Thank you so much for being here this morning, joining us in the sanctuary and on live stream. Today we continue in the series from 2 Peter with a message that I've titled, Stoking the Believer's Fire with Thoughtful Reminders. Stoking the Believer's Fire with Thoughtful Reminders.
Turn with me in your copy of God's Word to 2 Peter 1. We'll begin reading with verse 12. It reads, Therefore, I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are establishing the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in the body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as the Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me.
And I will make every effort, so that after my departure, you may be able at any time to recall these things. Verse 16. For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when we received honor in glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the majestic God, this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. We ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have something more sure, the prophetic word to which you will do well to pay attention, as a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star shines in your hearts. Knowing this, first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.
For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Let's pray. Our God and our loving Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for your word. We commit ourselves to the truth of your word. And we pray, Lord, that you'll impress your word upon our hearts.
May we all hear from you. Challenge us into the core of our being. Stoke, Lord, within us the fire within us.
And, Lord, set us ablaze for you and for your purposes. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen. Stoking the believer's fire with thoughtful reminders. Last week, Dr. Brown remind us in his introduction about various types of students who have sat under his tutelage over the years.
And that's very important, and I'm sure he's thankful and he looks back with great memory for those. I will add that for the educational process to be complete and to be successful, yes, we need good teachers as well as students. So if I were to ask you today, who has been the best teacher in your life and why?
What would you say? What name would you write? What reasons would you give for the best teacher? There are two teachers, really three, but I'm just going to describe briefly two teachers who stand out in my mind as I look back over my educational journey and specifically to my high school.
In Jamaica where I was raised, high school is seventh grade through 11th, if you go to a hood school like I did, that's a school in the inner city, if you went to one of the more posh middle class, upper class high schools, they may have a 12th grade and even a 13th grade which were like college prep, but we couldn't afford to go to those schools, so we went to the hood school. We stopped at grade 11. But two teachers stand out to me. One teacher in eighth grade, I will never forget my experience with him, Mr. Clark, because Mr. Clark second to my mother and her praying heart, Mr. Clark like no one else changed the educational trajectory of my life. I had an experience in the eighth grade where I was known as a time waster. I know that might be hard to tell today, but I was known as a time waster. Not only was I a time waster, I was the clown of the class. Yes, I admit it, I was the clown of the class. I was a student who looked forward to go to school and my ministry was not to learn, my ministry was just to make fun.
School needed to be fun. So I was the kind of child who when the teacher would turn his or her back, if I can make my way up there without being noticed to put a little water on the chair. And so when the teacher would sit and later on get up, the whole class would be laughing. I myself and another student in the back of the class would make all kind of crazy noises. There was one particular teacher, we would make some noises and it would scare her to death.
That was my ministry. But one day in class, I decided for whatever reason, this teacher Mr. Clark was going to give us a test and he warned us about it. And I decided I was going to study. Prior to then seventh and eighth grade, I went to school whenever I feel like to. My mom was sick, so I did not have that sort of a structure around me. And I'd moved out by the way in the eighth grade, not that I'm suggesting you younger ones to do it, but I did.
And here I am today with many scars. And so I decided I was going to study for that test. And Mr. Clark back in those days, they would read out the grades and call the students up, hey, you know, little Susie, you made 80%.
Here, Gary, you made 75%. So the whole class knew your grade. And I remember the teacher doing like this and he was looking at the name and the score on the paper and he just couldn't believe what he was seeing. And my name was the last to be called.
I began, I was concerned. I began to wonder, did I write my name on the paper? Did I do so bad that the teacher flushed it, ripped it up, threw it in the trash can?
No. I made the highest grade in the class. This is eighth grade. I can still feel what that teacher did to me.
He was an ex-police officer. He called me up to the front of the class, called me by my first, my last name Pierce. I want the class to see what you did.
You made a perfect grade and you made the highest grade. Everyone, of course, was surprised. And he grabbed me in the back of my pants, yanked it up to my chest and gave me the biggest wedgie of my entire life. I can still feel that wedgie until today. And he pushed and he shoved and he pushed and he shoved and these were his words, which I'll never, ever forget. He said, Pierce, look, you can do your work. Do your work. Pull up your socks. Pierce, look, you can do your work.
Pull up your socks. Contrary to Mr. Clark, whom if I ever know if he's alive today, I will go to Jamaica immediately and I would present to him copies of every degree I have earned. This man has really changed my life. Opposite to him was another teacher who will remain unmentioned. She was my ninth grade teacher and one day I did some work and turned in my book and I misspelled a word. She returned it to me with red-lettered writing, you are a waste of time. Why do you even come to school?
I'll never forget her as well. Both what she said and what Mr. Clark said, however, motivated me to change my life. Throughout the remainder of eighth grade, every time Mr. Clark would see me, he would remind me, you can do your work, pull up your socks. So a good teacher is not just one who can face the information. A good teacher cares about his or her student and takes the time to encourage the student to do better, to encourage the student to rise above his or her circumstances, to encourage the student to thrive. Mr. Clark would say, rise above the stars, Pierce, you can do your work.
I'll never forget him. Peter, a good teacher under the leading of the Holy Spirit, provides in our text this morning, verses 12 through 21, three main reminders to his listeners, to his readers. And why did Peter do this? He tells us that we already know these things, but he's reminding us of these principles so that he could stoke the fire within us. In other words, as the text says it, that he may stir up the believers. So our first point today is reminders from the final words of the apostles, apostle. Reminders through the final words of the apostle, verses 12 through 15.
Here we see that, believing that his death was imminent, the apostle Peter used what became his final words as he presented this last epistle to remind believers about the importance to continue in spiritual growth. That we would desire, his desire was to establish us in that truth. And so in today's world, we know that conversations about truth may lead in very different directions. Some people might want to talk about the nature of truth.
Some may want to talk about the source of truth. Some may even question the reality of truth. Some believe that truth is fluid. Truth is flexible. Truth is relative. So for them there is no absolute truth. You can believe whatever you want to believe.
Such is the belief of some today. But here Peter, in his final words, he tells us a few important principles here. He says that he committed always to remind his readers. The idea here is, again, knowing that his departure was near, he saw the importance of us as believers continuing in truth to be established in truth. And he reminds them about those qualities, those seven qualities Dr. Brown covered last week from verses 5 through 9 or verse 8. And these qualities we are told that we are to supplement our salvation with these qualities. The idea behind supplementing our salvation is not to do something necessarily to secure our salvation, but the Greek word here translates, it means to dress up, to supply or to furnish.
In other words, it's to activate and make something usable beyond where it was at that point. Consider for instance you buy a house and you go into the house and you're thankful for the house, but you never bring furniture in the house. You never put decorations on the wall. You never buy pots and pans or plates or cups or utensils, other utensils or knives and forks or your silverware or your cutleries.
You never have anything like this there. All you have is a shell of a house. Consider also that you might go to the dealership, you see a car and you really love this car and maybe it's your dream car and you finally went, hopefully you've saved enough money and you go and you buy the car, but if you have to do payments, fine. So you pay for the car, you sign the documents and they promise to deliver the car. A few days later, showing up at your gate, the tow truck delivers a car with no wheels. Doesn't even have a steering wheel on it.
And you're thinking, what am I going to do with this? I have a car, but that's insufficient. Or maybe the car came with all the wheels, but you're so convinced that it doesn't need gasoline. So you determine you're never going to put gasoline in this thing. You drive it until the litter it came with comes to an end and then what?
It leaves you on the side of the road. You have a car, but it cannot be used to its full potential. So we're told then to furnish, to supplement our salvation with these principles, these qualities given to us. And so Peter is going to remind us here in verse 12. He says, therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities. Again, discussed earlier, qualities you already know. You know them and you are established in them. The idea here behind being established is to set a fast, is to have something so fixed like a knot that cannot be undone.
To be established, you know it, you believe it, you are running with this truth. Imagine Peter, his final words. No complaints about his circumstances in Rome, about his impending death, but no, he wanted to remind the believers.
He wanted to shore them up as it were. Verse 13 goes on to say that I think it right as long as I'm in the body to stir you up. There it is, to stoke your fire as it were by way of reminder.
Since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon. He was expecting his end to be near. They already knew this truth and not just a passive knowing of these truths, but an active knowing of these truths. They were obeying these truths. He wanted to see them obey and live in these truths.
They were established in these truths. So his job then was simply to stoke their fire. To preempt as it were any going out of their flames.
You know how it is. You might be doing some barbecue in the backyard and so you have the grill on. Maybe for whatever reason you're using charcoal. After a period of time you will notice that the more the coal burns then the ash will just settle on top and if you do nothing about it, it will in itself suffocate the flame and the flame will go out. The longer the flame is going to last is going to depend on a number of things.
One of which would be you stoking the fire, turning it over, knocking off some of the the ashes that is settling there so that your coal can burn brighter or you may and or you may add some more charcoal to the grill as well. And here the Apostle Paul Peter is stoking their fire. He wants to see them burn brightly for the Lord and this was particularly important during the times in which they live where persecution was all around them and also false teaching or heresy, false doctrine was around them. So how would they defend truth except through the word of God.
They could not go out. I would ask you the question. If the Lord told you, appeared to you, and told you that you have maybe just a few hours left, a few days of life, maybe a week, maybe a month, and thereafter he's going to call you home to glory, how would you want to spend those last few moments of your life?
What would you do? How would you spend it? The best way to live is to live each day as if it's our last. To present ourselves to the Lord asking him, how can you use me?
How can I be used of you? What do you want to accomplish in and through my life? And to spend that dollar bill of our lives as it were entirely for the Lord and his purposes. The Apostle Paul in Philippians chapter 1 verses 19 through 26, he also writes about a time when his, he desired to leave this world and to be with the Lord.
But he says that as long as he remained it would be for the purpose of what? The body of Christ. The body of Christ.
The lifting of the body of Christ. He wanted to use his last days to serve the Lord. Listen to what Paul says in Philippians chapter 1 verse 19. He says, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of God Christ will turn out for my deliverance as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body whether by life or by death. And the verse that we are more familiar with verse 21 for living for me is Christ or for me to live is Christ and that is gain. He goes on to say if I'm to live on in the flesh that remains fruitful labor for me yet which I shall choose I cannot I'm hard pressed between the two my desires to depart and to be with Christ for that is far better. He continues, he desired to be with the Lord but as the Lord tariffs he would use his last days in serving the Lord. So as a good teacher, Peter wanted to use his last moments, his last words to count for eternity.
What is your desire relative to your last words? The Apostle John in 3rd John would remind us that he had no greater joy than to see his little children walking in the truth that is the truth of God's word. Truth is important. Truth is critical. So we cannot afford to have those convince us that truth is all relative.
Truth is important. Truth comes from the word of God. And so again Peter would remind his readers using his last words. And then the second here we see reminders from eyewitnesses of Christ's majestic glory verse 16 through 18. Peter continues he says, for we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty for when he received honor and glory from God the Father and the voice was born to him from the majestic glory this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven for we were with him on the holy mountain. Here the Apostle Peter shares some principles from an eyewitness perspective.
He's not learning this second hand. He's providing an eyewitness account of what he saw and he wanted to remind the believers again he wanted to stoke the fire within the believers because it was important for them to focus on truth. The truth of Christ's majesty. The truth of the power of Jesus Christ. The truth of the love of God that sent led him to send his son into the world to die on the cross for your sins and mine. The truth that we entered this world dead in our trespasses and sin and we need Christ in order to have hope of eternity. This is the truth of the hope of eternity. This is the truth of the word of God. See the Apostle Paul provided this eyewitness account and notice he tells them that he and the others they did not follow the cleverly devised myths.
These cleverly devised myths the idea here it's it is so sophisticated in fact it comes from the word that means that so if it's sophisticated devised to make one wise to make one wise in his own eyes in his own understanding wise relative to the wisdom of the world but not just cleverly devised but the myths that they also would be bringing forward. These are tales they are stories that they are fictional. They're fabricated.
They're empty words. They're hopeless and they come simply to do what? To mislead.
To deceive those who would be caught up with it. So the Apostle Paul says no Peter no I don't I didn't bring this to you and neither did the other apostles we brought you the authentic word of God. You remember Paul in Galatians chapter 1 recognizing that the believers there were quickly turning from the authentic gospel to that which was another of a different kind he writes to them in Galatians chapter 1 verses 6 through 11 he says I am astonished that you're so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turned into a different gospel not that there is another one but there are some who trouble you and want to what distort the gospel of Christ. Those in Peter's days those heretic ones those false teachers the false doctrine that was circulating they were devised by man's own ingenuity and the idea behind it their intention was to distort the gospel to try to distort truth they couldn't but they would try to distort truth and certainly to lead the believers astray and what the Apostle Paul says in Galatians as we continue to read he says that they are to be anatomized and he says even if I as an apostle or some other apostle would bring to you some message as empty as others were an error gospel a gospel a word filled with all errors we are to turn away from it but how do you turn away from error when you don't know truth the best defense of error is truth.
Have you noticed that error often changes? Error might be from one person today it might have a certain shade from someone else tomorrow next week in the next 10 years or so might be intrinsically the same but might have a different shade to it or it might change all together but the truth of God's word remains forever it abides forever we can trust him at his word and that was the point that Peter was making don't turn to these cleverly devised myths they they come to to deceive you they come to mislead you to to pull you away from where Christ wants you to be stand on the word of God he talks about the truth of the power of Christ he describes the scene and the eyewitness report again of the scene on the mountain of transfiguration and he was there and as he looked he saw Jesus and he was transfigured before him he saw the power from that he also saw Moses and Elijah appearing on the scene not of their own volition they were brought on the scene and that is a demonstration of the power of God in other words he says I witnessed it I was there I saw the power of God displayed through his son Jesus Christ and we heard the voice from heaven saying this is my beloved son what more can you want what more would you want this awesome power displayed and strength and majesty before you what more would you want and indeed that was sufficient for Peter so sufficient it was for Peter that he was martyred he was martyred in 67 BC about a year or so before Nero died so Nero was the emperor at the time and possibly even sanctioned the death of Peter we don't know all the circumstances surrounding that we don't know if Peter was given the opportunity to recant his faith but what we do know is Peter chose to die and he went out with the truth of the word of God and he did not recant his faith in fact when given the opportunity he chose to be crucified upside down rather than the same direction of Jesus's death why why would Peter be so cemented so steeled as it were in his position he didn't just read about truth he experienced truth he experienced the risen Christ himself he walked with Jesus on earth and yes Peter denied the Lord he also experienced the powerful forgiveness that comes through Jesus Christ how about you have you experienced such a truth Peter is not the only one who chose to die for truth who chose to give his life in dire circumstances one other person that comes to mind is Polycarp. Polycarp was actually a disciple of the Apostle John. John as you know in Revelation he was banished on the isle of Patmos and there God appeared to him and did business with him. Polycarp himself was given the opportunity to recant his faith by the Roman leaders of his time rising to the occasion the following was Polycarp's final words and dialogue as it were with his executioner listen to Polycarp in this dialogue with those who would then take his life Polycarp with his face set towards all the crowd in the stadium and waved his hands towards them possibly to mean be silent then he sighed he looked up towards heaven and he cried away with the godless what was Polycarp faced with Polycarp was given the opportunity to recant his faith and then he would be able to keep his life he says away with the godless the executioner said swear and I will set you free execrate Christ deny Christ turn away from Christ what did Polycarp respond how was his response he says for 86 years I have been his servant and he has never done me wrong how can I blaspheme my king who saved me I have wild beasts said the proconsul and if you make a light of the beast I'll have you destroyed by fire oh you think that would faze old Polycarp he certainly didn't Polycarp answered the fire you threaten burns for a time and is soon extinguished there is a fire you know nothing about the fire of judgment the fire reserved for the ungodly but why do you hesitate do what you want to do you waited on me to recant my faith you can go ahead and throw me in the fire I'll never recant my faith I know the truth of the word of God as it were the proconsul was amazed and sent the carrier to stand in the middle of the arena and to announce three times Polycarp has confessed that he's a Christian imagine that then a shout went up from every throat and Polycarp was to be burned and the crowds rushed to collect logs here are these people in this arena and they rushed to wherever they could find logs on the outside and they brought it back and when the fire was ready Polycarp prayed but it had been offered up his amen and completed his prayer at least they waited for him to finish praying the men in charge lit the fire and a great flame shot up in the air that was Polycarp's choice he chose to die he chose to go out with a bang as it were knowing truth not recanting and you say well in these days we don't know this sort of a persecution praise God we don't but you know there are other people in other parts of the world that are facing similar persecution today we don't see this in our western world but there are others in other parts of the world that are experiencing this in March of this year I had the privilege through invitation to go and serve in Myanmar formerly known as Burma some of you might be aware that they are undergoing a military coup right now the prime minister or president of the country was accused by the military not that they needed some rational for what they did but they accused her of having some walkie talkies that were purchased supposedly from China so that was a huge crime and they went in seized her put her on a house arrest she's locked away for a number of years and the military took the country again and what are they doing today christians walking in the streets in certain parts can be just snugged up and put to death or they'll just disappear and you'll never know where they were you may find the bodies the bodies might be burned thrown in a ditch somewhere that's happening today one young man came to class one day we were doing some training on pastoral counseling with tears in his eyes this was like the second monday and i said hoi pi what's happening to you and he says dr pierce i'm just not feeling well today and i said can we talk afterwards and he came and he said to me a young deacon from our church sunday afternoon after church was taken by the military and we know not where he is we are fearful we will never see him again his family will never see him again i finished my second week and this young man had not yet been found a few weeks after returning harpy sent me some new images of his village now that was being attacked why because they were and are christians they are being persecuted burned to death in the streets in these parts of minmar what would you do if you face a similar situation if you are given a choice as to whether to hold on to the truth that you know from the word of god or maybe just fudge around the edges a little bit nobody's looking nobody cares really just do what you want to do maintain your life no said peter no said polycarp and how far away are we from persecution here our neighbors to the north a year or so ago a young man i believe he was about 16 years old arrested at school for doing what in the height of the lgbt movement on his campus and conversations about some 72 to 82 different genders this young man's firm believer says no there are only two genders god created them males and females he created he them and they called the police they arrested him and dragged them away it happened in canada it happened in a catholic school in canada and you say how far are we from this happening in the united states we're pastors there and pastors in other parts of the world cannot speak out against these things now it's becoming hate speech so now you can be arrested you can lock me up and throw away the key for all i care because i will never stop preaching the word of god so this is where it's going to hurt how would you think about this it's election year and not too long from now we march to the polls and we will mark that d or we'll mark that p will you consider before you go what you're really voting for is it just a person is it a movement what does these what what do these people actually believe what do you believe and how does your belief how will that be seen when you go to the polls elections have consequences and these people you're voting for what do they represent don't just listen to in this year follow them for the previous four years the previous 10 years and whatever it takes don't just march on because they have consequences and it can come back to bite you in the rear there are the words i could use but i'll just stay there peter decide to die rather than to recant his faith what will you do when face if you ever face similar circumstances what will you do when you stand at the polls when you walk away whoever gets in the various offices including the top office of the land they'll begin to make some decisions and yes they will not always satisfy us but what will represent the greater bulk of what we believe from scripture anyway they say don't talk politics in the pulpit but there you have it finally we have reminders about the prophetic word of god remind us the final words of the apostle remind us from this eyewitness and now reminders about the prophetic word of god god's word comes to us not of man's own initiative but god's word comes to us through the penmanship of god peter tells us that we have the scripture it is sure it is sure it is established it is stable it is firm that's what the word sure means unlike the error of the world it fluctuates it's very fluid the word of god is firm and it's secure we can trust him god never changes from yesterday to today he has and will not change we can depend on him we have the scripture it's the sure word of god the scripture it illuminates we are told the word of god it provides a light to the hearts and the path of man we're told in psalm 105 and verse 30 130 that his word is a lamp onto our path sorry psalm 119 105 his word is a lamp to our path and a light to our way god's word provides a light and it shines into the hearts of man it shines and it illuminates our pathway and we're told that we are not to pretend as if it's not there we are not to avoid it we're not to overlook it we have to pay attention to it what is god trying to show us what is god trying to teach us his word is sure his word illuminates and the scripture originates with god this speaks to the fact that divine revelation in the original as it came to us one scholar this defines this divine revelation as the act of god whereby he discloses himself or communicates truth to the mind whereby he makes manifest to his creatures that which could not be known as any in any other way that's the word of god we have it today and if god had chosen not to give us his word we would not have had it otherwise can you imagine how hopeless we would be our world would be dark there would be no hope of eternity but we have the word of god we have the finished work of jesus christ on the cross outside of him there is no hope you're walking if you don't know christ as your lord and savior stumbling around in the darkness and you're hopeless yes you you you may be able to enjoy the pleasures of the world for just a few minutes but at the end thereof you're awake to the fact that yes you're simply destroying yourself one degree by the other so god's word didn't come from man's fanciful imagination nor the interpretation of scripture it is the prophetic word of god verse 19 tells us it was not and could not have been produced is the word here nor to come from man from man's own will man's own intellect notice earlier peter says we didn't follow the fanciful you know myths and clever myths of man they produce that they produce it with the objective of misleading and corrupting the word of god prophecy the word of god as we have it was produced by god originated by god was communicated to god's servant and what we have here in scripture that we can trust came from god the leadership of the holy spirit as a man wrote as they were carried along by the spirit of god truth can be trusted truth is important it was important then and it is important now so again peter wanted to stir up the believers stoked the fire is that necessary today of course it is necessary today as it was necessary you know when peter was here it is necessary today otherwise what becomes of us as believers what becomes of the church what becomes of our ministry what becomes of our witness in south charlotte in charlotte north carolina the rest of the united states and the rest of the world what's the objective ultimate objective of the devil the ultimate objective of the devil is to have more people joining him in the dark dungeon the bottomless pit called hell that's his ultimate objective what does he not want you and and me to be doing he doesn't want us to be to believe truth truth of god's word he doesn't want to see us live in it he certainly doesn't want to see us sharing it so that as we believe it as we live it as we share it others come to know christ as their savior they also have a hope as we have a hope that is not limited to this world nor the circumstances of this world but a hope that transcends this world the apostle paul reminds us in first Corinthians 15 if it were only in this world that we had hope in christ we would have been of all men most miserable ah not so are we we we have hope in christ so if you are here today you don't know christ as your personal lord and savior these reminders might not hit home very well to you that would be understandably the case but you need to know christ you need to know the love of god that sent his son to die on the cross for your sins and mine i'll conclude with a few challenges or applications for us today so what do you do what do we do with what we've now heard first of all prioritize your time in scripture in the word of god prioritize your time spend time there it's a part of our challenge from this year earlier this year from our senior pastor number two watch out for the fanciful myths or meologies not theologies but meologies of our time watch out start with truth know that the error is there watch out doesn't matter what it sounds like doesn't matter from whom it comes especially you young college students some of you are starting within a few weeks or so others of you are there and yes these professors with all their degrees and and the language that they know they wax coal in front of you you don't have opportunities to challenge them and they seem to be so wise remember the fanciful myths of man number three prepare to combat error how do you do it first of all you commit to truth of god's word as you prepare to defend or defend truth or to combat error commit to live for and serve god until the very end peter did it polycarp did it john did it all the others did it commit to living for christ and to serve him to the very end and then finally share with others about what god is doing in your life what has god done for you lately share it with others and perhaps if you need another one just remind remain faithful to the lord remain faithful to the lord and encourage others to be faithful to him as well these are very thoughtful and important reminders reminders not just from peter but reminders ultimately from god the greatest teacher who ever lived and why are these necessary these are important to stir up and stoke the fire of the believers their spray father we thank you for your word thank you for these important thoughtful reminders help us as we go lord to live them to teach these truths and may others come to know christ as they watch our lives as they see us live for christ as well in jesus name we pray amen
