The Pastor’s Heart To The End

OK? All right. Second Peter,
chapter 1. I know it’s in my Bible here somewhere. The last time I shared with you,
we looked at Second Peter 1. one through eleven and to me
it’s a marvelous passage and I wanted to be able to do the
whole thing but you know when you start studying and digging
and digging your notes and the verses and the passages and the
truths that you want to share just go bum bum bum bum bum bum
bum and then you might spend a week trying to cut and cut
You cut this finger off, and this finger off, and this finger
off. And it’s been a real tough time this week doing cutting. And I told my wife this morning,
she says, how’s it going? And I said, well, I still haven’t
made it. So the Lord, the Holy Spirit’s
going to have to do some cutting as we go. But I just couldn’t
cut anymore. He’s going to have to show me
where to do that. Because of time, I want to just start right
out with the scripture, verse 1. I want to do a quick overview,
review, and another review, and a review of the first half of
2 Peter chapter 1. And I’m also, I want to put this
chapter in the theme of the pastor’s heart to the end. So I get to
talk about Ron this morning. I didn’t tell him that earlier,
but a pastor’s heart to the end. The first thing I want to look
at is the pastor points us to Christ for growth and Christian
virtues. He doesn’t point us to himself.
The pastor has a true humility, but also a confidence to point
us to the living God. verse 1 Simon Peter a bondservant
and an apostle Jesus Christ to those who have received faith
of the same kind as ours by the righteousness of our God and
Savior Jesus Christ the same kind of hours same kind of hours
who is that the Apostles you think about the Apostles when
you read about them and how exalted they are in scripture, it tells
us that we have exactly the same kind of salvation as them. We’ve
been brought into the kingdom of God as God’s adopted children. They weren’t lifted up any more
than the rest of the saints. We have the same gospel as them. In verse 2, it says, Grace and
peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus
our Lord. This morning we’re going to look
at three different kinds of knowledge. The first of those is called
epigenosco. It’s a word for knowledge and
epi is on the front to make it a more sure, perfect knowledge.
And this knowledge is clear and exact, more intensive than the
word just gnosco, which is also a word for knowledge. Both are
relational in their intent besides just knowing. It says because
it’s a more intensive one because it expresses a more thorough
participation in the object of knowledge on the part of the
knowing subject. In order to have epigenosco of
our Lord Jesus Christ, you must participate in a relationship
with him. It’s not good enough just to
know facts about our Lord. You need to know him perfectly
in a relationship. I can’t know Danny down here
unless I spend time with him. All I can know about him is what
I see on Sundays or something. And so it would be unfair for
me to start describing Danny if I haven’t spent time with
him and really know him. And it’s unfair for us to characterize
the living God if we don’t spend time with the living God. So
epigonoskos. Dalich says, we may speak of
a false gnosis, but not of epigonosis. Mark MacArthur puts it this way.
This is a strengthened form of knowledge, implying a larger,
more thorough and intimate knowledge. The Christian’s precious faith
is built on knowing the truth about God. As in verse 3, Christianity
is not a mystical religion, but is based in objective, historical,
revealed, rational truth from God and is intended to be understood
and believed. The deeper and wider that knowledge
of the Lord, the more grace and peace are multiplied. You know,
you can’t look at the face of Jesus and not be blessed. He is an amazing Savior, full
of glory and honor, and we need to keep our eyes on Him. Verse
3 says, seeing that His divine power is granted to us everything
pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of
Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. John Piper
tells us this about the verse that’s useful and helpful to
take it this way. He says, look at this in three
parts. First, the goal is that we obtain
life and become godly people. Next, second, the source of this
life and godliness is divine power. Did you get that? To become godly, the source is
His power, His divine power. And then third, the means by
which this power produces this life and godliness is through
knowledge, epigenosco, of God. So how do we progress? Through a divine power in knowing
our Lord Jesus Christ. And when we get a little further,
you’ll see why we need his power. You can’t do it. Apart from it,
it just can’t be done. It says, we have been called
by His glory and excellence. This means that He called us
by revealing to us the wonders of His person. Do you remember
back when you were saved? You know the awesome, exalted,
ecstatic feeling you had of knowing the living God, our Lord Jesus? I can remember how exciting it
was to see Jesus, somebody who would love me. I am a sinner. I don’t know that I can say I
sin less or more now because God keeps revealing more sin
in my life as I go on. But I can remember as a young
man and as a child when I was in an orphanage and accepted
Christ. It was an amazing thing. And
I won’t forget it. Kneeling at a bathtub, he led
the Lord by a fellow, a person at orphanage. The Lord keeps doing that to
me. I know it’s not very manly, but I just can’t help it. So
verse four, for by these he has granted to us is precious and
magnificent provinces, so that by them you may become partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is
in the world by lust.” I knew there was something wrong. I was starting to lift this up
and saying, why is that? Included among the everything
which God’s power has given to promote life and holiness are
as exceedingly great and precious promises in the Word. Two things
come from placing our faith in His precious and magnificent
promises. One, by them you may become partakers
of His divine nature. And two, we have escaped the
corruption that is in the world by lust. both of which happened
at the time of salvation. However, as we continue and see
these manifested in our lives, our daily relationship with God,
it will get sweeter and sweeter. Think of a few things of promises,
a few promises that relate to the life of holiness. I listed
just six of them here. 1. Freedom from sin’s dominion. It’s a promise. Romans 6.14. Grace that is sufficient. 2 Corinthians
12.9. The power to obey His commands. We don’t have an excuse. He’s
given us the power to obey. Philippians 4.13. Victory over
the devil. James 4.7. An escape when tempted. 1 Corinthians 10.13. forgiveness
when we confess our sins. First John one nine and I’m sure
you can think of countless others. First five through seven for this is the very reason also
applying all diligence in your faith supply moral excellence
and in your moral excellence knowledge. Because he’s given
all these blessings in verses three and four, we need to apply
all diligence to supply our faith with the fruit that follows.
These originate from God, and being that he commanded them,
he will enable the hard work required to obey. Diligence has
the idea of both urgency and hard work. Kittle explains it
this way, diligence promotes the total demeanor of the Christian
whose daily task is to, listen to this, your daily task, yours
as a saint, your daily task is to ratify, activate, and practice
his calling. Pretty easy, huh? Not at all. I’m an old man. You can see that. It’s all white up here. And over
the years, the many years as a Christian, I can’t say it gets
a lot easier. We’re in a spiritual war. And
if we’re focused, it isn’t easy. Satan and his four horse do not
want us to practice these things. They want to do whatever they
can, like John said, to make us stumble. To stumble. They would like to make us fall,
but that’s not going to happen. Supply. The word supply in that
verse is in the active voice, not passive. So those that say,
let go and let God. That’s not true at all. It’s
a heresy. It is a heresy. God says, you
supply. It’s an active, it means you.
So this is where we get the word choreograph. I like to think
of this as the divine symphony of Christian growth. He has supplied
everything and will teach us how these blessings can be made
into a wonderful melody in our lives to his glory and grace. If you read scripture, you’ll
see that we’re active in this process. We’re active, but God
leads us and gives us the grace and the power to perform what
we need to. It’s not let go and let God. It’s that we have to take the
power, the grace, the teaching, and everything else, and with
Him concurrently work our salvation out. Linsky says this, with all
diligence supply, furnish, and connection with your faith, this
chain of golden fruit. You’ve heard of the fruit of
the spirit, Galatians, but this is another set. He says in verse
five, in your faith supply moral excellence, that is spiritual
courage before a hostile world the strength to stand for what
is right. Let our faith be also seen and
heard. Next he says, and in your excellence,
knowledge, especially the knowledge, and this is gnosis, the second
word for knowledge, especially the knowledge of spiritual truth.
This emphasizes the importance of studying the word of God and
obeying its sacred precepts. Ignorance of the word false conceptions
of its teaching rob our faith of its proper praise. Verse 6,
it says, and let, and in your knowledge, self-control, to exercise
complete control over one’s desires and actions, and in your self-control,
perseverance, the power to withstand hardships or stress, especially
the inward fortitude necessary. And in your perseverance, godliness,
the devout practice for what? For inappropriate beliefs about
God being true to him. And in your godliness, brotherly
kindness, brotherly love. The word Philadelphia, a lot
better than the town Philadelphia for sure. Brotherly love, the
affection naturally befitting the relationship between siblings,
especially as the affection of those who are now siblings in
God’s family. The godly must cling together
and support and encouragement. To live a godly life, you can’t
do it as a loner. God has purposed the Christian
life to need other Christians. to encourage, to build up, and
to hold each other up before God. And I just value and praise
God for anyone who prays for me and my family, because it
is truly a grace. And in your brotherly kindness
love, this is agape, a strong affection and regard for a person And they’re good. But what kind
of good? It says, as understood by God’s
moral character. A good that upholds his character. Especially characterized by a
willing forfeiture of rights and privileges in another person’s
behalf. Linsky talks about these virtues. as also listed in the reverse,
starting in chapter 2 verse 1 of the false prophets. You’ll see
just the opposite of how they live. Verse 8, if these qualities
are yours and increasing, they render you neither useless nor
unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we’re back to Epigenosco,
the true knowledge renders us useless, having no beneficial
use, incapable of functioning usefully. So we don’t want to
be that way. We’re here to serve God and to
bring glory to Him. And if we don’t practice these
virtues and call on God to have them in our lives, it renders
us useless and unfruitful. Unfruitful means barren, unproductive,
without results. Verse 9, it says, for he who
lacks these qualities, the virtues that we just read, is blind or
short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former
sins. Blind means incapable of comprehending. Short-sighted, near-sighted,
can’t see the big picture. Doesn’t think ahead. Can’t see
things at all. Short-sighted. That’s me. Literally and spiritually sometimes. MacArthur says it this way, the
failure to diligently pursue spiritual virtues produces spiritual
amnesia. Such a person unable to discern
his spiritual condition will have no confidence about his
profession of faith. He may be saved and possess all
the blessings of verses 3 and 4, but without the excellencies
of verses 5 through 7. He will live in doubt and fear. It’s sad to be a Christian who
has backslidden to the point where they no longer have joy
in Jesus Christ. And you start asking yourself,
am I really saved? Am I really saved? Can I really do anything to serve
God? I’m totally unworthy. No sense in doing anything. But
you’re right, you are unworthy. But God is pleased to use us
for His glory. And as we keep a short list with
Him, He will use us one way or another. Verse 10, therefore,
brethren, be all the more diligent. And I didn’t talk about diligent.
But it has the idea of urgency and hard work. And all through
2 Peter, he uses this word over and over again. Hard work. He says, be all the more diligent
to make certain about his calling and choosing you. For as long
as you practice these things, those virtues, You will never
stumble. So like John, he won’t stumble
over that step going to get the mail. Keep these things before
you. We can’t make our calling and
choosing any more certain as it’s rooted in the finished work
of our Lord Jesus Christ. But by being more diligent at
practicing these virtues, we can make our calling and choosing
more certain to us and to those around us. It will also keep
us from stumbling and blindness, short-sightedness, and becoming
useless and disqualified in His service. There are those people
who have stumbled so bad that Christ has taken them from some
forms of service and they disqualified themselves. In verse 11 it says,
for in this way the entrance into the kingdom, the eternal
kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to
you. Abundantly supplied, richly furnished,
rich abundant reward in heaven. It’s the same word as in verse
5, supplied. The pastor prepares us to stand
on the truth of God’s Word. And what does it require? Review,
review, review. One of the things that I really
appreciate about Ron is that he reviews at least a third of
the previous week’s message every week. And some people might say,
well, why is he preaching that again? It’s because you need
review. I need review. We need these
things put before us again and again and again. A sister shared
this last week. These things should be brought
before us again and again and again. And that’s what we need
is review. Verse 12. Therefore I will always
be ready to remind you of these things. even though you already
know them and have been established in the truth which is present
in you.” Peter expresses his interest in and concern for the
spiritual well-being of the believers in their relation to truth. Linsky says this, another word
for no here is in the form of oida. to bring by having something
present. It says to know by having something
present to the mind. Not as Gnosko or Epignosko. Epignosko is in verse 2, 3, and
8. Gnosko in verses 5 and 6. The
effect of this knowing is expressed by the added participle having
been established or strengthened. So you take that word for no
and you add strengthened to it or established and it says thus
now being in this strengthened condition perfect tense Peter
uses the verb that Jesus employed when he told him strengthen thy
brethren or establish thy brethren that’s in Luke 22 32 That’s right after he exhorted
Peter, said, do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?
Do you love me? Then feed my sheep. So the readers should
have a constant reminding, the view of what follows regarding
the lying prophets who will appear. The readers will need all their
strength, their defenses, their safety, will be in the truth
which they possess. We stand in the truth of the
Word of God. Not in any formulas that man
come up with or anything like that. It’s God’s Word. So when
we view those people, the lying prophets, we have to depend on
the Word of God. Verse 13, I consider it right
as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way
of reminder. Here we have it again. Stir you
up. Remind you, remind you, remind
you. Why do we need so many reminders?
As I get older, I need reminders more and more and more. Sometimes
I think I’m becoming an airhead. I can’t seem to remember why
I went to a room. You know, let alone some of these
truths that we need to remind, remind, remind. You have to keep
going back and reminding the truths of God so they’re in your
heart and ready to use in spiritual battle. Notice that Peter speaks
pastorally in a personal manner and with apostolic authority.
He is convinced of his duty to help the people recall what they
have learned. He regards this work as his pastoral
task of teaching and preaching the word of God. This Christamaker
brought this. Christamaker goes on to say,
the Greek verb to stir up means to wake up or to arouse. The human mind is apt to take
a rest and readily become sleepy. Peter is not referring to normal
nighttime sleep, but to a lack of attentiveness. Too often we
rest on the laurels of past achievements and fail to be alert. We are
lulled to sleep as if we were living in peace while the spiritual
warfare against Satan and his cohorts is raging all around
us. I think sometimes, you know, not being what they call a charismatic
church, we kind of downplay spiritual warfare. It’s a truth. It happens around us all the
time. Satan is not leaving us alone.
Lenski goes on to say, the thought is that as long as Peter lives,
he deems it the right thing to make his readers keep on remembering
by his reminding them. You hear that, Ron? Right to
the end. While you’re living, you’re going
to keep reminding. Verse 14, 14 and 15, knowing
that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also
our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me, I will always be
diligent that at any time after my departure, I will be able
to call these things to mind. You will be able to call these
things to mind. Christ’s prediction of Peter’s
death is in John 21, 18 through 19. Here it says, truly, truly,
I say unto you, when you were younger, try to remember that.
Some of you are really young, Maddie. When you were younger,
you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wish. What’s it mean to gird yourself?
Get ready for activity. You know, gird yourself. They
used to pull up their long, I don’t know what you would call them,
gowns or whatever, and tie it around them so that they’d run
or walk or whatever. So gird yourself and get ready.
Wherever you wish, but when you grow old, that’s me, he says,
you will stretch out your hands, stretch out his hands, and someone
else will gird you. Someone else is going to have
to do that for you and bring you where you do not wish to
go. So he’s being led away. He’s
being led away. And now this, he said, signifying
by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when he had
spoken this, he said to him, follow me. Peter knew it was
coming. And who knows what else Peter
knew? But the fact is, Peter knew he
was getting old and his death was imminent. And it was going
to be swift. He was going to be led away and
it would happen. In verse 13, Peter speaks about
the time that he is still alive. In verse 14, his sudden and swift
death went old. Now about the time when he will
be, let me start over. In verse 13 Peter speaks about
the time that he still has to live and in verse 14 about his
sudden and swift death when old. Now about the time when he will
be dead his pastoral concern for his readers extends far beyond
his own decease. The readers are to be able Also,
at any time after Peter’s decease, to themselves, to bring to themselves
the recollection of these things, whenever occasions arise. Linsky. Tom Westwood goes on to say it
this way, and one of the chief opiates that Satan seeks to instill
in the Christian hearts is that of forgetfulness. You can look
back upon the day, can you look back upon the day when the truths
of the Bible first dawned upon your spirit and you rejoiced
to know them? Remember that day? You know I
backslid as a child to when I was about in high school and after
I got in high school I got back with the Lord and I can remember
I found just about every Bible study I could find so that I
could go to Bible studies every night. I felt like a sponge. I wanted to know more and more
and more about Jesus. And it was exciting. I loved
it. It was like I couldn’t get enough.
Do you remember a period in your life like that? It says those
days sped on. And the keen appreciation of
the divine truth began to dull. And many of the most cherished
thoughts that you had gleaned from God’s book became dull and
uninteresting. This is the danger of the Christian
soldier today. It leads to forgetfulness. Our
real danger is not the lack of knowledge of God’s word in so
much as it is that after we know it, our familiarity with it,
makes us unresponsive to the grandeur of the word. You still
hold the word in grandeur and want to dig in and enjoy it. Peter’s earnest desire was to
always put his brethren in remembrance of these things, even if they
did know them. He wanted them to perform the
task of shepherding the flock See, he wanted to perform the
task of shepherding the flock of Christ so thoroughly that
even after that he was gone, they might still remember his
exhortation and pursue the pathway of faith and the purpose of heart. Some scholars interpret Peter’s
declaration to mean that he was going to write another book,
that being Mark. kind of well-held that Mark actually
dictated the revelation in Mark and it was translated and written
down by Mark. However, I kind of like more
what Linsky has to say. Linsky goes on and he says, I
shall use diligence, that same word, urgent, hard work. He says, I shall use diligence.
Need not refer to the indefinite future. It may well refer to
the effort that Peter is about to make in the main body of his
letter. It says in other words, verse
15 is the preamble to all that follows. Peter does not put off
what he has to say. That would be, that would not
be right. Verse 13, use all diligence. The pastor calls us to trust
divine revelation. Verse 16, he says, for we did
not follow cleverly devised tales as they were being accused of
when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ. but we were eyewitnesses to his
majesty. We, he’s talking about Peter,
James, and John, and Matthew 17, 1 through 9. Mark 9, 2 through
10, and Luke 9, 28 through 36. I found this interesting, I really
hadn’t paid attention to this before. It says each writer places
just before the transfiguration a prediction from Jesus. And
the prediction is that some of his disciples would see, first
in Matthew 16, 28, it says, the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.
Then in Mark 9, 1, it says, the kingdom of God come with power. And then in Luke 9, 27, it says,
and shall see the kingdom of God. And I thought, whoa, what’s
going on there? None of these guys lived to the
second coming because it’s talking about the second coming. None
of them lived that long. But it’s interesting to read
about this. I would ask you to read Matthew
16, 27, 17 through 9. There are a few verses that we
can look at. And it says that in verse three
of that passage, and behold, Moses, Elijah appeared to them,
talking to our Lord Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it
is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will make three
tabernacles here, one for you, and one for Moses, and one for
Elijah. And while he was still speaking,
this is Peter. He’s just impulsive. You see, this is going to build
three tabernacles. And it says, while they were
speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them. And behold, a voice out
of the cloud said, no, Peter. That’s my edition. No, Peter.
This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to
him. And the disciples heard this,
they fell face down to the ground and were terrified. Have you
ever known somebody that was yammering on and on and saying
things and you thought, why would this guy ever be quiet? Wouldn’t
it be nice to have this cloud come along that would just… And off they go. But, you know,
I’m sure Peter didn’t have anything to say once he heard that voice.
He would not. It says, And then Jesus came
to them and touched them, and said, Get up, and do not be afraid. And lifting up their eyes, they
saw no one except Jesus alone. Isn’t that amazing? In verse
2, it talks about when He was transfigured before them, His
face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white
as light. Can you imagine the awesome display
of that? To see this glow that’s as bright
as the sun, which we can’t look at with our naked eye or it’ll
burn our retinas. We can’t do it. And it says,
as Tom Westwood puts it this way, he says, in this passage,
we have the definite reason why Simon Peter could say that he
and the other apostles had not followed cunningly devised fables,
or were eyewitnesses of his majesty, the Lord graciously gave Peter,
James, and John a kind of preview of that kingdom. When they were
on the Mount of Transfiguration, so, so dazzling was the light
that the disciples fell in abject terror at the feet of Christ
until he touched them and raised them with his words. Peter is
not talking about the coming of the Lord here as a theory
that it sprung from his own fertile imagination. He was speaking
of the power and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as that
which he had already seen when he was with him on the Holy Mount. It was a preview of the second
coming, the glory and power of the Lord Jesus Christ. I would
encourage you to read Revelations 19 11 through 16. Please do that
this afternoon. Revelation 19 11 through 16. This is the coming of Christ.
And see how the glory of God is displayed. How our Lord Jesus,
He comes in this triumphant presentation to stamp out all of the evil
and so forth and start the his reign on earth, the millennium. And when I was reading this throughout
the week I was really impressed that I counted up 17 personal
pronouns for the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. It says
he will, he shall, and he brings this triumphant army with him
and they don’t do anything. all the angels how many is that
could be millions could be billions we don’t know and guess what
else the Saints are there too we will be there but we’re not
going to have to fight because the battle is the Lord verse 17 for when he received
honor and glory from God the Father Such an utterance as this
was made to him by the majestic glory. This is my beloved son
in whom I am well pleased. Verse 18, and we ourselves heard
this utterance and made from heaven. And when we were with
him on the holy mountain, majestic glory is Peter’s own expression
of God. Couldn’t find it anywhere else.
The majestic glory. Father, God the Father. 19. And
we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you will
do well to pay attention as the lamp shining in a dark place
until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. The
prophetic word of Scripture is made more sure by the transfiguration
where the transfiguration confirms the proper interpretation of
Old Testament scriptures. That is, there is a future coming
of Christ for judgment and salvation. This is Schirr and Nyer. If we
go to verse 20 and 21, it says, but know this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture
is a matter of one’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever made
by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit
spake from God. In the final two verses of the
chapter, Peter emphasizes the prophetic scriptures originated
with God and not with man. They were divinely inspired.
Now when I talk about, when he talks about by their own interpretation,
I spent almost a week studying that. There are several interpretations,
but I figure I’m just going to go with the one I think I like
the most, instead of taking all the time to explain all the others.
R.J. Bakken says it this way, the
authors appeal to the authority of the Old Testament prophecy
is in support of the expectation of the parousia, the second coming,
in verse 19, must now be defended against a second objection made
by the opponents. They rejected the authority of
the Old Testament prophecy by denying its divine origin. They
said that while it may be true that the prophets received signs
and dreams and visions, however their prophecies were their own
human interpretations of these, not God-given interpretations. The Old Testament prophecies
were therefore just products of the human mind, like the apostolic
message. So the opponents thought this
was all just made-up stuff from the mind, their own interpretations
of everything. In reply, Peter denies this view,
and reasserts the divine origin of the Old Testament prophecy. No prophecy in the Old Testament
scriptures originated from human intuition or imagination. The Holy Spirit of God inspired
not only the prophets’ dreams and visions, but also their interpretations
of them, so that when they spoke the prophecies recorded in scripture,
they were spokesmen of God himself. Cut time. Other explanations may be true.
However, not the meaning of this passage. For instance, it’s true
that no verse should be interpreted by itself, but in the light of
the context and the rest of scriptures. But Peter here is dealing with
the origin of the prophetic word and not with the way men interpret
it after it has been given. The point is that when the prophets
sat down to write, they did not give their own private interpretation
of events or their own conclusions. In other words, interpretation
does not refer to the explaining of the word by those of us who
have the Bible in written form, but rather it refers to the way
in which the Word came to being in the first place. R.C. Sproul puts it this way,
someone’s own interpretation, some take this verse to be about
the interpretation of prophecy to the effect that no one is
allowed to interpret the scripture on their own privately. But Peter’s
concern here is the reliability of Scripture itself and not their own private interpretation. I’ve got to read that over again. But Peter’s concern here is the
reliability of Scripture itself and not the authority of those
who interpret it. The point comes up later, this
point comes up later in chapter 3, verse 16. In the present context,
Peter is arguing that the prophetic testimony of scripture comes
all together from God, including not only visions, but also the
words used to describe them and interpret them. He gives a few
references you can write down, Daniel 8, 15 through 19. Zechariah
1.9, where God sends the angels to interpret. And the one I kind
of like that I looked up was Genesis 41, 15 through 16. And here it’s Joseph speaking
when he’s pulled from prison to interpret the vision of Pharaoh. And here’s what Joseph says when
Pharaoh says, give me the interpretation. Joseph says, it’s not in me. You know, what did Pharaoh think
at that time? What? He pulled this guy out and he
says, it’s not in him, but he says, God will give Pharaoh a
favorable answer. And then Joseph went on to explain
it. It’s not in Joseph, but it’s
from God. 16. It says, all scripture is inspired. God breathed. By God, all scripture
is inspired and God breathed by God, and is profitable for
teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness,
so that the man of God may be adequately equipped for every
work. I just like all these terms that
says, you know, we have everything that we need to live a godly
life. And here it says that we’ve been
equipped for every, every, every, every good work. That’s a little
review. Every, every, every. Gladstone
puts it this way. The result attests the divine
act. As no man ever spoke like this
man Jesus. John 7, 46. So no book ever spoke
like this book. because it’s from Jesus. None,
talking about the Bible, has ever been scrutinized down to
its every particle like this one. None has had such intensive
and extensive commentaries written about it. None has experienced
such assault and has, after every surge of attack, it appeared
only the more as the impregnable rock of Holy Scripture. A true pastor stands on the truth
of the inspired Word of God and continually teaches and reminds
the saints to do the same to the end. As we take off this
present tabernacle that God’s given us and we’re put on to
the glory. You know, it’s I was once explained
to me. It says death is kind of like
you’re in this room. You go over here, open the door
and you’re before the living God, Jesus Christ, because you
never actually cease. You’re just moved from one place
to another. Just on a real quick, uh, I don’t
know if it’s funny or not, but when I was looking at tabernacle,
I started thinking, you know, each of us have a tabernacle.
Some of us have very gorgeous tabernacles. Some of us have
old and wilted and wrinkly tabernacles. Some of us have tabernacles that
can house one person. Some of us, like me, a whole
neighborhood. But we all have tabernacles. And one day we’ll put off that
tabernacle something that’s temporary, a tend is to be put away, and
we’re going to gain a permanent place to exist in our Lord Jesus
Christ. Verse 3 said, seeing that His
divine power has granted us everything pertaining to life and godliness
through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own
glory and excellence. And then in 5, 7, five through
seven now for this very reason applying all diligence that’s
active all diligence get to work now don’t fiddle around don’t
put it off apply all diligence in your faith supply the virtues
that are in five through six I can guarantee you been memorizing
parts of this so that I can keep asking God in times of trouble.
When I can remember, it really is much better. When I don’t
remember, I’m like John going to get the mail, I stumble. You have to stay keen with a
focus on God’s truth. You’re going to live a holy life
to His glory. And the pastor keeps leading us and encouraging
us to that end. And so I appreciate Ron. This
is a church that I come to that really honors the Word of God.
Ron is here and he actively, along with the rest of the leadership,
looks out for the saints and really has a heart And he’s not
a person that lords over us. He’s a humble man. And I appreciate
that. A true, true pastor.