April 26, 2023: 2 Peter 3:9 - God Wants All to Turn to Him
“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” - 2 Peter 3:9
Why has it taken so long for God to send Jesus to earth a second time and in righteousness, judge the ungodly? Because God wants all of us to realize our need for Jesus, the One He sent so that we could accept of the free gift that cleanses us of all our sins - Jesus’ precious blood He shed on the cross and His subsequent resurrection - for without partaking of His free gift, we receive our due reward for sin: to be separated from Jesus for eternity in a place called hell.
Why do many people think that God should not judge the wicked? Do we expect our society not to judge those who commit crimes, just to let them go so that they can keep on committing them, no matter the cost to the innocent? If sin was left unpunished, we would have a complete collapse of society. I believe we are definitely headed in that direction. In a world that is increasingly rejecting Jesus Christ and believing that there is no God, sin is not sin, and we won’t be punished for it in this life or the next, everything starts to crumble, and eventually, it will implode upon itself. When God’s standards are not upheld in society, we are left with movements such as “defund the police,” only certain lives matter, which does not include the precious life of an unborn baby in its mother’s womb, promoting assisted suicide and devaluing the lives of the sick and the elderly, pushing rampant sexual perversion, worshipping of the climate instead of God, thinking that we can be our own gods and attempting to create our own immortality, and it never stops; it grows more wicked by the day.
We are all wicked in our hearts, as the Bible tells us:
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)
The world tells us to follow our hearts, which is the complete opposite of what the Bible tells us, of what Jesus told His disciples:
“Follow Me.” (Jesus Christ; Matthew 4:19)
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” (Jesus Christ; John 10:27)
God will, at some point, determine that enough is enough, just as He did in the days of Noah and Lot. But this time, when He will send His Son Jesus Christ, it won’t be a rescue mission like it was the first that He came to earth; rather, it will be when the King of kings and Lord of lords comes to earth, clothed in a robe dipped in blood, with His armies in heaven with Him, all riding on white horses to “tread the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God” and will destroy with the sword of His mouth all who chose to remain in their wickedness, loving their sin and not turning to Jesus (Revelation 19:11-21). He paid the debt for all their sins and all they had to do was to accept that free gift, but they chose not to, for whatever reason. When the day comes when God has had enough and sends Jesus to destroy the wicked, those who rejected His free gift, they will forever regret the horrific decision they made. God gave them time, even delaying His judgment, but they said “No thank you” to God. Will you say “No thank you” to God, or will you turn to Jesus and be saved from all your sins before time is up? May the unsaved heed Jesus’ words today, while they still have breath in their lungs:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (Jesus Christ; John 3:16-19) ✝️