Now we've seen that Peter, in
this second epistle, is putting believers in remembrance to give
all diligence to grow in grace, to make our calling and election
sure. If we've been called, it's because
God elected us. Whom he did predestinate, then
he also called. Examine yourselves. That's what
Paul said. Whether you be in the faith,
prove your own selves. That means you prove you. I'll
prove me, you prove you. Prove your own selves. Is Christ
my life? Is Christ everything to me? Is the glory of God what I am
on this earth for? Are we living to further His
name or are we living to further our own name? If we're truly in Christ, truly
in Him by His grace, we'll never fall. We'll never fall. An entrance shall be ministered
unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of the Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. Now our text this morning is
going to be down in verse 13. Verse 13, yea I think it meet
as long as I am in this tabernacle, notice that word tabernacle,
as long as I'm in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you
in remembrance, knowing that shortly I must put off this my
tabernacle. even as our Lord Jesus Christ
hath showed me." You remember when the Lord showed Peter that
when he came to him after Peter had argued and fussed and denied
the Lord and tried to walk away? And the Lord came to him and
the Lord told him that time, He told him how he was going
to stretch forth his hands and how another was going to bind
him and put him to death. And that time, Peter didn't say,
Lord, I'm going to deny you. He said, Lord, you know. You know. He trusted the Lord
to keep him. and didn't look to himself to
keep himself. And that's when the Lord said,
now go feed my sheep with that. Feed them that understanding.
And he said, I'm stirring you up long as I'm in this tabernacle.
Moreover, I will endeavor that you may be able after my decease,
that word is departure, to have these things always in remembrance. He wasn't trying to leave them
his name and he wasn't trying to leave them something in power
that he had provided or some kind of estate or some kind of
inheritance. He was wanting to put them in
remembrance of Christ. He wanted to leave them knowing
and remembering whose they are. Why does Peter call his body
a tabernacle? Why does he refer to death, rather
than referring to it as death, refer to it as a putting off
of his bodily tabernacle? Why does he call it a departure? rather than death. Our bodies
are called tabernacles to remind us how fragile and how temporary
they are. I was thinking about that word
tabernacle. It's a tent, is what the picture
is here, a tent. And I was thinking about that,
and it made me think of a time when Melinda and I went camping.
And we had this little cheap tent we got, and we went out
there and set this little tent up. And no sooner had we got
this tent set up, and I mean, the bottom dropped out. And it
started just, I mean, a torrential downpour. And there wasn't no
staying in that tent. We had to get out there in that
rain and pull it up, throw it in the truck and get out of there
because it was bad. A tent. Ever since sin entered
in and death by sin, these bodies that we dwell in, they're just
tents. They're dying. They're dying.
The Lord said, in the sweat of your face, you'll eat bread.
And he said, until you return to the ground, to the ground,
for out of it, You were taken for dust thou art, you're just
dust, and to dust you shall return. But that's not the end. Every
person has a soul as well as a body. If our existence was
only our body, we'd live in this world just for the pleasure of
our body, just for our earthly existence, if that's all that
there was, just for the supreme happiness of our bodies. but
our soul is going to live on after we put off these bodies.
We're going to spend eternity somewhere. You're going to spend
eternity in the eternal life of heaven's glory with Christ
or going to spend eternal life in the torments of death in hell
and have full being and full understanding. Therefore we'd
be wise to give all diligence not to live in this life for
our mortal bodies. We ought never abuse or neglect
our bodies. We ought to take care of our
bodies, but be reminded constantly, as we are throughout the Scriptures,
that our bodies we're to take care of, but in the exceedingly
greater interest of our immortal souls. These bodies are tense. They're
just tense. Now listen to the good hope the
believer has. Pay close attention to this.
This is the good hope that the believer has. The believer's
body is a tabernacle because we have a house awaiting us in
glory. A permanent, eternal dwelling. A house. Those that have been
washed by the Holy Spirit, regenerated by the Spirit, washed in the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our bodies are the members of
Christ and our Spirit, the Spirit of God dwells in these bodies.
This is what Paul said over in 1 Corinthians 6. I'll show you
that and I want you to just hang there in Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 6.15. Paul said, Know ye not that your bodies
are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members
of Christ and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid. God forbid. Look down at verse
19. What? Know ye not that your body
is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have
of God and ye are not your own? for you're bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your
body and in your spirit, which are God's." God owns, he owns
the body and the spirit of his children. because he's bought,
been bought with the precious blood of his son. So he says,
glorify God in your body and in your spirit with your gods.
Now that's what Peter is stirring us up to remember throughout
this epistle. Peter had been young and he had
been a baby in Christ, been a baby in grace, and he had made foolish
mistakes and tried to argue about who's going to be the greatest
and try to keep importance on things that don't matter at all.
And the Lord had taught him by a lot of painful trial, a lot
of foolish mistakes, the things that are really important in
this life. And God's going to grow his children in grace and
work the same thing in their hearts so that he uses his children
to do what Peter's doing right here in our text. Peter is stirring
up his brethren. He's reminding his brethren of
that which is really lasting, that which is really important
and warning his brethren. giving them warning not to live
after these bodies, not to pamper this flesh, not to heap honors
upon ourselves and not to try to live in ungodliness in this
world. This whole reason that God has
called His sheep and called us to eternal life is that we might
grow in our Redeemer and that we might be used in this earth
to further the truth of Christ. That's what we're here for. That's
what we're here for. That's exactly what we're here
for. This is the purpose for which God has made us his workmanship. I want you to look over at 2
Corinthians 4. Paul said the same thing and
I was so blessed by this I turned over here to this reference,
2 Corinthians 5, and we'll get to that, but I began to just
read what Paul is saying here, and I want you to see that this
is the same thing Peter said. These bodies that God has worked
in, they're just, there's no power in them, there's no strength
in us. The strength is all of God. He
said in verse 7, we have this treasure in earthen vessels.
I'm going to go through this over to chapter six if I can
right through here. I just want you to, and I'm just
going to briefly comment on it. I want you to see what Paul is
saying. We have this treasure in earthen vessels in a tabernacle
that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. We're troubled on every side,
yet not distressed. We're perplexed but we're not
in despair. We're persecuted but not forsaken. Cast down but not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body
the dying of the Lord Jesus. That the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always,
and this is who a believer is, we live. We're alive, eternally
alive. And we which live are always
delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus
might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. There's absolutely
nothing but the Spirit of God, the life of Christ Jesus within
the mortal body of a believer that'll make a believer steadfast
in faith, and grow in grace and stand with Christ through all
adversity. Only the power of God will do
it. And God uses earthen vessels to tell his sheep and his brethren
that very thing. And God creates life in his sheep
and stirs up his sheep through powerless earthen vessels by
doing so. Look at verse 12. So then death
worketh in us, Paul said, but life in you. We're delivered
under death, but it's working life in you, Paul said. We having
the same spirit of faith, Paul and those to whom he was writing,
you and I, the same spirit of faith, according as it is written,
I believed and therefore have I spoken. That's the same spirit
that dwelt in David. who he's quoting, we also believe
and therefore speak, knowing that he which raised up the Lord
Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us
with you. For all things are for your sake. I don't, somebody said, I don't
agree that we're here for the furtherance of the Gospel, for
the good of God's sheep, for the glory of Christ. Paul said,
all things are for your sakes. That the abundant grace, that's
how we're going to stand, that's how this Word's going to come
effectually. Abundant grace. That the abundant grace might,
through the thanksgiving of many, redound to the glory of God. You see, Christ in you is the
power. It is the power and life which
makes us persevere together. And even as the saints of old
persevered together. Peter's going to say that a little
later in his epistle. And as God quickens his sheep
together, you know what he does? He makes the whole flock give
thanks to Him, it's thanksgiving of many redounds, goes back to
the glory of God for how He's working in His children and how
He's abounding in grace to His children. Verse 16, for which
cause? We faint not. We faint not. But though our outward man perish,
yet the inward man is renewed day by day. Why don't we quit
believing? It'd be a lot easier. It'd be
a whole lot easier. It'd be a whole lot less opposition
and a whole lot less trouble. Just give up and give in. Why
don't we quit? Because our outward man of our
flesh, though it is progressively decaying and wasting away, By
the grace of God, our inward man, created in Christ Jesus,
is growing stronger and stronger in the grace and faith of Christ
Jesus every day. That's why. Verse 17, for our
light affliction, you know what all Paul went through? He said,
our light affliction, which is but for a moment, it's just a
vapor. It's faster than a weaver's shuttle.
It was just yesterday. We was right here at Christmas
last year. Our light affliction, which is
but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal
weight of glory. As we suffer in these bodies
for the sake of Christ, whatever is for God's glory makes whatever
we have to suffer a light affliction. a light affliction, especially
in the light of glory. Paul is reminding us here, just
like Peter is reminding us, we have something far better than
this earthly tent and this world. Something far better. Look at
verse 18. While we look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen are eternal. For we know that if our earthly
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building
of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. We must shortly put off this
tabernacle, but we have in the heavens an eternal house made
by God through the righteousness and death of His Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. We have that. Verse 2, For in
this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house
which is from above. If so be that being clothed,
we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle
do wrong being burdened. Not for that we would be unclothed,
but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life."
Brethren, our sin the sin of this body, the sin of this flesh
that we are, and the burdens, and our infirmities, and opposition,
and all the adversity we face in this life, don't you groan
under it? I desire to be free from sin. I desire to know the perfection
of brotherly love. Don't you? I desire to know that. And we patiently wait on God's
appointed day that we'll know that. We wait on Him. He's appointed
a day when His children are going to know that. And we wait on
that day. But we don't merely wait and
groan that we'll be free from suffering. That's not what the
believer's burden is. But that we be perfectly conformed
to Christ our life, to enjoy uninterrupted communion with
our beloved. That's what we're groaning for.
Verse 5, Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is
God. Here's Paul. He's just a man. He's just in a tent. And here's
Peter. There's Peter. He's just in a
tent. Tell us, I'm going to just very shortly put off this tabernacle. And they faced some of the worst
persecution while they lived on this earth. And they were
facing persecution. Peter's talking about what he
knew he was about to face. What the Lord had told him he
was going to face. And all of that came for one reason. Because
they stood for the Lord Jesus Christ. Because they declared
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. They declared the finished
work of Christ Jesus that alone makes sinners accepted with God.
And men hated them so bad for that message. They wouldn't just
leave their company, they wanted to put them out of their company
for good. Extinguish them out of the earth
for good. And yet here they are rejoicing
and encouraging us in the truth of Christ and teaching us God
has wrought us, He has made us His workmanship for this very
thing. He chose us Brethren, He redeemed us in Christ. He quickened us by His Spirit.
He made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance with the saints
in light. He made us His workmanship. He
gave us a house eternal in the heavens. The Lord said, if I'm
going to prepare a place for you and He went to the cross
and He laid down His life and He bore the everlasting eternal
judgment we owe to God, to justice. And right there, he made that
dwelling place for everyone he represented. He made that place
for us so that every one of us have to be brought into this
realization of His grace that He's accomplished and brought
into this heavenly abode with Him. Everyone that He's brought
this far, He did it. And this is what He's done. He's
given us the privilege for just a little while, just a little
while in this earth, the privilege of suffering for His name's sake. The more that you stand for the
truth of Christ, the more we're going to find out what it is
to be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Most certainly. But he's also given us the earnest
of the Spirit. You know what the earnest is?
It's a part of what's to come. It's a taste of what is to come. It's the earnest, it's the foretaste,
it's the assurance, it's the pledge. He's given us the Holy
Spirit in us. How do I know He's given me the
Holy Spirit? Do you hear Him? Do you hear
Him? And He's going to raise our bodies.
through that spirit that dwells in us. This is what he said over
in Romans 8-11. You don't have to turn there,
let me read it. He said, if the spirit of him that raised up
Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ
from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit
that dwelleth in you. This body is, this is how the
resurrection of the dead will be. It's sown a natural body,
it's raised a spiritual body. When we die, when we put off
this tabernacle, immediately We're gonna be clothed in immortality.
Go to be with him in that house not made with hands. That house
he's made by his blood. But he's by the same spirit that
we have as the earnest of that inheritance. He gonna raise these
bodies too. Not like they are now. This body
like it is now, it's the dead and decaying waste place of Adam.
He's going to raise it brand new. He's washed it. It's His. He's going to raise it new. Verse
6, 2 Corinthians 5, 6, Therefore we are always confident, knowing
that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from
the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by
sight. We're confident, I say, and willing, rather, to be absent
from the body and to be present with the Lord. Peter wasn't complaining. Peter was ready to depart. But
he said, as long as I remain in this tabernacle, I'm here
to remind you of this glorious good news. Paul said that same
thing to the Philippian church. He said, I'm in a straight betwixt
two. I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which
is far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the
flesh is more needful for you. So he waited, patiently waited
for that day appointed by God. And having given us this privileged
brethren, and having given us the earnest of His Spirit, verse
9, wherefore we labor. We go on doing what God's given
us to do in this earth. We labor that whether present
or absent, whether we're in His presence or we're right here
now, we may be accepted of Him, pleasing before Him. There's
a certain fact that the children of God, that He's called, are
going to labor, labor to enter into rest, strive to enter into
rest in Christ Jesus. And we're going to labor together,
ministering this word of grace to one another, instructing one
another, reminding one another, as Paul and Peter did to the
brethren, and to all who will hear us, we're going to minister
this word of grace because our chief concern, our one concern,
is that we might be found in Christ. This is how Paul put
it in Philippians 3.8. He said, yea, doubtless, I count
all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things and do
count them but done that I may win Christ and be found in him,
not having mine own righteousness which is of the law. That's not
what we're talking about when we talk about labor. not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection
and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His
death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection
of the dead. Whatever it takes, whatever we
have to put off, whatever I have to put off, I don't want to be
found trusting in myself at all. I want to be found in Christ
only. That's what we labor. That's
where we labor to be found. And that's where we labor to
tell folks and tell one another and tell me and remind each other
of. Why? Verse 10. For we must all
appear before the judgment seat of Christ. He's risen and God's
given him the throne of judgment and we're going to all appear
before him. Every man, woman in this earth
is going to appear before him. That everyone may receive the
things done in his body. According to that he hath done,
whether it be good or bad. This is certain. Every single
person in this world is going to go through this life one of
two ways. We're going to pass from this
life one of two ways. We're going to pass from this
life either believing on Christ, having confessed Him before men,
and resting in Him alone, and we shall be saved. We shall receive
the reward of the crown of life because of Christ and His finished
work on our behalf. Or we're going to pass through
this life not believing anything, holding up a form and acting
like we know something and pass from this life and stand before
God and our whole life is going to bear testimony to the fact
that we didn't live for anybody but our belly. And God Christ
himself will cast us out into outer darkness to live a life
of torment forever. One of two ways. Verse 11, knowing
therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. Salvation is
in no other but the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is not in these
bodies. Salvation is not in this flesh.
Salvation is not in the work of these hands. Salvation is
not in the things that we heap up to ourselves in this life.
Salvation is in Christ Jesus alone. Don't look to your flesh. Don't look to your works. Don't
look to your withered hands. Don't put any confidence in whether
you have confidence. Put all your hope and all your
trust in Christ Jesus alone. That's what we persuade men of.
That's what we labor to persuade men of. And whether they believe
us or they don't. Whether they believe we're sincere
in our ministry or they want to pick and prod and find fault
and accuse us and say, you don't have any love in you. Whether
they want to do that or not. Verse 11, we're made manifest
unto God. He knows. and I trust also are
made manifest in your consciences, in the hearts of our brethren.
For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but we give you
occasion to glory on our behalf, that you may have somewhat to
answer them which glory in appearance and not in heart. For whether
we be beside ourselves, it's to God, or whether we be sober,
it's for your cause. If there be some who glory in
appearance, And do not understand the heart of what we are saying.
Don't have a heart to believe this gospel. Paul said, if our
gospel is hid, it's hid to them that are lost. That's what Paul
said. whether they accuse us of commending ourselves, of trying
to glory in ourselves, or trying to set our nest on high, or do
something for ourselves, or heap up honors unto man, whether they
accuse us of commending ourselves and being too insistent and too
fanatical for Christ, or whether they accuse us of being too sober
and single-minded and not liberal enough. Paul says, tell them
we're doing what we're doing for the glory of God and the
good of His people. Verse 14, for the love of Christ
constraineth us. Because we thus judge that if
one died for all, then we're all dead. And that he died for
all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves,
but unto him which died for them and rose again. You know how
Paul put that into the Galatians? He said, I'm crucified with Christ,
nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the
faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for
me. He put it like this. Do I now persuade men or God? Am I trying to please men? For
if I get pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
He said, but God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto
me, and I unto the world. I died when Christ died, and
I rose when Christ arose, and I'm not living for myself or
this world any longer. Let folks say what they want
to say. Verse 16, Wherefore henceforth
know we no man after the flesh. Yea, though we have known Christ
after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more. Therefore,
if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are
passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. When Christ was looked upon with
carnal eyes, when Paul himself looked upon Him with carnal eyes,
When He walked this earth, do you know what men did? They despised
and rejected Him just like the Lord said they'll do His disciples.
But now, Paul said, by the grace of God working in our heart,
I know Him in spirit and in truth. I know Him. And I'm no longer
glorying in the out form like I used to when I was in my self-righteous
dead flesh. I'm a new man now. Verse 18. And all these things are of God.
I didn't bring these things to pass. They're all of God, who
hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation. Here's our gospel, that God was
in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their
trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of
reconciliation. He's given us this word to set
forth for this very self-same thing. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God. That's what we're laboring, that's
what we're persuading, that's what we're saying to one another,
what we're saying to anybody who are here. God didn't impute
the trespasses of His people to His people. For he hath made
him sin for us who knew no sin. He imputed it all to him. He
made him to be the wretched, cursed thing, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him. We then as workers together
with him. Is that just Paul? Is that just
Peter? Is that his sheep? Paul said,
as David said, we believe, I believe, and therefore we've spoken. This
is the work of grace. God works in the heart of all
his children. And we're workers together with
Christ Jesus. We then, workers together with
him, beseech you also that you receive not the grace of God
in vain. Don't hear the gospel of God's
grace in vain. Don't hear these words and just
let them go in one ear and out the other. Don't hear these words
and say, I'm not going to stand for that, I'm not going to hear
that and put it off and join your body with the harlot of
a godless form of religion. This body is just a tent. We're either going to live for
Christ or we're going to live for our flesh. This right here is the day of
grace. This is the day of grace. Verse
2, For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and
the day of salvation have I comforted thee. Behold, now is the accepted
time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.
Now let's go back to 2 Peter. Peter's reminding us throughout
this epistle of the same thing that Paul reminds us of, the
same thing that we hear throughout the Gospel. Present your bodies
a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God. That's altogether
reasonable, isn't it? It's altogether reasonable. Peter
says in verse 13, Yea, I think it meet. As long as I'm in this
tabernacle to stir you up of putting you in remembrance. He
said, I know you know this. You're established in the present
truth. He said, I'm stirring up your pure minds. If we know
all these things are going to be dissolved, what manner of
persons are we to be in all godliness? Knowing that shortly I must put
off this, my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has
showed me. Moreover, I will endeavor that ye may be able, after my
departure, to have these things always in remembrance." That's
a good inheritance to leave behind, isn't it? The truth of the gospel. Amen.