Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. In 2 Peter 3, 1-2, the apostle says he's writing the letter to them in order to stir up their sincere minds, by way of reminder, that they should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior. Peter's plea to God's people is that they will remember.
Why? Because God transforms human hearts through the continual encounter with the truth of his word. See, setting our hearts on what God has done through his son Jesus and what he will do in the days to come will transform the way we view every challenge, every victory, and all the moments in between. Let's listen to this message titled, The Revelation of God. Good morning, brothers and sisters in Christ. Our scripture reading for this morning is 2 Peter 3, verses 1-13.
This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them, I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. Knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.
They will say, where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God. And that by means of these, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word, the heavens and the earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people should you be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn? But according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you that your word is living and powerful, sharper than any tortured sword. We thank you, Father, that your word meets the needs of our hearts.
We thank you that we can hear it this morning and every Lord's Day. We thank you, Lord, for this gathering of believers, and we ask you, Lord, that the word of God would minister to our hearts. We pray for those who are lonely.
Help them to know always that they're never alone, that Jesus Christ will never leave them nor forsake them. We pray for those who are sick. We pray that you'd give them endurance, help them to look to you, help them to see your purpose in their sickness. We pray, Father, that you would just help us to listen to your word this morning as it is preached. We thank you for Rich and his faithful teaching of the word of God. And we just pray that you would be honored by it and that each one of us would love your word and obey it. We do love your word because it is a perfect expression of your mind, of your heart. And we pray that we would honor it and obey the commandments you have given to us in the New Testament epistles and in the gospels.
And so we just commit this message to you. Pray that you bless us as we hear it and do it. In Jesus' name, amen.
Good morning, church. Thank you, Steve, for the reading of the word of God. 2 Peter chapter 3. We begin chapter 3 now. We just completed chapter 2.
The title of this series is Live as People Who Remember. If we forget the grace of God, we will live graceless lives. If we forget his purpose and his plan, we will live as if there is none except our own.
And that will get us nowhere. In chapter 2, we looked at Peter's polemic against false teachers. And in those days, it was teachers that would stand in, whether it's in the synagogue or before the congregation or in teaching lecture halls, things like that. Today, we've got teachers, influencers in so many other places, don't we?
We carry them around in our pockets or purses. And there are messages coming at us day after day after day that we listen to. We might be in the habit of listening to particular messages day after day.
And many of those messages might be lies. And those habits, well, there's only one way to break a bad habit. What's that?
Create a good habit. Did some of you just receive enlightenment there? It's like, you know, I go to the physician and he says, Rich, you need more exercise.
So instead of watching golf now, I watch tennis. We need better... Some of you are just getting that, aren't you? We need better information coming in. Where is our information coming from? What is informing our attitudes and our affections?
Because something is. And this is what Peter is warning us about. So with the false teachers, the polemic against them in chapter two, their focus is self-gratification and they use you to that end for their self-gratification. They want you to live by lies because it pumps them up, makes them wealthy.
That's what false teachers do. But today we're talking about expanded horizons. Instead of focusing on self and our immediate gratification, we expand our horizons with the revelation of God.
The revelation of God is a liberating alternative to the lies that are hurled at us day after day after day. Peter writes a second letter. This is his second letter. It says at the beginning of verse three, This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder.
Same letter, second letter, same objective. Consider what he said in first Peter chapter one verse thirteen. First Peter one thirteen where he said...
I think I thought I had it up there. First Peter one thirteen. Prepare your minds for action.
That's what it says. First Peter one thirteen. Prepare your minds for action. So, in other words, he's calling us to remember, but remembering isn't just mentally calling something to mind. Second Peter chapter one verse ten, he says, Be diligent to make your calling to confirm your calling and election. This is not something you just sit around and do. You have to be active.
You have to be engaged. Meaningfully engaged to confirm your calling and election. And then he says, and we just read it this morning, Steve did, look at chapter three verse eleven. Second Peter three eleven. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness? It's a powerful question. That is the question that is before us. Where are we headed? Where is my life headed?
Where is all of this headed? And does my life reflect that reality? Am I in pursuit of that? Am I anticipating that? Am I preparing for that? So the objective is revisited.
Look what he says here. Stirring up, stirring up. That word stirring up means to wake up, to stimulate thinking.
Okay, you're, you're, you, you arouse from sleep. Okay, and you're awake and now you're, your mind is going and it says stir up by way of reminder. And that is to call to mind for the purpose of calling to action.
Where is the information coming from? The revelation of God. So it's information, divine information, divine self-disclosure, information, transformation to your, your head and your heart, your attitudes and your affections, information, transformation, mission. I could ask you to do that but, you know, like I did the walk through the Bible thing many years ago.
Information, transformation and mission. To what end that you should remember. This is very important when he says that you should remember. We might think that the command of this morning is to remember. It's not. Because this remember that you should remember, it is in the aorist passive. What does that mean?
It's a snapshot. It's a state of being. It's a result of a continual encounter to the truth.
In other words, that you should remember. Why? Because I am stirring you up. I am stirring you up. So it's an encounter with the truth to stir up your minds. The daily nourishing of the word of God in our minds.
Informing, informing, informing and transforming our thoughts, our attitudes and our affections. The stirring up there of the minds, where Peter says I am stirring up your minds, is the same word that's used in John 6 verse 18 where it says the sea became rough. Because there was a wind blowing over it.
That's a good picture, isn't it? The sea became rough because the wind was blowing. The word of God blowing over your mind. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in Him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.
