape.
Now, in what kind of home do you suppose this Christian young lady would want to put that baby in?
The best home she could find, right?
We talked about this.
We talked about couples in other Reformed Baptist churches
that we knew would have a godly, holy home
where that baby would be raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
You know, which home would she choose to put that baby into?
The best home she could find.
The best nursery she could find, right?
Now, what kind of place do you suppose God will choose to put his newborn babes?
Into some wild and wooly, disordered, impure place
where they don't care about holiness and they don't care about taking care of their people?
Do you suppose God's going to do that very often?
No, I suppose that what God's going to do is just what that young lady would naturally do,
put her little baby in the best home she could find.
And the first consideration wouldn't be how big the home was.
And the first consideration would not be how much the man made for a living.
The first consideration would be, was it a godly, pure, well-ordered Christian home?
Right?
Now, isn't there an enormous lesson in that for us?
Our first concern, if we're really going to be God-centered,
is not how big we are, not how happy we are, although that's good.
A godly home should be a happy home, right?
But it should be that we be a well-ordered home,
that we be the kind of church that God can trust with his newborn babes, right?
You see, if we're God-centered, we aren't going to be able to ignore a well-ordered, pure church life.
And we're going to be very concerned to contribute to the purity and orderliness and happiness of our church
and not to undermine it by slander, gossiping, anything else, or unholy living,
because we're going to know that that very kind of thing is going to grieve who?
The Holy Spirit of God whereby you are sealed to the day of redemption.
If we believe that we need the Holy Spirit more than we need anything else,
we're not going to do anything to grieve him away, are we?
But there is a third lesson we learn about evangelism.
We learn from our text, regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation,
and this is the last thing I'll say.
We learn a controlling perspective for your thinking and hopes for the building up of this church
and church planning and the work of evangelism.
We learn a controlling perspective for your thinking about the work of evangelism, not just in general, but here.
Now, there is much, of course, which may seem to discourage any great hopes for the work of evangelism in our day.
You see, when we outgrow the naive optimism of those missionaries and say,
well, there are millions of people out there just waiting to hear the Gospel.
You know, I worked for six years at Amway Corporation.
I didn't sell Amway.
I drove a forklift for them, and I didn't find all those millions of people out there in the warehouse wanting to be told the Gospel.
They weren't there.
I was really surprised to find that out.
The men I worked with really weren't interested.
I don't know what the kind of people you work with,
but I suppose that they're much like that.
You see, there's much that may discourage us when we become realistic in our biblical perspective,
when we outgrow the naive optimism of Arminianism and immaturity,
when we become more experientially acquainted with our own weakness and our own sin,
when we become more experientially acquainted with Calvinism,
when we cast off the rose-colored glasses of Arminianism,
when we accept the stern Calvinistic doctrine of total depravity and discover that you were elect.
But your duty is not bound or grounded in the fact of whether you're elect or not.
You don't need to know that.
You need to embrace Jesus Christ and come to Him, whether you know anything about that or not,
because the Gospel is, here in John 534, the words of our Lord,
I say these things to you that you may be saved.
But having said that, with regard to the common and popular interpretation of our text,
that it is, in a certain sense, a theologically possible interpretation,
I must proceed to say that though it is a theologically possible interpretation,
I do not believe that it is an exegetically proper interpretation.
Let me explain what I mean.
When I say I don't believe it's an exegetically proper interpretation,
the word exegetical is referring to the proper way of interpreting the Bible.
You know the supreme rule of interpreting the Bible, or at least one of the supreme rules?
The supreme rule is context is king.
We must interpret the Bible according to context.
We must not rip text out of their context and make them mean anything we please.
We must understand the flow of thought and interpret them according to the flow of thought in the original passages.
Context is king in interpreting the Bible.
And that's why I say that though in the abstract,
when we come to those kind of perspectives,
we may draw very gloomy conclusions about the success and even the very possibility of the work of evangelism.
Given our own weakness as Christians, given the wickedness and moral inability of the lost world,
how can we entertain, we may well ask,
how can we entertain any hope that God might use us in the building of his kingdom across the world?
Pastor Roland, one of you might say,
we do not have any special revelation from God about his purpose for us here at Warner's Bay.
We do not know that he will use us in the work of evangelism.
We don't have any revelation of God's secret purpose about us here in Warner's Bay.
Well, that's true. You don't.
But you do know now a perspective which must govern the way you think on this issue.
You know now that the patience of the Lord means salvation.
You also know that God commands that this great truth regulate your thinking.
You, not just Christians in general, someplace else,
but every Christian sitting here tonight,
every Christian to whom the Holy Spirit sends the word of God is commanded to think this way.
You must regard the patience of the Lord to be salvation.
You are required to think that way.
It's not an option. It's not a privilege. It is a duty.
This is an imperative verb.
You are commanded to regard the patience of the Lord to be salvation.
As long, my Christian brothers and sisters, as God gives you the biblical gospel to preach
and the opportunity and freedom to preach it here in Warner's Bay and Newcastle,
you are commanded to think this way about its prospects.
You are to regard the patience of the Lord to be salvation.
Now, that's not the way we normally think, is it?
The patience of the Lord is, well, what is it so often for us?
The patience of the Lord is despair.
The patience of the Lord is glum, hopeless discouragement.
You know what the patience of the Lord is for some people?
They think that the patience of the Lord is an opportunity to test our commitment
by an absolute lack of success.
Well, you know what I'm going to say.
Is that what God says his patience is?
Is that what God says about how we should think?
No.
The patience of the Lord is not glum, hopeless despair.
That is not the way we are to think.
That is the way we do think, I acknowledge.
It's the way I think sometimes about these matters.
But that is not the way we ought to think.
You see, our text teaches that it is not merely our privilege,
but it is our solemn duty to regard, regard, think this way,
regard the patience of the Lord to be salvation.
You must not think, you see, that we're here, God's going to test us,
nothing will happen.
That's not the way you are to think.
You are to think this way.
You are to regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation.
What a wonderful duty.
Duty.
Let us pray.