Welcome to Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davy. Stephen has been teaching the Bible for over four decades, and we bring you these messages to help you know God, think biblically, and live wisely. Just before Stephen's message today, please take a moment to like and subscribe to this podcast. That helps more people find this biblically faithful teaching.
Now, here's Stephen. It's possible to drift away from God's standard of morality. It's possible to drift away from believing the reliability of Scripture. It's possible to drift away from responsibilities at home, in your business world. It's possible to drift away from pursuing God personally.
It's possible to drift away from holy living. Mission drift is dangerous because it's never sudden. You don't wake up one day and say, "I'm I'm going to live an unholy life today." The founding documents of a Christian university spelled out the passion that this school felt for the glory of God. One paragraph reads: Each student will be instructed and pressed to know Jesus Christ, who is eternal life. To lay Christ as the only foundation of all knowledge and learning.
If you graduated from this evangelical university, you received your diploma stamped with the words in Latin, translated into English, which read "Truth for Christ and His Church." A Christian university is known as Harvard University. Today, their diplomas and their curriculum have eliminated any mention of Christ and the Church. Nearly seventy years after Harvard was established, pastors I have read in the New England area were concerned that Harvard had already begun to drift. This is only seventy years after their founding. And so they appealed to a wealthy individual to consider funding the establishment of a new university, and his name was Elihu Yale, another inexpensive school to attend.
But he formed it, and in their original curriculum, their students were required to read the Bible every day, spend time in prayer, and receive instruction. In biblical doctrine. Sixty years later, Dartmouth College was founded primarily to equip missionaries to evangelize their world. Today, of course, the nine or ten Ivy League schools have nothing to do with the gospel. This is what you call institutional drift, mission.
Drift, and frankly, no good, no godly endeavor is is ever really safe from the undertow of mission drift. It can happen to an institution. It can happen to an individual. Believer is not immune to that that undertow. It's possible to drift away from the simple truths of the gospel.
It's possible to drift away from God's standard of morality. It's possible to drift away from believing the reliability of Scripture. It's possible to drift away from responsibilities at home, and it. Work. It's possible to drift away from your your wedding vows.
It's it's possible to drift away from ethical decisions in your business world. It's possible to drift away from pursuing God personally. It's possible to drift away from spending time with Him privately. It's possible to drift away from holy living. Mission drift is dangerous because it's never sudden.
You don't wake up one day and say, "I'm I'm going to live an unholy life today." It's never one decision. It's never spur of the moment. Takes place slowly. It's like the tide going out to sea. With that, I invite you back to a 2,000-year-old warning.
Turn back, if you have your Bibles, to Peter's second letter that we're working through, and his discussion on the seven supplements in chapter one. About the time you think Peter's finished writing about these seven supplements, and you think I'm finished preaching about them. He launches into this very personal paragraph. He sort of he wraps it up. He summarizes it with a very passionate paragraph.
He delivers a warning, basically, to the believer of this constant danger of of drifting away from the pursuit of these seven. Supplements like virtue and steadfastness and godliness and brotherly love. We've studied them all three times in the next four verses. Peter is going to use the word for remember. You might circle them in your copy of the New Testament passage in Second Peter chapter one.
We're now at verse twelve. He he writes. Therefore, I intend always to remind you. There it is of these qualities. That is these supplements.
Go down to verse thirteen. I think it right as long as I'm in this body to stir you up by way of reminder. There it is. And then if you go down to verse fifteen, the middle part, so that after my departure, you may be able at any time to recall. There's that same word, family.
Remember them, these things. And by the way, not just for the sake of remembering them, you know, for the for the pop quiz, but but for the sake of spiritually growing, spiritually surviving, spiritually flourishing.
So that you avoid the danger of a wasted life, Peter wrote about back in verse eight, and he called it an ineffective and an unfruitful life.
Now, what I want to do is break down this final paragraph on the subject into several reminders—three reminders that will keep you from drifting away. Here is the first one. Remember that spiritual growth is not matured by information, but application. He writes here in verse twelve. Therefore, I intend always to remind you of these qualities, these supplements, though you know them.
Catch that, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. See, don't miss the fact that Peter isn't writing to new believers, people who don't know this stuff. Peter doesn't view his original readers as immature believers. They already know what Peter's been writing to them about. They already know about these, these spiritual disciplines, these supplements of virtue and godliness and steadfastness and and the agape love.
Peter writes here that they are already established. In the truth, you already know these supplements, so don't miss the fact that there's this reinforcement to the warning. Even mature Christians can drift. Seasoned saints can lose their balance. Long-standing Christians can lapse into scandalous sin.
Devastating sin, and leave that fruitful and effective life drift away. The devil never stops fishing. By the way, in your life, changing the bait, tempting you at thirty, and changing it at forty, and then. Trying something new at fifty, and changing the lure at sixty, and something brand new at seventy. If you think that because you're older in the faith, the more protected you are from spiritual drift, listen to the personal testimony of the Apostle Paul, who writes.
But I discipline my body and I keep it under control, lest, having preached to others, I become disqualified. First Corinthians nine twenty seven. He knew the word. He spent years teaching the word. Yet he knew at some point he could violate the word.
By not applying it, see you pull Paul over. By the way, as an older man, and you ask him if there was anything he was afraid of, and he'd tell you, "Oh yeah, let me tell you something. I am afraid of failing in the final lap of my race." This is a possibility he never got over. See what keeps you in the race is not information alone, but the application of the truth. Nine different times, Jesus Christ will ask the spiritual leaders, the spiritually knowledgeable leaders of the nation Israel, "Have you never read?" In reference to the Old Testament, of course they'd read it.
They didn't have to answer it. Many of them had many of the books of the Old Testament memorized. Jesus was simply making the point that. Knowing was not the same thing as obeying, which is why the Bible never equates spiritual maturity with knowing. It always equates it with doing.
Peter's writing to believers who, in a sense, had all the awards already pinned on their Oahuana vests, their trail life vests, shepherd's girls. They'd done it all. They knew it. Jesus would say to them, "If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them." John thirteen seventeen. He would say, "Blessed are those who hear the word of God and do it." Luke eleven twenty eight.
This is what James is referring to in chapter one, where he says that the person who hears the word of God. And refuses to apply the word of God is like somebody looking in the mirror and then not doing anything about it. I mean, we all looked in the mirror this morning, from what I can tell. Many of us made some major adjustments.
Some of us prayed for miracles. The Bible is the mirror in this analogy, and you look in it and you see yourself. And all the major adjustments that we need to make. See, these people knew the word, but they were, according to Peter's warning, not out of danger. It's interesting, by the way, that Peter uses a different word here in verse twelve when he says, "I know that you know, you know them, you know these supplements." He uses the word "oida" for.
Knowing mentally rather than Gnosko, which is knowing experientially. One New Testament scholar pointed out the very interesting fact that it's possible. Then Peter's implying to know something intellectually and not know it experientially. They know it, but they're not living it. They're going to drift.
Here is a second warning. Remember that what matters most in life. Is motivated by the brevity of life. He now writes in verse thirteen. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my tent—a reference to taking the tent down—the body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me.
Peter's giving us a little bit of his personal testimony.
Now we're not sure. Commentators debate as to whether or not Peter was given fresh revelation from the Lord that he's about to die. Peter doesn't clarify that for us. I think he's more than likely basing this on what the Lord had already told him fifty years earlier. The Lord recommissioned Peter.
The Lord met Peter. You may remember, and other disciples after the Lord resurrected from the dead, He met them down by the seashore, and He had fixed breakfast there—a charcoal fire and had some fresh bread and fish that He had miraculously created, which is easy to overlook. And He recommends Peter to take care of the flock. But then the Lord says this to him, and I'll paraphrase it: He says, "Peter, when you were young, used to go wherever you wanted to go." But when you're an old man, you're going to go somewhere you really don't want to go, and they're going to stretch out your arms. This is a reference, in case there's any doubt.
By the way, that Jesus is talking about. Peter's crucifixion in John's account, he adds after Jesus's words, that little parenthesis that says, "Jesus says this was to indicate." Or John writes, "This was to indicate what kind of death Peter would experience." So Peter was told as a younger man, "You're going to die by crucifixion," but he's also told it's going to happen when you're an old man. When Peter's writing this letter, he's in his eighties, late eighties. With the clues we have, so he says, "I'm an old man now. It can't be long." He's fully aware that he doesn't have much time left.
Let me tell you, beloved, that the awareness that life is soon over becomes a powerful motivator. Certainly for Peter, with what he wants to do with the time remaining, and it should be for us. This is the truth of Psalm ninety and verse twelve. Teach us to number our days. Teach us to think about the brevity of our life and the fact that we don't know how many days we have left.
But let's number them. Let's keep in mind they're not going to be very long, so that we can present to you, O God, a heart of wisdom. Thinking about the brevity of life develops wisdom. It makes life matter when you think about the fact that you might not have much time left. Think about it this way: If the doctor told you that you got two weeks to live, what would you do?
One Sunday school teacher asked his class that question. If the doctor told you had two weeks to live, what would you do? One of the men raises hand and said, "I'd get a second opinion." Well, I would too. But what would you do with your life?
Well, Peter's not scratching his head; he's not wondering what he's going to do. He spells it out here: as long as I am in this body, as long as the tent is still up, and well, I know I am going to take the stakes out. I am heading out, but until then, I am going to stir you up. I love that expression: "I am going to stir you up." That's intensive. In its original form, it's forceful.
It was used for keeping a soldier alert. It was used for waking somebody out of a deep sleep. Stirred them up. Peter's saying, "I want to shake you, every one of you, out of spiritual drowsiness, so that you would be alert." He wants to spend the rest of his life for you and me. To keep us from drifting.
Now he's not depressed as he thinks about his soon coming execution. He seems to be energized by it. In fact, even the way he talks about dying is interesting. Down in verse fifteen, if you look down there quickly, he just refers to his death as a departure, and he uses a rare word. It only appears one other time in the New Testament.
That's in Luke's Gospel where Jesus is on the Mount of Transfiguration and he meets with Elijah and Moses and they talk about Jesus's departure. Same word, death, resurrection, and ascension. Peter uses that word here for his own death. He writes in verse fifteen about his departure, and and the word is exodos. It gives us our word exit.
It means the road out. The way out. The same word was used in the naming of the second book of the Old Testament, Exodus. Why? Because the Israelites are on the road out; they're leaving Egypt.
They're heading for the Promised Land.
So Peter, like the Israelites, they didn't cease to exist when they departed. Peter's not saying, "Well, I'm going to cease to exist." When I get on this road, no, I'm leaving this land. I'm going to the Promised Land. What he's saying, in light of his Exodus, here's what he wants to experience. Here's what he wants us to expect from him.
He says, "I'm going to stir you up. I'm going to wake you up. I want to warn you of the danger in your life right now. No matter what your age." The danger of drifting away.
Now, here is the third reminder: Remember that true success in life is marked by godly influence, not affluence. He writes in verse fifteen, and I will make every effort so that after my departure, you may be able at any time to recall these things. It's as if Peter is saying, "I'm an old man now. You know what I want." More than anything, I want you to be able to recall things. It's as if Peter says, "That's why I am writing this stuff down." The older you get, the more you got to write it down.
You are going to forget from the bedroom to the living room what you left for. I read an article recently entitled "The Librarian in Your Brain Is Slowing Down." Just the title made me want to read it. Because I knew you needed it, not not me. He wrote this: By the time you're 50, your brain is as crowded with information as the Library of Congress.
Meanwhile, that personal librarian who lives in your brain is now slow and easily distracted. When you send him to get some information you need, like the guy's name who just stopped to talk to you, you can't remember. Your librarian.
Well, he takes a minute to get up out of his chair. He stops to get a cup of coffee. He wanders over and talks to an old friend in the periodicals section. Then he forgets where he was going in the first place. And then when the librarian finally shows back up and whispers, "His name is Mike." Mike is long gone, and you're doing something else.
Reminds me of a story one author recorded about three sisters, ages ninety-two, ninety-four, and ninety-six. They lived together in a two-story house. One night, the ninety-six-year-old drew her bath upstairs, got halfway in, then paused and hollered, "Was I getting in or getting out?" The 94-year-old was downstairs in the kitchen, and she hollered back, "Well, I'll come upstairs and I'll see." So she started up the stairs, but at the landing, halfway up, she stopped and yelled, "Was I coming up or going down?" Well, the 92-year-old, you know, the youngest of them, was. In the kitchen, drinking a cup of tea and listening to all this commotion, and shaking her head in disbelief, she muttered to herself, "You know, I hope I never get that forgetful." And you know, for good luck, she she knocked on the table, and you know, I hope I'm never that forgetful. Then she hollered up, "Well, I'll come up and help you out as soon as I find out who's at the front door." (Laughter) Well, you don't think Peter's being real here?
Oh man, is he ever being real? He's he's being realistic. You're not going to remember any of this. That's why I'm going to write it down. And the Spirit of God knows our biggest problem in life is forgetting.
So I'm going to write it down so that at any time you want, you've got my two letters. You can recall it. I love the fact that now Peter applies something to himself that he's challenged his readers with twice before. In verses five and verse ten, he's used the expression to give all diligence. You could translate that as we have give it everything you've got.
Give it everything you've got to pursue these seven supplements.
Well, now he uses that same expression for himself here at the beginning of verse fifteen. I will make every effort—same word. I'm going to give it everything I've got, all diligence, to help you remember how to live for Christ. The truth is, we forget what we ought to remember, and we remember what we ought to forget. We forget so many things that are worth remembering, and we remember so many things we really ought to forget.
Well, Peter's coming to the end of his life, and what energizes him? What does he want to leave behind? His influence in the lives of these individuals. He's led many of them to Christ. He's Personally, discipled many of them, and now through his letters, he has been discipling the church, encouraging, loving, influence matters most.
If you've been to a funeral before the service begins, you've sat there and you've watched this PowerPoint that that documents the life of the deceased. I have watched many of them over the years, and let me tell you, I have yet to see photographs of their favorite outfits, of their jewelry, of their automobiles, of their diplomas. That's one. Photograph after another of spouses and children and grandchildren and great grandchildren. Photographs of family vacations and trips together and birthday celebrations.
It's all about relationships. It's all about that individual's influence on their world. The Apostle Peter is modeling that here. In fact, would you notice that Peter does not write here? I will make every effort so that after my departure, you will remember me.
He doesn't write that. He's saying more than anything, I want you to remember these supplements that God has given me to pass on to you, to influence you, to urge you, to stir you up.
So that you will not drift. This is Peter's passion. This is God's spirit's desire for you and me to remember that a maturing godly life isn't just about information; it's about application. To remember and become equally convinced with Peter that affluence will never be as important as influence, and then to remember that life is brief.
So don't forget what matters most. That was Stephen Davy, and this is Wisdom for the Heart, a production of Wisdom International. Learn more at wisdomonline.org.
