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Colin Smith: Think about the patience of God in your life.

Colin Smith: If one day with the Lord is like a thousand years, my lifetime, if it runs to 70 years or whatever, would be about 25 million years. That is an awfully long time for God to be patient with me.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. And Colin, 25 million years, that's a long time, but we can be so grateful for God's patience.

Colin Smith: That's a lot of patience. The statement in Second Peter we're looking at today, He is patient with you.

Colin Smith: I think of God's patience before we ever came to Christ. And then you think about God's patience with us since we came to Christ. And how patiently he shows us ourselves, not showing us everything at once because we'd be so devastated if God was to show any of us all of our sins at one time. We'd be completely and utterly devastated, so he leads us with great, great patience.

Colin Smith: This is something to really rejoice in. But then the point Peter wants to make is God is so patient, but don't push that because the day of the Lord's coming as a thief in the night. So if you think that God's patience means you can just never change and never grow and never respond in faith and repentance, you've completely misunderstood it. He is very patient, but the time is coming and it's coming at a moment that we will not expect it.

Guest (Male): As Pastor Colin just said, we are in the book of Second Peter, we're in chapter three today. So I hope you'll open your Bibles and join us as we continue our message, Everything You Need for Patience. 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.

Colin Smith: 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.

Colin Smith: 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 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.

Colin Smith: And there are two statements here, each one of which helps us, I think, in a very practical and distinct way.

Colin Smith: Let's take the second first. With the Lord, a thousand years is as a day.

Colin Smith: 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.

Colin Smith: Think of it on this time scale that Peter is opening up to us, and he's quoting from Psalm number 90.

Colin Smith: Abraham lived 4,000 years ago.

Colin Smith: 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.

Colin Smith: And if God should let the world continue till tomorrow morning, another 30 generations will have come and have gone.

Colin Smith: With the Lord, a thousand years is like a day.

Colin Smith: 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.

Colin Smith: It's worth thinking about that.

Colin Smith: 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 will be gone.

Colin Smith: An hour and a half.

Colin Smith: That truth is so important because it cuts through our self-importance.

Colin Smith: 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.

Colin Smith: 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.

Colin Smith: Your life on Earth is very short. So what matters?

Colin Smith: We think, don't we, that what really matters is your education, your career, your opportunities, your investments, your health, your travel, your retirement, your quality of life. And as far as God is concerned, all of us will be in his presence within an hour and a half.

Colin Smith: Then you see, start getting into your mind that with the Lord, a thousand years is as a day, and you begin to get a different idea about what really matters in your life.

Colin Smith: Which is why Psalm 90, from where Peter takes this quote, says, "Teach us to number our days aright that we may gain a heart of wisdom."

Colin Smith: If you knew that you were in the presence of God in an hour and a half, you would be responding to him in an altogether different way right now. We all would.

Colin Smith: Life on Earth is very, very short.

Colin Smith: Then Peter says the other, he says, "A day is as a thousand years with the Lord." Now what that means, of course, is that life in heaven is very, very long.

Colin Smith: With the Lord, one day is like a thousand years. Which means that God has all the time in the world.

Colin Smith: Let's draw some practical help from this. Do you know that if one day is like a thousand years with the Lord, then if you were to live to the age of 70, you know how long your life would last on heaven's time scale that we calculated up? 25 million years. 25 million years, long time for God to put up with you, isn't it? 25 million years.

Colin Smith: I got a lot of stuff to do next week, and to be real honest, I'm feeling under a little bit of pressure. But if I could have one week of God's days, a thousand years for every day of next week, 7,000 years ahead in this coming week, I could get all of my work done and a lot more besides, easily. I could do that.

Colin Smith: Monday is usually my day off, so I've been meditating on this. What would I do? Well, I'd take the first thousand years off, knowing that there is easily enough time for me to accomplish everything that has been trusted to me in the coming week. Just think how relaxed you could be if one day, if you could just have one of God's days that is like a thousand years. Just think of how much at ease you would be. You say, "I have all the time in the world." That is how it is with God.

Colin Smith: That's why he's at perfect peace, you see.

Colin Smith: See, you think about your loved ones who do not believe. And you have been calling out to God, you have been crying to him, you have been praying to him, you have been saying, "How long, O Lord?" You have been feeling that you have been crying to him forever and waiting forever to see God move. Be encouraged.

Colin Smith: God can do more in the life of your dear rebel one in one moment than Satan can do in his or her life in 20 or 50 years. Isn't that true? Thank God for that.

Colin Smith: And he has all the time in the world. He is eternal. With God, one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. He is never rushed, he is never overwhelmed, he is never taken by surprise. And if we can take in this great truth, we will have less fear about the secular world and more peace as we trust him to work in the lives of those for whom we pray.

Colin Smith: God is eternal.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith in a message called Everything You Need for Patience. Now we have to pause here, but we'll get back to the message in just a moment.

Guest (Male): Open the Bible is a listener-supported ministry. We're able to do what we do and bring you Pastor Colin's teaching each day because of your generosity. And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we're going to send you a copy of Pastor Colin's brand new 30-day devotional book called Grow in Love. And Colin, who is this book for?

Colin Smith: Well, people have very different experiences of love. And perhaps you knew what it was to grow up with a godly mother, a godly father who loved you well and you've had all the benefits of that, but you still find, now you've come to adult life, that you want to know how to grow in love yourself. And if that's where you're at, this book is for you.

Colin Smith: But there are other folks who have not had the blessing of being loved well. And if that's been your experience, you may find that you struggle with some real questions. What does it mean to love another person? What does real love actually look like? Where are you going to find it? Well, you're not sure that you know.

Colin Smith: Well, this book is for you. It's going to show you how receiving love from God through Jesus Christ can put you in the position where you're able to give love and receive love from others well.

Guest (Male): Well, we'd love to send you a copy of Pastor Colin's new book. It's called Grow in Love, and it's our thank you for your financial support this month. You can find out more or give online at openthebible.org, or when you call 1-877-OPEN365. That's 1-877-673-6365, or openthebible.org. Let's get back to the message. Again, here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Then God is patient. Look at the beginning of verse 9, will you? The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise as some understand slowness. He is patient with you.

Colin Smith: Now, Peter moves almost imperceptibly from the eternity of God to the patience of God, and of course the connection is very obvious.

Colin Smith: Peter says, "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise." Now, what is the promise he's referring to? Well, the promise here clearly is the promise to judge the Earth with fire as he once judged the Earth in the flood with water. That's the context of this great statement.

Colin Smith: Now, when the verse is about judgment, the context is about judgment, and the promise that God has made of judgment that the unbeliever says, "Well, of course, that will never happen." You would expect the verse to say, "God is not slow in keeping his promise, but he is patient with the unbelieving world." You'd expect it to say that. At least I would.

Colin Smith: But I want you to notice that's not what it says. In talking about the judgment that will one day come upon the world, it says God is not slow in keeping his promise. He is patient with you.

Colin Smith: And he's writing to Christian believers.

Colin Smith: Now, think about what this is saying, then God is not slow in keeping his promise of judgment. He is patient with, with you. All those who today are in Jesus Christ.

Colin Smith: If we ask this question, why has the Lord Jesus Christ not yet come? And the answer, God has held back his judgment long enough to bring you into his kingdom. That's what Peter is saying. This is staggering.

Colin Smith: You held back the return of your son, dear Lord. You held back the pouring of judgment on the Earth long enough to bring me in.

Colin Smith: That is a measure of the love and the grace and the mercy and the particular grace of Jesus Christ towards you. And Peter includes every believer in this. God operates on the grand eternal scale, but he also operates on the most intimate level. And into this great plan for the whole history of the world is his grace to you.

Colin Smith: Think about the patience of God in your life.

Colin Smith: If one day with the Lord is like a thousand years, my lifetime, if it runs to 70 years or whatever, would be about 25 million years. That is an awfully long time for God to be patient with me.

Colin Smith: Our sins have gone on a long, long, long, long, long time on heaven's clock, haven't they? Week by week, we come back here casting ourselves on the mercy of God, eating bread and drinking the cup and saying that we still hang today on the cleansing blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we know that we always will. And doesn't it just amaze you that God has never at any time and never will at any time say, "I'm done with them."

Colin Smith: Now here's the application to the great theme of the chapter. Since God has shown that kind of patience to you on heaven's time scale, you can be patient in real time with that unbelieving loved one, or that hard-bitten cynic at work. God is patient, and he's been patient and is patient with you. That's what Peter says.

Colin Smith: Thank you, Lord, for your patience with me.

Colin Smith: He's eternal, he's patient, and here's the very last thing. God is merciful. He's merciful.

Colin Smith: The last part of chapter 9. Verse 9, I'm sorry. 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. What a marvelous, marvelous statement this is of the mercy of God. God does not want anyone to perish.

Colin Smith: What does it mean?

Colin Smith: Well, it can't mean that everyone will ultimately be saved. And the reason that it can't mean that everyone will ultimately be saved is, I mean, if you just look at verse 7, Peter has just said that the heavens and Earth are reserved for fire and that on that day there will be the destruction of ungodly men. And throughout the Bible, there are clear and repeated references to the judgment of God and not simply the judgment of God upon the Earth, but the judgment of God upon all sin and upon ungodliness, the destruction, verse 7, of ungodly men. We have to interpret the scripture in the light of scripture because God does not contradict himself.

Colin Smith: So when Peter says that God does not want anyone to perish, he is not saying everybody will be saved. What is he saying? I think he's saying this.

Colin Smith: In the Old Testament, there's a phrase that's repeated three or four times in the book of Ezekiel. God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. You find that in Ezekiel chapter 18, verse 23, 32, and chapter 33 in verse 11. God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

Colin Smith: The Bible makes it very clear that judgment is God's strange work. He is slow to anger and abounding in love. That's his patience. His anger, the Bible says, lasts for a moment, his love for a lifetime. The Bible says God is love. That's his nature. The Bible never says God is wrath. Wrath is his strange work. In other words, God's wrath is his holy, righteous response to sin and evil. God's love is not a response to anything. God's love is the bursting out of who he is.

Colin Smith: That's why the gospel tells us that God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world. You're not dealing here with an eternal God who's eager to condemn. Is not his desire. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Pleasure in heaven is over one sinner that comes to repentance. God's delight is in his saving work.

Colin Smith: If God takes no pleasure in judgment, we should take no pleasure in it either.

Colin Smith: There is a kind of Christianity that sounds as if it can't wait for the judgment of the ungodly. You'll get it, and that could not be further from the heart of God.

Colin Smith: God is merciful. He offers mercy to you today, that's his delight. However long you may have resisted him, however intensely you may have hated him, whatever you may have done against him, there is mercy for you from this eternal, patient, merciful God in Jesus Christ. And heaven delights as men and women come to receive and embrace this marvelous mercy for which Jesus Christ has died.

Colin Smith: Do you know some of you are struggling to come to Christ, and the root of it is that you in the past have experienced a brand of religion that is not patient, it is not kind, and it is not merciful. And that has shaped within your mind a perception of God as if he could not wait to do you in. And my prayer this morning, above everything else, is that you will be redeemed and released from that. That you will see, "That's not God."

Colin Smith: This is the eternal God. He's patient, he's merciful for this reason. He has sent his son into the world. For this reason, Christ has not yet come back. The judgment has not yet followed for this reason, I can come to him today.

Colin Smith: My friend, if you want to know what God is like, you look at the cross of Jesus Christ. You see the eternal God in time. You see his patience as they nail him to the cross. You hear his mercy as he says, "Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing." This is your God, and why would you go on fighting and resisting him?

Colin Smith: Now let the patience and the mercy and the love and the grace of this God in Jesus Christ draw you to him today. God is eternal, God is patient, God is merciful. And knowing him, you will find in Christ everything that you need for patience in this Christ-rejecting world.

Guest (Male): What a good reminder from Pastor Colin that God is patient, he is merciful, and his long patience is followed by decisive action. You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith in a message called Everything You Need for Patience, part of our series, Everything You Need for Life. If you ever miss a broadcast in the series, come and listen online at openthebible.org.

Guest (Male): Well, Colin, it's Friday, and the weekend's coming.

Colin Smith: And I want to encourage you to get to church on Sunday. If you live in the Chicago area and you don't have a church home, I'd love for you to join us at The Orchard. There are six locations in the Northwest suburbs. For more information, go to theorchard.church. That's theorchard.church.

Guest (Male): Well, thank you, Colin, and thanks for listening. I'm Steve Hiller, and I hope you'll join us next time.

Guest (Male): This program is a listener-supported production of Open the Bible.

Colin Smith: At Open the Bible, we're grateful for like-minded organizations committed to sharing the gospel around the world. And to that end, I'd like to commend the work of Global Fingerprints. You know, in the book of James, God calls us to help orphans in their distress. That's a clear command, but it's not always clear how we should obey it. And this is where Global Fingerprints comes in.

Colin Smith: Through Global Fingerprints, you can sponsor a vulnerable child to help meet their physical needs and ensure they hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. I want to commend Global Fingerprints to you. They're focused on equipping the local church to care for children, and where there is no church, they help to plant one. If you'd like to help a vulnerable child, you can find more information on Global Fingerprints at our website openthebible.org/gf. That's openthebible.org/gf.