God is Longsuffering to Us-ward, Not Willing that Any should Perish – How can it be then that the Holy God who destroyed the world of Noah’s day has not destroyed us? How can it be that the God who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah has not yet destroyed us? Why does God wait? Why not destroy this sin cursed earth along with the whole band of rebellious sinners that take great pleasure in their evil deeds? 2 Pet 3:9 gives the answer, God is “longsuffering to usward” because He is waiting for the last of His elect to become saved. He is not willing that “any” of His chosen people should perish. But He will put up with man and his scoffing and his sins until He draws that last sinner to Himself. God gives us the flood as the example of His longsuffering patience near the end of the world in 1 Pet 3:20. What was God waiting for in the days of Noah? He was waiting for the ark to be prepared, yes. But also as the ark was preparing this resulted in the salvation of Noah’s house hold. What is God waiting for today? He is waiting for the house of God to be completed. He is waiting for the last living stone to be inserted into the New Jerusalem. Turn back to 2 Pet 3:15; and we will see without question that the sun has risen today ONLY BECAUSE THE LAST OF GOD’S ELECT HAVE NOT BEEN SAVED “And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation;”

2 Pet 3:3-7 “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 4And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 5For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: 6Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 7But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”

2 Pet 3:8-9 “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

1 Pet 3:20 “Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.”

 2 Pet 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance”

2 Pet 3:15-16 “And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; 16As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.”

• The Heavens and the Earth are Reserved unto Fire against the Day of Judgment and Perdition of Ungodly Men – The Judgement of God against Sin is Second Death, Eternal Damnation in Hell. The “water” and “fire” pictures the judgment of God. In Romans 1 verse 32 God makes the point that man knows he deserves to be damned because he commits such sins; nonetheless, he not only persists in his sin, he also delights in the fact that others do as well. Now, what is this reference to 120 years? This is a reference to the time that Noah would have to construct the ark, to bring the animals into the ark, to do everything that God wanted done, as far as that ark was concerned. There was 120-year window before the flood came. The reference to 120 had to be to the flood because God did not set man’s age at 120. They were living to hundreds of years before the flood.  Even after the flood, many people passed a date of 120. For example, Jacob, the father of Israel, became the last person in the Bible to live beyond 120 years. We know the importance of blood (which represents life), and how blood is intimately associated with atonement of the soul, “for it is the blood that maketh an atonement (H3722 kaphar) for the soul (Lev 17:11)”. God commanded Noah to build an altar upon which he offered burnt offerings of clean animals, which typified the Lord Jesus as He endured the spiritual fire of God’s eternal wrath in Hell. The same Hebrew word for “atonement” (H3722 kaphar) found in Lev 17:11 appears in Gen 6:14, where it is translated as the verb “pitch”: “Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch (H3722 kaphar)  it within and without with pitch”. The ark that was completely covered with “pitch”, or “atonement”, was a beautiful picture of the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Only those eight people who were in the ark were saved from God’s judgment.

Rom 1:32  “Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”

Gen 6:3,7,13-14  “And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. 7And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. 13And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.” 

Gen 7:4,10 “4For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth. 10And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth” 

2 Pet 3:5-7  “For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: 6Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 7But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” 

2 Pet 3:10-12 “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. 11Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, 12Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?