Gooding, David: 2 - We Have Found The Messiah

Program, I'm afraid, to attempt to cover both the epistles by Peter in one weekend session. What I propose to do this morning is not to give a verse by verse exposition of the second epistle any more than we could manage that in the first epistle, but just to make some remarks on each of the three chapters, eh, in each of the sessions respectively. Moreover, I do not propose to say anything about canonicity and authorship. As you probably know, the authorship of second Peter has been much disputed. Many are they who say that it is not by the Apostle Peter, but it's by somebody else. It is the fact that before Peter was finally accept- Second Peter was finally accepted by everybody in the church as inspired scripture, there were certain discussions, to say the least. And all those interesting things, and the evidence by which one may make up one's mind on the topic, ca- are, are to be found very, very helpfully and thoroughly put by Michael Green in that little blue series of Tyndale commentaries. And indeed, if you are interested in, uh, introductory stuff like that, the introduction to the commentary on First Peter in that same series by Andrew Walls is exceedingly helpful. I myself hold that, uh, 2nd Peter is by the Apostle Peter, just as the first epistle is, and I shall assume that viewpoint, eh, in what I have to say. Now, if one compares, uh, second Peter with first, one finds, uh, a good deal in common and also some typical, uh, differences. In first, uh, in the first epistle, the emphasis is heavily put on the question of Christ's suffering, and therefore on our suffering with him. Uh, suffering is mentioned in chapter one. Suffering there, particularly that, uh, the kind of suffering that God uses in order to refine our faith. That kind of suffering, of course, Christ did not go through. He needed no refining. There was no dross in his faith to be purged out by suffering. He was the lamb without blemish, says chapter one of the first epistle. In chapter two, it is a question of innocent suffering. Uh, as verses nineteen and twenty put it, for what glory is it if when ye sin and are buffeted, ye shall take it patiently, but if when ye do well and suffer, ye shall take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. That is to say, Peter is here discussing the situation where a man has done, uh, quite well in spite of having done quite well, he, uh, is beaten, uh, and ill-treated, he suffers. It's a question then of innocent suffering, suffering that's not caused by sin, just arbitrary, innocent suffering, and the example of Christ is quoted. He did no sin, neither was guile in his mouth, in spite of his innocence. He, he was persecuted and tortured. In chapter three, again, Peter reverts to the topic of suffering, this time with a slightly different slant. Uh, verse seventeen of chapter uh three: it is better if the will of God should so will that you suffer for well doing. You will see that that is a slightly different emphasis. This is not merely innocent suffering. This is suffering for positively doing good. Suffering that you could escape if you didn't do good. And the good in question, of course, is in particular, uh, serving Christ, witnessing for Christ, being bold in one's confession of Christ. And obviously there are situations in which one likes to soft pedal things and keep quiet, one can avoid a good deal of reproach and suffering. But sheer righteousness, if nothing else, uh, would impel us to witness for our Lord, positively to do good. And situations will arise, it's not now a question of innocent suffering, suffering in spite of the fact that we've done no wrong, but it is suffering for positively doing good. And perhaps you can think of other such, uh, circumstances. A partner in a firm who, uh, and the firm is s- suggesting a shady business move. And the man that dares get up on his hind legs and protest for the sake of righteousness. They have to suffer for positively doing good. And the gang of workmen doing the job of work, if all the others in the gang want to swing the lead and waste a lot of time, the man that for conscience towards God is positively going to do a good day's job is going to be distinctly unpopular. Suffering for positively doing good. And then there are sufferings, such as you read of in chapter five. Peter mentions our Lord's sufferings again in the context of the work of elders. There are sufferings to be involved by way of sacrifice and heartache. They come particularly to those that give themselves to the care of God's sheep. The sheep can be wayward things and frustrating things and tiresome things and dirty, smelly old things. They're not all nice woolly things as, uh, to be seen on Christmas cards and whatnot. They can be very tiresome objects. And the man that gives himself to the care of the flock may expect a good deal of suffering, to be torn by the thorns and the thickets as he goes to rescue sheep who have gone astray. So then in fir- the first epistle, Peter emphasizes the sufferings of Christ. But to use his own phrase from chapter one of that epistle, second Peter emphasizes the glories that shall follow. There's no strict division, but Second Epistle, for instance, in the chapter that we study in this session, uh, refers us not to our Lord's cross, but to his transfiguration, preview of his coming kingdom. Here, Peter is thinking very, very specifically of the glory that shall follow. He talks in chapter three of the Second Epistle of the end of the world and the glorious advent of the new heavens and the new earth. Or to take a, a, a another, uh, uh, difference. If you look to one Peter chapter five, Peter says in verses, uh, in verse twelve, by Silvanus, our faithful brother, as I account him, I have written unto you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand you fast therein. Oh? Where did he testify that in the first epistle? He ought to know, for he's the man that wrote the letter, and here he is telling you why he wrote it. He's written it testifying briefly and exhorting you that this is the true grace of God, wherein you stand. He was writing, of course, to an area where he may himself have been, but probably he hadn't. To an area that belonged more to Paul's, uh, missionary province. He's writing to Silvanus, that was Paul's helper when Paul took the gospel to those parts. And as we do know, there arose in the early days of the church a great deal of disputing. Particularly, there were those of them that believed in Judea that hadn't yet freed themselves from the trammels of Judaism. Remember how Acts fifteen tells us they came down to Antioch and they protested that except a man be circumcised and keep the law of Moses, he cannot be saved. Paul and Barnabas went up to Jerusalem, and there was a rare old you do while they got this matter sorted out. Paul went up to Jerusalem and got James and Peter and the rest of the church together, whereat they made their famous statement that James and Peter and all the church in Judea agreed exactly with Paul, that salvation is utterly by grace. Now here is Peter testifying in his letter written to these parts, uh, that this is the true grace of God. Salvation, of course, is by faith. It is by grace. Peter agrees with Paul. And it is an interesting thing to observe in both these epistles what Peter has to say about Paul, and what he here in this verse has to say about Silvanus, who for a time was Paul's colleague in missionary work. Silvanus is a faithful brother in my regard, says Peter. The people that preached the gospel to you preached it with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. Peter couldn't say more, could he, to show that he stands shoulder to shoulder with, uh, with Paul in the preaching of the doctrines of grace. But having, uh, given his testimony in that length that salvation is by grace, it's, uh, it's not of works, in this second epistle, Peter goes over to the other side. He's not now so much thinking that through faith in Christ, to use the terminology of the first epistle, we have been born again and we have divine life. He thinks in this second epistle that, um, through the grace of God, we have also the divine nature. He starts in the second epistle by assuming that we have faith, we have believed, we have received like precious faith. And now he goes on to answer the question, so what? We have believed. We're saved by grace. We have been born again. We have divine life. There's an inheritance waiting for us. We are kept. So what? What do we do now? In this epistle, he gives us what is a very healthy balance. What do we do now? Well, the fact that we're saved doesn't mean that we just sit around and say, righto, I'm saved, I have eternal life, I'm going to my glorious inheritance, that's all I need do. For it isn't all we need do. In the light of the oncoming of eternity, there are many things that we need do. Not merely do we need to go out and preach the gospel that other folk get converted, though that is very necessary, but there are things we need do about our own spiritual progress. There are things that we need do about our own spiritual progress that will make an eternal difference to us. And if we neglect to do these things, though we shall remain eternally secure, we shall, in a sense, suffer eternal loss. Let us therefore see, in the first, uh, part of that, uh, uh, second epistle, the opening verses, what God's scheme is and what his provision is. Says Peter in verse two, now that we have this light, precious faith, let's be aware that God through Christ has given us, in his divine power, all things that pertain unto life and godliness. There's a life to be lived. It is intended that it shall be a godly life. And God has made provision to make a godly life possible. His divine power hath given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. God, in the gospel, has given unto us exceeding great and precious promises. The idea is not merely that by those promises we shall rest in a sense of eternal security. The idea is that in a very practical sense, we shall become partakers of his divine nature and express that nature in living as God lives. What is this divine nature then, and how does a man get it? It is something extra to forgiveness? Is it something extra to eternal life? Is it a something that some believers have and others don't have? Well, of course not. If you think of human nature, ask yourself, how did you get human nature? Well, you got human nature along with human life, of course. And the same thing holds for divine. You get divine nature along with divine life. God's exceeding great promises that he held out to us in the days when we were unconverted, manifesting himself to us, revealing himself to us in his word, in his promise to draw us to himself. He held out not merely the prospect of being physically in heaven, he held out the prospect of sharing in the divine nature. How did he do it for Peter? I recur to what I said Saturday morning. Peter says he called us, verse three, he called us by his own glory and virtue. Not so much to his own glory and virtue, it's a dated case in the Greek, it's instrumental, I, I judge. It means by his own glory and virtue. Here is Peter telling us how he got converted. As I said on Saturday, it is quite true that Peter was brought to a profound sense of conviction of sin, notably on the occasion when our Lord, uh, stepped into his boat and told him to cast the net over the side, and they enclosed a miraculous draft of fishes. And Peter felt the boat sinking underneath, was overwhelmed with a sense of conviction of sin. But even so, notice how that conviction of sin came. It didn't come by loud warnings of coming wrath. There is a place in our preaching for that. John the Baptist preached it, our Lord on times preached it. But on the day when our Lord entered Peter's boats, he he boat, he wasn't so much concerned about frightening him with hell, as he was concerned with convicting him of sin. Sometimes when folks get saved, they get delivered from the fear of hell, and rightly so, thank God they do. So seeing that Christ has borne the penalty of sin, bore their guilt, and that there is no condemnation to them, now that they are in Christ Jesus, they are delivered from fear of condemnation and hell. But they're not always brought into increasing conviction of sin. There are some people who, before they get converted, are brought into great conviction of sin. I wasn't. I can't remember having a moment's conviction of sin before I got converted. But I've had hours of it since. How does conviction of sin come around? True conviction of sin. I don't mean psychological guilt complexes. I mean true moral conviction of sin. It happened with Peter as he had toiled so inefficiently in his fishing boat. Then sat side by side with the Savior as the Savior went fishing. As Peter saw the difference. Hitherto he'd gone fishing a thousand times, taken his own decisions, gone to work merely to make a living. Why else does a man go to work? Why else do you think a man goes fishing? He's got to eat, hasn't he? Got to clothe himself, got to keep his wife, and Peter had to keep his mother-in-law as well. Why do you think a man goes fishing? Well, he'd gone fishing the night before, for the same old reason he always went fishing. This morning he went fishing for a different reason. If I said, cast down your nets, there's no use, Lord. Aren't any fish about? If I said, Peter, cast your net. Well, he said, that's no use, but if you say so, unless at thy word, at thy, at thy word, I will. Oh. And for the first time in life, Peter went to work, not just to catch fish, because he didn't think there was any fish to be caught. He went to work just to please Christ, to fulfill the will of Christ. What happened on that brought a profound conviction of sin. Oh, how he'd been sinning all his life through, going to work merely to satisfy his own desires. Why do you go to work? Why do you take tripos and things? How do you work? The standard is high, isn't it? The secret behind our Lord's life, whether at the bench in Nazareth or in his preaching or whatever he did, was this: I came down not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. Wasn't just following his own desires or ambition. For Christ, everything he did was done from the primary motive of doing God's will. Peter lived with a man like that and watched him. And it became a growing conviction in Peter's heart. On the one side, a wonder of the glory of the life of Christ. So attractive, so wonderful. Free from all those tangles that we ourselves get into, those heated ambitions, those frustrations when we seek our own will. The sight of Christ proved overwhelmingly attractive. He called us by dint of his own virtue and glory. Peter found himself increasingly wanting to be like Christ. Not just to escape from hell, but to live like Christ. But the other side of that coin, wanting to be like Christ, finding Christ's character overwhelmingly attractive and wonderful and beautiful. The other side of that coin is a conviction of our own sins. But God's ways are healthy. It is possible for us in this matter of the development of Christian character to become over intro- introspective, sometimes to the point of emotional and mental disaster. God's ways are always healthy. God wants to make Peter like himself. He doesn't merely come to Peter with a long tirade about Peter's sins. He sets in front of Peter the gloriously attractive Christ. Gets Peter admiring Christ. And full of the wonder of Christ. Very often without Peter's knowing it, Peter's whole ambitions and desires are imprinting the very ways and character of Christ on his own mind, on his own subconscious, on his own behavior patterns. Positively enjoying Christ. If you'll allow me a word. If I may be so bold as to say it, having very little right to say it ahead. But you won't get life out of proportion, will you, and spend so much time seeking other folks for Christ that you have no time to sit down and worship Christ himself. Don't fall into the mistake of thinking your worship is not practical and a waste of time. Your worship of God is not only the thing that is most valuable in itself. What do you think we're going to do for eternity when there are no more souls to be saved? But it is an exceedingly practical thing. It's one of God's open secrets of making you holy. Fill your mind with Christ until you say, oh, how glorious Christ is. I don't mean soft sentiment, uh, uh, fanciful stuff. I mean real blunt words. Admiring his manliness, admiring his courage, admiring his mental balance. When you so admire him, you want to be like him. That's God's way. Pulled us by dint of his glory and virtue. Setting out this glorious object before us, goal of our achievement. God is very wisely coping with what this epistle calls our lusts. And that word, old-fashioned word, sounds rather, uh, sinister. Let's translate it by desire. And you know every one of us is a bundle of all sorts of desires. What do you do with your desire? You'll come unstuck if you try to repress them and pretend they're not there. We're full of desires. That drive us here and drive us there. Oh, different people's desires differ. The world just gives rein to its desire. And whether it takes him on the lonelier planes, or whether it takes him to the higher planes of ambition. He's being led by his desires, whether they be desires of the flesh, as Paul would put it, or desires of the mind. They're desires, aren't they? Whether you are one of these people that screws himself down to work because you want to be the top of your profession, well, that's a desire, just as much as a man who can't stick work, and he's having a gay old time in Paris. Well, he's moved by his desires. Different desires, but desires, yeah. Got desires. What God does with them is to focus them, enhance Harms them. them. So that he may take their images, getting them on the right focus, use them creatively. For the development of our Christian character now, and for the formation of our eternity. So then, he puts before us the attractiveness of Christ. And of course, it isn't just that Christ is attractive and we'd like to be, uh, uh, like him. God is more of a realist than that. He knows that we couldn't, in spite of all our desire, we couldn't be like Christ unless he made provision. So the provision is made, and he gives us his divine nature. We have the potential. It's already in you. You are a believer. Secondly, there is his divine power. The resource is there. But... it won't happen overnight. We shan't wake up one morning to find that we've suddenly grown Christ-like overnight. Hey, presto, I didn't, wasn't thinking about that when I went to bed. Goodness me, I've woken up today at perfect sin. However did you care? Mm-hmm. And it won't happen by standing up in a meeting and making a decision. Not alone. It's a very good thing to make a decision. After making one decision, you'll have to make a thousand and one more decisions. And if, by God's grace, your Jericho falls down tomorrow, don't you imagine that's the whole of Canaan finished? We'll be making decisions to attack through more Jerichos when you're ninety. All the way along the road, we shall need to bring what, uh, Peter calls in verse five all diligence. Yea, and for this very cause, adding on your part all diligence. In your faith supply virtue. And all these other qualities. There will have to be our cooperation with God. Cooperation that calls for diligence, for persistence, for enthusiasm, for continuance, for perseverance, for working at the thing. Oh, please do notice it's a long course. It's a question of developing all these virtues. I cannot go into, uh, discussing them one by one, along with the virtues. It is a question of working alongside of God's power day by day, consistently, systematically, continuously. And we shall be working at it until God calls us home. I know that doesn't sound so wonderful as a lightning experience. I do not find any lightning experiences in the development of holiness in God's words. Ooh, I do find, as I say, I do find experiences held out like Jericho, where after some while the walls fall down. The great victory in life i- is achieved. Marvelous, yes. You don't get to Jericho every day of the week, no, you think not. But that experience leads on to other experiences. When your Jericho is down, you will find you still have other weaknesses that you haven't yet discovered. You know, there are some pseudo arguments about. They run like this. God wouldn't have me unholy, would he? God would have me saintly. Yes, that's true. I've got a weakness in my life. Well, God wouldn't have that weakness there, would he? Then, if God wants that weakness away, and God has all his wonderful divine power, surely, if only I believed him, the weakness would go. At once. And so folks have an attempt to believe so that the weakness goes like that out of the window. It doesn't go. Not always. They read in somebody's biography how he had a crushing, uh, weakness like Frances Ridley Havoc, she had a bad temper. One day it came to a crisis, and she went to her room and confessed it to the Lord and was delivered from it. So they're up. And they have a go at their own weaknesses to do the same, and it doesn't work. And then there starts a tremendous turmoil. That's not believing the right way. Have another go to believe somehow differently, but it's a difficult thing to believe different ways, isn't it, Bob? It's rather complicated. And then when they still find themselves defeated, um, they begin to wonder whether they're Christians at all, whether the thing works. Let me tell you a story. I come back to my Jericho. There stood Jericho, been standing there a long while. God said, now, I want you to take Jericho. I go. So here's Monday morning. Now, Jericho was a very sinful city. God couldn't want it to stay, could he? So surely, as they walk around at Monday morning, if only they believe hard enough, the walls will fall down, won't they? God couldn't want it to remain till Tuesday, could he? I mean, isn't God holy? Well, they didn't manage to bring the walls down Monday. Well, heaven ought to go Tuesday, perhaps they didn't believe hard enough or something. He wanted to come Tuesday down, he wanted to come down Tuesday, surely. Because God wouldn't possibly allow a Jericho or want a Jericho to remain in anybody's life, would he? It will come down Tuesday. No, it didn't. And God didn't intend it to come down Tuesday either. You won't accuse me of saying blasphemy, will you? God made them walk around that Jericho seven whole days. My God, at the time the seventh day came, they knew what Jericho looked like. They loathed the very sight of it. I think God was wiser than we are sometimes, for if Jericho had gone down Monday morning, they would have scarce had time to look at the thing, and they wouldn't have known it when they saw it again, would they, what? He made them walk down that city, round that city, until they hated the very sight of it. That was part of their deliverance. Made them walk round that city until they knew in their heart of hearts, as they saw those colossally thick walls, that that city would never come down, except it were God's power. I'm saying nothing to limit your faith, but I would like to say something to increase your realism. God's way of attacking sin is not always the lightning way of making us perfect simply by one act of faith. But a long campaign, making us face sin, sometimes travail with it, bringing us to despair of our own strength. To see our salvation only in God. To face sin realistically until we've learned to hate it. But of course, there is deliverance. What I have said does not mean that we are to go on carelessly and say, oh well, I sinned today, I sinned yesterday, I shall sin tomorrow, I suppose. Well, never mind, it'll be there till I go home to glory. I don't mean that. Our Jerichos are meant to come. But we must be patient with God's method. His divine power then, I wonder, excuse me, his divine power has given us all things that, uh, pertain to life and godliness. We must learn to cooperate with him. And what are the issues? I pass over the list of virtue. The issues at stake are these. Look at verse nine. For he that lacketh these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having forgotten the cleansing from his old sins. It's possible, isn't it, for a believer, as he goes on his pilgrimage, so to speak, to forget in part what the whole thing is about. Like the Israelites did in the wilderness. They'd gone out of Egypt. They were pretty uncomfortable in Egypt, so they didn't want, uh, any telling that it was uncomfortable and bad. They felt the taskmaster's lash on their back. And they came out of Egypt. But, you know, as they got halfway across the wilderness, the sting of those old lashes began to pass into the oblivion. What they remembered were the nightlips. And then they forgot why they were on this, in this wilderness at all, they said. They got a bit tired of this tramp, tramp, tramp across the wilderness, and somebody suggested a few games. And then they had a look at the Moabites. They were nice, attractive people, girls in particular. So they said, you know, I don't think God meant us to take this too seriously, did he, what? And they forgot what the whole thing was about, and they settled down, they started playing around. And the man that says he's a Christian, uh, isn't cooperating with God in a business-like, sensible, thorough, sane method of laying hold of God's power, bit by bit, to make his attack on the strongholds of sin in his life. And has grown content just to be as he always was. You know, he's, he's forgotten what the thing is about. And does it matter? Well, somebody says, oh well, if he's a believer, he'll end up in heaven at last. Of course he will. But it will make a difference, won't it? Not only makes a difference now, but it will make a difference eternally. Well, notice what, uh, uh, uh, verse eleven says. If we, by God's grace and power, add these things to our lives, there shall be supplied unto us richly the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The operative word in that sentence is the word richly. Please, the sentence is not saying that if we want to get into that eternal kingdom, we must add these qualities to our character. This is no gospel of works. It is not a question of entry or not entry. Entry into that eternal kingdom is solely by God's grace through faith. The operative word in the sentence is richly. It stands early on in the Greek. The question is whether we get in, or, on the other hand, whether we get in richly. And the difference, whether we just get in or whether we get in richly is determined by whether we have or have not added these things. Please will we note it is an eternal kingdom. And the result, therefore, of our adding or not adding will be eternal. Somebody in Emmett yesterday asked me the frequently asked question, why, if you could be sure you're saved, wouldn't that lead to complacency? We all know the answers, don't we? And let's notice this answer. It doesn't, or it shouldn't lead to complacency. For this good reason that while the man who believes is eternally secure, he will get into that kingdom. There is a great area where our spiritual ambition, our spiritual desire may work upon us. There is a goal. There will be eternal differences. And it matters how I live as a Christian. Also, somebody, doesn't the, the, uh, Apostle John say that when we see the Lord, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is? Here are two men, two Christian men. One of them is a good and godly man. From the time of h- h- his conversion, he took Christ seriously and sensibly. He went on bit by bit, gradually, not spectacularly, but seriously. He went on with Christ, developing by God's grace these Christian characteristics, constantly repenting of his sin, going from strength to strength. Here's another Christian man. He trusted Christ. But then, after a first initial enthusiasm, he grew slack. He didn't bother. He's as bad-tempered today as he was, uh, 20 years ago. He doesn't work for the Lord. He's selfish as he always was. Now they both get to heaven. Because they're both believers. And the Bible says that when they see him, they shall be like him. Why? See, that makes no difference. That's going to be like fast. Half a minute. A baby boy is like his father. A grown-up man is like his father. But is there not a big difference? We shall all be like Christ, what there is of us. How much there is of us, of developed character, according to this verse, will one day become eternal. That would be different. Heaven is not going to be just sitting down and singing a few hymns. The exploration of God's great eternity, his new heaven, his new earth, with all the fun of developing it, will call for character. You'll see when God made this world and put Adam in it and said, there you are, Adam. Nothing world this, full of wonderful potential. Let me show you what you could do with it, for instance. Let me show you. And God built a garden, and that had me tense. You didn't know you could do things with earth like that, did you? God, why? What a possibility, says Adam. I know how to go at doing things like that. Yeah, but go on, says God. Develop the earth. Oh. And what you thought had been merely a matter of administrative skill turned out to be not so simple. It was a matter of moral character. And we can see it's a matter of moral character, can't we? Still. Man's greed, man's tears, man's distrust, man's selfishness, blights and blasts even the potential of our world as we find it now. Yes, says God, you see. And so I've subjected this world to vanity in the meantime, because until I can get a people whose character is developed and made like my son, the whole scheme of developing my great universe must be held up. When the day dawns and we are revealed and the sons of God are revealed, then God is going to deliver creation from its bondage of corruption and hand it over to his sons because they now have the moral qualities to cope with it. What fun it's going to be. How about the enjoyment and the potential will depend on our development now. We shall all enjoy it. I'm not so sure we shall all enjoy the same amount. As a little boy goes to a party and enjoys it, goes to a film and enjoys it, if he doesn't see in it what his grown-up father sees. A little boy may come next into his father's side and enjoy his father immediately. If his father is a senior wrangler, a mathematician, and an astronomer, the little chap he won't enjoy his father in that respect at his grown brother skimming himself to his tripod and knows his man that he's a strongman. Add in the power of your faith these virtues, these character, knowledge, endurance, self-control. For if you do that, you shall not only get in, everybody who trusts Christ will get in. There shall be ministers unto you an abundant in. The next question that therefore is raised is this. I'm going to take fifteen more minutes. Can you really count on eternity? I mean, so literally as that. Is it really? I mean, it's nice to talk about it in hymns, isn't it? But, um, so long as it remains a kind of a fairy land, the frosty icing sugar on the cake, well, even if you don't get too much of the sugar, you, the cake's the main thing, isn't it? And is eternity, uh, the icing sugar on the cake of this life? Or is it something so real that we are prepared to let it have its full weight on the way we live life here now? How real? Oh now, says Peter, this is the point. I really want to rub it in. I know you know it all. I'm going to say it again. Peter is a wonderful comforter to bad preachers who keep repeating themselves about one sermon and always preach it, served up in various forms, whether they start from John three sixteen or the Revelation twenty, say the same thing every time. Peter is quite a comfort to people like that, within limits. He said, I know you know it, and uh, I'm always saying it, I know that, but you know, I want it to be this way, that after I'm dead and gone, after my decease, I want it to be that whenever you think of me, you'll say, there, dear old Peter, do you remember how he was always harping on that? Yeah, good stuff. I want it to be, says Peter. I want you always to remember I was harping on the reality of eternity. I'm an old man, says Peter, and I'm drawing near to the time of which the Lord Jesus told me. I must soon put off my tabernacle. Here's a man coming to the end of life. And of course, eternity is real, it must be real, because there's not much more left of time for him. It's fitting that an old man should say it to us, because it is something that perhaps in our younger years we cannot realize so vividly as we shall realize later on. I do remember as a child, and uh, and and I'm not half as old as Peter, I hope. Uh, uh, I do remember as a child my parents talking about how quickly time went, and I used to think it was absurd. It frightens me now. Sometimes I sit down and try to explain it to myself. I suspect my explanations are all silly. But it is an observable fact, isn't it, that when you are fifteen, a year is one fifteenth of your total experience. When you're five, a year is a fifth of your total experience, and next Christmas won't- doesn't seem as if it will ever come. But when you are forty, a year has shrunk to be only a fortieth of your total experience. It begins to whiz. And when you're seventy, it will have shrunk into only a seventieth. We spend so much time of our lives preparing for life, don't we? All those twenty one, twenty two, twenty three long years with a tripod at the end, and it seems to have been such a long time. Believe you me, you'll find that, uh, the life that you've prepared so long for, still seems to be there. It's gone like a flash. Look, says Peter, let me tell you what our Lord told me. I must soon put off my... You notice the term he uses. I must soon put off my tabernacle, my tent. Deliberately used, isn't it, because it tells us that our present bodies were designed, deliberately designed to be temporary affairs. Only tense, you know. They're easily collapsible. Can't we see it? They weren't meant to be anything else. The collapsible nature of our bodies, let it warn us, let it encourage us to see that life is, uh, intended to be only temporary. It's the stepping stone to eternity. And how real is that eternity? It not follow commonly devised fables, says Peter, when we made unto you, known unto you the power and coming of our Lord, we were eyewitnesses. We heard the voice. For the moment, I don't say any more about that. It is not a myth. Do please notice it's not a myth. Use any terms you like, apocalyptic or anything other you can think up, and then you'll come back to Peter saying, please, it isn't a myth. I mean it literally. I actually heard the voice. It was on a mountain I could take you to. Had grass on it. And our eyes literally saw. It isn't a mythical way of saying we hope there's a lovely land to come. We actually saw it. There There is is a another big bit of evidence. That is Old Testament prophecy. You will do well to take heed to it, says Peter. And I would like you to notice a certain thing about, uh, prophecy. And then ask you how you account for it. Well, at least I'll tell you how to account for it. You will notice that Old Testament prophecy is not of its own explication. Peter said the same thing in chapter one anyway, of his first epistle, didn't he? The prophets prophesied, and when they finished, they said, what on earth does it mean? Or rather, not merely what does it mean, but when does it apply to? And they search diligently. Um, what does this apply to, and to whom does it apply, and what time is it relevant to? Now that Christ has come, you can take their prophecies and compare the life of Christ with them, and you'll say, goodness me, look at that. How does it come that Isaiah depicted things so vividly, so accurately? The reason behind that is... that the prophets were speaking beyond their own experience. Because as those holy men spoke, they spoke from God, being borne along. It wasn't just that Isaiah was fairly shrewd and saw which way politics were going. It was that when prophets spoke, they spoke from God. That same voice that Peter heard, they heard, and they spoke from God, and they were born alive, carried. Beyond what they themselves realized. And they had to sit down afterwards, says Peter, and say, well, now, I wonder what this all applies to. What time does it apply to? They sent some chairs, they could see what the words meant. But it obviously went beyond their own times and their own situation. It was not of its own explication, for the simple reason that the prophets didn't think it up. It came from the God of eternity and went beyond.