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First three, do thou, the very God of peace as holy, sanctify and grant us such a rich increase of power from on high, and so on #288.
No those mercy Boris.
Graciousness.
Where can I shall drink all mother's father and pray, Lord, no way I'd be in thy sake our goal.
Filled out some holy.
Have a.
Like my son himself, about your joy, Lord, pursue the sky.
Come.
Our God and our Father.
Heard us singing loud.
Mercy's far exceed all we can do.
Say it's really our daughter and father about.
Past stone diversity, each one of us in this room.
Who know the Lord Jesus is our Savior.
Everything our God and Father comes because my love and my mercy and my grace.
Nothing of ourselves, our thoughts, all we brought.
For our sins.
Allow her to pay the price.
That had to be paid.
The phrase that we could never pay for Jesus, but that is willingly go to the cross and.
There for our sins and thine own body.
On the street.
Oh Lord Jesus, we thank you for what thou God.
Should be just praying now that as we open my word.
We thank Day for thy mercies and thy.
I would love the freedom to come together.
Gathered by thy Spirit, for Jesus will open thy word to have thy Spirit teach us.
And bring to our attention those things that Thou has taught us here.
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We pray thee, our God and Father, that there might be nothing of ourselves that would be in the way to withstand, in the way of us hearing.
What thou will bring before us this morning, we just pray thee again that that was God and direct in the chapter.
That we would take the cup this morning.
That would show us my mind and that we might hear what that would say to us. And we ask these things. Our God and Father, for thy glory, for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in his name are in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Amen.
Did you say to start at verse 11?
Second Peter one verse 11.
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 you know them, and be established in the present truth.
Yeah, 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 He may be able, after my decease, to have these things always in remembering. For we have not followed cunningly device peoples, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but where 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, we heard when we were with Him in the holy mountain.
We have also a more sure word of prophecy. Where unto ye do well, that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place.
Until the day dawn and the D star arise in your hearts, knowing this verse, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God speak as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
One of the wonderful things that characterizes the day in which you and I are living is that God gives us the present enjoyment in our souls of that which will be ours, shall we say, in full reality, in a coming day.
And so an abundant entrance can be ministered here.
Even before we see the tangible Kingdom set up, we were mentioning yesterday, of course, that there is a moral state that is in keeping with those who recognize and honor the rightful King.
There is a day coming when that Kingdom will be established and when, as we get in Ephesians one and 10, God will head up all things in Christ. But isn't it wonderful that God would have you and I, you and me, to live in the present enjoyment of all that we have in Christ even now? And I suggest that is what is meant here, particularly as we said yesterday, because.
The Israelite looked forward to an earthly Kingdom and they were grievously disappointed when it was not set up. But now Peter points out to them that God has something even better for them. They were not to look for an earthly Kingdom particularly. That wasn't their hope, but God was providing that which was heavenly.
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We don't get in that sense in Peter's ministry, the heavenly calling of the church as we get it in Paul's ministry, But nevertheless, he talks here about an abundant entrance into that everlasting Kingdom. And I suggest the thought here is that God would have you and me to live in the present enjoyment of all that He has for us, even here and now, in the midst of a world that has rejected the Lord Jesus.
And in the midst of difficult circumstances.
The Kingdom will be the place, the time of manifestation of our devotedness here below.
Happy for us here is the reward for those who go on diligently and who make their calling and election sure. Notice it doesn't say at the end of verse 10 or if you know these things he shall never fail. It says for if he do these things, he shall never fail.
It would remind you, wouldn't it, what you have in John 13. Happy are ye if you do these things. It's not a question of the intellect is a president. It's the question of practicing. We've had in these verses before us. And if so, then there's going to be reward in the Kingdom. It will be manifested by the Lord at that time.
And there will be a reward now because we'll be able to enjoy those things now I'm not having yet possessing them. Brother Michelle spoke on salvation in his three aspects. The salvation of our souls.
Salvation of our life and the salvation of our bodies. But you know, we can have a saved soul and a lost life. How it's true what Brother Heinz said yesterday. Every man shall have praise of God will be something to praise. And everyone even in lot there was something that God could praise in him. But we can waste our lives. And that was the earnest desire of Peter was that their lives not be wasted.
I believe actually in Scripture if you look at the word salvation, you'll find it more often connection spoken of in connection with the salvation of the life and the salvation of the soul in Scripture.
In the doing of these things.
If I refer to the things. If you do these things.
Something that you think about that these are the things that I could be doing this and you're doing them that you're being kept busy with those things that pertain to life and godliness and then doing that is not going to be anything wrong with your life. You're doing them. So we can talk of these things with as objects, you know, if you do these things, but in the doing of them, just do them.
And you'll have the benefit.
Peter takes up thoroughly in his first epistle.
The suffering time of the Lord's people. But here he doesn't bring it up. But we do need to be reminded it's through suffering that these things are done. And why does he bring us through suffering?
Why we need that? So that we'll have a sense of appreciation of where he's going to take us.
And how he's going to use us in that day if we suffer with him now.
We're going to reign with him in that day and I believe that found in that expression to love his appearing embraces this very clearly. I think of Jacob when he had heard of his son Joseph exalted in Egypt. The last time he had seen him, he was just in shepherd's clothes, but he the report was to go back with his brothers to tell my father of all my glory in Egypt.
And to think of that dear man mounting on those wagons that Jacob Joseph had provided, and to know that there was going to be a meeting with his Son. All you can see in Jacob's heart, he was loving the appearing when he would see his Son again, not in shepherd's dress, but arrayed in honor and glory. And so that's embraced in the thought of seeing our blessed Savior.
Exalted in glory, and then in the very world where he was despised and rejected and crucified and cast out.
Our hearts will never fully be satisfied until we see Him have His rightful place in heaven and on earth.
Versed in 116th Psalm in connection with what? Saying about suffering Psalm 116 and Paul really gives it as the ground of ministry.
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2nd Thistle, Corinthians in the Science, 4th chapter.
Psalm 116, verse 10, I believe. Therefore I've spoken.
I was greatly afflicted.
And so Paul quotes that in the second epistle of the Corinthians, as I said, as the ground of ministry, but to believe the word. But there was affliction connected with it, their suffering connection with it. We bear this treasure and earthen vessels, and so we lay hold on the truth of God, and the Kingdom suffered suffereth violence, the violent take it by force or spiritual energy required in their suffering.
Lot chose the easy path.
A path of spiritual and moral ease. By going into Sodom, it wasn't as if he wasn't vexed by what was going on there, but the practical end of his life was destruction.
His family, his wife, his everything that he owned, and really in his own heart, he said here's a little city. Even Sodom was still in his heart after God had taken him out of it.
And so there is suffering in connection with the pathway, but it's because we have an exceeding great and precious treasure, and we can often see farther than we can walk. That's certainly a good thing. And so we say something, and then maybe the reality of what we say comes home to us, and it brings a little difficulty because there's a course that's associated with or an action that's associated with it. And they're suffering because the world and the God of this world does not want us to walk in the pathway of the truth and wants to rob us of what is ours.
And the enjoyment of it, as has been said.
There's an expression that is in this chapter five times over.
2 words.
These things.
And I would like to ask what these things are, and I'd like to read the five times that we have them in this chapter because it ties in with where we started in verse 8.
If these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful. Verse 9. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off. 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. Verse 12. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though you know them. Verse 15.
Moreover, I will endeavor that you may be able after my deceased to have these things always in remembrance.
So we've had reference here to verse 10.
If you do these things, you shall never fail, for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom. So my question is, what are these things?
Could we say, Brother Dave, that they are the practical side that is brought in in verses 5-6 and seven? We wouldn't want to limit it to that because we know that the exceeding great and precious promises are part of that. But they are, you might say, made good to us by our walking in a way that is in keeping with them. And it ties in with what our brother Ruben was saying that it doesn't say.
If you know these things, but rather if you do these things. And isn't that true all through the word of God?
I stand corrected on this, but I think this verse is repeated at least five times and maybe more with variations. And to get it turn to Luke chapter 8. This is one occasion where it is given to us.
Luke's Gospel, Chapter 8.
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And verse 18.
Take heed, therefore, how you hear, For whosoever hath to him shall be given, and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have.
We might say that that's a universal principle in the ways of God, isn't it? Because if I have learned something of the truth of God and of the things of God, I am among those who have, but I don't really have it unless I live and walk in the good of it. And if I don't live and walk in the good of it, God will not allow me, if we could express it this way, to have the theory of the truth in my mind without the practice of it in my feet.
He will take it away from me. A very, very solemn thought.
A very, very serious thing in our Christian lives. And referring back to Second Peter here, I cannot expect to have the abundant entrance into that everlasting Kingdom if I merely think that I can hold something in my mind and not walk in the good of it. But if I walk in the good of it, then I believe that all of these things, particularly the walk that is given out in verses 5-6 and seven.
If they are part of me, then the enjoyment of all of this will be in my soul and I will indeed have that abundant entrance. Our brother Harry Hayhoe, that some of us are old enough to remember, used to say it is not what you eat that nourishes your body, but what you digest.
Some of us know what that feels like because I remember well having a bad dose of Jardiance in India about 20 plus years ago and I lost 13 lbs in one week because what I ate was not digested. And then he went on to say it is not what you know.
That helps you in your Christian life so much as what you enjoy is that. Is that right, Brother Dave? Would you agree with that? Yes, I I like it tied in. It seems to me that it ties in directly with those verses preceding 5 through 7.
But we cannot do what we don't know.
So it's very important to get to know the truth.
And not just intellectually, but.
In our own souls. So get familiar.
Addressing myself to the young people, especially with the word of God, he can't overemphasize that. And then?
Extra the exercise to do.
The will of God, you know, and how important that we enter into it by faith. It's possible that you enter into it intellectually.
And I think Clarence Ladine made the statement, all truth enters by way of the conscience. The conscience has to be affected by the truth of God and.
And then?
Become part of us form our very character, our very being.
That's what the purpose.
Of the truth is and that's why God gave it to us and.
So hopefully.
I pay to lay hold of these things and then demonstrated in our walk. That is why in the verse that brother Bill read it says take heed how you hear and seemeth to have because if I don't receive something by faith.
Have not received it in the right way. And I may sit down and wrestle somebody, for instance, to believe in creation. And he gets up quite convinced that there's an intelligent creation. I mean, a fool doesn't believe that. And but if he's not received it by faith, he may seem to believe the same thing that you and I do, but he doesn't have it and he's not in the enjoyment of it. And so how do we get faith? Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And so this brings in what brother Heinz was saying is that.
The Spirit of God wants to work on our soul, but if we don't read the word of God, he's got nothing to work with, if I may put it that way.
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He takes the word of God and he brought back to the disciples. They remembered how the Lord said it is more blessed to give than to receive. They remembered the word of the Lord and the Spirit of God had something to work with. When they disciples were faced with a situation about how to fill the 12 seat, they remembered the Scriptures. He could bring back the scriptures to those of two on the way to Emmaus, but if they didn't know them, then how can the Spirit of God do that? There's another verse that's very similar to the one that Brother Bill read and that is take you what you hear.
For to him that hath somewhere be given unto him.
That hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. And so that brings in moral virtue. And there has to be discipline to walk in separation from the religious and moral confusion of this world, because if I listen to that which I know is contrary to the word of God, I'm going to lose what I have.
If I don't receive it by faith, I'm going to seem to have it and I'm not going to have it. But if I listen to what I shouldn't listen to and expose myself to what I shouldn't pick up, then I'm going to lose what I actually have. And we have seen that happen.
And then the heart is the key, isn't it? By the mind we know, but the heart believeth unto righteousness, if you believe in my heart.
Trusting with the heart. So if we hear the word of God and we need to hear it, but it needs to get into our hearts. The disciples came as they said. What did they say? Did not our minds rejoice at all the things that He revealed to us? Did our hearts burn within us? The affections for the Lord are stimulated and then the feet follow the heart.
I think we might, might consider too, that it says here that we're partakers of the divine nature. If we walk in the Spirit, we should not fulfill the lust of the flesh, that we have a new nature. We have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. I think that that a verse in the Corinthians who says that God who had caused the light to shine out of darkness, has shined into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.
In the face of Jesus Christ, but we have this treasure and earthen vessels as we explain the other power may be of God and not of ourselves. We have all the resources and God wants to produce them in US. The the old saying is your actions speaks louder than your words. The world looks upon us to what we do. Our Christian brethren look upon what we do and God has given us everything that pertains to life and godliness here we've been called to glory and virtue.
That precious verse that we've had before us a little earlier on.
The grace of God that carries with it salvation for all men has appeared, teaching us that, having denied impiety and worldly luck, we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present course of things, awaiting that blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us.
That He might produce in us a peculiar people, deliver from iniquity, full of good works. I think we have all of that resources to walk in the Spirit. We will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. We've been partakers of the divine nature and God has shown in our hearts to given us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We have everything we need.
To walk and glorify God does that passage and patience was before us the other day that it tells us that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. So we have everything that we should produce and these things here are the are the the after result of walking and and the and the spirit and allowing Christ to live out his life through us.
Connection again with what Brother Heinz said about knowledge. Thought to mind a comment that Clarence Lundin made, and it may be a simple one, but he said if you have trouble reading your Bible, just read it.
That sounds like maybe a strange statement, but if just pick it up and read it, it has an attraction to the heart and the Lord will help and then the Spirit of God will have something to work with oftentimes.
The difficulty people have in reading ministry is that they haven't read the Bible, and it's explaining what they don't know and notice in Mr. Darby's writings, he very rarely gives a reference because he makes the fatal assumption that people have read the Bible. And a lot of times the reason that people have trouble understanding ministry, we have trouble understanding ministry.
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Because we're not familiar with the Scriptures that it's Speaking of. And so we need knowledge and it has to come by faith and it needs, there needs to be virtue to be faithful to what we've learned and read. And then we need to express it in a practical way and brotherly love and, and in seeking God's object with the soul.
The Kingdom.
We already have heard that.
That's to enter into it by faith presently, but there is going to come a time when there will be a Kingdom on earth and we will come with the Lord Jesus and in the Kingdom there is going to be a difference.
Some will be over 10 cities, some will be over less.
According to the faithfulness demonstrated for the Lord, now there will be a difference in the Kingdom.
But it is the desire of the Lord that through faithfulness be my chair in more of it.
He entrusted with more in that coming Kingdom when He will come back with us. The Kingdom is not exactly the same as being blessed with all spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That's all based on the work of the Lord Jesus. I'm speaking now when He comes back to reign, there will be a difference depending on how faithful we have been.
In our life now there will be more entrusted to us or less and.
Hopefully there is an exercise that we lay hold of things by faith and walk faithfully, and the Lord Jesus would like to be able to in that coming day, entrust us with more reigning with Him.
And giving us a share in that range, but that is the share might be different according to the measure of faithfulness demonstrated now.
The end of verse 12 is certainly a beautiful statement and be established in the present truth. Think of Peter writing this nearly 2000 years ago and the impact of it is still with us. It's been pointed out that we never have plural.
That word in the plural truths. We're not going to fault anybody for Speaking of different truths.
But it's good to remain with the truth, and the truth has been personified in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we speak of various aspects of the truth, which is a happy statement and we understand that. But remember somebody using the expression, well, you know, that's an essential truth. And someone kindly said, well, all the truth is essential.
And so to think of Peter as an old man, not having to apologize for Speaking of these things over and over again, because this has been given to the church to be enjoyed and to be preserved till the day that we enter into glory the present truth. And if somebody introduces something that doesn't sound of the present truth, there's an alarm that goes up.
And so we know the enemy desires to grade in things and to sometimes even be as bold as to say, well, you know, the brethren haven't held is quite right. It's it's more over here. I I I'm not open to that kind of language.
And so if all truth will lead to the blessed man, who is truth, the truth personified.
What you're not agree is Christian truth yes, you know, and there's more given to us than the Saints ever had before Christianity came into existence. So it's important not that we neglect the Old Testament, you know, like McIntosh said, that illustrates a lot of New Testament truth, you know, but the present truth is that we.
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Should familiarize her with selves with and enjoy it. Know it and enjoy it.
To be no such thought with their future truth. It would be a thought of partial truth in the Old Testament. But now the full truth has been revealed in a person. I am the way that truth and the life, and we're LED into all truth by the Spirit of God. We only know it in part, but it's been given to us fully, isn't it? So it's present truth is the fullness of truth. Would that be right?
In connection with these things that all go, it ties in all the verses together, doesn't it? Going back to.
Really starting again in verse five, I was thinking of, you know, there's a there's a phrase that is used in the world called lifestyle. There are different lifestyles that people make. The phrase is coined and so that you know, this person lives this kind of a lifestyle and that person lives that kind of lifestyle. But there is a lifestyle that is associated with the believer. And isn't that what we have brought before us in these verses going back?
Verses 5 through 7, it's not that I want to go back to them so much, but to tie it into where we started here, that there is a lifestyle associated with the believer, and it's even as Christ himself walked through this world who did no sin.
Neither was guile found in his mouth when he suffered. He threatened not, but committed himself to him. The judges righteously. Is that what characterizes me when I walk through this world?
Do those that see me, both who are believers and not believers, see that kind of a lifestyle in me? I think that's what it brought before us in verses five to seven. And what did God do with the Lord Jesus when he walked that kind of a lifestyle through this world? God also has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name. And what happens to the believer?
That walks with God through this world, with, if you like, that kind of a lifestyle. Isn't that what we have brought before us, where we started?
For so an entrance verse 11 shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Beloved brethren, there are rewards for faithfulness to God as we walk through this world.
And it's all that counts.
So I think that's what Peter is seeking to bring before the Saints of God.
And we need to be reminded of it. I'm sorry.
Go ahead, Bill. Go ahead, dear brother.
We need to be reminded of it constantly, don't we?
Pardon my Speaking of myself, but I can remember sitting in medical school.
How long ago? Almost 40 years ago.
And we were all very afraid as we saw the tremendous volume of material that had to be taken in and learned. And I remember how reassuring it was when one of our professors stood up and said, I know how frightened some of you are at all of the material that you are going to have laid before you. And you're wondering, however, you are going to hold on to it all.
He said rest assured there is much that you will not remember and you will have to go and refresh your memory from time to time.
But the things that are really important you will hear over and over and over again. And it was true, and isn't it true in the things of God? We need to be reminded of these things over and over again. Peter knew that they had heard them. He knew that they had been told these things.
But he has to admit in the last chapter of this epistle that some of the things that.
As he says, our beloved brother Paul has given our hard.
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To be understood. It was not easy for those with Jewish aspirations and hopes.
To take hold of the heavenly calling of the Church and of all of the things that God was bringing before them.
Peter says we need to be reminded of these things over and over again. And so it's necessary, isn't it, in our lives to have these things continually brought before us in order that we might live and walk in the good of them?
Sorry, Ruben, I was about to say the same thing. Bill, you know, if these things are mentioned five times, that word in remembrance is mentioned three times here. You'll notice because we tend to forget very easily, don't we? In verse 12.
Always in remembrance in verse 13, putting you in remembrance verse 15, Always in remembrance remind you pretty much of what the Apostle Paul said when he writes to the Philippians in that third chapter.
To write the same things unto you is for me. It's not grievous for you. It is safe. And we tend to forget that we have to be reminded of these things, don't we? And was he successful in his desire? Well, Brett, and we're we're going over these things this morning so that we won't forget because Paul Peter knew that shortly he would deceive or verse 15 that rather should be.
His departure?
After my departure to have these things in remembrance.
When you depart, you go from one place to another and Peter was leaving his sabernacle to go to be with the Lord. He wasn't. It wasn't just a deceased. After his departure, the Lord had showed him that when he was an old man he would be crucified. And so he wanted to remind the Brevan as to these things, how important it is Brevan, that we have our minds refreshed. We tend to forget so easily.
It's important to remember, too, how God has chosen to communicate these things to us and how he's chosen to keep them in remembrance for us as by being doing precisely what our brethren and Dorothy have done is to invite us to be over the word of God because he speaks of cunningly devised fables. You know, I heard of a man who was walking down a street in the Southeast Asian country and he looked in the gift shop and he saw Santa Claus on a crucifix and.
That was their impression of what Christianity was there. I was in a Christian School in Egypt and they had a Christmas display there, and they had little cotton white and snow and Santa Claus and so on. And I thought, what did this have to do with Egypt? But you see how man is mixed up and tried to preserve these precious truths that we have by all kinds of things. And it's not the way that God has chosen to maintain this truth and to communicate it. Everything we know about the Lord Jesus Christ we know.
By this blessed book. And the fact that we have the truth in his purity is because brethren have delivered it to us in a pure way, not mixed up with cunningly devised fables and all this sort of thing. And we see more and more and more as the heart departs from Christ and Christendom and in our own hearts that we get tangled up in these things. But Peter was not embarrassed. A year after year. I don't know how long they've been having conferences here, but I see notes from Saint Louis. They're having a conference from 1920 and maybe before.
And the brethren are faithfully repeating these truths, and there's no embarrassment in connection with it because that's how God's going to maintain it in its purity. And if we seek to pulses in Corinthians comparing spiritual or commuting communicating spiritual truths by spiritual means, you cannot communicate spiritual truth by unspiritual means.
And so that is why he is not embarrassed, if I may paraphrase, to repeat these things again and again.
One of them is order. My steps are quoting to Thy Word, and let not any iniquity have dominion over me. And the other scripture that comes to mind is Thy Word. Have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee? It's the word of God.
That encourage us, encourages us, that comforts us, that instructs us. The word of God is looked at in different ways. There's always a primary interpretation. Exactly. You have to know what the word of God says before you know what it means. But in many cases, there's also a prophetic anticipation. It looks forward to something else. But in addition to that, I believe we could say there is, there is a, a, a personal.
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Application and I might say that.
In our devotional reading at the kitchen table, I have learned so many things that I never learned.
And my previous life through commentary, when we read a chapter, even though it's an Old Testament chapter and it has to do with customs and conditions thousands of years ago, but the human nature doesn't change. It's the same old corrupt, wicked nature. But anyhow, what we try to do is say, what can we learn? What do we learn from this? What is God? What would God have to tell us? What could we do and pick up from this chapter?
That would help us to walk a closer walk with Christ, with God. What can we learn in this chapter that would give us instruction? But it would correct us perhaps, and some of our attitudes in our ways. So it's the Word of God. And I love that first order of my steps according to thy word. And let not any iniquity have dominion over us.
The present truth.
The problem that we have in the Christian profession is that they have introduced Pagan customs in connection with Christian profession. That's what Christmas is all about. That's what Easter is all about. The very word Easter comes from Ashtaroth cuts a hidden God, and they have associated the most blessed events that ever occurred.
The incarnation of the Son of God with Pagan customs.
That's what Christmas is all about.
I think we need to be reminded of that because some of the Saints celebrate Christmas. They have a Christmas tree even. You know, it's very troubling to me to see that it's paganism introduced into the church, corrupting the truth of God.
And hopefully we have discernment and shun this kind of thing.
And want to have the pure, true, uncorrupted, you know, and the Lord wasn't even born in December.
We don't know exactly when he was born.
But it was not in December. Why? Even today shepherds are not in the field in the Holy Land. In December the shepherds were in the field. And the Lord has not given us the day of His birth. He could have easily communicated that to us. Christianity is not based on the Incarnation.
It's all based on the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. That's what Christianity is connected with. Of course he couldn't have died had he not become a babe. But unless the kernel of wheat fall into the ground and die, he is that Colonel of wheat and abide of the law. But he did die, and he brought much prude. Christianity is the result of his death and his resurrection.
The spirit coming down, linking us to our head in heaven and to every believer on earth.
That's Christianity. You know, we find that in Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter one, it's still on Jewish ground. You know, they're told that they would see him coming again as he ascended. You know, he will stand on the Mount of Olives when he comes to deliver his people. But Acts chapter 2 is where the Spirit comes down. That's the beginning of Christianity. I'm just.
Feel that we have to be exercised not to corrupt the truth with what even is most dishonouring to our blessed Lord. Pagan custom, that's what it is, and keep it in an uncorruptible way. The truth maintained it by God's grace with incorruption. Brother Heinz, you and I, the brethren in Egypt took us to Upper Egypt there, and we stood in front of those stones in the Valley of the Kings and Queens, and you could see it in grave great on the stones thousands of years before the birth of Christ.
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For the goddess Owen had a son at winter solstice, the end of December, and they decorated a tree and they had a drunken feast. And you know when people say to you celebrate this, you want to be careful that people don't think you're Jehovah's Witness or something. And you, you can happily respond that you believe that the most blessed birth was when the Creator entered his own creation. And the Angel saw the creator of this universe laid in a Manger. What ashamed a man that he put the creator of this universe.
In a Manger, you can say it's the most blessed thing. And I looked at somebody who asked me that at the office once and I said, but we don't have anything to do with the drunken feast. Associated with what?
The way the world celebrates it. And she said, you know, we wish we didn't have to either because it was a tiresome thing. We don't want to dwell on this. But you know, the devil starts by making things cute. He starts by making ghosts and goblins cute. And then it progresses until you get to this extent where you see people taking up with that which is more openly demonic until finally.
It just, he breaks down the barriers bit by bit. It doesn't come in. It comes in as something cute, something funny, and then it develops into something more serious until finally in professing Christendom, we see just open manifestations of, of reading of tarot cards and wickedness and spiritism. I think there's even a shop on the Main Street of Saint Thomas now that that plies this sort of thing because but it starts out as something cute and entertaining and it we have to be careful, cunningly devised fables.
Verse 14.
Knowing that shortly I must put off this my Tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has showed me. When Peter writes his first epistle, apparently he is in Babylon, which is Iraq, and it's been suggested that when he wrote this second epistle he was in Rome. How he got there we don't know, but it's just prior to the year that he's going to.
Have be delivered out of this world in AD 67.
And so he makes reference to the fact that the Lord had shown him what His end was going to be. And we might just notice that in John 21.
What the Lord says to Peter prior to his departure into heaven. John 21 and verse 18. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, when thou wast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkest whither thou wouldest. I think we all understand that when we are young we set about to do what we purpose to do.
And but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee, whither thou wouldest not this spakey signifying by what death he should glorify God.
And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me. You know, I wonder what Peter, what impact this had on Peter at that time as a young man.
I wonder if the the the reality of it was pushing, should I say so that he heard more of what the Lord closed with, followed thou me than what his end would be?
To end as his master had ended on a cruel Roman cross.
And so as he speaks of it now, it's not a dread to him, it's not a terror, but it's the avenue that God has chosen that he should depart to be with Christ after a fruitful service. And so he carried this more or less 3538 years in his soul until the moment finally comes now along with this.
Secular history has it, and it's not always accurate, but when the moment came for him to be crucified, he wanted to be crucified upside down because he was not worthy to die as his blessed Lord was. But along with that, there was his dear wife that labored with him in Babylon. And as he closes that epistle, you have to read it in the new translation of how he spoke of his wife.
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That had been with them and shared the pathway of suffering together.
That she requested that she be crucified with him.
You know, that is what can we say to this?
What love, what devotedness, what a Master we serve. He's not unrighteous in what He passes us through, but there's a sublime beauty, is there not to a submissive heart and obedience to the will of God by whatever means He chooses for us to depart out of this world.
And so it really brings out the beauty of Christianity.
The beauty of following Christ.
Do as it says of Saul and David.
That they were Saul and Jonathan, That they were lovely and pleasant in their lives and in their death. They were not divided.
It's interesting to consider in the Old Testament that God didn't allow the Jewish people to have the body of Moses or his tomb because it would have been such, such a stumbling for them. And so with Peter, Paul, and we don't really know how they died, where they were buried and that kind of thing. The Lord hasn't given us to be attracted to that. He has given us by his Spirit to be remembering.
Especially one. So the apostle Peter would bring these things in remembrance to us and point us to the knowledge of him, our Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm sure every believer in the Lord who has sealed his testimony with his blood will have that reward in glory. And the Spirit of God doesn't shine at using these as an example for us. But we know what the Church of Rome has done with Peter. Peter, on this rock I will build my church. And apparently that whole system, the Vatican, is built on the tomb of Saint Peter.
Just what men do in their religious zeal with things that might be true and commend itself to our consciences, and we need to be kept from that, don't we? But just to be noticing in the Scriptures how?
The Spirit of God is at telling us of the suffering and death of those apostles, so it was not distract us from the occupation with the beauty of the death and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We don't have any proof that Peter ever got to Rome. That is just what they are saying.
That he was the first Pope of Rome, he was the apostle of the circumcision, Paul was the apostle of the uncircumcision. And so as far as I know, we have no proof that Peter ever got to Rome.
But his fear of service was not amongst the Gentiles, not that he never did. You know. He opened the door.
To the Gentiles the apostle of the circumcision opened the door to the uncircumcised. And Paul the apostle of uncircumcision of the Gentiles. He is used to write the Epistle to the Hebrews. But still there is pure service. Was Peter amongst the circumcision? Paul among the Gentiles?
And we enjoy, do we not?
To read Peter's books.
Defiance he has written and but they do not have the depth that we have in pulse writings as far as Christian truth goes, you know, and our standing in Christ, the body of Christ and so on. But there's no doubt much blessing connected with reading.
Any part of the Word of God, even as we do now look into the Epistle of Peter.
Is very encouraging to read these next verses because it's been often reminded that Peter brings before us the government of God. And as you say, the truth that Peter delivered was not the highest truth. And though he was the leading apostle, you might say the spokesperson in the beginning and as a brother quoted earlier referring to his beloved brother Paul is ready to take a lower place among the the apostles. But even in this, you know, he speaks of being with the Lord and mount on the mount of transfiguration.
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But if you turn back to Luke's gospel, you see their eyes were heavy with slumber. And you know, Peter was one who knew that the Lord knew how to separate the precious from the vile. And it's just in a practical way, it's very encouraging to read this epistle that you could look back and remember that wonderful scene and it formed the moral character of his life. And perhaps there's one here. And they feel they're really not going on for the Lord the way that they should and so on.
Just go on for the Lord, be encouraged. We don't have a hard master. He picks up another instance in this epistle that I love when he praises Sarah and uses her as a recommendation, even as Sarah called Abraham Lord. And if you turn back to the Old Testament, what do you find Sarah doing? She's laughing within herself and she has to be rebuked for it. And yet thousands of years later, Peter takes up that very instance, I believe, and said, and she didn't even speak out loud. She called Abraham Lord within herself.
And so the Lord is not a hard master. We don't have a hard one to follow. And Peter was one that learned that. And so he's referring to this blessed circumstance and it formed the moral character and spiritual character of his life, even though at the time he might have been in a low state of soul. He was slumbering and sleeping, and they were heavy with slumber and.
So he speaks about this experience with the Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration.
And isn't it true that this is what will give us the strength as we go on, is a glimpse of that coming glory? Peter had it. In actual fact. He stood on that mount of Transfiguration. He saw that glory. You and I see it by faith. But that is what will keep us going. That's what enabled Peter, as our brother Ron has mentioned, to be able to face death by crucifixion.
That's what has enabled so many of our dear brethren down through the ages to be able to face the most awful persecution and death, and yet not merely do it, shall we say, resignedly, but rather triumphantly. That's the kind of thing that enabled, for example, men like Louis Berkin to ride down the streets of Paris in his very best robes.
To be burned at the stake in front of Notre Dame Cathedral. It's what enabled men like George Wishart and Saint Andrew Scotland to walk out there calmly and boldly before his persecutors and die not merely resignedly, but triumphantly. And you and I, in this day, we may not be called. We may, I don't say we won't, but we may not be called to give up our lives for Christ.
We don't know, but the difficulties and problems of facing the opposition of this world as it increases more and more are going to be such that if we're not careful, we say this is too difficult, this is too hard. And the devil says yes, and I can make it easy for you. All you have to do is compromise a little bit. All you have to do is give up a little of that present truth. All you have to do is go along with things and I will make the pathway.
Significantly easier for you.
But then we see a glimpse, I trust, of coming glory. We see that One who in a coming day, is going to be pleased to call you and I His own, and to own us as His. And that, I believe, is what will keep us going, won't it?
The Apostle Andrew.
I copied this down what he said as he was going to be crucified, said Andrew died on a cross with these words I have long desired.
And expected this happy hour.
The cross has been consecrated.
By the body of Christ hanging on it.
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That gives us to understand the reality of Christianity in Christ.
In connection with what our brother Bill was saying, you know, I think sometimes we say well, I'll never be called to be burned at the stake or to be crucified. But then something comes up at school and what we associate ourselves with, how I dress, what I go on with and suddenly Christianity becomes too hard to be a little bit different than the world. And there is a suffering connection with walking in this pathway of separation. And we may shun that we may wish that we were had the spiritual boldness of one to walk out in a Notre Dame cathedral and be burned to death. But then.
What we take up with in life we somehow find too hard on a daily basis and I believe that's very searching to the heart. And we may read stories about Saints that suffer and far strung lands, but we're called to a life to be a peculiar people and zealous for the Lord. And and we, I'm speaking for myself and I think we can all say Amen to this, is that there's a great deal of lack of virtue on us to just stand clearly for the truth of God.
At a cost and a bit of suffering.
Is that why Neil the Martyrs crown is mentioned twice in scripture? I was thinking of that. Show it to us. Well, we get it first of all, as we all know in Revelation chapter 2.
In connection with Smyrna.
And.
It's verse 10, Revelation 2 and verse 10. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation. 10 days.
Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.
But then if we turn back to the book of James, we find that it's mentioned again.
James chapter one and verse 12.
Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. I believe that's what our brother Neil has been bringing before us. God gives the grace we know, and he would give you and me the grace if we were called upon to give up our lives for Christ, because those that suffered in years gone by while we in no way make light of it.
Were men of like passions as we are. They were no different in their essence than you and I.
But sometimes the constant.
Ever pressing resistance to testing and temptation in our Christian lives.
Hour after hour, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, The Lord says, I'm going to give those who stand up to that, that same crown, the crown of life. And so you and I shouldn't be discouraged because it often takes much grace to live in these favored lands. I know I've said this before, but someone from this side of the world went over to China some time ago.
And he was horrified as he saw some of the awful persecution and the difficulties through which dear believers there were passing and not being accustomed to it, he said, oh, he said, why does the Lord allow the Church in China to suffer under this awful persecution year after year after year?
The Chinese believer was equal to the question, and he in turn said, well, he said, we have a question here in China. He said, why does God allow the church in America to be ruined by prosperity year after year after year?
How do you answer that?
They need the grace to suffer under the persecution that God is allowing, but we need the grace to resist temptation day after day, week after week, and so on.
There is. I'd like to read that one text and his fourth chapter of Revelation. The Lord gives us grace to accomplish many things for Him, even laying down our lives sometimes if we have to, but.
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This verse the four and 20 elders fall down before him that sat upon the throne and worshipped him, that liveth forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou Wert worthy, oh Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
It's nice to know whatever victory we have, all the glory comes back to the one that has given us the strength, the grace, the motivation to overcome and to glorify Him. And whatever it might be in our lives, all praise unto Him.
Ron, you had a thought.
Just going to quote Brother Eric Smith that saying that prosperity is the Christian's worst enemy. I have no controversy with that statement.
The love of money is a root of every kind of evil.
And in this land of prosperity.
It's a great danger, but my grandfather asked me.
He said. Where does the love of money begin? With a penny or with a dollar?
Begins with a penny. You don't have to be wealthy to be afflicted with that problem. The love of money.
So the Lord said, show me a penny.
You didn't have one.
199.
No praise and glory.
All right.
24.
Luke 24, verse 50.
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Thinking of the expression we had in the.
Verses We had abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdom.
Luke 245051.
And he led them out as far as to Bethany.
He lifted up his hands and blessed them.
And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them and carried up into heaven. We pray.
But that God, our Father.
We delight to trace the pathway, Blessed God.
The Dallas marked out in the word of thy own beloved son.
And at the end of that pathway, it led blessed God into thy very presence. We think of the welcome that he received.
On the other side of the cloud when he entered.
That home above, oh our God and our Father, thou has been so satisfied with the work of thy Son.
That thou hast given him the highest place in heaven.
We think of thee looking down on us here in this world. Blessed God, thy people.
Thou has given us an example. Lord Jesus, we should follow Thy step, and we do want an abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdom.
And we are see for grace to go on and to follow.
That blessed One who is exalted and taking care of his own police here in this, while we're here in this world.
By faith, Lord, we trust Thee for the pathway, and we pray for one another. We ask thee for grace. Lord, help us. Precious Savior, be encouraged by the Scriptures to go on.
To please thee, We think of our dear young people. We think of young families, older ones.
The world is all against the Christian professor. God, thou does have a pathway for each of us.
And we're encouraged by these words we've had before us in Peter to go on.
And so we seek to encourage one another to to follow Lord Jesus that blessed pathway. The doubt is the doubts go through when I was here in this world. Now we look to thee for thy blessing on the balance of the day. We pray our fellowship between the meetings. Maybe that which would encourage one another.
To go on to please the Lord. So we asked these things and give thanks to my precious name, Amen.