Men Die, But the Word of God Lives

The Word of God Endures Beyond Human Life

Turn with me to 2 Peter, as we continue our wonderful study, 2 Peter. What I'd like to do here, before I read our text today, verse 12 to 15, this will be a three-part series on the Word of God, on the Word of God.

Today, we'll be looking at men die, but the Word of God lives. Men die, but the Word of God lives, verse 12 through 15. Lord willing, next week will be part two. We're going to look at experiences fade, but the Word of God remains.

Experiences fade, but the Word of God remains, in verse 16 through 18. And then last, we'll look at part three, the world darkens, the world darkens, but the Word of God shines. It shines on, doesn't it?

And that's in verse 19 through 21. So with saying that, please open your Bible, if you're already there, and we're going to be reading verse 12 through 15, verse 12 through 15 of 2 Peter, chapter 1. This is our text today.

Men die, but the Word of God lives. Holy Scripture. God breathed words through the Apostle Peter. He says this, hear the Word of the living God. For this reason, for this reason, I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth.

Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, speaking of his body, to stir you up by reminding you. Knowing that shortly, I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. Moreover, I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease.

Some translation says, after my exodus or my departure. Let's bow in prayer and ask our Lord to help us within this hour of study as we look at this wonderful text. Our Father and our God, I can only take your Word to the hearing of the ears.

But Lord, only your Holy Spirit can give us understanding to perceive in our hearts the spirit of truth. Father, we thank you, we worship you. We thank you most of all for this holy, inspired, inerrant, infallible, all-sufficient Word.

As your Son said, heaven and earth will pass away, but your Word remains, abides forever. Lord, show us your ways, as the psalmist said and prayed. Teach us your paths, lead us, O Lord, in your truth, and teach us, for you are the God of our salvation.

He even cried out, remember, O Lord, your tender mercies, your loving-kindnesses, for they are of old. And do not remember the sins of our youth, nor our transgressions. And according to your mercy, remember me, as the thief prayed, O Lord, for your name's sake.

So, Father, the prayer of the psalmist resounds true to us. And we know that this is all answered in and by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that was shed on Calvary's cross 2 ,000 years ago.

Our eyes are upon Him. Our eyes are upon the Lamb of God. By your grace and faith that you've given unto us, we lay hold of the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. So, Lord, for He alone has the words of eternal life.

He is our only hope in this world and for all eternity. Jesus and Jesus alone, none other. For there is no other name under heaven whereby men could be saved but through Jesus Christ, by that precious name.

So, Lord, we thank you. We praise you that you have spoken the last days in various ways and times past by the fathers, to the fathers, by the prophets. Spoken, but now you have spoken to us through your Son.

The one that you have appointed, Heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds. Be in the very brightness of your glory and express image of your person. Father, He's the one that upholds all things by the word of His power.

Purged our sins. Sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. So, now, Father, we call on your help and your grace to help us, Lord, not only to perceive the truth of your word, but also, Lord, that we may apply it to our personal lives.

Help us, Lord, because we fall so short of this. The standard is high, but great is your grace. Great is your grace that can help us apply these truths and teach us to be more like Jesus. We would ask this in your name for your honor and glory.

Amen and amen.

Hosea’s Warning About a Lack of Knowledge of God

There's an Old Testament truth and an Old Testament passage I'd like to touch on to tie in to everything that the Apostle Peter is speaking to us in this text before us. You can turn to it. I know you're familiar with it.

But it's actually a powerful verse of Scripture. It's just one, but you can read the whole chapter. As a matter of fact, I'll probably back drop a little bit so that we will understand the picture of what's taking place.

But it's from the book of Hosea. Hosea chapter 3. Let me read chapter 3, and I want to read that chapter. Then I want to go to verse 4. I'm sorry, verse 6 and chapter 4. Chapter 3 says, Nor shall you have a man, so too I will be toward you.

Here God is speaking to the prophet to do something that's absolutely incredible. Because it's a picture of the children of Israel and harlotry going astray from himself. But yet he speaks to the prophet to marry this harlot.

He says in verse 5, Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days.

And then the word of God is spoken.

Now notice in chapter 4, Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel, for the Lord brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land.

Notice what he says here.

And this is where Peter goes. Because it very much ties in to a lack of the knowledge of God. A knowledge of the truth. And people forgetting those truths in which God has given. Notice what does he say here.

For the Lord brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land. There is no truth or mercy. And notice what he says. Or knowledge of God in the land.

Folks, we're there.

This is where the church is. We're just not talking about the nation. We're talking about the church. Which is, as Whitefield said, the sins of the church are far more offensive to God than the sins of the nation.

As a matter of fact, I was visiting my barber yesterday. And you can tell I got my ears lowered. And he cut my hair. And as often, he was talking about the sins of the nation. And they are great. He was talking about the wickedness of the leadership.

And I said, there is definitely a judgment there that God has given us. Romans chapter 1. Of the wicked leaders in which God is allowed to be put in office. This is wicked leaders. But God has allowed this to happen because of the sins of the nation.

But not only the sins of the nation, but the sins of the church. This is where we fail. And does it not say, Peter himself, he said, judgment begins where? In the house of God. That's where it first begins.

So in relating to everything what Hosea says. Notice what he begins to say in verse 2. By swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing adultery. Notice the list of sins. They break all restraint.

This is judgment. With bloodshed upon bloodshed. Does this not define our nation?

The church as well.

Therefore the land will mourn. And everyone who dwells there will waste away. With the beast of the field, the birds of the air. Even the fish of the sea will be taken away. And notice what he says. Then God says, now, this is God speaking.

Now let no man contend or rebuke another. For your people are like those who contend with the priest. Therefore you shall stumble in the day. The prophet also shall stumble with you in the night. And I will destroy your mother.

And here's the verse. I'll stop right here and then we're going to go to our text in 2 Peter. And he says, my people are destroyed.

For what?

For the lack of knowledge. For the lack of knowledge. And the knowledge he's talking about here is the knowledge of God. We see this amongst us today. There is a lack of the knowledge of God. The fear of the Lord is no longer before people's eyes.

And we're just not talking about the nation. We're talking about the church.

Where is the fear of God?

My people are destroyed. Or in other translations, perish. For lack of knowledge. And notice what he says.

Why?

He tells why. Because you have rejected knowledge. How many people in the churches are rejecting the knowledge of the truth? Did not Paul the Apostle say in 2 Timothy that people will have a desire to turn away from the truth?

They will not be able to endure sound doctrine. But they will have a desire to have teachers basically telling them what they want to hear. In other words, they got itching ears. They will not want to hear the truth.

And the truth is what we desperately need. The knowledge of God. The truth are like hand and glove. You cannot separate. They are together. Because you have rejected knowledge. This is God speaking. And I also will reject you from being priest for me.

And here it is. Because you have forgotten the law of your God. I also will forget your children. That's a judgment. This is where we are. There's nothing new under the sun. And here, as Peter opens up this particular section, in the opening of his epistle, he's shown us so far as we've looked at, that in the knowledge of Jesus Christ,.

That has been given,.

All that is needed for life and godliness, has urged an increase of this knowledge by the development of Christian virtues. We looked at those virtues. And those virtues are basically found from verse 5 to verse 7.

But also for this very reason. He says, given all diligence, add to your faith virtue. To virtue, knowledge. To knowledge, there is the word knowledge. It's the key word. Self-control, temperance. To self-control, perseverance.

To perseverance, godliness. To godliness, brotherly kindness. To brotherly kindness, love. And then he says in verse 8,. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren, that means useless, you will not be useless, nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So how important is knowledge here? How important is the knowledge of the truth? It's extremely important. So these virtues, these Christian virtues, by the way, not just a good moral person. We're talking about born-again, spirit-filled, God-fearing Christians that has these virtues.

So that they may be provided an entrance into the heavenly kingdom. We already looked at it. It's not by doing these things. These things are, as you are born again, they're there, but you grow into them.

They grow in maturity. And then he promises to aid the readers to keep these truths in mind, and he assures them that their knowledge of the truth is well supported by the testimony, by the way, of the inspired apostles and the prophets.

That's right. Actually, the heart, let me say this in footnote in this introduction, the very heart of 2 Peter is in chapter 2, and we're heading there. We'll be there, Lord willing, in a few more weeks.

But chapter 2 is basically, as you will see, that whole chapter Peter deals with warning God's people of the dangers of false teachers and their heretical teaching. Look about us today. Look at the false teachers.

They are everywhere. That's what people want to hear. I've been speaking to an elderly. He says he's a Christian. I've come to find out here recently. I asked him, I said, who's your pastor? And he got on the phone, and he showed me his pastor.

And he went right to, let's see if I can pronounce this right, Cephalodollar?

Creflo. Creflo.

Creflo Dollar. He said this is my pastor. I knew right then. I haven't told him yet, but you're listening to a heretic. You're listening to a false teacher. And this particular guy is always quoting me.

Every time I walk in the door, he's always quoting this one verse. What verse is he quoting?

Verse 3.

He knows it by memory, by the way, as his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. And he stops right there. And then he basically, as I already shared with you, he basically believes what they do.

They twist that verse that man is his own god. That the Christian is his own god. In other words, what he's saying is God has given us everything pertaining in his power pertaining to life and godliness.

So in other words, we're little gods. And he doesn't look at it as like God has given us stewardship that God is the giver. And I came back the other day and I knew exactly. I asked God to help me without being too direct, but in a roundabout way of asking him questions.

So he was asking me questions as we walked in and as I walked in to service. I'm there to serve as milk, not to have a theological debate. But he brings this up. The truth is everything. It's more important than milk.

But since he brings it up, I'm going to bring it up too. So I said, OK, my friend, you quote that verse from 2 Peter 1, verse 3. He even knows the verse by memory. I said, but have you ever thought about that divine power that God gives that pertains to life and godliness?

Have you ever really thought that it's through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue that, by the way, which he does not finish that verse? I said, did you ever think about verse 2? I said, let's put this in context.

And I said this lovingly. I said, my friend, I said, what does verse 2 say?

Grace?

Not our merit, but God's grace and peace be multiplied to you in what? In the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Oh, he stopped right there.

And he said, yeah, you're right.

You're right. I said, no, I'm not right. God's right. I said, God is the one has given us all these things.

Through the knowledge of Jesus.

This is not about you.

This is about Jesus.

He pulled away. I just left it at that. I said, I pray, oh spirit of God, show this man the real truth. And of course, then he cut on his phone and he started listening to his heretical teacher. And I'm thinking, okay, I want to do my thing.

Well, we can't force these people, right? But there's a lack of knowledge of God. This has come to me personally. I said, it's unbelievable. This man's right there in 2 Peter. I said, I'm a pastor. I've been preaching through this.

Here it is. Here's a man.

He's in the false teaching.

Listening to false teachers. He doesn't have the slightest idea what the knowledge of God really is.

Where's the fear of God?

You know, Hosea,.

That's what God was telling the people of Israel. You have forgotten me. You have forgotten my fear. And it's grievous to see these things. And you know this as well as I do. I don't have to say this to you, but you know it.

Peter here does not propose to teach new truths. There's no new truths. The heretics will go there and say, oh, I got a new truth from God.

Or I have a new revelation.

I have a new illumination. Hey man, that's from the devil. There's no new truth.

It's the old paths. And you know,.

That's why Peter basically says, be ready always to put his readers here in remembrance of the truth in which they are already established in the truth. And we'll look at this later on, but he's not condescending upon them.

He's an apostle and he's not belittling. He basically says, you know this. He regards this as his duty before God, before he leaves this world, before his departure, especially because of his own death that is soon to approach, as he says, to putting off of my tabernacle, my tent, my body.

This is coming swiftly. He understood the brevity of life. His body is like a tent which the Spirit will soon leave and he's going to be, as Paul says, absent from the body, present with the Lord. I will be with my Lord Jesus.

He's absolutely sure of this because he's now far in advance in age as he writes this epistle. And I really believe this was his burden.

For the church.

But also, more importantly than anything else, it was the burden of the Lord Jesus Christ,.

The head of the church.

Jesus told him that when he is old, he should die a martyr's death. Jesus predicted this. Well, look at this. It's amazing, isn't it? How can people deny the deity of Christ right there? He knew. Jesus knew all these things.

He knew his future, predicted it precisely. And it happened exactly that way. Now, the main thing is, here he tells his readers to call these things to remembrance. It brings us up to speed, by the way,.

To the text today.

Peter’s Purpose: A Bridge to the Warning Against False Teachers

Now we come to something I think is somewhat of a bridge. This is a bridge. I like to use that analogy because this is exactly in this time of this writing of the epistle. This is a bridge. The main body, and let me explain why it's a bridge.

Because of the instruction that begins in chapter 2, as I mentioned, about false teachers. And it does not end, actually, until we will get to chapter 3, verse 18. But Peter uses chapter 1, verse 3 through 11 as a foundation.

And this foundation is so important because it launches into a discussion of false teachers in chapter 2. Because you notice, he's bringing out what the true believer looks like in the knowledge of God before he gets into warning against false teachers.

Now I love that. Why is that so important? Because it's like the truth, as they say, I'll use an illustration, people who study the genuine, like money, will take money, like so many people are familiar with, they will study the real, the authentic, the genuine, so that they would know how the false counterfeit looks like.

And this is what Peter is doing. The Spirit of God is leading him in this truth and said, this is the way the truth looks like. The truth is paramount. The truth is everything. Truth is everything. The living truth, Jesus Christ, and the written truth in the Scriptures.

So we will know how to discern what the false looks like. You know, I've heard of preachers studying the false to know the false. That's how you go astray. That's how you backslide. You don't study the false to know the false.

You study the truth to know the false. And this is what Peter is saying. So the believer's response in chapter 3, so what lies between chapter 1 and verse 12 to 21 is basically a necessary bridge, like I said, which contains Peter's purpose statement for this letter.

And then here we are, verse 12 through 15. He gives the assurance, and by the way, it's a blessed assurance, right, of biblical sound doctrine. Don't you love sound doctrine? Sound doctrine basically means it's wholesome.

It's healthy.

It's like, am I going to eat healthy food? I have to say, for my dear wife, she's really into healthy food. And naturally, because there's so much unhealthy food and I am bad about eating unhealthy food a lot of times, it has salts and sugars in it, and we know sometimes those things, it's not too good for our body, right?

Even though I like it, but it doesn't mean it's good for me. See, there's a truth there. We should go after the healthy, the wholesome. And that's the same with the truth. And how are we going to find this?

It's through the pages of the 66 books of the Bible.

Only here, reading through this Bible, which so many people were talking about this morning on the way here, Brother Willem and myself and my daughter and wife, we were talking about people are so lazy.

They don't read. And what they read is garbage. But they don't read the good, healthy, wholesome word of the living God. I like what Spurgeon says, read many good books like the Puritans.

He said, but live in the Bible.

Got to live right here, folks. If we're going to know the truth, and if we're going to know how falsehood looks like, we got to know right here. And this is why so many people go astray. They don't know the Bible, nor do they know the God of the Bible.

It's sad.

So here he brings structurally the verses before us from a half, I'm sorry, forms a half of the necessary main and the main argument. And there's something more here, by the way, in chapter 1 here, verse 12 through 15.

Our text, it reads like also Peter's last will and testament. You notice that? It's almost like this is his last will and testament, like Paul's last will and testament, which is found in 2 Timothy chapter 4.

Brother Keith read this morning. Before Paul's departure, Paul knew his time was short. And you see in chapter 4 of Paul's pastoral epistle, he's passing the torch to Timothy, and he's basically giving these warnings.

And notice Peter's doing the same thing. There's warnings, and notice where he goes to. False teachers coming within the church, like a leaven, like a cancer, like a disease that will eat away God's people.

It must be dealt with. It must be plucked out. These teachers must be exposed. People say, well, that's harsh. No, it's great love. It's great love for God's people. We're talking about these false teachers.

They have a knowledge of the truth somewhat, but they go and apostate. They are basically, on purpose, willfully going against the truth because of their willful love for themselves, not the truth. They think they're a god within themselves.

And that's what I'm saying. You notice what I mentioned. That's what these people in the charismatic movement basically teaches. You're the source of your own truth.

That's blasphemy.

I'm telling you, folks, God is the source of truth, and God alone and everything He gives here. And that's why Peter mentions about divine power as giving to us all things that pertain to life and Godliness through the knowledge of Him,.

Not the knowledge of us.

Remembering the Truth We Already Know

Well, beloved, God has a reason to remind us. There's a reminder. And I like to use these. This is not my outline, but I thought about there's repetition here. There's reminding. There is remembrance, those three R's.

And there's a reason that God Himself gives us these reminders.

Why?

Because people, and I say all people include ourselves, we all have a tendency to forget. Did you know a study, they've proved this true, within an hour after hearing a spoken message, up to 90%, 90 of everything that's said,.

Including this message today,.

Will be forgotten. Think of that. Do you see how forgetful we are? God does not want us to forget.

The covenant language,.

And we saw this last Lord's Day, is what that thief, that dying thief, that believing thief said to Jesus, Remember me.

That's covenant language.

Jesus says when we are to celebrate remembering His death,.

What did He say?

Do this in remembrance of me. That's covenant language. How many times do we see this? Go with me to Deuteronomy chapter 6 very quickly. Deuteronomy chapter 6. And by the way, Deuteronomy is a foundational book.

It's one of the books of the Pentateuch. The Pentateuch actually means five. It's one of the first five foundational books. And by the way, you can read this and study it, but when you read the life of Jesus Christ Himself, the Master, He quoted more from Deuteronomy than any other book.

He quoted from Psalms.

He quoted from Genesis.

But I believe more than any other book,.

He quoted from Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy chapter 6. I want you to notice this. Look at verse 4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.

And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. Notice the importance of it. You shall teach them diligently. I like that word, diligently. Don't you? Peter uses it. To who?

Your children.

And you shall talk of them when you sit in your house. How practical is that? When you walk by the way. When you go walking with them. When you lie down. When you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as four frontlets between your eyes.

You shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates. In other words, Scripture is to be paramount everywhere. From sun up to sun down.

Scripture, Scripture, Scripture.

So it shall be.

This is God speaking.

And when the Lord your God, Moses is speaking, your God brings you into the land in which you swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build.

Houses full of all good things which you did not fill. Hewn out wells which you did not dig. Vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant when you have eaten and are full.

How good is God?

You see that? God is the provider.

Then beware.

Listen to this.

And there it is.

Verse 12.

Then beware.

What are we to beware of?

Least you forget. Folks, I'm telling you, we people have forgotten God. Least you forgot the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt. From the house of bondage. All these things God blesses us with and His goodness and He gives.

And He said, don't you forget Me.

In verse 13. You shall fear the Lord your God. There it is. You shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him and shall take His oaths and His name. In other words, you to be devoted to Him. You shall not go after other gods and the gods of the peoples.

Who are all around you.

Why?

Because for the Lord your God is a jealous God. Among you.

In other words,.

You are His possession. And He is to be everything.

He is jealous. A holy jealousy.

Because He purchased you. He purchased His people with the precious blood of the Lamb.

Listen to this.

Least the anger of the Lord your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth. Oh my. How important it is that we do not forget God.

Four Motives for Peter’s Reminders

Now,.

We go back to the text and Peter.

You see where Peter,.

A lot of this ties right in to what everything Peter is saying in verses 12 through 15. Peter leaves the main subject for a moment, temporary, in a vigorous speech, in a subject of salvation. And he drops into a statement about the importance of reminding God's people of the essential truths,.

The old paths.

Do not forget these truths. Do not forget God. They are essential.

Again,.

It's not a new truth. It's the truth. It's the old paths as Jeremiah mentions in chapter 16. God's words reveal a passionate reminder to us and Peter is very pastoral in this. And he gives four important motivations.

And I got this from MacArthur's commentary and I love him.

I'm going to use him.

I'm going to give him credit here. First, in verse 12, there's an urgency. Second, there's kindness in verse 12b. Third, there's faithfulness in verse 13. And in fourth, we will see there's brevity in verse 14 and 15.

Very simple. There's urgency. There's kindness. There's faithfulness. There's brevity. May we not forget those words.

Urgency.

What's urgency? Let's look at the first, verse 12. For this reason, I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things. Do not be negligent to remind you always of these things. There's an urgency.

Then ASB says, therefore I will always be ready to remind you of these things. For this reason, or the word therefore, as you well know, refers to the back, back to the greatness of God's salvation in verse 1 -4, as we already read.

The blessedness of assurance in verse 5 -11.

And by the way,.

These themes are so crucial. They're so critical. They must not be forgotten, beloved. That's the thing about it. We must not forget these truths. That's why we're to saturate ourselves with the word of God.

We must renew our mind daily by the word of God. We must hide, as David says, God's word in our heart that we may not sin against God. You notice that? That's why we sin against God. It's not treasured in our heart.

We may have it in our mind.

And by the way,.

It's got to go through the mind before it goes to the heart. But we must treasure it within our heart. I like that word hide because in a sense, treasure it means there's going to come a day that you and I are going to be tempted, and if you haven't already, and I'm sure you have, just as Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, how did He combat Satan?

As a man with the word of God.

This is Christ.

This is the living Christ. And He combats,.

Here's the living word.

Combating Satan with the written word. And believe me, He pulled the sword out, unsheathed it, and let it go. And He won the battle.

And folks,.

He won a battle there for us as well.

Isn't it wonderful?

Again and again and again. After one wave of temptation, after another. And these temptations were critical. That's another sermon, right?

Very critical.

Jesus comes back.

It is written. It is written.

It is written again. And as we know that Satan knew the word, but he was taking it out of context. He was twisting it.

By the way,.