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Colin Smith: Before God, human history is like this. Abraham was born on Wednesday. King David was born on Thursday. The Lord Jesus Christ was born on Friday. The Middle Ages slipped away yesterday, and our generation will have passed before this service is done this morning.

And if God should let the world continue till tomorrow morning, another 30 generations will have come and have gone. With the Lord, a thousand years is like a day.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. And Colin, I think sometimes we get so bogged down with the trials of life and the difficulties that we're going through and we wonder, is it ever going to end? But as we take a look at life in the scope of eternity, I think that can allow us to persevere and to live with patience.

Colin Smith: Yeah, I think that's absolutely right. And of course the news keeps coming: bad news. There's a war, there's conflict, there's difficulty in a family, there's sickness, there's illness. And we want God to have dealt with all sources of evil and trouble by next week or next month or next year.

And so when Peter says, now a thousand years is as a day and a day is as a thousand years with the Lord, he's speaking to us about the importance of patience as a component of genuine faith in a God who is faithful, but he works on his own timescale. And he's not going to eradicate evil from the world by next week or by next year, but by the coming of Jesus Christ, which is the day that we look for and anticipate by faith.

Steve Hiller: And for some, that can be a source of comfort because it means that God is patient with us and he's patient with maybe our unsaved friends and family members because he does desire all to be saved.

Colin Smith: Yeah, that's exactly right. And where would we have been if God had given us the latitude of a week or a month or a year before we responded to him? God has been very patient with us. And that's one of the reasons why patience may grow within a Christian believer and why we need to be patient with others as we look for the day that is surely to come.

Steve Hiller: Well, today we're going to be camping out in the book of 2nd Peter in chapter 3, so I hope you'll open your Bible and join us there as we begin this message, "Everything You Need for Patience." Here's Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: I want to remind you again that this letter is all about the sufficiency of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We've been learning its great theme, and I think it's now clear within our minds that the Lord Jesus Christ brings to us in himself, in knowing him, we have everything that we need for every circumstance we could ever face in our life in this world. It is a marvelous theme, and we've been following the sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ for life and for growth and for faith and for deliverance.

Now we take it up this morning then at 2nd Peter and chapter 3, where Peter is describing the environment in which we live our Christian lives in this world. And he says in verse 3, first of all you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come scoffing and following their own evil desires. Now the last days, when the New Testament refers to the last days, it's more than simply the generation immediately before the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In the New Testament, the last days refers to all the days between the first coming and the second coming of the Lord Jesus. And if you want to check that out, you can do so in Acts and chapter 2 and verse 17, where Peter quotes the prophet Joel, who says that in the last days God will pour out his spirit upon all people. And Peter says now that's exactly what is happening on the day of Pentecost. So last days in the New Testament begin from the day of Pentecost. It's really all the days between the first and the second coming of the Lord Jesus.

Now says Peter, you must understand this. It's very important to get this. That throughout this entire period, this is going to be the experience of the church. There will be folks who scoff at Christian faith and will follow verse 3, their own evil desires. So he's describing in this verse then the normal experience of the Christian church until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is what the first Christians faced in the time that Peter was writing. This is what we face today. This is what the church will always face, and we should never, never, never be surprised by it. Don't be surprised by the antagonism of the world towards the gospel. The world never changes in any continent or in any century. The human heart is always the same. By nature we do not seek God, by nature we do not love God, and by nature we cannot please God. So in the last days, Peter says, understand this, scoffers will come scoffing and following their own evil desires.

By the way, notice how two things always go together: rejecting God's word and following our own evil desires. These two are always joined together. Because of course, if you want to follow your own desires, you have to reject God. If you want to live life your own way, you have to put yourself, your own vision, your own aspirations on the throne of your life.

And the easiest way to do that is to reject God, probably by saying that you do not believe him or do not find him relevant. In other words, Peter is reminding us that unbelief has its own reasons. The sinner would prefer a world without God because he wants to be his own God. That is why Paul says in Romans chapter 1 and verse 20 that men suppress the truth by their own wickedness. There's a rationale behind unbelief and a motivation that has its own internal logic.

So he's telling us then that unbelief and rebellion against God are really the default position of the human heart. Romans chapter 8 and verse 7, the sinful mind, that is the nature we are all born with, is hostile towards God. Romans 8:7, the sinful mind is hostile towards God. So the idea that by nature we somehow seek God and somehow in a hidden way love him and are really trying to find him if only we really could is completely false according to the scriptures.

So following Christ for us who have been redeemed by his incredible grace, following Christ in a Christ-rejecting world isn't going to be easy. We are going to find ourselves in the same sort of position as Lot was in. We saw this last time in chapter 2 and in verse 7 where Peter tells us that Lot was distressed by the way of the world around him.

It really distressed him as a righteous man who loved the Lord. And he was tormented in so many ways day after day. It wasn't easy for him to live as a godly man in a Christ-rejecting world. And Peter says now the church must understand that we are going to experience the same.

Now let's now put that then in the frame of this whole letter. We're being told by Peter that in Christ we have everything that we need for life. Everything that we need for living a godly way in this world. And if that's the case, we need to find in Christ the strength, the patience, the wisdom, and the grace to live in a world that does not see his glory, does not believe in his word, and does not follow his way.

Now it's that tension that is the subject of 2nd Peter and chapter 3. I think we all experience this. I mean, think about the world we have lived in for the last hundred years. We've gone through evolutionism that says there's no creator. Then we've come through a wave of postmodernism that says there is no truth.

And now we're seeing all across the bookshops the rise of a new atheism that says that there is no God. This is the world in which we live. I went into a bookstore the other day and saw a table piled with a book with this title, you've probably seen it, "God Is Not Great." Piled high. "God Is Not Great." I have to tell you, I came out of that bookshop distressed in my own soul.

And yet what I was experiencing is exactly what Peter is talking about here. This is the world that you live in, and don't ever be surprised by it, Peter is saying. Some of you live with this every day. You work beside people who are cynical about your faith, whose choice of values and of behavior just distresses your own soul. And how are you going to handle that?

Now I'll tell you honestly, I find that I can quickly and easily become frustrated and even angry when people are cynical and skeptical towards God. And I need to deal with that, and that's what Peter is talking about here because becoming angry, an angry Christianity never advances the purpose of God. So how can I live in a way that is authentically Christian in a world that so often despises my faith? How can you do that?

Well, we need some help here and that is what 2nd Peter chapter 3 is all about. But before we get into what Peter says, I just want us to be tuned in to its relevance in this other way. See, the pressure for many of us is not simply living in a secularized world. The pressure of unbelief for many of us comes much closer to home than that. It's more personal.

What do you do when you have a son or a daughter who turns away from following Christ? They don't believe, and you see a hardness coming over their soul. They show no interest in spiritual things. Eyes roll when you talk to them about going to church. That's tough.

And what starts going on inside you is very predictable. You begin to feel frustrated. You say, what can I do? What can the church do? You feel helpless. You feel powerless. And so easily, even within our homes and within our families, as frustration develops, anger grows. And of course getting angry doesn't do anything to bring him or her nearer to Christ. Isn't it one of the hardest things in all of the world to see someone you love wasting their life?

Now that's exactly what Peter's talking about here. Following their own desires. And it should not surprise us that we struggle then with feeling at times defeated, perplexed, frustrated, embattled, helpless, angry, tense, afraid, and even ashamed. I hope I've said enough now to frame why 2nd Peter chapter 3 is well worth our attention this morning, because probably in every family circle there is someone over whom you are distressed because their whole disposition towards God is a thousand miles from where you would wish it to be.

Now how can we develop patience with unbelieving kids, hard-bitten colleagues, and recalcitrant relatives, so that what comes out of us in this unbelieving environment is the spirit of Jesus and not the hard-bitten spirit of the Pharisees? That's the challenge. And I want you to notice how Peter approaches it. You won't be surprised that he offers no quick fix, but he does draw us to a new attitude.

In verse 1 he says, dear friends, this is now my second letter to you and I've written for this reason. I've written them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. He's going where Paul goes in Romans chapter 12 and verse 1: we are to be transformed and changed by the renewing of our minds.

And he says there's truth here that is going to help us in the practical difficulties that we face in an unbelieving world. Fill your mind with who God is, and you will have everything that you need for patience. Now I want us to see three great truths about God right here in these first 10 verses of 2nd Peter chapter 3.

That God is eternal, that God is patient, and that God is merciful. And wholesome thinking about these glorious truths of God will lift us and help us and give to us everything we need through Jesus Christ for patience, mercy, and grace in this unbelieving and sometimes very hostile world. That's where we're going.

Steve Hiller: Well that is where we're going, but we're going to have to wait just a moment to get there. You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith, and we're going to get back to this message in just a moment. If you ever miss a broadcast, you can listen online at openthebible.org.

Many of us will feel like we need to grow in love, especially when it comes to loving those with whom we deeply disagree. But you might wonder, is it possible? Pastor Colin has written a book about this, about how love can be learned. It is possible to grow in love, and God's Holy Spirit is given to us for this purpose. And we'd love to send you a copy of Colin's brand-new book entitled "Grow in Love" as our way of saying thank you for your financial support this month. You can give online at openthebible.org or when you call 1-877-OPEN-365. Back to the message. Again, here's Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Okay. God is eternal. Let's focus in on verse 8. Marvelous verse that many know well. For all the times I've heard or read this verse, I'm not sure I've really reflected on it as I've tried to do this week. It's been a blessing to me. Do not forget this, verse 8, dear friends. With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.

God is eternal. That means that God is outside of time, though he acts in time. He is not limited by time. And that means that what is happening in your life and what is happening in the world looks very different to God from the way that it looks to us.

Now of course, eternity is so vast that there is no way in the world that our human minds can begin to comprehend it. So God accommodates himself to us here by giving us a kind of an analogy, by giving us an extended scale of time so that at least our mind can be pointed in the right direction to begin to think about eternity. And there are two statements here, each one of which helps us, I think, in a very practical and distinct way.

Let's take the second first. With the Lord, a thousand years is as a day. Now what that means, if with the Lord a thousand years is as a day, that means that life on earth is very, very short. Think of it on this time scale that Peter is opening up to us, and he's quoting from Psalm number 90. Abraham lived 4,000 years ago.

What that means is that before God human history is like this. Abraham was born on Wednesday. King David was born on Thursday. The Lord Jesus Christ was born on Friday. The Middle Ages slipped away yesterday, and our generation will have passed before this service is done this morning. And if God should let the world continue till tomorrow morning, another 30 generations will have come and have gone. With the Lord, a thousand years is like a day.

Now on that scale, and you can get the calculator out and check me later, I had a couple of folks just check it because I wanted to get this one right, on that scale, if your life should be 70 years, then to God that is like 100 minutes. Just over an hour and a half. It's worth thinking about that.

So here's the person who does not believe in God and does not obey God and is growing up and wants to take his own stand to live his own life in his own way and make his own mark on the world, and he thinks his own life that he is going to live is so important. And God looks down from heaven: an hour and a half and he'll be gone. An hour and a half.

See, that truth is so important because it cuts through our self-importance. Helps us. Look at all the attention that is being paid to just deciding who will run for the next president of the United States of America. And whoever wins will get about four years with a possible extension to eight.

So do the calculation. With the Lord, a thousand years is like a day, so as far as God is concerned, the next president of the United States of America will be in office for five minutes. With a possible ten if it runs to two terms for him or for her. That is a blip on God's eternal screen.

See, you begin to think about this, the eternity of God, and it shifts your mind from where power is and what's really important in this world and where the action really is. See, that's why the scriptures speak again and again about the brevity of our life.

Two pictures the Bible uses. First from 1st Peter and chapter 1 and verse 24, your life, human life, all human life, it's like grass. Just the grass that's mowed up in the summer and it's here today and it's gone tomorrow. An hour and a half in the eyes of heaven. And in James and chapter 4 and verse 14, your life is like a mist or like a vapor. The picture there is like if you breathe on a mirror and it steams up and then it's gone. An hour and a half on heaven's timescale.

Now take this in and you will see that in this world that scoffs at God, this world that pursues its own desires, God is not worried about his enemies. And when we get all worked up about the state of the world and how things are going wrong, let's remember that to the Almighty the whole of human history is very short.

Which is why Psalm 2 says that when the kings of the earth take their stand against the Lord and against his anointed, you know what God does? God laughs. God laughs. He is not worried about his enemies, and when you see his eternity you will not be worried about them either.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. And while we're taking a look at how God is outside of time, unfortunately the clock says that our time is just about up. So we do need to pause the message right there, but we're going to continue "Everything You Need for Patience" next time here on Open the Bible.

If you can't listen to every broadcast on the radio, you don't have to miss Pastor Colin's teaching. You can always come and listen online. Our website is openthebible.org and you can stream the program or download an MP3 for free. You can also listen if you have the Open the Bible app, which you'll find at your app store.

Well Open the Bible is a listener-supported ministry. That's just what it sounds like. It's your generosity that allows us to continue bringing you Pastor Colin's teaching. And as you give a gift of any amount, we'd love to send you a copy of Pastor Colin's brand-new 30-day devotional book called "Grow in Love." And Colin, what's one thing that you'd like people to take away from this book?

Colin Smith: Well, I think that most of us feel that we need to grow in love, especially when it comes to loving those with whom we deeply disagree. But here's the question: do you think it's possible for you to become a more loving person than you are right now?

See, the thing is, if it simply depended on what you can generate from within yourself, the answer would have to be no. Our love would depend on our experience, and if we hadn't been well-loved by others, well, we wouldn't be able to give love to others.

But the good news is that love really can be learned. It's possible to grow in love, and God's Holy Spirit is given to every Christian believer for this purpose. So the thing I'd want people to take away from this is the wonderful hope that as you experience the love of God poured into your own heart by the power of the Holy Spirit, so you will be better able to love others really well.

Steve Hiller: Well, we want to send you as our way of saying thank you for your financial support a copy of Pastor Colin's new book, "Grow in Love." You can find out more online at openthebible.org or you can give your gift over the phone by calling 1-877-OPEN-365. Again, that's openthebible.org or 1-877-673-6365. For Pastor Colin Smith, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening and I hope you'll join us next time.

This program is a listener-supported production of Open the Bible. Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." God's word is the food that will nourish your soul. You need it every day. And Open the Bible Daily is a daily devotional that will open the word of God and lead you to Jesus. It's available for free on our website, openthebible.org. For more information, visit openthebible.org/daily. That's openthebible.org/daily.