I'm quite sure I know who requested
that hymn, Dave. I know who requested that. She
does it quite often. But I thought, you couldn't ask
for a better psalm. You find a good one, keep singing
it. It would be a good one to commit
to memory, wouldn't it? That's a good way to commit Scripture.
the way they used to sing in the early church. They sang the
psalms. That's the way you remember or memorize the Word. That whole psalm was about who
the Lord is and what He hath done and what He shall do. You
can't get any better than that. They asked Brother Daniel Parks
to sing the same psalm everywhere he goes. He comes here again. We're going
to ask him again. That's a blessed hymn. Thank you for it. Thank
the Lord for it and giving you the ability. 2 Peter 3. The title of this message, Disparities
of Remembrance, is what they say and what we know. Talking
about Peter. He's writing about the unbelieving
world. He calls them scoffers. Throughout this, he says, beloved,
beloved. This is written to God's people,
to them. Chapter 1, it says, who have
obtained like precious faith with us, believers, we. He talks about what they say. This is what they say. This is
what we know. Things we know. Verse 1, the
second epistle, Beloved, I write unto you. Beloved. That's a beloved term. Foreloved. For whom He did foreknow. That
means love before. I have loved thee. John, the
Lord says of His people, I have loved you with an everlasting
love. He doesn't say that about everybody. He says that about
all of His people. Beloved, beloved, loved before
of God, redeemed by Christ, regenerated by His Spirit. I write unto you
in both epistles to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. If you read the article about
the pure mind, for what it's worth, The author is pretty poor,
but pure means settled. It's clear. It's not mixed. You
know what you think because He taught you what He taught you.
And nobody can change your mind. When the Lord gives you this
pure mind, nobody can mix it up. Pure minds. He said, both epistles I write
to you to stir up your memory. Look at chapter 1, verses 12
and following. He says, 2 Peter 1, verse 12,
I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of
these things. Always keep reminding you. See,
I don't have anything new to say today. Not one thing new. I've got the good news, but it's
the old story. It's the old paths wherein is
the good way. But all we're doing is reminding
you again of what the Lord has already said. The apostles got
up and preached what the prophets wrote. The prophets got up and
preached what the Lord told them to say. They didn't have anything
original. No, no. They were repeating and
over and over again. The Baptist stood up every day
and preached the same message, didn't he? Behold the Lamb. And
those Pharisees scoffed. Is that the only message you've
got? Every day they'd come, the same
message. That's the whole message of this
book. No, I don't have any other message. Paul said, I'm determined
not to know anything among you. So I'm reminding you, he said,
verse 2, that you may be mindful of. The words spoken by the prophets
and us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior. Mindful. That means
always thinking on whatever is on your mind. Whatever you're
thinking of. That's what he said. I want to
remind you of these things. Keep bringing them up so that
you will always be thinking of them. Reading them. Remembering
these things. What things? God's Word. God's Word. Keep in mind. May
the Lord impress, write His Word on the tables of our hearts and
our minds so that we always think on these things. So much stuff
is always in our minds, isn't it? Don't you get weary of the
things that come into your heads and that the world is bombarding
you with. Oh, Peter says, I want you to be mindful of. to think
on things above. The Word of God. The Word of
God is our wisdom. Fools. We're going to see how
fools say there's no God. This is how we know there is.
One way. The Word of God is our light.
The world is in darkness. People are groping for things. We're not in darkness as others. We walk according to light. We've
got a clear path, don't we? The Word of God is our understanding. The world can't understand why
they don't know what's going on. We do. Don't we? God has
given us an understanding that we might know Him. That is true. That's the last verse of Mark.
But we're talking about getting ahead of yourself. That's the
very last thing. The Word of God is our comfort.
The world is all torn up and unsettled and unstable and fearful
and all that. You rest on the Word of God. Comfort yourselves, one another,
with these words. I tell you, there's real abiding
comfort right here in this Word. Peace. The Word of God is our
peace. The Lord kept saying that. I
almost preached from Luke 19, the Lord came and said, Peace
unto you. Peace. He kept saying that. Peace
be unto you. Oh, God's Word is our peace. Give us peace that
passeth understanding. You don't even understand it.
The world can't understand it. The Word of God is our defense.
When everything assaults us, Everybody and everything, Satan,
sin, the world, ourselves, everything assaults us. We think of going
down. The Word of God is our defense. The Word of God rises up in our
hearts, if we're mindful of it, and say, the Lord will be with
thee, Satan. Verse 3, he said, Now know this
first, in the last days scoffers will come walking after their
own lusts, evil, covetous desires, their own wicked agenda they
have. There's something, there's an
evil purpose behind everything they do. Scoppers. In the last days. Not that there
were not scoppers back then. There always have been. But as
time goes on, more and more people, more and
more scoppers. until it seems like the whole
world is laughing at this thing. Does it seem that
way to you now? That's one way you may know we're
in the last days. Many ways. Clearly seen. From God's Word. Face of the
sky. Sign of the times. What men do
and say. clear as a nose on your face,
as the light of day, that we're in the last of the last day.
And this is one way. Scoffing and mocking, they're
making a mockery of God. God is a laughingstock to this
generation, anybody. And the ones that are guilty
of it are preachers. Scoff. The word scoff means to
mock. I told you about those teenage kids that I was preaching
and they were giggling and cutting up and scoffing. And I mentioned
something, the fear of the Lord. I mentioned that God's name,
taking God's name in vain, oh my God. And I brought up the
fact that they even abbreviate it now when they're texting it,
OMG. And those kids laughed. They
thought that was funny. Mock, scoffing. That wouldn't
have happened just ten years ago. It wouldn't have happened.
And bless God, it doesn't happen here. Children know better. This passage of Scripture came
to mind as if it was spoken out loud to me. After reading a comment,
I listened to a message on Sermon Audio, a clear gospel message,
old-fashioned, repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord
Jesus Christ. of a blood sacrifice needed to
be the remission of sins. A holy God, angry, a need for repentance toward God,
and that Christ must die and shed His precious blood, the
only sacrifice for sin. And somebody wrote, that message
was put on YouTube, and he got so many comments back
from various ones blasting him to no end. You can't believe.
I hadn't read anything like that in a while. And I read those
comments and they came right out and said, we don't believe
this Jesus stuff. We don't believe in this God
who talks about blood. We don't believe your Bible.
Just in your face, you know, like that. And this Scripture
came to mind like it was spoken out loud in the last day. Scoffers.
Scoffers. And I went back and read it for
my own comfort. It bothered me reading that because
they were mocking my God, but it didn't shake my faith for
one moment. What can they say or do to really
shake what you believe? They've been doing that from
the beginning. They did it to Noah. You know that? When Noah first started building
that ark, you know full well that there were more people interested.
When he first started, what are you doing? I've never seen this
before. He began, God's angry. Maybe
some people, is that right? Maybe some people were interested. But as time went on, as the days
passed and the rain didn't fall, they began to think, oh, Noah. Until finally our Lord said,
and these are not the words of some
wild man standing on the street corner here, this is the Word
of God. And our Lord said, as in the
days of Noah, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. They're
going to scoff. And at a time when they think
not. He's coming. And He said, every
eye shall behold Him. As the lightning lighteth up
the sky from the east to the west, so shall the coming of
the Son of Man be. And they'll weep and wail and
gnash their teeth, and they'll all say then, Oh, my God. But
God's people are going to say, Oh, my God. He says they're willingly ignorant.
Verse 4, prayers have promised that it is coming. Everything
is the same. Nothing has changed. Yes, thank God. Right, Nancy? Genesis 8, the Lord promised.
He said summer and winter, springtime and harvest, everything is going
to continue. The rain is going to fall on the just and the unjust. It will keep going. Although the wrath of God is
clearly revealed from heaven. The rain falls alright. And boy,
I could clearly see that he just let it rain. One day. Open up heaven for one day on
Nashville, Tennessee. One day for about 40. Easy to
see. Isn't it clear? Clearly seen
how that... Egypt doesn't see it. Oh, where's your God? We don't
believe in your God, your Bible, your faith, the sin, judgment,
blood, all of that. We don't believe in that. They're
willingly ignorant, he said, of two things. He said they're
willingly ignorant that God created, verse 5, that God, by the Word
of God, the heavens were of old, the earth standing out of the
water and in the water, Judgment, the flood, whereby the world
that then was being overflowed with water perished. Ignorance. Ignorance. That doesn't mean they just don't
know better. The root word of ignorant is
ignore. Here he says they're willingly
ignorant. They willfully suppress the facts. They willfully say,
I won't have that. Psalm 14, the fool, an utter
fool says, no God. Though the heavens declare His
glory, and the firmament showeth His handiwork, day unto day uttereth
speech, and nothing utters the hand of God more than water. You notice how much he spoke
of water. There's one planet in our solar system that has
life on it. Why? Water. Why is that? Why does Earth have
water on it and Jupiter doesn't? Are you right? Why? Little scientists,
falsely so-called, come up with all sorts of reasons. But the
fact they completely ignore it is there's water here and nowhere
else. And where does water come from?
Where does water come from? It comes from the sky. Now isn't
that something? It just falls out of the sky,
Elizabeth. And the earth is full of it.
It's two-thirds water and wine. It's life. Is it any wonder the
Lord called Himself the water of life? Where I am, you have
life. Either hath the Son, hath life. Either hath not the Son, no life. Scripture says, let the sky open
up and pour down righteousness. Let salvation spring out of the
earth. He shall come down, John, like rain on the mown grass. Water. Water. They're willingly ignorant. Water falls from the sky. Things
that happen, His eternal power and Godhead are clearly seen.
They're without excuse, but they say, the transgression of the
wicked, David said in Psalm 36, saith within my eyes, there's
no fear of God before their eyes. No God. Until it starts raining
too much. And then, oh, I wish it quit
raining. Oh, if it doesn't rain, I sure
wish it'd rain. It doesn't rain. God sends it. It's like salvation. It belongs with the thumb of
the Lord. Oh, my. Water. The fool. Verse 6, the flood. They're ignorant
of the flood. Willingly ignorant. That God
looked down, was angry, and repented Him that He'd made man. He said,
I'm going to destroy Him. And he goes on to say that the
heavens, verse 7, that are now are reserved unto fire. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ spoke
about this more than anyone else. He's that prophet. The prophets
of old spoke of it. Fire. Fire and brimstone. Boy, they
scoff at that, don't they? He's a fire and brimstone preacher.
What an ignorant fool. No, you're the fool, man. Are
you saying Jesus Christ is a fool? Because that's who said it. Fire. He said, I am come to bring fire
on earth. And it's already kindled. He
said. A man willingly rejects and suppresses
the truth, forges lies, I called scientists, Scriptures calls
them science falsely, so-called. And the reason being, man doesn't
want there to be a God. And so you'll make up, whatever
you don't want to believe, John, you'll make up things and you'll
believe it. You know that? You can make yourself believe
whatever you want to. And the Scripture says God sends
them strong delusions because they receive not the
love of the truth. God sends them strong delusions so that
they believe the most ridiculous notion. All right, enough of
what they say. Here's what we know. Down in
verse 17, he ends by saying, See, and you know these things. That's what they say, but here's
what we know, or rather, who. What we know and believe is because
our God hath revealed them unto us and our children, at least
in their heads. He's hid these things from the
wise and prudent. Blessed is the man who thou choosest
to reveal himself unto. I didn't choose you because you're
better. We're not smarter or better than anybody. You see
your calling brethren. Things that are not, God has
chosen things that are not. Things that are nothing. We're
not smarter or better than anybody. In fact, most of us feel far
inferior to the intellects and all of this world. But God, Brother
Samuel, Hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed
them unto babe. Your daughters are learning right
now what most people will never learn. Here are some things we know.
We know our God created the heavens and the earth with His Word. He wrote, here is faith. We believe
that things that are made are made of nothing. but by the Word
of God. When our Lord came to this earth,
He proved that, didn't He? He made wine out of water. Our God created all things. Some
things we know. We know that our God reigns and
rules in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. All God's people are taught of
God. They taught these things. The
first thing is Creator. That means He owns us. We're in His hands. Our breath
and all our weapons. Our God reigns. He's not trying
to be God. He never has tried anything.
Our God doesn't try. Our God speaks and it's done.
Our God wrote it down before the foundation of the world and
it had nothing. can stop it. That's God. Our God reigns and rules. Our
God is holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. Our God is
holy. He did punish sin in the beginning. He will by no means clear the
guilty. He's holy. We know that. And we know that time is of no
The essence to God. Known unto God are all His works
from the beginning of the world. There is no time with God. Verse
8. Beloved, be not ignorant of this. One day is with the Lord
as a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. We're creatures
of time. We don't know what's going to
happen thirty seconds from now. So we're all torn up, aren't
we? We're all torn up. Oh God. If
you knew the end from the beginning, nothing would move you, especially
if you are controlling it. That's our God. That's our God. This faith, that's the faith
we need to have, is that our unchanging God who reigns over
all, And let come what may. Believe God. That God is. And time is of no essence. Verse
9, and here it is, brethren, beloved. The Lord is not slack
concerning His promise. God cannot lie. God hath promised. Everything God has said in this
book are promises. He made an oath and He made a
covenant. He made a covenant. And he sealed it with an oath,
didn't he? He said, I've spoken it. I'll bring it to pass. Our
Lord said heaven and earth will pass away, but not one word of
this covenant will pass away. Everything I've said has, is,
and shall happen exactly according to my purpose, according to promise. And he hath given us all these
exceeding precious promises. to keep us. And he's not slack
as some men. We'll see. You know, this hasn't
happened. That hasn't happened. God's not on your time. You're
on His. He's longsuffering to us. Not willing that any should perish. This is one of those verses that
Unlearned and unstable people rest, don't they? Twist. See,
God doesn't want anybody to perish. Beloved, they, that's what they
say. We know better. God is long-suffering
to us. There is a remnant right now
according to the election of grace. God is long-suffering
to them. Thy blessing is upon thy people. God is long-suffering to them.
God waits to be gracious. He has His elect whom He knew
before the foundation of the world. And they're born into
this world, and if they're not taken immediately, they live
through this world. They're born sinners. They become more sinful until
they're children of wrath, even as others. But in the fullness
of time, God sends forth His Son in the preaching of the gospel.
Born again. Born from above. Born of God. New creatures in Christ. New
creatures. The elect of God. He's long-suffering
to them. Not willing that one of them
should perish. Our Lord said, I give unto them eternal life.
How does He give it? When the Gospel comes and gives
life. Raises them that were dead in
trespass and sin. Quickens them together by the
preaching of the Gospel. Yes, it's by grace they're saved. And who knows, it might be Sophie,
it might be Jennifer's unborn child. It might be the last elect. There's going to be a last one
when the last sheep is brought into the fold. God is long-suffering. God suffers long with this wicked
world. How long would you have put up
with this planet? More and more time goes by, less and less people
giving Him thanks, giving Him praise, let more and more people
scoffing, mocking, daring God, you know, defying death, refusing
God, refusing, rejecting Him. They're not thankful until they're
gruzzling like... How long would you put up with,
but our God is long suffering. Aren't you glad? Peter went on
to say across the page, it's salvation. I'm thankful. Oh, I'm thankful the Lord didn't
come in 1973. Aren't you, Robin? I'm so thankful
the Lord didn't come when I was dreading my sins and rebellion.
But God is long-suffering. Not willing that one of them
should perish. And they're not going to. They're going to hear
that Gospel. Every last one of them. And then
when this Gospel is preached all over this world, when the
last elect is brought into the world, our Lord said, end. No point. Nothing for this world
to exist for anymore. It's all for the elect's sake. It's all for doing right here
what we're doing right now. This world exists that people
might come and hear the Gospel. That's right. Oh, my. The day of the Lord will come,
he says. I've got to go on. He says the elements shall melt
with the fervent heat of the earth. Verse 11, seeing then
that all these things shall be dissolved. See, you've heard what they say.
You hear what they say. You hear their mockery and their
laughter. We know some things. We see some things, don't we? Jeanette, Ed, we see some things,
don't we? God has given us sight. What is it? It's faith. Faith
is sight. By faith we see clearly. That's
what the Scripture says. See clearly. We see Him as who
is invisible, don't we? Don't you see God in everything,
Sister Nancy? Huh? You wake up in the morning,
And that Son rising, you think of who? The Son of righteousness. Our
God who is light, don't you? Everything bears witness that
God is. Why do you believe Him? You must be one of His. He's
revealed these things unto you. We see things that are not seen
as eternal. We look not, Paul said, at things
that are seen, but things that are not seen. And see clearly,
all things are vanity. Vanity. Vanity. All flesh is
grass, isn't it, brother Sam? It's grass. We see that. Grass
withereth and the flower fadeth. No matter who it is or what it
is, it's fading fast in the past. You know, I'm exercising and
doing all this stuff to try to keep I'm fading too fast. But I can't stop it. I look in
the mirror and I'm sagging. What are you laughing at, Stan? We're
sagging. What is your life? It's a vapor.
We see clearly it's vanity. But the Proverbs says their secret
thought is that they shall live forever. They're going to find
a cure for death. Oh, no. Oh, no. How foolish can you get
that man is going to his long haul and not give it a thought
to keep polishing the brass on the Titanic? How foolish can
you get? Well, we were like that at one
time. Foolish even as others. Here we go again. I'm going to
quote it again. But God opened our eyes. This is all going fast. You're going fast. Come go with
me. I'm taking you home, your eternal
home, where nothing will fade away or perish. Oh my, you know these things,
don't you? God, we see clearly. We see these things. We see that
we need Christ. We see our need of Christ. So
few do today. Oh, my. Brother Henry, you're
getting old, aren't you? Do you see your need of Christ
now more than when you first began? Honestly, this Gospel
is more precious to you now. You hope more now on this Gospel
of Christ than you did in the beginning, don't you? We see time is short. We see
so many things. And he says we're looking for,
verse 12 and 13, and hastening the coming of the day of our
God. And he's promised us, verse 13, a new heaven and a new earth
where ye can dwell of righteousness. Who promised that? He who can't
lie. And so he tells us, and I should have named this
a more scriptural title might be, be mindful of these things. Be diligent about these things.
Beware. Listen to this. Let me read it
to you in Hebrews 11. It says, now those people who
persuaded have seen the promises of Pharaoh and were persuaded
and embraced them and confessed they were strangers and pilgrims
on this earth, we have here no continuity They all said that.
Strangers and sojourners. They that say such things. I
say that, don't you? Monty, you say that? They that
say such things declare plainly they seek a country. And truly,
if they had been mindful of that country they came out of, they
would have gone back like Lot's wife. But bless God, when this
mind is in you, when He puts the mind of Christ in you, To
live by faith. To see things as not seen. Him
who is invisible. Things as not seen as eternal.
Things that are seen as vanity. Our need of Christ. And we have
here, it's all vanity. And we're headed to our long
home. When He puts that mind in you, I don't want to go back. Do you? Brother Henry, if you
could turn back the clock and you'd be 30 years old right now,
would you do it? You wouldn't? You're strange. Do you know of a person on planet
earth, besides a believer, that wouldn't want to turn the clock
back? That's strange. No, it's life. It's peace. It's eternal life. It's faith. It's what it is. It's the gift
of God. So he says, be diligent. Oh,
John Davis, you're going to like this. Verse 14, be diligent that
you may be found of God in peace without spot and blameless. When He comes, or when He comes
for you, be diligent that you may be found of God in peace without spot and blameless. How many people know what that's
saying? You know these things. Paul said, Oh, that I may be
found. Where? In Him. Christ. Of God are you in Christ, who
of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Peace with God? We can't make
peace with God. I know who did. We know these
things. Christ is our peace. Oh, when
God comes, this is our peace. It's our peace of mind now that
we're in Him and without spot and blameless. Oh, don't you
love this? According as He has chosen us
in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame. Having predestinated us. And
Jude says, now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling
and to present you Faultless! Without spot or blemish before
the presence of His glory. We know these things, don't we? Otherwise, you'd have to worry
about everything. You know these things. And in
the text, in closing, he said, verse 15, "...account the longsuffering
of our Lord as salvation." The Lord is going to have to put
up with us to the day we die. And He does it because He loves
us, and He does it for Christ's sake. For Jonathan's sake. And He will not go back on that.
He said, I remember my covenants. And I can't, I won't change it.
So you sons of Jacob, You'll not be concerned. Verse 16, and
in all his epistles, Paul writes of these things, things unlearned
or hard to understand. We don't understand. We see and
know in part, but we do know some things. We know what the
Lord, what we need to know. And beloved, he talked about
what manner of persons we ought to be, that is, thinking on things
above. Conversation is your talk, your
fellowship, your walk. And you know these things, verse
17, seeing you know these things. Beware, lest ye also be led away
with the error of the wicked. And it's already begun, John
said. It's already begun. The spirit
of Antichrist, even now. Paul wrote to the Hebrews, Beware,
take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart
of unbelief and departing from the living God. Beware, lest ye also be led away. What's the error of the wicked?
Well, many things, but one is the deceitfulness that he uses. Deceitfulness of riches. Amen. So, he says in closing,
grow in grace, but grow in grace. Grow in grace. Grow in the Word
of His grace. The Word of His grace. The Gospel of His grace. When
he said be diligent, that means be constant. Keep yourselves. in the love of God, under the
sound of the Gospel. It will keep you. The Gospel
will keep you. Be diligent about that. Sold out of your life because
it will keep you. And grow in grace. How do we
grow? The sincere milk of the Word. That's
how we grow. We grow. And in the knowledge of our Lord
and Savior. Who is this One that came? You see, in many ways, we know
these things are true. The world scoffs, but we know
they're true. The heavens declare it's God.
The firmament show it's His hand. Day after day, others speak.
Night after night. Creation, the firmament, everything
says God is. The wrath of God. The providence
of God. His Word. This book. is the Word of God. It's amazing
and it's glorious. It's marvelous. It's the Word
of God. No private interpretation. This is the amazing, immaculate,
infallible, inerrant, inspired Word of the living God. That's
what this is. That's who this is. And God came
to earth. His name above every name, the
Lord Jesus Christ. How do we know these things are
so? God came down. before He spoke by the prophet.
In these last days, He came. And He told us the whole thing. And we know, brother Gay, we
know that these things are so because the Son of God hath come
and given us an understanding that we might know Him that is
true and we're in Him that is true. He's the living and the
true God. Jesus Christ. And growing in the knowledge
of Christ, is not just about Him. But when you have fellowship
with somebody, that's how you get to know them. You know that? You know that.
Y'all have been together now a long time. You really know
each other. You really know each other. We come here, Christ said, fellowship,
truly our fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Thomas
said, Lord, how are You going to reveal Yourself to us? How
are You going to reveal Yourself to us and not the world? Here's
how. Either have my Word and keep
it. And my Father will come in. And
I'll come in and we'll set up our abode with them. And we're
going to have fellowship. And you're going to know me. And
the world's going to say, where is he? I don't believe Him. Well, He's
revealed His Son in me, Paul said. Christ in you. And nobody can convince you otherwise.
Can't do it. And the last word is Amen. That
means that's the way it is. How we don't believe that, oh,
but that's the way it is. Yeah, but they say, oh, but that's
the way it is because God said it and God let the Amen sound
from His people again. Amen. Okay. Let's turn to hill number 509
and stand together here.