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Eternal.
Journey was on the bridge.
When you were.
The oil were all.
We now we pray.
Come pray, need my.
Love of God.
And everything.
I really want to die.
For a day before.
Our demons pray.
Alone.
The heart came across thy glands, my word.
And I thought.
Oh my love.
Umm, is there anything else?
In the world.
Someone raised the tomb, please.
Your Lord don't come and.
00:05:41
Nsnoise.
Singer is coming.
In the old mainstay.
What the world is we love?
Umm, all right, so I'm asking you.
Oh, OK.
It is OK really so.
I can do it for the living room. I'm sorry for all of them and I said I was very great and could change.
Verse 12.
The night is far spent, the day is at hand.
Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness.
Let us put on the Armor of Light.
Second Peter chapter one and verse 10.
Wherefore the rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure.
For if you do these things, you shall never fall, for so an entrance 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. Yeah, I think it meat 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 ye may be able after my deceased, 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 were eyewitnesses of His Majesty, for he received from God the Father 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, which we heard, we heard when we were with him in the mount, holy mount. We have also a more sure word of prophecy. Whereunto ye do well, that ye take heed.
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As unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. Knowing this first, that no prophecy of 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.
I say that that is for this conference. Say that because I think it would be well for us to keep that in mind as we go through the rest of the chapter so that we don't fall short of getting to the Daystar.
Verse five, they were as we had yesterday. There was the importance of diligence.
And not being slothful or lazy.
About putting into practice the truth that is was before us this morning. We have in verse 10 give diligence. We have that word diligence brought out again in this case it says.
Diligence to make your calling and election sure.
We have been called of God. We have been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. From God's side, there's nothing unsure, there's nothing to be made sure about the matter of His calling and his election. So this verse isn't about God, it's about us. It's about our side of it. And it brings before us the fact that, as has often been said, happiness and obedience go together.
Confidence and fellowship go together as well. Umm, we have in John, he says to us, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And So what this verse is bringing before us is the necessity of diligence that we might enter into the joy and the confidence of that calling and election of God. And God doesn't if we don't put these things into practice.
God doesn't give confidence to careless walk. God doesn't reassure. Uh, the soul that wants to walk in self will but have the confidence that everything is well with God. And it's very possible, yes, we know doctrinally that a person who has put their trust truly in the Lord Jesus Christ could never be lost.
But if we don't walk in the truth, many a soul has lost the confidence of that fact, and God doesn't reassure the men it either. He wants us to be in fellowship with Himself, and if we're not in fellowship with Him, then we don't have the assurance of His thoughts in anything. But it is an important and necessary thing for us to, as it were, to have diligence to walk in obedience and dependence.
So that we might have the joy of our election and Our Calling and many other truths as well.
Fruit in our lives. Then they have the joy and assurance too. And I say that because when Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, there was a great testimony in their joy in the Lord. They're waiting for his Son from heaven. And he says to them in that first chapter of First Thessalonians, knowing, brethren, your election of God, something to that effect. As Paul looked at those Thessalonians and saw the fruit in their lives that was so evident and was giving testimony.
He said. I'm sure you're the Lords. I know you're the elect of God.
And so it gives confidence. We look at a person and we say, oh, we see fruit and such fruit in their lives that there's no doubt that they belong to the Lord Jesus. There's been a real work of grace. But isn't it sad when there's an individual that at one time you were sure that they were saved? And time goes on and finally you have to shake your head and say, well, the Lord knows them that are his. You no longer have that confidence in that person that they're saved. Of course, if they were saved, they'll never lose their salvation.
00:15:08
But not only do they lose the joy of their calling, the joy of their salvation, but others look on and they lose that confidence in that person as well. Would you allow that? There's both sides of that.
The Epistle to the Hebrews brings that out in chapter 10, at the end of chapter 10, and it says, there, verse 35. Cast not away, therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise. For yet a very little while. And he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith. But if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
Well, we know that it's possible, as you say, for us to go on for a time and to have a good beginning. And these Hebrews, they had a good beginning and they suffered and they were made the gazing stock of, uh, those of their brethren. They suffered for naming the name of Christ. And so the Lord, the desires, particularly, I believe, to encourage the Hebrews and these had, who had been saved from among the Hebrews that Peter writes to that they might have diligence to just continue. It was their responsibility to continue.
And the path of faith has lived one day at a time. And so he desires that they would, umm, make their calling and their elections sure. For if you do these things, you shall never fall.
We touched on it says and have forgotten that he was purged from his old sins in first Peter chapter 4. It says in verse two that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh of the last of men, but to the will of God. For in the time past of our life may suffice as to have wrought the will of the Gentiles. So there's a time past and there is the rest of the time. But even though the next chapter, chapter 2 is Speaking of those that are false, it says at the end of it, but it's happened unto them that according to the true proverb, the dog is turned again to his own vomit. You know, there's something very comforting to our old nature just to sink back into that old way of life.
And so we need to be exhorted to go on in first Timothy, the last chapter, it says to umm, verse 12, fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life in verse 19 or verse 18, that they do good, that we, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may play hold on eternal life. Again, it's not that we're gaining eternal life, but we're laying a hold on that which is really life.
And not those things of that just feed the lust of the flesh and so on.
Ward, isn't it in the coming day of glory and reigning with Christ? And when it speaks in verse 11 of an abundant entrance, you notice it's not an abundant entrance into heaven. We don't get to heaven by our diligence and faithfulness here. We get to heaven on the basis of the finished work of Christ and faith in the blood that was shed there. And it's the blood of Jesus that has cleansed us from all sin and made us fit for heaven.
But the thought here is not heaven, but it's an abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdom. Because we know from a number of other scriptures that there will be a difference in the rewards and the administration that the Saints have with the Lord Jesus in that righteous reign, which we refer to as the millennial reign of Christ. And so in the Gospels we get the the parable where be thou over 5 cities, be thou over 10 cities.
Our position of reigning with Christ in the Kingdom.
The administrative responsibility is in relationship to our diligence and faithfulness in following Christ and living for Christ's glory now here in this world now and that is being established day by day in your life and mine. And what his desire is that we would have an abundant entrance. He doesn't want us just to be over 5 cities. He wants us to be over 10 cities. I know the numbers figurative and and so on. I don't think it's going to be literal or there wouldn't be enough cities to go around but.
I, I believe the point is he wants us to, he wants to have the joy of giving as much reward as he can because it's going to be his joy to say, well done now good and faithful servant. And are you and I living in view of the reign of Christ? You know, we often talk, brethren, about the Lord's coming for his Saints, what we refer to as the rapture as the proper hope of the believer. And that's true. I understand what we mean when we say that.
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But when we go to Titus chapter 2, there are really two things that are the proper hope of the believer.
Linked intimately together, we're to be looking for the blessed hope. That's the hope of momentarily being snatched away to be with and like the Lord Jesus in the Father's house. But then it says, and the glorious appearing, that's the time when He appears back in this world to take His Kingdom. And you and I are going to be with Him and like Him on that occasion when we He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. He's going to come back with His Saints.
And we are to be looking for that too. And Paul summed it up in almost the last words he penned by inspiration. He said to Timothy that we're to love His appearing. Do we really love His appearing? Are we looking forward to any living in anticipation of the everlasting Kingdom? If we are, then our desire will be to live for His glory, that we might have an abundant entrance there.
See it as a proper.
We have to not be selfish.
I say that because it's so easy for us to look at every truth and say what's in it for me? What am I going to get out of it? I'm going to heaven. Wonderful place.
And I'm going to the scripture tells me I'm going to be really happy there, and I'm not going to have the flesh in me to worry about anymore and bother me and so on. And I'm going to get to look at the Lord Jesus and I'm going to get to feed on him and enjoy him and so on. And Scripture presents all that to us.
As part of our hope.
But, brethren.
Beyond that, more important than that.
At times, to put all those thoughts aside is to say, what does he get? God's primary supreme purpose is the honor and glory of His Son.
And when we look forward to the glorious appearing, is it because we are going to reign? Is it because we're going to be over so many cities and have finally I shared in the rejection of Christ and so now I share in the glory of Christ. Well, there's that side of it. And it's not wrong in its place, but much better for the soul is to say he's going to have his place. He is going to be supreme.
And so it is, He is going to have the joy of fellowship again with his kinsman, the seed of Abraham, that is, those who are of faith, and so on. And so the glorious appearing is, can I say first and foremost, for his sake and the measure in which our hearts are attached to him in an unselfish way, then we are going to find our joy.
With God in what God wants to accomplish to the glory and honor of His own Son. And so it's even in this.
Uh, we want an abundant entrance for His sake.
For his sake.
You, you the, the bride who has in that sense, on her wedding day, all the dressing up and the finery and so on, in many cases is is it to her own glory? Well, there is glory in it, but is it not in this more pure sense? She wants to present herself to the honor of the bridegroom and to His joy and to His pleasure.
Do we not want to finish our course here on Earth and so that we can enter into the Everlasting Kingdom in a way that will please him, that he will be satisfied in?
US and it God will be satisfied that we are an expression of that which honors and glorifies His Son. And so we have our proper hopes.
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But the greatest aspect of those hopes is to see them in connection with His place, not our own.
Remind us frequently of those, uh, prospects that we have in the Scriptures. And so he wants us to be established in the present truth, the present Christian truth that we have. It's, uh, remarkable how often times in connection with the, the writings to the Hebrew Saints, it mentions this word being established and, uh, endurance, as has been already mentioned, but in James chapter 5 and verse 8.
It says, Be also patient, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. That was their present hope, But as you say, they had that hope before them of entering into the everlasting Kingdom and being associated with the Lord Jesus and His Kingdom. And God has made every provision that we could be reminded frequently of that Kingdom, frequently that He's the despised, 1 here, rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief when he was here.
But he's going to be presented to this world in great glory and great honor, and he desires us to be established in this truth.
Not to just settle down in this world and to get comfortable, but to really look for that time when he's going to be raining. Paul could say to the Corinthians that you have reigned ahead of the time. And I would to God he did reign, that we might reign with you. And so we all need to be reminded of this frequently.
Because they were looking for an earthly Kingdom and I think Hebrews is a is a beautiful book because it lifts their eyes Heavenwood and you know, the longer we remain here, our eyes tend to be downcast. It's beautiful to see the Lord in Mark seven. He sighed and looked up. We sighed and looked down and so he presents here in these next several verses the reality of that Kingdom. You know, young people, all of us from time to time we need to be reminded we haven't followed cunningly devised fables. These things are real.
Very real. There was real as the well that you look around you at and you can see with your eyes, even though it's only by faith.
That we can receive them now and see them.
From the present truth before we pass on, because you know, there's a great movement today amongst many believers to look for some new revelation of truth. And while it's true, we always can have a fresh enjoyment of things. And as we read the word and hear it ministered, there are things perhaps that are brought out that we've never enjoyed or seen before. There is there are applications that are relevant to the day in which we live and so on.
But brethren, we want to be very careful that when we take up the word of God, we take it up as the present truth. Jude, when he wrote to the Saints, he reminded them of the of the faith once delivered to the Saints. Jude was writing of appalling days of apostasy and falling away. He said, I'm not going to bring before you any new truth, but he said, I'm going to remind you of that which was laid down at the beginning.
And not only that, but the present. I like to think of this expression, the present truth, as being truth relevant to the day in which we live. It's always been the present truth. It was the present truth when it was penned by the apostles, by inspiration and New Testament writers. It's the present was the present truth in the days of Mr. Darby and Mr. Kelly and those men that were raised up of God.
It was the present truth in my grandfather and Father's Day and in 2010. Brethren, it's still the present truth. Don't look for some new revelation. God doesn't give fresh revelation at the end of a dispensation. He may give recovered light during a dispensation. He gives fresh enjoyment all along the path of faith, but He does not give fresh revelation at the beginning of a dispensation or administration.
In fact, he brings in judgment because of man's failure to keep that which has been established. But it is the present truth. And Peter said, I'm going to remind you of these things again and again. Now, we've sat in these meetings for the last 2 1/2 days. Have we really heard anything new? Brethren, we've heard truth that we have heard for many years. Many of us grew up coming to these conferences from the very early days of our youth.
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From before we could remember, yes, we may have heard things presented in a little different way and by a little different personality, little different connection of scriptures or something like that, but I don't think we've really heard anything new. Do we make apologies for taking up a chapter like this that's been taken up many times? No. Do we make apologies for going over some of the same scriptures and applications and interpretations that we've gone over?
Many times before in meetings like this. No. Why? Because as Peter said, even though you know these things, even though you're established in them and you're going on in them, I'm going to tell you again, Paul said. I think it was to the Philippians to write the same things to you. To me is not grievous or irksome. And to you it is safe, Paul said. For me to repeat the truth to you and remind it, remind you of it again.
Is for your safe safeguard and blessing, Peter says. I'm gonna tell you again and again and again. I wanna say this little encouragement as you go back to your home assembly. I know there are a lot of brothers here and you you haven't taken part this weekend in a setting like this, but you're gonna go home and you're gonna take part in the reading meeting Wednesday night, Thursday night, Sunday night. You're gonna have a responsibility in the local assembly. Don't make apologies for re repetition of the truth. You say we don't. I don't know a whole lot I can't explain.
A whole lot, but when the portions open in red, bring out some simple things. Yes, bring it out in a fresh way in which you've enjoyed it. If you present it fresh, the Spirit of God will use it. But don't feel bad because you don't have some what you feel, some great gift to explain or some great memory. For a lot of scriptures, just present the things you've presented before, because for the brethren, it's needful and it's safe.
Many of us know and remember Him brought this truth out. It's almost identical, brethren, to what we're hearing this very moment.
Brother Paul Javiden stood up and he said, brethren, you can count on this.
If it's true.
It's not new, but if it's new, it's probably not true.
I've always carried that with me.
And now, these many years later, we're bringing out the same thing.
God knows our hearts.
And he knows what's needed for these hearts of ours.
And Scripture over and over again tells us that God, knowing our hearts, sees the need that certain things be brought back over and over and over again to us, because we all, speaking naturally, tend to value something we know over time less.
And there is a tendency, it's an age where I want something new, I want something different, perhaps I want something exciting is the order of the day in which we live. And it's becoming an increasing such. I think it's a work of Satan to accelerate in man or to create in man a dissatisfaction for anything that has been around for a while.
Uh, but brethren, it's a snare.
It's it's a loss to our souls.
The Lord knew our hearts when he said, as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do this in.
Remembrance of me Of all the things in the Christian period, in the period of God's grace and the formation of the Church of God, the one thing that the Lord gave the most emphasis to in that sense by specifically saying in remembrance.
But we have to guard our hearts. We have to be stirred up because the first time maybe we remember the Lord. It was a fantastic experience or something in some but.
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I trust that it's even a more fantastic experience today if you've been doing it for 50 years and more because the Lord sees in us that need to refresh the soul in that which is.
Becomes old to the flesh, but is ever new to the new man. Uh.
Little example of it is found in Numbers chapter 29 where you have the, uh, feasts that are kept during the OR were to be kept in the past, but again will be kept in the Millennium. And I think it's rather interesting. And the one that takes place over a period of seven days and it mentions the offering that was to be offered to the Lord on the first day, there were 14 bullocks.
The second day there were 13, the third day there were 12, and it went down every day by one. The number of lambs and other and the the goat, I think, stay the same, but in the Bullock.
Which is that appreciation of what Christ is to God. Even in the Millennium, even in the most favorable of circumstances, God recognizes that there tends to be a depreciation.
Over time a a lessening of appreciation and thank God He alone will sustain us in having the ever immediate.
Fresh looking upon the Lord Jesus Christ for eternity. And will the cross ever be forgotten?
Brethren, there's only one thing.
A new creation that will ever remind us that there was an old creation. It won't be in your body, it won't be in mine, but in the Lord Jesus Christ, in His body. As we look upon him forever. We will see the marks as an ever fresh reminder of the work of Calvary. It'll never be claim old and yet God sees the need for it to be so Ever fresh and remembrance.
That it will be forever seen in His person. So may the Lord help us not to despise going over and over again.
Not saying in our hearts, Well, I didn't learn anything new this conference.
God satisfied if your heart was stirred up in remembrance.
And umm, she made this comment, uh, she said that when I was in teachers college, they told us that, uh, we had to say the same thing a minimum of 38 times preference preferably, uh, preferably about 40 times. The very same, uh, umm, piece of information had to be communicated perhaps in a slightly different way, but it had to be done at least 38 to 40 times for the students to get the, the message.
And so we may not think that we need 40 things, 40 times the same thing, but the Lord knows, and He's able by His Spirit to remind us. And so the apostle here says that he would not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things. So perhaps while he was alive, he was telling them these things verbally, but then he was.
Going to put off his Tabernacle or his tent, his body. He was going to be martyred and.
He was making every effort that after he was gone that the truth would still be communicated to them and that they could be reminded. So to stir you up, putting you in remembrance, knowing that shortly I must put off this my Tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has showed me. I just turned to 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 and you find there the same thing it says in verse 15, Second Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 15.
Therefore, brethren, he is speaking to those that know the Lord and have an appreciation for the person and the work of Christ. He says, Brethren, stand fast.
And hold the traditions or the traditional teachings of Scripture which we have been taught.
Which ye have been taught, whether by word or by our epistle. And so it's a wonderful thing to come into the assembly and to come to conferences like this and to have oral ministry or to be able to purchase some of the oral ministry on CDs or cassettes that BTP has and to listen to those recorded meetings, perhaps whose faith follows some of those other websites. But we come into the presence of the Lord and hear his word. But then we have the epistles, we have Paul's doctrine, we have Peter's epistles, John's epistles. We need to value those epistles. We need both the.
00:40:25
Oral teaching and the written teaching. And so I just want to reiterate that, uh, we need to be established in the truth and very young people, you may spend $100, umm, you know, at a hotel room, you may spend $50 filling up your gas tank, one gas tank and it doesn't go very far. Umm, but I would just encourage you to start your library. If you don't have a library, start to buy some books every single conference that you go to.
Budget maybe $100 and buy some written ministry, buy some oral ministry, buy something and then read it before you go to the next conference and the Lord will bless you, will honor that desire. But we need to be established. We need the written ministry and the oral ministry. We need the word of God and it's going to take purpose of heart to want to be reminded.
They are related.
We are getting a Sunday school paper every week.
And the many meetings have more than one child. They have several children and they are repeat the Sunday school words every week.
And as an encouragement for all the people, I enjoy sitting there and listen to the brother who.
Hold the Sunday school and they are truly different ones at different times and it's very refreshing.
There's many people, I mean I think most of the UMM meetings get a Sunday school paper and even for the old people now, we always like sit in the Sunday School and to us it's a refreshing time.
When we repeat the words with the children.
And, uh, we listen to the brother who gets the next list explanation. It's always new and it's always refreshing. It's that's one way of just keeping up with the word of God for all the people too.
So Peter has passed off the scene as he anticipated here, Paul has passed off the scene as he anticipated in Second Timothy. And we don't have apostles and.
Prophets in the sense that they did in the early church, but we have their writings, and those writings, as we get in Ephesians, are the foundation the church is built on, the foundation of the apostles and prophets. That is the truth, the ministry that they were given. They laid the foundation, true truth for us.
And that doesn't change. And so as we've been saying, we need to go back and we need to review.
They say in education there are three Rs to education. Review, review, review.
And we need those, those reviews. But then I, and I just want to echo something that's already been said, but you know, it's interesting with Paul.
In Second Timothy, which was, we believe, the last epistle that he wrote by inspiration.
He knew that he was going to shortly thereafter lay down his life as well, and he said to Timothy that he was to take the truth that he had received from Paul and committed to faithful men who were able to teach others. Also. We often say we don't have Apostolic succession, and that's true, but we do have the succession of passing on the apostles doctrine not just to anybody but the faithful man.
And I'm thankful for men that in my, in my growing up, they're with the Lord now, but they were faithful men who sought to pass on the truth to us. A brother who if I said his name here, you many would recognize he's made this statement before he passed away. He said his exercise and desire was to pass on the truth to the next generation in the same purity in which he himself had received it. I thought that was a wonderful exercise.
00:45:04
Not to water it down, yes, to present it in a relevant, applicable way, But not to water it down or to change it. And brethren, that ought to be our exercise. Yes, we're looking for the Lord to come this afternoon, but in the meantime, we need to be exercised to pass on the truth with the same purity in which we ourselves have received it from past generations. And again, not to make apologies for repetition.
So Peter speaks of this and then our time is passing. Then he goes on to speak again of that which is ahead. The coming glory. It's all in view of that, isn't it?
It's all in view of his glory in the coming day of rain and so on.
And manifestation. And then he says we were eyewitnesses of His Majesty.
Brethren, I'll just remind you of that experience that we had on the Mount of Transfiguration, that little preview of the coming glory. What encouraged Peter to go on and present the truth and even in a day of ruin and breakdown, what encouraged him to go on and be faithful in that which would have been committed to him? I'm sure in his mind and in his soul, he often went back to that experience. Oh, there's a day of glory coming. There's a day of manifestation coming.
And he to be able to press on and present the truth to his brethren with that in view, I'm sure gave him great strength and daily courage.
What Peter passes on is what he himself has seen.
And experienced and what John passes on in first John in the very first chapter, he tells us, uh, that he wants to pass on that they might have fellowship. What were they? He had seen and heard.
And.
I'd like to make the comment specially for those who pass on.
You can't pass on properly.
What isn't your own truth is truth.
Regardless of who says it, an ungodly man can say truth. An *** can speak to Balaam. Balaam can bless the people of God as God made him do so. But then the Word of God. We always see the messenger connected with his message, and it's a solemn thing to purport to present the truth of God if it's not in its own reality and our own souls.
And that's a serious thing, brethren, that, umm, the brother that would pass on the truth and its purity from one generation to next, I would suggest, if it didn't have its place in his own soul.
In the same measure as from whom he had received it, he wasn't passing it on. In the same measure, I won't say he didn't pass on the truth and accuracy and correctness. Uh, but it's a, it's a matter that when the children of Israel came back from the captivity and they presented the things that had been entrusted to them, uh, when they got back to Jerusalem, as they started the journey, each one was given vessels and other things to carry.
But when they got back and they presented them at the other end of the journey, they presented them not only by measure, that is, you took 10, did you deliver 10, but also by weight, that is, did in a spiritual sense, did they have the same weight in their truth as when they started. And sometimes we lament that we see from one generation to the next.
A loss.
Very often it's not a loss in accuracy of truth, but rather that the truth is not in its living reality, in the soul of the next generation, and so they can't pass it on to the generation. And this tendency goes on. And so we see and Paul, and we see in Peter and we see in John, we know something about those men.
Because God lets us see that the truth that they communicated was also a living reality in their own hearts and in their own lives. Those who were to receive it were to receive it regardless because it was truth, but they also were to communicate it. And Paul even could say, as I also am a follower of Christ. And so it is with us, brethren, let's it ought to humble. I think it does humble us if we recognize sometimes that.
00:50:18
It's not as the world says, what you are speaks so loud I can't hear what you say. And and so the world looks at our lives as to whether that reinforces what we say about the things of God or we don't. And it's not so much what we say to them that has weight with them, but it's whether they see it in our lives in that measure in which we speak of it. And so Peter had a sense of it. One more thought in connection with it. I think Peter was growing between his first and 2nd letter.
Someone else has suggested this. If you go back to his first words, in his first letter, he says Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. Now he writes the letter we're meditating on, and he says Simon Peter, a servant, an apostle of Jesus Christ.
Simon Peter is a little less.
Umm, glorious than just Peter because Simon reminds us of what he started out with and what he was. And in fact, Scripture almost always refers to him as Simon Peter, never once calls him the Apostle Peter. And it's a little bit of a reflection that Peter had. Well, he could have said, hey, I'm an apostle, listen to me.
But he he starts out and he says, this is Simon Peter, I'm a servant and I'm an apostle. He needed to say apostle because of the authority to his words. It was a necessary thing for him to do. But I think he also had grown in the sense of his littleness, and so we need to do the same.
He says that we were eyewitnesses of His Majesty, and then in verse 18 at the beginning, it says this voice which came from heaven we heard.
And so to be a competent witness, he needed to see and he needed to hear. And as you've been saying, when it comes to ourselves and passing on the truth, we need to see the truth for ourselves and enjoy it in our own souls. And umm, we need to hear the voice of the Lord in private sitting at his feet, and then we're able to be competent witnesses to the truth of God. Then you find in John's gospel in connection with the apostle John chapter one and verse one first epistle.
He says from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes.
Which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life. And so there was a special communion that the apostles had.
That the others didn't have, but they were raised up of God. That they might be competent witnesses. What a privilege it is for us to be able to be competent witnesses in this scene that rejected Him and walks in darkness.
Do you recall what happened on that configuration? It was Peter that said mustard is good for us to be here. Let us make 3 tabernacles, one for the one for Moses, one for lies, not knowing what he said. That obviously is not brought out in this chapter. But my point is, is that the things that we fail in in life, the challenges that we face, that through God's help that we overcome is those lessons we never ever forget. I just mentioned to someone yesterday that if you look at the division in Israel that happened in the time of Rehobom.
I believe it was an old division that reappeared when David became king. Initially he was only king over Judah and the rest of Israel followed after uh, Seoul's son.
And that included Benjamin because obviously Saul was of the tribe of Benjamin and the other tribes, but ultimately they all joined and went with David. But when Rehoboam comes around, Benjamin doesn't split off. Benjamin goes on with Judah. And why is? Because I believe that Benjamin had made a decision back in the time of David that they were done with the House of Saul and they were going to follow after the House of David. And so when these trials come in our life and failures come in our life and maybe.
Young person, you're on a pathway back in restoration.
These are good things. They're not things to to to, you know, Peter doesn't dwell on it here. He doesn't bring it out in this chapter, but I just think that it really, he never forgot that incident on the amount of trans, on the amount of transfiguration, in part because of his own failure there and his nothingness that he learned from that.
00:55:16
Wonderful, isn't it, to see here?
That this majesty, this presentation of the millennial glory of the Lord Jesus, a shining above the noonday sun, that they were privileged to witness of the coming day when the Lord and all His official glories is to be seen by man and had this glimpse of it ahead of time, Who gave him the glory?
Who presented it to to the Lord Jesus. It says here verse 17. He received from God the Father honor and glory. What a joy it is to our hearts to say to our God, he deserves it. He deserves it. We we rejoice that God has given him. Umm we couldn't do it, but he we know he deserves it. He's worthy of it.
He doesn't take it unto himself, although he in one sense as as the Son, as the Son of God, He had his own intrinsic glories. But here when it comes to the manifestation before man and he is having taken the place of a man, He, he keeps man's place, which is the one greater is the one that can prestow, come up higher, and so God delights.
To give him as it says here, he received from God the Father and the testimony to the disciples was this is my beloved son. And so God would delight on our hearts this morning to present his Son to our hearts and and say this is my son. I've honored him and what else can we do but as it were, take our place.
Vowing before him and say we want to do it too. Lord, you're worthy.
He wants us to see no man comma save Jesus only, and that that's really his desire for us. And it's interesting that there were two companies on the Mount of Transfiguration. They were representative, but there's two companies. There was Moses and Elijah, which represent to us perhaps the heavenly company.
And there were the three disciples, which represent to us the earthly company.
And in the coming day of glory, Christ is going to be the center of both spheres, isn't he? God is going to make sure that, as it were, we see no man save Jesus only it's going to be his glory, even with his Saints, when we we come back with him, he's coming to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that are about him in that day when the.
Earth looks up and sees the Lord Jesus coming in the open heavens and the heavenly company with with him.
As they look at the heavenly company, what are they going to see? The glories of Christ. They're going to see Christ perfectly reflected in each one of the heavenly company. They don't always see Christ perfectly reflected in our lives. Now, sometimes there are things that come in, but in that day, no matter where they look, they're going to see Christ. And when Christ comes back, it's not going to be Moses and the prophets that are going to be the focus.
When the Lord Jesus was here, the Jews made much of Moses and the prophets, and so you had Moses and Elijah the Lawgiver, and one of the greatest prophets that ever lived in Israel.
And when Peter points them out, immediately they disappear from view. And this voice, this is my beloved Son, and so on. And when they lift up their eyes, they see no man. They don't see Moses and Elijah anymore. They see no man save Jesus only. And so I believe it's a beautiful picture of how both the heavenly and the earthly company in that day of glory are going to be occupied with Christ. It's His glories that are going to be first and foremost. Are we going to talk together in heaven?
Yes. Are we going to commune? Are we going to know one another? We're going to know even as we are known. But I suggest that everything we say and everything we do is going to be relative to the person and work of Christ. And when I look at you, I'm going to see Christ in you perfectly reflected. You're going to see Christ amazing, but you're going to see Christ perfectly reflected in me. And when the heavenly company looks on or the earthly company looks on, they're going to see Christ perfectly reflected.
01:00:23
In the heavenly Saints, as the Kingdom is administrated, administered, everything is going to be relevant to the glories of Christ. What a wonderful thing when all creation sees no man save Jesus only.
But this in Second Corinthians chapter 3.
We had a little of that glory yesterday in Sunday school and other times too in Chapter 4, but going back to Chapter 3.
Uh, here's the contrast between Moses and the giving of the Law and the glory connected with it, which was.
A great glory, but then he says.
In uh, chapter 3, verse 18, as to those the Corinthians to whom he's writing, well, they had that you might say, and Moses day, but we all with open face beholding as in a glass or it's better translated with an unveiled face. The veil has been taken off like Moses.
When he came down off the mount, he they told the people say we can't look at you Moses, you're too bright. You've been in the presence of God. And so they he had to put a veil over his face to mask the brightness that was seen. But it's saying to us, we with an open face, behold, without a veil, the glory of the Lord, What's the result? What is the result of being occupied with the glory of the Lord?
As he now is at the right hand of God.
The result in us is our change.
God, what changes us? I'm gonna be different tomorrow. We say I'm not gonna do this, I'm not gonna do that. That's not really the way it works. Is it practical to be occupied with the Lord Jesus and his glory and and his person? God says it is. He says you be occupied with that. You want something practical? Well, you occupy yourself with him, feed on him as he is, and I'll change you.
I'll change you. I'll take care of the changing part. And so he says we.
Are changed. Changed how? Into the same image? In other words, God says I want you different. I want you to be more like my son, so you occupy yourself with him.
You gazed upon Him, you look upon his glory. You don't have to have a veil over your face because the work of redemption has been done. And I'll look after changing you to be more like Him. And when I'm finished, you'll be just like him when I take you to glory. And so we're changed from the same image, from glory into glory, even as the power of it, the Spirit of God.
And so, brethren, it's, it's a wonderful thing and for us to end up, you might say, the reading part of the, the conference with the fact that we have this wonderful privilege to look upon the one that's called the daystar. Uh, it's an anticipation that this world's night is coming to an end. The world's in, it's in a period of night. The, the light of God is not seen throughout the world today.
It's a, it's a the, the world is morally a very dark place.
The claims of God are not seen in the world in in its activities. It doesn't want them. And consequently it's night. And yet to us God says, you know, if you look up in the sky, I don't see it too much in the Northern hemisphere, but I've seen it beautifully in the southern right before dawn. It gets a little bit darker.
And as it gets a little bit darker, there is one star in the sky that.
Burns more brightly to the human eye and it it's the daystar. And that's the way the Lord Jesus presents is presented to us as the world gets a little darker, darker, darker to the just before the dawn of the millennial day, we can look up at him and he, he's to shine in our hearts.
01:05:12
It's it's that brightness is to have its place shining in our hearts and it prepares us for the day and it it draws us away from the dark.
The third chapter kind of connects with the 1St chapter begins saying, knowing this post, that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lust 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 creation. The Word will tell you that God really doesn't have any interest in you and where is the promise of His coming. But I just have been struck by the thought as Don has mentioned that it speaks of the Daystar rising in our hearts.
It's important that we practically that that the Lord's coming has a practical effect on our lives. You know, when Daniel was off of the third part of the Kingdom, why he didn't want it? Why didn't he want it? Well, he believed what he actually said. He knew that I was about to fall. What good is the Kingdom that's about to be conquered? He knew it. He believed it, He lived it. And so he didn't want any pot in the Kingdom.
That was being offered him. And so that's just one practical example how we can live with the daystar arising in our hearts. So it's showing out practically in our lives. So what do we want with this world? It's going to be destroyed. Well judged, I should say. And then in Peter we find out that the, uh, but with fire, but.
Just an example.
So at the end, after then, before we close, he gives a confirmation as to the sure Word. And there's no uncertainty about what we have in this book, brethren, or what Peter has laid down or any of the other writers have laid down. Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. I'd like to say this too, about this 20th verse. Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation. We won't take time, but it's helpful if you read Mr. Darby's footnote on this verse, it helps to explain it.
Because I have heard this verse taken out of context and.
Used to justify the thought that we can take scripture and we can make some application.
And even though it isn't relevant to the rest of Scripture, no scriptures of private interpretation, that is not the license that this verse is given giving. What this verse is really telling us is that you cannot take scripture out of its context and make a proper interpretation. And every false doctrine that's been propagated and Christendom has been the result over the centuries of directly or indirectly taking a scripture or some scriptures out of their context.
And building a doctrine on it when we take up the word of God, like a jigsaw puzzle, every piece must fit with the whole.
And go into the proper place. That's why Timothy was told to have an outline of truth or an outline of sound words. It all has to fit properly. And so don't take scripture out of its context and make an application or an interpretation that is not truth or according to the whole context of it all. And a brother, an older brother, years ago made a comment to me that's been very helpful to me in my study of the Word of God.
He said, Jim, when you make applications of Scripture, and we do, we've made them in this conference, but he said when you make applications of Scripture, remember that the application cannot be too far removed from the interpretation. That is a very good safeguard and I would just add this, that you can't make proper applications unless you understand the interpretation or the meaning.
And so no scripture is to be taken by itself, or we're going to get twisted and into trouble. We must take up the Scriptures in the light of the whole, realizing that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable, realizing that it's all been given by inspiration. Those who recorded these words did not write their own opinions or thoughts or add their own addendum to what they wrote.
01:10:03
Every word of God is pure, and you and I have a responsibility at the end of these meetings.
To act on what we have had from the Word of God. And if we do, then Peter has accomplished what he set out to do. Put us in remembrance of these things, that we might be established, not in something new, but in the present truth, in view of the coming day of glory.