I have some good news.
The clock's been fixed.
I was told new batteries have been installed.
And, uh, I think I was shocked more
than anybody else this morning when I looked,
I sat down, I looked at my, uh,
watch and I, what has happened?
And, uh, just kept going and, uh, felt
a little bad about it, but I got
over it.
I'm surprised that Warren Parrish didn't tell his
story about, uh, the preacher that went overtime.
And, uh, the, uh, fellow warned the preacher,
if you do that one more time, I'm
leaving.
And so the preacher did do it again,
and, uh, the fellow was, uh, leaving.
Where are you going?
He said, I'm going to get a haircut.
And the preacher said, uh, what did the
preacher say?
And he said, before I came to the
meeting, I didn't need a haircut.
I'd like for us tonight to look in
2 Peter chapter 1.
Uh, there is a connection, I think, between
some of the things that we have been,
uh, discussing.
And I'd like to make, uh, uh, some,
uh, draw upon the similarity between some of
the things that we have regarding, uh, how,
how wonderful it is to have the Word
of God as a resource, uh, when it
comes to, uh, problems that develop in the
body of Christ.
And, uh, Peter, uh, is addressing a problem.
Uh, his letter is to, uh, those that
had gone out and, uh, have been spread
abroad.
I think one of the things that, uh,
more or less amazes me is to how
early on, uh, in, uh, the development of
the church, uh, there were problems.
There were, there was the introduction of false
doctrine.
Uh, in so many instances, uh, it related
to the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And, uh, I know when we read in
Scripture and we find that one of the
marks of the last days, uh, there will
be a departure, uh, from obedience to the
Word of God and a reliance upon the
Scripture.
So, I'd like to, uh, just read, uh,
perhaps the, uh, let's see, the first chapter
is some 21 verses.
And, uh, let's, let's just read the entire
chapter, beginning at verse 1.
Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of
Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like
precious faith with us through the righteousness of
God and our Savior Jesus Christ, grace and
peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge
of God and of Jesus our Lord, according
as His divine power hath given unto us
all things that pertain unto life and godliness
through the knowledge of Him that hath called
us to glory and virtue, whereby are given
unto us exceeding great and precious promises that
by these ye might be partakers of the
divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is
in the world through lust.
And besides this, giving all diligence to your
faith, to your faith, virtue, and to virtue,
knowledge, to knowledge, temperance, and to temperance, patience,
and to patience, godliness, and to godliness, brotherly
kindness, and to brotherly kindness, charity, or love.
For if these things be in you and
abound, they make you that you shall neither
be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of
our Lord Jesus Christ, but he that liketh
these things is blind and cannot see afar
off, and hath forgotten that he was purged
from his old sins.
Wherefore, the rather brethren, give diligence to make
your calling and election sure.
For if ye do these things, ye shall
never fall.
For so an inference shall be ministered unto
you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Wherefore, I will not be negligent to put
you always in remembrance of these things, though
ye know them, and be established in the
present truth.
Yea, I think it meet, as long as
I am 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 has showed
me.
Moreover, I will endeavor that you may be
able, after my decease, to have these things
always in remembrance.
For we have not followed cunningly devised fables
when we made known unto you the power
and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But we are eyewitnesses of his majesty, for
he received from God the Father's honor and
glory when there came such a voice to
him from the excellent glory, This is my
beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
And this voice, which came from heaven, we
heard when we were with him in the
Holy Mount.
We have also a more sure word of
prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take
heed as unto a light that shineth in
a dark place until the day dawns and
the day star arise in your hearts, knowing
this first, that no prophecy of this scripture
is of any private interpretation.
For the prophecy came not in old time
by the will of man, but holy men
of God spake as they were moved by
the Holy Ghost.
Let's bow again in a word of prayer.
Father in heaven, we gather as your people
to hear the voice of God through the
word.
We thank thee for the Spirit of God
that indwells us and enlightens us and helps
us.
He is that heavenly comforter.
He is the one that can give discernment
and understanding of the things that we've read
this evening.
Lord, grant to each one of us a
better understanding of all that we've read, and
may it be a rich blessing to us.
Thank thee for this Lord's Day.
Thank thee for the time together.
Thank thee for the privileges that we enjoy,
the liberty that we have to gather in
this fashion.
We bless thee and thank thee for your
goodness to us, Lord, and ask that you
will indeed presence yourself with us tonight in
a real and wonderful way.
In the name of the Lord Jesus we
ask this.
Amen.
Well, as I said, the Apostle Peter had,
I think, some of the same reasons for
writing what he wrote to the saints that
were scattered abroad.
When Paul wrote that 2 Timothy, his second,
his last letter that he wrote in 2
Timothy, he starts it off with the last
days shall be perilous times.
And that came as a warning.
And I sense in this some of that
warning to the churches that were established at
that time.
It seems they must have been prepared of
Satan.
Those that had the gift of teaching had
some knowledge concerning spiritual things, and they were
going about and they were creating havoc among
so many of the small churches and testimonies
that had been established.
And I think a part of his warning
is to direct them and to help them
to face this and to face it in
a way that they will be overcomers and
they'll not be injured and set back because
of things that were contrary to what we
believe was the clear teaching of the Word
of God.
A warning to the churches.
I think that would be the way that
I began to look at this.
And when false doctrine and when something focused
upon the person of the Lord Jesus Christ
and that holy life that was lived and
that all-sufficient sacrifice, they were quick to
respond to that because so often other things
had been introduced.
There were many legalists.
There were those that were hedonistic and said,
Save by the grace of God, do what
you want to do when you want to
and as often as you want to.
That sort of thing.
And it had to be addressed.
And this man, he identifies himself as a
servant and that certainly reminds you of the
Apostle Paul.
A born slave of our Lord Jesus Christ
to those who have obtained light, precious faith.
You know, I think the grace of God
is something that comes to us through experience,
through knowing something about it.
And I was looking at 2 Corinthians 12
and that was the experience of the Apostle
Paul.
I really am looking at that.
I believe the Apostle Paul fully expected to
be healed of his thorn in the flesh.
I think it came back to him as
a warning, No, not every time you pray
for healing are you going to get healing.
Sometimes there can be something better than getting
healed.
You know, when you're hurting, that's not too
easy to accept.
But I think Paul at least thought that.
But out of that experience, you know the
story.
He prayed three times and the Lord gave
a negative response each time.
But he says, I am going to prove
to you the sufficiency of my grace.
And he did.
And the Apostle Paul says, I rejoice in
infirmities.
It's a wonderful opportunity for God to prove
just how sufficient his grace is in the
experiences of life.
And so I think what we have just
read, there's a lot of that in this.
This growth in grace and knowledge of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and that's the way Peter
closes this little letter that he's written.
It comes through understanding.
A better understanding.
Growing.
Growing is so necessary in our knowledge of
God and of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And so we obtain more grace.
We know how to appropriate that grace and
make it operative in our lives by the
grace of God.
By the grace of God.
And we begin to apply that to our
lives.
The experience may be something you might say,
well, what has the grace of God got
to do with this?
If that's the way God wants to deal
with it, and He wants you and I
to draw from heaven, from a resource that's
available to us, the sufficiency of that grace,
Paul says that's better.
That's better.
I learned out of my own experience that
that's an experience that you wouldn't want to
pass up.
You'll learn something.
And indeed, I believe that Peter has a
very similar feeling about the whole thing.
Because there was something important here to be
gained.
And he didn't want these things to pick
it up.
The adversity, the trial, all of these things
that you're faced with, if you grow under
the good hand of God, if you grow
spiritually, you will be able to come out
of it victoriously.
And when you think about faith, it's precious.
Precious faith.
That's what he lays hold on.
Precious faith claims precious promises.
This morning we were looking at that word
precious.
It's a word that Peter used quite frequently.
Precious faith lays hold upon precious promises.
And this lifts the soul up.
You know, when you feel that you're sagging
spiritually and you're really getting low, you need
something to pick you up.
You need something to encourage you.
And so Peter can say, "...whereby are given
unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that
by these ye might be partakers of the
divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is
in the world through lust."
Now, we have to say this, that he
can become a partaker of the divine nature.
We cannot become divine.
We are human beings.
There are limitations.
But God would put no limitations upon how
much we can grow and we can experience
blessing through faith and trust in Him.
We can become partakers of the holy character
of the God that we have trusted as
our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's a wonderful hope and promise that should
excite each one of us.
I can become something for God that I
never was before.
You know, some of us might look at
our lives and we went through a time,
a dry time, in which we were not
profitable for the Lord.
The Lord couldn't use us because of things
that we didn't understand.
But now, through the experiences in life and
claiming the sufficiency of these precious promises, we
have grown.
We're making progress.
We're maturing.
We're better qualified to face trial and testing
in our lives and do it for the
glory of God.
And we value holiness, being sanctified and set
apart to be used by God.
And isn't it wonderful to recognize and sometimes
sense that God is using me.
God is using me.
He has His hand upon me.
He's entrusted me with responsibility that at one
time He couldn't entrust me with because I
didn't know enough to handle it.
But now I can handle it by the
grace of God.
By the grace of God, I'll handle this.
By the grace of God and all of
His sufficiency, I will be able to come
through this experience.
So you see, there is a value even
in adversity.
That verse that we have in Romans 8,
28.
Man, that's one that I see more of
that.
It seems like we know that all things
work together for good to them that love
the Lord, that are called according to His
purposes.
And then you come to that part of
this passage that is often used to draw
upon and to make us aware of progressive
growth.
It says, besides this, giving all diligence.
Take it seriously, brother.
Apply yourself and apply yourself with all that
you've got.
You want to get out of this everything
that can be gained from it.
This is not a crip course.
This is the real thing.
We need this.
We need this one if we're going to
really be used of God and be effective
for Him.
Add to your faith virtue and to virtue
knowledge.
You link all of these things together.
You place one of them upon another.
It's just like someone said, the stones and
an arch, a stone arch.
Every one of the stones is important.
And you put them all together in the
right position.
And man, it is really strong.
It's there to stay.
It can bear the weight of everything that
is placed upon it.
And that, I think, is a good illustration
of what we have in building, building upon
these things, link upon link.
The stones that are placed there and each
one of us is a living stone.
We provide some mutual support.
It's not like one of us could do
it by ourselves, but put us together.
That's why unity and oneness in the body
is so vital and important to what we're
doing in the world today.
If one of us stands up against the
devil and one says, I'm going to put
on the whole armor of God that I
might be able to stand.
Everybody, all of us, let's be strong for
the Lord.
And let's stand up.
And I'm bearing my part of the responsibility.
I'm bearing my part as someone that can
contribute something to making this strong.
Strong for God.
And there's nothing like holiness.
There's nothing like what God provides.
And again, you take the Word of God
and you remember our Lord said to Satan,
it is written, it is written.
Oh, it's so wonderful to be able to
reach back and you have at your command
passages of Scripture.
When someone says something, but it is written.
But it is written.
It's so wonderful.
I'm telling you, you feel very confident when
you can turn to something in the Scripture.
There it is right there.
And if you believe it and if you
claim it, it really works.
So we give diligence to the things that
God has placed before us that He entrusts
us to do for Him.
For if these things be in you and
abound, they make you that you shall neither
be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
But he that lacketh these things is blind
and cannot see.
I was reading about that and you know
how limited a short-sighted person or near
-sighted person really is?
They can only see something.
You see people, they'll look at something.
Close range is the only thing they can
see.
They don't know a thing about what's going
on out there.
They can't see.
And I think there was some of this
in this, near-sightedness or short-sightedness.
It sounds like the fellow said, well, what
you don't see or what you don't know
won't hurt you.
You know that's purifying.
We want to see just as far as
we can see, don't we?
And I tell you what, the Word of
God and what it provides for us in
the way of a clear perception of how
things really are is something that we can't
afford to be without.
Oh, I don't want to just see what's
right here under my nose.
I want to see what's going on out
there.
If there's danger coming, if there's a warning
given, I want to have good, clear spiritual
vision.
And I want to be able to see
it.
I want to be able to recognize it
for what it is.
And I want to be prepared.
So these things are given to us by
a man, I think out of his own
experience, he's warning.
He's warning those people.
He's warning to us.
I think we're living in the last days.
And as I've quoted the Apostle Paul, the
last days will be very stressful times.
There's so many crazy things going on in
the world today.
Don't criticize the President now.
We're not to take issue with those that
are in authority over us.
We pray for them.
I'm not a politician.
I'm not a military strategist.
I don't know all those things, but I
can pray for those that are involved in
making decisions about these things.
I think that's our responsibility.
But I want to be perceptive enough and
based upon the Word of God know what's
about to happen, at least as a warning
here.
It's not like we're going to be caught
unaware about how conditions will worsen as the
days go along and until our Lord comes.
But He is coming.
We anticipate it.
We believe it.
We look forward to it.
And it encourages our hearts.
And Peter says this.
He says, "...Wherefore, the rather brethren, give diligence
to make your calling and election sure.
For if you do these things, you shall
never fall."
I think someone said from this platform, I
believe it was Mark, said, you know, sometimes
check up, thinking about your experience, your testimony,
and how it was with you when you
made that decision for the Lord Jesus Christ.
I don't think it's time ill spent to
review that in your mind.
How did that happen?
I'm going to enjoy that again.
You ever do that, an experience in life?
I'm going to enjoy that one more time.
I enjoy going over the night I got
saved.
Boy, that's where it started for me.
I was dead in trespasses and sin, and
you mean to tell me being made alive
spiritually and being born again and becoming a
child of God is not something that should
excite each one of us?
Go back and relive the experience and say,
God, I'm glad it happened.
I praise You for what happened.
I know!
We don't go for that hope-so stuff.
Oh, I hate to hear a person say,
oh, I hope I'm saved.
Hope you're saved.
You mean you don't know you're saved?
You could know it from the Word of
God.
Well, I don't know about that, but I'm
just hoping.
I'm hoping.
You can't get much joy into that.
You're hoping.
You're speculating about something happening that you're not
sure if it's real or not.
So Peter could say, look, check up.
God issued a divine call to every one
of us to trust Christ as our Savior.
And it's up to you.
That's our responsibility to accept it or to
turn away.
Thank God tonight that we're in the family
of God.
We recall that experience.
I'm glad that I had that experience.
I'm rejoicing in that moment in time when
the Spirit of God finally came in power.
And that's what He did.
And that was your experience if you know
the Lord Jesus.
You felt miserable and you wanted relief.
And He said, this is the way you
get it.
You just say, Lord, I surrender.
I'm a poor sinner.
And you accept the Lord Jesus as your
Savior.
Peace like a river flows into your soul.
Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, it's a wonderful experience.
Some people, they seem to grow weary of
hearing anyone tell about how they got saved.
I can't think of anything any more important
in your life than getting saved.
You're not going to be subjected to the
judgment and the wrath of God.
You're going to spend eternity with the God
who created all things and provided salvation for
you, a poor lost sinner, and He has
brought you into His family.
You say, well, I can't get excited about
that anymore.
It's been a long time ago.
Review it in your mind.
I'm thinking that if somebody did take that
way, I don't think they'd take very seriously
any growth.
What had happened all of those years in
between the time they made that decision and
the presence, this present day.
What has happened in my life since I
trusted Christ.
Peter would remind his brother, he'd say, you
need to grow in grace and knowledge of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
And if that's happened to you, thank God
you did it in this day in which
we're living.
In your lifetime.
Someone said it like this.
You were saved at the glory of the
flood.
The full flood tide.
You know, the tide came in and there
was blessing and there was refreshing and you
were there and you took advantage of it.
I think about what happened in Durham so
many years ago, over 50 years ago for
most of us.
The Spirit of God moved mightily.
You know, a lot of poor sinners got
saved.
Sometimes you hear people talk about it and
again, someone says, what was that all about?
I wasn't there.
Well, I'll tell you, it was a wonderful
experience.
Oh, there was something to excite your soul.
It wasn't anything for not just Brother Detwiler
or Lester Wilson or many others.
I remember one time as somebody they laid
their hands on.
I preached a message on a Sunday morning
at the Gospel Center and nine people came
forward.
You know the most surprised person in the
audience?
Me.
I was shocked.
The power of the Gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ working.
And brethren had to come forward and we
dealt with those people and people were saved.
Now listen, that's something to excite the soul.
Would to God we would see that today.
We have churches today that a brother and
I fellowship together and he's done a large
fellowship and he said, we have a lot
of people that identify with our fellowship, but
sad to say, we don't have many that
have an outright conversion experience.
It seems to be on the decline.
We hear about it in other places.
That's something for us to pray about.
Something for us to really pray about.
Stay active witnessing for the Lord doing what
you can.
You know anybody can put a tract in
somebody else's hand.
I do a lot of that and sometimes
I get a good response and sometimes you
never hear anything about it.
Nobody even says anything about it.
But don't be discouraged.
Keep doing what you believe God would have
you to do.
I mean the issues that are at stake
are too important for us to just sit
down and say, I'm going to take it
easy and I'm saved and I'm happy in
my salvation and I'm on my way to
heaven and I'm just going to coast on
into glory.
Don't let it happen that way.
And Peter says, I would not be negligent
to put you always in remembrance of these
things though you know them and be established
in the present truth.
Yeah, I think it need as long as
I'm in this tabernacle to stir you up
by putting you in remembrance.
You know, there's nothing wrong with recalling these
things.
Someone might say, well, the only thing you
can talk about is the past and past
blessings.
Well, if that would be the stimuli to
get us to wake up and say what
we were doing then, I'm going to do
it now.
I'm going to get up and turn the
telly off and stop looking at all those
events on there and I'm going to go
out.
I'm going out now.
I'm not inviting people to come in.
I'm going out into the world we live
today and I'm going to make a mark
for God.
I'm going to tell people about the Lord
Jesus Christ.
And if we're not doing that, I don't
think that we're up with what God wills
for our lives.
And you can sense in Peter, you know,
Peter was there.
He was there on the mount when our
Lord was transfigured there.
He had been through a lot of experiences
and he had already been informed that shortly
I will put off this, my tabernacle.
Our Lord had already told him.
Somewhere down the line, it may not be
too far, he didn't know exactly when, but
he said the Lord Jesus had showed him.
Same thing happened to the Apostle Paul.
He warned Timothy, you know.
It won't be long.
I see the handwriting on the wall.
I am nearing the end of my ministry
and service for God.
And brother and sister, tonight in this room,
not one of us knows when he may
say, it's time to come home.
It's time to come home.
If he called me or he called you
tonight, would you be satisfied with your performance
as a believer, as a witness to the
Lord Jesus?
Have you learned all that he would have
you to learn of that wonderful, rich experience
of being holy and sanctified for God and
a mighty witness for him here in the
world today?
Are you satisfied with where you stand today?
Would the Spirit of God speak to us
and say, No, I'm not, but I'm making
a move.
I'm making a move for God.
I've just been awakened to the reality of
how important it is.
Well, that's what Peter, he said, I was
an eyewitness of what took place on that
mount.
Man, it was inspirational!
My Lord transfigured right before me.
For he received from God the Father honor
and glory when there came a voice to
him from the excellent glory, This is my
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
And this voice which came from heaven we
heard when we were with him on the
holy mountain.
Would you prefer to have a voice from
heaven speak to you and say something to
you, or are you satisfied with what you
have before you, the Word of God?
What's the difference?
You say, well, that would be an unusual
experience if I heard a voice.
You know, I would be frightened about strange
voices.
People have been deceived that heard voices.
You know, Satan is a great magician.
He is a master of deception.
I'll tell you what, this is the Word
of the living God.
This is an inspired book that we have
in our hands.
This is God speaking to us.
I don't want to run any risk of
listening to any strange voices.
The Spirit of God spoke to me.
Yes, I'm sure the Spirit of God speaks
to each one of us, and He uses
the Word of God.
We worship God in the power of the
Spirit of God according to truth, truth found
in the book.
So when someone says, I would like to
hear a voice, the witness of Scripture, I
believe, is even more sure than hearing a
voice.
I've got the Word of God.
Do we value it that way?
Do we look at it and search it
and seek that enlightenment that we need?
And he closes with, knowing this first, that
no prophecy of the Scripture is any private
interpretation.
Oh, we have the Word of God.
I think we need to regard this book
very highly.
Most of us have a lot of Bibles
in our homes.
We've got them laying all over the place.
We've got them in the back of every
pew in this chapel.
They get dusty from not being used.
So often there may be a book there
and that book has never been opened by
anyone searching for light from heaven.
That's so sad to me.
So much that could enlighten the soul and
change that life.
And there it is.
It's like having a cure for cancer.
There it is.
It's right there.
But it's not used and it has no
value.
You've got to use this book.
You have got to take it into your
mind, your heart and soul, and the Spirit
of God will give enlightenment and help and
growth and grace and knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
We must regard this book as something that
is filled with precious promises from God just
for His family, for His children.
He wants us to use it.
I'm telling you, you can trust it.
The Word of the living God.
A lot of things may come and go,
but the Word of God will stand forever.
And how wonderful that is.
And that's what we have in hand.
And that's what we feed our souls upon.
The truth that's found in this book, the
Word of God.
We've got a lot to be thankful for
as believers in the Lord Jesus.
Our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee again for
the day we've spent together and for the
time we've spent around the Word of God.
Use it, we pray Thee, Lord, to awaken
us, make us aware of all of the
potential that we have for bringing blessing into
the lives of someone else.
Help us to use the Word, the sword
of the Spirit, so powerful.
O our God, we thank Thee and praise
Thee that we've been included in that number
of those that have trusted the Savior and
we're on our way to heaven.
And as we look forward to that moment
in time when we'll be in His very
presence, Lord, keep us busy being a good,
strong witness for Him.
We ask in His precious name.
Amen.