Well let's commence our afternoon
worship. Let's have a word of prayer. Let's commence with prayer. O
Lord God of heaven and of earth, we come before Thee through our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and come unto Thee our loving
and heavenly Father. Lord, as Thou hast said unto
us that we know how to give good gifts unto our children, How
much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to
them that ask Him? And Lord, we do ask for Thy Spirit's
presence to be known and felt here this afternoon. Make Thy
word not to be in word only, but in demonstration of the Spirit
and of power, that Thou has blessed the friends with food for their
souls, that we might worship thee in spirit and in truth,
and that thou shalt help us to sing thy worthy praise with our
hearts and understanding also. We seek thy blessing upon this
home, each of the residents, thou knowest those that have
pains, afflictions and infirmities, those that are tried and tempted
in their minds, and Lord, each one that needs thy word. that
needs food, that needs to be encouraged and strengthened in
the way. Do bless the staff also, those
with us, those not. Let those be with them and bless
them in their souls. And Lord, we thank them for coming
in to the home on thy day to serve and to help the residents
here. And do bless them and their own
families as well. We do seek thy blessing upon
the churches that are represented here. It may be the friends here
have not seen their fellowship for some time, but do remember
each gathering of thy people today. We thank thee for thy
day, a reminder that the first day of the week thou didst rise
from the dead and appear unto thy disciples. Do appear for
us and do bless us, and bring to remembrance of each of the
friends here, thy work on Calvary's tree, thy work in their own souls,
and that there might be that encouragement in the Lord our
God. So Lord, we ask thee the forgiveness
and pardon of our every sin, and give thee thanks for our
Lord Jesus Christ, for the precious blood shed on Calvary's tree. We thank thee for his intercession
in heaven, and for that hope of being with Thee, when time
shall be no more for us. So Lord, grant Thy blessing now
and help us in our worship. We ask through our Lord Jesus
Christ. Amen. Well let us sing our first hymn
on the hymn sheet, which is, I Worship the King. And the tune
is Hanover 808 in the the Christian worship turnbook. The reading is on the second
page of the hymn sheet and it is from 2 Peter chapter 3 and
we're reading the first 13 verses. This second epistle, beloved,
I now write unto you in both which I stir up your pure minds
by way of remembrance. that ye may be mindful of the
words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of
the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour. Knowing
this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers
walking after their own lusts, and 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. 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, whereby the
world that then was being overflowed with water perished. But 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. 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. 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. 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, seeing then that all these
things shall be dissolved. What manner of persons ought
ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking 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. Nevertheless we, according to
his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth
righteousness. Thus far the reading of God's
holy word. Now I want to speak to you, the
Lord's help, on the latter part of the first verse, where we
read, I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. Now it is in our minds we have
lots of thoughts, different thoughts, and being fallen we can very
easily have impure thoughts, and it doesn't take much to stir
them up. Things that we see things that
we hear, things that people say to us, will bring much impure,
sinful thoughts to our minds. But the Apostle here is speaking
to those, writing to those that have a new nature, that are born
again. And there's much in the Word
of God, Paul speaks to it in the Philippians, about our thoughts,
how we should guard our thought life, what we should think, and
that where that is so, the peace of God will rule in our hearts. The psalmist, he says, I hate
vain thoughts, but thy law do I love. Well, Peter, he writes
then to stir up not their impure minds, but their pure minds,
to stir up good and right and gracious thoughts. So on to think
this afternoon firstly about the method that he uses to do
this and then that it is by way of remembrance and what things
and thinking of the things that he's mentioned here in this portion
that we read together and then lastly where the Holy Spirit
is our remembrancer For us here, for you each to think and remember
back, and I know many of you would perhaps find it hard to
remember something that happened yesterday, but I think in God's
providence, you can remember things back that happened years
ago, and they are also a means of stirring up right thoughts
in our remembrance. Firstly, the method that he uses,
He says in the first verse here, this second epistle, Beloved,
I now write unto you, in both which, so he is writing, he is
communicating to them and writing letters. I wonder how many of
us think this, when we write a letter or communicate to someone
else, of what power that letter has, or what we are saying can
have an effect upon that person. We think of the words in Proverbs,
a grievous word, stir up wrath. And if we have right words, and
this is what Peter's bringing, is to stir up to remembrance. So the power of the word, and
it's good for us to remember this, the whole word of God. And Peter speaks of this better
than on the Mount of Transfiguration, we have a more sure word of prophecy
where unto you do well to take heed. So as a reminder, if we
have right thoughts, think of these letters. They're not what
Peter just wrote to those people who received that letter. They're
written to us. This is the inspired word of
God to us. Not just in these two letters
of Peter, but to all the people of God. Remember the commission
to Peter? Feed my sheep, feed my lambs. When they are converted, strengthen
my brethren. So this is these letters, these
words are to strengthen the brethren. May we take hold of that and
say, to strengthen me, to strengthen my faith and my soul. So that
is the method he uses to write. and the Lord has given us his
word. May we prize the word very highly
that it has that influence on us to affect us how we think. The second way is by way of remembrance. It is to cause us to remember
things. Now I want to think of what Peter
is bringing before us in this passage that we've read. In verse
2 he says that he be mindful of the words which were spoken
before by the Holy Prophets. I wonder how many of us think
of what is written in the Word by the Prophets, that which was
written a full time which was written for our learning. So
he brings that to their remembrance, remember what has been written
before. Then he brings to their remembrance
that there will be scoffers in the last days. And we see many
that will just ridicule the things of God. And this is Satan's idea,
why? And the world's idea, just to
ridicule those things that are precious to the people of God.
In his temple everyone doth speak of his glory. But we read in
the world they only consoled to cast him down from his excellency. And so we are forewarned about
this. We are not to expect because
our faith is real that all the world will agree with it and
all believe and all be happy. We are to remember that that
is not going to be the case. Then we have in verse 5 and 6
a reminder about the flood. Those scoffers had said, well,
nothing's changed from the beginning of the world. But Peter says,
but there has been a change. There's been a major event that
happened. There was the flood, and the
world was destroyed by the flood. We have to remember that. Here
is towards the end of the Bible, and he's taking us right back
to what many will say is just fables and didn't really happen.
and stating it as a true fact as what really happened. So this
is brought back to our remembrance as well and we think of how wonderfully
the Lord preserved Noah and all that was with him in the ark. The ark, a beautiful type of
the Lord Jesus. So then there's the flood and
then there's the reminder in verse 7 that the world shall
be destroyed again, and this time by fire. And this again
is a remembrance to us to make sure that we truly are believers
and truly have a hiding place in Christ. Then we have in verse
8, one thing that we are to not be ignorant of, one day is with
the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. With us, well, we measure everything
by time, but the Lord can fit a lot in one day, and really
with our lives as well, it's just like a day, it's fast gone. But with the Lord, it's very,
very different. And we have to remember that.
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise. You think of from
the first promise of the Messiah in the Garden of Eden, 4,000
years before he came, in the Lord's sight, really four days. You know, we think it's a long
time, and you might think things are happening and taking a long
time to take place, but with the Lord it's not. Then we have
the long-suffering of the Lord, in verse 9. The Lord is not slack
concerning His promise, long-suffering, not willing that any should perish.
It's good for us to remember that, as the people of the Lord,
that He is a long-suffering, forbearing God. This is our God. May we remember Him in that way. Then we are to remember in verse
10 that the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. Now, For some of you, you'll
be in bereavement here. One of your members has been
taken, I think, in the last week. And how quickly, that was not
expected. And so it is a reminder how quickly
the Lord could come. And may we be ready, and the
Apostle Paul said, absent from the body, present with the Lord. And that desire to be with Christ,
that is far better. One of the marks of the New Testament
Church, like the Thessalonians, is to wait for His Son from Heaven. And may we be reminded, that
should be the state of our minds. Our minds stirred up in an attitude
of waiting. Now if you're going to have a
visitor, and you knew you were, and you loved that person, you
liked them, You'd be, in your mind, you'd be thinking of them
coming. When are they coming? When are
they going to knock on the door? When are they going to come in?
And those thoughts would be in your mind. Well, may that be
like that with the Lord. When will the Lord come? When
shall I see Him? And to be looking like those
five, well, really, they were all asleep, weren't they, the
five wise and five foolish? That is good. that they that
wait for him shall he appear, or they that look for him shall
he appear the second time. So then the portion that we've
read, it finishes with looking for that new heavens and a new
earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. It's good for that, it's good
to look for that. I always remember, and I've mentioned
it before here, the time I came to take a service here, and there's
a gentleman in the chair just here and it was Ron Bishop and
I didn't know him but he listened attentively to the message and
afterwards I asked him who he was and whether he was just in
for convalescent or to stay permanently he said no permanently and then
his face just changed and he just smiled and he said but this
is not my home my home is above that's where I'm going And I
always think of that change, that sudden realisation with
him. This wasn't to be his everlasting
home. He had an eternal home, and it
shined in his face. Well, the Lord only kept him
here for a few months, and then the Lord took him home. But may
we be like that. Always have in mind, we are pilgrims,
we're heading to a heavenly home, and that govern our thoughts
in all that we say and all that we do. Well, I'll leave the thoughts
there, and let us sing our last hymn. The hymn on the sheet here,
which is, Hark, my soul, it is the Lord, it is thy Saviour,
hear his word, Jesus speaks and speaks to thee, say, poor sinner,
lovest thou me? And the tune is St.Bees Before we close in prayer, there
is one point I left out which I'll just bring before you to
think of as we go, and that is your own remembrance. Think of where the Lord began
with you. Think where you were called by
grace. Where were you baptized? What
were the circumstances? What church was that? What of
the Lord's people did you walk with then? And how were you blessed? Sometimes our minds go real blank. We cannot remember words that
the Lord's given us, or sermons, or words that have been blessed.
But when the Spirit helps us, then when we can remember, that
is a lovely thing, to remember something of what the Lord's
done for us, how he's perhaps moved us into this home, how
he's moved you here, how he's moved you from one home to another
home. When you were married, how did
he give you, if you were married, how did he give you a husband
or a wife? Those sort of things. where the
Lord has done for you and helped you and may this gathering this
afternoon stir up some pure thoughts, some thoughts of the Lord's goodness
and mercy and kindness to you over the years and it be a means
of doing this by remembrance to give you those thoughts that
are glorifying to the Lord and strengthening your own soul. Let us close in prayer. O Lord
our God, we do thank Thee for Thy Word. We pray that there
might be that effect here amongst the pilgrims this afternoon,
to grant them Thy Holy Spirit. May Thou through Thy Word bring
to their remembrance Thy work, Thy sufferings, Thy death at
Calvary, but bring to their remembrance also by working, calling them,
quickening them, showing them their need of the Saviour, and
revealing myself to them, bring them into Gospel liberty, helping
through the way. O Lord, do grant that as we part
this afternoon, there might be a sweet savour of Christ to remain,
and many thoughts upon Thee and upon Thy work to carry on. in each one here, to forgive
our sins what we ask immense, to grant these things through
our Lord Jesus Christ. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God the Father, and the communion and fellowship
of the Holy Spirit be with you all now and evermore. Amen.