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The Book of
2 Peter: Message Thirty
By Dr. Michael Guido, D.D.
A girl was reading
her Bible, and she was enjoying it. But she was rudely interrupted
by a skeptic who declared, "Child, you can't understand that
book! It's not true!" Looking up at him she answered,
"There's one thing in the Bible that's true." "What's
that?" he demanded. "The Bible says," she replied,
"'In the last days scoffers will come,' and you're one of
them." He was, for Peter brings this out in his book.
Hear their insinuation.
"Where is the promise of His coming?" they ask. And they
continue, in 2nd Peter 3:4, "for since the fathers
fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of
creation." James said, "The coming of the Lord draweth
nigh." Paul said, "The Lord is at hand." Our Lord
said, "Behold, I come quickly." But He hasn't come. So the
scoffers said, "Since He hasn't come, He's not coming."
That's silly, but the sweet thing is that the Lord bears it all and
that He still waits to save them. That reminds me of the time that
Ingersoll, after spewing out his skepticism, pulled out his watch
and said, "According to the Bible, God has struck men to death
for blasphemy. I will blaspheme Him and give Him five minutes to
strike me dead and damn my soul." There was a period of
absolute and appalling silence while the minutes went by. After five
minutes Ingersoll curled his lips, snapped his watch shut, and said,
"You see, there's no God, or He would have taken me at my
word." On hearing this, Joseph Parker, an English minister
said, "And did that American gentleman think he could exhaust
the patience of God in five minutes?"
Heed their ignorance. It's written
in 2nd Peter 3:5, "For this they willingly are
ignorant of." D.L. Moody told of a steamboat that got stranded
on a snag bar, and the captain couldn't get her off. A tough looking
fellow stepped on board and said, "I'm told you're in need of a
pilot to help you out of this difficulty." "Yes, we
are," said the Captain. "Are you a pilot?"
"Well," he answered, "that's what they call me."
"Do you know where the snags and sandbars are?" "No,
sir." "Then how do you expect to run this steamboat if you
don't know where they are?" "That's easy. I know where
they aren't." That was good ignorance. But here's bad
ignorance. These scoffers of whom Peter was writing were stubbornly
ignorant of the Savior, and willfully ignorant of the word of God.
Better be unborn than to be untaught in the Scriptures. Better be
unborn than to be an unbeliever.
Harken to the information.
"By the word of God," says the Bible, "the heavens
were of old." The other day some men came to do some work in
our studio. Before they built the cabinets they had to have the
material and their tools. But when God created the heavens and the
earth He began with nothing. By His word alone, and out of nothing,
He made everything. The Bible says, "God spake and it was done,
He commanded and it stood fast." "Who," asked James
Hervey, "that looks upward to the midnight sky; and with an eye
of reason, beholds its rolling wonders; who can forbear enquiring,
'Of what were their mighty orbs formed?' Amazing to relate, they
were produced without materials. They sprung from emptiness itself.
The stately fabric of universal nature emerged out of nothing. What
instruments were used by the Supreme Architect to fashion the parts
with such exquisite niceness, and give so beautiful a polish to the
whole? How was it all connected into one finely proportioned and
nobly finished structure? 'Let them be,' said God. He added no more;
and at once the marvelous edifice arose, adorned with every beauty,
displaying innumerable perfections, and declaring the great
Creator's praise. 'By the word of the Lord were the heavens made;
and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.'"
Heed the inundation. It's written
in 2nd Peter 3:6, "Whereby the world that then was,
being overflowed with the water, perished." Why was it
overflowed with water? Because it was overflowing with wickedness.
When I consider how the goodness of God is abused by the wickedness
of the world, I can't help but believe that the greatest miracle in
the world is God's patience to an ungrateful and ungodly world. But
don't think that because He's a God of love that you'll escape
punishment for your sins. God's mill goes slow, but it grinds small.
The more admirable His patience, the more awful His punishment.
There's nothing smoother than the sea, yet when stirred into a
tempest, nothing rages more. Then, my unsaved friend, let me urge
you to "flee from the wrath to come;" flee to the Lord
before it's too late. To delay is to invite defeat, destruction and
death.
copyright 2000 Guido
Evangelistic Association
All Scripture
verses are quoted from the New King James Version..
Click here to go to the next Scripture Study on the book of Second
Peter from the Sower.
This series of
messages on the Books of the Bible were originally
written for broadcast on Dr. Guido's radio program,
"The Sower." They are collected and
reprinted here for your enjoyment and spiritual
edification.
