to 2nd Peter chapter 3, 2nd Peter
chapter 3. The name of the message is stirred
up to remembrance, stirred up to remembrance, 2nd Peter chapter
3. We'll read the first seven verses
here before us, 2nd Peter chapter 3. This second epistle, beloved,
I now write unto you in both which I stir up your pure minds
by way of remembrance. that she be mindful of the words
which were spoken before by the holy prophets and the commandments
of us the apostles of the Lord and Savior knowing this first
that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after
their own loss and saying where is the promise of his coming
for since the father's 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 was then overflowed with water perished. But the
heavens and the earth, which are now by the same word are
kept in store, reserved under fire against the day of judgment
in perdition of ungodly men. Now the last three weeks we've
been in chapter two. where we saw Peter warning the
saints of God who he's been writing to about false preachers. And
he took a rather long portion of scripture to write that. When
you consider this is just a letter written to the saints of God,
he took a long portion to identify them and to warn them about false
teachers. And again, this is all inspired
by the Holy Spirit of God. He had Peter identify the false
preachers. Identify them by characteristics
of what they are. They have no care for the souls
of the men they preach to or the women they preach to. All
they care about is making money. Making money. The lust of the
flesh. And they're ungodly men. They speak evil of things they
don't understand. And they are Satan's messengers. They're not God's messengers.
They're Satan's messengers who beguile unstable souls. They
love the wages of unrighteousness. They speak great swelling words,
but as the scripture said, they're like wells without water. Now
a well without water is useless. If you and I were traveling in
the desert and we came upon a well and we were thirsty and we came
to a well with no water, it's no use to us, is it? It's no
use to us at all. So the false teachers are like
that. They're like wells without water. And clouds without rain,
Peter wrote. And their messages are nothing
but vain words that give no hope to the hearers. There's no hope
in their message. No hope at all. No hope to needy
sinners. And so Peter brings forth that
they shall utterly perish in their own corruption, along with
those who are deceived by them, or who follow them, and believe
the lies that they proclaim. And unless the Lord saves them,
they'll be left in that state. Unless the Lord saves them, they'll
be left in that state. And their followers will perish
too. Our Lord said this in Matthew chapter 15, verses 13 and 14. He said, every plant which my
heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. Let them
alone. They be blind leaders of the
blind. They're blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind
lead the blind, they both fall into a ditch. That's what our
Lord called them. And our Lord spoke these words
about the arrogantly proud self-righteous Pharisees who were offended by
the words of our Lord, weren't they? They were offended by the
words of our Lord. They were men who were spiritual
leaders of the people of Israel during our Lord's public ministry.
And these Pharisees were not God's preachers. They were not
God's preachers. They were worthless plants, not
planted by the Father. They were the blind leading the
blind, and they were headed for eternal destruction unless the
Lord intervenes. And so are all who follow them.
So think upon this sobering thought, that if our God did not have
mercy upon those Pharisees by opening their blind eyes to the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, then they fell headlong into
eternal torment, and they'd be in there for 2,000 years. That's
a sobering thought, isn't it? That's a sobering thought. Listen to what Psalm 1-3 proclaims.
It says about born-again, blood-washed children of God, they're trees
planted by the rivers of water. Trees planted by the rivers of
water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. It's a fruit
of the Spirit that we have. It's not our doing, it's the
Holy Spirit working in us. And it goes on to say, his leaf
also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. And we
know for the Lord what he did prosper, didn't he? He cried,
it is finished. He saved a multitude of people,
a number that no man can number. And praise be to God, the believer
says, and I'm one of them. Glory to his name. Lord Jesus
Christ is divine, and we're grafted into him all by his almighty
power. And our great sovereign God,
our Heavenly Father, has grafted us into that vine, and that's
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the head and we're the
body. Turn, if you would, to Isaiah 61.3. 61.3, look at this. So marvel
at these truths. We're born again by God the Holy
Spirit under the preaching of the gospel of God's free grace
in Christ. We're given spiritual eyes to
look to Christ. We're granted faith to believe
on Him. We profess that God raised up Jesus from the dead. And we
give Him all the glory, don't we? We give God all the glory.
We give Christ all the glory. He is the one object of our faith.
Look what it says here in Isaiah 61.3. To appoint unto them that
morn in Zion, that they give them beauty for ashes, the oil
of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness,
that they might be called, what? Trees of righteousness. We're
planted by the Lord. The planting of the Lord. Look
at that. It's His doing. It's God's doing. We're called
trees of righteousness and we're planted by the Lord, beloved.
Salvations of the Lord. It just reaffirms it even more.
The planting of the Lord. Why? That He might be glorified. You see, in religion the glory
goes to man. But in grace the glory goes to
God. He gets all the glory. He gets all the honor. He gets
all the praise. He's the one who planted us.
And we're called trees of righteousness. Look at that. Because we're clothed
in the perfect spotless righteousness of Christ. Oh, and so we give
Him all the glory. Now the false teacher will give
their followers confidence in the flesh, won't they? The false
teachers will give their followers confidence in the flesh. They
will tell them, they'll say, well, you need to do this, you
need to do that to be saved. And think of that, when a man
tells someone that, they're telling them to put confidence in their
own flesh, in their own self. That's what false teachers do.
And then they tell them what they have to supposedly do to
continue to be saved. Well, praise be to God, salvation
is of the Lord. Now, not one of God's preachers
Not one of God's sent preachers will ever give a child of God
reason to have confidence in the flesh. Never. Never. We say, as Paul does in
Philippians chapter 3, that we have no confidence in the flesh.
Paul says this in Philippians chapter 3, verse 3. He says,
For we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit, and
we know that speaking of the circumcision of the heart, being
born again by the Holy Spirit of God. For we are the circumcision
which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus,
and have no confidence in the flesh. None at all. None at all,
because we know what we are. We're but sinners. Saved by the
grace of God, and we have absolutely no confidence in the flesh, and
not one of God's sent preachers will ever tell anyone to have
confidence in the flesh, because all we are is sinners, in desperate
need of being saved. And Christ, Christ is our confidence,
isn't He? He's our hope. He's our joy. Only Him. Let's look at verse 1 here. It
says, This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you, in both
which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance." 2 Peter
3.1. This second epistle, beloved,
I now write unto you, in both which I stir up your pure minds
by way of remembrance. Now this is Peter's second letter,
second epistle, and this letter is addressed to the same saints
as he sent 1 Peter to. The same saints, the elect of
God. the elect of God. Turn, if you
would, over to 1 Peter. How do we know that? Look at
this in 1 Peter. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
look at verse 1 and 2, to the strangers scattered about throughout
Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. What, look
at this. Elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace be unto you
and peace be multiplied. So this letter is written to
the same people. The elect of God. The elect of God. Let's go back to 2 Peter 3, chapter
3. And the reason I bring this out
that it's written to those who are the elect of God, those who
are born again to the Holy Spirit of God, those who have a living
hope in Christ Jesus our Lord. The reason I bring this out is
look at verse 9. Now this verse here is probably one of the most
torn out of context verses that I've ever heard people use when
they rip verses out of context. This one verse right here. It
is constantly being ripped out of context, and people use it
to say, see, Christ doesn't want anyone to perish. That's what they do. I cannot
tell you how many times I've heard people bring this verse
up. Look at this. The Lord's not
slack concerning His promises. Some men count slackness. but
is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish,
but that all shall come to repentance. Now the usward there, beloved,
is the people who he's writing the epistle to. That's the elect
of God. That's who the usward is. And
we'll see that, we'll look at that verse next week a little
bit more in depth. But he's addressing the people
he's writing to. And he's saying, the Lord is
not slack concerning His promises, and some mountain count slackness,
but is longsuffering to us for it, not willing that any should
perish, but that all shall come to repentance. Now, will all
of God's sheep come to repentance? Absolutely. Every single sheep
for whom Christ died for will be born again and will be saved
because Christ purchased them on the cross with His own precious
blood. Now what hope this gives we who
are believers, right? We don't know who the elect are,
do we? We have no clue. We didn't even know we were the
elect before the Lord saved us. So there goes the gospel going
forth. We pray for our family members. We pray for our friends.
We have hope until they breathe their last breath, don't we?
We just keep lifting them up. We have no idea who the us word
are, but God knows every single one of them. Every single one
of them. And I like what John Newton said.
He said, if God saved me, he can save anyone. And he does. He saved his people from their
sins. Sinners. People who are sinners. People
who are sinners. Now look at this verse here.
This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you, in both
which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. So we
see here that Peter addresses these saints under the name Beloved.
Because they were beloved of God. and they are beloved of
God. They were chosen in Him by His,
according to His foreknowledge, and they were born again according
to His almighty power and according to His abundant mercy, and God's
eternal love has been set upon them from eternity. They are
people divinely loved. We looked at that on Wednesday
night. Divinely loved. Let that sink in. If you are
one of the beloved of God, You are a person who is divinely
loved. And you're a person who's been
loved for maternity. Isn't that amazing? Grace is so amazing, isn't it?
It's so amazing. Beloved. Beloved. Now, we may
say that to one another, but this is God. God calls us beloved. Peter's writing to the saints
who God calls beloved. They're his people. His people,
divinely loved. Divinely loved. And they've obtained
mercy. from Him, just like all the apostles
too. We've all obtained the same mercy.
We've all been given the same grace and the same faith. The same faith as Peter had. The same mercy that was given
to Peter has been given to us. The same grace that was given
to Paul is the same grace we have. See, we look at these men and
women in the Bible and we say, wow, look at these, they're just
like us. They're just like us. Oh my. Amazing grace. So these people that Peter's
writing to, the elect of God, they're beloved of Christ. They're
redeemed by him. He's purchased them, not with
silver and gold, but with his own precious blood. And they're born again, again
of the Spirit. They've obtained mercy from God. They've obtained
mercy from God. And so Peter addresses the saints
here in 2 Peter 3.1. 2 Peter 3.1. Peter addresses
the saints as the Beloved. The Beloved. And we know that
all spiritual blessings and benefits come to the Beloved through Christ. And through Christ alone. And
they are sanctified by the Holy Spirit of God. And again, the
same faith that's been given to Peter and Paul and John, the
apostles, have been given to us. That's amazing. I know I'm repeating myself again,
but I just think that's amazing. I just think that's amazing. All the saints of God, marvel
at this, all the saints of God are called beloved, every one
of them. Every one, called beloved. because they are the elect of
God, chosen in Christ. Every one of them. Now Peter,
having told the saints that he's writing to in the passage before
about false preachers and teachers, is now going to stir their minds
up. He's now going to stir the minds
by way of remembrance of the saints. He's going to stir their
minds by way of remembrance. He's going to bring to remembrance
to them the things of Christ. The doctrines of Christ. Look
at this. This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you
in both which I stir up your pure minds by the way of remembrance. Now see the word pure there in
the Greek? It means sincere. Sincere, genuine. Sincere and
genuine. Sincere minds, genuine minds.
So the saints Peter's writing to have a sincere mind to the
gospel, a sincere interest in the gospel, a sincere interest
in Christ. Again, they're born again by
the Holy Spirit of God, who's the author of the scriptures,
and they would not therefore object to the truths that are
in the scriptures, right? The believer, we bow our knee
to the scriptures, to what it says. And the preacher says,
thus sayeth the Lord. Not what Wayne says, but what
does the Lord say? What does the scripture say?
Always check the scriptures to see if these things are so. to see if these things are so.
So we would never balk at what the scriptures say or object
to what the scriptures say. Why? Because we're taught by
the Holy Spirit of God. He teaches us. And we find joy
and comfort and rest in the words of the scriptures because they
point us to our Savior. They point us to Christ. They
tell us about Him and God's people. Now notice this, I now write
unto you in both which I stir up your sincere minds, or pure
minds, by the way of remembrance. What's he doing? Well, he just
keeps bringing Christ before him. He just keeps bringing Christ
before him. Again, and again, and again. Restating the truce. of salvation
only in Christ, restating the truth that Christ was God incarnate
in the flesh, and so he reminds them. And the saints of God would
welcome that reminding. You want to hear about Christ.
I want to hear about Christ when I listen to a message. Oh my. Again, and again, and again. that we might be stirred up to
a deeper sense of the importance of the scripture and the importance
of salvation in Christ and Christ alone. There's no other way to
glory. There's no other salvation but
in Christ and Christ alone. So God's people, Peter writes,
I stir up your minds by way of remembrance. God's people are
sincere in their worship of God. We're sincere in the faith that
we have in Christ. We're sincere in our love to
one another. And we who are the elect of God
need to be constantly stirred up to remembrance of the doctrines
of Christ, to remembrances of the promises of God which are
all yea and amen in Christ. We need to be stirred up in remembrance
of what Christ did for us. Not only because we're still
human and prone to forget, but because we need constant preaching
of the gospel to grow spiritually. Desire the sincere mouth of the
word. We desire that, don't we? We desire to be taught from the
scriptures that we might grow in grace and knowledge and truth
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So Peter's stirring up the pure
minds, the sincere minds by way of remembrance. Now all of us
have sinful thoughts. All of us have sinful thoughts
and thoughts that aren't sincere constantly go through our minds.
But when it comes to thoughts about our Lord Jesus Christ,
When it comes to thoughts about our Lord Jesus Christ and His
perfect redeeming work and what He accomplished for us, we are
genuinely sincere, aren't we? We want to hear. We who are the
people of God want to hear because Christ dwells in us too. And
we need to be stirred up by way of remembrance, don't we? Tell me about what my Savior's
done for me. Tell me. And then tell me again. And then just keep telling me.
Oh, it warms our hearts. It warms our hearts. Now note
here in verse 2, what Peter wants to stir the elect of God, those
he's writing to, to remember. Look at verse 2. That ye may
be mindful of the words which were spoken by the holy prophets,
and of the commandment of the apostles, and of our Savior,
our Lord and Savior. Now note here, Peter brings two
things forth here. that ye might be mindful of the
words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and in
two, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord
and Savior. So Peter here brings forth that
he's gonna stir the saints of God, the people of God. Now remember too, they didn't
have the New Testament. When Peter's writing to them,
they didn't have the New Testament, like we got the whole Bible.
They only had the Old Testament. They only had the Old Testament.
So Peter's stirring them up to remembrance, to be mindful of
the words which were spoken by the holy prophets. And again,
this is referring to the writers of the Old Testament. Now we know that all through
the Old Testament our Lord was prefigured, wasn't he? all through
the Old Testament, through types and shadows, and through animal
sacrifices, and the holy days, and now these holy inspired men,
when they wrote the scriptures, they wrote about the promised
Messiah. They wrote about the promised Messiah. We know his
name, don't we? The Lord Jesus Christ. They wrote
about his coming. They wrote about the suffering
of our Lord Jesus Christ. They wrote about God, Christ,
Christ being God. They wrote about these things.
How do we know this to be true? Well, what does the Word of God
say? It's our final authority, isn't
it? Turn, if you would, to Acts chapter 10. Acts chapter 10. What does the Word of God say?
Acts chapter 10. Look at verse 43. What does the
Word of God say? Acts chapter 10, and then put
your finger in Luke 24. Luke 24. Acts chapter 10 and
Luke 24. Look at this. What does the Word
of God say? Acts chapter 10, verse 43. To
Him, that's Christ, gave all the prophets witness. Look at
that. To Him, Christ gave all the prophets
witness. They spoke of Him. that through
His name, whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission
of sins." Now look what's being put there. This is in the Old
Testament they're talking about. Isn't that wonderful? Now, I
foolishly, when I was in religion, used to think that the Old Testament
was for the Jews and the New Testament was for believers.
No, it doesn't work that way. Look what it says right here.
To Him, Christ, gave all the prophets witness that through
His name, and we know that faith That our faith is in Christ.
There's no other name unto heaven given among men whereby we must
be saved, right? Only in Christ. That through
his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission
of sins. Praise his name. Now let's turn to Luke, chapter
24. Let's look at the words of our
Master. Let's look at the words of our Master, our Lord Jesus
Christ, speaking to two on the road to Ermaus. Look at this
in Luke, chapter 24, verses 25 to 27. Look what he says to them. O fools, and slow of heart to
believe all that the prophets have spoken. Now remember what
we looked at there in Acts 10.43, to Him being Christ gave all
the prophets witness. Look at this. O fools, and slow
of heart, verses 25 to 27, and slow of heart to believe all
that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things, and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses,
oh my, And all the prophets, He expounded unto them in the
Scriptures the things concerning Himself. Himself. Then look a little further down
in verse 44. He appears to His disciples and
look what He says to them in verse 44. And He said unto them,
These are the words which I spake unto you, well I was yet with you that
all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law
of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning
me and then look at the next verse our Lord opens their understanding
and that's what he has to do beloved for every single blood-bought
child of God he has to do this and he does by the power of the
Holy Spirit look at this then opened he their understanding
that they might understand the scriptures I look at that verse
and marvel, because before the Lord saved me, I had no clue
about the scriptures. I told you before, I've read
it, and it was like paper and ink to me. I just read it and
went, well, there's nothing there for me, and shut the Bible and
put it away for years. But now, my, it's full of Christ,
isn't it, the scriptures? It's wonderful, it's absolutely
wonderful, look at that. Then opened he their understanding,
that they might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them,
Thus it is written, and thus it is behood, Christ to suffer
and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance
and remission of sin should be preached in his name, O in the
name of Christ, among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye
are witnesses of these things. Glory be to God. And now let's look at the second
thing that Peter wanted to stir up. The pure, sincere minds of
those he's writing to, to remember. The commandment of us and the
apostles of the Lord and Savior. Look at this. Let's read that
again. Oh my. I got moved over here. Okay, let's read this again.
that ye might be mindful of the words which were spoken before
of the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles,
and of our Lord and Savior." Pastor Henry Mahan comments this
way, perhaps one of two things that both are referred to here,
his commandment to preach the gospel, Mark 16, 15, or his commandment
to love one another, John 13, 14. Now let me say this, nothing
is as important to God's preachers as preaching the gospel. Nothing
is as important to God's preachers as preaching the gospel. And
nothing should be as important to God's children as hearing
the gospel. Nothing should be as important
to God's children as hearing the gospel. The preacher desires
to preach the gospel, and the saints of God desire to hear
the gospel. And don't ever forget that we preachers are sheep too,
so we enjoy hearing the gospel too. That's why the conferences
are such a blessing for God's preachers, because we get to
sit and listen and soak in and have a faithful man preach the
gospel to us. Oh, it's wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. So
Peter's bringing forth here that he's going to stir to remembrance
the gospel. the gospel and the commandments
of Christ. And now he brings forth the fact that there will
be scoffers in the last day. Let's read verses three to seven.
Look at this. 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 in the water, whereby the world
that was then being overflowed with water perished. But the heavens and the earth
which are now by the same word are kept in store, kept by His
almighty power, preserved under fire against the day of judgment
and perdition of ungodly men. Now, we know we've been in the
last days since the days of our Lord. We know that. And we see
here that in the last days shall come scoffers walking after their
own lust. Now, we know the world right
now is full of scoffers, isn't it? Men and women who not only
reject the gospel, but also scoff and mock and make fun of the
true gospel of God's free grace, his amazing grace, and they also
mock the people of God. They mock the people of God.
Now to the unbeliever, to the world, the gospel's foolishness. It's foolishness. And this includes also the majority
of those who profess to be followers of Christ but are the scorn of
religious hypocrites, and they always will be, and they hate
preaching of God's free grace. I can't tell you how many people
I've met who profess to be a Christian, and when you tell them about
the gospel of God's free grace in Christ, they just recoil so
quickly. And as Brother Tim James said,
the knives come out. I've seen it time and time and
time again. Oh my. I've heard people say,
I wish these churches weren't even in the communities they're
in. I heard one man say that one time. I was shocked. I was
shocked. Hates the gospel so much, and
he professes to be a believer, but hates the gospel of God's
free grace so much that he wishes that there was no grace churches
around. My goodness, my goodness. But you meet all kinds of people. All kinds of people. And why
is this so? Well, they do not believe that Christ
came to establish a righteousness for and to redeem a particular
people. They believe that they can establish their own righteousness.
But see, Christ came to this world to establish a righteousness
for a particular people, for his sheep. called his bride in
the Song of Solomon. That's who he came to establish
the righteousness for. And praise be to God, he did
it. He did it. He's established the righteousness
for all his people. And they cannot believe that
Jesus Christ, by the sacrifice of himself, sanctified and perfected
forever those he suffered and died for, that he by himself
purged our sins. He did it all. He did it all. that his precious blood has cleansed
his elect people from every spot and stain, removing all their
sins from God's sight forever. Not long ago, I mentioned to
somebody that I'm still a sinner. And this man professes religion,
and I told him, well, I'm still a sinner, but I'm a safe sinner.
And he kind of looked at me like, you're a sinner? Yeah, yeah.
And praise be to God, I'm saved. See? We don't stop sinning once
we're saved, do we? And we who are the people of
God know that, don't we? We know that. We know that. Oh my, but praise God we're saved
and redeemed by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And all our sins have been removed from God's sight forever. Their
sins and iniquities will I remember no more. That's incredible. They're not held against us,
beloved. They're not held against us. They've been bought and paid
for! And they cannot believe that
all power has been given to the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man.
Unbelievers and religious people scoff at the manifestation of
His power and give an eternal life to those who were given
to Him by the Father. They scoff at that. And they
say, well, anyone can be saved who calls on the name of the
Lord. Well, yeah, we know the Scripture says that. Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord. But who are the ones who call
on the name of the Lord? Can a dead man I'm gonna ask you
a simple question. When someone's dead, can they
call us? No, they're gone. Their body
is lifeless. So how can a dead man call on
the Lord? You must be born again. You must be quickened by the
Holy Spirit of God. That's the only way. We must
be given life. And praise be to God. The Lord
Jesus Christ regenerates his people. We were dead, spiritually
dead, physically alive and spiritually dead. And he has made us alive,
beloved. Praise his mighty name. Praise
his mighty name. Well, I'm going to have to finish
the rest next week. Let's go to Lord in prayer and
ask his blessing on the service Heavenly Father, we thank you
for allowing us to gather together, allowing us to be here. Oh, Lord,
we who are your people, we rejoice that we were, we who were once
dead, no hope, no life spiritually, you've made us alive, Lord, given
us an understanding, opened our eyes like you did, like you did
for the two on the road to Air Mass, given us an understanding. like you did for the disciples,
giving us an understanding of who you are in the scriptures.
Glory to your name, Lord. Honor to your name and praise
to you. We love you because you first loved us. In Jesus' name,
amen.